Power Point Projectors: What You Should Look For

If you are a “tech illiterate” like I was, but you need to purchase a Power Point Projector for an upcoming assignment or graphic presentation, it can be a daunting task. Thus, this short guide was written with you in mind, to fill you in on just the projector basics. When searching for your presentation projector, you will often come across the basic terms you learn about in this article, but now you will have the understanding to make a solid decision.

When an image is projected, it is made up of a quantity of dots of light called pixels. Your laptop or video source determines the resolution and if you are going to upgrade soon, you may wish to pick an LCD projector with a high resolution.

It used to be that VGA (640X480) was the “hot” resolution but as in all computer items that has been replaced by SVGA (800×600) and XGA (1,024×768). You may even hear about SXGA (1,280×1, 024) that will give you even greater resolution, but tends to run on the expensive side.  Some projectors support a number of different resolutions, but the “default” is usually referred to as its native resolution.

Brightness is a key characteristic to not in your projector search, it’s especially important for making presentations on the go in rooms that might not have optimal darkness. Projector brightness is measured in lumens.  The brightness of a projector in lumens is a very important specification to consider when doing power point presentations on the go or even in a conference room with the lights on. Large sized venues or semi-lit screening areas require a very bright projector, something over 4000 lumens would not be unheard of in this situation.  Small audience—dark room—1,000 lumens. You often see lumens expressed as Ansi lumens in projector literature, ANSI is just a uniform standard of measuring lumens, by having a standard you can be sure you are comparing “apples to apples” as the saying goes.

The term “throw distance” is also a common one in projector speak, it simply means the distance that is the optimal placement for a projector from the screen.  For projectors that are designed to operate in large venues, further than 15 ft back from the screen, large throw or long throw lenses are the norm. With a short throw presentation projector, your can make a presentation with the projector behind you, close to the screen and not have to worry about casting a shadow over your wonderful power point graphics.

Compatibility between your projector and laptop is also very important for smooth on the go presentations. Be sure that the resolution of both the projector and your laptop are compatible, ideally the same. Most of the time this is not an issue. In any case, still check to make sure you have the proper ports and cables at your disposal to connect your devices. Again, it’s exceedingly important that everything is compatible with your laptop.

When you look at a variety of projectors with your needs in mind, you can make an informed decision. Believe it or not, you can find some of the best deals on power point projectors on ebay through projectorselect.com, see it for yourself.