[b3machi7ke]

So I've done some searching this morning, and I can't seem to find what I've been looking for, either here or with google. I didn't see a projectors forum here, so HDTV seemed like a close place to put it...? But I was curious, does anyone here have any real-world experience with LED projector technology? It seems that a lot of places that are selling LED portable projectors, they're only putting out 200-300 lumens, which in comparison with other portable projectors that are putting out 1-2k, seems incredibly dim. From a couple little blurbs here and there on the net, it seems that the low lumen output rating is overrated and that their brightness is comparable to 1000 lumen MH projectors. I don't understand how that is possible, because I understood lumen output to be the average level of brightness of the light output taken from a few points around the screen, so I would think that 200 lumens is 200 lumens, and it would always be much more dim than 1000 lumen output...am I misunderstanding how lumens work or are measured?

I'm trying to help save some money, and spending 300-ish USD on new projector bulbs is getting expensive, especially if LED lamps can last upwards of 20k+ hours without losing their brightness or contrast! I wasn't really looking at spending anything over 750, but could go up to 1000 if it was worth it. It's really going to be used in conference rooms for data presentation so it's obviously not HT quality that I'm after. But I also don't want the image to get washed out by the lights or if a window is open, which is what I'm afraid of with a 200 lumen output projector. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[t-ramp]

I agree with you that lumens should reflect an absolute measurement, so 200 would indeed by much less powerful than 1000, regardless of the light type. Wikipedia has a small bit of information here that may or may not be relevant to your question.

On the whole, it seems there is a clear tradeoff here between brightness and cost/heat/energy, and in the end it is up to you to decide what kind of projector to get.

 

[b3machi7ke]

the link had a good bit of information, unfortunately it still didn't answer some basic questions, though it did help to confirm that my understanding of how lumens are measured was correct.

 

[R3d T34rz]

Check out Epson projectors. If your going to have ambient light you'll want something in the 2000 lumen range. If you want a 1080p unit for a good price check out the Optoma HD20.