Projector Reviews
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The Art of Home Theater Projectors BLOG New article in our guide above, lays out the basics of Frame Interpolation found in some new 1080p home theater projectors
DLP vs. 3LCD vs. LCoS Technology
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1080p vs 720p Home Theater Projectors
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View All Projector Reviews New: Next up: SIM2 D80E DLP home theater projector, two business projectors (Hitachi and Epson), and the JVC RS10 and RS20
12/08 Posted reviews: Optoma HD806, Sanyo PLV-Z3000 projector Sony VPL-HW10 home cinema projector Other Recent Home Projector Reviews: Panasonic PT-AE3000 review Mitsubishi HC7000 InFocus X9 Planar PD8150
Mitsubishi HC6500 Sanyo PLV-Z700, BenQ W20000 A Buyers Guide to New Home Theater Projectors announced at CEDIA 9/08 This moderate length report covers 16 new projectors Pre-CEDIA 2008 New projectors and other products inlcluding the Belkin Flywire Below: the most recent, plus the most interesting and best reviews of the year: InFocus X10 projector review just posted Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System is posted - A true, breakthrough product! Mitsubishi HC1600 720p, posted 8/26/08 Panasonic PT-LB75NTU lightweight wireless networking portable projector
Epson Powerlite 400W Business Projector Calibration Software review: Posted 8/04/08: Digital Video Essentials HD (DVE HD) on Blu-ray 720P Home Theater Projector Reviews: |
DVDO Edge Video ProcessorLatest Projector Reviews
Epson Home Cinema 6100 1-6-09 Epson's entry level projector has very good black levels considering it is one of the least expensive 1080p projectors on the market. Overall, this Epson offers solid performance and great value. Well done! Epson Home Cinema 6500UB 12-28-08 Epson's done it again! This 1080p LCD home theater projector delivers excellent performance - great black levels, bright and sharp. Even problems with frame interpolation options doesn't dampen our enthusiasm. A Hot Product, for sure! Optoma HD806 Projector 12-15-08 Optoma unleashes an especially bright, affordable projector, great for brightish family rooms with (or sports bars). Good color, lots of lumens = our Special Interest Award Sanyo PLV-Z3000 Projector 12-7-08 This Sanyo is the low price leader of the ultra high contrast home projectors. Featuring placement flexibility, frame interpolation, and an impressive brightest mode. Hot! Sony VPL-HW10 Projector 12-01-08 A serious contender - one of the least expensive of the upper tier 1080p home theater projectors, when it comes to performance. A very bright movie mode, is a key plus. Mitsubishi HC7000 Projector 11-19-08 Great black levels, sharp, slick design, this 1080p home theater projector produces a great image. Not bright enough to handle larger screens, but an excellent choice otherwise. We are pleased to bestow upon it, our Hot Product Award Panasonic PT-AE3000U Projector 11-4-08. An outstanding, and very affordable 1080p home theater projector. It's just loaded with features, too! Wins our Hot Product Award (easily) Check it out. InFocus X9 Projector 11-12-08 A no hassle entry-level 720p, DLP projector. It's built for ease of use and great out of the box performance. The X9 projector is Bright, sharp, great for family rooms, and can double as a portable business projector! Planar PD8150 10-22-08 Planar's top of the line single chip DLP is refined, offers natural looking imagery, a bright "best mode", and a premium price tag at your local dealer. And it seems to be worth it. One of the very best single chip DLP home projectors around. Mitsubishi HC6500 10-17-08 This mid-priced 1080p home projector. Great color accuracy, and natural looking picture. Available from local dealers only. Impressive enough for our Hot Product Award Sanyo PLV-Z700 10-8-08 Sanyo's under $2000 entry level 1080p model. A solid, flexible projector, with image quality is a bit below more expensive models. A great first projector for those on a tight budget, and perfectly fine for non-enthusiasts who just want something that will impress them and their friends. Sanyo PLV-Z60 9-30-08 This new 720p 3LCD projector, improves on the PLV-Z5 it replaces. the PLV-Z60 is slightly brighter (though not overly bright), better black levels, and supports 24fps and Deep Color. Razor sharp image. A very solid entry, it earns our Hot Product Award. BenQ W20000 1080p Home Theater Projector 9-19-08 BenQ's top of the line Darkchip3 DLP home cinema projector delivers great performance at roughly a $4000 street price. Superb shadow detail, sharp image, and extremely bright, it earns our Hot Product Award. InFocus X10 1080p Home Theater projector 9-1-08. InFocus is on a roll, and wins our Hot Product Award. The X10 is very bright, has great shadow detail, and a very sharp image. Really atural looking colors. Even better, it's one of the lower priced 1080p projectors. Mitsubishi HC1600 Home Theater Projector 8-26-08. This new entry level, HD, 720p projector, is bright, and a solid choice, especially for those that want to mix a lot of TV and sports and not just movies Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System 8-19-08. This complete 1080p projector based home theater system, does it all, and does it great. It is complete with motorized screen, projector, 5.1 surround sound, programmable remote, and more, and installs easily
in an afternoon! Mitsubishi HC5500 1080p home theater projector 8/9/08 The low cost HC5500 replaces the popular HC4900, with better black levels, but less placement flexibility. Like its predecessor, still one of the lowest cost 1080p projectors around. Panasonic PT-LB75U and PT-LB75NTU portable projectors with 3LCD technology. 8-4-08. Two very bright, affordable, XGA projectors, We give our Hot Product Award to both, although of the two, the wireless networking PT-LB75NTU is exceptional Epson Powerlite 400W WXGA, Ultra-Short Throw Multimedia projector. 7-30-08 This is the first low cost projector WXGA resolution, and an ultra-short throw lens. Ideal for classrooms, digital signage, and specialty applications. Special Interest Award winner! Sanyo PLC-XL51Ultra Short Throw Projector 7-27-08 This is an update to the PLC-XL50 review done late June. This is not review the soon to ship PLC-XL51, but cover the difference between it and the PLC-XL50. ultra-short throw projector. InFocus IN83 projector 7-8-08 InFocus is shipping a superb new DLP projector with the new Darkchip4 processor. Extremely bright, and it has the best color we've seen yet. A slam dunk winner of our Hot Product Award, and one of the very best! Sanyo PLC-XL50 6-29-08 - This ultra short throw projector can be used in a wide variety of special applications, including digital signage. It sits inches from the screen, the presenter isn't blinded, or blocking the image. It wins our Hot Product Award Viewsonic Pro8100 1080P Home Theater Projector: 6-23-08. Avery impressive, and brighter than most 3LCD projector, but not without a flaw. A serious projector to consider if you are using a local installing dealer. If new firmware fixes the iris issue... Optoma HD65 Home Theater Projector - This extremely small, yet very bright home theater projector offers superior out of the box image quality. Most impressive. It is a projector who's sum, is greater than its individual parts. It wins ourHot Product Award. Mitsubishi XL1550U Installation / Portable 3LCD projector: This projector offers up 3000 lumens and a host of features, including interchangeable lenses. A very solid performer, with a lot going for it. We also comment on the more powerful XL2550U Optoma HD71 - A 720p DLP projector with exceptional brightness. Once properly tuned it makes for an excellent projector especially in a family room environment, It also can double as a business widescreen projector. It wins our Hot Product Award! Canon Realis SX7 Portable Projector 4-3-08. Canon's flagship portable projector sports native SXGA+ 1400x1050 resolution, and offers more than 4000 lumens. A killer projector for scientific, engineering, hi-resolution graphics presentations. Business Portable Projector The Dell M209X DLP micro-portable XGA resolution projector is truly impressive for a two and a half pound projector. It produces over 2500 lumens, and comes with a great warranty. It rates our Hot Product Award. 1080p Projectors Comparison Report: 3-14-2008. We compare 20 fine home theater projectors from eight manufacturers, and give out our annual Best In Class Awards. This huge article summarizes our thoughts based on our individual reviews, and side-by-side projector shoot-outs. Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB and Pro Cinema 1080 UB Home Theater Projectors 1-18-08 Outstanding performance in both versions, including the best black levels of any under $5000 projectors. Also, very bright and flexible. Both win our Hot Product Award, and the Home Cinema 1080 UB also wins our Best in Class award. Epson Home Cinema 720 projectors review. This HC400 replacement, is a great all-around projector with lots of appeal, bright, sharp, dynamic, and flexible! Sports fans will rejoice and movie watchers will be pleased overall. JVC DLA-RS2 home theater projector - 12/26/07 This LCoS 1080p projector is a worthy successor to the RS1, offering a natural, film-like, yet eye-popping picure and unmatched black level performance. Great placement flexibility too! Epson MovieMate 72 12-18-07 All-In-One 3LCD Projector with 720p resolution, finally, a "portable" projector system with DVD and audio, that rivals good stand-alone projectors. One of the most impressive new projectors of the last year or more! Sony VPL-VW60 1080p Home Theater Projector 12/11/07 A beautiful picture! Better than the VW50, with blacker blacks and more depth. It earns our Hot Product Award InFocus IN1 Game Projector - Plug this into your Wii, or other game console, or watch movies and TV. Reasonably bright, simple to use, and only $499 Panasonic PT-AE2000U Projector 11-19-07 At $2699, it may well have the best price performance of any 1080p projector. Much improved over the PT-AE1000U. Excellent Sanyo PLV-Z2000 home theater projector: 11-2-07. The lowest cost 1080p projector yet, turns out to also be one of the most film-like. An excellent job, overall, and easly to place in your room. It earns our Hot Product Award. If only it was a bit brighter. Panasonic PT-AX200U: 10-27-07 The brightest of the affordable 720p projectors, it produces a film-like picture, and works great in almost any room. 3LCD technology, and lots of wow factor. A Hot Product Award winner! Acer PH530 10-23-07 the lowest cost 720p home theater projector. Not bad... Optoma HD8000: 10/15/07 A low cost 1080p DLP projector available from your friendly local installing dealer. Impressive performance, value. ISF certified Optoma HD80: 10/15/07 Optoma's entry level HD80 1080p DLP projector is about the least expensive around, but performs very well. Almost identical to the HD8000 but less expensive, and available online. Hot Product Award winner. InFocus Big Play IN82 Home Cinema Projector: Late to enter the 1080p game, InFocus comes out with an extremely bright and competent DLP powered entry. Mitsubishi HC6000 Home Theater Projector - This is the first of the 2nd generation 1080p projectors, and is an excellent overall performer. A best choice for many. Epson Powerlite S5: A great entry level $599 projector for education or business Optoma HD81-LV 8/30/07 This brightest in class 1080p home theater projector, wins our Hot Product Award. Optional: An anamorphic lens for Cinemascope. Awesome! Mitsubishi HC4900 8/19/07 - Meet Mitsubishi's new economy 1080p projector. Almost identical in performance to its HC5000 "big brother", this sub-$3000 projector is worthy of consideration, with a bright natural looking and razor sharp image. Mitsubishi HC1500 8/4/07 - Our Hot Product Award, for this sub-$1000 720p DLP home theater projector. Basically, a new, but brighter HD1000U projector. Panasonic PT-F100NTU 7/26/07 wireless networking projector, and PT-F100U projector review. Two great, low maintenance, bright LCD projectors for installation.
Comparison Projector Review: 7/22/07 Best sub $10,000 home theater projector? JVC RS1 and the Sharp XV-Z20000 compared. Great images but lots of differences. Epson Powerlite 1815p and 1810p Portable Projectors 7-16-07. Almost 4000 lumens in an under 7 pound package! Bright, crisp, and color accurate. the 1815p offers advanced wireless networking that's easy to set up. Hot Product Award Winner Sharp XV-Z20000 home theater projector - 6-28-07 A serious contender for best 1080p projector under $10,000. Excellent image quality, tons of image control, make this rather pricey projector, a dream choice for those who like to "tweak". Excellent! Best 1080 Home Theater Projectors compared! 4/30/2007 See how they stack up-9 HD projectors from under $3000 to $6000. Full review includes 11 "one-on-one" comparisons, in addition to the general review. Included: PT-AE1000U, Home/Pro Cinema 1080, HC5000, JVC RS1, Sony Pearl, Optoma HD81, BenQ W10000, W9000! Mitsubishi PK20 Pocket LED Projector - 6-7-07 Our first look at one of the new tiny LED projectors, surprised us. We knew it wouldn't be bright, but this 1 pound projector produces an impressive image, and is versatile, earning our Special Interest Award. Dell 3400MP micro portable projector: 5/26/07: This tiny 2.4 pound DLP projector makes road warriors' lives a lot easier, and their presentations professional. HPA! InFocus IN34 5/22/07 This lightweight 5 lb. projector cranks out almost 3000 lumens for less than $1000. This solid portable DLP projector earns our Hot Product Award Sony VPL-AW15 Bravia home theater projector 5/11/07 The Sony AW15 is one of the most affordable 720p LCD projectors for the home, lots of features, natural image quality, but not a very bright projector Optoma's HD73 home theater projector with Darkchip3 DLP produces a great image for under $2000 even though it can't begin to match their HD72 in brightness. JVC DLA-RS1 1080p home theater projector: The RS1 (Reference Standard) is just that. Our Hot Product Award goes out to this projector, the best yet, under $10K Toshiba TDP-ET20 projector system: 3/14/2007 Toshiba's all-in-one home entertainment unit is cool. It combines projector, DVD player, surround sound speakers including built in subwoofer. Home Theater Projector: Epson Pro Cinema 810 2/9/07 A premium performance 720p LCD projector - and extremely bright Don't let the price scare you! Projector Screens: Stewart Filmscreen Firehawk G3, motorized, tensioned. A Hot Product Award is a slam dunk. I review my own new G3, just installed in my theater. And I love it. Projector Screens: Elite Screens' 92"
CineTension motorized
screen, good performance and tab
tensioning for less than non-tensioned
screens. A winner! Sanyo PLV-Z5 - 11/2/2006 A Hot Product Award, goes to this new, low cost 720p LCD home theater projector. Excellent sharpness, great shadow detail and priced below the competition, make it a real value. Find out if it's the right one for you!
Thank you for visiting Projector Reviews, the fastest growing website that focuses on reviewing today’s best business and home theater projectors, projector screens, and projector accessories. We're into providing plenty of advice for those looking to buy a front projector. First and foremost, Projector Reviews provides both in-depth and also, shorter, capsule reviews on the following types of projectors: Home Theater ProjectorsThese are almost all widescreen projectors, with resolutions from 480p to 1080p, ideal fo HDTV, DVD and hi-def DVDs, including Blu-ray and HD-DVD disk formats. Portable ProjectorsGenerally under 10 pounds and as light as 1 pound and change, today's lightweight projectors offer enough power to handle conference rooms with lights on, and the more powerful ones are ready for auditorium sized presentations. A few of these are widescreen projectors, but most are still standard 4:3 ratio projectors. LCD and DLP projectors for EducationA wide range of projectors, both LCD and DLP are available for the classroom, lab, and other education applications. Many projectors designed for classrooms now feature more and better speakers to handle the room without the need of external speakers, saving significant cost. From a technology standpoint you will find the following types of front projectors
Unlike years ago, today’s digital projectors handle both data and video sources, even though they may still be referred to as data projectors, video projectors, digital projectors, etc. Projector ResolutionTraditional digital projectors project an image on to a screen that has the same shape as a computer monitor – (4:3), and these include the following resolutions: SVGA (low resolution) XGA (the most common resolution), SXGA+ (extremely high resolution) and UXGA (starting at $30,000).However, many new projectors, especially those for home theater project an HDTV shaped image (16:9), and they are referred to as widescreen projectors. Business projectorsNow sell for as little as $500 and on occasion you can find them for less, but at that price you get low resolution projectors, that are mostly purchased by schools and small companies that don’t have minimal budgets. For a hi resolution XGA projector, they start around $800. All About Projector Screens:First I should note, we are adding more "About" catagories, including about projector cables, about projector accessories, about remote controls, are coming soon. The Projector Screens section contains articles written in house, and others from Stewart Filmscreen, to help you understand, and choose the best projector screen for your room and home theater projector. It also contains a list of the reviews we have done on motorized and fixed wall projector screens We have occasionally reviewed projector screens, and plan to increase the number of projector screen reviews to 6 or 7 a year. We consider fixed mount projector screens, pull down projector screens and motorized projector screens, and now that I think about it, even portable projector screens and inflatable projector screens. Our projector screen reviews will focus primarily on those projector screens that work best in home theaters, as well as specialty projector screens and lightweight portable projector screens. More Regarding Projector ScreensEveryone buying a video projector should have a screen. And while there are many well known projector screen manufacturers, including Da-Lite, Draper, Vutec, Elite… One projector screen manufacturer that is considered to sell premium quality projector screens is Stewart Filmscreen. We mention that because www.projectorreviews.com is proud to have them as a sponsor and the provider of a group of articles to assist you in choosing the right projector screen. Their articles will help you choose the correct projector screen surface, explain tensioned screens, positioning the projector screen, what type of screens best reject ambient room light, and much more. We hope you find our projector reviews and projector advice to be most helpful. We also hope you will click on a banner or two to visit our advertisers (it keeps the doors open, and the projector information flowing). Access the database of projectors from the left bar, some of the top brands are listed there, but a few dozen more can be found on the All Projector Brands link. Many recent projector reviews are listed on the projectorreviews.com homepage, but you can access the entire list from the All Digital Projector Reviews tab on the top bar. For general information on projectors and how to choose them visit the Projector Advice and Information tab (also on the top). Our Contact Us/About Us area is on the top right. For home theater projector reviews only, click on the Home Theater Projector Reviews tab on the top of every page. Here is a link to the new projector screens advice and reviews section or you can access it from the projector screens link on the left bar. Note, most business should not be buying the low res projectors, as mentioned in our article “ Selecting the Right Business Projector…” So, who are the players in the projector market: InFocusInfocus projectors are the most recognized brand in the industry, and the last major US company in the projector business. They offer home theater projectors under the InFocus brand, and business and education projectors under both InFocus and Proxima brands. PanasonicPanasonic projectors come in all sizes shapes and capabilities, from featherweight projectors, to home theater projectors, fixed install projectors for conference rooms and auditoriums, even digital projectors for movie theaters. Panasonic builds both LCD and DLP projectors EpsonEpson provides the LCD panels for most of the LCD projectors out there, and has always been a top 5 player with a full line of business and home theater projectors. OptomaOptoma projectors are all DLP projectors, and they have 3 of the hottest home theater projectors shipping today. They are a major player, and also build projectors for some US computer brands. Optoma recently also started marketing projector screens. BenQBenQ's front projectors are also all DLP models – They have dominated a major segment of home theater projectors – with a dlp projector at 720p resolution, but they also offer a full line of business projectors, starting around 3 pounds. SanyoSanyo probably builds more front projector models than anyone else, and they also build video projectors for Christie and Eiki. On a good day they have about 25 LCD projectors in their lineup. Sanyo has recently begun to run a promo giving away a projector screen with one of their home theater projectors. HitachiHitachi projectors seem to be number one in the educational market, a core focus of theirs, but they have a full line of LCD projectors. JVCJVC projectors have been around for a long time, pioneering LCOS technology (they call their LCOS projectors D-iLA. For the first time, JVC finds itself with one of the most popular projectors on the market, the JVC DLA-RS1 1080p home theater projector! SharpSharp projectors have an extensive line of both business and home theater projectors to choose from. - - - - Enjoy shopping for your next – whatever you want to call it - lcd, dlp, data, home theater, video, HDTV, widescreen, high resolution, low cost, value, performance projector! – Art Feierman, Owner (and lead projector reviewer) |
