[balex]

Originally Posted by ruinexplorer

Is $500 your total budget? You may want to look at used projectors to get something brighter, but stay away from eBay unless it's someone who gives a guarantee of it working.

No, that's not the entire budget, but I do want to keep it cheap, cheap, cheap! After continued work and research, I'm looking at a few (new) projectors in the 2500 to 3000 lumen range, leaning towards DLP (because 1.) i'll be projecting video and 2.) contrast is pretty important to me), and seem to be looking at mostly 1024x768 standard resolution. Seem to be finding - with some work - reputable companies (one a recommendation from a local a/v house) that are offering some deals in the $800 to $1000 range. Have to keep in mind that this needs to be very portable as well.

First thing you need to do is experiment with the output directly to your TV on video input

Was able to do that this evening and found that it looks great, but lighting may be an issue. Considering purchasing a small on-camera light for extra fill during the live segments - may even consider some good LED lights not designed for the purpose. Have read that color can be severely altered as a result of LED in video, but that it leans towards greens which, frankly, would fit well with what I'm doing... Save me apply a gel/filter.

I agree that if you have someone manning the camera, you should invest in a decent tripod.

It's all me. It will be tripod mounted though, stationary, with the stage section that it's covering taped off for my on-stage reference.

Is your screen going to be directly behind the presenter or off to the side? If it is off to the side, keep your camera center, if it is behind your presenter, then the camera should be off to the side a little way (aesthetics).

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the shifting venues, the screen positioning will change. I'm aiming to keep in upstage or left/up left (depends upon stage type). Camera will almost without fail be down right.

If you can get an inexpensive scaler/switcher (as suggested) it will make your presentation look better (your input will be the same, but your output will likely be a 15 pin "VGA" cable). This will especially be good if you want to switch between the Imag and a presentation (PowerPoint or video).

Was strongly considering this, until I found this little PowerPoint add-in: PFCPro

It allows live video from a video-in source. My only concern is delay, but I'll be testing that over the next week (as I mix ordering/delivering equipment with constant travel, shifting location, shows and very little time... )

This would allow me to present and switch to live feed where need be with only one remote, as well as give me a brighter image from the projector as the source will be the computer rather than the camera itself.

I originally didn't want to introduce a computer into the middle of it all, but it's become more and more appealing over time - assuming that it all works.

The good news is that I'm finally feeling that a direct feed from my camera directly to a projector is not a problem at all - so in the worst case, I can always fall back to the direct connection and/or a combination of a switch for both computer and camera operation.