FIVE POINTS TO PONDER IN SELECTING A HOME THEATER PROJECTOR:

1. PRICE: Most people are surprised at just how reasonable projector prices have become. In most cases, projectors are more cost-effective than a big screen TV or plasma. (Projector systems take up less space, as well.) The key, of course, is to get all the features and quality at a price that fits your budget, and the folks at National Projector can do just that.
   
   
2. BRIGHTNESS: Many people believe that brighter is better, but for home theater it's not the case. A typical home theater setting with low ambient light will require a projector from 800 lumens to 1300 lumens depending on the screen size. A four to six foot wide screen would need a projector with at least 800 lumens and a seven to ten food wide screen would need about 1300 lumens. A screen about 12 feet wide would need about 2,000 lumens.
   
   
3. RESOLUTION: Resolution is the number of pixels a projector displays. SVGA (800x600) has a resolution of 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels vertical and XGA is 1024x768. Most standard televisions have about 480 lines. DVD disks have an image quality of only 480 lines so an SVGA projector would do quite well for standard TV and DVD viewing. HDTV on the other hand, has 720 or 1080 lines of resoulution, so in most cases an XGA projector would projected a better image than SVGA.
   
   
4. ASPECT RATIO: Television, old 3-gun projectors and most standard LCD and DLP video projectors have an aspect ratio of 4:3 which means the projected image will be 4 units wide by 3 units high. Widescreen projectors have an aspect ratio of 16:9. HDTV is displayed in the 16:9 format. If most of your viewing will be HDTV and widescreen formats then a widescreen projector is a good choice but if you will be using your projector to view movies in 4:3 format or will also be using your projector for powerpoint presentations then a standard 4:3 format projector might be the best choice.
   
   
5. LAMP LIFE: Most projectors have a lamp life of 2,000 hours but some units are rated at 4,000 or even 8,000 hours. Some projectors for home theater have a dual mode setting which will reduce the light output but increase the lamp life.