Recommendation for refurbished projector <$250 (1 Viewer)

I teach sophomores in a University in a remote part of China. I want to show movies on weekends in a large room at night. I also want a projector to use in the classroom. The classroom is pretty bright, with no curtains, though I could cover most of the windows with black paper.

I am intrigued with the pk 101 little 4 oz projector but I am afraid it is not bright enough for my needs. I am also just starting to learn about these gadgets. What are your suggestions? I am hoping to find a refurbished unit for $250 or so.

You may be able to find something near that price on Craig's List. Of course, it will be a used one. I'm not real familiar with projectors, but I'm thinking that for that price, what you'll get is a projector that is really meant for business presentations (like Staples sells). While they will work for showing movies, they don't have the brightness or contrast that most like, for home theater purposes. For a real home theater projector, even used or refurbished, you'll have to spend more money (I think).
Good luck!

you could try to find a infocus 4805 or X1 or something like that.

All of these PJs would need light control to look at all reasonable.

Projectors are a gamble because the life of the lamp is very small. Also they can go out on you and the lamps themselves cost a boat load of money. So be warned that projectors are expensive to maintain!

"A boat load of money"? That's a good one. "The life of the lamp is very small". What do you consider very small? You sound like you've never owned a projector.

Originally Posted by eddiep

Projectors are a gamble because the life of the lamp is very small. Also they can go out on you and the lamps themselves cost a boat load of money. So be warned that projectors are expensive to maintain!

Click to expand...

Jim,

I work with projectors and projection televisions.

I had misread that he was referring to an LED pico projector and assumed it was an average DPL front projection technology.

Standard front projector lamps get +/- 3000 hours, and if you use it in a business environment, that's one thing. If you use it as an entertainment device, that's a completely different application that is definitely going to wear down the life of the product quicker.

You sound like a jerk.

Thanks for the input - it is all helpful info. I am looking at all options now but get a little confused with the terminology. The mini "pico" projectors have less than 100 lumens - I am wondering what they could be good for? Is it a different kind of technology than the "big guys" who have 2K+ lumens? Projectors have not been around long enough for home users for a lot of people to have bought them. Even the ones I know that have bought them are still on their first system -> there are few experts on this topic. With most kinds of technology it seems to take at least 2 generations (i.e. buying the kind of product twice) before those of us who are natural geeks develop a good understanding of the technology.