hmmm, yes, did I mention that those were a little pricey? Hey, even the $8k for that NEC is bad enough.

Gawd, I hate to rent...rent it twice, you coulda bought it. OK, maybe that formula is inaccurate for Boyd's Lightnings, but you get the idea. After seeing hotels charge $700 a day for a cheezy laptop projector, I started bringing our own.

I do believe that it pays to shop when considering rentals. I was quoted $700 per WEEK for a 3K lumen Sony or Toshiba by a local dealer, when the AV dept. of the venue was looking for $500 per DAY for a smaller unit of indeterminate brand.

I remember looking over a rental invoice where I wound up paying the selling price on a Shure SM-58 microphone...4 days @ $24 per day...could have walked into a dealer and BOUGHT one. The mixer rental was about 50% of purchase price. A handful of SM58s and a Mackie 1402vlzpro fit very nicely in my suitcase now.

That's insane! Makes me want to cry.

I think before I get a new projector I want to get a new screen, one that comes down from the ceiling. The portable Da-lite one I have is great but now that I've found a permanent place for my projector and speakers, it's not so important. I'd rather have the convenience of a ceiling mounted screen. And there is that matter of needing a new matte box... the HD projector will have to wait.

Maybe Boyd could siphon off some of his budget to us two, what do you think, Mike? $1000 or so from $50,000 can't be missed! Joking of course, let us know how things turn out in South America, Boyd, sounds exciting.

Mike, agree with you about renting, sometimes it seems better to just out right and buy. Especially here in Hawaii, usually they have to order it in anyway, I might as well order it myself.

You're right, it's hard to find any bargains when renting. The whole thing is sort of counter-intuitive actually. Normally when we rent equipment (like our stage lights) we pay an initial high price for the first week, then reduced rates for additional weeks. That usually isn't true with projectors however.

The problem is that the primary rental market for the bigger units is corporate presentations at trade shows and such. These clients don't flinch at paying several thousand dollars a day since they don't need them for long and their budgets are large. Two years ago when we checked this out the going rate was about $5,000 a day for units in the 10,000 lumen range.

Since there's a pretty strong demand for these units, the A/V companies aren't eager to tie them up for long periods of time on an extended rental, and are not particularly inclined to give you much of a discount either. We actually felt that $50,000 was a very good deal in our case.

But I think the same holds true on a smaller scale for the less powerful projectors, like Mike says. Especially for hotels - we got a similar quote for an event that our PR people wanted to do at a pre-show lecture. They sort of have you by the you-know-whats in this case. Rather than go through the hassle of bringing your own projector (which some venues may not even allow) it's simpler for corporations to just budget the $700.

Perhaps this will start to change however since prices are really dropping fast on the small and medium sized units. Of course there's always the "next big thing," like that 8 foot plasma screen that Samsung demo'ed at CES. A good friend of mine designed the lighting for their booth and was telling me that Samsung's internal cost to build that prototype was $500,000!

Very well said, Boyd.

Of course, as for

<<<They sort of have you by the you-know-whats in this case. Rather than go through the hassle of bringing your own projector (which some venues may not even allow) it's simpler for corporations to just budget the $700.>>>

...been there, done that. And most clients just roll over (or bend over?) so the hotels are not expecting a customer that plays hardball. When informed that I am not allowed to bring, or that they will charge a special fee if I don't rent theirs, I remind them about the number of rooms they are renting to our attendees, the banquet services we are purchasing, to say nothing of the bar revenue generated by attendees after hours, and get them to see the "big picture." Oh yes, and the fact that we do inevitably wind up renting some stuff, just not everything. Hey, I can't bring a stack of EAW speakers and a rack of QSC amplifiers on the plane, and a fastfold screen is a little bulky too. :-)

GOOD NEWS! a poor schmo like me plunked down some serious cash for a nice front projector. i got the BenQ PB6200 after months of research =). got a manual pulldown Da-Lite Screen. i luv watching classic films on the BIG SCREEN! it really makes me feel like i'm back in the golden age of cinema =).

here are some pics:

http://fongunlimited.com/htpc/screen.jpg

http://fongunlimited.com/htpc/

How much was it?

I'm in the midst of a home remodel which includes the home theatre I've been dreaming of for countless years...the major components are the Marantz VP12S4L long throw DLP projector and an 8 foot motorized Stewart screen. Both are being built in so that they will be all but invisible when not in use as the room is not dedicated for home theater. Can't wait...!

nice charles!

the BenQ i got was bought from a vendor from pricegrabber.com. i think it was pagecomputers.com. terrible shopping experience but good front projector product. i think it was $1090 delivered. i paid for overnight delivery because that's how anything $1k+ should be purchased. it makes sense when you think about it because UPS/FedEx/DHL they all bang packages around. the less time spent in handling the better. i'm sure you guys know from buying DV cams that it is true.

the screen i bought from mountandmore.com for roughly $190 for high contrast white matte 100" diagonal manual pull down. the entire metal enclosure for the screen measures roughly 89-90" wide. i have no room to pull it all the way down so i dunno what the measurements are vertically. eitherway i can only project 65-70" max because i only have a 11' long bedroom. very tiny but still works =).

now, perhaps i'm a bit picky but i was surprised at how much mpeg2 compression showed up when i first saw progressive DVD image. i mean i ignore it most of the time and concentrate on the story/audio/larger than life picture experience but when i get really, really picky i do notice it. when i tune 1080i or 720p it is TOTALLY different. for some strange reason i expected progressive DVD images (480p) to look like 720p... but alas it was not meant to be =). when i play t2 extreme edition through the computer (1080p) it looks very sharp on the FP. i KNOW that HD-DVD/BluRay will make helluva different on the big screen.

now that i'm totally spoiled by FP, i'm getting greedy again. i'm waiting for 1920x1080p native front projectors to come down from $18+k to $1,000. that's when you know cinema as you know it today will die =).

I'll have to save up for awhile to afford that Marantz pjtr...I do recall that I loved Marantz gear as far back as when I was a snot-nosed kid (that's a long time ago to put it mildly). Even at their lowest point when they were part of Superscope they were at least a little better than their competition. And in their good years they were right up there with McIntosh.

I'm selling off a bunch of film gear to pay for the Marantz and accoutrements--it has a neat symmetry in the big scheme of things (film acquistion giving way to digital exhibition...?) As painful as it was for me to do, I hired a home theater specialist to design and install the system as I am too tied up with everything else in the remodel to do the research and run the miles of cable, etc. He is a big fan of the Marantz, and it does seem to be the one to beat in its class. At least for the next 6 months...

Can't wait to see what it does with the HD satellite signal.

That Marantz projector is a serious beast. Damn! It looks a bit funny though,
but hey, it's the image that counts! I've been pretty pleased with my
InFocus X2, especially since I didn't have to pay for it. However, I still
don't have it setup properly (as in easy to setup) and not darkened room
available. So currently I really can't start watching before 10.30 PM, that's
a bummer.

Oh well, can't have everything I guess :)

hi charles,

are you buying the VP-10S1 or the VP-12S4? 10S1 is roughly $38k and 12S4 is roughly $15k. both are 1280x720 resolution.

if you were buying the 10S1, why not get a 1920x1080p FP like th Qualia004?

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Sony-Qualia-004.htm

As I said, I'm getting the VP12S4L, which is the long throw version of the S4 projector. $38K--that's a bit rich for my blood!

but you're pretty close, if you just save enough for $27k you can get the qualia004 and be in 1080p heaven!