Choosing a projector

Which projector is right for me?

With over 200 projectors available, how do you know which is right for your situation?

When choosing a projector you first need to look at your requirements. If you look at our range. You will see, as you move up the price scale, more features are included. Once you know your needs, you will be able to narrow down the range.

Here we will cover the basic (most relevant) features, please see the individual guides for more detailed information.

Initial Questions

• Use? - education, gaming, home theater, simulators or work.
• Throw? - measure from where you want to place the projector, directly to the screen.
• Screen size? - width of the image.


• Brightness? - daylight, lights or a dedicated dark room.
• Resolution? - what is the resoultion of your content.
• Position? - ceiling, table or rear projection.
• Connections? - what do the devices require? HDMI, WiFi etc.

Each of these questions, you should be able to answer.

At this point, you have the information our sales team need for choosing a projector for you. Just call, and we will take it from here.

TV or Projector

Interpreting Your Answers

Projector Types

To help you find the right projector task we have assigned a "most common" usage type to every projector. Some projectors can fall into more than one category, we list them in the group we feel they are most suited, models in other categories may also be suitable. Please remember they are only guides. Again, we would like to remind you. That we can search our whole database in minutes. If you are having trouble finding the right projector, were here to help.

Use:

These are the most common uses, and we have specific guides for them.

• Business - for Office to Boardroom.
• Education - for classroom, lecture theatres and Auditoriums.
• Gaming - Go large, get closer to the action.
• Home Theatre - movies on the big screen
• Portable - head to our Portable Guide
• Simulator - flight simulator and golf simulation projectors.

Throw Distance: More

Throw distance is the distance from the projector's lens to the screen. The further away from the screen the projector is positioned, the larger the image will appear and the greater the light source needs to be to compensate for the light dispersion. In certain instances you may need to chose a projector with optional lenses.

Generally you will know instinctively if the distance is very close to the screen (ultra short throw) or if you have a long throw. A common mistake is to think that a distance of 2m is not ultra short. But distance is only one component that has to be considered to classify, long or short. We also need to consider the image size. A 5m wide image from a distance of 2m, would be ultra short. If your unsure, take a look at the introduction to Lenses

 

 

Screen Size: More

In regards to the screen size, this is subjective. If you are displaying content with a lot of fine detail, e.g. architectural plans. A larger screen would be benificial. And if you have a larger audience you will need a larger screen.

Aspect More

Content dictates the screen aspect you need. If its for video, movies and TV, your aspect is 16:9. Your projector and screen should also be in this aspect.

As you can see 16:10 aspect can wholly display, 4:3 and 16:9. But 4:3 would have to compress a 16:10 image to display it.

 

Projector Aspect ratios avalable and the respective resolutions

 

Brightness: More

Along with Resolution, Brightness has a direct relationship on image quality. Not enough brightness and your image will look flat and washed out, with no vibrancy. It should be noted that the eye's sensitivity to colors strongly correlates to brightness. Increasing the brightness increases the perceived colour saturation.

Brightness is measured in lumens. Generally, the higher the lumen rating the more you will pay.

Once you know the throw required, you will have to consider the screen size. A larger screen requires a higher brightness.

Resolution More

Resolution, the number of dots making up the image. When the resolution increases, the number of pixels per inch increases, improving sharpness. Your content should also increase to the higher resolution.

But rather than buying the highest resoultion, you should be matching to the device your connecting to. If you have a 1920x1080 laptop, then the same resolution projector would be a perfect match.

All of our categories are split in to different resolutions. This groups similar priced product together.

Data Resolutions

Data resolutions from WXGA to WUXGA

Video Resolutions

Video resolutions from HD to 8K

Weight

Will your projector be positioned in a venue on a permanent basis, will it move from room to room in the same building, or will it take to the road? Obviously the more your projector will have to be moved, the lighter it should be.

Just how portable a projector is, can depend on who’s doing the carrying and how far the unit is being carried. Remember projectors are delicate machines and bumping down the stairs in a wheeled flight-case could prove to be expensive.

We have 5 categories for portables, 4 for different resolutions and one for compact LED powered machines. All in this group are below 4kg.

Price

Don’t buy down to a price, buy up to a budget. Check the features and specifications before you decide and choose a projector with the highest spec you need and can use.

Fan Noise

There's nothing worse than sitting in a meeting or watching a movie with the constant humming of noisy equipment in your ear. An important consideration before purchasing is to check the Fan Noise rating. Each of the projectors listed in our database have their decibel ratings listed if published by the manufacturer.

Here is a scale to help you put them in perspective.