Best Home Theater Projector Report - Under $2000 Brightness Performance

The Acer we determined really couldn't be calibrated. Mike sent it back to me with only basic adjustments such as brightness and contrast, and of course the measurements.
So, uncalibrated the best mode Mike could find put out a respectable 620 lumens with good color, but definitely not calibrated color. At it's brightest, this basically cross-over projector mustered 2128 lumens making it one of the 4 brightest projectors in this year's report that measured over 2000 lumens.

Definitely not an "enthusiast" projector, this is just a good low cost, entry level choice that's fine for all kinds of general viewing. Think picture quality more along the lines of the average, right out of the box LCDTV. All that brightness at its brightest will come in very handy for gamers, who should consider this Acer H6500 to be a good gaming projector for the bucks, and a light canon for general "family room" use.

The Acer H6500 in its brightest mode, "Bright Mode" (note, strong on greens).

Last year we were really impressed with the H9500BD despite the lack of full calibration controls, and the inability to get really excellent color.  Since then Acer has updated the firmware, and expanded the controls.  A few weeks before this report published Acer sent me a brand new H9500BD to compare with our previous findings. I had Mike calibrate it, and I can say that it calibrates much better now, with over 1000 calibrated lumens.

If you want even more lumens, there's just over 1500 under the hood in the Acer's brightest mode.

For 3D, as seems to be the case typically, DLP projectors don't seem quite as bright as 3LCD projectors with similarly bright 2D measurements. Still the Acer has plenty of lumens to work with.

For a $999 projector the W1070 calibrates very well, yet produces over 1700 measured lumens if calibrated with Brilliant Color engaged.  That makes it the brightest calibrated projector of the 14 home projectors reviewed by us that sell for under $2000.  There's a brightest mode too, but as it's essentially the same brightness, no matter.

Brightness combined with really good color is one of the keys to our awarding this projector Best Value Proposition of all the 3D capable projectors covered in this under $2000 price class.

Last year, the BenQ W7000 one of the brightest projectors around.  Fear not, it's just as bright today.  The difference is there are a lot more very bright projectors.  Still, the W7000 maintains its "light canon" status with only two projectors in the under $2000 group being brighter, with the W7000 within 10% of the brightest. Those two are the Epson Home Cinema 3020, and the low cost Acer, neither being near as high performance is areas such as black levels, so with less appeal than the BenQ for movie enthusiasts.

This projector does great on larger screens.  Viewing movies on most screens smaller than 130 inches with good light control will let you run in "best" mode, with lamp in eco mode! This year the W7000 is routinely selling below $2000 for the first time.  Last year it slugged it out with more expensive projectors and still picked up a key award.

When it comes to brightness, the Home Cinema 3020 is one of the light canons in this group.  It's the 3rd brightest calibrated and the second brightest in "brightest" mode.

Only the really low end Acer H6500 can best it at "brightest", and by less than 5%.  This is your portable if needed," tackle just about any decent room situation and end up looking great" projector. 3D appears brighter than any other projector in this group!

Way past its prime, perhaps, the HC4000 was once considered fairly bright.  With the advent of much brighter projectors that support 3D, the HC4000 is still above average in terms of calibrated picture, but in this price range there are plenty now that are a good deal brighter when you need maximum lumens.  Mitsubishi has this thing about a High Brightness mode, which kicks out a lot more lumens than the numbers above.  We've just never considered that unadjustable HB mode to be really watchable.

The HD33 was the first under $2000 3D capable home theater projector.  It's very nicely bright with about 1120 (approximately) calibrated lumens, but even at "brightest", there's no significant boost - less than 40 extra lumens.

Very respectable blacks let you put this projector in a dedicated theater, on a large screen, or it can do a nice job on more of a mid-sized screen in a family room, just not a lot of extra horsepower for social lighting.

Some things don't change.  The HD33's 3D looks really clean, and with pretty good color for 3D, but could be brighter. Best held to small sized screens (under 100" diagonal) if you really want your 3D to pop.  Of course there's plenty.

This is the major 2D only light canon in this class.  One could quibble here and there, but overall, we can say that the PT-AR100U is, at its brightest, is every bit as bright as any projector in this report. Calibrated, with its color filter in place, it's a very average 650 lumens, which is still enough to fill a pretty large screen in a dedicated theater or cave.

But, it's those almost 2000 lumens (the conservative way we measure), that set it apart from most projectors.  This is a projector that has a real ability, when paired with the right screen, to tackle some really tough rooms.

I recommend you check out the PT-AR100U video, and the Choosing the Right projector for the Family Room video, the Panasonic is shown tackling a room with plenty of sunlight.

This is your definitive lower cost, high power, 2D only, family room projector.

Whether price wise the Sharp XV-Z30000 belongs in the under $2K group, or the $2K - $3.5K class, the important thing is that it is a very average projector when it comes to brightness. A bit less than 550 calibrated lumens (mid-point on its zoom lens) and just over 1000 lumens in a quick-cal "brightest" measured mode.

From a placement standpoint, the XV-Z30000 projector is one of only two projectors in the under $2000 class with a wide range zoom (2:1). That means there are noticeably more lumens under the hood, if you can setup the Sharp projector near it's closest (wide-angle) zoom position. In that case you get just shy of 1180 lumens.

The Sharp therefore can easily tackle 110" diagonal screens (calibrated) and with optimized mounting, perhaps 120" diagonal The Z30000 has the horsepower in "brightest" mode to tackle some intentional ambient light. Consider this Sharp to be a best in the cave/home theater projector.

The only brightness related issue is that the Sharp really doesn't have enough lumens to tackle 3D on screens larger than about 100" diagonal.