Owning a home projector is something that every guy who loves movies aspire for. It simulates the experience of watching movies in theaters except it is done in the comforts of one’s home. There are many considerations and pre-requisites to having your own home theater and definitely having your own home projector is at its very core.
Before going on a home theater project however, it pays to do a little research on the subject—like most things. By home projector, what is usually referred to is having a video projector. Of course this could also mean a movie projector, but this one refers to having your own film strip which is something that is usually reserved for guys who have a lot of resources at their disposal. For the average guy however, a video projector is the most ideal home projector.
To start with the basics, here are some of what the ever friendly Wikipedia tells us about video projectors.
“A video projector takes a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. All video projectors use a very bright light to project the image, and most modern ones can correct any curves, blurriness, and other inconsistencies through manual settings. Video projectors are widely used for conference room presentations, classroom training, home theatre and live events applications. Projectors are widely used in many schools and other educational settings, connected to an interactive whiteboard to interactively teach pupils.
A video projector, also known as a Digital Projector, may be built into a cabinet with a rear-projection screen (rear-projection television, or RPTV) to form a single unified display device, now popular for “home theater” applications.
Common display resolutions for a portable projector include SVGA (800×600 pixels), XGA (1024×768 pixels), 720p (1280×720 pixels), and 1080p (1920×1080 pixels).
The cost of a device is not only determined by its resolution, but also by its brightness. A projector with a higher light output (measured in lumens, symbol “lm”) is required for a larger screen or a room with a high amount of ambient light. A rating of 1500 to 2500 ANSI lumens or lower is suitable for smaller screens with controlled lighting or low ambient light.[1][2]Between 2500 and 4000 lm is suitable for medium-sized screens with some ambient light or dimmed light. Over 4000 lm is appropriate for very large screens in a large room with no lighting control (for example, a conference room). Projected image size is important; because the total amount of light does not change, as size increases, brightness decreases. Image sizes are typically measured in linear terms, diagonally, obscuring the fact that larger images require much more light (proportional to the image area, not just the length of a side). Increasing the diagonal measure of the image by 25% reduces the image brightness by 35%; an increase of 41% reduces brightness by half.”
