I was looking at these 10 or so years ago and I recall a decent projector ran at least $800. Was browsing gearbest and they’ve got all sorts of projectors anywhere from $40 to $600. Was thinking of picking up one of the cheaper projectors. This would be used maybe half a dozen times per year for the kids to watch a movie on the side of our barn. Just curious if anyone happened to own one of these lower dollar projectors and what your thoughts were. Anything in particular I should look for? Thanks.
I might have owned a nice casio projector once. But the 445nm laser diodes inside were worth more on the open market than the whole projector! :evil: Time to carve it up for parts.
I looked at some of those cheap projectors a while back and IIRC, they are only low res and good for a 3 or 4 foot wide screen. You certainly won’t be lighting up the barn with that… unless you’re gonna mod? 
Rule of thumb: The larger the projector is, the quieter it will be because it will have a larger fan and air doesn’t have to move through as fast. I have a tiny Sharp projector and its tiny fans are pretty loud.
I have an LG PF85U connected to a custom built Home Theater computer that I built to run as a connection point to my media server.
http://www.lg.com/us/projectors/lg-PF85U-portable-led-projector
I have been into home theater and projectors for the last decade or so. Like some of the others said…. the really low end ones will get you almost no light output and really limit your screen size.
If you are going to just be projecting on the side of a barn or sheet or the like. I would look at something from Optoma in either 720 or 1080p if you want to stay in your price range. That would give you decent lumens in the 3000 range and easily do a 120 inch screen (and possibly bigger depending on conditions). Plus, their projectors are on the smaller side and having a smaller projector is going to make it more portable and easy to setup.
The one thing to think about in addition to the projector is sound…… don’t expect to get audio from the projector like you would a flatscreen.
Thanks for the feedback. That’s what I was looking for. Most of those ~50$ projectors only have around 400 lumens. I was actually going to take a chance and purchase one, but I’ll hold off.
David - well, I suppose I could mod one, but that’s just opening a can of worms. My wife just made me clean off our dining room table. It was littered with RC plane parts, several disassembled flashlights, dremels, soldering irons, wires, you name it.
ryansoh3 - thanks for the link. I was thinking about doing some serious research on projectors, but instead just popped the question for those already experienced. I have to catch myself sometimes…once I start researching I can tend to get hooked on yet another new hobby.
downlinx - that’s a nice projector, but more than I want to shell out for watching Frozen on the side of my barn twice a year 
Woodfiend - I started checking out the Optomas, and those are certainly closer to my price range.
Yeah and it wouldn’t hurt to see if you can find a New Old Stock one. Or a lightly used one such as an Optoma HD70. You could probably find one for around $200-$300 that would do what you want. Check your local area ebay and craigslist maybe. That way you can see it in action before buying used.
And a resolution of Commodore C64 or sometimes VGA.
I suggest to buy used one, 1024x768 for example, where lamp has a couple of hundred working hours left (like 100-300).
It will be enough for your children (since rarely used/year) and very cheap. If you choose well then replacement lamp won’t be very expensive.
That’s what I did and I’m happy (paid like 80$, lamp had around 100h left, still works after 2 years of rare use). I don’t use projection screen, so it needs to be dark in a room but works fine.
Obviously quality is not on par with todays decent projectors but is good enough for the price.