What are the Best 4K Projectors for a Jennifer Lopez-style large Home Theater?

While an average 100 inch home theater screen offers over four times the image area of a 50” flat-screen TV, many people are looking for a movie star-like home theater experience.  With larger media rooms becoming more common, it is quite feasible to install a huge screen in a room up to 200 inches to create a captivating theater or entertainment area that can host watch parties, golf simulators, or private showings.  We’ll take a look at what to look for when picking the right projector and provide some popular models.  Here are the key criteria for finding the right projector for you:

• Brightness
• Resolution
• Color Accuracy
• Projector Technology
  
  
  

Home theater projectors brightness is measured in ANSI Lumens.  For a traditional home theater setup, the room is typically as dark as a commercial theater and uses a 100 inch or similar-sized screen.   With this type of traditional setup the 2200 lumen HT8060 / HT9060 is one of the highest-rated projectors in its class – but won’t be bright enough for a huge 200-inch screen – even with low light levels.

For a 200 inch screen that will be over 12 feet wide – many home theater enthusiasts are looking for a 5000-lumen laser projector to ensure your screen is bright enough to fill the screen with enough light to provide a compelling cinematic experience.   While there are still lamp-based projectors made at this brightness level, the color accuracy is less than adequate for a home theater – and replacement lamps for these models can be expensive.

With a larger screen, the projector’s resolution is the second most important factor in creating a compelling oversize home theater. While every television sold in most retailers has true UHD 4K resolution (8.3 million pixels), many projector models advertise 4K compatibility while delivering only half the pixels.  You will want to make sure your projector has the minimum native UHD resolution specification, which is 3840x2160 pixels.  This will faithfully replicate every pixel on 4K Blu-Ray discs, 4K television broadcasts, and 4K devices such as Microsoft’s X-Box without any screen door effect or other visual issues from trying to downscale an image.

The standard color range for HD televisions is a specification called Rec. 709, which enables you to easily tell the difference between a Green Bay Packers jersey vs. one from the Philadelphia Eagles.  But in many high brightness projectors, there are no color accuracy specifications – so that same jersey could look like it is a Seattle Seahawks Action Green jersey.   The best high brightness projectors have color accuracy specified to 90% or better of Rec. 709.  This also enables an installer to calibrate the projector to enable near-perfect color accuracy at a high brightness level.

While a 200-inch projector screen is a lot smaller than the average 52-foot iMax screen, the technology used to power a commercial cinema projector has become more affordable.   Today, nearly all commercial cinemas use laser-powered DLP projectors to ensure that the image can handle the long-term exposure to high-powered lasers – without yellowing.   Since many of the SXRD high brightness cinema projectors have been discontinued, a DLP projector enables you to have the same proven high brightness technology – at an affordable price.

The other technology element to consider is the lens architecture.   For example, the best models of high brightness home theater projectors are designed for longer throw ratios with lens shifting, such as the lens on the BenQ LK970 that uses 16 different elements that enable you to see every minute detail of a 4K image on the screen.  If you are looking for a short-throw projector – you will want a 4K model that has both zoom and lens shift to enable a more flexible mounting position.

These projectors are designed specifically for extra-large screens that are used in large home theaters, small commercial cinemas, golf simulation theaters, and corporate collaboration spaces.  One nice added feature is that these projectors are completely sealed – meaning once it's installed – you will never have to change a lamp or clean a filter as you do on a traditional lamp or lower-cost laser projector.  Here are three options that might fit what you are looking for: