Best projector to take from work to home?

[Craig Calgary]

I'm looking to purchase a portable projector I can use for work for presentation use but also one that I can use at home if I ever want to have an immersive movie night with my family. My younger son has been very interested in using a projector to watch movies and mentioned it's extremely easy to hook up to a streaming device such as an Apple TV or an Amazon Fire Stick.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good one?

 

[rojo]

I'm looking to purchase a portable projector I can use for work for presentation use but also one that I can use at home if I ever want to have an immersive movie night with my family. My younger son has been very interested in using a projector to watch movies and mentioned it's extremely easy to hook up to a streaming device such as an Apple TV or an Amazon Fire Stick.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good one?

Well, the throw distance will need to be similar between home and work. If your intended projector placement at work will be 11 feet, then at home it will probably need to be between 10 - 12 if you intend to have a similar diagonal projection size. With that in mind, this calculator at Project Central is a handy tool to find projectors that meet your requirements for projection size at expected distance.

Having said that, the LG PF1000U and PF1000UW look pretty interesting to me. They're ultra short throw, and can project a very large image from only a few inches away from the wall. They're smaller than traditional projectors, and so should be easier to tote from location to location -- especially if you opt for a carry case. They're 1080p, and if I recall correctly they offer frame interpolation for smooth motion. A 30,000 hour lamp promises lower TCO as well.

Drawbacks are that they're slim on lumens, so ambient light can interfere. And since they project so close to the wall, imperfections on your wall's surface will be emphasized, distorting the image. Another point of difficulty with such a short throw distance is that infinitesimal adjustments are likely to have profound effects with the projected image, so getting the image at your desired size with proper keystone and focus is bound to take more patience than with a projector with a longer throw.

 

[BMXTRIX]

The biggest difference between home theater and business use is going to come in the form of contrast vs. lumens and projector size. The bottom line is that home theater projectors are designed completely differently than business projectors, even if they sometimes use the same DLP or LCD chips in them.

Home theater projectors are typically not very portable. They use their increased size to cut down on noise from the projector. So, they tend to be quieter. They are often not as bright because it can help with contrast, decrease cooling requirements, which lowers noise. They often have higher resolution and typically are 1920x1080 resolution which matches the HD aspect ratio of 16:9. Finally, they have a much stronger focus on image processing and performance with video, including accurate color, shadow detail, motion handling, and contrast.

All that said, if your primary use is business, and you are hoping for the occassional home use, then I would focus on getting a decent portable business projector. I would stick to LCD and would get a model with 1280x800 resolution or higher, but always widescreen. No 1024x768 projector makes sense anymore.

So, while I would strongly recommend a projector for home theater as a great choice, they just aren't really portable. A model from this list (sorted by popularity):
http://www.projectorcentral.com/projectors.cfm?g=1&hide=0&st=1&r=&br=&c=&w=&ar=Wide+(16:9-10)&db=&zr=&wt=&ltg=&ll=&mfg=&p=300&p=3000&wr=&dt=1.0.0&t=&pjl=0&pjw=0&pjh=0&td=&is=&i=d&tr=&tr2=&oop=2&sort=pop&sz=15

Specifically the Epson 3700:
http://www.projectorcentral.com/Epson-PowerLite_Home_Cinema_3700.htm

Is great. It's got really great brightness, solid reviews, good contrast, excellent placement flexibility...
and it weighs 15 pounds. About twice what a heavy laptop comes in at! Not really portable, but that's absolutely my first recommendation for a solid home theater model which could double for business use.

Now, how much light you want to deliver on screen and need for the projector will impact size, price, noise level, and image quality. In a business setting you want no less than 50 lumens per square foot of screen space. That will be no less than 80 advertised lumens per square foot. A typical screen will be about 44 square feet for a 120" diagonal image. So about 3,500 lumens is recommended for the projector rating (hence, the Epson 3700 is a great choice).

But, more lumens is still much better in a business environment where lighting often can't be controlled.

A very bright model which is well priced for the brightness is the Epson 2250.
https://epson.com/For-Work/Projectors/Meeting-Room/PowerLite-2250U-Wireless-Full-HD-WUXGA-3LCD-Projector-/p/V11H871020
At 10 pounds it isn't exactly the most portable unit, and likely is overkill. Also, the $1,500 price point may be more than you are looking to spend.

I think if I were buying right now, and wanted the most bang for the buck overall, and would be happy with about a 100" diagonal in the business space, then this would be a great option:
https://epson.com/For-Work/Projectors/Portable/EX9200-Pro-Wireless-WUXGA-3LCD-Projector/p/V11H722020

At $700, you get full WUXGA resolution (1920x1200) and 3,200 lumens of brightness from a 5.7 pound projector. Pretty solid!

If you want to up the portability, then this model really nails it for a bit more cash:
https://epson.com/For-Work/Projectors/Portable/PowerLite-1795F-Wireless-Full-HD-1080p-3LCD-Projector-/p/V11H796020
This is a true 1080p projector (1920x1080) which is still 3,200 lumens, but comes in at only 4 pounds. It's also built super flat to fit into a typical computer type bag easily. A large computer bag could easily carry the projector and a laptop together.

Finally, if you are like "Dude! Can you show me something really cheap?"
Yep:
https://epson.com/For-Work/Projectors/Portable/VS345-WXGA-3LCD-Projector/p/V11H718220

This is 3,000 lumens, and is 1280x800 resolution. It's a solid starting point for front projection and while it won't blow anyone away, it will get the job done and still be fun for some home use.

Also, on the 'budget' side, check out their 'refurb store' for some price savings:
https://epson.com/Clearance-Center/Projectors-for-Work/c/cc302

Where you can get a WXGA (1280x800) 3,000 lumen projector for under $400.
https://epson.com/Clearance-Center/Projectors-for-Work/EX6220-WXGA-3LCD-Projector---Refurbished/p/V11H550220-N

or even get a WUXGA model (1920x1200) for 560 bucks.
https://epson.com/Clearance-Center/Projectors-for-Work/EX9200-Pro-Wireless-WUXGA-3LCD-Projector---Refurbished/p/V11H722020-N

So much depends on what you are really shooting for here as personal preference. Even with so much focus on Epson, Panasonic makes some great widescreen options which will work as well, along with Sony and a few others. Epson just has well known support if you need it and often has some lamps which can be very fairly priced which is nice as replacement lamps can run $250+ for factory branded models.

 

[Craig Calgary]

Thank you both for the very informative replies! I greatly appreciate the time taken to explain some good models.

Do either of you happen to know more about AAXA projectors? I recently saw an article on Projector Central about the M6 -- 1200 Lumens with 1080P and also comes with a carrying case: http://www.projectorcentral.com/aaxa-m6-review.htm

I'm assuming the brightness may be the limiting factor there though, especially since some of the Epson's cited about have a high range of lumens for a similar price point in the Clearance Center, but if any other information can be shared regarding those projectors, that would be great!

 

[BMXTRIX]

There is no reason to expect it to deliver more lumens on screen than the XGimi or the LG PF1500 projectors. They are nice because they are solid state, but their lack of lumens makes them nearly useless in the workplace. You need complete light control to get 100-120" diagonal with good results. With lights on, you may be limited to 60" or so. That's pretty weak. As well, the new AAXA doesn't handle any image sizing functions, so you must feed it a 16:9 image or things will be distorted. Kind of weird.

I would look at a Casio laser/led model before a pure LED model, but even then, I would stick with the larger Epson models which triple the lumen output.

 

[Craig Calgary]

Thanks for your input BMXTRIX, really appreciate it!

I'll have to look into all the models mentioned and make a decision from there. The presentations for work will be for a limited group of people in a relatively small room so I'm not too concerned with producing a huge picture. I do think that a higher lumen output won't hurt either though.

I did go to Staples to check out some of the models they had there and saw a lot of Epsons. To my surprise, I also saw an AAXA model there but it was less bright that the M6 model, I believe it was the M5. I didn't know they were that well known so it was interesting to see them next to Epson there.