LCD Selection Criteria

The information on this page is being kept for a while for historical interest. The club has already purchased a projector and Tau Productions Inc. graciously donated another one to us.

The club needs to purchase one (or maybe two) LCD projectors for use in presentations. There are many types and our budget is limited. What is best for our needs?

Factors (article: The Great Technology War: LCD vs. DLP)

Technology

LCD (liquid crystal display) projectors usually contain three separate LCD glass panels, one each for the red, green, and blue components of the video signal being fed into the projector. As light passes through the LCD panels, individual pixels ("picture elements") can be opened to allow light to pass or closed to block the light, as if each little pixel were fitted with a Venetian blind. This activity modulates the light and produces the image that is projected onto the screen.

DLP ("Digital Light Processing") is a proprietary technology developed by Texas Instruments. It works quite differently than LCD. Instead of having glass panels through which light is passed, the DLP chip is a reflective surface made up of thousands of tiny mirrors. Each mirror represents a single pixel.

Feature	LCD	DLP
Color Saturation	Better	Worse
Lumens/Brightness	Better	Worse
Sharpness	Better	Worse
Rainbow Effect	No	Yes
Pixelation	Worse	Better
Screendoor Effect	Worse	Better
Contrast	Worse	Better
Weight	Heavier	Lighter
Laptop Signal	Sharper	Fuzzier
Video Signal	Chunky	Smoother
Makers	Sony, Epson	TI
Cost re 4:3 Display	Costlier	Cheaper
Cost re Widescreen	Cheaper	Costlier

Resolution

Mode	Width	Height
VGA	640	480
SVGA	800	600
XGA	1024	768
???	1280	720
???	1366	768

Lumens

Contrast

Any contrast ratio of 2000:1 or higher is very good.

Price

Candidates

Maker	InFocus	InFocus	Toshiba	HP	HP
Model	X3	X2	TDP-T40U	vp6320	vp6310
Technology	DLP	DLP	DLP	DLP	DLP
MSRP	$1200	$800	$1400	$1300	$800
Street	$1074	$767	$1245	$1275	$797
Bulb Price	$238	$238	$???	$300	$300
Wt(lbs)	6.8	6.8	6.6	7.7	7.7
Lumens	1600	1600	1800	2000	1600
Contrast	2000:1	2000:1	2000:1	2500:1	2000:1
Throw (ft)	7.8-25.2	5.0-32.3	4.8-28.9	4.2-32.6	4.0-31.0
Speakers	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Warranty	1 year	1 year	2 years	1 year	1 year
Lamp Type	200W SHP	200W SHP	180W	210W	210W
Lamp Life	4000	3000	????	4000	4000
Lamp Qty	1	1	1	1	1
Focus	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
Zoom	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual	Manual
Wired	No	No	No	No	No
Wireless	Yes	No	No	No	No
Color Wheel	4-seg, 2X	(unknown)	(unknown)	(unknown)	(unknown)
Native Res	1024x768	800x600	1024x768	1024x768	800x600
Max Res	1280x1024	1024x768	1600x1200	1400x1050	1400x1050
Noise	39.0 dB	39.0 dB	37.0 dB	36.0 dB	36.0 dB
First Ship	May 2005	May 2004	May 2005	May 2005	May 2005

Background Research

Article: How to Select an LCD Projector
Article: Choosing an LCD Projector
Article: Build your own LCD Projector (just kidding)
Review #1: InFocus X3 Projector Reviewed
Review #2: InFocus X3 Projected Reviewed

Alvin: Something to consider: IF you really like the DFWUUG presentations, why not donate to the projector fund?

We have decided on the InFocus ? X3 and have ordered two of them.