What makes projectors good

With projectors, all that is possible! With the advantage of portability, the only true limit for where it can function is access to electricity and a decent surface to project onto. Considering the technological and practical advantages of projectors for home entertainment, they are altogether reasonably priced.

Although it is possible to find similarly priced televisions, the crux again comes down to the value proposition. Given the advantages of projection, it makes sense for just about anyone to consider. Thanks to advancements in projector technology and a gradual decline in projector prices, this option is more feasible than ever.

If the advantages of projectors have swayed you into considering a purchase, the next step is to jump from the theoretical to the practical, in that you should decide which model is best for your needs. Other options like the LS provide a high brightness of 4, lumens, Full HD resolution, and a short-throw ratio specifically designed for home entertainment.

Sign in. Log into your account. Forgot your password? Password recovery. Recover your password. No menu items! Quick Links. Projector Advantage 1: Customizable Screen Size. Projector Advantage 2: Huge Images. Projector Advantage 3: Eye Comfort. Projector Advantage 4: Compact Size. Projector Advantage 5: Portability. Projector Advantage 6: Value. Who Should Use a Projector? HDMI 2. Is Esports a Sport? So how many lumens do you need?

Well there are some considerations we'll get to, but generally speaking you probably won't regret getting the brightest projector you can. Other aspects, like color accuracy, contrast ratio, and more, are vital, but for an initial sweep of potentially promising projectors, see what kind of lumen output is available in your price range.

It's worth keeping in mind that you can usually turn down the brightness of a projector, but you can't turn up an otherwise dim projector. That is, unless you make the image smaller. To give you a rough idea, a 2,lumen projector will create a bright, watchable image on a inch screen in a dark room.

A 1,lumen projector will be "fine" but won't really punch. These are all very rough numbers which, again, are hard to compare since the specs themselves are suspect.

If you look at our reviews, and what results we've gotten with measurement gear, it might give you a better idea what you're looking at. Projectors create light and image separately. A light source creates the light, which is then focused on an image-creating chip. UHP lamps, which are basically high-powered light bulbs, are by far the most common.

These are capable of creating a lot of light and have the added bonus of being fairly inexpensive. The downside is they degrade over time. A UHP projector will never be as bright as that first time you turn it on -- until you replace the lamp. This aging is a slow process though. We've reviewed several that, in certain modes, have lamps that can last 15, hours before you need to replace them.

So if you watch the projector for four hours every night, that means the lamp will last over 10 years. More expensive projectors have more expensive lamps. Go figure. Relatively new to the home theater projection scene are LED and laser light sources. These are cooler than UHP lamps in both senses of the word.

LEDs and lasers in projectors function in similar ways and some projectors use both, so for our purposes we'll group them together.

They're far more efficient than UHP lamps but cost a lot more to create the same amount of light. There are lots of affordable LED-based projectors available today but they're usually quite dim. That probably won't be the case forever, but it is right now. Not having to replace the lamp, aka spend money on something you've already spent money on, is completely understandable.

You also have a much wider range of UHP projectors available, from many different companies. The image chips are one of the most confusing, but also most interesting, aspects of projectors. Despite dozens of companies making projectors, the chips are almost all made by just four companies. This includes the chip and the color wheel to make all the colors you see. How it's implemented in a case, the overall airflow, what lamp is used, how the settings are tweaked and more, are often done by the projector maker, aka the name on the outside.

Some companies just use a reference design and slap their name on it. Others might use the base reference design, and then tweak it to their specs.

That all said, two DLP-projectors that cost the same, but are from two different companies, are going to look more similar than different. Probably not identical, though. There's still a lot that can be tweaked. For LCD, Epson is by far the biggest name.

Lower-end models typically have very poor contrast ratios. However, Epson has come a long way in recent years. They're all three-chip designs, as in there's a separate chip for the red, green and blue components of an image, so it's possible for them to have better color compared to many DLP projectors, which usually rely on a spinning color wheel.

This largely varies per projector, however. In terms of overall picture quality, LCoS is usually the winner. These are found in more expensive projectors, even the cheapest being a few thousand dollars. They're all 3-chip designs, so they typically have excellent color as well. Now that you've got the basic tech down, it's worth considering where in your house you're going to put the projector.

That might limit which projectors you can buy, as some might not fit where you want them to. It's a bit cumbersome to get mounted you'll want two people , but once you do, vertical and horizontal adjustments for the lens make lining it up with your screen a breeze.

The projector's remote can control them. If you're designing a dedicated home theater with stadium seating, you'll want a larger projector like the Epson UB. It offers a cinema-quality lens, sharp colors, and astonishing black levels.

The added clarity you'll get on larger screens makes this a great choice for bigger rooms. I spent about a month with the Vava 4K laser projector, and I liked the darn thing more with every passing day. It has an ultra-short throw, which means it can project a inch image while just 7.

Coupled with the fact that it has a built-in Harman Kardon soundbar, it's easily the fastest projector I've ever set up from box to Netflix. It also looks fantastic, though not quite as sharp as our top pick. The projector does have an Android interface, but the apps are garbage—I could barely get Netflix to work at all. Just use a Roku or Chromecast instead. Our top pick, the Optoma UHD50X, is good for most casual gamers, but if you demand an even shorter lag time, the UHD35 from the same company is your best bet.

Projectors have always had slower input response times the time it takes your motion on a gamepad to react on screen than regular TVs, but the UHD35 fixes this with a superfast Hz refresh rate at Full HD resolution. That lowers the input latency to a mere 4 milliseconds, compared with 16 on the UHD50X—more than good enough for all but the most competitive gamers. When you're not using it to play Breath of the Wild on a inch screen, you can watch all your favorite films and TV shows in 4K.

At 3, lumens, it's also bright enough for medium-lit rooms. The one thing I don't like about it? It doesn't have lens shift support, so you'll want to make sure you have a proper mounting solution planned before you pull the trigger. The fact is, you just don't get TV-level performance for that kind of money.

This plucky p projector offers the excellent color accuracy the company is known for, sharp image quality, and enough brightness to look great during outdoor movie nights. It has two hours of battery life, so you can watch a short movie anywhere plug it in for longer sessions , and you can even stream things straight from your cell phone—no cables required.

With p resolution and up to a inch image size all from a projector that fits easily in a purse, you'll be watching Netflix in the woods in no time.

Just wait until it's dark, because portable projectors aren't nearly as bright as their beefier, cabled counterparts. This cute portable projector from Kodak has Android 9.