Like most markets, there will always be the big boys in the home projectors market. The following are currently the big players in the home projectors industry not necessarily in order of market share.

Everest
Planar
Acer
Faroudja
PLUS
Aiptek
Fujitsu
projectiondesign
ASK Proxima
Hitachi
Radio Shack
Avio
HP
Runco
Barco
IBM
Sagem
BenQ
iiyama
Sahara
Boxlight
InFocus
Samsung
Canon
JVC
Sanyo
Casio
Knoll Systems
Sharp
Christie
Lenovo
SIM2
Cinetron
LG
Sony
Dell
Liesgange
Studio Experience
Delta
Marantz
Toshiba
Digital Projection
Microtek
Vidikron
Dream Vision
Mitsubishi
Viewsonic
Dukane
NEC
Vivitek
DWIN
Optoma
Xerox
Eiki
Panasonic
Yamaha
eLux
Philips
Epson
Pixa

Of course these guys will have their own specialty niches in the home projectors business. For sure, new technologies will be reviewed here as they come and may not necessarily include all of these brands.

When choosing your own home projector for your home theater project, there are only two to choose from. Well there are others but for beginners, you’ll only want to consider either the LCD projector, or the DLP projector.

LCD or Liquid Crystal Display projector is the simplest projector system therefore it is the monst common and most affordable for home theaters and for business use. The biggest criticism for this technology is a visible screen door or pixelation effect. Newer LCD models however have been known to overcome this problem.

A Digital Light Processing (DLP) projector uses 1-3 microfabricated light vales called digital micromirror devices 9DMDs). DLP projectors using single and double DMD versions use rotating color wheels in time with the mirror refreshes to modulate color. The common problem with these versions is a visible “rainbow” which some people perceive when moving their eyes. Again recent technologies of these versions have lessened this defect. DLP projectors using 3 DMDs however do not have this problem as they display each primary color simultaneously.

Other types of home projector technologies include:

LCOS (Liquid Crystal On Silicone)
LED (Light Emitting Diode) which use as the name suggests, Light Emitting Diodes as the source of light.
Casio also developed a hybrid LED and Laser Diodes system using both as source of light while image is processed using DLP technology.

Agains, this site will focus on the more commonly used technologies which are LCD and DLP as these are obviously more affordable to the beginner home projector enthusiast. However, as technologies advance there will be reviews here that may focus on the more advanced home projector technologies with careful consideration of the costs.

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.”