Low budget projector.

Hello.

I am new to this forum, this is my first post. Happy to join the comunity and hope to learn a lot from you all.

Just made a new show. It was suposed to run in the theater where I work, nut looks like it has cougth the interest of people around the country. I need to invest in a projektor suitable for touring. I am so lucky to get some suport from the city counsil and can now invest.

I need some advise in what projector to buy. Budget is around 900 euro. I know this migth be a bit low budget but I have to wotk with what I got. Only advise I got so far is "bigger budget".

I loked at benq w1100. Any other sugestions?

Welcome.

That is a discontinued model that is neither very bright at 2000 lumens or does it have a high contrast ratio at 4500:1.

You ought to look at the BenQ MW769 which features 4200 lumens and a 13,000:1 contrast ratio. It also includes a USB reader and both horizontal and vertical keystone correction. It sells for $ 1099 here in the USA.

Bill, I disagree with your assumption of contrast ratio. When a projector is listing something as high as 13.000:1 contrast ratio, that will be artificially produced. Either the manufacturer is lying (measuring full white and full black instead of ANSI checkerboard) or it is not actually producing the full brightness when achieving those numbers, which is often listed as "dynamic contrast ratio". However, I agree that 2000 lumens may be a bit dim.

My suggestion to someone on your limited budget is to shop for a used projector. This can include manufacturer B-stock and refurbished models. There are reputable companies such as Solaris Network that can help you find a good projector. Of course you can also hit eBay, but you have to be a bit more careful and you need to know exactly what you need. You will likely be looking at an LCD projector that is 4:3 aspect ratio at probably a maximum native resolution of 1024x768 for this budget.

Can you let us know how you intend to use it, and what size image you are going for?

I intend to use it for a smal performance. The screen is 2x 3 meters. I am showing cartoon anomations. Heigth of seeling is from 3,5 to 5 meters.

All files are buildt in 1920x1080. I use qlab to run the show. I have ran the show on lower resolution but I thnk it is good to run them in the res they are made. (i migth be wrong on this )

I have seen this page Solaris network when looking for a grand ma2 controll wing. Is this page rwaly a safe place to shop?

Solaris is a reputable company. They are a third party vendor, but I haven't heard of problems that haven't been handled since they are responsible for the actions of the seller and buyer.

Yes, presenting the content in the resolution they were created in would be best. However, with your limited budget, you will need to make a concession somewhere. I would consider looking at going with 1280x720 and getting a brighter projector over 1920x1080 and running less bright.

How far away from the screen will the audience be? How long of a throw from the projector to the screen?