Professional or Home Projector

lightman02

Active Member
I don't use projection extremely often but when I so it's usually to flood a non-lit cyc with scenery or playing a video clip in a dark lit school gym. I guess my question is can I go with more of a standard projector such as a Epson Home Cinema 1440? I'm looking for something in the 4-5k lumen range and don't really need anything brighter. I do not use a wide range of various inputs that would require capability such as SDI, etc. I understand I cannot change lenses, however placement of the projector is not an issue in most situations. I also would like to have full HD resolution available as well. Just wondering in my situation if there is no advantage of going with an expensive pro model or a more home theatre model would work just as well.
 
Hours per lamp is an issue, as is rated duty cycle; you might be on 8 hours in a day; is a consumer projector designed to stay cool properly there?

I'm fond of used Sharp/Eiki projectors with the big interchangeable lenses myself. The real HD ones are still pricey, but 1024x768 is often good enough to render an HD source usably.
 
If you are staying down at that brightness level, the price difference comes down to the amount of options. As you mentioned, you will have interchangeable lenses and possibly additional inputs. The big change is in the processing that is available. Besides the scaling of the incoming signal, you will have better geometry correction (most consumer models will only have vertical keystone adjustment). You may end up with better control options, such as IP connections. They are intended to be used a lot heavier than home theater models, though many of the business class models may be rated for heavy use as well.
 

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