| LCD
Projectors
Key Considerations
Brightness
Your presentation isn't going anywhere if your projector can't produce
enough light to throw images across a room and onto a screen. Accordingly,
the brightness (measured in ANSI lumens) of your projector is worth
investigating. Generally, the brighter the room, the brighter projector
lamp you will need.
While LCD systems
with less than 400-500 ANSI lumens may be sufficient for projecting
black and white Excel images in dark room settings, they may not
have enough firepower to keep multicolored PowerPoint presentations
from appearing washed out.
When deciding
how much brightness your projector has to have, keep in mind how
dark the rooms will typically be for your presentations and how
far your projector will be from the screen. The more light in the
room or the farther away the projector, the brighter your projector
should be.
ANSI lumens
for projectors currently range from 400 to 1,000 for ultralights
up to as much as 10,000 for fixed machines. For on-the-road presentations,
500 to 1,000 ANSI lumens should be fine. Larger conference rooms
will need 1,000 to 2,000 lumens, while fixed installation machines
will need to project between 2,500 and 10,000 lumens to handle auditoriums
or other large venues. The brightness of a projector can sometimes
be misrepresented, so be sure to check the brightness of the individual
projector and not the published brightness of the model line.
Lamp Type
Also related to image brightness is lamp type. Lamps can be one
of the hidden costs of a projector, as they're likely to burn out
or break sometime over the life of your machine. The two most common
types of lamps now used in projectors are metal halide lamps and
UHP (Ultra High Performance) lamps. Metal halide lamps normally
last between 1,000 and 4,000 hours and cost $300-$500 to replace.
UHP lamps will keep you in business from 2,000 to 6,000 hours and
are priced between $450-$550.
If you're comparing
two projectors of the same brightness, ask about the wattage of
their respective lamps. If there's a difference, go with the projector
that has a lower-powered bulb. The low-watt lamp will last longer,
stay cooler, and be more efficient than a bulb with a higher wattage.
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