Dell 3200MP, VGA input, business vs. home cinema projectors ....

[dave48]

My first post for a long time ...

I just got a Dell 3200MP projector for the office. Since it was Christmas, I decided to go home and connect it to my DVD player and PC to see what happened. My findings were as follows:

- using the composite output from my Sony NS900V projecting onto my slide projection screen, I found the picture quality pretty moderate, in general i felt the picture on the tele was better, and I began to think that projectors are a waste of time. Also the DLP "rainbow effect" was starting to drive me nuts. (I was using Gladiator as my test DVD).

- at a friend's house I connected the projector using the VGA input to a reasonable PC and played a DVD on the PC (using a plaster wall as projection screen - I had recently taken the wallpaper off!). The picture quality was much better, although very slightly jerky in scenes were a lot was happening (this may be lack of PC performance and I was only using the Real Player, rather than Power DVD or anything similar). Things now started looking much more interesting, although I had been expecting to get a much better picture from the composite output of what is a not bad DVD player rather than from a highly non-optimised PC. The rainbow effect was considerably less (using LOTR part 2).

My questions are as follows:

- I assume the Dell is basically for business use, are there home projectors that are considerably better for DVDs / telly playback? For home use I am only really interested in playing films, however being able to project the PC screen (i.e. having a VGA input and possibly VGA output as well) would be very useful

- any good suggestions (in a similar price range, ie. £1K - £1.5K) for better alternatives?

- I don't have a dedicated home cinema room, so I need a projector solution that I can put in place in a few minutes and that doesn't take up too much cupboard space.

- what is the best way of connecting a projector with a long lead? I really need something at least 10m, possibly 15-20m, depending how I arrange things. Which cables are best over this distance, whilst remaining affordable? (I have two high quality 10m S-VHS cables, however the crappy Dell S-VHS socket is built so I can't fir either of these cables - unbelievable). Can I use a 10m VGA lead or is composite better?

Any help appreciated - until I tried the projector with the PC this afternoon, I was starting to congratulate myself on *not* spending a pile of cash on yet another "toy".

Dave.

P.S. I assume I have posted this thread in the correct section, i.e. *not* the CRT section?

[dave48]

Ping?

[theritz]

Hi Dave and welcome to the forums......

The lack of a response could be as a result of nt having a clear impression of what you want....... but here's a start anyway....


- I assume the Dell is basically for business use, are there home projectors that are considerably better for DVDs / telly playback? For home use I am only really interested in playing films, however being able to project the PC screen (i.e. having a VGA input and possibly VGA output as well) would be very useful

If you want to be able to connect to a pc and a projector at the same time, then you should get a video card with two VGA outputs, or a VGA and DVi output - there are probably projectors with VGA in and out, but I don't know of any off hand, certainly not home cinema projectors anyway.


- any good suggestions (in a similar price range, ie. £1K - £1.5K) for better alternatives?

Can't comment on the Dell model, but the current round of home cinema projectors are pretty well covered in discussion here over the last couple of months - some reading of the threads here and some surfing will get you up to speed. In the budget you're looking at the AE200, AE300 (Panasonic) Sanyo Z1. Z2, would be worth considering. Panasonic AE500 is due to come to market soon, may already be available in Germany - try Grobi.tv.


- I don't have a dedicated home cinema room, so I need a projector solution that I can put in place in a few minutes and that doesn't take up too much cupboard space.

Most of the current crop of home cinema projectors will allow you to do this.


- what is the best way of connecting a projector with a long lead? I really need something at least 10m, possibly 15-20m, depending how I arrange things. Which cables are best over this distance, whilst remaining affordable? (I have two high quality 10m S-VHS cables, however the crappy Dell S-VHS socket is built so I can't fir either of these cables - unbelievable). Can I use a 10m VGA lead or is composite better?

A 10m VGA cable is your best bet - shouldn't be too expensive, try Lindy online, or your local cable supplier. I wouldn't bother with composite, and Svideo from a computer isn't worth bothering with compared to pixel matching 1:1 from a pc.

The Projector FAQ at the top of the page is worth reading also.

All the best,

Sean G.