Buying a projector what you need to know

Buying a projector what you need to know

When I purchased my first projector 2 years ago I was looking into buying guides for projectors and most of them were (and from what I’ve seen recently still do) talk about the projectors as they were a while back. My guide will try to focus on what you need to know now when purchasing a projector.

The main questions you need to ask yourself are:

What is the purpose of the projector you are buying? Movies, video games or just to show slides for work?

Where are you going to use the projector? Is there going to be light in the room or is it going to be pitch black?

Does the projector need to be portable?

The answers you will get when you ask yourself these questions are:

If you need the projector to use to show slides or in a bright room then what you need are high lumens.

If the primary usage of your projector for movies and video games you need high contrast ratio and a good resolution.

If you need the projector to be portable then you need a DLP projector.

What are lumens? And how many do I need?

Lumens are the measure of the projectors brightness. If you require your projector to be used during the day I would suggest buying a projector with at least 2200 lumens. On the other hand if you only plan to use your projector during the night the 1000 lumens should be enough.

What is a contrast ration? What is a sufficient contrast ratio?

Contrast ratio is a measure of the difference between the darkest black and the brightest white your system can produce. When a system is to be used for high definition movies and games I would suggest at least 6,000:1 but I would strongly suggest a contrast ratio around 12,000:1.

What is the resolution? What kind of resolution do I need?

Resolution is the number of points your projector can display. If you get a low resolution projector and open it up to a large screen you will observe huge dots on the screen where an actual shape should be. For slides and presentations a resolution of 800x600 is sufficient. For low definition movies a resolution of 800x600 is also sufficient. But for high definition movies and games an 720p resolution (1280x720) is a necessity. Only really expensive projectors offer a 1080p resolution but most projectors with an 720p resolution offer a compatibility mode for 1080p content (they can play the content but the resolution is still 720p).

What kind of inputs do I need on my projector?

The biggest variety of inputs your projector has to offer the most devices you can connect it to. If you need to connect it to a pc for presentations the a VGA port is required (most of the projectors have this port). For high definition movies and games I would suggest buying a projector which has an HDMI port.

There are many good projectors at reasonable prices which do not offer an HDMI port but offer other high definition options like composite and DVI. Most consoles and bluray systems offer a composite output but I would suggest checking before buying so that you don’t end up with incompatible hardware.

What technology should I buy? 3 LCD or DLP?

There are two main competitors in the projectors market the 3 LCD and DLP. This is where most guides get it wrong as these technologies both changed significantly over the past few years. I will not bother you with how these technologies work but what are the main differences.

Modern 3 LCD projectors usually are bulky, with high contrast ratio and low lumens.

Modern DLP projectors usually are small, low contrast ratio and high lumens.

But now there is a big plus for DLP projectors you may want to consider, 3D. DLP projectors may on the near future be a cheap alternative for 3D content instead of 3D TVs (I’ve written about 3D DLP projectors here).

Some budget DLP projectors offer good contrast ratios and some 3 LCD projectors offer higher lumens. If you really need the brightness but still want a good contrast ratio I would suggest the Optoma HD series projectors (see the amazon links bellow).

Lamp life

Usually lamps of projectors have 3,000-5,000 hours life. Usually 3 LCD projectors offer longer life but are quite more expensive to buy (my SONY 3LCD projector lamp costs as much as a cheap DLP projector!). Also the life of the lamp depends on the brightness you have the projector to be running, if you have the projector running at low lumens you might give your lamp another 1,000 hours of life (most projectors say the average lamp life at high and low lumens setting).

If you would like my opinion about a projector drop me a comment bellow and I will try to answer in the best of my knowledge.