Notes on using EH415e Projector
Aspect ratio & Zoom lens…
- The native resolution is 1920 x 1080 pixels which is a Full HD 16:9 format.
- If the projector is positioned with minimum zoom to fill our 6 foot screen, then the zoom can be increased until a 1440 x 1080 image also fills the screen. Both Faststone and Dicentra detect the projector resolution and perform rescaling on the fly so can effectively project 1600 x 1200 images. [Note: 1440 & 1080 are exactly 90% of 1600 & 1200.]
- The projector has been pre-loaded with a SCC test target so this, focussing and general alignment can all be completed before any video cables etc are attached.
Compatibility with Samsung laptop video chipset
- The Samsung inbuilt display is (like the majority of medium cost laptops) limited to 1366 x 768 pixels so projecting the desktop simultaneously on both laptop and EH415e will not prove satisfactory. There are two alternative options…
- 1) Only use the projector and disable the laptop display by using either “Windows key” + “P” or mouse right click on Desktop background to select Screen Resolution and choose Multiple Display = Show desktop only on 1. The laptop should then drive the projector at its native 1920×1080 resolution. Main disadvantage of this is that it is difficult to view the keyboard (e.g. scoring) in a darkened room.
- 2) Use the dual display capabilities of the laptop video chipset by choosing Multiple Display = Extend these displays. You can then check that laptop is “1” and the projector “2” using the Identify button: generally 2 is to the right of 1 but if this is inconvenient, you can drag and drop to swap the two screens over. If a third screen appears, select it and then choose Remove this display from the drop-down list.
- With dual displays, you can drag and drop programme windows using the conventional top bar of any window between the two screens.
Dicentra Dual screen facility
- Recent updates to Dicentra have improved how it handles dual screen environments. Version 4.6.107 now detects dual screen with two pop-ups asking for one to be dragged to the projector screen and one to be dragged to the laptop. Note that some Dicentra pop-ups may appear on the projected image while others appear on the laptop.
- When running a competition, it can be helpful to open an empty text document on the laptop display to provide some keyboard illumination.
- As Dicentra has to be set up during the Competition Rules with the projected image size, unfortunately it is not then possible to properly preview or practice the competition on the laptop alone as about 12% is lost from both the top and bottom of the image – but you can at least check image order, titles etc. As a work-around, there is an icon on the desktop PREVIEW DICENTRA COMPS that opens to give a shortcut to the internal Dicentra folders that with care can be browsed as a slideshow.
- For more details on dual screen and Dicentra, read an up-to-date User Manual (Chapter 10).
MAC HDMI Video Colour Spaces… (added 11/1/16)
- Our Windows PCs output RGB16-235 colour space for HDMI inputs as it recognises the projector as a monitor.
- However, Macbooks apparently recognise any 1920×1080 HDMI device as a video product and accordingly default to a YCbCr colour space (the digital equivalent to YUV) which results in an unusable image. Two options exist if this happens:-
- a) Use VGA cable
- b) Change the Colour Space on the projector under Menu/Image/Colour Space to either Auto or YUV