Is projector giving less strain on eyes than TV?

ItsMe

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Friends,

sharing a thought to get your opinion. Last weekend I was hunting for some old bluerays in a grey market, and stumbled upon a shop selling Chinese (?) LED projectors. The top most product had was a 1080p LED projector for 6500 Rs (ask price). From the makeshift room he had with bleeding sunlight, it was showing vibrant color and picture for a hindi BR disc, but that was not a venue to validate picture quality there as he was projecting on a tampered wall.
My kids watch TV a lot especially during summer vacation, and I was thinking whether I can setup this cheap projector at home which will reduce the eye strain on my kids to an extend (assuming the image produced from a reflected surface wont be as intense as an LED TV). Your thoughts?
 
Friends,

... and I was thinking whether I can setup this cheap projector at home which will reduce the eye strain on my kids to an extend (assuming the image produced from a reflected surface wont be as intense as an LED TV). Your thoughts?

Logically a reflective source should be less strenuous than an emitting source. But many factors like ambient room light, viewing distance, calibration of TV/Projector brightness/color etc can affect viewing comfort. So it cannot be concluded by just saying a reflective source (projector) would be more comfortable. So a projector not calibrated properly could be strenuous and visa versa if calibrated properly, a TV should be as comfortable as a projector that we may find more relaxing.
 
Eye strain should be less especially since the projected image will be many times bigger than most TV screens. BUT projectors usually need a dedicated room unlike TVs which you can plonk down in any available space. And the entire room needs to be darkened or at least dimmed, so projectors are usually best used for watching movies. You ideally would not be using the projector if all you wanted to do was watch the news or randomly surf channels. Also, even if the projector comes with inbuilt speakers, you would probably be looking to connect external speakers since the inbuilt speakers will have really tinny sound.

Regarding the "1080p" LED Chinese projector for Rs. 6500, please be warned that the native resolution of the projector will not be 1080p. It will only be capable of accepting 1080p signals... You can contact other forum members who have purchased similar types of projectors; like member "elangoas" who purchased a UNIC (I think it was) projector and started a very helpful and informative thread WITH pictures.
 
The eyes get stained when there is no movement of eye muscle. In both cases ie TV & Projector I guess there will be strain on the eye.
 
Eyes will be strained. Get your kids to play outside in the evening or go to nearby park and make them play. During the day, make them to play indoor games. There is actually no important shit on TV that needs to be watched by kids. If you want to watch movies in full glory then you can get the projector with a dedicated setup and that will be good. TV is still bad for us. In fact it has been a really bad idea to put this idiot box right in the living room from 1950s !
 
Friends,

sharing a thought to get your opinion. Last weekend I was hunting for some old bluerays in a grey market, and stumbled upon a shop selling Chinese (?) LED projectors. The top most product had was a 1080p LED projector for 6500 Rs (ask price). From the makeshift room he had with bleeding sunlight, it was showing vibrant color and picture for a hindi BR disc, but that was not a venue to validate picture quality there as he was projecting on a tampered wall.
My kids watch TV a lot especially during summer vacation, and I was thinking whether I can setup this cheap projector at home which will reduce the eye strain on my kids to an extend (assuming the image produced from a reflected surface wont be as intense as an LED TV). Your thoughts?

If kids can watch a 200 + inch screen in a multiplex, don't think they would have issues with 70 inch screen at home..

I don't have experience with mainstream PJ, but have hands on with Chinese LED PJ (Unic 46) and an EGate P531.

Most chinese projectors in 6K range have 800 x 480 native resolution, support 1920 x 1080 thru HDMI.. If you plan to set it up for kids and playing youtube videos (or) regular SDTV channels, it would do just fine..

Yes, it demands a dark room..But, with moderate light behind the PJ, isn't a matter of concern.

UNIC 46, was for my brother, who was too greedy on the projected image size, so it is doing about 130 inch right now with a 10 x 8 feet pull down screen.. UNIC 46 comes with 1 yr seller warranty on amazon.in for 5K..

Here is the link to the post that i shared with pics sometime back..

http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...ail-india-discussion-thread-2.html#post717007

Projection image - http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...ail-india-discussion-thread-4.html#post718001

You may also consider Egate i9 - Egate i9 LED Projector: Amazon.in: Electronics , which comes with 1 yr warranty..

I think, kids love big screen experience at home, give it a shot..
 
Thank you guys for the advise. However my FM is strongly opposing this idea, and want to take my kids out for play rather than making them couch potatoes. I am sure I am better in AV department, but she is much better in kids department. I will shelf the idea of a PJ for kids for the time being, and will continue with my own HT room :) Thanks, once again
 
Eyes will be strained. Get your kids to play outside in the evening or go to nearby park and make them play. During the day, make them to play indoor games. There is actually no important shit on TV that needs to be watched by kids. If you want to watch movies in full glory then you can get the projector with a dedicated setup and that will be good. TV is still bad for us. In fact it has been a really bad idea to put this idiot box right in the living room from 1950s !

lovely one
 
Projectors are more comfortable, and more expensive to run and maintain.

Whenever we look at near objects our eyes moves inwards and put in accommodative effort to see clearly.

Projector are usually positioned at safe distances so the demand is less compared to mobiles and laptops.

Straining , eye fatigue and headaches will be more in mobile n laptops.

You can try using an anti fatigue spectacle to minimize these symptoms.
 
...I was thinking whether I can setup this cheap projector at home which will reduce the eye strain on my kids to an extend (assuming the image produced from a reflected surface wont be as intense as an LED TV). Your thoughts?

I know this matter is already resolved here, but I wanted to share my views and experience on this in case someone comes here through a search looking for info on this subject.

I work for long hours on a computer and my eyes used to get tired by evening when I saw TV for over an hour. I also had a similar thought that maybe reflected light from a projector would be better for the eyes than directly looking at the source of light when watching movies on a TV.

Now, after some experimentation and trials with different projectors, I can be sure that projectors actually strained my eyes more.

Here are the reasons, in my opinion, why a TV would be better if you are concerned about eyes (even better would be not to watch if you get eye pains, but assuming that you or your kids want to watch for some time):

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1) Darkness: The way the pupils of the eyes work is that they expand/dilate when there is less light and they contract/shrink when there is more light. When watching a screen in darkness, the light will fluctuate from very intense light to very dark in the same scene of a movie. The pupils have to keep adjusting to the brightness. That will tire the eyes more compared to watching the same movie on TV.

This is because when you watch TV, you keep the light on and so the pupils will mostly stay at the same size as the eyes are adjusting to the overall brightness in the entire room and specially on the wall behind the TV. The TV is also a much smaller size than the wall and so major changes in the brightness of the scene does not affect the overall brightness of the entire room. To explain this better, go into a dark room, turn off the light, turn it on, turn it off, and see how uncomfortable it feels if the major source of light in the room is fluctuating.

For those who think that getting a high brightness projector will allow you to see the picture in light, it doesn't work that way. Any light in the room washes out the image, specially black as projectors cannot project black and you have to bring your own black by keeping the room dark. Most people will prefer to turn off the lights again as the image becomes more clear.

2) Indirect Light is Still Light: When it is said that reflected light is better, it means that the ambient light in the room should give light to the object being viewed. For example, if you read a book or newspaper under a light, that is better than reading the same content on a tablet or mobile. That is also why Kindle or ebook readers are better than tablets or iPad for reading. However, when it comes to projectors, you are looking directly at the light source. You are not using the strong reflected light of the projector to look at something like a newspaper in your hands which does not emit any light.

3) Clarity/Contrast: A budget projector's contrast (under $2,000 or Rs.1.25 lakh) cannot match that of a TV. If you are considering a cheaper projector (under $300 or Rs.20k), then you or your kids will strain their eyes more trying to see the picture compared to watching a TV where everything is crystal clear. Not only is the viewing experience not very good, but those with sensitive eyes will get affected faster.

The high contrast of a picture gives a 3D type image. That means, you can clearly tell the difference between a face and the background behind it. Both sharpness and contrast help achieve this. But in a low contrast image, everything will appear to be in a single plane which means your eyes will have to strain more to understand what's in the foreground and what's in the background. This happens automatically without you knowing about it, but your eyes will get tired due to the lack of clarity.
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If your eyes are sensitive and you are still going for a projector, I would recommend doing a proper setup such as using a grey screen to get better black levels and keep some type of light behind the screen and not watch it in complete darkness.

1-chip DLP projectors also cause eye strain to some people and for those, 1-chip or 3-chip LCD (maybe even 1-chip DLP with LED lighting) is the only alternative. For more details on that, I have shared my experience with entry-level projectors in a different thread (titled "First experience with projectors").

For normal TV viewing, a TV is best suited for the job. Most people use projectors only for movies. I would not look at projectors as a TV replacement even though some people who love projectors do so.

Hope this helps.
 
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Thanks @NiteRider for that explanation. It makes sense, but isnt it the same when you watch movie in a theatre? Wont it give similar eye strain?
 
Thanks @NiteRider for that explanation. It makes sense, but isnt it the same when you watch movie in a theatre? Wont it give similar eye strain?

Good theaters have very expensive projectors with good contrast (over Rs.10-20 lakhs), a specially designed room to improve black levels with just the right amount of brightness on the screen, neither too bright nor too dull.

But try watching 2 movies back-to-back in theaters. Or try watching once every day for a week. It will also cause eye strain if done in excess as we normally do at home. Combine that with a heavy workload on a computer or in studies, and you are now just torturing your eyes.

Just compare how many hours you have been in a theater and how many hours you have been in front of a TV in the last 1 year. We blame the TV for any eye strain but do not blame our bad habits of spending hours in front of it.

I would also like to clarify that my notes were not about whether projectors give a good immersive experience or not. They most certainly do. My notes were about how they would affect the eyes when used as a TV replacement and for those who already have eye strain or pains and were considering getting into projectors in the hope that they would cause less eye strain than TV as it is "reflected light".

That's why I went into projectors and enjoyed the experience, but didn't find them to be any less straining on my over-abused eyes.

Restraint or limited time spent on it is the only best solution that I have found to preserve eye health.

If you must spend more hours on a TV, such as watching a cricket match, then taking frequent breaks and looking at something at a greater distance than the TV such as a tree outside helps give the eyes a break. Kids should also be reminded to keep doing that during commercial breaks to avoid getting glasses.

Also, most modern TV have very high brightness. They are meant to dazzle you at stores where there is too much overhead lighting. But when you bring them home, you must reduce the brightness levels to match that in your room. And you should not watch a bright TV in darkness. There should be enough light in the room so that the brightness on the wall behind the TV is about the same as the brightness coming out from the TV. That way the eyes won't get strained too quickly. (by "brightness", I mean the backlight and not the picture brightness which may be different settings on some televisions)
 
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