Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Video Projector Buying Guide

In the past, video projectors were limited to high-end home theater installations that were very expensive, but today these same types of high definition projectors are available for less than $2,000.

Whether you plan on using a video projector for professional or personal use, a projector can provide you with many benefits. Depending on what you will be using the projector for, there are certain things you should look for before making a purchasing decision.

Below you will find a set of questions that our product specialists ask our customers before recommending a projector for them to buy.

How much light is in the room you plan on using the projector in? Generally, the more light that enters the room the more Lumens you will need a projector to have. The more Lumens a projector has, the brighter the picture will display, making it easier to see when in a room with a lot of light. Note that a projector with less than 1000 Lumens might require you to block out almost all of the external light in order to be able to see the picture clearly.

What aspect ratio do you want the projector to display in? The two main types of aspect ratios are either 4:3 (standard) or 16:9 (widescreen and HDTVs). Most people now are choosing projectors in the 16:9 format for their home theaters, while a few prefer the 4:3 format as many movies created before 1953 are in that format.

Do you plan on taking the projector around with you? If you want a projector that is easy to take around, from room to room or office to office, consider the size and weight of the unit. The lighter and smaller the projector, the more portable it will be.

Do you care about the contrast of colors in the picture displayed? If you want a good contrast in your colors, such as blacker blacks and whiter whites, then take a look at the contrast ratio of a given projector. The range of contrast ratios is anywhere between 500:1 and 5000:1 and more. The higher the contrast ratio is, the higher the amount of available colors. Therefore the higher the contrast ratio is the more life like images the projector can produce.

How do you plan on connecting to the projector? Make sure that the projector in question has all of the inputs you plan on using available. These include S-Video, Composite, Component, HDMI, as well as many others.

What type of accessories do you want with the projector? Projectors can come with many accessories, including the necessary cables to make a connection such as an s-video cable, HDMI cable, or something of the like. Make sure the projector has the necessary cables when purchasing a projector. Other accessories can include remotes, lasers, lens cap, etc.

Lumens: The unit of measure for the light output of a projector.

S-Video (Separated Video): An analog video signal that carries the video data as two separate signals.

Composite: A single video connector that combines all the color and brightness signals into one cable using a single RCA male connector. Often color-coded yellow, it is the most common type of analog video connection between older VCRs and TVs.

Component: Video signal in which the luminance and sync information are recorded separately from the color information. Component is superior to composite.

Definitions:

HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface): HDMI supports standard, enhanced, or high-definition video, plus multi-channel digital audio all on a single cable.

4:3 Standard Aspect Ratio: The shape of standard (non-widescreen) TVs, which simply means the picture "frame" is 4 units wide for every 3 units tall.

16:9 Widescreen Aspect Ratio: The shape of widescreen TV's, which simply means the picture "frame" is 16 units wide for every 9 units tall. This ratio is used for high definition televisions.

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Monday, May 4, 2009

About Home Theatre HDTV Projectors

If you have been thinking of buying a HDTV projector instead of a LCD HD TV, there is something to know. HDTV projectors are taking over the market! We all know HD TV projectors are a technology from the movie theater industry, but today it is fully possible to create your own home cinema with a home theatre projector.

HDTV projectors are taking over the market, and for many good reasons. If we think about projectors HD TV, we will find that they are either in cinemas or as home cinemas with the very wealthy. However, the truth is that projectors with high definition can be purchased for less than a reasonable sized LCD HD TV set.

Projectors can be used for many different purposes - for home use, office presentations and for business sales. HDTV projectors serve to make the benefits of HD programming more obvious.

High definition projectors have higher resolutions than regular projectors. Choose HDTV projectors to receive enhanced features and components to transform your ordinary viewing environment into a magnificent atmosphere.

The available projectors today, have 720p for reasonable prices. The 1080p projectors are still very expensive. As time goes by, the prices for 1080p will go down. And by time you read this, the prices for 1080p HD projectors should be at very attractive prices.

You can use the projectors with high definition for a number of purposes. If you have had thoughts of projectors such as those in school or in a library, you would be wrong! Today's projectors are totally different, and are amazing in the quality of picture they can present.

What is more, the projectors available today with high definition, allow you to connect your PC, your DVD, and even your PlayStation to the HD projector. The result is that you can use it for many different uses.

HD projectors also have some disadvantages, although as the technology improves these are becoming less and less relevant. The biggest problem is with having light enter the room. Soon as Sun rays hit where the image is being projected, it can cause problems with viewing. However, technology is keep changing and is making these problems become irrelevant.

An essential purchase is to buy a projector screen, which will make the image much better. Nevertheless, most projectors produce beautiful images at sizes of 90" to 120" diagonal, which is far larger than anything you can get with flat-screen TVs or rear-projection TVs.

Imagine you can buy a good projector HDTV for around $1,000. And the result is that you have a television the size of over 90". That is amazing, and no television whether with high definition or any other technology will offer such a great screen size for such money.


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Saturday, May 2, 2009

LCD Projector - What Specifications Are You Looking For?

People everywhere are choosing an LCD projector over an ordinary projector because of the amazing advantages they can expect to get. These versatile machines can be used in the home for watching movies and in the office to enhance visual presentations. This type of projector also finds itself being used to teach classrooms full of students at once, making it a great aid to teachers.

The specific advantages of this projector over an ordinary one are numerous. For starters, all images (moving or still) are incomparably sharper when coming from an LCD projector. This feature is one that is most apparent during presentations where the text size of numbers is small, but surprisingly readable. Because of this, presenters can display more information on a single image without worrying about weather or not their audience will be able to read it.

Another advantage of this type of projector is the fact that images are not at all distorted. When video information is fed from a computer to the LCD projector, the projector modifies the image in such a way that it will retain the exact dimensions on the projector screen as it does on the computer screen. It does this all without compromising the quality of the image as well – no harsh pixilation, no color loss.

Color is another great feature of this type of projector. Colors are projected flawlessly to the screen. Unlike old projectors, an LCD one is much more like a television. You can even control the red, green and blue color intensity levels. Also controllable are contrast and brightness, so you'll be able to easily modify your image to fit whatever lighting conditions are present.

If you are considering the purchase of an LCD projector, there are a few things that you should know before setting foot in a store. Perhaps the most important piece of information you need to have is the typical distance you intend to have the projector away from the screen. Every projector fits into a specific distance range and will only perform best when it's used within those parameters.

Also, you should know what kind of lighting conditions are typically going to be present when you're using the LCD projector. This will indicate how bright of a projector you'll require.

Finally, you need to choose between two classes of resolution for your projector. SVGA is a lower resolution, but can offer higher brightness. This type is great for projecting still images in an office setting where it's difficult to lower the brightness of the lights sufficiently to use a normal projector. XGA has the higher resolution and is perfect for little details and the best for moving images. Many people use an LCD projector with XGA resolution for their home theatre needs!

Truly, an LCD projector is a wonderful invention with a multitude of applications. While the cost of these projectors can be a little on the high side, the quality you'll get is well worth every penny.

Summary:

People everywhere are choosing an LCD projector over an ordinary projector because of the amazing advantages they can expect to get. In fact, the resolution and color these projectors boast are so good, many people use an LCD projector home theatre needs!

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Should Businesses Buy a Projector or an LCD Display?

With the price of large (>32”) LCD displays decreasing rapidly and new functionalities being added to LCD displays, does it still make sense for businesses to buy a projector vs. an LCD display?

Some of the variables to consider when evaluating this question are product quality, price, picture quality, screen size and other such considerations. We discuss these and other factors from a typical business organization perspective. Read other articles and make your informed judgement.

Product Life: LCD TVs or displays typically have a backlight life of 30,000 to 60,000 hours (ie, if you have the display on for ~6 hours every day, the backlight will last for 16 years). Even then the backlight can be replaced in most LCD displays. A projector bulb typically has a life of 2,000 hours.

Price Considerations: A basic projector can be found for INR 25,000. However, if the projector is going to be used for video conferencing or board room presentation, a high resolution, good contrast ratio and saturated colour projector would be required. The cost of such a projector is close to INR 1 lakh. Thereafter, you need to factor in the prices of projector bulb and projection screens. A typical projector bulb needs to be replaced almost every year or two with bulbs costing Rs 20,000+ per bulb. We have added these costs over a five-year period to compare a projector vs. an LCD (see chart below). With 46” LCD TV or display costing around Rs 135,000 – Rs 150,000 and dropping, price becomes less of an issue when considering whether to buy a Projector or LCD display

Figure: Total Cost of Ownership Comparison for Projector vs. LCD Display

Basic Device capital cost for projector is INR 70,000 and that of an LCD display is INR 150,000, Projector Screen Capital Cost (Wall Mount Screens INR 5-15K) is INR 10,000, Consumable cost of the projector is 20,000 x 3 = INR 60,000, Consumable life of a projector is 2,000hrs and that of an LCD display is 60,000hrs and the Cost of Ownership of a projector is Rs.140, 000/- and Rs.150, 000/- for an LCD display.

Assume: 5years of usage @ 5hrs a day ~ 6600hrs of use. This translates to 4 lamps in 5 years requiring the customer to buy 3 lamps in addition to 1 supplied with machine.

What is clear from the above figure is that a Full High Definition 46” LCD Display is, at best, only marginally costlier than a XGA Projector of ~2500AL. Additional costs of low screen installation costs and lower device loss costs are purely additional.

Picture Quality: Projectors such as a DLP or LCD projector use glass panels to combine red, green and blue colours to create the image. When sitting close to screen, the viewer can see the different colours at the borders of an image, aptly described as the rainbow effect. The rainbow effect takes away from the image quality and can give headaches. High-end projectors have been able to reduce the rainbow effect, however the problem still remains and these high-end projectors cost more. LCD TV or LCD displays do not have rainbow effect issues and the quality of the picture is good at close range.

Rather, projectors cannot compare with the picture quality for an LCD display. The vividness of the colours, the contrast ratio, the colour saturation and image sharpness are much better for an LCD display than a projector. When viewing a projector image, especially in ambient light, the viewer has to dim the lights or close the curtains unless the business has purchased an even more costly higher lumen projector. Not true with LCD displays, as the brightness and colour quality are much better.

Viewing angles used to be an issue with LCD displays but this issue is no longer true. Most LCD displays can be viewed from up to 176 degrees.

Dead or Stuck Pixels: Projectors can suffer from dead pixels and LCD displays can suffer from stuck pixels. Both dead pixels and stuck pixels result in white spots in the projected image. However, the manufacturers of both technologies have worked hard to minimize such issues and in most cases they provide warranty against such issues.

Screen Size: A common thought is that screen size is not an issue for most projectors as the thinking is that the projector image can be made larger by moving the projector away from the screen. This is not true as the image quality deteriorates as the image becomes larger. With projectors, most buyers opt for maximum optimized projector image sizes from 76-inches to 120-inches and the actual working normal projection image used is much smaller. Today, if businesses need a large LCD display in the maximum projector image size, a wide variety of competitive LCD displays can be found in this range.

Portability: Projectors are easy to carry and move around. For a business this could be a value-add or a drawback. LCD displays are durable and can be moved however they are not as light as projectors.

Power Consumption: Projector power consumption varies more from unit to unit, with brighter conference projectors requiring more power than smaller portable projectors. It is hard to compare the two technologies on this performance parameter.

Connectivity: Most LCD displays have more number and different types of ports than projectors. As a result more types of devices can be connected to an LCD display than a projector.

Other Value-Add Features: New features are appearing in LCD displays that could be quite valuable for businesses. For example, touch screen features on LCD displays allow for LCD displays to be used as digital whiteboards where the data written on the display can easily get captured electronically in a text document.

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Shweta Sharma is a regular article contributor on many topics. She has vast exposure in writing article on various topics like LCD technology, LCD Monitors Review etc.