Buy a used projector
July 16, 2021 1:19 PM Subscribe
I want to buy a used projector for 1) showing powerpoints in a small group class setting and 2) (not essential but would be nice) showing outdoor movies with friends.
I live in a Mac computer universe if that matters for compatibility.
I know nothing about projectors and Consumer Reports doesn't seem to rate them.
Can you help either recommend some brands or even point me to specific listings on Ebay?
In a previous gig I dealt with projectors and I was impressed with the BenQ and the Viewsonic products. On the mac side you will likely need an adapter.
I would steer you towards reconditioned projectors or just a new one. Prices on used units just aren't very competitive, and there are many potential cons as noted herer. Part of that is as a big part of the cost of a projector is the lamp, and the other part is that folks who paid 600$ think that selling it for 400$ is a deal, while a new unit that's 300$ is often just way better.
posted by zenon at 1:54 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
I would steer you towards reconditioned projectors or just a new one. Prices on used units just aren't very competitive, and there are many potential cons as noted herer. Part of that is as a big part of the cost of a projector is the lamp, and the other part is that folks who paid 600$ think that selling it for 400$ is a deal, while a new unit that's 300$ is often just way better.
posted by zenon at 1:54 PM on July 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
projectorcentral.com for general info & reviews & some understanding of specs.
I live in a Mac computer universe if that matters for compatibility.
It shouldn't, as long as you can get HDMI out from your Mac. Might need an adapter dongle to get from whatever Mac port to HDMI, depends on the Mac.
2 important specs to consider are "Lumens", which is basically how bright it is, and "throw distance", which, y'know, is the distance you want to be from the projector to whatever surface you're projecting on.
Here's the thing: showing powerpoints in a small group class setting - this could be a small, cheap low-lumen projector, as long as you're in a smallish room that you can make pretty dark. A "pocket projector", which you could buy new for a few hundred. Something like the AAXA P7 Mini projector - 600 lumens for $379.99 US.
showing outdoor movies with friends. - This is virtually impossible to do until full dark, even with very powerful multi-thousand lumen projectors. And those can be quite expensive.
So honestly I would focus on your classroom needs, and then if you can make your projector work outside for movie nights, bonus.
I'm also leery about buying used, or even "new" or refurbished via Ebay - even on a quick perusal of projectors available there I can see there's a LOT of sellers with, uh, highly suspicious claims about lumens and specs. I might consider a refurb direct from the manufacturer.
And yeah, if you buy a used projector that uses a lamp instead of LED or LCD, the cost of replacing the lamp could be half or more of what you bought the projector for.
In short, unless you're on a super-tight budget, look into something new that would work for your classrooms.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:30 PM on July 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
I live in a Mac computer universe if that matters for compatibility.
It shouldn't, as long as you can get HDMI out from your Mac. Might need an adapter dongle to get from whatever Mac port to HDMI, depends on the Mac.
2 important specs to consider are "Lumens", which is basically how bright it is, and "throw distance", which, y'know, is the distance you want to be from the projector to whatever surface you're projecting on.
Here's the thing: showing powerpoints in a small group class setting - this could be a small, cheap low-lumen projector, as long as you're in a smallish room that you can make pretty dark. A "pocket projector", which you could buy new for a few hundred. Something like the AAXA P7 Mini projector - 600 lumens for $379.99 US.
showing outdoor movies with friends. - This is virtually impossible to do until full dark, even with very powerful multi-thousand lumen projectors. And those can be quite expensive.
So honestly I would focus on your classroom needs, and then if you can make your projector work outside for movie nights, bonus.
I'm also leery about buying used, or even "new" or refurbished via Ebay - even on a quick perusal of projectors available there I can see there's a LOT of sellers with, uh, highly suspicious claims about lumens and specs. I might consider a refurb direct from the manufacturer.
And yeah, if you buy a used projector that uses a lamp instead of LED or LCD, the cost of replacing the lamp could be half or more of what you bought the projector for.
In short, unless you're on a super-tight budget, look into something new that would work for your classrooms.
posted by soundguy99 at 2:30 PM on July 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
There’s two major technologies for projectors: LCD and DLP. LCD uses three tiny, monochrome LCD displays with a really bright light source and color filters behind it, and mixes them to generate the display image. DLP uses a single mirror chip and a light source that changes color, and projects the red, green, and blue image separately.
(There are some other technologies as well, but they’re at much more expensive price points and not really suitable for your application.)
If you’re looking for used/cheap, your best bet is going to be a DLP with an LED or laser light source (they’re almost the same thing). These tend not to be super bright, but they’re inexpensive and relatively reliable/durable. In projectors, the LCDs themselves and the support optics are wear items on older projectors, in addition to having worn lamps; this manifests as bad contrast and color shifts. I’d assume that most LCD based projectors on ebay have these defects (especially if you’re sorting on price!) The gotcha with DLP/LED designs is that they’re not super bright so really don’t make for a good movie experience. They’ll probably be adequate for classes as long as you use a decent screen, control ambient light, and don’t go too big.
DLP also has the downside of color fringing (“rainbows”) when animations play due to the fact colors are projected at different times. Most people are not super sensitive to this, but some are. (I am.) For slides, it’s generally not a big deal. Again, movies tend to be more problematic and you might not have a good experience with them on this kind of projector.
Look for a resolution of 1024x768 or 1280x720 (“720p”), anything smaller will be fuzzy for projecting classroom slides.
I would definitely advise against buying an LCD projector used, and would also recommend avoiding a DLP with a lamp used, as they are likely to be “on the market” due to worn consumables that are expensive and difficult to replace.
posted by doomsey at 3:55 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
(There are some other technologies as well, but they’re at much more expensive price points and not really suitable for your application.)
If you’re looking for used/cheap, your best bet is going to be a DLP with an LED or laser light source (they’re almost the same thing). These tend not to be super bright, but they’re inexpensive and relatively reliable/durable. In projectors, the LCDs themselves and the support optics are wear items on older projectors, in addition to having worn lamps; this manifests as bad contrast and color shifts. I’d assume that most LCD based projectors on ebay have these defects (especially if you’re sorting on price!) The gotcha with DLP/LED designs is that they’re not super bright so really don’t make for a good movie experience. They’ll probably be adequate for classes as long as you use a decent screen, control ambient light, and don’t go too big.
DLP also has the downside of color fringing (“rainbows”) when animations play due to the fact colors are projected at different times. Most people are not super sensitive to this, but some are. (I am.) For slides, it’s generally not a big deal. Again, movies tend to be more problematic and you might not have a good experience with them on this kind of projector.
Look for a resolution of 1024x768 or 1280x720 (“720p”), anything smaller will be fuzzy for projecting classroom slides.
I would definitely advise against buying an LCD projector used, and would also recommend avoiding a DLP with a lamp used, as they are likely to be “on the market” due to worn consumables that are expensive and difficult to replace.
posted by doomsey at 3:55 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
I bought an Anker Mars Nebula II 720p DLP from Amazon (brand new) about three years ago on sale. It’s been awesome. I can do wireless, has built-in Wi-Fi and Android, so you can play movies from Netflix or Plex or whatever right on it.
Seems like it hasn’t gone down in price much, but I would highly recommend it. You can plug in files from a portable drive. Handles all my PowerPoint slides and movies with ease. Oh yeah, and it has a built-in battery too.
posted by Master Gunner at 4:08 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Seems like it hasn’t gone down in price much, but I would highly recommend it. You can plug in files from a portable drive. Handles all my PowerPoint slides and movies with ease. Oh yeah, and it has a built-in battery too.
posted by Master Gunner at 4:08 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Im a huge adherent and proponent of Projector Lyfe (represent!) and can def suggest you get a fire stick to stream to it. You can use a thumb drive with downloaded films but its a pain with all the myriad available codecs.
Also, give serious thought to what you'll eventually want it for. You can get a very usable $100-150 projector that works great enough after dark, but eventually you may (as I did) find waiting til sundown to be a chore and a half.
After a year of that I said "screw it" and bought a $1000 Optoma for its 6000 Lumens (actual lumens too, dont fall for the tricks they use on amazon to inflate brightness, like Lux) and now the fun can begin before 8pm and it makes all the difference. If that matters to you (time vs money) I cant recommend it enough.
Another thing to consider is sound. Cheaper projectors have crappier onboard sound generally and while they may offer a Bluetooth output you'll find they almost always have lag and audio sync issues. If you go the cheap route, buy an Aux cable to output to a secondary speaker.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:45 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Also, give serious thought to what you'll eventually want it for. You can get a very usable $100-150 projector that works great enough after dark, but eventually you may (as I did) find waiting til sundown to be a chore and a half.
After a year of that I said "screw it" and bought a $1000 Optoma for its 6000 Lumens (actual lumens too, dont fall for the tricks they use on amazon to inflate brightness, like Lux) and now the fun can begin before 8pm and it makes all the difference. If that matters to you (time vs money) I cant recommend it enough.
Another thing to consider is sound. Cheaper projectors have crappier onboard sound generally and while they may offer a Bluetooth output you'll find they almost always have lag and audio sync issues. If you go the cheap route, buy an Aux cable to output to a secondary speaker.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 4:45 PM on July 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
LCD uses three tiny, monochrome LCD displays with a really bright light source and color filters behind it, and mixes them to generate the display image.
Tiny technical nit: typically the light source isn't so much filtered before passing it through the LCD panels, as split into three separate spectral bands using dichroic prisms. This is much more efficient than passing the light through coloured filters because it doesn't involve absorbing two thirds of the light's energy inside the filter.
There's a design for a very cheap build-it-yourself projector that does use filtering, based on gutting a mobile phone. The lack of dichroic splitting in that design is what makes it so dim compared to a commercial LCD projector based on a comparably bright light source.
posted by flabdablet at 7:14 PM on July 16, 2021
Tiny technical nit: typically the light source isn't so much filtered before passing it through the LCD panels, as split into three separate spectral bands using dichroic prisms. This is much more efficient than passing the light through coloured filters because it doesn't involve absorbing two thirds of the light's energy inside the filter.
There's a design for a very cheap build-it-yourself projector that does use filtering, based on gutting a mobile phone. The lack of dichroic splitting in that design is what makes it so dim compared to a commercial LCD projector based on a comparably bright light source.
posted by flabdablet at 7:14 PM on July 16, 2021
Yeah, typically the filter is a set of dichroic mirrors or prisms so as to minimize useless conversion of electricity to heat.
since we’re being pedantic…
“filter: pass (a liquid, gas, light, or sound) through a device to remove unwanted material.”
In the first stage you filter out and redirect red, and in the second you filter out and redirect green, and then what’s left is blue. Just because the output is wanted in the next stage doesn’t mean it’s not still unwanted in the current stage!
posted by doomsey at 8:46 PM on July 16, 2021
since we’re being pedantic…
“filter: pass (a liquid, gas, light, or sound) through a device to remove unwanted material.”
In the first stage you filter out and redirect red, and in the second you filter out and redirect green, and then what’s left is blue. Just because the output is wanted in the next stage doesn’t mean it’s not still unwanted in the current stage!
posted by doomsey at 8:46 PM on July 16, 2021
To speak plainly: the more you pay, the more (light, mostly) you get.
Cheap is small and dim and might downscale 1080 to a native 720. (Mine does this and I really don't care: cheap was my only criteria. )
Spending a bunch more money gets you much more brightness, maybe better focus options, probably a better movie app.
The Mac thing is probably a red herring: like any device, you need a dongle with an HDMI plug. I use Macs and Raspberry Pi's on the very cheapest displays I can find, and HDMI from a Mac doesn't make a difference. No worries!
posted by wenestvedt at 11:32 AM on July 17, 2021
Cheap is small and dim and might downscale 1080 to a native 720. (Mine does this and I really don't care: cheap was my only criteria. )
Spending a bunch more money gets you much more brightness, maybe better focus options, probably a better movie app.
The Mac thing is probably a red herring: like any device, you need a dongle with an HDMI plug. I use Macs and Raspberry Pi's on the very cheapest displays I can find, and HDMI from a Mac doesn't make a difference. No worries!
posted by wenestvedt at 11:32 AM on July 17, 2021
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posted by Sublimity at 1:31 PM on July 16, 2021