How do the world’s elite projectors compare to giant TVs?

Nothing says home theater like a huge image, but in the past, the only way to achieve such epic proportions was by using a projector. However, times change and in recent years TV panel sizes have been getting seriously large, making them genuine big-screen alternatives.

This presents the home theater enthusiast with an interesting conundrum – do you go the traditional best 4K projector route or opt for a giant TV instead? Let’s take a look at the various options, and compare modern elite projectors to today’s jumbo TV screens.

When I say elite projector I’m talking about native 4K HDR models in the $5,000 (£3,800 / AU$7,400) to $25,000 (£20,000 / AU$37,000) price range – a segment of the market dominated by Sony and JVC. While there are differences, both brands use imaging chips with proprietary versions of LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) for superior contrast combined with a bright laser-powered light source capable of illuminating a screen up to 15 feet in diameter.

There are a multitude of affordable projectors below $5,000 but these tend to be DLP models, and while they may offer solid performance and great value for money they’re not usually intended for dedicated home theater installations – although the BenQ W5800 DLP beamer and Epson LS12000 3LCD model are notable exceptions in this regard.

There are also ultra high-end projectors from Sony, Christie and Barco with price tags running into six figures, but these are semi-professional beamers designed to light up massive screens over 15 feet in diameter using lasers so bright they could literally blind you.

All of this makes the elite projector market the sweet spot for discerning home theater fans, and the Sony VPL-XW5000ES with its native 4K SXRD chipset and laser light source is the entry point. The middle tier sees JVC’s DLA-NZ7 4K D-ILA laser beamer competing with the Sony VPL-XW6000ES, followed by the recently released and very impressive JVC DLA-NZ800 . Finally, at the higher end there’s Sony’s top-tier VPL-XW7000ES battling it out with JVC’s flagship DLA-NZ900.

As far as the TVs are concerned, all the major brands now make giant-sized models with Samsung, LG, Sony, Hisense and TCL offering screen sizes up to a whopping 115 inches.

Sizing screens up

This brings us neatly on to our first point of comparison – screen size. While a 115-inch TV may sound huge, the reality is that any of the beamers I’ve mentioned can project an image larger than that, so if you really want to replicate going to the multiplex even the biggest versions of the best TVs will struggle.

And there’s another point to consider – practical logistics. This is obviously dependent on where you live, but at a certain point, the sheer size and weight of a large TV will make installing it in your home impossible, with doors and stairs the obvious limiting factors.

Conversely, you can mount a projector out of the way on the ceiling, with a projection screen fixed to the wall. The additional cost obviously needs to be factored into your budget, but these screens provide installation options that can enhance the projected experience.

An acoustically transparent screen allows you to position a centre speaker behind it, thus ensuring dialogue is literally emanating from the image. And while we’re on the subject of sound, none of these projectors has built-in speakers like a TV, but if you’re planning a dedicated room I’m assuming you’re thinking of one of the best soundbars at the very least, if not a full multichannel system based around an AV receiver and speaker package.

In addition, aside from the Sony XW5000ES, all the projectors I’ve mentioned previously have motorised lens controls and lens memories, so if you choose a 2.35:1 aspect ratio screen with side masking you can zoom out for widescreen movies and fully replicate the theatrical experience.

There’s also the question of price, because a projector undoubtedly delivers more bang for your buck. The Sony XW5000ES can currently be picked up for around $6,000, and while that certainly isn’t spare change it starts to look like good value when compared to giant TVs like the 98-inch Samsung QN90D at $13,000 or the 115-inch TCL QM8 at $20,000. The JVC NZ800 may sound pricey at $15,000 but it supports 8K, and while the 98-inch Samsung QN990C also uses an 8K panel it costs a whopping $40,000.

At this point you’re probably thinking is there any actual benefit to choosing a giant TV over an elite projector? I can answer that question with two words: brightness and contrast. Some of the projectors we’re discussing are bright, with the XW7000ES and NZ900 both capable of outputting over 3,000 lumens, but that literally pales in comparison to a TV.

Light considerations

Unlike a projection system, which relies on light reflected off a screen, a TV uses direct light, meaning it can reach brightness levels far beyond any beamer. This has the advantage of producing enough brightness to combat ambient light in the room, while also delivering deeper blacks for a better contrast ratio.

In the case of ambient light, this is only really relevant if you’re planning on a multipurpose media room rather than a dedicated home theater. In fact, anyone planning on building the latter with full light control and dark walls, ceiling and carpet, may find a TV can become uncomfortably bright.

A home cinema built around a projector needs to be as dark as possible because this not only improves the perceived brightness but also maximises the contrast performance. This is crucial for JVC projectors because the brand is famous for deep black levels and wide contrast ratios, and any ambient light will wash out those inky blacks and destroy the very thing you’re paying for.

While JVC is famous for its contrast prowess, no image based on reflected light can ever really deliver absolute black in the way that today’s OLED and mini-LED TVs can. It's one area where these display technology types have a clear advantage over a projector, so if you crave deep blacks a massive TV may be your only option.

Aspects of HDR

The difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image is called its dynamic range, which leads us nicely to HDR. All the projectors listed support HDR10, and the JVCs can also handle HDR10+, but I don’t know of any elite projector that currently supports Dolby Vision. As far as TVs are concerned, all of them can handle HDR10 and Hisense and TCL models also support HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, while Samsung skips Dolby Vision and LG and Sony don’t offer HDR10+.

You might think that a TV’s brightness gives it an inherent advantage with HDR, and to a certain extent, that’s true. It’s definitely the case that a display using direct light can deliver bright specular highlights and deep blacks in the same image for wider contrast and greater precision. A projector that uses a single beam of light reflected off a screen could never hope to achieve the same levels of intra-frame contrast.

However, this ignores one of the most important, and most misunderstood aspects of HDR – tone mapping. This is the process by which an HDR display scales or maps the tone (dynamic range and colour gamut) of original HDR content to match its inherent capabilities. No current displays can render HDR without a degree of tone mapping, and thus this process dictates the ultimate quality of the image.

No matter how bright a display or how deep its black levels are, if the tone mapping isn’t accurate you can still end up with crushed blacks that destroy shadow detail or clipped highlights where you can’t see detail in the brighter parts of the image. If tone mapping is performed correctly even a projected picture can look stunning, and both the JVC and Sony beamers do an excellent job in this regard using the static metadata encoded into HDR content.

JVC also takes things a stage further with its Frame Adapt HDR function that analyses an incoming HDR signal on a frame-by-frame basis and dynamically adjusts the tone mapping accordingly. This results in amazing HDR that’s often on par with expensive video processors like the madVR Envy. JVC also supports HDR10+, a format that includes dynamic metadata, which is very helpful for projectors because the more information the tone mapping has to work with the better the results.

There’s another aspect of HDR that’s often overlooked, and that’s its wider colour gamut. HDR uses the DCI-P3 colour space, and thanks to quantum dot filters most of today’s large-screen TVs can cover between 95 and 100% of DCI-P3. In the case of the Sony projectors and the JVC NZ7 the coverage is good but only reaches around 90%. The JVC NZ800 and NZ900 can deliver the full 100% coverage, but to achieve this they use a colour filter which reduces the light output by about 20% – so there is a trade-off.

As with the dynamic range, effective tone mapping and good accuracy can produce an impressive colour performance regardless of any inherent limitations. So whether it's a TV or projector you should always choose the most accurate picture preset, which for most manufacturers these days will be Filmmaker Mode.

Gaming, 8K, and 3D

When it comes to gaming, TVs generally have a significant advantage over projectors due to their HDMI 2.1 inputs and features like ALLM, VRR and support for high frame rates up to 144Hz. Only the JVC projectors really come close thanks to the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 inputs and support for 4K 120Hz. Sony projectors have been at a significant disadvantage in this area, which is surprising considering the company makes a next-gen gaming console of its own, the PlayStation 5.

While native 8K content is still very thin on the ground, support for the format will be useful if you fancy future-proofing yourself. There are several 8K TVs on the market, especially from Samsung, but among projectors, the three JVC models are unique in being able to accept and display an 8K signal. As already discussed, anyone thinking of buying a giant 8K TV will pay a significant price premium, making the JVC projectors the most affordable option for big-screen 8K action.

If you’re a fan of movies in the third dimension then a projector is the only way to go because no current TVs support the 3D format. Aside from the Sony XW5000ES, all the projectors I’ve discussed can display 3D, although you will need to buy an optional emitter and glasses, plus you’ll need a 3D-capable Blu-ray player and some appropriate discs. If you’re prepared to make the effort you’ll discover that projected big-screen 3D remains a wonderfully immersive experience.

One final area where TVs no longer have an advantage over projectors is longevity, with all the beamers I’ve been discussing using laser light sources with claimed lifespans of 20,000 hours. This is in stark contrast to lamp-based projectors, where you would be replacing the bulb after 2,000 to 3,000 hours of use due to significant dimming. This basically means you can watch as much sport as you want, binge your favourite shows and indulge in marathon gaming sessions without worrying about your projector’s effective lifespan.

There is much to recommend about a giant TV, especially as prices continue to drop, and if you’re planning a room with ambient light, are obsessed with HDR or are a hardcore gamer then a TV may be the only option. However, as someone lucky enough to experience both elite projectors and giant TVs, there’s a final aspect to consider. It’s a personal preference, but there’s something uniquely cinematic about a projected image that can never be replicated by a TV – no matter how big.

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