In these challenging economic times, you might find yourself wondering if a LCD or plasma monitor is a viable option. At $700 they aren’t cheap, thanks to the all the parts required for their production, and certainly aren’t portable like a projector.

Projectors can be purchased for well under $1000, and can be displayed on screens much larger than a plasma TV. If finances are an issue you should forecast your projector lamp usage and plan on purchasing a replacement lamp well before the existing one burns out. You should also plan on paying a slightly higher price for the projector lamps in the short term. OEM lamps are the best option for projector lamps.

Presentation projectors are becoming everyday tools for business presentations. Today’s lightweight and affordable portable projectors provide the image quality needed for a wide variety of venues including boardrooms, classrooms and trade shows. Presentation Projectors can be moved from location to location or can be semi-permanently suspended by a ceiling mount for ready-to-use viewing.

Because presentation projectors are such an everyday tool now, here are some quick tips for making sure your presentation is successful.
Before you write your presentation, determine how far away your audience will be from the screen and choose your font size accordingly. A 1″ typeface is readable from ten feet away, 2″ from 20 feet away, and so on. 72 point fonts are 1″ high.

Use a sans serif font such as Verdana. Serif fonts like Times are great on paper but don’t work nearly as well on screen. Use a narrow font if you need to squeeze a lot of text into a small space.

Consider using a wireless mouse so you can run your presentation without being near the laptop.

Keep in mind that sunlight shining on your screen will wash it out so choose the right location for your laptop.

If you are presenting to a very small group (1-4) people you could just put your laptop in the middle of the table and pass it around instead of using a screen. This will encourage more communication and make it more intimate.

Be careful with color. Red and green in particular get washed out on screen. Another problem with red and greens is that 10% of the population have difficulty seeing red and green due to color blindness.

Above all, don’t sacrifice readability for style. Your job is to communicate.

If you want to upgrade from a TV set to a home theater system then a portable front-projection system is a smart choice.

There are two basic types of portable front-projection projectors: LCD and DLP (which uses a silicon chip). These projectors are so compact and lightweight that they are easily hidden on a shelf and can be kept entirely out of view. And the projector screen can even be paper-thin and placed against a wall because it doesn’t have any electronics inside of it. This saves a great deal of space when you compare it to a big-screen television or CRT projector. A portable projector system is also less expensive than a television or CRT projector and projects a picture more than 10x brighter. It’s literally like being in a movie theater and has a huge picture (up to 300 inch screen size).

So before you run out and buy a 50″ screen TV, consider a home theater system instead.

Aspect ratio is one of the most important considerations in your home theater.
The aspect ratio is the ratio of video image’s width to its height. Standard television screens are 4:3; this means that the video is four units wide for every three units of height. Another way to refer to the 4:3 format is by the numeric value 1.33 (4 divided by 3). The picture can then be thought of as having 1.33 units of width for each unit of height.

All standard television programs today are broadcast in 4:3. Most older classic movies were also filmed in 4:3. Today’s movies, however, are produced in widescreen formats. There are several widescreen formats. The back cover of most DVDs will tell you the aspect ratio. It usually won’t be 4:33 (1.33). The most common is 2.35. This means that for each unit of image height, the picture will be 2.35 units in width.

A movie with a 2.35 aspect ratio won’t fit on a 4:3 (1.33) screen without compromising. There are two ways to work around this. The first is to simply show the movie in its original aspect ratio. This shows you the movie the way it was filmed but, unfortunately, the picture will look smaller because you will only use a portion of the television’s 4:3 display area. The other option is to use the “pan and scan” feature but this will cut off some of the original film in order to fill the entire 4:33 screen.

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1) Projector Resolution. I will pretend I have a Panasonic PT-AE2000U projector, 16:9 aspect ratio for playing Hi-Def movies in a home theater. That means I should use a 16:9 HDTV format screen to get the biggest and best picture.

2) Ceiling Height. My ceilings are 8 ft. high. So my screen should be 48 in. high at the most. That means the largest screen I can fit in my small home theater is 92 in. diagonal 16:9 HDTV format (45 in. H x 80 in W).

3) Distance from Screen to Audience. If you prefer a smaller screen, the rule of thumb that screen width is based on the distance between viewer and screen offers some guidance. For example, if you set up the couch 10 ft. or 120 in. away, then the screen should be at least 20 in. wide (1/6 of 120 in.). That means a screen that is anywhere between 20 in. and 80 in. wide with a 16:9 aspect ratio will fit in my home theater.

Remember to use these points merely as a guide. There is no substitution for good common sense. If you think the screen is going to be too big for your room, go and measure the space. Typically with home theater setups I would not go any bigger than 120″ diagonal. The recommended size for your basic home theater is in the 100″ diagonal range. This will typically give you your best viewing image.

1. Portable. These easily travel from location to location.

2. Manual. These are mounted on a wall or ceiling and can be pulled down when needed. These are popular in classrooms and meeting rooms because they are economical and are well-suited for situations where a screen is not needed constantly, thereby freeing up the wall space for other needs.

3. Electric. The screen is raised and lowered by remote control or an inline switch. These motorized screens are used in large churches, auditoriums and boardrooms. They are easy to use and ideal for those situations where the screen is large and it would be awkward or difficult to pull it down manually.

4. Fixed. These are perfect for home theaters and meeting rooms where a screen is used on a daily or very regular basis. They range in size from anywhere to a small home theater to a large scale movie theater.

When choosing a type of screen, think about the screen size you will need and how often you will use the screen. Thanks to the high quality projectors on the market today you can get a high-quality viewing experience with any of these four screen options.