[hinkley]

I haven’t needed to optimize displays for projectors for some time, but when I did I was shocked how long 1024x768 survived. If you were lucky you’d get a 1280 pixel projector. And almost invariably, any shade of grey lighter than E7E7E7 was indistinguishable from white. People like to put light gray lines in tabular data to help the eye track across. It disappears and then people keep interrupting the meeting flow to ask questions about the data they were meant to be able to answer with their eyeballs. Though once in a while they’d put light grey in a bar chart and then they were fucked.

They are also all ever so slightly out of focus. Or dust on the lens. Or projecting on an orange peel wall instead of a screen.

I’m curious how things have improved in let’s say the last ten years. Still hot garbage?

[me_jumper]

Depends on where you are, I guess. I work at a University in Germany, and most meeting rooms are either 1) very old and exactly as you've described, or 2) updated in the last few years and actually usable. There doesn't seem to be an in-between.

[atoav]

Mediatech guy for a university in Germany here. The reason for that is that the average lifetime for installation projectors is something between 8 and 12 years, after that either the power supply dies or it gets hard finding light fixtures.

Either way most universities only feel compelled to spend money when something breaks. I wish that was different, as it makes my job very stressful at times, especially when multiple things break within a small time span.

[hinkley]

I think they run those things until they break and then buy what they can still find. What’s “good” these days? I see expensive ones that I think most businesses would probably balk at buying. 1080p?

[atoav]

if you look at all the specs the choice probably boils down to (A) getting something damn bright in 1080p or WUXGA or (B) something in 4K that isn't as bright. And by that point personally I would ask why or whether 4k is really needed for the application.

More brightness/better contrast is probably the more important feature for university applications as it allows you to see stuff better even if we are not in a black-walled darkened cinema space.

Everything in 4k with decent colors and high brightness costs a fortune.

But a DCI conform 4k Laser projector is really a view to behold. If only it wasn't so damn expensive.