Hello All,

I just purchased a 1280x720 projector (call Todd at ProjectorPeople.com - they're great!). After twiddling with projector and screen position for a time, I realized that for the $1200 I spent, I could buy a 42" LCD, and come out ahead $200 or so.

My meeting room is 13' x 14', so having a 42" LCD at the end of the table is almost as "big" as a 68" effective display on the wall. And the LCD would be 1960 x 1080, not 1280 x 720.

The third option would be to purchase a 30" monitor, they're about $1300, but I already have a 20" and 19" so I think having another monitor doesn't do much for me.

Thoughts?

-TM

My opinion is that he projector is a bad idea. They need the room to be too dark and a wall that's properly painted to show the proper saturation of colors and trueness of colors. Pick up a 46in lcd and just be sure the photos are sized right for it.

Hi Bryce,

Yeah, especially because the room is smallish - it's not like I have an audience of 20 people.

Are there any pros to staying with the projector?

I don't understand why a 30" Dell LCD is hundreds more than a 42" 1080p LCD TV. What gives?

-TM

Hay Tzal, I bought a Toshiba projector, model TDP-T45 about 2 months ago. I had a Dell 2300MP for 4 years or so. Since I already had the mount on the wall, and the screen in place I went with the projector over the LCD. I did have a LCD on my cart at Sam's club though before I made my decision. For me it came down to money. I was going to spend about $1400 on the LCD to get the size, resolution and contrast ratio that I wanted. The projector was about $850 at BestBuy. It is not a top of the line box, but does a wonderful job of presenting the images. The Dell never did really look great to me, but it made me a good amount of money. This Toshiba does a great job with the images, good color, and contrast too.

But...if I was starting from scratch and wasn't already set up for a projector, I think I'd have the LCD. I think. Maybe. Maybe not.

If you're selling wall prints, the projector is the way to go. You can project into a finished frame (just like a portrait would be hung)

make the frame the same size as the largest print that looks good in that room. Fill the inside of the frame with canvas, and project big to sell big wall prints.

If all you're showing is album designs, go with the monitor or hdtv.

Pixel density. It's 2560x1600 resolution at 30 inches where the 42 inch is 1920x1080. So the pixels on the dell are alot closer together making the look very sharp even at close inspection.

Yes, I'm using it in the initial interview to show album slideshows.

-TM

HD to sell the album previews. You can leave the room lights on and still let them see the books.

If you move to a business model where you want to sell more portraits and wall prints, then projecter is best.

Or, do the Man-Law thing, and get both. You can never have too many toys!

Man-Law?

-TM

Watch beer commercials.

"you poke it, you own it!"


Burt Reynolds and others, in super secret location, decree laws that apply to men.

Wow, I can't believe what I haven't been missing.

-TM

I don't think you need to think that hard about it. A client isn't going to really care what they are seeing the images on, as long as they can see their images clearly. My .02:)

Hi Ginger,

Yes, agreed. I was trying to figure out what would give me the most bang for my buck.

-TM

I think if you bedazzled the LCD screen you probably get more bang for your buck with the gays.

There is not much bedazzling with projector screens, unless you a had a bedazzled frame on the wall.

Something else to consider... the replacement cost of the bulb in the projector... they aren't cheap!

Projector People Rocks!!!

In your situation, I think going the projector route was a bit overkill. As you quickly found out, there is so much into choosing a projector, the placement/installation of the projector and it's distance from the screen, etc. Because you have it all in one room, I think going with the flat screen is the way to go.

If you had a seperate room for the presentation, then I think there is no substitute for the projector setup. There is nothing quite like viewing razor sharp images in a small theater-like setting. Something most people won't experience in their own homes (unlike the HDTV).

We completely remodeled a seperate room in our home as a classy home-theater (will be posting about it soon) and viewing photos on the 112" screen is a dream. If we didn't have that space, I would have gone with the flat screen.

Thanks to all who replied!

I purchased a 42" 1080p LCD and a laptop with an HDMI output.

1080p is really nice, but the laptop drops to 5fps or so when transitioning between slides in my slideshow. I suspect I will have to purchase a more expensive "gaming" laptop or use a desktop to consistently drive 24fps to the LCD.

Thoughts?

-TM

Try turning off virus protection. While you're giving slideshows. also try a driver update from ATI.

Wrong thread Aaron



Tzal, We are about to decide which way to go. I am honestly looking at Apple TV to run HD photos to a large lcd. I need to research a little more but I think I can get the best image quality that way.

Hi Bryce,

I killed all non-critical tasks. Using task manager, I see that the slideshow is only using 40% of the CPU, so it's definitely a graphics issue. If I buy an $800 laptop I get a dedicated graphics processor, instead of the integrated graphics that came with the $600 laptop. I'll call ATI shortly to verify that the dedicated solution is indeed more powerful.

-TM



Aaron followed my clever segue from the gay marriage thread, so he's actually OT.



Interesting, so you're relying on Apple TV to do the slideshow? I'm using ProShow Producer.

-TM

Not quite there yet, I'm still in the discovery stage.

OK, so I just ordered a slightly more expensive laptop that has a dedicated GPU. I know it's hard, but you'll have to wait until Friday to find out how it went.

-TM

I running Apple TV with a 42inch Pioneer Plasma...AWESOME!

That's sweet! Can you offer any tips? Pros/cons?


Here is an article I found on it.....

http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/content...sic-jones.shtml

Sounds like a generic slideshow - I suspect you can't set custom timing on a per-slide basis, for example.

Please let us know what you find out.

-TM

You have very limited ability to customize the slideshow. Whatever you can do with iphoto is what you can do on Apple TV.

But why do you need to add any more bells and whistles? Your pictures will never look better!!!

I doubt there is anything that can top it.

Hi Aaron,

Proshow Producer does so so much more, you can check it out at http://www.photodex.com/products/producer

-TM