Friday, November 19, 2010

BenQ's New SP890 Installation Projector


BenQ is one of the biggest names in the projector manufacturing industry by far, and they always have a tendency to come up with some really great products in a wide variety of styles and uses. The company's newest projector comes in the form of the new SP890 installation projector which is specifically designed to be used in somewhat larger venues like conference halls or auditoriums.

Like most of BenQ's products, the SP890 is packed with a ton of awesome features and good specs that make it a worthwhile device. The SP890 has full HD and HQV picture quality with full 1080p HD as well as 4000 ANSI lumens brightness. The SP890 also has a 50,000:1 contrast ratio and an optical zoom of 1.5X. These specs make it the perfect type of projector to use in large venues such as business meetings and trade shows or even in a large college classroom.

According to BenQ, the SP890 offers five times more detail than your average 480p projectors. The projector has HQV processing which is very sophisticated. This renders HD video in true 1080p HD quality. BenQ also added that lower resolution video sources including 480i (digital and analog) will be automatically converted by the SP890 allowing it to achieve full HD picture quality.

This projector uses BrilliantColorT Technology. This offers users a high-speed, 6-segment color wheel. The color wheel delivers a great deal of balance between your projector's brightness and color levels. With the SP890's horizontal and vertical lens shift features, 1.5X zoom and independent color management, it is safe to say that the SP890 is one of the top projectors currently in the installation projector market.
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Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Problems with Pocket Projectors are Being Solved

problems with pocket projectors
Pocket projectors are becoming much more advanced and useful. They are now beginning to feature more lumens, increased resolution, and better battery life. These are definitely some of the reasons why the pocket projector industry is showing rapid growth, which will most likely only continue as the projectors improve even more.

This past spring DisplaySearch reported on the pocket projector market in Pocket Projector Technology and Market Forecast Report. They predicted that by 2018 there would be more than 140 million pocket projectors in use. The company had said that there needed to be some serious improvements in pocket projectors' brightness, resolution, and battery life. Since there have definitely been some improvements in these areas, DisplaySearch feels that by 2018 there will most certainly be pocket projectors that are leaps and bounds ahead of the ones that we see today, and due to their portability and convenience, there will therefore be a great increase in pocket projector sales.

DisplaySearch had already predicted that brightness and battery life would greatly improve from 2009 to 2012. In 2009 the pocket projector only featured a brightness ranging from 5 to 50 lumens. The average device then only had 15 lumens. This year HP released a pocket projector that featured 100 lumens of brightness, but unfortunately, it does not run on batteries. DisplaySearch has said that they believe in 2011 that all pocket projector models will be above 20 lumens, and in 2012 there should be models with 200 lumens.

Battery life has also improved. In 2009 the battery life of pocket projectors ranged from 30 minutes to 2 hours, with the average projector coming in at about an hour. By 2011 DisplaySearch claims that all pocket projectors should feature a battery life of over an hour, and by 2012 there should be models with a battery life of more than four hours.

Some of the newest pocket projectors that have been released show that the devices are definitely moving in the direction that DisplaySearch believes they will. 3M has recently announced two of their newest models, the MPro160 and the MPro180, that feature 30 lumens and two hours of battery life when in standard mode. Both of these devices will be available in January of 2011. These new projectors show significant improvements over some of their previous models. The MPro110, which was released at the very end of 2008, featured only 10 lumens, and the MPro120, which was released in 2009, had only 15 lumens of brightness. The MPro180 not only has improved in the amount of lumens it has, but it also features a 2.4-inch LCD touchscreen, much better resolution, and many other things.

3M is not the only one that has been improving their pocket projectors though. Philips has recently released three new pocket projectors, the PPX 1430, the PPX 1230, and thePPX 1020, in their PicoPix line. All of the projectors feature 400:1 contrast ratio, 20 to 30 lumens of brightness, and 2.5 hours of battery on the 1230 and 1430 models.

All of these advances show that pocket projectors are moving in the right direction. They are featuring more lumens, better resolution, and much longer battery life. It will be great to see how they improve them in the future. Hopefully, it won’t take too long. I guess we’ll just have to see if DisplaySearch is correct that by 2018 more than 140 million pocket projectors will be in use. With the direction that things are going in, it seems like they could definitely be correct.

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Thursday, November 4, 2010

Paint Your Own Projector Screen

Do-It-Yourself Projector ScreensIf you are one of those people who have decided that going with a high quality projection is a better deal than buying a high end television, then you are most certainly aware that a high quality projector screen will undoubtedly give you the most bang for your buck. The big name screen manufacturers out there like Da-Lite and Screen Innovation use special materials specifically designed to enhance contrast and color in their projection screens. The result you get consists of punched up white levels and deep blacks.

The only problem with this setup is that screens like this are expensive and not everybody has the extra cash to throw around like that, especially in today's economy. There are also the crafty folks out there who would prefer to do a complete do-it-yourself project for their home theaters. Reports are coming in from all over about people who have figured out ways to create their own high-quality projector screens in their homes.

Some people have built impressive 120-inch diagonal screens using white ceiling paint from Home Depot and the ever popular 1x4s. Now everybody knows that painting a surface doesn't make it smooth. So, in order to get the smoothest surface possible you are going to need to sand away any imperfections in the surface area of the wall you are thinking about painting.

After that is done, you should apply two coats of primer followed by several layers of the ceiling paint. You can even paint around the screen in black to build a frame for your screen. The best materials to use, it seems, are Kilz primer and Home Depot brand white ceiling paint. The picture quality is incredible, rivaling some of the more top-notch and expensive brands out there.

With the price of screens out there and the money people don't have to spend on them, a do-it-yourself projector screen is ingenious. It is the perfect thing if you have a projector that you use frequently or instead of a television. So the next time you are thinking about upgrading your screen, don't. Just paint your own on the wall.

Source: The Projector People
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Monday, November 1, 2010

Newest Projectors from 3M

coolpix camcorder projector
In the past few months manufacturers have been getting fancy and have started producing hybrid gadgets that include mini-projectors in their design. There were the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj and S1100pj cameras that featured built-in projectors, the LG Expo GW820 smartphone that included an optional projector attachment, and about a month ago, 3M revealed their Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector.

The Shoot ‘n Share allows you to do just what its name suggests. You can easily capture pictures or videos and project them from the same device that you shot them with, and the great thing is that you can do so instantly. The 3M Camcorder Projector can shoot video at up to 720p at 60 frames per second. The video is shot in a MPEG4 format, and as I said, it can be viewed immediately with its 15-lumen LCOS projector. All you need is a surface on which to project the image. You can view the image at any size ranging from 6 to 65 inches. The Camcorder Projector features a 2.4-inch screen, an embedded speaker, a two hour battery life, and a MicroSD card slot in case you need more than the device's 32MB of internal memory. The Shoot ‘n Share is currently available for $299.

At the same time that 3M released the Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector they also released two new pico projectors, the MPro180 and the MPro160. The 3M MPro180 has a variety of useful features including: 30 lumens of brightness, SVGA resolution, two hours of battery life, still and video image projection, touchscreen controls, wireless connectivity, MP3 capabilities, Bluetooth compatibility, 4GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot for additional storage, and two 0.75-watt stereo speakers. It also supports Adobe PDFs and Microsoft Office applications including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Normally the smaller a projector, the less features it has, but this little projector is jam-packed with features despite its size. The projector is able project an image at sizes ranging from 10 to 80 inches. It is now available for $399.

The MPro160 is extremely similar to the MPro180 except it’s about $50 less and has a few less features. The MPro160 lacks Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity as well as MP3 capabilities. There also is not an internal memory or card slot which means that it is dependent on an external device such as a MP3 player, laptop, PC, etc. as the image source. This projector is available now for $349.

3M has been releasing some very interesting products lately. The Shoot ‘n Share camcorder projector just seems so convenient. To be able to take pictures or video and then instantly display it is amazing. The pico projectors from 3M are great as well. They offer so many features for their size. The fact that you can surf the Web from the MPro180 is incredible. If you’re looking for a pico projector, the MPro180 and MPro160 are definitely two that you should keep in mind. It will be great to see more projectors emerging from 3M. I think that they have definitely hit some home runs with their latest releases.

Not sure how to take care of your projector? Check out these guidelines and tips.