Cheap projectors?

I bought an older Sony projector on eBay for about $900, and I couldn't be happier. It was something like $10K list price when it was new many years ago, and the picture quality is fantastic. I'll never go back to a TV again :-)

Check out eBay, it worked for me.

you can get a brand new in72 for around $500, or the hd1000u for around $850.
or if you're like me you can get a used one off of ebay, but beware i had to take mine apart and repair a few things before my used one would project a quality image.
you can get a projector for $50-$100... but you don't want to. generally those projectors are either:
1.)ancient- single lcd projectors which have lamps that last anywhere from 8 to 50 hours per lamp! and will often project a very bad image.
2.) will have polarizer or lcd problems where the organic substance3s in the lcd or polarizer have broken down, resulting in uneven color distribution and will eventually lead to a single colored image (most common is yellow). though the polarizers can be replaced if you know how, but they can be expensive to get a hold of (unless you get two of the same models and the other has no polarizer issues... but thats unlikely).
4.) will be a single lcd unit, single lcd panel units were used for all colors. benefit is no convergence problems, the downside is lack of focus uniformity.
5.)just flatout don't work and you'll get ripped off.

i got lucky and was able to find one projector on ebay that worked quite well for my needs, then i was able to find another broekn version that supplied me with the spare parts i needed to repair mine. however this is a lot of hassle and may not be worth it to you. in which case i would go with the in72 or the hd1000, both are excellent projectors. however both are dlp, so hopefully you're not super sensitive to the rain bow effect. if you are i would try the hd1000 as it as a 5x color wheel as opposed to the in72's 4x color wheel (if i remmeber correctly).


edit: or you may get lucky like beandog and geta working projector off of ebay, but be warned there are a high number of liers and scammers selling projectors on ebay.

however if you're going to buy used, re,member go off of specs, not the previous price. a projector that was $10,000 5 years ago is beat by the in72 for $500... boy has the market changed ;-)

Dell small business has one on sale right now for $599

Quote:

Original post by eedok Dell small business has one on sale right now for $599

thats a business class dlp projector, it will have a very nice bright image and have a nice contrast ratio but will be very lacking in shadow detail. that and if you're going dlp, it is extremly important to not go with a business class projector then as most business class dlp projectors have 2x color wheels which will result in very heavy rainbow effect for most people.

You might want to nail down your spec a bit, you really shouldn't be looking for anything less than XGA (1024 by 768. Most projectors will happily work with higher resolutions within reason by scaling). However, you can pick up some real bargains in the SVGA ranges at the moment, which will be fine for just watching the odd film on.

Another thing to remember is replacement lamp costs, you could pick up a bargain projector only to find that your lamps cost upwards of £280 to replace. I've seen loads of people getting stung this way.

I currently recommend (mainly for educational use) the Optoma EP719R, Its small, quiet (in relative terms), reasonably cheap to buy but best of all the lamps are only around £100 (uk pounds). I'm repeatedly impressed by it. Its certainly more costly than the $100 you're aiming for though.

A few less techinical things to bear in mind:
All projectors have fans inside, some of which are ridiculuosly loud.
You will need a fair sized room; to project a 70inch wide screen you will need to position the projector around 10feet away from the screen.
As Jarrod said, be prepared tolerate the 'rainbow effect'




Good luck.



Brian.

projector central seems to suggest that the Sanyo z4 and z5 are excellent projectors, 1280x720 res. You can find the z4 with a 90" screen at b&h photovideo for $1000 package.

If I were getting a projector, that's what I'd get.
It has horizontal and vertical tilt lenses too, so you (ideally) won't have to deal with cruddy keystoning.

-M

Just a quick post as I have to run.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

I would be using this almost exclusively to project from my Xbox (modded) so I can watch films. Distance from screen is about is ballparking 10ft.

Quote:

Original post by 128 You will need a fair sized room; to project a 70inch wide screen you will need to position the projector around 10feet away from the screen. As Jarrod said, be prepared tolerate the 'rainbow effect'

he only needs to tolerate the rbe if he makes a bad choice in buying, 4x and 5x speed colro wheel should be fast enough to prevent rbe for nearly all viewers (though i'm still a bit sensitive to 5x with fast scenes).
and a trick to the 10 feet will give you 70-80 inch's thing, you can use a mirror array system to increase the throw distance in the same amount of space. here is an image i made a bit ago to explain it to someone else. i managed to get a 100 inch screen with 9 feet of distance and about 10 and a half feet of viewing distance.

Well thanks for the feedback guys. Kinda quashes my hopes of getting a cheap one! Sounds like I would want one that cheap either way though.

Keep an eye on Woot.com. They sell projectors (very cheap, 200-500 range) fairly often. I'd say 1 day every 1-2 weeks there is a projector, or maybe 2-3 during a woot off.

[Edited by - necreia on July 18, 2007 4:37:26 PM]

On that site, www.projectorcentral.com they have a *very* nice projector calculator, with manufacturer specs for *lots* of the projectors out on the market today. You can interactively adjust the screen size, projector zoom (yeah, they usually have between 1.2x and 1.5x zoom on the lens, makes the image bigger) and projector position.
It'll also tell you the lumens output, and how much ambient light is tolerable.
So go check it out!
Calculator Pro on projector central

Really, it's a great site. Go check it out.

-M

Quote:

Original post by necreia Keep an eye on Woot.com. They sell projectors (very cheap, 200-500 range) fairly often. I'd say 1 day every 1-2 weeks there is a projector, or maybe 2-3 during a woot off.

Wow! I love that site! I knew of one for outdoor gear, but not one for computer stuff!

Do they ship to Canada?

Quote:

Original post by _Sigma Quote: Original post by necreia Keep an eye on Woot.com. They sell projectors (very cheap, 200-500 range) fairly often. I'd say 1 day every 1-2 weeks there is a projector, or maybe 2-3 during a woot off. Wow! I love that site! I knew of one for outdoor gear, but not one for computer stuff! Do they ship to Canada?

Gah! No, they do not ship to Canada.

Quote:

Original post by necreia Quote: Original post by _Sigma Quote: Original post by necreia Keep an eye on Woot.com. They sell projectors (very cheap, 200-500 range) fairly often. I'd say 1 day every 1-2 weeks there is a projector, or maybe 2-3 during a woot off. Wow! I love that site! I knew of one for outdoor gear, but not one for computer stuff! Do they ship to Canada? Gah! No, they do not ship to Canada.

Well that sucks....:(