You'll still want to check to make sure color isn't obviously off, or at least not annoyingly off, but spot-on color accuracy isn't as critical for home entertainment uses as it is in a light-controlled home theater space. Note also that many projectors designed for home entertainment boost brightness at the expense of color accuracy. Room light tends to wash out black levels, which lowers contrast for any projector and hides differences between projectors that would be obvious in a dark room. On the other hand, contrast is less important. That means you need a brighter image, and therefore a brighter projector, than with home theater, at any given image size, for what you see to stand up to the light. In all of these situations, you will usually be viewing in rooms (or backyards) where ambient light is a factor. "Home entertainment" in the projector world covers most home use that isn't home theater, including TV-replacement models, gaming projectors, room-to-room portables, and projectors used for backyard movies. Resolutions lower than 1080p are best reserved for other applications. The best home theater projectors today offer 4K (usually, that's 3,840-by-2,160-pixel) resolution and support for HDR (more on HDR later, too), but for those on a budget, lots of 1080p projectors can still serve nicely. (More about brightness later.) The most important features to look for in specs and reviews include high contrast, good color accuracy, dark black levels, and good shadow detail. Projectors for home theater don't need particularly high brightness. That could be a dedicated home theater, or a family room equipped with shutters or curtains that can block all window light when needed. It's more accurate, however, to reserve it for projector use in a room with completely controlled lighting. The term "home theater" is often used loosely to include home entertainment. How Is 'Home Theater' Different From 'Home Entertainment'? Here's a brief look at the most common application categories and subcategories, and which features are most important for each. Home Projectors: Which Categories Matter?Īlthough projector categories change from one manufacturer to another and evolve over time, the application categories are consistent, if somewhat overlapping. The smart move is to not make assumptions based on the projector category, and to check out the individual projector's features, and comments in reviews, instead. That said, as a general rule, business projectors much above entry-level pricing for their resolution and brightness level can't compete on the basis of film and video image quality with similarly priced home theater or home entertainment models. That is why we discuss performance with film and video in all of our projector reviews. And because film and video are often needed in business presentations and classrooms, a business projector might handle film and video just as well as a so-called home entertainment model. Here's how to find the right one, according to how you plan to use it.īeyond that, any home projector that can handle film and video well can also handle text and presentations for business use. The point? You need to match your home projector's features to the applications you want it for. And models that are best for either of those tasks may or may not be good choices for, say, gaming. The ideal projector for a traditional home theater, with controlled lighting and dark walls to minimize how much light reflects back to the screen, isn't the ideal for a family-room TV replacement that you plan to watch with lights on. These features vary so much because you can use a projector at home in so many different ways. Their brightness and contrast can fall almost anywhere on the scale, and the onboard audio can range from barely there to impactful enough for a big family room. They can offer native resolutions as low as 640 by 360 pixels, or as high as 4K UHD. Home projectors can be small enough to fit in a pocket, or big enough to need two people to move into place. The borders between different kinds of projectors can be as fuzzy as their images are sharp, and the deceptively simple term "home projectors" covers a dizzy mix of possible uses. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions. How to Set Up Two-Factor Authentication.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.
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