I’ve been wanting a projector for a while now, but have started thinking of it more serious as of late. But I’m not really “up” on projectors since I’ve never used one before. I know about the lumens and the contrast ratios, but what else do I need to look at? I know the lamps are rated for so many hours, and the price of replacement lamps are $300~$400. That’s pretty much what has deterrred me up to this point. My main reason for wanting one is to set it up outside and play video games with and watch movies. Since it’s not going to be an every night or even every weekend thing, the lamp should last me a while…also figure in the winter months where we won’t be sitting outside due to the cold. I don’t want to spend a fortune on this, so I was hoping to spend no more than $600. But price isn’t really my issue; it’s needing to understand what some projectors can do what they can’t. I’d like a 720p projector, but I’m kind of confused on projectors’ resolutions. I’ve looked at some that say their native resolution is 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768, but say they support 480p, 720p, and 1080i. OK, I get that; so they just downsample to the native resolution. But I saw one that said native was 1024 x 768, but the max resolution was 1440 x 1050 (or something like that). So that’s just saying it can’t handle any resolution over that? 720p projectors…I normally think of 720p as 1280 x 720; is that the resolution of 720p projectors? I’m thinking of getting one of the Gemmy inflatable screens that is 149″, plug my laptop in, and play some Team Fortress 2 outside on the big screen. What do I need to get this going?
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