In Living Color Clear ways to project an even more professional image

Business projectors haven't been resting on their laurels in recent years. They're getting brighter, showing truer colors and tackling HD video. From $5,000 high-end installation projectors to affordable portables, now is a good time to update your old, low-resolution projector or outfit your sales team with the latest technology.

Two notable projector innovations are short throwing distances and widescreen support. You can find both of these in the $1,399 Epson PowerLite 400W, which can project an 87-inch 16:10 widescreen image from 3.4 feet away. The Toshiba TDP-EW25U, which costs $2,059, also blends these two features. Both projectors have a WXGA native resolution, making them a good fit for use with widescreen laptops. Neither projector is a featherweight, but at under 10 pounds each, you can still take them on the occasional road trip. The somewhat less-weighty, $1,410 Sony VPL-EW5 is a widescreen WXGA projector that uses 3LCD technology and weighs in at 6.6 pounds. It's an affordable entry-level solution that still packs in some desirable features. Another portable candidate is the $1,195, 6-pound XGA Sharp XR-32X. An SVGA version (the XR-32S) is also available, priced at $1,095.

For a budget-friendly conference room solution, look to the $749 InFocus Work Big IN2104. This XGA native resolution projector weighs just under 7 pounds, and a lamp life of 3,000 hours means you won't have to deal with lamp replacement for a while. SVGA and WXGA versions are also available in this series.