Home Theater Projector Categories by price:

Posted on November 6, 2013 by Art Feierman

Picking the Winners - the best projectors in each price range:

There is no best projector for everyone, in any price range. For those that want to get the most enjoyment out of their projector selection, there are many variables that each buyer should consider, in choosing the right projector for their viewing requirements.

How do you get started in choosing?

Look to your room, and your budget first.

If your budget is definitely $3000 or less, don't go and get excited about a $5000 or $8000 projector. If your room may be a challenge for projector mounting, figure out which ones definitely won't work in your room based on height or distance, and eliminate those as well.

Once you leave a "dedicated home theater or cave", for a more "family room" type of environment, then start eliminating projectors that aren't going to be able to handle the amount of ambient light you expect.

There are other issues as well, besides limited brightness and placement flexibility. For example, if you are sensitive to the rainbow effect, you probably want to avoid most DLP projectors. Hate background audible noise? Make sure the projector you buy, if not particularly quiet, is bright enough for you to run in eco-mode, when all projectors tend to be very quiet. If you are especially noise adverse, watch out for a few noisy dynamic irises as well. We'll list many of these issues in the Competitors section, in charts, so that, for example, you need a really quiet projector, you can find a list that only shows you the quieter ones (or if it's simpler, a list of the ones to avoid because they are noisier).

My point is, that while one projector may be excellent at many things, it may be disqualified by you because of a specific requirement you have. As a result, there needs to be a choice of "best projectors" in this report, so people still have a usable recommendation even if one of our favorites won't work for them.

Due to the concept of "no one perfect projector", we will be giving out "Best In Class", and "Runner-Up" awards in each price category and there's usually a few ties as well. There's an occasional "Special Interest" Award. This means, perhaps 9-11 rewards out of 25+ projectors considered. Click here for a list of the winners!

Bottom line - it's still your job as the potential buyer, to consider some of the disqualifying attributes, immediately toss out those projectors from your consideration, and choose the best choice from the remaining ones. Your life will much simpler that way. Otherwise, you might find yourself really wanting a particular projector, get all excited about it, and then remember - oops it won't work for this reason or that... Save yourself that suffering.