iFightBack  (by Self-Defense Software)
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Selecting a Projector:

If you want to run iFightBack on a projector and screen and do not already have one, here are some guidelines.

First of all you will want either a LCD or DLP projector. Cheap LED projectors put out far less lumens (brightness) than advertised and just may not be bright enough. The more expensive LED projectors will work.

Example: The Viewsonic PA503W projector is an example of an affordable projector priced at just $379 on BestBuy and Amazon. That said, there are a lot of perfectly good used projectors on the market. With used projectors, one thing that you want to pay attention to is the expected bulb life (light source life) for that projector model and the amount of bulb life (hours) that have already been used. Replacement bulbs can be very expensive. Most projectors keep internal records of the time the bulb has been on and running and most sellers of used projectors will mention what that time is on the projector they are selling or you can ask them. To demonstrate the deals that can be had, we purchased a Panasonic PT-P1SDU projector from eBay for $50 and a commercial Panasonic PT-F200U for $75. The idea is to pay attention or ALL of the specs which can be confusing. A Viewsonic PA503W, for instance, has a WXGA 1280X800 resolution while the PA503S has an SVGA 800X600 resolution. The lower resolution may very well work for you but remember that your computer's resolution would have to be lowered to match it (see below).

Compatibility: iFightBack is a Windows based program (Windows Vista, 7, 8, or 10 either 32 bit or 64 bit) so be sure that any projecter that you select is PC compatible.

Lumens is the measure of how bright a projector is. Normally, the further back from the screen the projector is and the brighter the room, the more lumens you need to project a clear bright image on the screen. That said, because of the nature of interactive video and the program's attempt to detect a laser strike on the screen, a too bright of image on the screen is not desirable. As a matter of fact, if the image is too bright, most projectors will have a Brightness Setting in the Menu Options to let you dim the projector if needed.

We have used the Panasonic PT-P1SDU with only 1500 lumens and had to go to the menu options to dim that for our situation. We have also used the Panasonic PT-F200U projector with 3500 lumens and had to dim that, of course, but it worked fine. Moving a projector farther back from the screen (if you can) will also lower the brightness of the image on the screen. The opposite is also true. If your situation will necessitate having the projector very close to the screen, then you will not want a projector with higher lumens because that may end up being too bright to dim properly. The closer the projector is to the screen, the brighter the image will be on the screen and visa versa.

So make the limits to look for as 1200 lumens on the low end and 3500 on the high end.

Resolution is the number of pixels used to create the image given as Width X Height. For running iFightBack the projector image needs to be the same resolution or greater than your computer monitor. If your computer monitor is setup as 1280 X 720, for instance, you would want to make sure that the projector you select is capable of that resolution or higher. If not, you would need to lower the resolution of your computer monitor.

Output / Input is the type of connectors that are on your projector to be used as input from the computer and the type of connectors on your computer to be used as output to a secondary monitor/projector. See Connecting your computer to a Projector or TV. HDMI input is the best one to have since most computers these days have HDMI output connectors. The Panasonic PT-P1SDU, mentioned above, only had a VGA input. For that we needed an HDMI to VGA converter in order to connect it to the HDMI output of the computer. That worked fine but the opposite would not work. That is, you would not be able to go from an HDMI input on a projector to a VGA output on a computer. The Panasonic PT-F200U projector mentioned above had HDMI input so all we needed was an HDMI to HDMI cable to connect the projector to the computer.

Throw Ratio measures the distance the projector needs to be from the screen to project and image X ft. wide. So if you want to project an image on your screen that would be 8 ft. wide and had a projector with a throw ratio of 1.6:1 then you would have to have your projector 12.8 ft away from the screen. (8ft. times 1.6 throw ration equals 12.8). This is important to keep in mind because of the space you may or may not have when setting up your projector and screen. Don't get confused with Aspect Ration or Throw Distance. The specs for various projectors are not always easy to find or understand plus many projectors also have zoom capabilities that can be considered as part of the calculation. It may be easier to use this Projection Calculator to help you. On-line specs for the two projectors mentioned above did not list throw ratio but the manuals for each had charts showing the projection size vs distance. Also remember that iFightBack's interactive videos are 16:9 aspect ratio so be sure, when reading the charts or using the projection calculator, to use the 16:9 aspect ratio and not the 4:3.

Zoom: Most projectors will have a Zoom function given as a ratio such as 2.00:1 (zoom out to twice the original size) or 1.20:1 (zoom out to 20% greater than the original size). The larger the zoom capabilities the more flexibility you will have in placing your projector. If you have to place it closer than desired where the throw doesn't fill your screen, then you can zoom out to get a larger image.


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last updated 12/12/2019