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Projector recommendations


TomHoward

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Right

 

We have a 250 seat venue with a 190 inch Da-Lite projection screen, used for films, presentations, that kind of thing.

 

Our current projector is an Eiki LC-X50M but we are having issues with the brightness and the noise.

 

We've borrowed in a couple of BenQ classroom projectors (as we needed a matched pair for something) and it's really put our big screen to shame. It looks terrible against the pair of more modern projectors, and considering these BenQs are less than £400, they're about as strong as our 'big' projector.

 

I've never had to buy a projector before so not sure about who supplies them or who the main manufacturers are.

 

Could anyone recommend what kind of power they would be going for in this scenario, and what projectors they would be looking at? Since the cheaper projectors are putting our older model to shame, I'm half inclined to buy a £400 classroom projector as it would still be an improvement, but what would I be looking at to replace the Eiki properly?

 

Budget is from £400 up to £4000-ish. I'd ideally like a range of options.

 

Thanks in advance

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Hi Tom,

 

So your EIKI appears to be a rebadged Sanyo XP55 (so about 4500 lumens). Projectors have a nasty habit of radically reducing their output over the years - largely due to the lamp degrading and also potentially because the optics could do with a clean.

 

There are loads of options in your price bracket!

 

My first question would be resolution - XGA is the lowest you would want to go these days, and I would be advising heading towards 1080p. Next you need to decide whether you want to go for a cheap brand (and budget to replace it more regularly) or a more expensive touring quality projector from one of the big names (barco, christie, panasonic etc).

 

Then it's just a case of getting a load of demos and checking the projector in your space! If you are doing IMAG (live video) using it, make sure to check that the latency on the projector side is usable with your switching solution as they're not all created equal.

 

Don't forget to budget for lamp and service costs!

 

M

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Your Eiki unit when new was an fairly expensive unit, its got proper lenses,1.3" lcd panels etc and is indeed made by Sanyo. If its being bested by BenQ desktop units, its clearly ill or the lamps needing replaced. It may be that the optics are so dirty and burnt that whilst working the output is about 20% of what it once was. You could send it to Multicare in Leeds for evaluation, they will tell you if its worth cleaning, relamping and or repair for a small fee.

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If you dont have more than 4k, you can rule out any pro hd dlp based units, but you could stretch to an xga or wxga unit, This id suggest if you use a lot of haze as any lcd unit will get ruined eventually. If you dont id look at the Panasonic Ez570 - wuxga resolution 5000 lumens, lens shift, corner keystone and a physical shutter. You wont get a better range of features at the price.

 

Id not got for an actual 1080p unit which is 16/9, but a unit thats 16/10 or wuxga. It basically displays full hd content natively with an unused stripe of panel top and bottom, but the additional 120 pixels height means that the 4/3 ratio images will be bigger, and buisness graphics are moving towards a wxga or similarly 16/10 resolution so you can offer that full screen. I Think of around 10 different "full hd" models in our hire stock, only one is native 16/9, the rest being 16/10,

 

 

Lamp costs are interesting. We run a hire co, and replace lamps with a 2000 hr life often after only 600 hrs or so as it can get pretty obvious that the things not as bright as it should be, generally in a venue you dont notice the slow degradation, but the paying customer does. my advice is that you buy a spare lamp and when the unit starts looking a bit tired, you swap the aold and the new, retaining the used but plenty life left unit as the spare, as if you need a spare it gets you up and running and you can worry about it only being at 80% output another day.

 

that said it depends on what you need, and if the benq is an improvement, the bars clearly pretty low....

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Thanks for the reply guys

 

XGA is what we're running at the moment and to be honest it's good enough for most of what we do. Our screen is 4:3 and the majority of content is 4:3 - it's mostly powerpoint / presentations or show visuals.

We don't have much 1080.

 

Haze we use occasionally (only very occasionally) and I don't think we've ever used haze and projection together, so although it might be in the room with haze we've never had it running.

 

Interesting you mention Leeds as I am up there next week so I will give them a call and see if they can look at it whilst I am up there.

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Personally I'd go for Panasonic, in this case probably a 5k? the newer ones are as close to silent as youll get with something that needs fans! and the picture is great... if you do need a higher resolution then I think youd be looking at one of their 8k's for 1080p. Try contacting Stage Sound Services or XL Video and theyll be able to demo something, and help with install and maintenance!
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