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Every projector page has a throw distance calculator: enter the distance from the wall and you will see the screen size in your own room.
The catalogue is split by brightness, not by labels like “home” or “office”. The same projector sits in a living room and in a meeting room — and puts out exactly the same amount of light. That is the one number that tells you where it will work. Under 2,500 ANSI lumens is the night range: close the curtains and this gear shows everything it can do.
What an ANSI lumen is
A meter measures brightness at nine points across the screen and averages them — that is an ANSI lumen, an international standard. The number on a cheap projector’s box is calculated differently, so it cannot be compared.
Why under 2,500 is a lot, not a little
ProjectorCentral’s calculation: in the dark a 100″ screen needs 1,200 lumens, and 1,500–1,800 leaves headroom. Your eyes adapt to darkness within minutes and need no more light than that. The top of this range covers home cinema twice over.
Brightness is screen size
A projector has a fixed supply of light and spreads it across the whole screen area. Double the diagonal and the area is four times bigger, so brightness per centimetre is four times lower. A figure from ProjectorCentral’s test: the BenQ HT1070A at 2,200 lumens drives a screen up to 170″ in a dark room. Switch the lights on and the same model gives you around 100″.
In the dark you turn brightness down
An overlit picture turns black into grey and tires your eyes. So at night a projector usually runs below full power. On the BenQ HT1070A economic mode cuts brightness by 28% and extends the lamp from 4,500 to 6,000 hours, while SmartEco goes up to 10,000. The fan gets quieter too.
When you have enough light, contrast decides
In the dark you are looking at shadows: night scenes, silhouettes, depth of frame. That is contrast, not lumens. The Sony VPL-VW50 puts out 900 ANSI lumens — less than any office machine — but has an SXRD panel and 15,000:1 contrast, which is exactly why it shows film better. The BenQ HT1070A matches that 15,000:1 with 96% Rec.709 coverage — the cinema colour standard.
Half the range has no lamp at all
Modest brightness makes it possible to drop the lamp entirely, and that is the range’s main advantage. The Casio XJ-A and XJ-M series deliver 2,500 lumens from a laser + LED hybrid rated at 20,000 hours, with no mercury and no filters. The Optoma LH150 gives 1,300 lumens from an RGB LED rated at 30,000 hours, with a battery good for 2.5 hours off the mains.
The cheapest way into real cinema
Brightness drives price: optics, light source, chassis, cooling. Under 2,500 is the most affordable range and at the same time the only one where you come across an SXRD panel. A Chinese LED unit claims “5,000 lumens” but does not measure them to ANSI. 90-day warranty, pickup in Lviv, shipping with no prepayment.
Information collected by students
of the Higher Vocational School of Cinema
VPU-K © 2026