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From the boardroom to the living room
As prices drop, the business projector is making its way into homes.
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By David Carnoy
Executive editor, CNET Reviews
(April 1, 2003)
About five years ago, when I was the tech editor for a small-business magazine, projector companies used to come around with their $6,000 and $7,000 light boxes and tout their portability, brightness, and knack for delivering PowerPoint presentations with real impact. That was all fine and dandy and certainly important to readers, but what I really wanted to know was how well these bad boys would project movies and sports in my living room and when I could pick one up for less than two grand. I needed impact, too--for my dating life. And an 80-inch image splayed across a screen hanging from my living room wall felt like it would do the trick.
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Even entry-level projectors have fairly substantial connectivity options.
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The projector companies understood my vision. In fact, many of the reps said they routinely took projectors home on the weekends and spoke enthusiastically of a day when they'd market their wares not only to businesses and mobile professionals but to the average consumer. "It'll happen," they predicted.
Sure enough, five years later, it is. Dell is shipping a $1,300 DLP projector, the 2100 MP--a business product with consumer undertones--and several manufacturers, including BenQ, HP, Panasonic, and Philips, are selling affordable (yes, around $2,000) projectors that more and more consumers are viewing as attractive alternatives to ultraexpensive big-screen and plasma displays. Here's what you need to know before you pick one up, be it for business or pleasure--or both.
The technology
Entry-level portable projectors generally come in two flavors: LCD and DLP. Each has its benefits and its drawbacks; I'll run through them quickly.
- DLP: Developed by Texas Instruments, DLP is a hot display technology found not only in projectors but in rear-projection TVs, as well. As chip prices have fallen, so too has the cost of DLP projectors, which are more compact than their LCD counterparts. In the plus column, DLP offers better contrast (blacks look nearly black instead of dark gray). On the minus side: you'll sometimes see a rainbow effect--a trail of colors that disappears in a split second. But with manufacturers moving to color wheels that use different color segments and spin at 4X speeds instead of 2X, this problem has been greatly diminished.
- LCD: Because this technology is older than DLP, it's had plenty of time to evolve. Experts say LCD projectors are brighter, offer slightly better color saturation, and deliver better bulb life. Their black-level performance is generally inferior to that of DLP projectors, however. DLP proponents also maintain that LCD chips degrade over time, causing the picture to warp.
Other essentials
Here are some other factors to consider when choosing between DLP or LCD:
- Draw the shades: Sorry, even with the improved technology, these guys don't do well in bright environments. That's one of the advantages that plasma and other thin-screen sets have over projectors.
- Jacked up: Today, even entry-level projectors have fairly substantial connectivity options that let you to plug in a cable or satellite box, a progressive-scan DVD player, or an HDTV set-top box. RGB inputs for computer hookups are also standard, but if you want a DVI input for computers or new DVD players and HDTV receivers that support this type of output, you'll need a step-up model.
- The resolution story: Budget models usually offer SVGA (800x600) resolution. That's ample for wide-screen DVD, which specs out at 852x480, but it falls short of displaying the full resolution of HDTV, which starts at 1,280x720. For business use, text and large spreadsheets will be easier to read at XGA (1,024x768).
- Product placement: When you think of a home projector, you probably think of a ceiling-mounted unit. That's the ideal setup, but it's easier to just plop the thing down on a coffee table. At a recent trade show, I saw a coffee table from Sharp that had a built-in slot below the glass top for housing the LCD projector. I'd like to see more companies come out with projector-friendly furniture. Here's a tip: If you have a position in mind and can't move the projector freely around the room, look for one with a zoom lens.
- Wall vs. screen: You can certainly project an image on a white wall, but a screen will improve picture quality. Da-lite and Stewart, among others, make screens designed to enhance black-level performance. They work great for home theater, but they cost more than standard screens. Smaller wall-mount screens (50 by 67 inches) start at around $300 while larger ones in the wide-screen 16:9 shape (52 by 92 inches) can cost $800 or more.
- Bulb life: Alas, the bulb in your projector won't last forever. Bulb life varies by projector, but you should expect the light to dim noticeably after about 1,000 to 2,000 hours. With replacement bulbs costing somewhere between $250 and $500, you probably shouldn't use your projector for watching everyday TV.
Note: CNET Reviews will soon cover moderately priced business and home-theater projectors, so check back in the coming months for reviews of the products mentioned in this column.
David Carnoy is an executive editor for CNET Reviews. Have a question for him? Let us know!
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