Projector for use with a laptop.

Brazo

Brazo

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I need to buy a projector (should really buy two) for training purposes. I will be travelling to businesses and training people and need a projector for my laptop. I have a spare laptop for redundancy but would be buggered if projector broke so I need two.

Don’t want to spend a fortune maybe £150 for both. Is this feasible? Doesn’t need to be brilliant quality.

Anything have any recommendations?
 
Have you tested both laptops with projectors, mine won’t connect to them at all, but will connect to monitors on the same port...
 
Brazo said:
I need to buy a projector (should really buy two) for training purposes. I will be travelling to businesses and training people and need a projector for my laptop. I have a spare laptop for redundancy but would be buggered if projector broke so I need two.

Don’t want to spend a fortune maybe £150 for both. Is this feasible? Doesn’t need to be brilliant quality.

Anything have any recommendations?
Click to expand...

£150 for one decent one isn't feasible TBH. Questions to ask yourself:

How large an image will you need to project? This has a very strong influence on the next question:
What brightness do you need? Is it for a small projected image in a darkened room or a large one in daylight? For a darkened room I'd say minimum 800 lumens, and for daylight 4000+ Lumens.
What resolution do you need? Will the viewers be reading large text & crude graphics or fine text with a view to acquiring detailed information? Projectors tend to have a lower resolution output than typical computer screens, and even then may not provide a sharply focussed image if the optics are less than great.
What distance will you be projecting over? Projector lenses need to be designed for short or long throw.
Do you need to put audio through it?
What kind of connection/output does your computer have? HDMI seems nearly universal now, but if it's older then it might have VGA.

Prices are much lower now than they were a few years back, and you might find something usable for £200. The last daylight projector I sourced was about £480 around 3 years ago, and before that £900 around 6 years ago.

This might be useful: https://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/projectors/tr-top-10-best-home-cinema-projectors-1291490 best budget model at £360.

I've had a quick look on HUKD, and if you don't mind ordering from a Chinese store (select ships from GW4 for a European warehouse) there is this for £115: https://www.gearbest.com/projectors/pp_775859.html? No idea if it's actually usable though.
 
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Thanks @ancient_mariner

TBH I’m not so much looking for a decent one as one for occasional use with a spare if it goes south.

There are 2200lumen ones on amazon for £85 each 480p which for large text and basic diagrams should suffice.

Only concern is how dark the room would have to be!!
 
Amazon's returns policy is pretty good so you could return it if it's not up to the job.
 
Thanks all.

Thinking about it no reason why I can’t buy one semi decent one at £200 and one really cheap and nasty one for backup!

When I include ppt in the amazon search it starts at £200!
 
I can't really help you with regard to projectors. The only ones I've dealt with are those we use at our camera club, and we'e looking at 1920x1200 resolution, 5000 lumens, £3000+. Not really the same kind of animal. But I would like to grill you on your budget. You want to get a projector and a backup for £150. Really? Why?

I don't know what type of training you provide or how often you do it. So feel free to substitute your own numbers here. It's the approach that counts.

Suppose you need to use the projector once a week, and you expect it to last 3 years before requiring replacement. That's 150 uses. So you're budgeting £1 per session. If you have an average of 10 people in our training sessions, you're budgeting £0.10 per person per session. If you want to double the amount you're spending on your projectors, you'll have to put up your prices by an extra £0.10 per person per session. Do you think your clients would accept that? Buy a pair of decent projectors for say £500 each, and you'll have to put up your prices by around £0.50 per person per session. Do you think your clients would accept that?
 
StewartR said:
I can't really help you with regard to projectors. The only ones I've dealt with are those we use at our camera club, and we'e looking at 1920x1200 resolution, 5000 lumens, £3000+. Not really the same kind of animal. But I would like to grill you on your budget. You want to get a projector and a backup for £150. Really? Why?

I don't know what type of training you provide or how often you do it. So feel free to substitute your own numbers here. It's the approach that counts.

Suppose you need to use the projector once a week, and you expect it to last 3 years before requiring replacement. That's 150 uses. So you're budgeting £1 per session. If you have an average of 10 people in our training sessions, you're budgeting £0.10 per person per session. If you want to double the amount you're spending on your projectors, you'll have to put up your prices by an extra £0.10 per person per session. Do you think your clients would accept that? Buy a pair of decent projectors for say £500 each, and you'll have to put up your prices by around £0.50 per person per session. Do you think your clients would accept that?
Click to expand...
It won’t be once a week, more like once every two months. It will be used for ppt presentations with predominantly large text and simple graphics and whilst I could cover a better unit I’m not sure I see the need given my usage scenario.
 
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