Compare Projectors

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Art Feierman

To further assist you compare projectors easily, in this report we are publishing more than one dozen direct head-to-head comparisons.

To access comparisons between 1080p projectors click on the comparison you are interested, in the outline above. Normally, indented listings are simply to placemarkers further down the page. In this section, though, they are links to separate projector comparison pages.

Accessing the Projector Comparisons

More 1080p projector comparisons will be added as completed. As mentioned above, to access the comparisons, just click on the link for the comparison you want. Those comparisons not finished and posted will be on the list, but you will not be able to click on them. They are not broken links, just "placeholders" for articles still to come. If you are reading this after March 31st 2009, what you see, is what you get - no additional comparisons will be added. As new projectors are reviewed, they will, as with past reviews have their own Competitors section with comments on how that projector compares with up to 6-8 other projectors (or as few as 2 or 3, depending on what is appropriate). Enjoy!

Don't forget, updated information on individual projectors and sometimes comparisons will appear in my blog from time to time. You can always find the blog by clicking the top right (green) box (Projector Blog) at the top of every page.

The blog is a good way for us to communicate new information, and new opinions without having to rewrite sections of reviews.

About the Photos in the Head to Head 1080p Projector Comparisons

A half dozen of the top rated projectors have multiple head to head comparison articles. Roughly a dozen additional projectors are featured in one comparison.

This year I was able to have almost a dozen of the 1080p projectors here simultaneously, which allowed me to build a fairly significant library of side-by-side screen images. Most of those are focused on black level and shadow detail performance, but there are a scattering of general images, featuring daytime scenic shots, as well as photos of faces, for observing skin tones. Remember, there are limits to the photography. First, the image projected by a projector always looks better than the photos here. The reasons are numerous, but include:

Shifts in color (slight) due to the dSLR camera not having perfect color accuracy
Shifts in color due to the less than perfect color on all monitors
Compression of the image in terms of dynamic range, even with what makes it through the photo process, just resizing the images and converting to jpg files tosses out plenty of dynamic range
Sharpness differences also are affected by the resizing and compression
Black level and shadow detail are also lost because the monitor you are viewing has significantly inferior black levels compared to the projector (for this reason we seriously overexpose most images used for revealing those differences)
Saturation of the final image on your screen is also affected by camera, software, resizing/converting to jpg, and your monitor

Bottom line, take the images as support for the commentary. In most cases, they are not valid indications of the exact differences between projectors.

You will find that almost all of the side-by-side images are between the mid-price class, and high-end class of projectors. Of the entry-level class, I have only had the Epson Home Cinema 6100 here during the weeks the report was being created. It would have been great to have side-by-side images between the Sanyo Z700 vs. Epson 6100, the Sanyo Z700 vs. Mitsubishi HC5500, InFocus X10 vs. Epson 6100, etc. Alas, it was not to be, as most of the lower cost projectors were reviewed late summer through the fall.

Limited Number of Head to Head Comparisons

First, it would be an impossible task to do head to head comparisons for all of the projectors in the review there are thousands of combinations. Even head to heads with just those that won awards would be at least in the many dozens. Lastly, some of the most interesting comparisons are between award winners and those that did not get an award.

Again, a reminder: Each regular review has its own competitor's section. If you are interested in a projector that was reviewed months ago, but curious as to how it compares to more recent projectors, look to the review of the newer projector, in its competitors section.