AV News 192 - May 2013
Choosing a projector
Malcolm Imhoff FRPS
Howard Gregory's article in Issue 191 on the perils involved in buying a laptop
contains much good advice and as usual a lot of common sense. But 'choosing
a projector was no problem'? - I don't think so! It's an absolute minefield.
There are so many projectors on the market but so little information about
their suitability for our purposes. I guess many readers may be in the same
situation as me, wanting to upgrade an XGA (1024 x 768 pixels) projector to
a higher resolution. Unfortunately Plus, the makers of the great little U4-232
which you will have seen on many Royales, no longer exist, and there is
nothing available that approaches the compact size, portability, and superb
performance of that machine. So ours will continue in service for our AV
bookings until the bulb gives out. However, some of you may also be like us
and require your projector to fulfil a dual function - that of showing films at
home on a big screen, in which case that will influence your decision of what
to buy greatly. There are so many decisions to be made to narrow down the
choice.
Resolution
The first decision you have to make is whether to go for a 1400 x 1050
(SXGA+) or a 1920 x 1080 (1080p or 'full HD') resolution. There are others but
I've tried to keep this simple! The 'p' stands for 'progressive scan' which is
better for showing movement in a film (as opposed to 'i' for interlaced).
Many of us like the 35mm format that we are familiar with from our SLRs,
so we make our AVs at 1400 x 933 pixels. The 3:2 ratio is a pleasing one,
well-suited to all types of images, but of course you have black bars at the top
and bottom of the projected image. Some people therefore prefer the old TV
4:3 ratio of many digital compact cameras, making their AVs at 1400 x 1050
pixels. This is the resolution which seems to have been adopted by camera
clubs, many of whom have gone for one of the Canon XEED range of
projectors such as the SX60, no longer in production but still available at
several outlets. I've seen the Canon projectors in action in many places, and
I have to say I've rarely been very impressed by them. It may be the way they
have been 'calibrated' (another can of worms) but they often seem over bright,
with blown highlights, sometimes a lack of colour saturation and pictures more
like posters than photographs. On the other hand, if showing DVDs and
especially Blu-ray movies at high definition is a priority you will probably want
to consider getting a full HD projector which can also be used to show AVs.
Some AV workers are now making their AVs in widescreen format as we
saw at the Internationals. If these are projected on an SXGA+ projector the
black bars at the top and bottom will be significantly wider. The 1920 x 1080
resolution is 16:9, so this means AVs at other formats will fill the screen from
top to bottom but have black bars at the sides of the projected image on a
widescreen projector. It would be possible to zoom the projector in or out so
that the black bars fall outside the screen but this would be difficult in a show
where you have AVs at different formats, so a compromise is inevitable.
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