Best Home Theater Projector for 2022 CNET CNET

Table of Content

• Best 1080p Room-to-Room Portable Projector for Home Entertainment
• Frequently asked questions about home theater projectors
• Best Projector for Gaming and Home Theater
• Best Mini Projector With 4K Input
• More advice on home theater projectors
• Kodak Luma 75 Portable Pocket Projector
• Best Ultra Short Throw 4K Projector (for Color Accuracy)

Read more about this pick and others in our guide to the best budget projector for a home theater. The LS11000 doesn’t support 3D video playback, so people who have a large collection of 3D discs may want to look elsewhere. A motorized lens with generous zoom and lens-shifting capabilities makes this projector easier to set up than many others.

The outdoor projector features ultra-fast 5/2.4G dual band WiFi that enables synchronizing your smartphones a very clean and smooth process allowing you to stream a range of gaming and video streaming with quality and speed. LCD projectors are free from rainbow artifacts, but they tend to be bigger and heavier than comparable DLP models. Standard-size LCOS projectors, also rainbow-free, offer the best-quality images, but they tend to be bigger and heavier than either DLP or LCD projectors, as well as far more expensive. There aren't many laser raster projectors, so it's hard to make general statements about them. But the one clear advantage of using a laser is that the image doesn't require focusing.

Best 1080p Room-to-Room Portable Projector for Home Entertainment

There's a growing trend in projectors of moving from using lamps as light sources to using LEDs and lasers. Almost all current projectors include at least one HDMI port, which is the preferred choice for video sources and many computers, unless you plan to connect over a wired or wireless network. Many projectors still offer a VGA connector for computers and component video, but few new computers have VGA output ports, and few new video sources offer component video.

Projectors, like TVs, are rarely set up to look their best right out of the box. Another key feature for gaming is how well the projector reveals shadow detail. The quicker you can spot what's going on in dark areas, the quicker you'll see an opponent sneaking up on you or spot other objects of interest. Although projector categories change from one manufacturer to another and evolve over time, the application categories are consistent, if somewhat overlapping. Here's a brief look at the most common application categories and subcategories, and which features are most important for each. Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make better buying decisions.See how we test.

Frequently asked questions about home theater projectors

We've updated this article to add our new recommendation for the best outdoor projector. Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox. Specs are largely useless for deciding if a projector is bright enough. Even when accurate, they rarely tell you the brightness for the mode and settings that you'll want to use. Do Yourself a Favor and Skip These Ultracheap Projectors We tested four projectors from that range from $40 to around $140. LCD and Digital Light Processing projectors are the most common technologies.

The resolution of a projector is one of the most important factors to consider. The resolution determines the sharpness and clarity of the image that is projected. When choosing a projector, it is important to choose one with a high resolution in order to get the best possible image quality. 𝄢【4D Keystone Correction&Zoom&300” Large Screen】TO1 bedroom projector’s Keystone correction is one-step to operate, allows ±50° horizontal, vertical and rotate adjustment. Zoom function can adjust the screen size from 100% to 50% so that it can better fit your screen.

Best Projector for Gaming and Home Theater

The MoGo Pro automatically focuses and vertically keystones its image so that it’s always optimized for your desired throw distance and angle, no matter where you place it. The MoGo Pro is a portable 1080p projector and Android TV streaming media player in one small, battery-powered package. Projectors aren’t bright enough to show HDR video at its full brightness, so they have to adjust the HDR signal to show it in the brightness range they’re capable of. The LS11000 does not do this automatically; you have to manually adjust the HDR brightness setting. When shopping for projectors, don’t rely on the specs—especially the claimed brightness, which is often exaggerated.

The latest 3LCD color calibrating and adjusting technology works to reproduce more intricate color details than other mini projectors, which presents our customers a dynamic and color vibrant 1080P HD projected image quality. It can’t compete with the best 4K home theater projectors in overall performance, but its high brightness makes it a better choice for use in a living room or family room where you can’t block out all the light. The larger, and brighter, projectors in the group weigh between roughly 2 and 4 pounds, making them small enough to carry easily, but big enough that you won't always want to. The smaller models, known as "pocket" or "pico projectors," weigh as little as a few ounces, can literally fit in a pocket, and are as easy to carry with you as a cell phone. They even make excellent cell phone accessories, letting you show photos or watch movies from your phone at a much larger image size than even a tablet screen.

It's also less expensive than most, and at just 3.5 pounds, it's the most portable as well, with a finger-size loop that makes it easy to carry. It's shaped pretty much like a 7-inch wheel of cheese, and it offers an innovative magnetic stand that stays in place when you pick up the projector but also lets you rotate the GV30 freely on the stand to adjust image height. The streaming is handled by a bundled Android TV dongle that fits in a hidden compartment. If you need a small, compact projector you can easily put away, or even carry around with you in a backpack, a portable projector might be your best fit. The Xgimi MoGo Pro offers almost everything we could ask for in a portable movie projector.

Business users and educators who need a bright image above all, and maybe the ability to move the unit from place to place now and then. They'll also project a relatively basic menu of material, given the native resolution. If you never show anything more demanding than PowerPoint presentations with big fonts, and you don't need a widescreen aspect ratio, a lower-resolution projector like this one can serve just as well as a 1080p model. 🎁【100,000 hours LED life, 3 years after-sales service】Dxyiitoo projector is suitable for home theater, Christmas parties, small meetings, activities, yoga, games, and other scenes. Adopt brand-new LED technology and intelligent ecological technology to show clear picture quality with low power consumption, 100,000 hours of LED lamp bead life can be used for a long time. Some single-chip projectors are more prone to producing these artifacts than others, so even if you see them easily, you won't necessarily see them with every one-chip projector.

Any and all tiny bumps in a wall, for example, will be visible as extra “noise” in the image. If you want the best image quality from your projector, even an inexpensive screen is a far better option. This is because projector screens tend to brighten the image noticeably and create a smooth surface that just shows your TV, movie or game. The BenQ GS50 is a lunchbox-size 1080p projector with a 2.5-hour battery, surprisingly powerful speakers and the ability to charge via aportable power bank. It performs well for a portable projector, but costs about the same as BenQ’s own HT2050A, which performs far better. With a fully sealed optical engine, it is also a dust-proof projector.

The Home Cinema 3800 is extremely bright, so the image will pop even in a room with a good amount of light. It’s bright enough for a living room and can overcome some ambient light if you don’t want to use it in a completely dark room. We have projector recommendations for home theaters, living rooms, small spaces, outdoors, and portable use.