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Choosing Projectors for K-12 Education: SVGA or XGA Resolution?
Updated 4/06  

Projectors: Budget, Resolution, Usage

K-12 schools today, continue to primarily purchase SVGA projectors, although a significant number of schools have shifted to higher resolution projectors with true XGA (1024x768).

With prices for the higher resolution XGA projectors now dropping down below $1000 for entry level models, we should, however see more of a shift to the XGA projectors this year, and that trend should continue, going forward.

Let’s look at three environments within a K-12 school:

  1. Classroom projectors
  2. Computer lab projectors
  3. Choosing a School’s main Projector for Multi-purpose room or auditorium

Classroom Projectors, for K-12:

  • It is believed that the majority of PC’s used in schools still use 800x600 (SVGA) as their standard resolution.
    • The utilization of projectors, and the number of rooms with projectors is much higher in high schools than it is, in middle or elementary schools.
  • Since there is a significant cost difference, a school can equip significantly more classrooms if they stick with SVGA projectors. (A school can purchase perhaps 4 SVGA projectors for the price of 3 XGA projectors.
  • Due to budgets, etc., schools manage to wring out many more years of use out of computer products and projectors, than businesses do. As a direct result, many of the SVGA computers will be around for a long, long time, and there is nothing fundamentally wrong with using that resolution.
  • Portable vs. ceiling mounted projectors: Whether projectors are mounted or not, varies from school district to school district, and sometimes from school to school. Even within a school, some classrooms may have them mounted, others may not.

The real issue is what resolution projector to buy: SVGA or XGA?

Please understand, any SVGA projector can “handle” XGA resolution computers, thanks to “compression technology”, so if you have a mix of computers with different resolutions, you can still use either resolution projector.

However, if your school is has some higher than XGA resolution computers, whose images you may wish to project, you will best be served by going XGA, As some of the higher resolutions out there, are beyond the reach of SVGA, or even if they can handle the signal, the compressed image degrades enough to be poor or unusable.

QuickTip: The image quality of the projected image deteriorates somewhat when you feed an XGA computer (PC or MAC) signal to an SVGA projector. Small type becomes uneven harder to read, and often somewhat ugly, but does remain readable. (I’m talking spreadsheet, word processing, or email sized type.) Even larger type will suffer a little bit. (Note: There is a significant amount of variation in the quality of compression technology from one brand to another). Really large type, as used in Powerpoint presentations is pretty close to perfect even when compressed, as to usually be undetectable. Graphics too are affected.

In the classroom, while Powerpoint-sized type is used occasionally, more often than not, small type applications are widely used.

If your school is still using SVGA computers, unless your budget is very healthy, SVGA should be fine for you.
If your school is mostly using XGA res computers, consider this before choosing:

  1. Over the long term, XGA projectors will have a longer usable life, as computers migrate to even higher resolutions (especially laptops, which it seems are becoming more common with teachers).
  2. SVGA will save money, possible allowing a school to buy 4 SVGA projectors for about the same price as 3 comparable XGA projectors.
  3. If your school plans to ceiling mount the projectors, and does the install work themselves, then you could consider that one SVGA projector, with longer cabling, and ceiling mount (and other necessary hardware) should cost no more than one XGA portable projector without all the accessories. – so:


QuickTip: You can figure your budget is about the same for
1 ceiling mounted SVGA projector
or
1 portable XGA projector (with similar features, etc.) that has to be put away (securely) when not in use.

Back to Image Quality - the Good news: Schools won't lose their customers if they buy SVGA!

In the business world, a presentation that looks rough around the edges - unprofessional, could even overshadow your message. If the customer is unimpressed, you might lose their business. But, in education, if your small text is compromised by compression technology, well, your audience - the students, aren't about to pick up and transfer to another school.

Computer Lab Projectors:

Most computer labs currently teach everything from word processing to spreadsheets to multimedia graphics. Since the text oriented ones often mean lots of small text, I would recommend (budget allowing, XGA projectors for computer labs that are equipped with PCs/Macs that are set for XGA.

Not only will that small type be more readable with an XGA projector, but computer labs tend to have their equipment updated more frequently. Therefore, down the road, they are more likely to be upgraded to a higher than XGA resolution before classroom projectors will be.
While most SVGA projectors claim to handle resolutions above XGA, at best, they do it poorly, and few can reach SXGA+ (1400x1050) - which is the hot resolution on laptops these days, and forget UXGA (1600x1200) also available on many laptops.
Widescreen laptops are gaining in popularity too, again with higher resolutions that will challenge, (or conquer) SVGA projectors: WXGA (1366x768) WSXGA+ (1680x1050), and Wide UXGA (don’t even think about it!)

Multi-purpose room and Auditorium Projectors

The key issue here, is brightness. Since these rooms are typically populated with students from front to back, the environment is such that small type just can’t be used effectively, because the kids towards the back of the room just won’t be able to read the type (regardess of resolution, compression, etc.) They won’t be able to, because they are just too far away.

That makes your first priority in selecting a projector for these larger rooms, finding one that is bright enough Resolution is more of a secondary consideration.

Future compatibility would be the major reason for considering XGA.

Please note, there is very limited choice today, in higher power SVGA projectors. In fact, there are few models sporting more than 2000 lumens (the absolute minimum that is ideal for larger rooms under modest lighting).
If your large room needs a specialty lens – for short or long throw (mounting the projector closer or further away than the standard lens allows), you'll quickly find that need will further limit the choice of SVGA projectors. Either way, projectors with changeable lenses are more expensive, and the lenses alone typically run from $1100+.

Conclusion:

For Classrooms:

  • Budget is probably your primary issue.
  • If you are using SVGA, and don’t plan, anytime soon to change to a resolution higher than XGA, SVGA projectors should serve you, and your budget, well.
  • If you are already XGA, give serious thought to XGA projectors, for the mere fact that your computers are XGA now probably indicates that you have bigger budgets than the SVGA users, and therefore, you might want to invest more to insure long term compatibilitiy.

For Computer Labs

  • The general recommendation is go XGA, if the budget allows

For Multi-purpose Rooms and Auditoriums

  • Brightness and Budget first!

Warranties

This should be of big concern to schools. Different manufacturers have strikingly different warranty programs, from one year to three years. In addition, some companies will simply replace your projector if it fails (that means being back up and running in a day or two), others offer loaner programs (you get yours back), but still have minimum downtime, while many do not offer any loaner or replacement programs.

If you are about to do a major buy - say 30 projectors or more, some manufacturers (through their direct dealers) may be able to offer you a longer warranty than their standard one, for no additional charge. Remember "If you don't ask, you don't get!"

Some popular SVGA and XGA projectors for schools: (In no particular order). There are a vast number of manufacturers, but these brands, to the best of our knowledge, are very popular in the education market.

SVGA:

  • Optoma EP716
  • Epson Powerlite S3
  • Panasonic LM2
  • Panasonic LB50SU
  • BenQ MP610
  • InFocus "Work Big" IN24
  • InFocus X1a
  • Hitachi CP-RS56
  • Mitsubishi SD205U

XGA - Entry level

  • Optoma EP719
  • Optoma EP739
  • InFocus Work Big IN26
  • Epson Powerlite 76c
  • Panasonic LB50u
  • BenQ MP620

XGA - High power and units with lens options

  • Optoma EP747
  • InFocus LP860 (lens options)
  • Pansonic PT-D3500 (lens options)
  • Epson Powerlite 830p
  • Mitsubishi XL5950U (lens options)
  • Sanyo XT-11 (lens options)