Why are digital projectors terrible?

[john_bald]

I'm interested in making the transition from traditional slide shows

to digital projection shows (laptop + projector). I've read

everything I can find, but I need help understanding something.

<p>When someone projects their laptop screen onto a real screen, for

example, to show something in Photoshop, the screen image looks

great - everything is clear and has good color. <b>But,</b> whenever

I've seen a slide show run from a laptop + projected to a screen, the

images look cheesy and pixelated.

<p>Why is that? Is it possible to make the slide show images a high

quality, since I don't care how big the files are?

 

<p>P.S. Any recommendations for a slide show creator? Any comments re

ACDSee's Fotoangelo?

[Ed_Ingold]

Resize the images so that the longest dimension fits the resolution, in pixels, of the projector. The projector will usually be 768x1024 to 1024x1280 pixels. If the images are too big, they will take too long to project and you gain nothing in quality. Too small, and they will look pixelated. None will come even close to a slide projected on a screen.

 

You can put JPEG files on a CD and play them on nearly any DVD player less than 2 years old. For optimum quality, the files should be sized to fit the video screen: 480x640, 480x720, etc.

 

Do the resizing in Photoshop. If you let the projector or "slide-show" program do the interpolation, you'll have to take what you get.

[p._neil_ralley]

I can't answer your first question but to create slide shows xat.com is worth looking at.

[john_shriver]

Any affordable digital/video projector has serious compromises. For the best discussion of this, see high-end home video magazines like The Perfect Vision.

 

Their biggest problem is that they have FAR less contrast range than a CRT, or even a LCD laptop screen. Blacks are grey. Nowhere near 9 stops of contrast range. Some types also have serious color gamut compromises.

 

Also, many have MUCH lower resolution than any modern computer.

 

They may also be less bright than a decent slide projector. So your whites are also grey.

 

Some of the display technologies have very visible pixels. There is either a white or black latticework between the pixels. This makes them much more visible.

 

There are good digital projectors. But they are so expensive that they are toys of the ultra-rich, not what you're going to find in your run of the mill auditorium or lecture hall. They darned well better be chained down, as something the size of a briefcase that's worth as much as a nice Mercedes-Benz is an awfully tempting target for theft. Digital/video projectors do get stolen (one got filched from my prior workplace right after a layoff), and are easy to fence...

[bschmitz]

For a slide show creater look at http://www.picturestoexe.com