Projector Tips for PC Gaming

People have been playing video games on computers since before consoles where even invented. Today PC's are the top choice for gaming enthusiasts and casual players alike. However, those who are looking for the best possible gaming experience are turning to projectors for high definition, high resolution, immersive displays for their personal computers. For those of you wanting to purchase a projector and get the most out of your gaming experience, here are a few things to consider when looking at all the different projectors.

The first and foremost thing to consider when looking at projectors is the inherent video delay that will come with every projector. The transmission of the video signal is not instantaneous and there can be a brief and sometimes noticeable delay between the time a video signal reaches the projector and the time it is displayed on the screen. This is primarily caused by the projector having to scale a non-native resolution.

Many times users will not even notice any type of video delay when not playing games highly dependent on exact timing, such as World of Warcraft, Age of Empires or other non-fps type games. Even then, many popular first-person shooter games are not negatively impacted by video delays due to the actual delay being under 100 milliseconds. However if you are considering playing mutliplayer over the internet, video delay is something you should highly consider.

In online games there is a side effect of network play known as lag, which is caused by the delay of computers communicating with one another. One thing to note is that network lag will be far more noticeable than video lag, but if you purchase a projector that doesn't fare well in response times your multiplayer experience may not be the most enjoyable due to combined video and network lag.

If the video delay is starting to turn you off from projectors, don't sweat it. There is an easy way to completely eliminate or greatly reduce the inherent video delay. This is accomplished by simply sending the projector a signal that does not need to be re-scaled. In other words, if you have a 1280x800 resolution projector, perfect in-game video resolutions would be 1280x800, 1280x768, 720p resolutions, and XGA resolutions - all without needing to perform any re-scaling and keeping video delay to a minimum.

Apart from the usual concerns about contrast ratio, color, and lumen output, video delay should be the number one priority when looking at projectors for gaming as video delay could make or break the projector. When looking at projectors for gaming the most important aspects to look at will be native resolution, as you will be wanting to send a native signal whenever possible and the native resolution will dictate which in-game settings to use, and regular projector refresh rates.

Source: Pojector Central