Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Video Projector Information and Suggestions

This is topic Video Projector Information and Suggestions in forum Film Handlers' Forum at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John Westlund (Member # 913) on 09-21-2003, 03:44 PM:

I am in search of a video projector for our theatre. I am looking for something affordable that will deliver a good (good for video anyway) picture on the screen. So which projectors would you suggest and which would you stay away from. The screen is right at 14 feet tall with only side movable masking. The throw from the booth is about 90 feet and I would prefer not to have to mount the projector on the ceiling of the auditorium but place it in the booth. Thanks John

Posted by Steve Guttag (Member # 268) on 09-21-2003, 08:22 PM:

John,

What do you intend to use the projector for? In the affordable category...there are the LCD projectors with XGA resolution...if you are 2-screen heights away...the "screen door" of the LCD system isn't objectionable. With an LCD, you are projecting through the panel unlike DMD's reflecting off the imager...the big difference isn't resolution (XGA is XGA) but the DMD won't have the overt screen-door. Single chip DMDs cheat though...they use a color wheel that will have color trailing on motion video also they often if not always have a "white" segment to boost video level at the expense of color quality.

To choose the proper light output you will need to figure how big your biggest picture will be. If you plan to run DVDs with wide screen material...seriously consider an anamorphic lens by ISCO...it will make your XGA projector into a 16:9 projector for widescreen stuff and save you a bunch of light and resolution (or settle for letterboxed images).

Next...if you are planning on either a DVD or VHS player...absolutely plan on getting a "scaler". You don't want to see just how bad VHS is on the big screen...a scaler will make it much less painful. Even for DVDs, the scaler will make significant improvements.

If you want, email me and we can discuss the scaler thing further. I sell the Extron line of video products.

As to the 90-foot throw...that is more doable now than ever but expect to spend as much as $3000 extra for the long-throw lens but it will be worth it.

Steve

Posted by Paul G. Thompson (Member # 655) on 09-22-2003, 12:09 AM:

If you are going to use it for other things instead of walk-in ads, then I think Steve is right on the button. I trust his judgement. [Smile]

Posted by Raphael Jacquot (Member # 1936) on 10-09-2003, 12:02 PM:

whatever you do, don't use any form of windows on the machine you will connect to the video projector, you will avoid being super-embarassed by the blue screens that will make sure happen in front of a full house.
get some dude at your local Linux User Group to install linux and mplayer, and you will be forever be grateful (will save you a lot of money too, as you'll only need a cheap VIA EPIA-based board to run it.)

just justify myself more, the local 10 houses mplex in town has tvs all around the place (and a rear projection 3 meters diagonal screen in the lobby). all these are connected to a windows XP machine. every 2 hours or so, the stupid windows box crashes (blue screen) or hangs (trailers stop playing).
once, I went to one of the ushers, and he said
"sorry, can't do anything, the computer is in the boss' office, the boss is not there and the door is locked".
I went to see my movie, and when I came out, the big screen in the lobby still sported the windows crash dump screen for all to see and laugh about...

Posted by Ray Derrick (Member # 1001) on 10-09-2003, 10:45 PM:

One of the most popular video projectors for cinema use in Australia is the Panasonic LT-6500 which is now available in both 3200 and 4200 ANSI Lumen versions. These are now being used extensively for pre-show advertising, both full motion and still and produce quite acceptable results.

The only way to remote control most video projectors (other than via the hand held remote) is by using RS232, so if you want to tie a video projector into your automation system you will need to either upgrade your automation to a Panalogic CA2000 or we have a little box called the SC100 that ads onto your existing automation to control the video projector and the video/audio source such as the Denon 2900 serially controlled DVD player.

Another thing to consider when choosing a video projector is the cost of replacement lamps. They are usually only available from the projector manufacturer, so there is really no competition on pricing and they can be very expensive.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 10-10-2003, 02:43 PM:

Raphael,

There is something seriously wrong with a WindowsXP-based setup that crashes on a regular basis.

The blue-screen-of-death joke was applicable in the days of Win98, but I have yet to see a blue-screen on WindowsXP (and that's with over 10 hours of use per day of a variety of different applications on a system that is rebooted maybe once a month when some installation requires it)

No operating system can run properly on poor hardware, and few operating systems can properly run poorly operating software uninterrupted.

What application were they using to show the trailers?

Posted by Raphael Jacquot (Member # 1936) on 10-10-2003, 07:49 PM:

scott,
This seems to be an NT 4 setup, with some vb hack up of MS media player to show the logo of the (super small, like 5 locations) chain at the top right (the Bsod is definitely either nt4 or 2000, there is no difference between the BSODs of those two [Wink]

Tell me about it, Windows XP is *supposed* to be more stable than the previous incarnations, but this doesn't count the badly written drivers. for instance, I have an SMC wireless card the driver of which crashes XP in 3 seconds sharp, as soon as you plug the card in. no card, no crash...

All I know, is that I had to set up a video presentation at the city museum (a series of videos about computer research we do at our labs), and the linux box with mplayer ran 24/7 (we specifically asked the dudes NOT to power the machine off, just the screen) for 2 months... not a single crash...

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 10-10-2003, 08:21 PM:

Check out the Sony VPL-FX51. I don't know how "affordable" it is, but the picture is pretty amazing, considering that the thing is only slightly bigger than a slide projector. We had one on loan for a film festival (used with Beta SP, Digi-Beta, and HDCAM sources) and everyone (including filmmakers) was really impressed with the picture quality. It was a little bit dim when compared with 35mm film on a 12' tall screen, but it didn't look bad at all.