Should we (can we) use a TV instead of a projector at work?
December 17, 2007 9:05 AM   Subscribe

We are looking at the idea of using a flat-panel TV in our new conference room at work in lieu of a projector. The advantages of this would be that A) we could keep our existing lighting system, and B) it would look classier. Are there disadvantages to a setup this? Problems? Gotchas? And what kind of hardware should I be looking at?

The biggest concern I have is that this TV will be used mainly for presentations, with video signals originating from laptops. This means that the TV input will be VGA, and will have to go through some type of converter either to component, HDMI, or s-video. Is this a good solution? Is one input better than the others when converted from VGA? Will a PowerPoint presentation look like crap? Should I be looking at certain types of TVs that handle this better? HELP.
posted by fusinski to Technology (11 answers total)
 
If I'm not mistaken most HD-Tv's these days have VGA input. My LG plasma at home has VGA and it looks excellent. Our office only has flatpanel LCD's -60"'ers ... run multiple inputs with a convertor, not sure of the specifics, however, they look good too.
posted by TuxHeDoh at 9:26 AM on December 17, 2007


Most newer flat panels include VGA, DVI, HDMI, composite and component inputs, so connectivity should not be a concern.

As someone who's set up several conference rooms, I really like this idea, and am frankly a little pissed off that you thought of it before I did. ;-)
posted by grumpy at 9:26 AM on December 17, 2007


Best answer: Many if not most current flat panel TV sets have VGA inputs. Just be sure to research the limitations of the particular set, as some will only accept certain resolutions. You will likely need a VGA balun to transport the VGA signal over cat5 to the back of the TV set from a more convenient location for placing a laptop, but you'd need that with a projector, too. You can go with in-wall VGA cable, but that's going to cost lots of money for a high quality cable.

Personally, I think a projector is much more economical and practical, as the cost per diagonal inch is much smaller, although if you'd need to install dimmers, that may offset the extra cost. However, you simply can't get plasma or LCD screens at sizes where projectors are still quite practical. Also, it's not as if the screen must remain visible at all times. Even motorized screens that can be raised and lowered with a wall switch are not terribly expensive.

If you have a large conference room, a projector is almost a necessity thanks to the size limitations on direct view screens. I'm young and have good eyesight, so small text on a 47" screen 10 or 12 feet away would be easily visible. Most of my clients, on the other hand, are not, so such a solution would not be practical for them, as they wouldn't be able to see the presentation very well.

One of my clients went with 37-42" screens in each office for presentations to individual clients and has an approximately 100" projection system in the main conference room for large groups. Even a 50" screen would be far too small in that space.
posted by wierdo at 9:28 AM on December 17, 2007


Best answer: While I did not set them up (and therefore can't comment on specific hardware), I can comment as someone who uses flat-panel TVs in a conference room setting fairly frequently.

At my office, we have a number of conference rooms with some sort of video system, and all but two of them are projectors. However, the two that are in the conference rooms we most frequently use for customer interaction are plasma TVs.

Pros:

- Look quite classy
- No more difficult to use than a projector
- No frequent bulb replacement
- No warm-up/cool down time

Cons:

- Smaller viewing area (and these are big plasma TVs; it's just that projectors are almost always going to project onto a larger area)

- Most laptops do not use the same aspect ratio as the TV. (16:9 most likely, vs 4:3 for laptops). This means that when doing presentations, your options are to allow the 4:3 ratio of your laptop to be stretched (usually doesn't look bad) or switch the TV to not stretch it, leaving you with black bars on the sides. A third option (which we haven't tried) is to get a dedicated machine for presentations that has a video card capable of doing the proper 16:9 resolution for your TV, thus giving you no stretching.

That said, I think they do a good job, especially if you're trying to impress clients.
posted by tocts at 9:28 AM on December 17, 2007


Office supply companies sell wheeled cart-like things that you can mount a TV on.
Then you'd just need to put together a barebones Shuttle PC (google it) and put it in a basket on the cart with a power strip and you'll have a mobile presentation station.
posted by ijoyner at 9:34 AM on December 17, 2007


Response by poster: "You will likely need a VGA balun to transport the VGA signal over cat5 to the back of the TV set"

Now this is particularly interesting to me, because we are setting up a video system in 3 or 4 rooms with two locations each for VGA input. The cost of the VGA cabling (which is indeed going through the walls) is going to be pricey.

I imagine this is what you are talking about: http://www.svideo.com/vgabalun1.html

Does it decrease the quality of the video or add any interference?
posted by fusinski at 9:40 AM on December 17, 2007


If you do powerpoints with 90+ size font, you're fine. If you even want details to be seen...maybe not. Find out the size of the monitor (the computer size of it), before hand. Take the diagonal distance and multiply by six. That's about the readable distance.
posted by filmgeek at 9:54 AM on December 17, 2007


How big the room is will have a big impact on how well it will work. A big problem with most Power Points that I have seen is that they are designed up close and never tweaked for a large scale screen. I would suggest taking your laptop to an electronics store, like Best Buy, and see if they will let you connect it to see if it will work. Another option might be hitting a Rent-a-Center like company for a similar model so you can test it out.

Advice never beats out experience, in my experience.
posted by slavlin at 10:00 AM on December 17, 2007


Best answer: fusinski, while that's not the specific model we're using, we did find that for reliability, we had to run STP. Some runs worked fine with UTP, but others had interference issues. Since we had to run some STP anyway, we went ahead and used it for all the sets. Part of the issue is a common ground. If the TV set and the computer have one, you'll have a pretty good chance of it working without STP with a passive balun. If not, you'll get color shifting, which was the problem on several of our runs, while others had interference issues which manifested itself as visible spatial distortion of the image on screen.

As far as quality is concerned, it's pretty good. There's a bit of softness in the picture at 1366x768 that isn't there when using a short cable to hook up a laptop, but I expect that it's similar to what one would get with a long VGA cable. The main issue is the differing lengths of each of the pairs due to the different twist rates causing a bit of smearing of the various color signals. On our runs, which are all no more than about 25 feet, it's not a big deal. It's good enough that one of the users uses his 42" Westinghouse LCD as his main screen for his computing tasks, including some word processing.

Only I really see the difference, due to my good eyes, and even then only up close. Our clients couldn't tell the difference, which is why we went with the cheaper passive baluns instead of the $300 a pair active baluns. One thing to keep in mind is that the passive baluns will not push 1920x1080, 1366x768 is pretty much the limit. Being passive devices, there is some tolerance that may let you do better depending on your installation, but for us, that was the top end.

Most of them have ended up using it to watch TV more than anything else, but it's their money, so I don't mind. ;)

Supposedly it's possible to get STP that doesn't have different twist rates for the different pairs. If you can get it, I'd suggest it, as it would probably eliminate the softness.
posted by wierdo at 10:35 AM on December 17, 2007


This is a great idea, especially when wanting to make a slick impression on visitors. The one thing I would recommend as someone who has lots of large screens installed in various locations: do not even consider a plasma. If someone leaves their desktop on for a few hours during the first few weeks of ownership, it's there forever. You should only be considering LCD displays. The risk of burn-in, especially early in the break-in period, is huge with even new plasma screens. Get an LCD and you'll hardly have to worry about it at all.
posted by ulotrichous at 12:41 PM on December 17, 2007


We have this in one of our offices. I love it, but mostly for watching movies after work. :)
posted by rokusan at 1:00 PM on December 17, 2007


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