Hi Folks

I give talks on Morgans down here in the west country (raising money for BHF - selfish you see as I've a dickey ticker) and need some projector advice. I've been searching the web but just get confused as I'm not au fait with what works best. Basically I need something that will give a very good PowerPoint presentation in medium sized rooms and provide a useful way of projecting my holiday pictures at home. Oh, and I don't want to spend more than £500.

Any advice based on personal experience would be very welcome.

Roady

Take a look here
https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/projectors/all-projectors.html

Listed in price order ascending

I have an Optoma 108P (also 3D)

There are many other low cost projectors out there - under £50 - some are ok - others not so

Another vote for Optoma - the one I have is now obsolete but was recommended to me by a local firm that specialise in such things. It was less than £500 and works well. Amazon list something that looks similar to mine (Optoma H184X 3600 Lumens HD Ready Projector - Black) at £350 but I haven't checked the reviews.

Do check the connections match your PC - some machines no longer have a VGA input if you rely on that.

what connector for output does your laptop have.

Older
VGA D15, small D shape with three rows pins - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VGA_connector
DVI-?, slightly larger and with several options - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

More modern
HDMI like your telly and now most common for some time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

If you can share what model of laptop/device you are showing from I can help more.

Projectors.
By priority of benefit IMHO.

Lumens - how bright and so how dark the room needs to be - bigger is better. Older units have a more limited life on the bulb as it burns out but this will be ages for most home users. Modern units use DLP which is better.

Resolution - In general PPT likes a 1920x1080 resolution these days but usually can work on lower if needed so the ideal projector will provide this (FullHD)
There is a bit of a cheat floating around here. They will claim FullHD but when you look in the technical spec it actually runs at a lower res and the electronics fake this out to the laptop to make it think it is actually FullHD.
This is not a massive problem but means the screen might not be so perfect. For £500 you should expect real FullHD.

As an example you will see on this site (eBuyer) the resolution and "native" resolution options down the side https://www.ebuyer.com/store/Visual/cat/Projectors?q=projector&price=20+TO+588

If it is any help I have an older one I used to use in my office which has been retired from daily use. More than happy to do you a small price and shipment, where are you based ? I can get the spec if you like?

I recently purchased one of these for similar purpose with my semi retirement role with a GP Surgery so budget was low..

Epson EH TW650 from Currys

I used to use expensive Dell projectors but this is far brighter and easy to set up with decent 'throw' on lens to ensure a good screen projection size. Very impressed.

Mind you I expect you could find second hand ones as everyone in corporate world is switching to large flat screens.

I saw some Epson projectors at £ 70,000!!!!

Thanks for the offer Alistair.

My existing laptop is a pretty ancient Dell Latitude D410: it's well over ten years old. It's so old the battery gave up ages ago but it works fine on the mains.

It has VGA and USB ports but no HDMI. I have however, a conversion lead that takes the VGA feed to an HDMI socket which works fine with my smart TV.

The only key feature I know I'd need is tomb stoning.

Thanks in anticipation.

Roady

Do you not have Lara Croft's number?

I am guessing you mean Keystoning or making the side parallel when aiming from short range?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystone_effect

It has VGA so direct connection is fine with a standard VGA lead. It has probably less than a couple of hundred hours on the bulb.

I will look it out this evening when I get home, once tested we can flip it to DM and sort out details. Where are you based as if it is in the Basingrad/Newbury/Reading area I am able to drop off, if not then it means posting and they are a little delicate.