4K Projector Buying Guide: Best Recommendations To Get It Right And Eight Models With Good Value For Money

Set up your home theater and enjoy movies, series, or sports in a large diagonal and with good image quality with a 4K projector. In this 4K projector buying guide, we help you choose your ideal projector and we offer you a selection of models with good value for money.

How to choose a good 4K projector

In this buying guide, we will focus on projectors with 4K resolution, ideal for lovers of movies and series who are looking for quality.

But no 8K projectors? Yes, there are 8K models like the JVC D-ILA, but it is not a native resolution, rather they use 4K + Pixel Shift to virtualize a higher resolution. Although there are improvements, it is not the same as a native 8K, and, taking into account the scarcity of content and the price, the most recommended option is 4K projectors. Of course, keep in mind that the best image quality is obtained when we send a signal with its same native resolution to the projector. Or what is the same: do not expect a 4K resolution if you launch content in FHD.

• Image generation technology: LCD, LCoS, and DLP (the latter with JVC’s D-ILA and Sony’s SXRD implementations). Without dwelling on how it works, we will focus on its strengths and weaknesses. The first ones stand out for the nature of their colors and good luminosity, although the blacks are not as deep and the whites are not as bright as DLP, a technology whose strengths are contrast, global luminosity, sharpness, and brightness, although they can be noisier. and offer colors less faithful to reality. Finally, LCoS combines the advantages of both previous technologies and tries to minimize their defects, at the cost of a higher price.

• Type of light source: high-pressure gas lamps, LED, and laser light emission. The first is the most traditional and is usually abundant among affordable models, offering a useful life of up to 5,000 hours, brightness between 1,000 – 2,000 lumens, and they degrade over time. LEDs have a longer useful life, and low consumption, are present in compact models, and are moderately affordable. The most ambitious are lasers, with high luminosity, long useful life, a light that hardly degrades, and more accurate color. But of course, they are more expensive.

As you can see, the type of light source and the image generation technology is decisive in terms of durability, price, and image quality regardless of resolution. From here, look at the following features:

• Brightness or the amount of light that it delivers, is essential to project bright and sharp images (although other factors such as the size of the room, distance, or ambient light also play a role). The minimum is 1,000 ANSI lumens.

• native contrast. It is the relationship between the most intense black and the purest white. That is, if a projector has high contrast, then it delivers whiter whites and blacker blacks. Be careful because there are confusing technical sheets between native contrast and dynamic contrast, the latter being higher. In a dark room, a 1,500:1 native contrast ratio is good, but 2,000:1 or higher is much better.

• Inputs: Typically, it has HDMI ports, as well as VGA and DVI inputs for computers. For older devices, it may be interesting to have an S – Video socket.

Featured models

The Acer H6815BD ( 884 euros ) will help you set up a home theater at a very attractive price, taking into account that it is a 4K projector with high brightness of 4000 ANSI lumens and compatibility with HDR10 content, although you can also choose to go down to 1080p at a 240Hz refresh rate, which can be interesting for gaming. To highlight its soccer mode and support for Blu-ray 3D.

This is a DLP projector with two HDMI 1.4 with two built-in 3W speakers.