One of the more difficult things to organise for the OneTwenty Trivia Night was the data projector. We didn’t really want to hire one, and sort of assumed that some friend of some friend would have one that we could borrow. No an ideal situation. Especially not if it inconveniences people. So I made a mental note to think of a better (more permanent) solution.
A few weeks ago, Kmart had a Sansui projector on special for $699 ($799 RRP). That’s very cheap for a brand-new projector. Moreover, it has a built-in speaker and DVD player that can be used to show a slideshow of JPEG images from a CD. Perfect for presentations since we wouldn’t need a laptop! I put it to OneTwenty for consideration, but it was deemed to expensive (and would’ve been too much of a rushed decision).
Jim and I were at Kmart the other day (Jim was buying a present), and I saw the projector behind the Audio/Video counter. I wondered what it was like, so I asked the lady behind the counter if I could have a look at it. It looked perfect; much less “cheap looking” than I expected and it came with all required cables, a remote control, and decent lamp life (“3000 hours STD”). I figured that I would check how much it was:
Beep! $649
Harh. I guess they aren’t selling as well as expected. I thought it was weird for Kmart to have projectors. Maybe they were testing the market waters and it didn’t work out. Still $50 cheaper probably wouldn’t change anything. But then…
Oh wait, I don’t think this scanner is registering today’s 15% discount. Let me scan it again… Beep! $552.20.
$552.20! That’s crazy! I asked Jim what he thought. We should get it. I called people. We should get it. Okay! We got it.
Here it is setup on my dining room table:
and here is a photo of the projected image (from Rushmore, one of my favourite movies):
I think it perfectly suits what we were after:
- It’s “plug-and-play” in that it has a built-in speaker and DVD player
- It’s portable and comes with all cables (VGA, s-video, RCA)
- It has a remote control (for DVD playback and projector settings)
- Image quality is fine for presentations, games, and DVDs (800×600 native resolution)
- It’s quiet
- It’s cheap!
Needless to say, there will soon be a Wii Sports gaming night. Lifesize virtual tennis, golf, and bowling… oh yeah.
Conclusion: Highly recommended for the price!