News
Buyer's Guide: The Best Monitors 
Projectors
Florent Alzieu
Updated: November 12, 2009
Updated: November 12, 2009
Product Surveys, Tests and Guides
If you can't find the right projector for you here, go ahead and check our full range of tests, which are divided into two separate articles: one with Full HD projectors, and another with HD Ready options.
Without a doubt, 2009 is the year when Full HD projectors finally reached a reasonable price--by which we mean around £1000. That's certainly still a lot of money, and, unless you go for an all-in-one system with DVD player and speakers built-in, you'll also need to splash out on these components too.
HD Ready projectors on the way out
Manufacturers are no longer producing new HD Ready 720p ranges. These projectors are living out a peaceful retirement in the Product Survey that we've dedicated to them. They're suffering heavily from the fall in prices of Full HD models, and we can't see them surviving much longer, apart, perhaps, from very low-cost models in the £500 price bracket.
3D Projectors
Strangely enough, the first examples of 3D projectors are based on office-based models that have been repurposed. They have a limited resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and allow you to game in 3D as long as you have compatible glasses and a source that can produce a 120 Hz signal, effectively limiting you to a computer.
DLP vs LCD
The never-ending battle between LCD and DLP technology rages on. Neither seems ready to throw in the towel just yet. DLP projectors were the first to reach the entry-level £1000 price point, but LCD models weren't too far behind. To learn more about the differences between these two rival technologies, take a look at the introduction to our Product Survey: Full HD Projectors, where we describe how each works, and explain the rainbow effect, a very important factor to consider if you're thinking about a DLP projector.
More transparency from manufacturers
Manufacturers are becoming more honest about the figures they claim for contrast. Some of them now publish ANSI contrast ratios, which are measured using a grid of white and black squares, rather than by switching from an entirely black frame to an entirely white frame. That knocks several zeroes off the end of the contrast ratio, and is a much more accurate representation of a projector's actual capability.
LED Projectors
We're still waiting for news of LED projectors for 2010. For the time being, projectors are lit using an expensive bulb, with a theoretical lifespan of 3000 hours, and sometimes not even that. Moving to LEDs should allow the time between changing bulbs to increase to 20 000 hours, or even more. Unfortunately, though, they're still very expensive to manufacturer and we reckon it'll be at least another year before they're used on anything other than the pocket camcorders where we've seen them so far.
| Our Icons |  |
Best value |  |
We love it |  |
Green |  |
Best of the best |
Our Favourite
Not quite perfect, it's still the one for us … a great all-rounder that's quiet to run
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Sanyo PLV-Z3000
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This is definitely the one we'd like to find under the tree. It's got faultless hardware, is quiet and its very deep blacks produce excellent results with HD signals. Its only real weakness it that there's room for improvement when upscaling from an SD source such as a TV or a DVD. That said, that should only really be a problem for watching TV programmes, because you can leave upscaling DVDs to a your DVD player, which will nearly always do a better job than either your TV or your projector.
| Best value Optoma HD700X |
Easy to use Samsung SP-A600B |
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| If you want to try out projecting movies at home without breaking the bank, this model shouldn't set you back more than about £550. It's fairly basic, but it does the job. Watch out for the rainbow effect, though. |
This is an all-in-one option, with a projector, speakers and a DVD player--we're still waiting for the first such systems with a Blu-ray player. It couldn't be easier to use. | The SP-A600B was one the principal models to drive down the price of Full HD projectors (the first was the Optoma HD20). It has fewer features than some of its high-end cousins, but it's easier to use a result. |
| Great hardware Epson EH-TW2800 |
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| The EH-TW2800 manages to come in under the psychological bar of £1000, making this LCD a serious competitor to Samsung's model. Its main advantage is some more advanced hardware. |
With a motorised zoom, lens-shift and focus system, the HC6500 is a real top-of-the range model. It's almost perfect, apart from its performance with very bright areas. |
If you can forgive slightly the slightly pale blacks caused by the very bright bulb (which is great for use in rooms that aren't quite perfectly dark) then this is a faultless projector. Better still, it only uses 0.1 W while on standby, meaning Sony gets our green award in this category. |
Projectors at a glance:
| Hardware | Image Quality |
Rainbow Effect |
Energy Consumption |
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| Optoma HD700X | |
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| Epson EMP-TWD10 |  |
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| Samsung SP-A600B | |
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| Epson EH-TW2800 |
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| Mitsubishi HC6500 | |
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| Sony VPL-HW15 | |
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| Sanyo PLV-Z3000 | |
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| Our Icons | |
Best value | |
We love it | |
Green | |
Best of the best |  |
Watch out |
