Project Reconnect was developed for small rural village congregations. Its use has reached beyond that initial intention but that is because of the imagination and circumstances of those people who have purchased the resource. This has implications for the type of equipment we recommend. Some people tell us of wonderful data projectors and using laptop computers. The developors of Project Reconnect recognise the resources are regularly used by elderly folk who may not even own a DVD player and in some places the church building is lucky to have a power supply. So we suggest the simplest equipment minimising the challenges of learning how to use that equipment.
So we recommend:
1. A standard TV
2. A DVD player which has on the box (or in the manual) that it is capable of reading DVD-R DVD+R disks.
3. A very stable TV trolley or strong table. Trolley's are usually better as they provide space for both DVD player and TV.
If the DVD includes specifications that it can read these two formats (DVD-R, DVD+R) and you find you have problems reading the PR disks then you can activate your warranty. If it doesn't include that specification then you are stuck. We have found that DVD players have a short life so buying extra warranty is not a bad option.
It is worth keeping in mind that we hope to move to widescreen presentation. If you are buying your TV now you might go for the widescreen format even though at the moment you will have a blank section on either side of the image we create. Also, if you like fiddling around with technology then it is entirely up to you what set up you create. We would be glad of hearing stories about this on our story page because others may like to try similar things. But this is beyond the support of Project Reconnect.
November 10, 2006