You’re trying to set up an AV System and you’re looking for a display but you’re caught between whether to get a project or a TV. Well, we’re here to tell you the difference and help you decide the best choice for your home theater system.
Size: The older generation TVs were losing to projectors in terms of size, but as TV technologies continue to advance, there are a plethora of TVs that are nearly as huge as a projector screen. Samsung has made the largest “wall” TV in the world which is 292 inches. However, if you’re looking for something purely for its size, projectors will not disappoint. Affordable projector screens can usually project up to 100-120 inches. In terms of cost-to-size ratio, projectors take the win here.
Brightness: Brightness affects projectors drastically because it depends how dark the environment is. Too much ambient light will cause the image colour to look bland and washed out. To counter ambient light, you’ll need to turn up the brightness and affordable projectors can only turn up to a certain level. Most if not all projectors with high brightness are costly.
But for TVs, it’s a different story. There are affordable TVs that can easily produce high brightness depending on the technology that they are using such as OLED, AMOLED, Mini-LED, Micro-LED, etc. Note, TV brightness is measured in nits whereas projector is measured in lumens. In this case, TVs trumps the projector.
Contrast: Contrast is determined by a combination of black levels and brightness. Because projectors are so easily affected by ambient light, the contrast can be washed out drastically. It’s the same with TVs but they can counter ambient light with different LED technology, Panels and Screen Finishings. Another win for TVs.
Resolution: People nowadays are always looking for 4K resolution whether for TVs or Projectors. The difference? There are cheap TVs with 4k resolution whereas a 4k projector costs an arm and a leg. Even then, projectors still can’t compare to a similarly priced 4k TV. In terms of resolution per dollar, TVs win by a mile.
Colour Accuracy: TVs and Projectors are comparably similar in this area. Reasonably priced projectors have good colour accuracy but for TVs require more performance to produce the best colours which increases price. With that said, the really good ones are able to produce a wider colour gamut and come with HDR, so there are additional benefits to them. TVs win at purely price-to-performance but if you want something large with exceptional image quality, then projector is the right choice. For colour accuracy, it’s a tie between TVs and Projectors for us.
Installation: TVs are generally much easier to install compared to projectors, which you need to put a lot of effort into planning out various things such as the size, angle, position, etc. Even if you’re planning to wall mount your TV, the process is also quite straightforward. In regards to convenience and installation, TV’s take another win here and that’s 5-2 with TVs being the winner here.
For us, the winner is always going to be TVs but that’s not to say that projectors are bad. Projectors can be good but only if in the ideal environment and setup, preferably a dark room without ambient light and a super-sized wall and screen. Now that you know the differences between TV and Projectors, we wish you the best in choosing the best device for your home theatre!
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