While the flickering film reel is a thing of the past, a good projector can turn any room into a little slice of home cinema heaven. But with so many to choose from, each with its own complexities, it can be difficult deciding which is best for you.

So sit comfortably and grab some popcorn – we’ll guide you through it.

What kind of projector should you get?

Let’s start by breaking down the different kinds of projector. Most will be one of two varieties: DLP (Digital Light Processor) and LCD (Liquid Crystal Display).

LCD projectors use three liquid crystal displays – each of which handles a primary colour – to project three images tinted red, green, and blue. These images are then recombined in a glass prism to show the full colour spectrum, before being beamed onto the big screen.

4K or Full HD: What resolution should you get?

While buying a HD television nowadays is a little passé, a Full HD projector is still a good choice – especially if you want to try and keep costs down. There are a number of good choices, but our favourite at the budget end remains the £600 Epson EH-TW5350.

But if your budget can stretch to it, there are a number of ways of getting an Ultra HD 4K picture (which is four times the resolution of HD).

Newer projectors (which hit the £2000-and-under price tag) often come with Texas Instrument DLP chips. These aren’t natively 4K, but rather have resolutions of 4.15 million pixels – half that of Ultra HD’s 8 million. Through a form of pixel shifting, which rapidly fires two lower-resolution images at the screen to create a higher resolution image, the projectors can call themselves 4K– and get certification from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) in the USA.

By Adam Smith

See Full Story at www.whathifi.com

First off, let it be known that the Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is a premium device, and it looks the part – it’s a lot bigger than you might expect based on online images, and bigger than your average consumer projector. 

To that end, the projector sits in at around 6.7 x 20.5 x 17.7 inches (HxWxD), so it’s safe to say that the projector was designed to be put somewhere and left there. Really, it’s probably best to mount this projector from the ceiling, though of course you could place it on a desk or table too, which is what we did during our testing.

The device itself is white with gold accents, and it’s a pretty good look. Despite its mammoth size, we like the curved corners and fluid feel. Really, the projector looks like it would fit in an actual movie theatre – which, honestly, is a neat aesthetic. 

In the middle of the front of the device, you’ll find the lens for the projector, with grills on either side of that lens for cooling. On the left of the projector, you’ll find a power button and source control, along with controls to control the software of the device, in case you happen to not have the remote. 

On the back of the projector is where you’ll get your inputs and outputs, and there’s a solid selection of them. For starters, there are two HDMI 2.0 inputs, along with a USB-A port and an Ethernet port for a more stable internet connection. There’s also a VGA port for connecting a PC and an RS-232C port, which can be used to connect the projector to an existing home theater control system, like Control4. 

By Christian de Looper

See Full Story at www.techradar.com

You can use the projector’s Screen Fit feature to automatically correct the shape and position of images to fit on your screen. The projector’s sensor can detect the screen size and shape in these conditions:

• Projector is not mounted on the ceiling
• Screen size is 100 inches (254 cm) or less
• The room is not too dark
• The room does not receive too much daylight
• The projection surface is not patterned and does not deflect the sensor in some way
• Projector is positioned within the distances and angles listed here

1	4 to 10 feet (1.2 to 3 m)
2	20º
3	30º

1. Press the Screen Fit button on the projector or remote control.
   
2. Move the projector as necessary to display the message in the middle of the screen.
3. Zoom into the image until its yellow frame extends beyond the edges of the screen.
4. Press the Screen Fit button again. Two displays flash briefly, then this message appears:
   
   
5. Fine-tune the image shape as necessary using the arrow buttons on the control panel.
6. When you are finished, press Esc.

Now, if necessary, you can correct the image corners individually using Quick Corner by pressing the arrow buttons on the control panel.

Source: epson.com

All short or long lens measurements, regardless of brand, are categorized by the range of projector in relation to the screen to create a 100″ image.

Long throw models can require six feet or more of available space between where your projector sits and where the screen is mounted in order to reach the 100″ screen sizes limit. The upside of long throw lenses (besides the price discount compared to short throws), is they’re perfect for large hall or exhibition space applications, like business presentations, houses of worship, an outdoor theater or concert visuals. Or if you have a large room, they serve as great home theater projectors. Move them closer however and you don’t get a larger image, the image shrinks, making it less useful in projector home theater setups in smaller rooms.

Short throw projectors on the other hand have lenses that can create a much larger picture from shorter distances, or 100″ from about four feet or less in certain models. They can be used on a wall or a projection screen. The first benefit of buying a short throw also happens to be one of the most obvious: less room between the projector and the screen means less room for people to get in the way of the projectors light.

Short throw projection is perfect for square footage-challenged homes, apartments, or viewing areas, but that convenience also comes at a higher cost. On average, you should expect to spend anywhere between $100 – $250 more on two comparable projectors, with the only difference being the throw capacity of their lenses. Many people use these projectors for video games since not much room is needed to get a stunning large image and create whole video walls. It’s the same reason travelers like to use them as a business projector. It delivers a larger image from a shorter distance. These are more or less portable projectors as well since they tend to be smaller.

By Chris Stobing

See Full Story at www.gadgetreview.com