Projector buying checklist
Open a section, slide each spec to what you want, and print your own projector wish list at the end.
Measured in ANSI lumens, a standard test of real light output. Cheap projectors print huge "lumens" figures that are not ANSI, so ignore those.
Good at night, faded in the day
Rough guide for a 100 inch picture.
Fine for films at night. Washes out with lights on.
The real number of pixels the projector draws. "1080p supported" or "4K supported" only means it accepts that signal and shrinks it down.
AaSmall text on the screenand even smaller details in photosMagnified to show the difference.
Real Full HD. Sharp for most people at 100 inch.
What makes the light. Lamps fade and need replacing, while LED and laser last many years and switch on instantly.
Lasts many years and runs cool. Usually less bright than lamp or laser.
How dark black looks next to bright white. Trust reviews of native contrast; "dynamic contrast" figures like 1,000,000:1 are marketing.
Night scenes in films look clean in a dark room.
HDR (high dynamic range) shows brighter highlights in films made for it. A dim projector cannot show much of it, so pair HDR with good brightness.
Plays HDR films. HLG is a format some live broadcasts use.
The size of the picture on the wall, corner to corner. Bigger needs more distance from the wall and more brightness to look as good.
60″74.7 x 133 cm80″99.6 x 177 cm100″125 x 221 cm120″149 x 266 cmDrawn to the same scale. The coloured area is the screen.
The classic home cinema size. Needs a wall about 2.2 m wide.
How far from the wall the projector must sit for a given picture size. Short throw models fit small rooms and stop people walking through the beam.
Needs roughly 2.5 to 3.5 m for a 100 inch picture. Often on a shelf or ceiling.
Keystone fixes a picture that looks like a trapezium when the projector is at an angle. Auto features set it all up for you in seconds.
Focuses itself whenever you move it. Keystone is still manual.
How dark the room must be for a good picture. Brightness decides most of this, and an ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen helps a lot.
Your bank OTP is 482913
Can you read this in a bright room?
How the screen reads under bright light, roughly.
Fine with a side lamp or thin curtains.
Built-in apps let you stream without a separate box. Many budget projectors run unofficial Android, where Netflix often will not play properly.
Official Netflix, Prime Video, JioHotstar and YouTube apps in full quality.
The speaker inside the projector. It sits next to the fan, so for films a soundbar or Bluetooth speaker usually sounds much better.
Fine for shows and YouTube in a bedroom.
Projectors need a fan to cool the light source, and you hear it in quiet scenes. Measured in dB (decibels); lower is quieter.
Faint hum that the film usually covers.
The delay between pressing a button and seeing it on the wall, in milliseconds (ms). Many projectors do not list it, so check reviews.
Fine for most casual and single-player games.
HDMI connects a set-top box, console or laptop. ARC or eARC on an HDMI port sends sound to a soundbar, and USB can power a streaming stick.
A console and a streaming stick at once.
Wi-Fi streams apps without buffering. Bluetooth out lets the projector play sound through a Bluetooth speaker or headphones.
Uses the faster 5 GHz band too.
Some projectors stay on a shelf or ceiling, others are small enough to carry, and a few run on a built-in battery.
Brighter and quieter for its size, usually on a shelf or ceiling mount.
Your wish list
PROJECTOR WISH LIST
by TechPP Insights
Your next projector should have these minimum specs
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