[admiralburns]

Hi folks,

I love AVS forum but spend almost no time the projector forum. I have a tiny (my wife and I) sales & marketing firm and I do presentations (around 2 per month) to architects and interior designers using Keynote.

My presentation is pretty snappy with some nice transitions and embedded video, and I want it to look sharp and bright. I normally present in moderately lit rooms with crowds of 5-50 people, and I usually have the projector set up approx 10-15 ft from the screen. Sometimes, the firms have their own projector but I often use my own. My budget is absolutely no more than $500, and $300 would be even better.

I'm wanting to buy something that will look sharp and bright, preferably something as portable as possible, with a budget of

This forum has recently "talked me in" to a pair of JBL LSR 305 studio monitors and two pairs of Sennheiser headphones, which resulted from hours of research, but I need a projector by the end of the week and don't have time to spend hours researching.

I truly appreciate any help you can give. I normally connect via HDMI to my MacBook Pro Retina 15, but I'm open to other connection methods.

THANKS in advance for any help you can provide!

Burns

 

[Ftoast]

If you're alright with XGA resolution, the Epson powerliteX17 and 5220x LCD projectors are available under $500 and offer bright colors and added placement flexibility.

If you need higher resolution and a lower price, the 1280x800 Benq mw519 is a DLP that can be found around $300.

At your budget, you won't be finding anything higher resolution than wxga 1280x800, and lamp-based makes by far the most sense for the situation.
The occasional use of video and the moderately lit room means that both DLP and LCD should be solid options.

 

[AV_Integrated]

My issue with all of this is that I think the expectations and the budget are seriously out of line with each other. The mad rush with no budget may possibly bite you at the end of the day. DLP with 2x color wheels and weak color brightness...

It's all up in the air in terms of what to expect, and if the business relies on the presentations to help make the sale, I wouldn't go bottom of the barrel.

Still..
http://shop.benq.us/benq-outlet/refurbished-projectors/mx522.html

$300 out the door from a decent manufacturer. I didn't find the MW519 that Ftoast listed.

Understand, these are all very entry level. Far less than 2,500 lumens should be expected and screen size will be limited. For a few people, they will work out well, but for a group of 50, you likely won't be impressed and shouldn't be. When $300 is the lowest level starting point, and your budget is $300-$500, you aren't exactly buying a model which is a cut above the rest.

I wish you luck.

 

[Ftoast]

Thinking of your largest presentations what would you say is the smallest screen-size you could happily get away with?
Likewise, thinking of the longest projector-to-screen distance you've been actually forced to use, how close do you think you could still get?

The smaller your image-size can be, the better your presentation will look despite the lights washing it out. The closer you can manage to get the projector, the less you'll have to rely on the probably limited zoom and limited brightness.

If some of the venues you'll be working around require the PJ to be 15feet back, you'll have a hard time getting an image smaller than 120". A 120" image is going to get hit very hard if you can't dim the lights enough.

Still..
http://shop.benq.us/benq-outlet/refurbished-projectors/mx522.html
$300 out the door from a decent manufacturer. I didn't find the MW519 that Ftoast listed.

I just grabbed the mw519 from the PJC list..so it might very well be unavailable or higher priced despite what the list said.

 

[admiralburns]

Hmm...perhaps I need to raise the budget.

 

[Ftoast]

Hmm...perhaps I need to raise the budget.

By about $650-700 you'll be able to get some bright 720p/WXGA and even some full 1080p options.
You'll also be getting more models with either a little more zoom-range as well as the viewsonic (or is it vivitek) projectors that have longer throw-distance to hit a smaller screen-size from 15ft back and still look bright.