How to Select a Home Theater Projector
There are a few factors that determine what the best home theater projector is for your space and needs. The biggest is room lighting and configuration. For dark rooms and dedicated home cinemas, look for one that prioritizes color accuracy over brightness.
Whether you’re planning a dinner and movie night with friends or a cozy weekend of binging your favorite series, this guide can help you find the right home theater projector for you.
Picture Quality
One of the most important things to consider when selecting a projector for home theater is its image quality. A projector’s picture is made up of tiny dots called pixels, and the more pixels there are, the clearer the image will be. Look for a projector with at least a 1920X1080 resolution, or better yet, 4K UHD (3840X2160, referred to as true 4K).
The brightness of the projected image is also critical to the overall picture quality. While most home theater projectors will produce enough brightness for viewing in a dark room, it’s worth checking the lumens spec to see how well a particular model can stand up to ambient light.
Many home theater projectors boost brightness to compensate for less-than-ideal color accuracy, which can be a problem in a brighter room. While you should still check the color accuracy spec, spot-on color home theater projector isn’t quite as critical in home entertainment use as it is in a dedicated home cinema space with controlled lighting.
In addition to the brightness of the projector, you should also take into account whether or not it can adjust its image based on where it’s mounted in the room. Short throw projectors, lens shift functions and sideways keystone correction are all features that can help to ensure that your projected image is perfectly centered on the screen no matter how the projector is positioned in the room.
Brightness
A projector’s brightness, measured in ANSI lumens, is an important factor to consider when shopping for one. Brighter projectors are better able to overcome ambient light, which can interfere with image quality. However, brightness alone doesn’t necessarily tell the whole story about a projector’s performance.
Manufacturers often exaggerate their brightness specifications, so be sure to compare actual test results from trusted reviewers when making your purchase decision. In addition to brightness, it’s also worth considering contrast ratio and color accuracy when comparing models.
In general, you can expect to get half of a projector’s rated brightness in terms of usable image quality, so be careful not to overestimate the power of a device based on its ANSI lumens rating. To help you find a good home theater projector with the right brightness level, take into account the size of your room, the screen size, and the amount of ambient light.
For dark rooms with low ambient light, a projector rated at around 2000 lumens should be sufficient. For lighter environments and larger screens, a brighter model may be required. If you’re concerned about ambient light ruining image quality, BenQ has a number of models that offer ambient light rejecting features, such as its TK850 and HT3550. These technologies filter out specific colors and reduce light transmission to prevent ambient light from affecting image quality.
Color Accuracy
Many home theater projectors feature a color wheel to help deliver accurate colors. This is necessary to make sure the colors you see onscreen are true, particularly in dark scenes with black lettering or shadow detail. But some projectors can use this technology in a way that produces a rainbow effect on the screen, which can be distracting to some viewers. That’s because single-chip DLP models use one display chip for each of the primary colors (red, green and blue) and then run them in a sequence instead of simultaneously. This can create a “rainbow” effect on the screen for some viewers, especially when the image shifts or moves onscreen. Higher-end models that use three separate display chips, like the Optoma UHZ66 we tested, do not show this problem.
The BenQ HT3560 delivered top-tier performance in our Portable WiFi Projector tests, with high enough brightness to stand up well to ambient light and excellent color, contrast and shadow detail. It also offers a dynamic iris for better image stability and a 120 Hz refresh rate that improves motion clarity for sports and video games.
Other useful features include keystone correction, which allows you to adjust the image’s shape when mounting it in a corner or off center; and lens shift, which lets you move the image up or down or left or right without moving the projector. Most home theater projectors also have HDMI inputs for connecting Blu-ray players and media streamers.
Black Level
A home theater projector’s black level determines how dark a video image appears on screen, and is critical for a good viewing experience. The better a projector’s native black level, the higher its contrast ratio, which provides more vivid images with more details.
There are many factors that affect the black level of a home theater projector, including the type of light source and the optical system. Some types of projectors also have iris control, which can help improve contrast by closing during dark scenes. These features can be activated through a menu or remote.
While some measures can be taken to improve a projector’s black level performance, they cannot fundamentally change its native capabilities and design. This is why it is important to choose a projector with good native black levels, particularly if you plan on using it in a room that is not fully light controlled.
For example, if you plan on using a projector in a room that has windows or doors that are open, you may want to consider adding a bias lighting system that helps to “bias” your eyes into opening wider, which can improve perception of contrast and black levels. Alternatively, you can use a dark gray screen or other light rejection technology to further reduce ambient light in your home cinema environment.