8/28/2011 9:58:57 PM

We currently have projectors with 800 by 600 native resolution. And we have screens that are controlled by switches to go up and down if needed. I have put the computer to 1280 by 720 or 720p before and moved screens up and projectors up to project wides widescreen and it looks good, my question is which is really better full or wide. Soon we are getting flat screen TVs to replace the projectors and screens , I think to get people used to widescreen to keep it 720p but what's your all opinion??

8/29/2011 6:26:56 PM

I have thought about doing this but I would need a wider screen. Wide screen is really helpful when you have those hymns with full senteces that don't break smoothly.

I have also looked into getting flat screens instead of a new projector, and it was not cost effective. You also have to take into consideration the life of the flat panel verses a projector. It's cheaper to replace a burned out bulb than it is to change a "burned out" flat panel.


gap

8/30/2011 6:31:40 AM

I do prefer wide screen for the reasons Gary brought up, but only if you keep the same screen heigh. Otherwise you just have a smaller screen.

Your screen height should be 1/8 of the distance to the farthest viewer. e.g. the ends of the last pew in our sanctuary is about 64' from the screen, so our screen should be at least 8' tall.

So if we went wide screen, we'd need about 14.2' width, giving us just over a 16' diagonal screen.

1/5/2012 11:55:08 AM

I have questions re the widescreen/stdscreen thing, having had a quick play with setting ours up that way, but would like to get it right, if possible... what I found was that some things just didn't look right, and I'm guessing it all comes down to the format they are created in.

I can't recall what settings I had the LCD's on, but from memory, they are 1600x900 res. I don't think I played with their resolutions or the projectors at all. They were at 1024x768), just changed them to widescreen using their menus.

What I ended up with was song words looking great (I got to move the projector at the front up about 2 feet - we are height-limited, so really helpful for our situation), but the videos and PowerPoints were obviously streeetched sideways to accomodate.

Is there a guide for 'doing this right' or can someone please explain the right way to get everything looking right please.

1/5/2012 4:16:12 PM

For powerpoints, go to the Slide Show tab and check on the Resolution setting there (that's where it is in 2007, anyway). Actually, as I recall, 4:3 PPTs showed as pillar-boxed when I showed them from SSP. But that was several years ago. I may not be remembering correctly.

The videos that are stretched, were they background or foreground?

4/7/2013 8:55:55 AM

At our church we have based our resolutions off of 1280x800 for 16:10.

Also many projectors that normally have their aspect ration of 4:3 for 1024x768 or 800x600 have the capability to scale a 16:9 ratio using 1280x720.

4/27/2013 4:11:13 PM

I've been using widescreen for just over a year now. The computer is set as 1365x768, although it gets scaled down the the projector's 1024 wide. The screen is 6' x 8' raised up to 4.5'.

I find that I'm not making the words any smaller on our screen but creating more consistency in how many lines are on the screen. I don't like more than 4 lines on the screen at once, but will extend that to 5 if necessary. When the screen was 6' tall, I have operators who would import new CCLI songs without adding page breaks so there's 8-10 lines on at once!!!

The projector vs LCD TV argument is really getting closer. TVs are coming down in price so much that an initial purchase of two reasonably sized TVs is comparable to one projector. The cost of lamps alone can be very high. I also think most TVs will last longer than most lamps, especially with how little they're used in most churches.

That's my two cents.