Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with projector

Renting a projector

sitecoach — Wed, 08 May 2013 16:55:48 -0800

What types of establishments rent or loan projectors that can display computer output? And how much should it cost? I have a presentation next week and I would like to project from my laptop onto a wall. Just still images.

This is not a work event and I am not getting paid for it. It did not occur to me when I agreed to do it that finding a projector would be a problem.

The public library, where the presentation is taking place, is letting me use their room, but they do not have a projector.

I called a rental place and was told it costs $150/day to rent a projector. That strikes me as very high. Does this sound right? Does anyone have ideas on ways to rent projectors that aren't so costly?

Visually impressive movies

wrok — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:17:28 -0800

So, I have a super-nice HD projector in my possession for the next 24 hours. What should I watch on it? (Preferably TV shows or movies) Koyaanisqatsi already came to mind, as did the Lord of the Rings. What other visually intense/impressive movies should I put up on my 'big screen' while I have it.

LCD Projector for School Auditorium

etc. — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 12:22:07 -0800

Please suggest to me a specific projector and help me plan this out in general. I'm trying to get a projector installed in our school auditorium, so I don't have to set one on the front row seats and set it up every time I need one. School facilities are installing a new PA system soon, but I don't know what it will look/work like, so I don't have good answers about the main console part of the finished product.

This is a small auditorium (approx. 500 seats).
The PA console/inputs/outputs will be in a unit off stage left. That is where I imagine plugging a DVD player and laptop into the sound system, so that is where I imagine my video signal will be coming from.
I guess I originally imagined a unit hanging from the ceiling about 30' from the stage. The other option, AFAICT, would be a unit mounted to the wall in the back (approx. 100'). That would require a much more powerful unit, no? What about signal loss running those cables that far?
The ambient light is manageable. I've been using a Dell 2400MP on the front row seats and it's been fine.
My facilities folks are asking me (like I know anything): What kinds of input feed do I want? I use Macs, so I would say DVI, but I want to be forward thinking here. My inclination would be to say "HDMI, VGA and DVI." Would that cover me for most uses: Mac, PC, DVD? Is that even a sensible answer.
They are also asking if I want a motorized screen. We have a screen, but it's old. Main thing is: With a new projector, should I consider a new screen for the sake of aspect ratio?

I have lots of questions. But I'm not even sure I'm asking the right ones. Help?

Should I buy a pico projector now?

ooklala — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:17:18 -0800

Does anybody have any experience with recent pico projectors? Which should I buy? I'm looking for something that will fit in my tiny daypack (with room to spare for all my other crap) that is at least 100 lumens and that has a battery. I've borrowed an Optoma PK320, which is tiny and very bright—albeit slightly fuzzy. Are there any other projectors of comparable size and brightness that are higher in resolution? Will there be soon? (as in, would it be worth it to wait a month or two?)

Just to be clear, I'm fine with the quality of the image from the PK320—I just don't want to go and spend money only to have something much brighter or sharper appear all of a sudden.

Question about projector aspect ratio and resolution

lattiboy — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 15:32:43 -0800

I recently purchased this Acer projector and am wondering what aspect ratio I should get for the screen. I bought this 84-inch 4:3 screen as it was on sale at Amazon and seemed like the nicest one available in the price range, but now I'm thinking I should get the 16:9 version even though it is a 4:3 native projector as all the content I'm watching will be 16:9 or wider. Amazon has free return shipping, so I'm not stuck with it.

My initial thought was that the projector would put out a 4:3 image regardless of the input signal and I'd be distracted by the projected "black bars" if I had a 16:9 screen.

PS Not really interested in a DIY screen as I will be moving this between two rooms in my house for events.

PPS I previously asked a question about wireless video but have since figured out a corded solution

Homebrew 3D video projection

shipbreaker — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 23:11:52 -0800

Can I use polarizing filters with two aligned video projectors to make a 3D image that then can be viewed with Real3d / IMAX polarized eye-glasses? I have this idea that if I got two polarizing filters to put in front of the light frustums coming out of two video projectors, then wore Real3D or IMAX goggles to view the image, the left eye would only see the light from the left projector and the right eye would only see light from the right projector.

But a friend of mine says that the moment the polarized light hits the wall, the photons will bounce away in every direction when coming off the wall, and no longer be polarized in a way that will let me use the 3D glasses to separate the images.

Is my idea feasible? Maybe not. Then how do 3D video projectors (the kind that cost $3000) work?

How can I make this homemade movie big enough to show at a party?

RingerChopChop — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 09:05:48 -0800

My parents are celebrating their 50th anniversary. I have made a slideshow in iMovie with images, video and audio to show at the party. What is the cheapest, best-quality way that I can show this to an audience of about 20 people? My original thought was to project it. We have a huge old projection screen, but no modern day projector. I thought about buying an LCD projector but now I see they're a big investment (like, $1000). Is it worth it to buy the cheapest one I can find? Or will that be just a waste of money? Do any stores, libraries, etc. rent them out?

Another option I guess would be to show it on my parents' moderately-sized TV. But with this option, I'm not sure what the cleanest method would be. Should I hook up a cable from the TV to a laptop with my movie downloaded on it? Should I attempt to burn a DVD and just play that (even though I don't have iDVD and get poor quality results from using my free "Burn" software)? I worked really hard on this project and I want it to be big, clear and beautiful! Please help me harness modern day technology to celebrate a very old relationship!

How do I open up my Sony TV projectors?

shipbreaker — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 19:19:01 -0800

I have a Sony VPL-PX40 and a Sony VPL-PX41. How can I open them up to swap the lenses? One projector has a nice zoom lens, and the other has a fixed lens. I want to put the better lens in the unit with the better LCD screen. But I cannot easily see how to get these projectors open. There must be a secret.

There must be the Sony Service Manual that comes with the projectors, or the new lenses. When I dig around in Google for such a tech manual, I come up empty. Except for "driverdownload"-style spam tech-manual sites which promise everything but deliver... .... nothing? I just get stuck in PDF-promising websites that then send me nowhere, or around in circles.

The projectors are designed to have interchangable lenses. I just cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to open them up and do the deed!

First time projector user needs help! Wireless video vs. wireless audio.

lattiboy — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:01:58 -0800

Help figuring out the best setup for a home theater projector. Total projector newb here.... I'm moving to a new house with a larger living room in March and I recently purchased this Acer projector after reading a lot of reviews saying it pretty much destroys anything under $500 away.

I did this lame SketchUp for a visual aid as to what I'd like to do.

I wanted the Xbox and the PC and the receiver to all be on the screen side of the room because (from what I can tell) setting up the Kinect wirelessly is a somewhat expensive nightmare, I don't want a PC directly behind me on the couch, and I don't want to have cables running across my living room floor. It's old oak floors with area rugs.

I realize audio is much easier to wirelessly transmit, but for the reasons stated above I would much prefer the components in front of the couch.

To further complicate things the projector only has VGA input (it scales HD to XGA), so I'll be using the component output of the xbox and the DVI output of my video card with a VGA adapter. So, I'll need a signal switcher with remote too.

PS I did search first, but this thread is about a projector with built-in wireless capability.

Epson projector w/Ubuntu

ryanshepard — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 18:56:26 -0800

Epson EX7200 projector + Ubuntu 12.04 - help me make these two play together. Epson does not offer Linux drivers as far as I can tell - are there any workarounds available to get this projector running w/Ubuntu?

Project an image onto entire wall?

rainy — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 15:47:26 -0800

Is it possible to use a projector to project an image onto a wall that will span the entire wall, that is, do all / any projectors allow to stretch an image to arbitrary angle since the size of the room is limited? I would like to sketch an image onto an entire wall using this method. I don't think there is any way to actually print an image onto a wall using some kind of a setup with an inkjet head moving up and down along the wall... were there any experimental rigs that can do that?

Powerpoint - stick to 4:3 or go widescreen?

vogel — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 03:19:55 -0800

How far along are we in moving from 4:3 to widescreen LCD projectors for (e.g.) PowerPoint presentations. Is my current 4:3 default still sensible? I work on PowerPoint shows for my academic boss who presents them all over the world. At the moment pretty much everything is still 4:3. We only have 4:3 projectors at work. We can't afford to maintain two versions of every talk so it would be a big jump to go wide-screen. Obviously wide-screen will take over sooner or later (er, won't it?) but it feels to me as if we are not there yet, and it will take a while. So I should leave the talks in 4:3 for the moment and start off new talks in this aspect ratio too - I think ...

If I send him off with a 4:3 and it is displayed on a wide-screen projector it will look fine. But if he shows up with a wide-screen talk and it's displayed on a 4:3 projector then it'll all be a bit smaller than we intend. It is not always possible to check the venue in advance and, as I say, even if it were we can really only run one version of the talk.

But am I right? Or is the pace of the takeover fast enough that I should be looking over my shoulder at wide-screen? Am I likely to have to jump that way this week, or in a year, or in three years? Are venues who re-equip all going to wide-screen now? What do others do? I would love to know what you think.

Thanks and best wishes

v.

Help me repair my Epson EX51 projector

signsofrain — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 21:11:36 -0800

I want to repair my Epson EX51 projector. Help me find the resources to do it. My question is about my Epson EX51 projector. I’ve been having some problems with it. Hopefully some of you have some experiences with projectors generally or this specific projector. I would prefer to repair this projector rather than buy a new one. I had the projector for about a year before it had any problems, and then about 8 months where the problems didn’t interfere with normal operation much. The projector is ceiling mounted and is exposed to cigarette smoke pretty much whenever it is in use.

The first sign of trouble was that sometimes the projector bulb would have a hard time striking/lighting. I’d turn the projector on, and it would spin its fans for awhile (maybe a minute and a half?) before finally the bulb warning light would light up red and the fans would shut down. The projector would at that point not respond to panel buttons and had to be unplugged to try again. Very rarely, if I left the projector on when this happened (before the fans shut down), the bulb would light in a minute or so. Mostly, I fixed this problem by removing and reseating the bulb. 99% of the time this would result in the projector lighting up right away and working fine for hours on end. I persisted reseating the bulb as my method of getting it working for about 8 months. Sometimes (rarely) I’d just unplug the projector and power it up again and it would work, but usually I had to reseat the bulb.

What’s happening now is similar, but slightly different. I turn on the projector, it lights right away, no problem. It projects the Epson logo for a few seconds, then I will usually see a split second of my computer desktop and the bulb goes out and both Bulb and Temp warning lights light up, and the fans go into jet engine mode. I have been unable to get it to do anything else for about a week. This week, I took the top cover off the projector and blew compressed air into the fans and ducts, cleaned the filter, reseated the fan connectors too. The projector was pretty clean, considering it is exposed to cigarette smoke a lot. This wasn’t just canned compressed air either, I used my shop air compressor. It blows pretty freaking hard. After cleaning I re-assembled... same problem.

Btw, in all of the above, you can swap “reseat” for “exchange” - when I reseated, I would sometimes swap the bulb for another bulb. I have 3 bulbs and like to spread out usage over them - I have used each for approx. 300-400 hours, well below their supposed operational lifetime. Exchanging bulbs worked just as well as reseating.

My googling has revealed someone else who had a similar problem. He was advised that his issue might be the “fan sensor” - which would have to be replaced.

I’m hoping that my problem is simply that cigarette smoke has fouled the “fan sensor” and that if I could locate this part I could clean it or source a replacement.

So does anyone know what’s going on with my projector? Can anyone find me an Epson EX51 service manual? Can anyone that fixed their own projector before offer me advice or tips of any kind? I am hoping not to have to buy a new projector. The bulbs for this one cost about 200 bucks a pop so it’d be a shame to waste them.
And yes... I’m aware that smoking around a projector is really stupid. If I can get this fixed, I’m going to use a length of dryer hose and an outside vent so the projector can pull in fresh air from the outside.

tl;dr I want to repair rather than replace my broken Epson EX51 projector, help me find resources to help me do that.

Projector System Help!

masters2010 — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 20:28:39 -0800

Can you please offer insight into my projector system? I have questions with regards to projectors, screens, and installation. Hello dearest hive mind, I need some help. I am planning to install a projector system in my commercial bar but I am lost in a myriad of details.

First and foremost, I'm on a budget. Secondly, this isn't a home theater, and I can't black out the room - I am dealing with some serious ambient light.

Projector: I am thinking to purchase the Dell 4320 projector because of its high (4,300) lumen output. I am hoping this will counteract some of the ambient light, and it's reasonably priced. Thoughts?

Screen: What level of gain do you think I should pursue? I was thinking perhaps the Da-Lite High Power manual screen with 2.4 gain, though I also wonder if this will be too much. Thoughts?

Installation: I am planning to mount this on the ceiling, but the Dell 4320 does not have the vertical shift feature. What height should I mount the projector relative to the top of the screen?

Thanks!

I only barely understand what a lumen is

NoraReed — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:36:06 -0800

I'm getting a projector for gaming (and occasionally movies). It's across a living room, about 15 feet, to go on a wall. I've previously used just a boring office projector and that worked fine. I'm not super concerned about image quality; it needs to be good enough to read text on the "screen", but that's about it. Can I get away with an LED projector? I get a little bit of ambient light in the daytime, but not much, and 90% of my use of this device is at night anyway.

LEDs seem to have WAY less lumens than the other kinds of projectors, but I'd like not to worry about bulb replacement.

iPad + digital projector = ?

miss lynnster — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 07:23:35 -0800

IPad to to a digital projector... it doesn't seem to be working. Help! So, I was told I could run my iPad2 to a projector, that all I would need was the right cables. So I bought them. I ignorantly thought it would work the way a laptop seems to, imagining that whatever was on the screen of my iPad would show up. I realize now that's not how it works... I guess it can only display certain apps? I was hoping to show a browser and a bunch of other stuff and presentations. So far, I've shown nothing though.

The IT guy at the university I was speaking couldn't get *anything* to work, and so now I'm trying to figure it out myself. I can't seem to find any thorough explanations online of what the capabilities and limitations are to running an iPad to a projector, and it's frustrating. Right now I feel like I bought a cable that I shouldn't have bought and maybe I should just use a laptop... But I hate giving up and I would rather bring my iPad to things than my laptop.

Anybody know a lot about this stuff and can give me the 411? Thanks so much!

Looking for projector in Minneapolis / St. Paul metro area.

senterstyle — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:38:25 -0800

Looking for projector in Minneapolis / St. Paul metro area. I need to purchase a projector that has really deep blacks (something like the Epson 8700UB) locally because I'll need it this week. So far, the only retailers I've found of projectors in the Minneapolis / St. Paul area have a terrible selection (Best Buy / Walmart). Anyone know of better stores in the area?

Projector with a 90 degree rotate option?

odinsdream — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:28:37 -0800

Looking for a projector that supports portrait mode, or 90 degree image rotation, without physically rotating the projector. We're looking for a projector that will let us rotate the video feed 90 degrees when displayed. Almost all projectors offer video mirroring and 180 degree rotation.

Have you used one with such a setting?

Windows 7 thinks I am connected to a projector and my laptop screen is black. How can I force it to return to normal?

jeremias — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 05:52:22 -0800

Windows 7 thinks I am connected to a projector and my laptop screen is black. How can I force it to return to normal? Some potentially important details: I am running Windows 7 using Bootcamp on a MacBook Pro. This may be part of the problem because I was trying (without success) to connect my laptop to a projector while on the Windows side.

Out of desperation I chose the option to connect to just the projector (rather than mirroring the screen). This turned the screen black and now I am stuck in this limbo. I can't flip the setting back.

I can boot into Windows safe mode and access the system, but at first glance there seems to be little I can do there to fix the situation. But hopefully that's where one of you come in!

Where can I get a slide projector in Atlanta tomorrow?

thebrokenmuse — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 00:35:28 -0800

Where can I get a slide projector in Atlanta tomorrow? A friend bought a ton of old slides at a flea market and so far we've been looking at them just by holding them up to the light. I owe him a gift and I'd love to find him a working slide projector before I leave town tomorrow so that he'd be able to actually look at them all.

An antique would be fine, as long as it actually works. I'm not from the area, so I'm not sure which antique stores would possibly have something like this. I'm leaving tomorrow, so it would have to be something that could pick up locally. Any ideas?

Bonus points for one that actually looks kind of cool.

Now I'm playing with power -- portable power! (Please?)

stleric — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 19:03:56 -0800

How can I portably power my old slide projector on the go? Hi Ask MeFi! This is something that I've been wanting to do for years: I have an old Kodak Ektagraphic AF-2 slide projector that I would like to provide power to portably without having to actively plug into an indoor power outlet. It has a standard 3-prong U.S. power cord, and if it's helpful at all, the power descriptions listed on the bottom of the projector are:

"120 volts ---- 50 Hz -------------- 400 watts
300 W lamp max ---------------- Use ELH lamp"

Ideally, I'm looking for:
1. A device that can have power stored up that can I can plug my projector into for a half hour or longer without the power running out
2. Something that doesn't produce toxic fumes like a generator
3. Something that doesn't tie me to my car and its cigarette lighter plug (though if nothing else is possible, a car-based power source is the last resort)
4. Something affordably priced (sub-$100 if at all possible)

I've seen plenty of devices that convert a car lighter plug into a standard 3-prong plug power source, and a few power strips that provide backup power for a half-hour-ish in case of outages, but I'm not sure if they're what I'm looking for, or if so, what brands are the most reliable. If anyone could give me advice on any of this (even if it only covers one or two of the "ideal" list), I'd be immensely grateful. Thank you!

Servicing an older projector?

aeighty — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:23:55 -0800

Hello AskMeFi. Please help me replace the bulb in my aging projector (Infocus X1). The lamp is putting out very little light, so I'd like to replace it. Do I need a "lamp" or a "projector lamp assembly"? Searching ebay for "infocus x1 lamp" yields two results:

Representative sample:

Projector Lamp and projector lamp assembly. The difference is nearly two fold. Which one should I go for? If it's the assembly, I might as well trash this projector and buy a more modern equivalent.

Thanks Mefites!

Wireless video to a projector?

hapticactionnetwork — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 17:32:08 -0800

Is 802.11 b/g/n wireless fast enough to use to watch movies? I'm considering getting an Epson PowerLite 1775w, primarily because of the wireless capabilities. It would be totally great to be able to watch movies wirelessly on, for instance, Hulu or Netflix.

I'm not terribly concerned about getting a high resolution, but I am concerned about images freezing up.

From what I can tell, it uses 802.11 b/g/n wireless. I'm not totally sure what that means, and I'm definitely not sure whether or not it's fast enough to transfer data wirelessly from my computer for video, even at a low resolution. Is it?

There were a some older questions about this kind of thing, but I thought enough time had passed that maybe technology has changed.

Video cable hunt, take 3

ryanshepard — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 13:16:00 -0800

Follow up to this question: Where can I find a cable that will let me connect my old iBook G4 to a VGA cable? I have a first generation iBook G4 - it has a video out port, but so far I have not been able to find an adaptor cable that will let me plug a VGA cable into this port to connect to a projector.

I realize this thing is ancient, but it has a DVD drive, and I'd like to use it to watch movies.

I need to know the name (and, even better, model #) of the cable I need, and a link to a vendor. Bonus points if it is not the Apple store, as they only ship via FedEx, and I work during the day.

It is not either of the following cables:

mini DVI to VGA

mini Display Port to VGA

This is week three of trying to find the right cable - help me, hive mind!

Advice on purchasing an LED projector

foursentences — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 13:00:40 -0800

Aiming to buy an LED projector, a market I know little about. Here's what I'd like to be able to do:

- watch movies that appear fairly-large-screen, while sitting or treadmilling approx. 12 feet away from that screen
- web browsing and word processing, *with the room lights on*, at no worse than a 640x480 resolution

I'm willing to spend about $350-$400.

1) Am I looking for a product that exists?
2) Do you have specific product recommendations?
3) If I buy a "pico" projector I'll be disappointed in the image quality, right?
4) Is there a technical difference between "pico", "pocket", "mini", "micro", "portable"?
5) How important is "native resolution"? If I buy a projector whose native is VGA but that claims also to be capable of WUXGA or whatever, will its WUXGA mode be as useless as I imagine?
6) If I get a projector with a weird ratio (854x480, for example), am I right that it will sometimes distort images?

Thanks in advance for all help!