Anybody have do's/don'ts for a projector for outdoor movies? Brands to avoid or ones you recommend? Need to keep projector cost under $1000. Projecting onto a 12' screen. Need a variable throw from up to 20'-25'. TIA

What time of day? If anything but fairly dark outside, you'll need a lumen output that likely out-strips the budget. For outdoor displays, the more lumens the better honestly...

What resolution? If you are just doing informal movie night type of things, a lower resolution could allow for more brightness at the cost of resolution.

I've had good luck with Optoma projectors in darkness-challenged environments. A TX1080 was the last one I installed; was 3000 lumens I think?

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-TX1080.htm

https://www.ebay.com/itm/OPTOMA-TX1080-DLP-Conference-Room-Projector-1920-x-1080-374-Lamp-Hours/382584926555?epid=1207466446&hash=item5913d6b15b:g:u3EAAOSwS~Fbu347:rk:6:pf:0

Haven't tried it outdoors, but did have it in conference room with gigantic windows without shades. Worked fairly well!

HDMI input, 1080p, decent brightness.

Second the above. Find something that's above 3000 lumens and 1080p. 4k will nuke your budget. The variable throw will push you into the upper half of the budget. If it's just movie nights and what not you can go cheaper with an Epson or ViewSonic for dependability. I'm looking into a short throw for rear projection or doing what you're doing. Everything I've read says 3000 lumens is your baseline or you'll be waiting until very late in the day.

aezmvp said:

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Second the above. Find something that's above 3000 lumens and 1080p. 4k will nuke your budget. The variable throw will push you into the upper half of the budget. If it's just movie nights and what not you can go cheaper with an Epson or ViewSonic for dependability. I'm looking into a short throw for rear projection or doing what you're doing. Everything I've read says 3000 lumens is your baseline or you'll be waiting until very late in the day.

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Anything with native 4K support basically starts at $5k.

Thanks for the feedback. Very helpful!

12' screen at 20-25' throw is probably going to be pretty tough. Especially under $1000. BenQ makes a quality budget projector.

I use a rear projection screen That allows me to keep my projector on the porch (weather protected) and shorten the throw I would want if front projector.

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Anything with native 4K support basically starts at $5k.

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They are outside of his budget, but the latest bunch of true 4k projectors are coming in under $1,500.

https://www.projectorcentral.com/BenQ-TK800-review-update.htm

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Viewsonic-PX727-4K-review.htm

https://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-UHD50-review.htm

Thanks again for all the feedback. Very helpful indeed.

I have enjoyed my BenQ short throw projector. We routinely watch games in the neighborhood projecting on an entire garage door with the projector only about 8ft from the door.

In all fairness he did say native 4K. Those projectors you listed don't have native 4K panels and rely on pixel shifting to upscale the image. It will give you a better image than 1080P but not true 4K.

NM

Had to nuke last night's post to make sure I knew what I was talking about...

Well, it's not really like pixel shift. Pixel shift was a 1080P chip that would move up/down and side to side .5 pixels in each direction. These DLP chips have 1/2 the mirrors of full UHD instead of 1/4 and they do 2 full pixels per frame. I would guess that it reduces brightness a bit, but it is a true 4k image per frame.

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The DLP 4K UHD solution uses the fast speed of the chip with advanced image processing to deliver more than 8 million pixels to the screen with just 4 million mirrors. Each mirror is capable of switching over 9,000 times per second, creating two distinct and unique pixels on the screen during every frame to deliver full 4K UHD resolution.

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tfunk02 said:

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Had to nuke last night's post to make sure I knew what I was talking about...

Well, it's not really like pixel shift. Pixel shift was a 1080P chip that would move up/down and side to side .5 pixels in each direction. These DLP chips have 1/2 the mirrors of full UHD instead of 1/4 and they do 2 full pixels per frame. I would guess that it reduces brightness a bit, but it is a true 4k image per frame.

Quote:

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The DLP 4K UHD solution uses the fast speed of the chip with advanced image processing to deliver more than 8 million pixels to the screen with just 4 million mirrors. Each mirror is capable of switching over 9,000 times per second, creating two distinct and unique pixels on the screen during every frame to deliver full 4K UHD resolution.

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Thanks for the heads up on the lower tier point. I read about Sony's $5k projector when it was first announced and then their updated model this year. I am 2 to 3 years out from a basement build out and another year or so for theater equipment so I don't follow the projector world as intently as I should.

I would have also accepted this meme instead of Lee Corso:

A random side point would be to look for lens-shift to be a function of any projector you purchase. I like the flexibility that it gives the location of the projector.