There's no recent thread about this, and many old, irrelevant, or conflicting data via my google searching.

Can anyone recommend a good projector for presentation-level (200+ people, 50' max viewing distance) projection?

Mostly used for slide text, images & some video, 4:3 & 16:9 capabilities, ceiling mountable are only requirements.

Differences between business & home theater projectors? (is there any?)
Is lumens the most important thing?
Best brands for reliability, bulb life, color accuracy?

Thanks.

11/6/2009 3:17:09 PM

perhaps you should talk to spöokyjon

11/7/2009 3:38:02 PM

anus eye looms

11/7/2009 3:42:32 PM

`I might be able to give you an idea of what you need.
1. What's your budget like?
2. Is this going to be a fixed installation, or will you be moving it around?
3. How big is your projected image going to be?
4. Will this be in a lit or darkened auditorium?
5. Are you just using this to convey information, or is it important to really impress people's balls off?

11/10/2009 7:33:04 PM

1. Prefer <$1000, may be able to justify more if proved worth it, but not more than $1400, personally I think $800 should be sufficient.
2. Fixed
3. 10'w x 6'h roughly
4. Lit auditorium mostly, some dark auditorium usage
5. Convey information with some video, no need to impress people, just need it to be clear and legible.

Actually a screen recommendation would help too, or reflective paint suggestion since it would be a wall projection

[Edited on November 10, 2009 at 7:50 PM. Reason : ,]

11/10/2009 7:46:08 PM

That's a little outside of my area of expertise, unfortunately. I do use Optoma projectors at work that were in that price range (although for different applications), and I'm pretty happy with them considering the price.

11/11/2009 10:32:08 AM

what makes the more expensive projectors better? (other than brightness/contrast/resolution?)

budget aside, i'm still interested in an opinion on the matter.

this is one i'm looking at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824157067

it's a little much but i know epson is a good brand of projector and it's 3000:2000 and 4:3 (& 16:9), long bulb life, and does everything we need it to do

11/11/2009 10:53:46 AM

you hit on the price differences.

brightness/contrast/resolution.

The Epson looks pretty good, but has pretty much the absolute minimum usable resolution. If you can afford/justify the difference in cost, going with a 720p or 1080p projector will pay dividends in the long run.

For a screen, if it's going to be in a room that has any amount of outside light (basically anything other than a closed conference room), I'd get a silver beaded screen. If it's going into a "sealed" room, pretty much any white screen will do (or just painting the projection wall white).

11/11/2009 12:56:49 PM

^

11/11/2009 1:05:25 PM

anyone used http://www.goosystems.com/ before?

can you define or give an example of silver-beaded screen? i've heard of gray screens that can help improve contrast is that what you mean?

[Edited on November 11, 2009 at 1:15 PM. Reason : .]

11/11/2009 1:09:37 PM

http://www.draperinc.com/projectionscreens/viewingsurfaces.asp

Glass beaded with a gray/silver backing will produce the highest possible contrast in lighting conditions with lots of ambient light. The tradeoff is a much steeper loss of contrast at anything other than the optimum viewing angle

11/11/2009 1:35:41 PM