Hello,

I am going on a long road trip (http://www.alongdrive.com/about) and would like to have a small light weight projector for presentations on the road. The LED projectors caught my attention as they should be small and rugged, but I have never seen one in action.

Do any of you have any experience with these units?

I see the rainbow effect quicker than most so I was particularly concerned in this area. It would be nice to also use the unit for movies on the road.

If not the LED projectors do any of you have any other recommendations for a rugged portable projector?

Many thanks!

Hello,

I am going on a long road trip (http://www.alongdrive.com/about) and would like to have a small light weight projector for presentations on the road. The LED projectors caught my attention as they should be small and rugged, but I have never seen one in action.

Do any of you have any experience with these units?

I see the rainbow effect quicker than most so I was particularly concerned in this area. It would be nice to also use the unit for movies on the road.

If not the LED projectors do any of you have any other recommendations for a rugged portable projector?

Many thanks!

Due to limited light control, you'll more than likely want to seek out portable light cannons. projector review.com would be a good start.

Hello,

I am going on a long road trip (http://www.alongdrive.com/about) and would like to have a small light weight projector for presentations on the road. The LED projectors caught my attention as they should be small and rugged, but I have never seen one in action.

Do any of you have any experience with these units?

I see the rainbow effect quicker than most so I was particularly concerned in this area. It would be nice to also use the unit for movies on the road.

If not the LED projectors do any of you have any other recommendations for a rugged portable projector?

Many thanks!

You'll probably be disappointed with LED PJ's. I've played around with a couple (one being a Mitsubishi "pocket" projector) and I was not impressed. The image was quite small and very dim. Even in a very dark environment you couldn't throw an image more than 10' or so.

If you see rainbows I'd stay away from DLP. You should check out the Panasonic LB60U and LB51U, NEC VT700 or NEC NP60 and 40.

Just a couple of suggestions but there are many PJ's out there that will fit your application.

Due to limited light control, you'll more than likely want to seek out portable light cannons. projector review.com would be a good start.

It looks like the LED projectors will be too dim - the woman at ProjectorPeople counseled against it as did the response on this board (so far). Sounds like anyone who has had any experience with the LED projectors has come away disappointed.

Too bad - I really liked the technology; maybe it will get better over time. Thinking about the portable light cannons...:)

I own the 2nd gen Mits Pocket Projector (PK20) and while it's brighter than I expected at 25 lumens, it's only for small groups of people (5-8) and screens up to 60". I could be wrong but I thought RBE isn't an issue with these because they have 3 LEDs... yes I know they're DLP but there's no color wheel, it's some other kind of DLP tech, but don't quote me. I'm not prone to RBE so I can't say definitively but no one's complained about it.

The big advantages are the extreme portability, the battery pack (2h life) and the SD card slot - you can put your presentation onto a SD card (export to jpg) and go totally wireless, laptopless. Pretty compelling feature. You can even encode video to play from SD cards (complete with a 2-watt speaker) but I haven't gotten that to scale up to the 800x600 res, it just plays in a small window within the already-small projected image.

I love mine, but I have a HD1000u for home theater use. People borrow mine all the time, even sometimes for bigger crowds than they ought to, because they're in a pinch for a projector.

I'd say don't look past it, unless you really need larger than a 60" screen. 60" is a big TV. If light is bad, go down to 40" and the image is ok - if 40" is adequate for the number of people. I got my PK20 w/ Battery for $500 shipped, btw. Seen it for $450 sans battery recently. Fantastic toy :)

Hello,
This is encouraging. This projector is not my primary for home theater it is just to take on the road to do presentations to small groups and watch an occasional movie. Not having a bulb is a big advantage, and 40" screen is a big improvement on the 17" laptop screen!

Thinking on this a little more, I'll add another negative aspect: no zoom. There is a focus ring (and that's actually what prohibits you from going beyond 60, as the brightness is there in pitch dark) but no zoom. That means for a 40" screen, there is only 1 single possible position for the projector - 0 flexibility, and no offset, which is interesting.

The lack of offset generally works out ok, shoot it up and keystone back to square, lose 10% of the resolution (which means lost brightness, essentially). A LCD-like zoom would be great, but even a crappy low-end DLP-type zoom (1.1:1 aka 10%) is better than no zoom.

Nightfly13,

Thanks for the post. The PK20 is the "pocket projector" I was referring to. I agree there are many advantages, but versatility is not one of them, neither is light output. For a person traveling and using the PJ for presentations I would not recommend it. If you have overhead lighting, you're SOL. If you need to place the PJ in a spot that isn't at a 90 degree angle and close to a wall/screen, you're SOL. If some people crash the presentation and you end up with, say, 20-30 people, you're SOL. You can see where I'm going with this. It's an interesting little machine and can be very useful for certain applications, but it's limitations would keep me from purchasing it unless I was consitently using it in a controlled environment with less than 10 people, a short throw and no ambient light.

So I went ahead and ordered a PK-20 from ProjectorPeople just to check it out. I was quite impressed with this little unit. It has many drawbacks - the biggest being that I can't get the colors to look right. Maybe I still need to fiddle with them a bit.

For my application this is a good projector and I intend to keep it. I will be on the road for 15 months with limited space for a projection unit and this is so compact that I can just slip it into my backpack.

I am very sensitive to the rainbow effect and this PJ has none! I will do the presentations in a light controlled room and for bigger spaces I will require the venue to provide a PJ.

I will keep you all updated on how it works out!