Cheap ebay projecto...
 

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[Closed] Cheap ebay projectors

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For £50 - 60 quid. Not expecting amazing quality but are they watchable for the odd movie night? Is 1080 ok. We only have a small TV as don't watch a lot and the odd movie on a bigger screen may be nice.


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 12:44 pm
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I'd bet they will be pretty rubbish unless you have a proper dark room. Even with a decentish (Optoma UHD550x) 4K projector, it really needs blackout curtains and dark walls to get reasonably contrast levels. It does remind me I've got a Optoma HD200x I should sell that has been sat for ages. £80 collected if you're anywhere near Gloucestershire.


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 12:51 pm
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Yeah it would be a night time thing so less of an issue. Hampshire Dorset boarder unfortunately


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 1:18 pm
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I can't imagine they'll be much cop. You'd pay more than that for a replacement bulb in a half-decent projector. OEM components are considerably cheaper, but the projector I had at work was pretty mediocre and a new bulb was North of a hundred quid.


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 1:23 pm
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I had an Elephas one, cost £60. It claimed 4500 lumens, but I measured it at closer to 1000.

Worked fine for the job I wanted it for, but do be aware that the numbers are total lies.

edit: forgot it was also claimed to be 1080p but wasn't...think it was something bizarre like 1024x768.


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 2:01 pm
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Also, at that money it likely will be a native 720 (or maybe even lower) projection that can process a 1080 signal.


 
Posted : 15/10/2019 2:04 pm
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Probably got a noisy fan too.


 
Posted : 16/10/2019 12:55 pm
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 but wasn’t…think it was something bizarre like 1024×768.

Nothing odd about that. it's XGA and most projectors were that resolution for at least a decade. We moved from VGA projectors to SVGA to XGA pretty quickly but XGA has only recently started to disappear. The change in PowerPoint to default to being widescreen when you open a new presentation seems to have been the final nail in the coffin for it. Having said that we are still using a couple of 10,000 lumen Panasonic XGA projectors as we still get a few shows that are 4:3

The lumens aren't really the issue for projecting films  in a dark room, it's the contrast that really makes the difference. Hard to believe but we using 330 lumen projectors on 8ft x 6ft rear projection screens when we were first moving away from 35mm slides and it worked given enough control of ambient light. There was a lot more putting the house lights up and down in those days!


 
Posted : 16/10/2019 4:05 pm
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How very bizarre, as I've just today started thinking the very same thing!

Having read a few reviews I have come to the conclusion that at that price point a)everything you read is a lie b)it's never going to be great quality but if you want good quality then increase your budget (a lot).

The whole point for me was just to have something cheap and portable for occasional use, so spending £3-400 would defeat the object. I'm budgeting around £80 but I think its really a bit of a case of pot luck. I would, however, steer clear of the very cheap ones.


 
Posted : 16/10/2019 4:20 pm
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avdave2

Nothing odd about that. it’s XGA and most projectors were that resolution for at least a decade. We moved from VGA projectors to SVGA to XGA pretty quickly but XGA has only recently started to disappear. The change in PowerPoint to default to being widescreen when you open a new presentation seems to have been the final nail in the coffin for it. Having said that we are still using a couple of 10,000 lumen Panasonic XGA projectors as we still get a few shows that are 4:3

The lumens aren’t really the issue for projecting films in a dark room, it’s the contrast that really makes the difference. Hard to believe but we using 330 lumen projectors on 8ft x 6ft rear projection screens when we were first moving away from 35mm slides and it worked given enough control of ambient light. There was a lot more putting the house lights up and down in those days!

I don't know why I remembered 1024x768 but I went and looked it up, it was actually 800x480 (i.e. not quite 16:9 480p). Like I said, an odd choice.

Regarding brightness, like I said, it did the job, but when you're comparing one with another the numbers are the only thing you have to compare them.


 
Posted : 16/10/2019 5:23 pm

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