Notice how there are three individual lights in the left image, but a single blob of light on the right. Even the best and brightest projectors are still only a fraction of the brightness of a midrange television. Brightness isn't everything though arguably, contrast ratio is , but when it comes to HDR light output is a much bigger deal. Forget 4K and HDR, the biggest image quality issue with projectors is much more practical: ambient light.
A projector throws light at a screen, but any other light in the room is also getting thrown at the screen. The brightest parts of the image aren't hugely affected, but the darker parts are. Which is to say, if you're watching sports or something that's bright overall, you're fine. If you're watching a dark movie or playing a dark video game, it's going to be hard to see. Yes, there are ambient light-rejecting screens, but they're expensive. And physics is physics.
No matter how good a fancy screen is at reducing the impact of ambient light, it's still going to look worse than the same screen in a dark room. If you want to watch your projector during the day in a room with lots of windows like the one at the top of this article and enjoy the best image quality, you'll need lots of curtains. A TV is going to create a much brighter image than any projector, one that holds up better in bright rooms.
This obviously hasn't persuaded me to switch to a TV, but full disclosure: I use black-out curtains in my TV room. Most people probably aren't willing to make that sacrifice. It pains me to say it, but for most people TVs are now a better option than projectors. This was somewhat true when I said the opposite a few years ago, but it's definitely true now.
There are a few ways to do this. First, you can mount a manual or motorized drop-down screen from your ceiling. You can even paint your wall with a special projection-screen paint. There are a number of online calculators that can give you exact height and width measurements for any given screen size. There are two distance points you need to think about for a projector: Throw distance, the distance between the projector and screen, and viewing distance, how far it is from your seat to the screen.
Viewing distance has to do with how far you should sit from an image of a certain size, and there are online calculators for this as well. Typically, experts recommended that you sit 10 feet from a inch screen.
The previous steps have dealt with factors that affect the screen, but the projector itself needs special consideration, too. Specifically, you need to determine if you are able to place the projector at an ideal distance and angle from the screen.
This allows for some adjustments should you need to place the projector a little off-center. When you watch, you're looking directly at the surface that the TV uses to create the picture. That's why traditional CRT sets are called direct-view displays.
But they do have one big drawback -- since the screen is made of glass, size is limited. The largest CRT screens measure about 40 inches diagonally. That's the main reason for projection TVs. Even though some models can't rival the quality of a direct-view CRT set, they can be much bigger. Instead of using a direct-view setup, a projection TV creates a small picture and then uses a beam of light to display that picture at a much larger size.
Next, learn about projection TV configuration. Projection TVs are available in two main configurations -- front projection and rear projection. A front-projection system uses a projector and a separate screen, and it projects images onto the front of that screen. This setup looks most like what you'd find in a movie theater -- the projection unit is completely separate from the screen. The projector can be placed on a table or mounted to the ceiling.
The picture looks best when displayed on a high-quality screen, but a specially painted, flat wall will work as well. Rear-projection systems look more like traditional televisions.
They display images on the back of a screen rather than the front, and the projector is completely contained within the television itself. You can also set up a rear-projection system with a projector and a special screen, but the term is most often used to describe self-contained TV sets. Both configurations use tiny devices capable of making very detailed pictures. These devices can be reflective , meaning that light picks up the picture by bouncing off the device.
Or, they can be transmissive , meaning that light picks up the picture by traveling through the device. Once the light picks up the picture, a lens magnifies the picture and projects it onto the screen. Next, we'll take a look at the major types of television technologies and how they compare to one another.
Here's a brief overview of how they work:. These tubes create the picture the same way a standard TV does -- by firing electrons at a phosphor-coated screen. A CRT projector can include:. Liquid crystal display LCD : Electrical currents can cause liquid crystals to change their shape. This allows them to act as light valves -- different amounts of current allow different amounts of light to pass through the crystal.
This lets the LCD device create a greyscale image. To add color, most projectors use a series of mirrors that split the light into red, green and blue beams. Each beam passes through a separate LCD, and a lens collects the three beams and projects the image on the screen. LCDs can also be used to create flat-panel televisions. Flat-panel models are another option for people who are looking for a larger TV. Flat-panel LCD sets are another option, but they're limited in size to about 40 inches diagonally.
All three flat-panel set types tend to be more expensive than most projection models. In addition, plasma screens are susceptible to burn-in -- if the same image stays on the screen for a long time, it could become permanently seared into the plasma. There are a few other lesser-known TV technologies, like grating light valves. What to Know You can use any projector as a TV, but you may need additional hardware. If your projector has built-in apps, you may be able to use it as a TV right out of the box.
You can also connect a streaming device, cable box, or TV tuner to your projector. How do you use a projector as a TV outside? How do you clean a projector? Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Tell us why! More from Lifewire. How to Connect a Chromebook to a Projector.
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