When you first move out to be on your own, you’re likely going to consider buying yourself a brand new 4K television. We’ve all been there, as you’ll want something that’s inexpensive, looks good, and is portable.
There always comes the day when a person wants to have something that is slightly larger than a television to watch their favorite content on. And, when the time finally comes to get a home theater running, you have to make a major decision: should you buy a projector or a television.
The easy way to make this decision is to consider how far away you’ll actually be sitting from the screen. If you’re going to have to sit more than 6 ft away from the screen, you should probably purchase a projector. But there are tons of other gray areas, where a projector or a television would work for your home theater space.
Projectors vs. Televisions
Starting from the top, televisions are awesome because they’re usually cheaper than projectors are and are generally brighter than projectors. The brightness of a television is measured in nit, while the brightness of a projector is measured in lumens. The closest approximation of these 2 units is 1 nit equals around 3.426 lumens.
When the average 4K high-definition resolution television goes through a testing lab, they’re generally looking for peak brightness of more than 1,000 nits in 10 percent windows.
When it comes to lumens, projectors can be all over the place. Some of the more typical projectors come with around 2000 lumens (or the promise of having that many lumens), while some of the better ones will have around 3000 or more. There are others though, that have less than that many lumens.
A device’s brightness capabilities matter quite a bit, because it helps determine how washed-out the image’s colors will appear on the wall. The more ambient light there is in the projector’s space, the worse the image’s contrast will be. The key thing to consider is, if you can’t afford a super bright projector (above 3,500 lumens) and you’re going to be working in a bright room, you’ll probably want to get the television rather than the projector.
This is what you should do if you have a home movie room
If you own an actual home cinema room (a room that is built for the sole purpose of watching movies and has controllable lighting), then it can be difficult to choose between getting a television or a projector.
4K projectors tend to be more expensive than 4K televisions. This is mainly because of the manufacturing process. Television panels tend to be cheaper and easier to make, while the parts in projectors haven’t been optimized to that level yet, and thus are more expensive to make. Things also get tricky when you think about screen sizes bigger than 80 inches. This is the point where the price of a 4K OLED or AMOLED television will cost about the same as a 4K projector.
So, the question stands, which one should be purchased?
At this point, it makes more sense to purchase a projector. While 4K televisions have set screen sizes, 4K projector have variable projection sizes that can reach upwards of 200 plus inches. Take the
Optoma UHD35, a projector that is capable of projecting images of up to 300 inches.
Conclusion
For most people, the decision of whether to purchase a 4K television or a 4K projector will come down to the amount of ambient light in a room, the amount fo space, and the actual price of either. If you have everything needed and not a whole lot of ambient light in a room (or the money to opt for a projector with a higher ANSI lumen rating), then you should get the projector.