1. DLP business light canon projectors aren’t! – Many have relatively horrible color in their brightest modes – even compared to some of the worst Dynamic modes we see on home theater projectors. Thus a 3500 lumen biz DLP projector may not have more than 1000 and likely no more than 1750 lumens in its best mode, which probably still won’t be any better than a bright HT DLP in brightest mode (like the Vivitek, the Mitsubishi HC3800 or the BenQ W6000. Consider – Most DLP HT projectors are using 200 – 250 watt lamps – about the same as the typical 3000 lumen Biz DLP. Lumens have to come from somewhere – at the expense of something else, like contrast, or by not equalizing the lamp output to get accurate color. (reducing a lot of green a a fair amount of blue to match up with the limited red that comes from most projector lamps.

2. LCD projectors (and LCoS). Different problem, you can buy a very nice biz LCD projector and get very good color. LCD biz projectors are far superior to the DLP’s in that regard.

Problem is – no contast to speak of. You are back to a nice 3500 lumen projector with a 400:1 or 600:1 contrast ratio, which in home theater terms takes, you back to the the the Bronze age. Want to take your nice HT projector with its 5 digit contrast ratio, and pretend it’s got 400:1 – easy turn on a 60 watt lamp in your room that hits your screen head on and look at the contrast and black levels. This may be fine for sports viewing, but If you are watching star wars or Space Cowboys, the black sky of outer space will look like an overcast afternoon, by comparison.

I personally, though, have considered a serious 5000 lumen plus LCD for my current theater (mounted below my JVC on a rear shelf), strictly for sports and HDTV viewing with lots of ambient light. I’m talking about the amount of ambient light that tends to make a typical home theater projector, doing a dark scene, look like it’s not even turned on. Perhaps next year, when we move, and I get to set up the new house for theater and testing.

I continue to yell at manufacturers to bring out projectors with respectable 3000 – 3500 lumen brightest modes, that means moving up to 300 watt plus lamps, or comparablly bright LED lightsource, when available. I tell them to give us the option, and to be sure to put a manual iris on them so we can get them down to 500 or 700 lumens as needed.