Best home projector

No matter how large a TV you have, it's difficult to rival the experience of watching a projected movie and sharing the experience with your friends and family. As with all other audiovisual gadgets, these days you're getting more and more for your money and home projectors are getting cheaper and better than ever.

So what is the best home projector you can buy today? It really depends on what you ultimately expect to gain from owning such a machine. Do you want the top of the range model to grace your new home cinema room or do you merely want a budget model for the spare room to watch a few films and play a few games? We're going to give you the run down on some of the better models available today and hopefully you'll find something there to suit your needs.

When you're trying to choose the best home projector you have to decide which type you want - there are three main technologies in use.

• DLP - digital light processing projectors use mirrors and spinning colour filters to control the pixels. The three colours may go out of synch with fast moving objects causing a burst of red, blue and green colour known as the 'rainbow effect'. Their advantage is a high contrast ratio - dark blacks and bright whites.
• LCD - liquid crystal display projectors work by splitting the light source into red, blue and green components. These produce sharp images and better colours than DLP but the contrast is generally not so good. They usually produce a smoother video effect.
• LCOS - liquid crystal on silicon projectors rely on polarisation and reflection of light off silicon chips to provide the picture. These tend to produce better quality video than both DLP and LCD but tend to cost more.

This a 720p resolution model so you won't get full 1080p HD but it does give a very pleasing image quality. There is a slight 'rainbow effect' as it's a DLP projector on fast moving black and white, but to be honest it is much less than on some more expensive models. A new bulb is around £120 or $190 and lasts for 2500 hours at full brightness and 4000 hours in economy mode. Excellent contrast with well balanced warm colours, it is a perfect first step into HD home cinema and at a bargain price.

1280 x 720, 3000:1 contrast ratio, 2600 ANSI lumens

This is a 1080p DLP projector which has good colour and contrast but its image quality is not the best on offer here. The picture quality lacks some precision and when sharpened, edge artefacts become visible in areas of fine detail. One nice touch is that the standard mode is in fact the 'eco' mode so that should add some time to the bulb life. The 'rainbow effect', although noticeable in black and white movies, is not much of a problem and does not impact too much on the viewing experience. However it does offer very good value at this price.

1920 x 1080, 5000:1 contrast ratio, 2000 ANSI lumens

A compact and quiet 1080p DLP projector at the budget end of that market. It performs well with rich vibrant colours and deep blacks but does suffer a little from the dreaded 'rainbow effect'. But there is a lot to like about it - its design is discrete so will suit most rooms, and it's bright enough to work in a fully lit room. It is one of the cheaper models to run considering bulb life and offers excellent value. A shame about that 'rainbow effect', otherwise it would be in our top two or three.

1920 x 1080, 2700:1 contrast ratio, 2000 ANSI lumens

The Mitsubishi HC3800 is a compact 1080p DLP projector which produces some of the most natural colours you'll see, and thankfully there's barely any indication of that 'rainbow effect'. It works best in a darker environment as the bulb is not as bright as some but to be honest its image quality is top notch and more than makes up for those shortcomings. As long as you don't mind watching it in dimmer light, this will give you stunning picture quality for a DLP projector. This is a great buy.

1920 x 1080, 3300:1 contrast ratio, 1300 ANSI lumens

It's not the best looking projector on review but it's pretty sturdy. It's a reasonably priced LCD projector with very good contrast ratio for its type. Colours are natural and warm but sometimes lack a little vibrancy - this does look quite good against some projectors where default settings tend towards over saturation but skin tones are often a little flat. It gives dark blacks and smoothly graduated shadows so the image quality is very good.

1920 x 1080, 65000:1 contrast ratio, 1200 ANSI lumens

The HW15 uses Sony's proprietary Silicon X-tal Reflective Display, a type of LCOS. In this case it gives outstanding image quality which rivals the best on the market. Colours are naturally vibrant with good skin tones and this straight from the box with little adjustment. It runs very quietly It lacks a few features at this price compared to more expensive models but in this range it's great image quality make this a very good buy.

1920 x 1080, 60000:1 contrast ratio, 1000 ANSI lumens

This has a few more features than the Sony HW15 and is really quite as good as you'd expect a projector of this price to be. The image quality is the best of the models reviewed here - colours are natural and well balanced and contrast is particularly impressive. There's the potential to do a lot of image tweaking and the intelligent frame creation helps provide the ultimate in smooth video experience. It's suitable for serious home cinema enthusiasts and we rate this as the best buy so far.

1920 x 1080, 100000:1 contrast ratio, 1600 ANSI lumens

If you're after a budget model then we'd recommend the first model reviewed - the Benq W600. For it's price it offers good contrast, superb value with a minimal 'rainbow effect'.

If you're after the best then it has to be the Panasonic PT AE4000E. Rather pricier, but you get what you pay for - realistic colours, smooth video and excellent contrast.