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Is 4000 to 9000 lumens bright enough for outdoor use?

 
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Jeremy112




Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 2645
Location: Fond du Lac, WI


PostLink    Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 4:05 pm    Post subject: Is 4000 to 9000 lumens bright enough for outdoor use? Reply with quote


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I've been wanting to get a large venue projector for outdoor usage as the lumens on these type of projectors are rather high which I am thinking would be good for outdoor usage.

I'm just wondering if 4000 lumens is enough to project outdoors during evening to night hours? What would I need for lumens if I wanted to be able to project during the day outside in a garage with the door open?

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gjaky




Joined: 05 Jun 2010
Posts: 2789
Location: Budapest, Hungary


PostLink    Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 5:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

While I am not an expert on answering this question, but I feel missing the screen size what do you have in mind for this purpose.
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garyfritz




Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12024
Location: Fort Collins, CO


PostLink    Posted: Wed Mar 05, 2014 7:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yup. There are basically 4 variables you have to consider:

* Lumens -- the amount of light being thrown at the screen
* Screen size -- how much square footage that light has to be stretched over
* Screen gain -- multiples the perceived brightness if you're in the hotspot, otherwise hurts you
* Ambient light -- you need a whole lot more screen brightness in daylight than at night, more at night with streetlights &etc than in pitch darkness

Lumens * Gain / ImageSqFt gives you foot-Lamberts. You want at least 10-12 ftL for cave/HT darkness. You'll need more (maybe 20-50 ftL depending on the brightness) for nighttime display if you've got streetlights &etc, and a WHOLE LOT more if you try to do this in the daytime.
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winny




Joined: 09 Oct 2013
Posts: 403
Location: Sweden

TV/Projector: BD808s, BG1209/2


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 11:10 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

garyfritz wrote:
...and a WHOLE LOT more if you try to do this in the daytime.


Daytime is LED matrix or bust.

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Curt Palme
CRT Tech



Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 24296
Location: Langley, BC

TV/Projector: All of them!


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 4:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I had those 2000-5000 lumen Sanyo LCD projectors here last year, I found it interesting that in my shop, I didn't see a whole pile of difference between the two ends of lumen outputs. That was on a 6X 8 screen. the 5000 lumen sets were indeed brighter, but not by as much as I thought.

I agree with everything stated above. If you're trying to do daylight, good luck, but with a relatively small screen at dusk or later, you should be good with a 5000 lumen set, depending on your expectations of course.
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ecrabb
Forum Moderator



Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah

TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 5:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How old were the lamps in those Sanyo sets, Curt? They can drop by almost half in even a few hundred hours, so you could have been looking at more like 2-3000 lumens. That is, unless you changed the lamp. Then, never mind. Wink

I've been thinking about doing backyard theater nights for awhile, now… There's a lot of interest in the subject over at AVS. It's fun because you can cook out, do food, smores, etc. and everybody can sit wherever they want. It's very social, fun for the kids, etc.

So, I keep hoping to run across some cheap old 720p projectors because I think it would be fun to stack 2 or even 3 small light cannons. An old Elmo or Chief slide projector rack would provide the necessary fine adjustments, and if the screen were big enough, the keystone difference wouldn't be significant. I'd finally have a use for my old Extron Crosspoint switcher that nobody seems to want, but I haven't run across 2-3 projectors that are cheap enough to make me want to spend the money on this little project.

SC
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garyfritz




Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12024
Location: Fort Collins, CO


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 6:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Don't y'all have mosquitoes in central Iowa!? My brother built a fabulous gazebo in his back yard, overlooking the river. It's a gorgeous spot and they spend most of the summer out there. But he wrapped the whole thing, including under the floor, with mosquito screen. Otherwise you'd get eaten alive most nights. I can't imagine sitting through a movie while the little bloodsuckers were munching on me...
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ecrabb
Forum Moderator



Joined: 13 Mar 2006
Posts: 15909
Location: Utah

TV/Projector: JVC RS40, Epson 5010


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yep, Gary - plenty of mosquitoes, here. Hate them. Between the mosquitoes, humidity, wind, the cold and wind in winter, and my job, there isn't much time I get to (or want to) be outside here.

Let's see… There are some nice weekends in late April, May, and June. Then it gets hot and humid and I stay inside. Then, there are some really nice days again in September and early October when I get outside a little. So really there's a couple of dozen really nice days that I can be outside.

I so wish we could move west. It's not an option right now, but it's looking better all the time.

SC
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Jeremy112




Joined: 28 Sep 2006
Posts: 2645
Location: Fond du Lac, WI


PostLink    Posted: Thu Mar 06, 2014 9:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks for all the advice guys. Never really paid much attention to the brightness, as my HT screen is only 84" diagonal, and even most CRT projectors look good for brightness on that. SO I've never had to really consider it.

The screen is probably going to be somewhere between 120 and 140" big, as I will be using my garage door opening for some rear projection material, and putting the projector inside the garage and using the garage as a gigantic projection display basically.

I have a long driveway, and not much of a back yard, so this would be perfect. I'm looking at getting a Christie LW40U 4000 Lumen 1366x768 projector, maybe even 2 of them and doing as ecrabb mentioned and stacking them for increased brightness. The price seems pretty decent for that specific model so I think it would be a fun thing to try out and see how it goes.

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garyfritz




Joined: 08 Apr 2006
Posts: 12024
Location: Fort Collins, CO


PostLink    Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2014 3:55 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A 130" screen has roughly 2x the area of your 84" screen. Double the lumens and you'll double the ftL coming off the screen. So a 4000 lumen projector would be a bit brighter than a 1200 lumen CRT projector on your 84" screen.

Except the CRT is rated in non-ANSI "peak" lumens, and hte Christie is probably ANSI. 1200 peak lumens is in the ballpark of 250-300 ANSI lumens. So that Christie might be as much as 12-15x brighter than your CRT...

SC, if you want to get outside more, you gotta get out of Iowa. We enjoy the outdoors practically from April to October. Then we just haul out the skis and snowshoes and enjoy the outdoors all winter. Smile
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