AV News 192 - May 2013
In addition, some projectors have a facility to physically move the lens
vertically within the projector housing. This is called 'lens shift' and is
extremely useful, but it comes at a price and is only available on more
expensive machines. It's not to be confused with 'keystone correction' which
digitally corrects the image by interpolating pixels making it squarer, but in
doing so can create noticeable artifacts and should be avoided if at all
possible.
Noise
The projector cooling fan makes a noise which could be a distraction in a
quiet room. The BenQ and Optoma projectors both have a noise level of
27dB, which is barely audible and much quieter than our old Plus.
Sound?
Some projectors, like the BenQ, come with on-board sound, 2 x 10W in this
case, so quite substantial. To my mind this seems totally unnecessary as the
vast majority of people will be listening on their home hi-fi or via a separate
sound system. And of course you're paying for something you don't want. I
had the opportunity to test the BenQ W1200, asked the manager to turn off
the sound and this resulted in an icon of a speaker with a big red cross
through it being prominently displayed in the upper left corner of the screen!
3D?
Again, this facility is something which probably accounts for a significant
element of the price, but which you may or may not want. Having seen
several 3D movies at the cinema such as 'Avatar' and 'Life of Pi' I haven't
been too impressed but 3D DVDs are becoming more and more common so
this is something you might find desirable.
Where to buy
There are several specialist projector retailers, many of which are listed in the
'AV Equipment & Suppliers' section of the East Midlands AV Group website
(http://www.emavg.org.uk/section656493.html).
Some of their websites have useful tools such as brightness and screen
size calculators, and many claim to be able to give advice. My advice would
be that if you have a retailer that is fairly local definitely see what they have
to offer. You will be spending a lot of money and you want to be sure it will
work to your satisfaction.
Demos and Reviews
Many of the retailers listed also include reviews of projectors although how
'independent' they are is not always clear. Reviews in magazines and on
websites can save you a lot of effort, and the ones on my shortlist all had
awards or 5 stars from publications like 'What Hi-Fi'.
The best advice is to find somewhere that will not only demonstrate
projectors but will also allow you to hook up your own laptop and actually
project some AVs. I have found that most of the branches of Richer Sounds
have demonstration rooms where you can do this. One useful tip is to make
sure that you take along a supply of suitable cables and/or adaptors.
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