If you love movies. And I mean really love movies, a tiny little TV just won’t suffice. By “tiny” I mean anything below 65-inches. To get that true cinematic experience with Blu-ray and even TV, you need a projector.
Of course, there are a few considerations to take into account…
In the past ten years, projectors have gotten smaller, brighter, better, and better and better and better. These days, many projectors offer far superior picture quality than any LCD or Plasma. What’s even more amazing is that they’re often no more expensive than a big flat panel. Intrigued? I’d hope so.
The Tech
There are three technologies projectors can use to create an image: LCD, DLP, and LCOS.
LCD projectors are very similar to their flat panel brethren. In this case, three small LCD panels (one for each color) manipulate the light to create the image on screen. The biggest benefit of LCD projectors is cost. They’re often among the cheapest projectors available. Unlike LCD projectors of yore, there isn’t really any “screen door effect” with LCD projectors anymore, at least not that you’d notice from where you’re sitting. Black level and contrast ratio are the main drawbacks. Auto-irises will help with this somewhat, but in this regard they’re going to be the lowest performing of our bunch. That’s not to say they can’t look great. I’ve seen LCD projectors that look better than many DLP projectors which cost a lot more.
DLP, or Digital Light Processing, is really the progenitor of high-end but affordable projection. A DLP projector uses either one or three DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) chips that are thousands of tiny pivotable mirrors. If a pixel needs to be lit on screen, the mirror pivots to reflect the light from the lamp towards the screen. If the pixel needs to be dark, it pivots away. There’s an incredible range of pricing with DLP projectors. Tiny, single-chip DLP projectors can cost under $1,000. On the other end of the spectrum, big 3-chip DLP projectors can cost $30,000 and upwards to Bentley/Rolls/cottage range. Across the wide range of prices, DLP projectors offer consistently excellent motion resolution (one of the best technologies for this). Some models are highly accurate, some are exceedingly bright, there are many, many possibilities. Contrast ratio and black level performance can be a little better than LCD, but not as good as LCOS.
LCOS, or Liquid Crystal on Silicon, can be thought of as a hybrid of the other two technologies. It uses a liquid crystal layer (like LCD) but this is positioned over a mirrored layer. Light enters the chip and reflects off the mirror, but is manipulated by the LC to determine if the light makes it to the screen or not. Two companies make LCOS projectors (with other companies modifying their chassis): Sony and JVC. Sony’s version of the technology is SXRD, or Silicon X-tal Reflective Display. JVC’s is D-ILA, or Direct-Drive Image Light Amplifier. Not sure which abbreviation is worse. Though similar, they function and perform slightly differently. JVC’s projectors consistently offer the best contrast ratio of any display technology. Current models are even highly accurate. Sony models offer performance that’s close enough that really either option is good.
Buying a PJ
I have yet to see an LCOS projector that wasn’t excellent. Both Sony and JVC offer models at a wide range of prices, and I’d highly recommend starting with one of them first.
There are some great deals to be had on Amazon for slightly older models, like:
2009/2010’s HD550 ($3,896.19)
For the newest models, it’s best to find a dealer near you and talk with them.
As far as LCD projectors go, Epson, Panasonic, and Mitsubishi make excellent projectors. They’re often extremely quiet, which is a really big deal if you have a small room. The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350 ($1,152.59, 53% off)
There are many single-chip DLP projectors out there, and most are very good. They’re just not going to offer the contrast ratio of the LCOS projectors (often for similar money). If you’re looking at a single-chip DLP and an LCD at the same price, that’s going to be a hard call and I highly recommend checking them out in person before you buy.
If you want a really big screen, 3-chip DLP is really the only option. I have a 10-foot wide 2.35:1 screen (102-inch 16×9 diagonal) and most projectors create a plenty pleasing 15 foot-Lamberts. If you want to go much bigger than this, high-end 3-chip projectors are affectionately referred to as “flame throwers.” One recent 3-chip projector I reviewed I got an incredible 30 foot-Lamberts on my screen. Most old 36″ tube TVs couldn’t do that.
Remember, for every 10% greater screen diagonal, your brightness is going to drop by roughly 20%.
Screens
With any projector you’re going to need a screen. Some advocate just painting a wall, but I can’t abide by this method. There is no way to make the wall smooth enough so as not to have bumps and ridges you can see in the image. If you’re really strapped for cash, ok, but after spending good money on a projector, you owe it to yourself to get a screen so it can perform its best.
There are a lot of variables with screens (which I’ll dive into further detail in an upcoming article). The short version is: size, material, aspect, and gain.
Determining the size you want is the first step. Go big. As big as you can. For me, I determined how high from the floor I wanted the bottom of the image to be (so I could still fit a center channel speaker and not have to look too far down. Then I figured how close to the ceiling I could go, and worked out the size from there. Ideally you’ll have the center of the screen roughly at eye level when your seated, but that’s hard to do without having your seating on risers.
I always rail against mounting TVs too high, as looking up to watch TV is a sure way to get a stiff neck every night. But with a huge screen this is a little less of an issue as your eyes are wandering all around the screen (as it fill so much of your peripheral vision). There are all sorts of ratios that you can go by too if you want. Ideally, you’ll talk with a custom installer and they’ll give you pointers.
Screen material is another concern. If you want to mount speakers behind the screen, you’ll need a perf or a weave screen. Most modern perf screens have holes that are small enough that you won’t get an interaction with the pixels in the projector.
Gain is a tricky subject. I use a 1.0-gain screen, but I don’t recommend that for most people. I use it because I use the screen to measure projectors. Positive gain screens (numbers higher than 1) will get you a little more light. They do this by basically “focusing” the light like a lens. The higher the gain screen, the more light and more focus. Worst case, you can end up with a “hot spot” where the center of the screen is brighter than edges. All positive gain screens will also drop off the light as you move off axis. So if you have a really wide room, the people sitting off to the sides won’t have as bright an image. Unless you’re really trying to force a low output projector to fill a huge screen, you really don’t need much gain. All projectors can easily fill a 100-inch 16×9 screen.
Negative gain screens (numbers less than 1), came about in the early days of digital projection when black levels were terrible. These days, that’s not the case. It’s personal preference, but I don’t think modern projectors need a negative gain screen. Just remember that negative gain screens don’t just magically create better blacks, they do it by lowering the light output of the entire reflected image. So you lose total brightness too, thereby shrinking the overall size that’s possible with any given projector.
This may be blasphemous to some, but I’d go so far as to say get a positive gain and larger screen than a better black level and smaller. The black level on nearly all modern projectors ranges between “good enough” and “fantastic.” So go big!
For aspect ratio, check out my article here.
There’s even more to screen selection, but I’ll write about that in the screen article next week.
Major Considerations
You will, necessarily, have to live in a cave. No matter how bright the image is, or how neeto the screen is, it can’t compete with ambient light. Turn on a lamp, the image will be washed out. Watch the game on Sunday, close the drapes. Many people get a cheap LCD to watch during the day and use the projector at night. Others, like me, are insane enough to just use the projector for everything. As long as you can control the light in the room, you’ll be fine.
Most projectors use lamps, which age, dim, and need to replacing. These cost several hundred usually, but last thousands of hours. Depending on use, you may need to replace one every year, or every few years.
Some new projectors are using LEDs, which last a lifetime and have some really impressive color accuracy. So far these are pretty expensive, though, and aren’t as bright as some of their competitors.
You’ll need somewhere to put the projector, obviously, but every projector can be mounted to the ceiling, or put on a shelf.
Did I say it already? Go BIG!
I’ve used a projector as my sole display for nearly ten years. In that time the picture quality has increased dramatically while the prices have fallen. It’s so addictive to watch TV characters that are larger than life, and movies that are bigger and better than what you get at the local cinema. I hardly ever go to the movies anymore. Why would I? My setup at home is better, doesn’t cost me $16, and if the phone rings I won’t get arrested for beating the crap out of myself. I don’t think I could ever go back to some tiny 60-inch TV.
â€â€Geoff Morrison
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Fascinating summary, especially since I am in the middle of a home remodel, and trying to decide if I want to install a projector. Back in the day of the Kloss Novabeam, any light in the room would wash out the picture. How much progress have we made in the meantime? Can some light enter the room, or will I need blackout curtains?
Geoff: You can have a little light, but no projector is bright enough to combat the sun. It needs to be pretty dark. There are some specialty screens that reject ambient light pretty well, but even these aren’t perfect.
One thing you didn’t mention was noise level. It can be pretty distracting to be watching a movie and hear fan noise during a quiet scene. Have vendors solved this problem?
Geoff: I sit about 6 feet from whatever projector I’m reviewing, and rarely can I hear it unless there is no sound coming from the speakers. Some projectors are better than others, of course. LCD PJs are often the quietest, LCOS next, and DLPs the “loudest,” though few are actually loud. Big 3-chip DLPs can be downright noisy, but they’re intended to be installed in their own soffit.
PJs will probably never be silent, but none that I’ve reviewed have been noisy enough for complaint. If you have to sit closer to it, or it’s right over your head, that may be a different story. In that case, I’d recommend one of the quieter projectors like Mits, Epson, JVC, Sony, and so on.
Try sitting as close as you can to a 100″ screen. It’s like being at an Imax theater. I found this out when I had an exercise bike about 4′ from the screen. Camera pans can make you dizzy!
Nice article. I’m on my 3rd dlp, from svga to 720p, now 1080p. We love the big screen! We have the plasma off to the side of the screen for day/casual viewing. Unfortunately the a/b switch and my Pioneer amp do not get along, so the tv gets component and the projector gets hdmi.
We chose not to stick it in the basement, so we have to wait for night.
Greg
Did the Sony SXRD projectors ever have any issues with the optical block failing like their RPTV’s did? That was a major problem!
It always worries me when someone says something like this: “If you’re sitting 10-feet away from a TV smaller than 65-inches, your eye can’t resolve all the resolution in the image anyway. So “blowing it up†is only going to let you see more detail”.
I wish it was so simple.
And yet there are visual acuity charts that will verify that very same point which are published by proponents of this point of view.
There is one major flaw in this argument – we don’t receive pixel perfect pictures. We receive compressed video. Video, where a lot of data, has been thrown away. There is a fair amount of averaging that can be seen in even the best blu-rays.
Now it is a fair discussion to have about what angle of view is most appropriate. Angle of view is what THX and SMPTE use but lets also remember at the angles they recommend you are likely to see many more flaws – not more detail.
Geoff: So you’re disagreeing by agreeing with me?
Just a quick comment about theatrical presentations. If you see it presented on film and not a digital projector in the theater, the image is severely degraded by the projector itself. The resulting image detail that actually makes it to the screen is in the order of 1.5 million pixels of data. As a result of this, a well transferred blu-ray film will show more detail than what one saw in the theater on film.
Digital projection is a different story though.
regards
Geoff: Well… no, not really. That’s actually something of a myth. The projector itself isn’t doing anything to degrade the image, and single frames of 35mm film have WAY more resolution than 1080p HD. The randomness of the film grain means that temporally most 35mm films are somewhat close to 1080p, but often much better. 2k digital projection, which is what most theaters have, is roughly the same as 1080p, and as such on really large screens can actually look quite soft (seen it) and if you sit even reasonably close you can see pixels (seen it). 4k is a different story, if you can find it. Digital theater projection is not necessarily a guarantee of good picture quality. A well shot film projected as such will look better than 2K digital projection in most cases. 4k, maybe not.
Never forget that digital projection in theaters was pushed by studios so they wouldn’t have to spend millions on making and shipping film prints. It had nothing to do with better picture quality.
Thanks Geoff, my common sense was wrong. i don’t fully understand how a projector builds an image and then “blows it up” which led me to my gut reaction. ill go Google some more about it.
I would just like to add that current DLP projectors are compatible with 3D Blu-ray movies because the Texas Instrument DLP chip uses a technique called wobulation to produce a 3D image. All you need is a pair of DLP-Link glasses and a 3D Blu-ray player. Geoff, Are LCD and LCOS projectors capable of producing a 3D Blu-ray image? I have a 73″ rear project DLP but I am considering going with a projector for my next set.
Geoff: The latest Sony and JVC LCOS projectors are 3D. I believe the cheapest is $4500. I don’t believe there are any 3D LCD projectors yet.
Are all projectors made to be used 24/7 or use like a TV?
Geoff: 24/7? If you’re planning on leaving it on all the time I’d check with the manufacturer. Shouldn’t be an issue, though you’re going to go through lamps every 6-7 months.
One thing that needs to be mentioned in regards to the DLP single chip projectors is the “rainbow effect” that some people see in the image if they move their eyes while watching the screen. It’s a shimmering color edge on the picture. Not everyone sees it, but for those that do, it can be very bothersome. This is due to the use of a spining color wheel, even though some newer models use a switched LED light source. There is no problem with a three chip DLP projector.
Geoff: I knew someone was going to mention this. Personally I think it’s much ado about nothing. Worse, the more you point it out, the more people look for it and are suddenly bothered by it. The vast majority of modern single-chip DLP projectors use color wheels that spin fast enough that few people can even notice it. LED-based projectors won’t have the effect, their LEDs switch too fast. So yes, if this is something that bothers you, get an LCOS or LCD projector instead (or 3-chip if you want to spend the money).
I take issue with this:
“These days, many projectors offer far superior picture quality than any LCD or Plasma. ”
my common sense tells me that a picture the size of a postage stamp that has been blown up 100″ can not be as sharp or detailed as a plasma or LCD TV. does black levels and contrast really compete with high end plasma/lcd?
My only experience is from going to the movies and seeing that the picture quality is not as sharp as watching a blue ray on my plasma. other than that yea, its awesome! that’s why i still go to the movies.
Geoff: Postage stamp? What? If you’re sitting 10-feet away from a TV smaller than 65-inches, your eye can’t resolve all the resolution in the image anyway. So “blowing it up” is only going to let you see more detail. The black level and contrast ratio of the current (and former FWIW) JVC projectors are better than any other display on the market. Period. Sony’s SXRD is a somewhat close second. Go check out a home projector before you judge.
Also, your movie theater analogy doesn’t work, as the 100-foot screen at your local movie theater has an area about 150x larger than a home screen. So yes, it likely does look soft compared to your TV, but that has nothing to do with what you see with a home projector.