Solved! Laptop capable of displaying HD movies through a projector

[AtusSephin]

I am looking to buy a laptop that will be able to display HD movies through a projector. I need some help choosing a laptop as well as a projector. The laptop will be only used for that purpose only. Will not be using it for gaming or anything like that.

My budget is around £700-800 for both the projector and the laptop.

Would this laptop do the job? I am quite certain that it will be alright but just want to make sure that it's up to the task.

http/www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/Other+products/MSI+X600-259UK+15.6%22+Laptop+?productId=44816

I hope I have put this in the right category of the forum.
Thanks in advance for any help !! :]]

 

[WR2]

Hello AtusSephin;

For the laptop I think I like this £300 deal on a HP ProBook 4320s better than the MSI X600 you linked for £384.

 

[WR2]

For your projector needs - are you going to be working in a home theatre (dark room) or a business (dimly lit room) environment ?

 

[WR2]

Acer H5360BD High Definition 720p DLP Projector

 

[AtusSephin]

The projector will be used in an environment where the lighting cannot be controlled, so it needs to be pretty bright. Thanks for your help.

 

[AtusSephin]

Also I have noticed that some projectors have a usb input port. Would it be possible to put a movie on a pen drive and play the movie from it ? That way I could spend the whole budget on the projector itself.

 

[WR2]

Or you could get a DVD or DVD/Blu-Ray component player.
You'd need to pay attention to the audio capability too, if you're looking for a good theatre type experience.

It's going to be a challenge to get good performance if you're unable to at least dim the lights. Most of the conference room type projectors better suited for lighted rooms are 4:3 aspect ratio (1024x768) and probably not an ideal match for most recent movies.

 

[seezur]

Yeah, if all you want to do play a video off a disk or other digital medium just get a projector with alot of inputs (HMDI, Component, Composite,VGA, etc) and just get a player that has a matching output. Also as most modern Blu-Ray players support playing from external sources like a USB drive.

If you strictly want to use a usb drive on and no disc then look into a product like http/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=wd+tv&x=0&y=0

 

[AtusSephin]

are you sure that I will be able to play movies from a pen drive. I have a dvd player at home that has a usb port but i can only play movies form a portable harddrive , can't do it from a pen drive

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

That's more likely due to the speed of your USB drive, which is likely a cheap one.
One advantage of the laptop will be RAM to cache the movie on the fly, but it will still stutter if the USB stick can't keep a good constant rate.

Look at the bit-rate of the endcoded movie and think about how fast that USB Flash Drive gets those bits across.

I all you're looking to do is get that DVD player to play, then get a flash drive that at least reads @ 10MB/s and you should be fine. That should cost you about $20 for 16GB [more space than a DVD], and be worth it anyways just transferring things (my 32GB USB 3.0 Corsair 130+MBs Read/40+ Write is great for moving big files and cost $40)