Looking for a definitive answer

[wbond]

I think I am reading conflicting views.

If you have a 4:3 screen, which one will give you a better picture. Lets just assume that both have same lumens and contrast.

1- 720p projector that has 4:3 as the native resolution

or

2- 1080 projector where the projector is manually forced to a 4:3 size.

What does a 1080 projector actually do when converted to 4:3?

[aja]

1. No such thing as a 720p projector with "native" 4:3. 720p is 1280 x 720 which you can think of as "HD lite", since it is 16:9 aspect ration but less total pixels than full HD (or 1080p).

2. 1080p gives you 1920 x 1080 pixels to work with. It's native format is 16:9. When you chose to project a 4:3 image with this projector you get black bands on both sides of the screen since the sides have no image to project. However the resolution of the viewable 4:3 image is 1444 x 1080.

In short, option 1 will give a 4:3 resolution of 960 x 720. Option 2 will give 1444 x 1080.

Some links:

https://www.projectorpeople.com/resources/resolution-guide.asp

https://www.projectorpeople.com/resources/projector-resolution.asp

[Dax]

Great response!

[wbond]

aja Thanks for the response and links. I swear i saw a 720p projector on projector central that said 4:3 native, but i've looked up so many on there, I probably mixed them up.

From what you've listed, either way, i will get a much better picture with a 1080 projector in 4:3 mode than using any native 4:3 projector due to the amount of pixels that will be shown.

Last question (hopefully), you mention black bars on the side, does this cause any additional problems or degradation to the projector or bulb itself using a 1080p projector in 4:3 mode?

[aja]

No question you will get a better picture with the 1080 projector.

But, sorry - I don't know the answer about problems with using 4:3 with a 16:9 projector. If using it for a dedicated 4:3 set-up, I wouldn't be concerned about it. I will be doing this one day myself when I upgrade from my XGA projector to a 1080. There's really no cost effective way that I know of to get more pixels on the screen than with a 1080 projector.

Maybe there's some one doing this in practice that could comment?