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Best Home Projector Buying Guide

Let’s say you wake up one morning, and want to get a best home projector for personal use but know little or nothing about them, what would you do?When considering buying a projector for home use, there are numerous factors to consider if you are looking at making your viewing experience an awesome one. This guide will help you overcome common problems such as the full meaning of certain acronyms, technological terms, features and other pertinent considerations when searching for the right choice of projector.

Instead of going for huge, more expensive and space consuming TVs, getting a projector will give you a bigger screen experience as well as every other perk that comes with recent improvements in the industry and at an affordable price than ever. So when buying a projector for home use, bearing in mind full motion video, playing of movies and game, you have got to make sure your choice of the projector can handle them all. Below are the features to consider and bear in mind when going to shop for a projector.

Function of Best Home Projector

Colour Brightness and White Brightness (Lumens)

The higher the lumen rating, the brighter a projector’s display quality will be – and possibly the cost too. Projectors come in a variety of brightness measured in lumens. The brightness of the projector you require depends on the environment in which it would be used, the darker the environment is, the lower the brightness you will get. A rating of 5,000 lumens or more might be perfectly suitable for movie projector in an environment with much light. So take your environment into consideration as you choose your projector.

Ease Of Use

For a problem free projection, you will need to watch out for features that make the setup easy and quick. There are two technologies used in the majority of all none projectors which are 1-CHIP DLP and 3-CHIP 3LCD. 

The Right Technology

Most of the projectors on the market are likely to be DLP which is (Digital Light Processing) or LCD meaning (Liquid Crystal Display). For DLP projectors, they have more moving parts and are subject to the rainbow effects due to their spinning color wheel. Meanwhile, the LCD projectors are preferable and more reliable though they tend to be slightly heavier. If you have got deep pockets, then consider a different better technology – Lcos (Liquid Crystal on Silicon).This technology delivers the best quality images but is mostly expensive, and heavy.

Connectivity

Projectors always come with  VGA ports, amongst a range of other options, but when using it for home use which includes games and movies, then you will absolutely need an HDMI port too. And for those in the corporate world, a USB port too will be required due to the use of flash drives which make it easy to carry out a presentation. Note that Wi-Fi feature is very useful in streaming from most modern devices even as it eradicates the aspect of plugging directly. But for fixed projectors, an Ethernet port is advisable because it allows you the liberty to operate the projector online and it will be more reliable than Wi-Fi. 

Contrast Ratio

This indicates the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of the picture. The higher the contrast ratio, the better the picture will look, but other features like screen quality and the amount of light also need be considered, so you needn’t rely on this spec alone.

The Sound

For entertainment use at home, you would need to consider a surround system speaker setup, which works best if the source plugs directly into your sound system and projector separately giving you the best sound output possible.

Portability

This wholly depends on what purpose you will be needing the projector for. If you are planning to use it solely for home entertainment – hence the need to have it fixed in a particular position – you could care less about its portability. But if you intend using it for business and outdoor purposes, then something portable and lightweight is ideal.

Durability

You should endeavor to check for the durability of most features and the possibility of replacing, repairing and/or maintaining them. These projectors provide information on the expected lamp life. Note that the higher this figure is, the better for you.

Resolution

Just like its portability, this feature still depends on your reason for wanting to buy a projector. If it is for home use, viewing HD movies, playing games, you will need a projector with a high resolution of about 1920×1080 pixels. But if you need them for presentations, the resolution needed will be at about 800× 600 pixels as this is just ideal for your business presentation. For mixing and matching of content, don’t take up the idea that a projector with a higher resolution will be just ok for lower resolution content – you will have to find out which is best for which.

Cost

Cost is one essential factor to consider when buying anything. If you have got deep pockets, you could pick a good quality, portable and well productive 4k projector. But if you are bootstrapped on finances, there is a wide range of projectors you could get to suit your needs without having to break the bank.

Aspect Ratio

This is concerned with the shape of the video image being projected and it’s all about the source material. 16:9 is the aspect ratio most projectors have (same with HDTV, widescreen DVD, and Blu-Ray contents) while a standard modern TV has 4:3. Obviously, this is the one feature that distinguishes the projector from a TV set and makes a projector a better choice.

The Screen

The picture quality of a projector also depends on the surface or screen it is being projected on. You should consider getting a tripod roll-out screen if you will be using your projector in different places and environments else you would encounter difficulty in controlling this effect.

Zoom Range and Lens Shift

This is one feature to consider when getting a projector especially when you need to project images at various angles and distances. In short projections, a short throw projector is advisable while a projector with long throw lens would be needed for theaters or large spaces.

 

Related Articles about Projectors

5 Best Mini Projector’s You Must Have

Best Portable Projector’s for Geeks

Best Projector Money Can Buy

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