Posted by Rene de Heer on February 26, 2012 at 5:39 AM
I am in need of a portable not too expensive projector for presentations of my images. I can't find too much info about them, so was wondering if anyone on this forum uses them.
I came across the Epson EB-X10 or the Vivitek D330 MX.
Any advise appreciated
Rene de Heer
Posted by Graham Goddard on February 26, 2012 at 9:39 AM
I was speaking to Mike Lane the other day, and he mentioned that he'd just bought a BenQ HD projector. No idea of prices, but he was very impressed and said it out stripped his Canon model.
Posted by Rene de Heer on February 26, 2012 at 9:55 AM
Thats great guys, thanks.......i will look into this.!
Rene de Heer
Posted by Bob Johnson on February 26, 2012 at 2:09 PM
Hi Rene
If you are an Apple user you need to make sure that the projector is compatible with your Macbook. I use a NEC NP310G. It is a reasonable price, produces great colour and contrast and it works with my Macbook
Bob
Posted by Rene de Heer on February 26, 2012 at 2:25 PM
Hi Bob, thanks for that...yes I use Apple Mac pro desktop and a Apple laptop. Where did you buy your projector?
Rene de Heer
From direct experience, I can recommend this one, excellent picture, and an fantastic brightness & long throw for big venues, not very light on the old wallet I'm afraid tho' .
More seriously - there's no issues with projectors and Apple laptops, all you need do is make sure you have the right video cable adaptor. I've run projectors using VGA, DVI and Apple's mini display port. The Mac will generally auto-detect the projector resolution & set itself to match, although you can override it and use it as a different res. 2nd screen. In fact, I had less trouble out of the Macbook Pro with the Panasonic than I did with the PC laptop that was meant to be running the show .
One thing to think about - if you're using the projector for paid shows, then you might want to buy a spare bulb for it up-front. Then if one blows, you're not stuck with a dead projector .
Posted by Phil Shaw on February 27, 2012 at 2:24 PM
Hi Rene,
I think you would be a bit disappointed by the HD projector that Phil Tomkinson has linked to. It isn't really bright enough for use in a venue much bigger than a home. In my experience you want something with 3500 lumens. Long throw is not really important if you are doing a slide show as you will be up-front and you want the laptop next to you. More important is how you make the connection bewteen the laptop and the projector - cable or wireless. Also you want a machine that has an instant power off feature. Bulb longevity has come a long way and if you are just going to use it for occassional slide shows, I wouldn't bother buying a spare bulb. You will be carting it around with you for years and when needed it probably broke in the same incident that did for the bulb in the projector. In terms of resolution, XGA is OK but higher resolutions are better - check what the native output resolution of your laptop is and use that as a guide.
The cheaper projectors typically display a smaller colour gamut, have less contrast and a lower uniformity rating (eveness of illumination from corner to corner). You definitely want a projector capable of matching the sRGB colour space, and a uniformity 85% or better. Contrast ratio means different things to different manufacturers, so you can only compare Epsons with Epsons for example, in terms of contrast ratio.
Another thing to bear in mind is that you will have to colour calibrate the projector and to get the most accurate on-screen colours, it is the laptop/projector/screen combination that has to be calibrated.
Finally, do you really need to buy one. Most organisations that invite lectures have digital projection systems projector/laptop/screen (although most are not calibrated) funded through lottery grants. These days you can mostly turn up with your images in an .exe file on a memory stick and you are good to go.
Probably doesn't help that much, but may provide some guidance
Discussion
7 repliesI came across the Epson EB-X10 or the Vivitek D330 MX.
Any advise appreciated
Rene de Heer
Phil.
http://www.projectorsite.co.uk/index.php?p=product&id=136&parent=0
Rene de Heer
If you are an Apple user you need to make sure that the projector is compatible with your Macbook. I use a NEC NP310G. It is a reasonable price, produces great colour and contrast and it works with my Macbook
Bob
Rene de Heer
From direct experience, I can recommend this one, excellent picture, and an fantastic brightness & long throw for big venues, not very light on the old wallet I'm afraid tho'
More seriously - there's no issues with projectors and Apple laptops, all you need do is make sure you have the right video cable adaptor. I've run projectors using VGA, DVI and Apple's mini display port. The Mac will generally auto-detect the projector resolution & set itself to match, although you can override it and use it as a different res. 2nd screen. In fact, I had less trouble out of the Macbook Pro with the Panasonic than I did with the PC laptop that was meant to be running the show
One thing to think about - if you're using the projector for paid shows, then you might want to buy a spare bulb for it up-front. Then if one blows, you're not stuck with a dead projector
I think you would be a bit disappointed by the HD projector that Phil Tomkinson has linked to. It isn't really bright enough for use in a venue much bigger than a home. In my experience you want something with 3500 lumens. Long throw is not really important if you are doing a slide show as you will be up-front and you want the laptop next to you. More important is how you make the connection bewteen the laptop and the projector - cable or wireless. Also you want a machine that has an instant power off feature. Bulb longevity has come a long way and if you are just going to use it for occassional slide shows, I wouldn't bother buying a spare bulb. You will be carting it around with you for years and when needed it probably broke in the same incident that did for the bulb in the projector. In terms of resolution, XGA is OK but higher resolutions are better - check what the native output resolution of your laptop is and use that as a guide.
The cheaper projectors typically display a smaller colour gamut, have less contrast and a lower uniformity rating (eveness of illumination from corner to corner). You definitely want a projector capable of matching the sRGB colour space, and a uniformity 85% or better. Contrast ratio means different things to different manufacturers, so you can only compare Epsons with Epsons for example, in terms of contrast ratio.
Another thing to bear in mind is that you will have to colour calibrate the projector and to get the most accurate on-screen colours, it is the laptop/projector/screen combination that has to be calibrated.
Finally, do you really need to buy one. Most organisations that invite lectures have digital projection systems projector/laptop/screen (although most are not calibrated) funded through lottery grants. These days you can mostly turn up with your images in an .exe file on a memory stick and you are good to go.
Probably doesn't help that much, but may provide some guidance