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Choosing A Projector For 3D House

Mapping
Figuring out what kind of projector to get for this kind of project
can be a little intimidating. In this article, we try to break it down
to its simplest form so that you know what to look for. You need
to pay attention to 3 main things: throw ratio, resolution, and
brightness.

Throw Ratio: Go For Short Throw

Throw ratio is simply how big the projected image will be based
on how far away your projector is from your house. Most
projectors have about a 1.5:1 throw ratio which means for every
1.5 feet of distance the image will be about 1 foot wide.

Lets say you plan on putting your projector on the sidewalk in

front of your house and your sidewalk is 30 feet away. At that
distance, a standard throw projector will produce an image
about 20 feet wide. Unless you have a very small house, that is
probably not big enough. You will need a lot more distance to
get an image large enough to cover your whole house. If you
have a large property or your neighbors across the street dont
mind you projecting from there, it is possible that you could get
enough distance to make it work.

However, most people will want to use a short throw projector

instead. A typical short throw projector has a throw ratio of
about .5:1. That means for every half foot of distance the image
will be about 1 foot wide. 30 feet of distance with a short throw
projector will get you an image about 60 feet wide! That will
denitely work for the majority of houses.

Short throw projectors tend to be more expensive because it

costs more to make the lenses. As you might expect, they are
also a bit harder to nd. Unfortunately, the exact throw ratio is
often left out of the projector specications which can be
confusing. However, the term short throw is an important
feature, so it will denitely be mentioned if the projector has it.
On the other hand, if the description of the projector does not
mention short throw, then it almost certainly is standard throw
because that is most common.

You may also see ultra short throw projectors. They will produce
an even larger image with less distance, but for most situations
that is probably overkill.

Resolution: Higher Is Better

The resolution of the projector determines how sharp the
projected image will be. Since we are blowing up the image big
enough to cover a house, it makes quite a bit of dierence in the
nal look. A projected image is made up of thousands of tiny
little squares or pixels. The more squares there are, the sharper
the image. Naturally, you will want the most pixels you can
possibly get, but the more squares, the greater the expense.

It isnt always easy to tell exactly what the resolution of a

projector is. Some manufacturers will call their product an HD
projector, but they are referring to the resolution of the video
input rather than the output. That is misleading because almost
any projector can accept HD video input, but it has nothing to do
with the quality of the image the projector produces.

When checking the resolution of a projector, the term you want

to look for is native resolution. Native resolution is the highest
resolution the projector can produce. The industry has
established acronyms for certain projector native resolutions
and you will often see these when projector shopping. Below are
the most common:

SVGA = 800 x 600 (800 squares across and 600 squares down)
XGA = 1024 x 768
WXGA = 1280 x 800
WUXGA = 1920 x 1080

There are also two types of HDTV resolutions you will see:

720p = 1280 x 720

1080p = 1920 x 1080

Any of these resolutions mentioned above will work for this type
of project, but the larger the numbers, the sharper the image will
be. We dont recommend that you use anything less than 800 x
600 resolution for this type of project and then only on smaller
houses. 1024 x 768 seems to be the sweet spot in terms of
quality for the price. 1920 x 1080 is the best and that is the
same resolution at which we provide the videos. Anything higher
than that is overkill.

Brightness: Brighter Is Always Better!

A bright projector will make the dierence between a murky,
dark image, and a crisp clear one. If your home has a lot of
ambient light from street lamps or other lights, then you will
denitely need a bright projector to overcome that.

Brightness is measured in lumens. One lumen is approximately

equal to the amount of light a lit candle will produce. A
standardized procedure for testing projectors for brightness has
been established by the American National Standards Institute
(ANSI). The best measurement of brightness for a projector will
always be ANSI lumens, so that is something to look for. Some
projectors claim to be brighter than they really are because they
are using a dierent method for measuring brightness.

We recommend that your projector produces about 2,500 ANSI

lumens or even better, if possible. You could probably get by on
1,500 lumens if the area around your house is very dark, but we
wouldnt recommend going any lower than that.

Beware Of LED Projectors!

LED or Light-Emitting Diode technology is all the rage right now.
It is a new, more energy ecient way of producing light than
traditional light bulbs. Cheap LED projectors have ooded the
market in recent years.

We highly recommend that you go with a projector that has a

traditional Halogen bulb rather than LED. Projectors need to
produce a lot of light and Halogen is just much brighter for the
money. LED technology is rapidly improving, but it will be a long
time before LED projectors with enough ANSI lumens to match
Halogen will be available for a reasonable price.

Many people say that LED projectors have the appearance of

being three times brighter when compared to a Halogen
projector because they have a more bluish light. In fact, a new
measurement called LED lumens has been established in an
attempt to account for this apparent dierence. In my opinion, it
is hogwash. A lumen is a lumen no matter what source the light
comes from. LED lumens are just a marketing ploy to confuse
consumers and convince them that LED projectors are brighter
than they really are.

The bottom line is that, if you see an LED projector, take the
advertised lumens number, divide by 3 and that will give you the
actual ANSI lumens. For example: an LED projector advertised at
3000 lumens is probably only 1000 ANSI lumens.

Not Much Difference Between LCD Versus

DLP
There are 2 types of prevailing digital projection technologies:
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) and DLP (Digital Light Processing).
DLP uses thousands of tiny mirrors to form the image while LCD
is similar to the technology used in at screen TVs. Both
technologies work very well and neither seems to have a
signicant advantage over the other. I have heard from a reliable
source that LCD projectors are slightly brighter by virtue of the
way the technology works. I havent tested that theory and I
actually use a DLP projector on my own house, but I thought I
would share it anyway.

By the way, dont confuse LED (Light-Emitting Diode) with LCD

(Liquid Crystal Display). LED is a type of lamp producing the
light. LCD is a technology used to form the image with the light.

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Wow! It looks greeeeeeaaat! What a hit! Halloween was the best.

Thank you!
Lori Schutzenhofer

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