Best 4k Projector For Home Theater – The best projectors you can buy in 2023 and how to choose a big screen for less money.
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Best 4k Projector For Home Theater
Home theater projectors have come a long way from the shabby, dark models of yesteryear to the latest models that are brighter, sharper, smarter and easier to install than ever before. In addition to picture quality, they deliver picture sizes that you can’t get on a TV without spending a fortune. Along with all this, the best projectors are highly desirable for home theater buffs who want a true cinematic experience at home.
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In the past year, we’ve seen models that are bright enough to use in a common room, short-throw models that take up less space, and have built-in sound bars and better picture quality than ever with 4K and Dolby Vision features. Even better, you can now get 4K HDR models that can project images up to 150 inches for less than $1,000. That gives you close to the same price and twice the size of a good 65-inch TV.Real movie theater immersion with a home theater projector.
There are many types of projectors, from ultra-short-throw to portable to long-throw. There are many terms to understand such as lens shift, LCD vs. DLP, laser vs. lamp lighting and more. This guide will help you understand everything so that you can buy the best projector for your needs within your budget.
Here are the basics: Projectors generally use two types of technology, LCD and DLP. They are fundamentally different systems with their own advantages and disadvantages
The rise of ultra-short-throw projectors and brighter long-throw models is driven by cost reductions in laser lighting technology. Lasers are a much better solution than DIPs, as they are much brighter and last longer – up to 30,000 hours instead of 6,000.
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Most projector manufacturers now use DLPs, or digital light processing units, mostly made by Texas Instruments (TI). The heart of the technology is an optical semiconductor called a digital micromirror device (DMD) consisting of millions of aluminum mirrors. They move toward (on) or away from the light source 5,000 times per second
Budget projectors like BenQ’s HT3550i use TI’s 0.47-inch DMD, while high-end models like Samsung’s premium LSP9T use a 0.66-inch chip. Both mirrors tilt +12 and -12 degrees for white and black, but TI recently unveiled a new 0.47-inch 4K-capable DMD with +/- 17 degrees of tilt, which boosts both brightness and contrast.
Manufacturers of DLP projectors include LG, Optoma, LG, BenQ and Panasonic. Advantages of the technology include portability, high contrast, low fringing and cheaper projectors, especially 4K and ultra-short-throw models. The biggest problem is the rainbow effect, or bright red/blue/green artifacts that affect some viewers more than others.
LCD tech, meanwhile, uses a prism to split the light source into red, green, and blue rays. They then pass through the LCD display containing the image and converge through another prism before passing through the lens of the projector.
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LCD projectors are the primary users of LCD technology with Epson, Sony, Sanyo and others offering sharper, more efficient and more accurate color, but lower contrast ratios and can experience image degradation over time. Generally, they are more expensive
Since the last time we updated our guide, ultra-short-throw projectors have become a hot new category, offering many new advantages. You can mount them as close to the wall as a TV without having to run wires through walls and ceilings, but still get an immersive 120-inch picture — impossible with a TV unless you’re very rich. They use bright lasers that never need to be replaced – and focus is removed as the laser light is focused
They are physically less awkward to install than ceiling-mount projectors, though that doesn’t mean installation isn’t easy. To get the perfect screen fit and alignment, you need to place them at the right height and distance from your wall or screen. As I discovered, it was very painful
You need a perfectly flat wall or projector screen, because ultra-short-throw projectors shine at an acute angle, so any imperfections appear as shadows. For that reason, you can’t use a roll-down screen because they have a slight fluctuation
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For best results, especially with a lot of ambient light, you should use an Ambient Light-Rejection (ALR) screen. They have tiny rays that reflect light back into your eyes from below, but absorb any light coming from above (ie ambient light). For one of them, you’ll need to budget at least $450.Some projectors, including models from Epson and Hisense, come with ALR screens.
Home theater projectors typically have luminances between 2,000 and 4,000 lumens, but you need to take those numbers with a grain of salt. Some models can actually hit 3,000 lumens or more, but cranking the lamp to that level will hurt the image quality and lifespan of your bulb. Also, some manufacturers tend to exaggerate the maximum brightness
As a reference, many 4K flat panel TVs these days can reach 1,000 knots of brightness, while the brightest consumer projectors only display between 100 and 150 knots from the screen. This isn’t as big of a deal as it seems, because the projector’s images are very large and intended for use in dark rooms, where your eyes automatically adjust to the light and “brighten” the image.
Home theater projectors also have differences. Like OLED TVs, projectors don’t allow for zero black levels due to light, reflections, and other factors. Your local dimming zone also doesn’t look for true blackness on LED TVs. Some projectors have dynamic iris to improve visual contrast, but they often create a “pumping” effect, the image Darkening or brightening in the middle.
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The biggest advantage of regular long-throw projectors is that you can mount the projector and screen on the ceiling using the empty space in your room. If you’re planning to do this, don’t forget to budget for any necessary lengths of cables, including a mounting bracket and extra power for Google’s Smart Chromecast. Keep in mind that light home theater projectors are easier to install and DLP models are generally lighter than LCD technology.
Some projectors are noisier than others, and generally the more you spend, the less noise you get. Many new 4K DLP projectors are particularly noisy when operating in 4K mode.There’s another (cool) thing: If you have a portable projector or one that’s relatively easy to remove and put away, you can take it outside for a magical night of screening under the stars.
As for projectors, these topics could take up an entire article each, in fact, they have – for a deeper dive, let’s take a look
On the resolution front, only expensive projectors have native 4K resolution. In fact, most theaters use 2K projectors for various reasons, however, there are many relatively inexpensive DLP projectors that use pixel-shift to achieve 4K resolution. That system emits each pixel four times while moving into the correct position for a 4K image, all in less than 1/60 of a second. As such, it puts as many pixels on the screen at the same time as a 4K native projector – and visually, it does nearly as well.
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On the other hand, Epson’s LCD “4K enhanced” projectors also have 1080p native resolution, but the image is enhanced twice, not four times. So, those projectors aren’t 4K native or otherwise, but double the pixel count of 1080p projectors. If you really want a 4K native projector, you’ll have to pay: two are the cheaper Sony’s VPL-VW295ES ($5,000) and JVC’s DLA-NX5 ($5,000).
HDR on a projector is a different animal than a TV, as mentioned, projectors can’t produce anywhere near the amount of brightness (1,000 nits) required to qualify as true HDR. Instead, they use a technique called tone-mapping to match the entire HDR gamut to a lower brightness range.
For that reason, among others, almost all projectors only support HDR10, only one uses Dolby Vision (the Xiaomi Laser Cinema 2, only available in China) and only two models work with Samsung’s HDR10+ – and those are Samsung’s own premier 4K models. However, most support a wider 10-bit color gamut that allows for better color reproduction.
If you are mounting a short or long throw projector between five and 25 feet, you may need to consider the zoom range and whether the projector has one.
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