Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with projector and LCD

Hooking up a projector to HDMI

crapmatic — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 00:47:59 -0800

Audiovisual question. What will happen if I plug the HDMI output of a Sony Playstation 3 to the DVI port of this max. 1280x1024 pixel LCD projector? I would of course have a HDMI-DVI cable. Will I be able to display 720p or 1080i stuff? And if it doesn't work, are there devices out there that downsample HD so I can use the projector for pseudo-HD movies and games? I really do not want to buy an HDTV. If it matters, a PDF manual for the projector (2.2 MB) is here.

Solutions for LCD Projector Eye strain?

tonci — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 11:02:27 -0800

New LCD Projector: Feeling significant eye strain, what can I do? I'm very excited with my purchase of an Epson 720p LCD projector. I haven't gotten a screen yet, and have it projecting against a wall about 18 feet from the seating area, about 95 inches diagonal. I'm surprised to be feeling considerable eye strain and have been unable to find much guidance on the internet. The one notion I found was that projecting anything that is not it's native resolution may cause such strain. I guess I've noticed this most with the cable which is either Standard Def or High Def (1080p, I think). I have to do more testing with my upscaling DVD which should send exactly 720p to the projector. Do you have any experience or suggestions for this issue? Thanks for your help.

LCD Projector Bulb life - when to turn it off

Busy Old Fool — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 07:36:07 -0800

To maximise bulb life, what's the minimum length of time an LCD projector should be turned off for? Bulbs for my projector are awfully expensive (it's used off and on for about 12 hours per day) and contain mercury, so I want to replace them as rarely as possible.

So how long does a gap between uses need to be before it's worth turning a projector off? If I'm not using it for ten minutes? Thirty minutes? Ninety minutes? (For fluorescents, it's supposed to be 15 minutes, but projector bulbs are super-hot, so I assume undergo much more stress when turned on/off.)

I do try to replace the bulb when the warning message appears, but sometimes bulbs fail before that and sometimes someone else is using it and ignores the message.

Vid problems on LCD projector

RockyChrysler — Wed, 11 May 2005 14:20:07 -0800

The school where I teach recently purchased a LCD projector and I'm having some trouble getting it to play video... [mi] It's a Hitachi cp-x328 and it seems to be working fine, until i try to play a video file (ie: avi, .mpg, vts type files) in windows media player or powerdvd. quicktime converts/plays the aforementioned files fine (vts, of course being the exception). but wmp and powerdvd just show a blank screen on the projector image, despite the fact that the laptop dispaly is showing the playback fine. all the other desktop features are still visible on the projector's display, but the video window is just black. the children will not accept this.

both the laptop and the projector are set to 60hz. the projector's set to auto select the video input type, but even when i manually switch to ntsc i still get no video playback. however, the projector's picking up the audio signal fine. what am i missing? the problem seems like it should be simple enough to solve, but i'm stumped.