Digital Projector

Its been a while but once upon a time I had the same task.

The imaging systems for many of these systems are similar, so many of them have similar specs in terms of resolution.

But lumens - a measurement of Brightness - is very important in a projector. Its rare to get a totally dark room, and if you do, someone will want some lighting to write notes, so get the brightest you can afford.

Another useful thing is noise levels. I know a few people who bought on spec and found their projector had a very noisy fan - so noisy it precluded them from using it on conference calls.

Units that have a second bulb are handy - of a bulb goes in the midst of a presentation its a moment to switch over - sadly I think this feature is not as available as people try to make projectors smaller.

If you have to project from more than just one type of input(my company had Macs and PCs and VCRs) then an auto sensing mechanism is useful.

Ease of using the keystone control is good if this is a portable projector - on a permanent mounted one, you only set it once, but a portable is set every time which can be tedious or difficult for new operators.

Hope that helps.

James

Weight, lumens, price. The three factors most common to the decision. If you expect the projector to be used on the road, look at weight. If its for the home office, lumens may be the most important. If you need many for a sales team, could be price.

The prices start ~1000.00 Look for NATIVE resolution of at lease 1024 x 768. At lease 1200 lumens.

Well,
I lost some of my time researching this subject about a year ago, came up with an Epson Powerlite 54C. Have to mention this is an entry level projector, but works very nicely even in luminous rooms, noice level is acceptable in my opinion very reliable so far and it's definitely portable.

But if you want to look at the high end, you go Barco. Starts around 12.000 $. If you have the money, it's worth it, had one of those too.

Mitsubishi actually makes digital projectors under several names, most inreconizable no names but they seel for about 3-500 less than the identical Mitsubishi units, but with less warranty support.

There are MANY things to consider when looing for a projector, Lumens (an issue if not JUST in a dark boardroom), contrast! and lamp life (cheap projectors have very poor lamp life very expensive replacements ad generally poor contrast.)

I have a Mitsubishi that I bought when I was talked out of a Dell (good thing, it's a way beter unit). Personally I hate Dell as find most of thier stuff is just cheap loss leader components, who cares about onsite warranty support techs if they need to become family members by being over every day with new junk parts to replace the last junk.

Dell rant aside, my Mitsubishi is phenominal, I find I mainly only use it as a drive in theatre when camping (Giant white tarp and a good PC surround system set up outside the motorhome, great for rainy nights!). :P I know blasphemy, but hey it's a digital age and we can't ride dirt bikes and cut wood safely on a rainy night anyhow, plus I am talking LOCAL camping, not a good wilderness adventure. But I do use it for mobile music jobs, small gigs with local bands for backline projections, and ys a few presentations. I even painted a wall with 'silver screen' paint. A white paint with lower light absorbtion properties and a flake for reflection. Great home DVD theatre!

So I would say most importantly, to think of how and WHERE it will mainly be used.

Whether for DVD or slideshow presentations, who will be replacing the lamps and what the budget for them will be etc.

If you are just looking for a low cost solution for a few boardroom presentations, I would go cheap and wait util your needs arise before investing more money as they have a big long price drop ahead in the next year or so.

A GREAT resource site that offers info on a LOT of diferent projectors is the Projector People.
http://www.projectorpeople.com