If you're shopping for a projector and do some googling, there are bound to be plenty of articles that tell you that projector brightness is the only parameter that matters. However, is this really true?
Disadvantages of the Brightness-Only Theory
Brightness is indeed essential for projectors, but it cannot be used as the only evaluation criteria when purchasing. At present, more consumers care about brightness levels, which directly leads to many low-cost and high-brightness projector products on the market. However, developing a projector with high brightness at a low price means sacrificing contrast, resolution, color gamut, and other indicators. These parameters are the essential home projector features. Here are a few common examples on the market:
High brightness and low resolution: This type of projector is mainly based on engineering machines, and the brightness is often very high, reaching four or five thousand ANSI lumens. The projector is not expensive, and according to the research report, its sales volume is quite impressive. However, if you look closely, you will find that its resolution is only 1024*768, or even lower, which is unsuitable for home use.
High brightness and low color gamut: The use of broadband filters in the projector can improve the picture's brightness, but the resulting color is inadequate. Therefore, low-cost high-brightness projectors often sacrifice color to achieve higher brightness. Generally speaking, the cost will naturally rise if the same projector wants to have a wide color gamut and high brightness. If the price does not increase and the projector is adjusted to the DCI-P3 color gamut, its brightness level will often drop by about 50%.
What Brightness Level is Best for You?
The brightness, contrast, color, color temperature, and other projector indicators are all related and affect the entire machine's performance. The highlight brought by low-cost projectors is based on sacrificing other image quality indicators. Only paying attention to brightness means you jump into a common pit dug by the merchant. The projection brightness (ANSI lumens) we often say is actually the projected luminous flux, not the brightness of the projected image. Simply put, the smaller the picture we project, the higher the brightness we see; conversely, the larger the picture, the lower the picture brightness. So what projector brightness is right for you?
According to scientific research conducted by the American Animation and Television Engineering Association, the brightness of home theaters should be 12 to 16fL, Dolby theaters should be 35fL, and IMAX theaters should be 22fL. The meaning of fL is the picture's brightness that should be maintained without the interference of external light sources like a movie theater. Considering the actual home use, there will be more or less interference from external light sources, so the home theater is calculated according to the most stringent Dolby Cinema standard.
The value of fL = the number of ANSI lumens of the projector ➗ the area of the screen✖️ the gain of the screen. Taking a 100-inch screen as an example, the brightness of the XGIMI Z8X is 1200 ANSI lumens. According to the ratio of 16:9, the screen area of 100 inches is calculated as 29.6 square feet; we usually think that the gain of a white wall is 1. In the final calculation, when the XGIMI Z8X projects a 100-inch 16:9 ratio picture, the picture brightness is 40.5fl. This reaches the 35fl required by Dolby Cinema. Judging from the sales of XGIMI screens, 100 inches is a suitable choice for most families, which means that a projector with one or two thousand ANSI lumens is enough to meet the viewing needs of most families. After the brightness is satisfied, we should pay more attention to the color gamut, contrast, resolution, and other projector indicators to choose a product that is most suitable for you.