Projector Demo Advice

[kinda]

Hello, I'm demoing two projectors at the weekend, and was hoping to get some advice on how to approach it.

I'm intending to go with scenes with stark white moving on a black background, some dark scenes, some fast moving stuff, close ups of real people, try to make sure I've covered deep reds, blues and greens, but other than that just scenes I know well.

I'm also intending to show me with the lights up as well as down, and to remember to get them to turn the sound down so that I can listen to the fan, (in the different brightness modes).

Wondered if anyone alese had got any further advice, or some good discs or scenes to demo with?

Any thoughts much appreciated.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Don't worry too much about close ups - these look good on anything. The bigger tell tale is distance shots. This is something Bluray is good at, so the projector should resolve the small details involved. Try distance shots of buildings or landscapes. One thing to trry, if you have Dark Knight, is the opening scene showing the cityscape as the camera slowly zooms toward the window that's about to be blown out - while the camera is zooming in, the edges of the buildings and windows should be rock solid. With some projectors, the edges flicker and are not properly solid.

 

[kinda]

Thanks a lot. That's useful advice. I don't have any BluRay disks, but hopefully they will have some at the demo. I'll be taking DVDs, and maybe my HD recorder.

 

[Frank Harvey]

I'd ask the sales guy to send the signal out from the DVD player in standard 576i to the projectors - letting the projectors do the upscaling will tell you a lot about how they handle non HD stuff.

And if you're only trying SD stuff, ignore what I said about background detail - DVD is too compressed to handle it!

 

[BlackSpy]

I'd say demo lots of grey and off white. Or frankly almost anything that comes in almost any monochrome with a little variation.

 

[kinda]

Thanks everyone so far.

It has made me think that I'd not taken into account how I'm going to assess the BluRay performance when I don't use it at the moment, but at least I can compare projectors for it.

BlackSpy, would a black and white film be good source material. What qualities am I looking out for?

 

[Anonymous]

I bought mine based on how well it shows black levels. Check if you can see different subtle shades of black and dark grey in dark scenes and shadows.

No idea which projectors you'll audition, but if there's a DLP make sure you're not sensitive to the color wheel effect (try looking at the screen in different angles, or even slightly besides the screen).

There's a few other important things you could think about: Fan noise. Do you need lens shift? Throw distance (how big do you want the screen to be?). Bulb life. Price of replacement bulbs. Availability of affordable mounts.

 

[Anonymous]

You should also audition the projector(s) and screen combination together, especially if you're going to be trying varying levels of ambient light.

 

[Anonymous]

Wall-E is a nice show off for projectors.

 

[kinda]

Thanks everyone for the advice.

Been one of those weeks this week, but I'll be looking through the replies and getting an approach and disks together tomorrow.

I suppose my main aim for the demo is to understand the quality on offer at different prices, and compare to my CRT for various content and lighting. Also to get a feel for how loud they are.

I think stuff like screen and ease of install and so on I can look into later. I won't be signing up to buy anything tomorrow, (unless I get carried away!).