The best projectors you can buy in 2022, and how to choose one

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Projectors have come a long way from the bulky, dark models of the past. The latest models are brighter, cleaner, quieter and easier to install than ever before. They also deliver an image size you could never get on a TV without spending a fortune. With all this, the best projectors are highly desirable for home theater enthusiasts who want a true cinematic experience at home.

Over the past year we've seen models that are bright enough to use in a normal room, short-throw models that take up very little space and have built-in soundbars, and better quality picture quality than ever before with 4K and Dolby Visual Features. Even better, you can now get 4K HDR models capable of projecting an image up to 150 inches for as little as $1,000. It's about the same price and more than double the size of a decent 65-inch TV, giving you near-real-movie theater immersion with a home theater projector.

There are, however, many different types of projectors, ranging from ultra-short throw to portable to long throw. There are also a lot of terms to understand, like lens shift, LCD vs. DLP, laser vs. lamp illumination and more. This guide will help you figure it all out so you can buy the best projector for your needs while staying within your budget.

Here are the basics: Projectors typically use two types of technology: LCD and DLP. They are fundamentally different systems, with their own advantages and disadvantages.

The rise of ultra-short-throw projectors and brighter long-throw models has been fueled by falling prices for laser lighting technology. Lasers are a much better solution than lamps, as they are brighter and last much longer - up to 30,000 hours instead of 6,000. That's basically a lifetime of use (about 10 years) .

Most projector manufacturers now use DLPs, or digital light processing units, made almost exclusively by Texas Instruments (TI). The heart of the technology is an optical semiconductor called a digital micromirror device (DMD) which contains millions of aluminum mirrors. These tilt towards the light source (on) or away from it (off) up to 5,000 times per second.

Budget projectors like BenQ's HT3550i use TI's 0.47-inch DMD, while high-end models like the Samsung Premium LSP9T use the 0.66-inch chip. Both use mirrors that tilt +12 and -12 degrees for white and black, but TI recently unveiled a new 0.47-inch 4K-capable DMD with a tilt of +/-17 degrees, which should improve both brightness and contrast.

DLP projector manufacturers include LG, Optoma, LG, BenQ and Panasonic. The advantages of the technology are portability, high contrast, less fringing and cheaper projectors, especially 4K and ultra-short-throw models. The biggest downside is the rainbow effect or bright red/blue/green artifacts that affect some viewers more than others.

LCD technology, on the other hand, uses a prism to split a light source into red, green and blue beams. These then pass through LCD screens containing the image and converge through another prism before passing through the projector lens.

Epson is the largest user of LCD technology, along with Sony, Sanyo and others. LCD projectors tend to be sharper, more efficient, and more color accurate, but have poorer contrast ratios and can experience image degradation over time. In general, they are also more expensive.

Since the last time we updated our guide, ultra-short-throw projectors have become the hot new category, offering several benefits. You can mount them close to the wall like a TV, without needing to run wires through the walls and ceiling, but still get an immersive picture as large as 120 inches – which is impossible with a TV unless you don't be very rich. They use brighter lasers that never need to be replaced, and because the laser light is collimated, focus is removed.

They're also physically less difficult to install than a ceiling-mounted projector, although that doesn't mean installation is super easy. To achieve perfect screen fit and alignment, you need to place them at an exact height and distance from your wall or screen. It can be quite...