When setting up a home theater, one of the first questions that arise for us are those regarding the display device: is a projector better or perhaps a large diagonal television is better?
A few years ago when the TVs barely reached 60 inches, the differences in the feeling of immersion that a mid-range projector gave with its huge screen was clearly above the TV, although its defects were also many. Is this situation continuing in the middle of 2020 or have the forces been equalized?
The first thing we have to consider is the type of use that we are going to give to the teams. When talking about home cinema or home cinema, the usual thing is that we are referring to a system designed almost exclusively for the reproduction of movies and series, although more and more users are using it for games, sports and even conventional programming.
Hence, the main restriction of projectors with respect to television for years has been to need a dedicated or semi-dedicated room with absolute control of ambient light. Is this still the case?
Classic projector problems that are almost solved
We are going to begin to discuss some of the most common reasons that put us back when buying a projector years ago and that little by little they have been solving or at least disguising themselves to the point that they are no longer a serious problem.
Firstly, we have the duration of light-emitting lamps, generally a fairly expensive replacement that decades ago barely exceeded 1,000 or 2,000 real hours of use, forcing us to skimp time of enjoyment with the projector or to spend more money on this consumable for few years if they were still for sale in a store.
Fortunately, the situation has changed considerably and classic lamps already offer average lifetimes of over 5,000 hours (some even have special modes that extend this time above 10,000). But in addition, in recent years, projectors with lighting systems based on LEDs or lasers have reached the market with lifetimes of around 20,000 or 30,000 hours.
Another of the most classic problems of the projectors has been the “grid effect” or the visualization of the pixel structure at short and medium distances. With HD-Ready models and even some Full HD, this situation could backtrack us years ago, but with new technologies, modern DLP equipment and improvements in resolution with 4K models (either real or by pixel shift) this is no longer a problem.
Using the projector in ambient light has also been an inconvenience for years. However, it is more and more frequent that manufacturers (we have already seen around here models of Epson or Hisense) put on sale complete systems with screens of rejection of ambient light that allow the use of the projector without having to be completely dark and maintaining a great contrast, something that also helps laser lighting with higher light output than conventional lamps.
Still unsurpassed advantages of televisions
Despite the laser and ambient light rejection screens, televisions are still the kings of light power. If we want to use the screen in a room with windows that we cannot cover, during the day and with light, projectors are still not a recommended option and we must opt for a large-format television.
Even in low light situations where the projectors can work relatively well, the televisions will offer us better contrast and above all a higher quality in the high dynamic range or HDR if we opt for an OLED and FALD LCD model with many control zones.
The latest generation projectors promise durations of up to 30,000 hours, but the fact is that televisions far exceed this figure that some manufacturers place at 100,000 hours (or at least as far as the panel is concerned, since they can fail for other reasons), which should guarantee decades of use with a good level of light.
Still unsurpassed advantages of projectors
Alright, so the TV seems like a better option. It depends. If we look for a diagonal above 90 inches, our choice will continue to be limited to projectors, unless we have a huge budget and we can opt for technologies such as Micro-LEDs that should start reaching the domestic market this year.
In addition, projectors generally continue to offer the best diagonal-to-price ratio relative to televisions. A TV of more than 75 inches increases its price considerably, forcing us to choose a lower range if we want to spend a fortune
Finally, we have the factor of feeling of immersion in the film that manages to give us a projector with respect to television, even if it is a large format. It is clearly superior but not only because of the larger size, but because the light reaches us indirectly, reflected on the screen, resulting for many users more natural and producing less eyestrain than that offered by televisions.
Don’t be stingy, a projector needs a good screen
Related to this last factor of the screens and their ability to reflect the light we must give a couple of notes on the projectors if we want to be able to compare them realistically with televisions: a projector must be accompanied by a good screen if we want to extract all its potential.
The sheets, blinds, curtains and most of the fabrics that we have at home are not a good option if we want our projector to show all its quality since apart from being translucent they will have textures and/or colors or folds that will worsen the image quality and they may not reflect light at the correct angle, offering poor contrast.
Nor is it usually recommended to use any untreated wall that we have at home. It is a quick solution but if we want to opt for this solution we will need it to be smooth, without defects, textures, gotelé or similar, and of course, it must be uniformly painted in a white or gray tone.
Also, keep in mind that painting the wall for use with the projector is not as simple as if we were to decorate the room. It is necessary to leave no trace of the roller or brush (better to use a gun if we can) and give it a very uniform finish. Otherwise, the light will be reflected unevenly and we will have tonality spots in the image or bands that will worsen the perceived quality.