A Guide To Digital Projectors

By Lee Sparks

People buy digital projectors for many reasons, one of the main being cost per image area. When buying a projector the benefits include vast image size, however there are a few limitations which effect the image quality. Things to compare are resolution, brightness, and contrast ratio. Finding the best projector to suit you is not always easy with such a wide variety available.

* The different types of projectors include: * Home Theatre/ Cinema Projectors * LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) Projectors * Digital Projectors * Conference Room Projectors * Portable Multimedia Projectors

Home cinema projectors provide home entertainment and can be used for lots of purposes including playing movies, DVDs, video games, music plus much more. Most home cinema projectors use DLP (Digital Light Processing) to create a smooth high video performance, with little pixelation and high contrast ratios.

LCD Projectors provide clearer, sharper images than most of their counterparts, they create images by shining light through three small LCD panels which are very vibrant and sharp in colour. LCD projectors can be used for movies at home aswell as for presentations. Ideally they need to be used in dimly lit rooms to produce quality images.

Digital projectors allow the user to use video files from their PC and makes internet viewing very effective. The two types of digital projectors available are LCD and DLP. One of the most important factors to look for is the amount of lumens, this refers to the quantity of different aspects of light that are available at any one time.

Conference Room Projectors are used for presentations and reports mostly. They are used for when high resolution graphics are needed. Ideal for high detailed artwork or medical presentations.

Portable Multimedia Projectors are very light for ease of portability. These types of projectors are able to produce noise-free presentations with fairly accurate images.

When buying digital projectors the main points to focus on are :

-Resolution- refers to the pixel density of the projected images, Projectors have two resolutions, the natural resolution and the maximum resolution. The natural resolution is the standard pixel size of the image. The maximum resolution is the maximum capability of the projector. Digital projectors should be able to accept resolutions of 800-600, 1024-768 or 1280-1024, however it is the natural resolution of the projector that is important. The higher the natural resolution of the projector the greater the colour density image.

-Lumens- refer to the brightness of the image. Simply put the higher the lumens the brighter the projection. They are usually lower for home theatre models than for office models. Screen size will affect how many lumens will be needed. If the contrast ratio is low however, your image will look washed out. Lumens typically range from less than a 1000- least expensive but low light output, needs to be used in a dark or dimlylight room. To 3000+ extremely bright and expensive. Anywhere between 1000-2000 would be sufficient for most tasks.

-Throw Distance- refers to the maximum amount of distance your projector can project. Most digital projectors will have a ample throw distance for most home and conference use. To find out what this is go to the projectors manufacturers website.

-Contrast Ratio- refers to the difference between the white level (light) and black level (dark). Digital projectors with the higher ratios will have the most well-defined pictures.

-Lamp Life- the average lamp life for digital projectors is between 1500 and 3000 hours.

When buying degital projectors it is worth considering price, design, weight, aswell as any extra features different models may have.

Some of the most popular brands include Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Sanyo, Epson aswell as many others. - 31846

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