The 1080p Home Theater Projector Comparison Report - 2009

Posted on March 9, 2009 by Art Feierman

This in-depth (and rather large) report compares 25 1080p home theater projectors under $10,000. Enjoy!

1080p Projector Comparison - Overview

This comprehensive report follows the same writing process as individual reviews. Eight separate pages: Overview, Physical Tour, Image Quality, Performance, Screen Recommendations, Compare Projectors, Warranty and Summary. There is also the "Best In Class" Awards page, which lists each award category, the projectors that won the various awards, and multiple paragraphs on each of those, with my thoughts on why they were selected. Finally, there are a number of direct comparisons between two or more competing projectors. For this report (different than last year's), the Compare Projectors section will not only feature our head to head comparisons, but also a few pages that break out the projectors by aspects such as those suitable for large screens, those best for movie watchers only, those best for watching a variety of content (movies, sports...), those capable of being shelf mounted, and so on. Not all of those will have been completed by the time the Report is posted. We also break out the projectors by those available only from local dealers (no online sales).

The number of home theater projectors considered this year is just slightly larger than last year's. True, there are more 1080p projectors now, with several companies who offered just one 1080p model last year, offering two, this year. Offsetting that, in part, is that we are still limited to considering the projectors we have reviewed, along with, in some cases, almost identical sibling projectors (such as the reviewed Epson Home Cinema 6500UB, and the almost identical, but not reviewed, Pro Cinema 7500UB). This year we were only able to review a few more 1080p home theater projectors than last year. One note: This year, a couple of 1080p projectors which we have not posted reviews of, but arrived in house while work on the report has begun, will be considered. They will have been calibrated and viewed, but the writing up of those reviews had to be delayed until this report published.

Considered in this report are 25 projectors, including 20 with full reviews posted. Only a handful of the 1080p projectors in this report, were included in last year's. The vast majority of last year's projectors have been replaced by newer models.

Note, all the screen images on this page are from the JVC DLA-RS20 unless otherwise noted.