Posted on November 6, 2013 By Art Feierman
Those of your who are regular readers of our reviews and articles should find this overview helpful, but this particular section is written primarily for those who are new to ProjectorReviews.com and new to home theater projectors.
Those of you who read last year’s reports will recognize that many topics discussed within, are slightly updated versions from the previous report.
Greetings, this is our 2013 edition of our Best Home Theater Projector Report.
To assist those not familiar with our site, or for that matter, our projector review layouts, and writing style, this guide should prove to be helpful.
The topics covered are:
While my writing style definitely can ramble, I do pay close attention to word crafting. This is important so you can understand subtle differences. You should get different feels from phrases like very good, impressive, really good, especially good, rather excellent, excellent, superb, and others. Don’t think that I use terms like “excellent” and “very good” interchangeably. By the same token, when I say “this $999 projector has excellent image quality for the price,” that doesn’t mean it’s as good as a projector that’s “excellent” in the $3500+ class.
Much of this report is subjective. You are reading my opinions as to how these projectors look and feel, and my take on which are best. I realize how hard it is to actually see a demo of most of these projectors before buying.
With that in mind, I take my reviewing seriously. I get to watch each projector extensively and play with each at length. From that, I draw my conclusions. Because there is subjectivity, my opinion isn’t fact. I try more to help you define which projector will serve you best, than to figure which projector is the best.
Unless you are on your 2nd or 3rd projector, you will almost certainly find your purchase of a home theater projector is most likely to significantly exceed your expectations.
When people ask me what I do: “I pay myself a bunch of money to sit home and watch movies and football games (HDTV)”. It’s not going to make me rich, but I do get to enjoy most of what this “job” entails!
Take your time. Consider your room, your expected viewing habits, and your budget, a few other questions, and it should all come together. We truly hope (and expect) that this year’s report will be useful to those that read it.
Here are some quick facts, starting with the mix of projectors covered in this report.
Organization: This report considers 27 1080p home theater projectors organized into three price tiers or “classes”: Under $2000, $2000-$3500, and $3500+.
These counts do not count “twins”. Thus, the Epson HC3020 and HC3020e are counted as one, and, the JVC DLA-X35 and DLA-RS46 are counted as one. In some cases I may have both present, but still count as one.
31 Home Projectors considered in this year’s report. By the Numbers:
Note, we have four projectors over $10,000 in this 2013 report. A Runco projector (LS10d), SIM2 Nero 3D2, Sony VPL-VW1000ES are all $20,000 plus. There is also the JVC DLA-X95R at $11,999.
Projector pricing, for our different price classes, pricing is based on estimated “street price” from authorized dealers. We say authorized, because once in a while you may see what seems to be a price ridiculously lower than everywhere else, from a non-authorized dealer.
Due to promotions and price changes, we don’t always get it right. For example, this year, putting The Sharp XV-Z30000 in the under $2000, may have been a less than great choice. The Sharp was apparently available for under $1900, but now seems to be back around $2100.
These are the sections to the review, excluding this guide:
This page provides additional guidance, and offers information in three topics:
With one page for each of the three price ranges, these pages provides give you a 2-3 paragraph overview of each projector considered in this year’s report.
This page links you to the individual awards pages for each of the winners this year. It is broken down by price range and by award.
This page covers a number of topics. They are pretty much self-explanatory. The topics are:
This page touches on:
This page covers:
It primarily consists of charts showing best and brightest modes of each projector.
This page:
Discusses calibration briefly, and what it can do for you and your system. Provides links to the individual Calibration pages in each projector’s review.
Discusses some basics regarding matching projector to screen to room. It summarizes some things appearing in our multiple Projector Screen articles. For specific screen recommendations for a particular projector, visit that projector’s review, many have a screens section.
Provides an overview for comparing projectors, and for using the many individual head-to-head projector comparisons.
It also includes links to 3 different comparisons between projectors considered this year.
This page talks about typical warranties, shows the projectors listed by price class, discusses replacement programs briefly, and indicates the warranty of each projector.
One of the shortest pages – just a brief wrap up, and final thoughts – it is written last, and may touch on some things overlooked elsewhere. It also has a short list of all the award winners by price. On that note, only projectors that have won one of our Hot Product Awards, when reviewed, are eligible for Best In Class awards. That makes sense, I trust!
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