Is this Digital Video Projecter Good?

Question

It is a Used Dell 1200mp DLP Projector

2000 ansi lumens

2100:1 contrast ratio

4:3 aspect ratio

800x600 native resolution

0.627m-7.257m image size

1m-10m projection distance

16,700,000 colours

at least 1000 hours of lamp life left

in excellent condition

$346.17 total price

i want to use this projector for PS2, Austar and DVDs

should I buy it?????????????????????????????

Answer 1

At that price I'd say its a low end projector not suitable for video games.

It might be good only for office presentation works.

Better, get a good new CRT TV for your money.

Answer 2

this seems to me like it is more of a computer presentation projector.  the contrast ratio gives it away.  the higher the contrast ratio the better.

you also need to check the input connections.  it may not have enough for what you want to do.

Answer 3

Dell projectors don't have a great reputation for home theatre use (they are primarily business class projectors) but it should be OK for DVDs and games.

The 800x600 resolution allows for OK resolution of widescreen DVDs (which use the full 800 pixels wide, but only a portion of the 600 high) ... but wouldn't be great with HD material.

2000 ansi lumens is plenty ... even too much on a small screen (although actual brightness will be less once calibrated for good colour balance).

2100:1 CR is quite adequate for video (despite comments form other respondents!) ... sure it's nice to have more, but many business projectors are 400:1 > 800:1.  And in all but a dead black room effective CR is degraded to not much more than 2000:1 on even the best projectors.

No digital inputs, but you can use component input for good quality video. It does accept HD input (which would allow you to use for HDTV if you feed from a cable or satellite receiver).

The street price is about $600 (see link) so $359 is a good deal.

You can get better projectors for more $, but you could also do worse.

Note a new lamp ($289, link 2) is not as expensive as on some projectors (which can be $500 or more).