Need Adequate DVD Projector For Theater Premiere

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I'm premiering my movie in June at a theater without a DVD projector. So I need to rent a high quality projector. Anyone know where I can rent these from, and what kind of stats/lumines I should be looking for? Who has experience doing this before? Any advice would be wonderful. Thanks!
 
I don't know exactly where you are, but you should be able to rent a suitable projector and screen in most major cities.

Research the width of the screen in the venue you're projecting in and determine your needs from there. Also important are ambient light, projection distance for lens choice and so on.

If you get the basics, I can assist you in choosing an appropriate projector.

e
 
Thanks. I'll find out that info and post it here. I'm in Bay City, Michigan, btw. About two hours north of Detroit.
 
It's possible that people are going to tell you that you need WAY more lumens than you really do. I went through this a while back and found a great projector at a very reasonable price (for rental) for two different situations.

My first requirement was to project a feature shot with the DVX onto a screen approx. 56'x26' located 160 feet from the projector.

I ended up using a Sanyo PLC-XF35N and it worked wonderfully! The venue said I would need at LEAST 20,000 lumens to get a decent image. No way. I had only 6,500 lumens and it was fantastic. Rental was $750. Would have been MUCH higher if I'd gone for 10,000+ lumens (and it would have been overkill). An audience of approx. 2,500 and not a single complaint about the image.

The second venue I rented projection for was a 15x20 screen. I used a 3,000 lumen Proxima projector with great results. Rental was only $300 for the projector. I also rented the screen, which was only $250 (although it takes about 4 people to set up and raise it -- has its own scaffolding).

Both times my source was a DVD.

In my searches I did hear about places that ship all over the US and the prices seemed good... but I ended up going with local rental houses.
 
I use a Panasonic projector attached to my DVD player via DVI - the DVD player does an HD uprez before going out digitally to the projector. Looks great!

Michael
 
A good salesperson is going to ask you the important questions - screen size, distance, ambient light level and so on. A Sanyo - Proxima 5k projector might be fine - less than 5,000 ANSI (usually 3,000 is next down) on a screen as large and far as Owen describes would be very dim indeed.

For what you're doing, Christie Digital, Digital Projection, Sanyo - Proxima - Eiki and Barco would be the names I'd look for in a rental. Feel free to drop me a line if I can be of any help.

e
 
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