Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with projector and video

Seeking film projector for viewing recently discovered movie reels?

jeanmari — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:43:43 -0800

Is there anywhere within (or near) the city of Chicago to rent a 16mm film projector? Long story short, we bought a house six years ago from a world traveler family who were also hoarders. We're finally cleaning out the WHOLE basement (yeah, there has been that much stuff in here). I found a box of 16 mm film canisters with the film in them labeled intriguing things like "Florida, #2, 12-5-1937", "Europe, Dec 14, 1942", "The folks about 1945", "Yellowstone June 1941", "Europe re-edited 11-29-1942, 360 feet" and "Athletes - Michigan, Florida, Ohio". There are 12-15 films in here I'd like to see.

I'm dying with curiosity here. Not only because there may be pictures of our house in here (which was pretty poorly muddled over three generations by these folks) but also Europe 1942? Come ON! That is so cool.

Most of the places I've found rent to commercial businesses only or are pretty expensive. Any mom and pop shops that rent this equipment to anyone's knowledge? I'm thinking of putting together a movie night for some friends who are interested in the history of this place.

Please help me get my new MacBook Pro projecting through the projector

bryanjbusch — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 14:20:24 -0800

What do I need to look for in an HDMI switch that will enable my Mini-DisplayPort video signal to reach my projector?
I've just successfully connected the Mini-DisplayPort > DVI adapter > HDMI directly to the projector. I also tested an HDCP-crippled video through iTunes, and it didn't complain to me about the display not being HDCP-enabled, so that's a load off my mind.

However, when I pass the HDMI through my extremely generic 4-port switch from Monoprice.com, I get nothing but a blank blue screen through the projector lamp. The laptop screen blinks gray for a second as if it were attempting to make a connection, but gives up.

Is it an HDMI version thing, do you think? What kind of specifics should I be looking for in a new switch?

Or is it maybe not the switch at all?

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.

What's your favorite video projector?

Murray M — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 11:18:21 -0800

What's your favorite video projector? 2 questions:

1)
Who are the gold standard companies with portable video projectors?

2)
Which specific projector do you recommend with the following needs (needed in the following order):
1) Less than $1100
2) color accurate (I will use it to display art)
3) Super bright (will be used in a gallery with windows)
4) reasonably portable (smaller is better, but doesn't have to be the smallest ever)

Presentation Podcast Capture?

Alterscape — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:34:19 -0800

How can I record video of a powerpoint/impress/etc slideshow in a format suitable for inclusion in a video podcast? Presenters use their own laptops and I have access only to a vga cable carrying the image, so screencapture tools are not a preferable option. I'm working on setting up the supporting technologies to enable my university department to podcast a lecture series. The speakers often present slides, video, etc from their own laptops using a variety of presentation tools. We provide a VGA connection to an LCD projector. I am not able to ask that they present from one of our machines because of the variety of output software they use, or install software on their machines. I would like to capture what's displayed on the projector to intercut with images of the speaker at the podium. Direct-to-disk capture is preferable to something that requires taping and later capturing the tape to disk.

We're capturing video and audio of the presenter from a production-grade DV camera direct to disk on a Powermac G5 already.

Any thoughts on hardware/software solutions to enable this?

Da da da da da da-da-da da da! Freeze Frame!

ostranenie — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 09:02:23 -0800

Help me freeze my VGA video signal...as cheaply as possible. In a saturated market of switchers and projectors, what's the cheapest possible way to freeze a 1280x1024 24-bit color analog (RGBHV) image? How much circuitry is required for a device inline in a video feed that can toggle between "hold" or "pass" modes? I don't need it scaled, color-corrected, distorted, brightened or otherwise modified - just froze. Has anyone taken on this problem as a microcontroller project? Or is there a device that "just" freezes video?

Lots of projectors do this, but some plasma screens and LCDs don't have the feature...and I want it and I'm willing to throw money at the problem, but I thought since AskMe saved me thousands of dollars by directing me to a certain online retailer (after I asked about putting HDMI 'ends' on cheap Cat5 cable) I thought, you know, maybe...

If it's too hard to build or guaranteed to be expensive, I understand. Thanks!

How to switch a Wii to 480p without even looking.

Eddie Mars — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 10:06:07 -0800

Help Mii with my Wii! I would like to hook my Wii up to a projector. The problem is, the projector can only display progressive scan video -- not interlaced.
I've bought the component cables for the Wii which support 480p, but you have to switch the Wii to this video mode via a menu. Until you make the change, the signal goes out as 480i.

I have it hooked up to my TV now, which does support interlaced video, but not progressive. Seems like I could turn on 480p there, and then hook it up to the projector, but the 480p option is greyed out because I'm hooked up with the original cable which only does 480i. I'm caught in a catch-22.

My question: Is there another way to force the Wii to switch over to 480p. Alternately, is there a *cheap* box that can convert the signal for me?

Video projector bulb rip

zek — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 16:14:04 -0800

Holy %#$!. I just priced out bulbs for our Proxima X350 video projector. The stores I looked at want $350, about equal to the price used projectors are going for on eBay. If I shell out $350, am I getting ripped off? Since when did it cost so much to make a light bulb?

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.