current replacement for slide projector

current replacement for slide projector

I've been out of touch for more decades than I care to admit. At some
future point I must be able to project digital images onto a screen,
but it seems the days of the 35mm slide projector are over.

What is now the best way to project digital images onto a screen? The
digital projectors one can rent apparently only handle video formats,
but I suspect that I could somehow connect such a projector to a
laptop on which I have stored digital images. How does one do that?

Sorry for the naive question, but this is just not the kind of thing I
have ever had to worry about.

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Re: current replacement for slide projector

Haines Brown wrote:
> I've been out of touch for more decades than I care to admit. At some
> future point I must be able to project digital images onto a screen,
> but it seems the days of the 35mm slide projector are over.
>
> What is now the best way to project digital images onto a screen? The
> digital projectors one can rent apparently only handle video formats,
> but I suspect that I could somehow connect such a projector to a
> laptop on which I have stored digital images. How does one do that?
>
> Sorry for the naive question, but this is just not the kind of thing I
> have ever had to worry about.

Data projectors can be used to project any image, not just video.
Make sure that the projector that you're looking at isn't just a video
projector.

Another alternative is to burn a DVD with your picutres on it and play
it in and ordinary DVD player connected to a nice, large TV.

Re: current replacement for slide projector

dj_nme <dj_nme@hotmail . com > writes:

> Data projectors can be used to project any image, not just video.
> Make sure that the projector that you're looking at isn't just a video
> projector.

Thanks for the reply. It's good to know that some (but not all)
projectors can handle fixed image data as well as video. But how does
one get that data (on a laptop or burned onto a cd) to the projector?
I assume it has no cdrom drive.

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Re: current replacement for slide projector

On Mon, 15 Jan 2007 16:04:03 -0500, Haines Brown
<brownh@teufel.hartford-hwp . com > wrote:

>dj_nme <dj_nme@hotmail . com > writes:
>
>> Data projectors can be used to project any image, not just video.
>> Make sure that the projector that you're looking at isn't just a video
>> projector.
>
>Thanks for the reply. It's good to know that some (but not all)
>projectors can handle fixed image data as well as video. But how does
>one get that data (on a laptop or burned onto a cd) to the projector?
>I assume it has no cdrom drive.

There are projectors that plug into the monitor connector of a computer. They
project whatever's on the screen. They also cost considerably more than a
Carosel.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Retired Shop Rat: 14,647 days in a GM plant.
Now I can do what I enjoy: Large Format Photography

Web Site: w w w .destarr . com
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Re: current replacement for slide projector


So the alternatives for presenting a slide show seem to narrow down
to:

1. Burn a slide show onto a DVD disk, and then hook a DVD player to a
TV set to display it the show. This has the advantage of the
inclusion of sound. If the DVD is played on a computer, then the
method below would allow it to be projected.

2. If one wants to project to a screen, a digital projector can be
connected to a TV set output or to a computer's monitor connection
to project a slide show being run on the computer.

With a quick look at a few projectors in the market, I find that they
come with a Mini D-sub 15 connector. Am I correct to assume that this
connector is for a computer video connection, and so that the great
majority if not all digital projectors can be hooked to a computer's
video output as well as TV output connectors?

Your statement seemed to imply that there are projectors that can't be
so connected. Perhaps they are older or cheaper models. You also said
they cost considerably more than a Carosel, but the current price of
$600-700, seems a lot less than it was a few years ago.

--

Haines Brown, KB1GRM

Re: current replacement for slide projector


"Haines Brown" <brownh@teufel.hartford-hwp . com > wrote in message
news:87r6tunc5y.fsf@teufel.hartford-hwp . com ...
>
> So the alternatives for presenting a slide show seem to narrow down
> to:
>
> 1. Burn a slide show onto a DVD disk, and then hook a DVD player to a
> TV set to display it the show. This has the advantage of the
> inclusion of sound. If the DVD is played on a computer, then the
> method below would allow it to be projected.
>
> 2. If one wants to project to a screen, a digital projector can be
> connected to a TV set output or to a computer's monitor connection
> to project a slide show being run on the computer.
>

This is from 2003, but is essentially accurate:

"DIGITAL PROJECTORS: Unfortunately digital projector technology as of 2003
is still too crude for serious still photographic images. I have worked with
$200,000 digital cinema projectors and these give swell color and dynamics,
but unfortunately don't have enough resolution for still images. The top
digital cinema projectors today are still limited to 1,280 x 960 resolution
which is great for moving images, but still too low for a good still image.
Your eye sees far more detail when the subject is not moving. As of November
2003 TI is introducing the M25-based digital cinema 2,048 x 1,024 which
sells for around $100,000.
Likewise, the $2,000 projectors used by businessmen for presentations look
great for graphics, but unfortunately are also limited to the same
resolution and, unlike the digital cinema projectors, have awful color. The
business projectors you are likely to borrow from your office or buy today
at best have a mercury or metal halide or HMI lamp, which are seriously
deficient in red. This gives them a brilliant bluish white color that makes
them look extra bright and impressive for boring bar charts of sales
figures, but make your reds look dull and dark. If you borrow one of these
I'd try putting a pinkish gel over the lens to try to add back in some of
the deficiency in red. If you're a real hacker you could try to profile it.
Of course the older dim LCD projectors are all obsolete today and the DLP
ones are the way to go. Watch out: I know these look great for business
presentations because I use them for this all the time. When I realized
before doing a business talk that I could fire up Photoshop and see my work
on the big screen I realized what is only obvious after you try it: there
are not enough pixels for real pictures. You can see the individual pixels
on many of these which looks fine for graphics, but looks hideous for real
pictures. The problem with the under $100,000 projectors is the light
source. If you can find a projector with a commercial motion picture xenon
arc or halogen light source you'll be OK for color except that you'll still
too low for resolution. Avoid the vast majority of projectors with HMI
lights, which are all the ones I've seen for business use.

I'm warning you: I've had access to some pretty exotic projectors as part of
my real job in Hollywood and they look bad for still photos, even if movies
and business charts look spectacular."



* w w w .kenrockwell . com /tech/filmdig.htm