David Sheffield asked 3 months ago
I am planning on buying my first projector. I have already purchased an Elite Screens Yard Master 2, 120 inch Outdoor Projector Screen that can be used indoors and outdoors but only for a few months of the year in both arenas. After reading lots and lots of reviews, I think I’ve narrowed it down to these projectors.
- Benq HT2050A
- Epson HC1060 (greater >3000 lumens)
- Epson HT2150
Reviewers recommend the Benq HT2050A as being popular, but they can’t be sure of how well it will handle outdoors projections.
I am interested in being able to adjust images due to portability and quick-setup requirements. In considering a printer, I have seen many reviews of the Epson HT2150 breaking down after a few months (1 star reviews on amazon, epson.com, etc). Is this a cause for concern?
Can you recommend a projector that is suitable for my needs?
I have another question about the sound output. I need to be able to place it and take it down, so do you think I should use an AVR or can I just feed the HDMI signal into an external speaker?
Alex Norman Staff answered 3 months ago
The Benq projectors are definitely worth considering. Benq has an excellent warranty service and is probably the most reliable brand out there, although it might not be quite as bright as the Epson above.
The HC1060 is a great option as well, but do note that it doesn’t support external microphones or speakers. You can either connect them to it directly (they have 1 audio input) or you can use any AVR/receiver with HDMI input for sound. It will then pass through the video signal correctly, so you won’t see any delay on screen. I’d recommend this one over the Epson if you don’t need too much brightness (don’t watch in the sun all day long ).
The Epson they list is also very good, but it’s much brighter (3000lm) and can use up a lot of power which may be undesirable for an outdoor setup. It also doesn’t support using external microphones or speakers (you need to connect them directly to the projector), though if you get some sort of small mixer/amplifier it should work just fine.
If you want even more brightness, though, here’s what I’d do: Get that Benq HT2050A , along with either a high brightness LED light (either from eBay or Amazon ) OR two cheap LED floodlights . Use gaffer tape or something similar to stick those lights onto the screen where there are no shading parts of the screen. That will give you a lot more brightness for not much extra money and without having to worry about any other issues (no AVR/receiver needed, etc).
Hope this helps!