When looking for a home theater lcd projector there are many things to look for.  The most important thing is that the lcd projector is a native 16:9 projector.  Many projectors say they do both 16:9 and 4:3, but so can the old TV you have at home.  Native 16:9 is something to watch out for.  The projectors in our home cinema category are all native 16:9 projectors.

When looking for a projector for a business, church, or educational purposes usually a native 4:3 projector will work for you.  Many choices are out there for you when looking for a 4:3 projector.  Something to think about is brightness for the room and the size of the screen.  A good idea is to buy a brighter projector than you need and use the projector on a less bright mode.  This will make your bulb last longer and save you money in the long run.

Notice the image on the top left, it is a 16:9 image.  The image on the bottom right is also.  16:9 images are usually higher quality than a 4:3 image.  HD is broadcast in a 16:9 image.  If you are buying your home theater projector for DVD and HD viewing, obviously you are going to want a 16:9 projector.  A 16:9 home theater projector is going to project the DVD and HD images to fill the screen.  A 4:3 video projector will project those on part of the screen.  When projecting a 16:9 image on a 4:3 video projector all of the pixels are not being used as shown by the gray area in the bottom right picture.  If you have a native 4:3 800x600 resolution video projector, when projecting 16:9 you may only be using 800 x 400 pixels. 

We also suggest you look for a lcd projector over a dlp projector.  Most every lcd projector we have seen next to a single chip dlp projector with a higher cost still does not look as good as an lcd projector.