PROJECTOR PICKER
CABLES MATTER
TVs ARE BIG TOO!
Before you choose to go out and buy any old projector that fits within your budget, you should first check that it’s going to project an image that matches the screen size you want from its mounting—and that the image will be bright enough at that size.
One problem with home cinema is that the source of the digital stream is over there, while the display is over here—‘there’ could be any distance from a couple of feet to hundreds of feet, so you will need lots of cabling to connect here and there. The problem is that HDMI 2.x specification is pretty confusing for consumers, and HDMI doesn’t specify supported cable lengths either. Many say 10 feet is the maximum and, while that may be good advice for buying random Chinese HDMI cables from eBay, it isn’t really accurate enough.
The main issues encountered with projector installations are the additional cabling and accommodating the screen. With many 75-inch TV models now costing less than an entry-level 4K projector, it might make sense to opt for a decent big-screen TV.
A high-end home theater installation, but even a modest setup can achieve impressive results.
The screen size projected is a combination of the model’s optics and the distance it is away from the screen, this is called the throw ratio. A ratio of 1:1 means that, for every foot away from the screen, it would create an image one foot across. Typically, home theater projectors offer default ratios around 1.2:1 backed up with optical zooms of around 1.3x, so the final image size can be adjusted.
Part of the issue is that when HDMI was originally created, 1080p was high-end and HDMI connected a DVD Player to the TV sat on top of it. Combine that with the HDMI 1.x (max 4K @ 30Hz) days and timing wasn’t as critical over long(ish) cable lengths.