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SHEDDING THE LIGHT ON PROJECTION

What type of connections or wires do I need for my projector?

Entire books have been published on the many type of connectors and wires available to send a video or audio signal. As a basic rule of thumb - more wires are better when connecting a video source. You must keep in mind that a wire is a single piece of conductive material (usually copper or aluminum) wrapped in a non conductive material. A cable is a collection of wires. For example a regular extension cord is made up of 3 wires (a ground, neutral, and hot). The second rule of thumb is output must match input – if your computer has a VGA output you will most likely connect it to the matching input on your projector. You can’t put a square peg in a round hole so don’t be afraid that you will mess up things up by connecting them wrong. For a complete list of the types of connections available see below.

With digital signals such as HDMI, DVI or USB the information being sent is changed to a digital code, until it is converted back to a “viewable signal”. So the first rule of thumb may be becoming obsolete but the second mentioned above remains true.

What about wireless connections?

Wireless connections are getting more reliable, and it looks really cool not to have wires hanging from the back of your computer, but I’m still old school when it comes to connections, I prefer wired connections, simply because less can go wrong. Wireless connections have to use infa-red, radio frequency or WiFi, in any case your signal is being transmitted through the air, if there is any interference or the signal goes out you lost control. My advice save this technology for remote controls and cell phones unless absolutely necessary.

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