Joined
·
1,392 Posts
I keep seeing posts about buying projectors for window animations, and wanted to add my dos centavos worth on buying them because I see a lot of what I think is bad information.
I started doing projections three years ago. I've done them in a bedroom window and in our dining room. I project the video onto a frosted Walmart shower curtain, from about ten feet away, which is about how far most people can place a projector from a screen in most smaller rooms.
One concern that I have is I keep seeing people wanting to buy high-end corporate/business type projectors. These are awesome projectors, but they are not designed for our purposes. They are designed to project a bright, colorful, high-res image over a long distance (20-30 ft) in a brightly-lit conference room on a year round basis. We are usually projecting a relatively low-color med-res image a short distance (8-10ft) in a darkened room for a month or less. We don't really need the power or durability of a commercial professional projector.
Another concern that I have is when you project onto a window screen, you are lighting it up. Even though the makers of the videos try to keep them high contrast so the image you want visible on the screen is emphasized and the backgrounds are de-emphasized, the fact is when you dump a lot of light into a dark room, it's going to show on the screen, and that's going to be seen from outside. What we really need is a projector that has enough power to clearly show the image we want on the screen, but not be so bright that it lights up the room and screen and makes the window appear white/grey or un-naturally bright.
This is why I've used the cheaper low-grade, entry-level, I'll call them kids projectors for window use. These aren't all that bright, and would never work well in a home theater setting, but they work awesome for projecting an image on a window screen without being too bright, and they are much less expensive than professional business projectors.
Now, if you're projecting outside, over long distances, a business projector probably fits the bill, but for projecting indoors on a window screen, my opinion is lower power is better.
I started doing projections three years ago. I've done them in a bedroom window and in our dining room. I project the video onto a frosted Walmart shower curtain, from about ten feet away, which is about how far most people can place a projector from a screen in most smaller rooms.
One concern that I have is I keep seeing people wanting to buy high-end corporate/business type projectors. These are awesome projectors, but they are not designed for our purposes. They are designed to project a bright, colorful, high-res image over a long distance (20-30 ft) in a brightly-lit conference room on a year round basis. We are usually projecting a relatively low-color med-res image a short distance (8-10ft) in a darkened room for a month or less. We don't really need the power or durability of a commercial professional projector.
Another concern that I have is when you project onto a window screen, you are lighting it up. Even though the makers of the videos try to keep them high contrast so the image you want visible on the screen is emphasized and the backgrounds are de-emphasized, the fact is when you dump a lot of light into a dark room, it's going to show on the screen, and that's going to be seen from outside. What we really need is a projector that has enough power to clearly show the image we want on the screen, but not be so bright that it lights up the room and screen and makes the window appear white/grey or un-naturally bright.
This is why I've used the cheaper low-grade, entry-level, I'll call them kids projectors for window use. These aren't all that bright, and would never work well in a home theater setting, but they work awesome for projecting an image on a window screen without being too bright, and they are much less expensive than professional business projectors.
Now, if you're projecting outside, over long distances, a business projector probably fits the bill, but for projecting indoors on a window screen, my opinion is lower power is better.
