Video Asylum

Posted by Steve K (P) on December 18, 2002 at 20:47:59

In Reply to: What is more important in a projector, Lumens or Contrast ratio posted by Banter on December 18, 2002 at 19:47:36:

Lumens simply means brightness. How bright will the picture be, nothing more. Actually, you [typically] loose a bit of color depth/richness when you go to a similar yet brighter projector...but not always.

The high lumen output projectors are designed mainly for classrooms and conference rooms where the projector will have to be easily viewable from a rather large distance with the lights in the room at least part way on. For giving presentations and such.

For home theatre, especially if you can get good control of ambient light in the room, light output is not a major concern today. Just about any projector on the market today would be considered quite bright, just a few years ago.

John is right...the only way is to see for yourself. There's no spec that'll tell the story.

I work at the local HIFI shop...we sell Marantz, Sharpvision, and Runco projectors. 99% of what we sell is DLP projectors in the $8-12 thousand dollar range...so that's what I'm familiar with. I know Sharpvision is running a sale on their z9000 DLP projector, if you want a good deal on a real nice 16x9 DLP, but my guess is that's gonna be a lot more expensive than the InFocus stuff...which I'm not very familiar with. Actually, I'm not very familiar with any specific brands or models, other than Marantz, Sharpvision and [some] Runco...too much to keep track of, and video is not my specialty.

A good friend of mine is the VP of sales for a company that specializes in LCD and DLP projector mail order sales. He's quite knowledgeable about the latest projector models, and [if I remember correct] carries InFocus, as well as many others. Email me if you want his web site. If you want to have a discussion about features/performance of specific makes/models of current projectors...these are the guys to talk to.

:-)
Steve