Projector – Rear Projection Display

[Jenny]

Hi guys.

I would like buy a Projector with the capabilities of Rear Projection Display. Do most have this feature?
From what I know, this means that I can put the Projector behind a screen and have it display the video/image through the front of the screen.

Is this right?


Here’s what I plan on doing:
- I host a variety Show at a lounge every week in my city
- Hook my Laptop up to the Projector and play internet videos/my own videos to my audience
- Play DVDs through it (for my audience and my own personal use)
- Display the audience ‘Live’ on the screen (I will hook up my Video Camera to the Projector)


Am I understanding Rear Projection Display properly?

To create a large REAR projection (e.g. 6ft tall)...how far does the Projector have to be away from the screen?



Thanks for reading!
Jenny

[redwudz]

Most projectors can do rear projection. They flip the image horizontally. As far as the distance to fill the screen, depends on the projector.

If you go to http://www.projectorcentral.com/, they have a calculator there so you can select a projector and see the distance needed for full size. For that setup you generally need a short throw lens to keep the projector from sitting too far away from the screen.

[gll99]

Rear projection TV's use a similar method to show the images. They use mirrors to shorten the throw distance in the box and to focus the image on the screen.
They often used the same basic techniques in older movies like jungle animal scenes in Tarzan flics and other projected outdoor scenes which allowed the actors to be in a projected scene where front projection would have made shadows. I would think that green/blue screens have done away with this technique which was never that good.
A see through screen to properly display the image on the other side must be the key to making this work with a standard multimedia projector.
Some projectors need a minimum of 3 feet to display an image of about the same size or slighly larger. I guess this is where the use of mirrors would come into play.