Outdoor projector advice

[LiamJ]

Hi all,

Friend has recently moved in to a new house with a hot tub and a big patio, and is looking at options for outdoor TV watching, mainly sports, football when the lads are round, maybe a movie in the tub etc.

He doesn't have a covered space to provide any shade for the projector, so he's gonna need something bright, but he's also not terribly bothered about picture quality, just as long as it's visible after a few beers or a bottle of wine!

Also, what is to look for in a screen? Prices seem to vary wildly but surely a screen is a screen?

He doesn't want to spend too much money on the projector, maybe £500? Happy to go 2nd hand, just wants something he can whip up quick on those summer evenings outside.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[lucid]

£500 isn't enough to get a new screen with a projector that will stand up to high ambient light.

There are solid screens with specific surface structure that makes them suitable for daytime projection, but they're solid and several multiples of the budget he has in mind.

"but surely a screen is a screen?"

And a steak is a steak, and a car is a car etc etc.

At the sort of prices your friend is considering, then it probably makes little difference. There isn't enough money in it to worry that the screen is either close cousins with a roller blind or vinyl poster.

Roller blinds have very poor reflectivity, so screens with a similar surface aren't good if you want a lot of light bouncing back. They'd really be the absolute cheapest though.

Plain vinyl screens lack any optical coating, so with very bright projectors there's always the risk of a hot spot. This is where there's a distracting bright spot on the image at the point where the light from the lens barrel directly reflects back to the viewer. As the viewer moves and changes the angle of reflection so the hot spot moves too. This means every viewer sees their own version of a hot spot. The only cure is a better screen surface, or a dimmer projector, or one that uses a very shallow projection angle so its hard to get a direct reflection from a normal seating position.

Projectors are used in classrooms and offices for PowerPoint, Excel and teaching applications, but in most instances the image being projected is fairly light in colour. This helps it stand out against ambient light. Football under floodlights is pretty bright too. Feature films and dark games are more of a challenge.

There are plenty of used business projectors at 2000+ ANSI. What you have to watch out for is the replacement lamp costs. A s/h projector for £100 that needs a £300 lamp isn't such a bargain. Maybe look instead for a gaming projector. An Optoma GT1080 or similar would be a good start.