If you’re creating a home theater, then you’ll undoubtedly ask yourself the question, “Should I get a projection screen and theater projector, or should I just get an HDTV?” There are several pros to home projectors. For instance, you can pay up to $9,000 for the new 65-inch Panasonic plasma TV or you can spend $2,500 on a 61-inch Samsung rear-projection unit. Economically, it makes sense.

Also, projection screens fit up against the wall and maximizes more space in a room, and the screen and home theater projector won’t mess with the acoustics in your room like a big clunky television set might, so your home theater will be perfectly calibrated with this type of system. For some consumers, nothing beats the home theater experience; provided that you’ve got popcorn on hand, of course!

home theater projector
One point to consider when looking at projectors is what aspect ratio do you want? “Aspect ratio” refers to the shape of the video image. For instance, most TV sets have aspect ratios of 4:3 (4 units wide, 3 units high), whereas HDTV standard models have an aspect ration of 16:9 (16 units wide, 9 units high).

If you view a lot of classic films or DVD TV series, then a 4:3 configuration may be preferable to you; it’s easy to shrink a larger picture down, with black borders to account for any discrepancies. However, most home digital projectors are being marketed in the 16:9 ratio. If you watch a lot of HDTV or wide screen DVD, then a 16:9 ratio makes sense.

The one drawback is that viewing 4:3 content on this massive unit will make the display look tiny and even if you stretch the frame to fit the screen, the resolution won’t be as good. There is yet a third choice for wide screen movie aficionados; the 2.35:1.

projection screen
For instance, Lord of the Rings, Tombstone and Star Wars are all set wider than 16:9. A “constant image height” setup can stretch the image out to its ideal size, although you will need to purchase a 16:9 digital projector along with an expensive anamorphic lens to accomplish this task.

Next, you’ll need to choose a resolution and brightness for your projector. Resolution refers to the clarity of the picture and it can be as low as 854 x 480 or as high as 1920 x 1080, although most consumers choose 1280 x 720, which lets you view HDTV and Blu Ray discs perfectly. When considering projector lamp brightness, be aware that brighter is not better.

Brightness is measured in ANSI lumen rating and foot-lamberts. In a dark room, luminance of 12-22 fL will provide comfortable brightness for you. If you still have some ambient light filtering into the room, then screen luminance of 30-50 fL will compensate for any loss of contrast due to the room’s natural lighting.

Since many manufacturers only list the ANSI lumen ratings, you can check out a brightness calculator at www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator-pro.cfm to decide which setup is best for your particular video projection situation.

digital projectors
Lastly, you’ll want to check out contrast specifications for your home theater projector. The bare bones contrast level is 2000:1, which is just enough black level and color saturation to avoid a muddled picture. Many consumers have a 5000:1 projector, which provides good definition on a midrange unit.

For top-of-the-line color saturation and definition, you’ll want a 10,000:1 contrast for the best shadow detail. Once you know what you’re looking for, you can search these characteristics at www.projectorcentral.com/projectors.cfm.

Face it, it’s a lot more amusing to watch movies in the theater than it is to watch them at home. Of course, the theatre may have a little better sound system than what you possess at home, but you’re not excessively nervous about the sound system. It’s the colossal screen that makes theaters better for watching movies. Watching King Kong rip apart New York City or the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park tear around in the jungle is a lot more exciting when they’re fifteen or twenty feet tall; it’s just not the same when they’re five or six inches tall on your little screen at home. Just like seeing a Jd Webb concert at home is not the same as being there in person.

Maybe what you require is a very large TV. Now, by and large I’m not a big fan of TV. Actually, I believe most TV shows are very bad, mind-numbing affairs, though seldom a high-quality show will crop up every now and then. I’m a movie fan however; I love the stories, the adventure, the cinematography. I feel like movies have the time and effort invested in them that TV shows lack, and I believe it shows. Still, to really get the full effect of a film I typically like to watch it in letterboxed format, since that’s how it’s presented in the theatres. You may see that if you see a film on TV they’ll tell you the movie was customized for watching on your TV. Filmmakers adjust their films for TV by hacking off part of the frame to make the shot narrower, which can sometimes have unfavorable effects on the cinematography. It’s similar to how to get rid of skin tags – it has to be done by a person who knows what they’re doing. However, unless you watch letterboxed movies on a big TV or on a widescreen TV, the added black strips on the top and bottom of the screen make the frames significantly smaller, which makes people pretty tiny on a fourteen inch or sixteen inch screen.

I never thought I needed a huge TV, especially since I didn’t view TV very often. I could get by with a little one, even if it meant that the Jurassic Park dinosaurs weren’t quite as vicious as they were in the theatre. Plus, I spend most of my time on niche marketing, so not a whole lot is free for TV watching anyway. Then, one Christmas my aunt bought my uncle a huge entertainment center and had it put in for him, complete with a huge TV and surround sound. He invited a few of us into the den and put in a copy of Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. It was astonishing. The D-Day invasion was bigger and more ominous than I remembered, and when the shooting started it sounded like bullets were flying around the living room. He had managed to copy the theater experience in his own house, and I was hooked.

Projector accessories can add on to the cost of your home theater, more so than a television set that comes already assembled, requiring little more than an entertainment center to set it on.

Similarly, you’ll need a projector wall mount to hang your video projector onto the ceiling, as well as a screen to beam the image onto. These screens may need mounts too. You may also need connector cables, a universal remote, air filters and lamps.

Projector lamps can be a major investment. Just ask the people who purchased Toshiba lamps that dimmed out after a few months, forcing customers to purchase new $300 to $400 bulbs!

LCD projector
Those people won a class action lawsuit, thankfully, and that event is, by no means, the norm; although, short bulb life and the continued expense of these LCD projector is a complaint for many current home theater enthusiasts and a deterrent for prospective home theater builders.

Of course the manufacturers clued in to this and they’ve come up with new technology involving LED lights and laser light technology to power your video projector for its entire lifetime (or about 60,000 hours, they say).

Since lamp bulbs are probably the only replaceable projector accessories you’ll have to buy, you should know a little bit about them. First, many multimedia projectors use mercury-vapor-containing lamps (ultra-high pressure lamps).

These lamps generally cost between $300 and $400, and need to be replaced every 500 to 1,500 hours or so. Another type of lamp used on bright, high-end projectors is the Zenon lamp, which gives the projected image a better color range.

While the cost of your bulb is high ($1,000), you will also get more life out of it, from 1,500 to 5,000 hours. To get this lamp life, you should use your video projector no more than 3 to 5 hours per day in a clean, dust-free environment and change your air filter every 3 months.

digital projector
To buy projector lamps and other projector accessories, you can try highly-rated merchants like Projector Point, B& H Photo Video, Visual Apex Inc, Projector Superstore and pcRUSH.

The price for some of these lamps is finally starting to come down a little, with the increased competition from LCD panel television sets and new LED/laser light technology. The universal remote control is one of the least mentioned projector accessories, yet it’s also an important one.