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Lumens vs ANSI Lumens|What are Lumens or ANSI Lumens?
Lumens are the common brightness parameter of the projectors. However, different lumen units are adopted by different projector manufacturers in the market, making consumers confused. This article will explain the different brightness units used in the projector area.
Lumens vs ANSI lumens
Lumen is used to describe the luminous flux, which refers to the luminance of the projector. For a projector, it reflects the total quantity of visible light emitted by the projector light source per unit of time. Lumens can be viewed as a general unit of brightness in the projector area.
ANSI lumens reflect the overall amount of light output from a projector and represent the brightness observed on the projection image. It is a formal and widely recognized brightness unit in the projector area. ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute, a non-profit organization founded in 1918.
How to Measure ANSI lumens?
ANSI lumens measure brightness with a 9-point test. Specifically, it measures the brightness of 9 specific points in an entirely white image and calculates the average brightness data.
ANSI lumens= average of the nine Lux readings X image area in square meters
In addition, it has many restrictions on the measurement process. For example, the projector should be the only light source in a room without any reflective surfaces. You can use an illuminance meter to measure the lux of a specific region.
Why Lumens are Important?
Lumens represent the brightness of a projector. For the same lumen unit, the bigger number of lumens, the brighter the projector’s image. If the projector is not bright enough, its image may be blurry and dim during the daytime or under ambient lights. The details of the image can’t be seen clearly.
Different Lumens Units In Projector Market
Though ANSI lumens are widely accepted in the world, there are still many projector manufacturers labeling their products with other units to make their products look more attractive. It is a major pitfall in the projector market, misleading many projector beginners.
For example, the real brightness of a projector is 1000 ANSI lumens, merchant A may label it as 5000 light source lumens; merchant B possibly labels it as 3000 LED lumens; merchant C truthfully labels it as 1000 ANSI lumens. In fact, they have the same brightness.
There are four 4 lumen units in the market, including ANSI lumens, ISO lumens, LED lumens, and light source lumens.
ANSI Lumens vs ISO lumens vs LED Lumens vs Light Source lumens
ANSI Lumens and ISO lumens are internationally recognized units, and both of them have strict measure guidelines. Epson and Philips have announced that they would use the ISO lumen (ISO 21118:2020) to label their projectors.
LED Lumens are only adopted by several projector manufacturers in some regions. LED lumens reflect the brightness sensed by the human eye. It is based on the principle of Helmholtz–Kohlrausch (HK) effect, which regards that the human eye views highly-saturated colors as brighter than they objectively are.
Light source lumens are not international standards for projector brightness either. It indicates the brightness observed directly from the light source of a projector instead of the projection image.
| Lumens Units | ANSI lumens | LED lumens | Light source lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Origins | American National Standards Institute (ANSI) | Several LED projector manufacturers | Internationally recognized, but not for measuring a projector’s brightness |
| Purpose | Represent the brightness observed in an image that is projected onto a screen. | Quantify the brightness sensed by the human eye. | Indicate the brightness observed directly from a light source. |
| International Standard | Yes | No | No |
| Calculation Method | Average out the measured brightness of 9 distinct regions of a projection screen | Not totally same among different manufacturers. | Measure a light source’s brightness. |
You can use Projector1’s ANSI lumens to lumens converter to convert different lumen units and keep away from the marketing traps from malicious merchants. You should pay more attention to the lumen units and check the projector parameters table when you choose a projector.
Why Contrast Ratio Matters When You Pick Projectors?
The contrast ratio is an important parameter of the projector. However, few projector beginners pay attention to the parameter.
What’s the contrast ratio?
The contrast ratio refers to the ratio of the luminance of the brightest shade (white) to that of the darkest shade (black) that the system is capable of producing.
Put it simply, the more gradation levels from black to white, the richer the color performance of the projector. A high contrast ratio is a desired aspect of any display which is similar to dynamic range.
Therefore, it is necessary to pick a higher contrast ratio when we buy a projector.
For home projectors, the contrast ratio has a great impact on the visual effect of the picture presented. Generally, the greater the contrast ratio, the more vivid the projected picture is; the smaller the contrast ratio, the greyer the picture is.
Native Contrast vs Dynamic Contrast
There are 2 kinds of contrast, native contrast, and dynamic contrast.
Native Contrast
It is also called an intra-frame contrast ratio, which measures the ratio between white and black on the same image simultaneously. The standard measurement of contrast is ANSI contrast. This measurement has strict measurement rules in terms of measurement environment, such as rooms, ceilings, walls, carpets, etc. Therefore the ANSI contrast can reflect the true contrast of the projection image.
Dynamic Contrast
Dynamic contrast is also known as FOFO (Full On/Full Off) contrast and inter-frame contrast. It refers to the ratio between the entirely white screen and the entirely black screen of a projector. The measurement can only indicate the change from the brightest image to the darkest image but can’t reflect the contrast ratio of the same image.
Native Contrast vs Dynamic Contrast
Native contrast value is generally smaller than the dynamic contrast. That’s because the adjacently displayed color blocks will react with each other and cause crosstalk during the native contrast test.
Generally, a projector with a contrast of 800:1 is good enough while projectors with a contrast of 1000:1 or above are excellent. Most projectors have a contrast of 300:1. If you see a projector labeling contrast as 100,000:1, it may be dynamic contrast.
However, many projector brands label the contrast of their projectors with dynamic contrast to make their products competitive and appealing. If you see the contrast is amazingly high, it may be dynamic contrast.
Conclusion
In addition to a colorful image, the high contrast of the projector matters in terms of image clarity, detail performance, and gray level has a great impact.
To conclude, you can choose a projector with a higher native contrast ratio.
Difference between Lamp vs LED vs Laser？
The light source is an indispensable component of a projector because it determines the brightness, color performance, and lamp hours of a projector.
In this guide, we are going to talk about the common three light sources, lamp, LED, and laser, and analyze their pros and cons.
Lamp Projectors
Introduction of Lamp Projector
The lamp is the earliest light source that was widely used in the projector industry among the three light sources, which are common in some traditional multimedia projectors or educational projectors. The lamp for the projector mainly includes high-pressure mercury lamps, Metal halogen lamps, and xenon lamps. The high-pressure mercury lamp is the commonest lamp type in home projectors in view of its lower cost and good overall performance. A lamp projector generally has a lamp life of 5,000 hours or so. Most lamp projector has 1,000-40,000 lumens.
Lamp-based projectors are widely seen in Epson’s and Optoma’s home projectors, commercial projectors, and educational projectors.
Pros of Lamp Projector
- Lamp projectors bring high brightness, enabling users to use them even during the daytime.
- Relatively lower price compared with laser projectors.
Cons of Lamp Projector
- Short lamp lifespan. The lamp lifespan of lamp projectors is short, and you may need to replace the lamp regularly.
- Declining brightness. The brightness of the lamp projector may decrease as time goes by.
- Producing more heat. The lamp of the projector will produce huge heat when in operation.
- The overall usage cost of the projector may be higher than other projectors.
LED Projectors
Introduction of LED Projectors
LED is also a common light source for projectors. It is widely used in some home projectors or mini projectors because of its low cost, small size, and wide availability.
Texas Instruments began to produce DLP chips for the LED light which combine red, blue, and green LEDs. Compared with lamps, LED has longer lamp life and smaller size but lower brightness. The major drawback of the LED projector is the lower brightness. Generally, an LED projector has a brightness range of 100-3,000 lumens. Some mini LED projectors with built-in batteries are generally rated at 200-400 ANSI lumens. LED projectors generally can last 20,000 hours or so.
Pros of LED Projectors
- Cheap price. Compared with lamp projectors, the LED projector has a lower cost.
- Longer lamp life.
- Small size.
- Good color performance and wide color gamut.
Laser Projectors
Introduction of Laser Projectors
Compared with the two light sources above, the Laser projector has better performance in terms of brightness and lamp life. A projector with a laser light source makes excited particles glow under the action of radiation because of the photoelectric effect.
Laser projectors bring long lamp life and high brightness. Generally, a common laser projector can last 20,000 to 25,000 hours. A laser projector may have a brightness of 2,500-75,000 ANSI lumens. In addition, the laser projector has good coverage of BT. 2020 color gamut and produces lower heat. Laser light source is common in some high-end smart home theater projectors and commercial projectors, for example, VAVA and Dangbei.
Pros of Laser Projectors
- High brightness.
- Long lamp life.
- Lower heat generation.
- More energy-efficient.
- Quick boot.
- Lower noise because of lower heat generation.
Cons of Laser Projectors
- Higher cost.
- Eye hazards because of high brightness.
Lamp vs LED vs Laser Projectors
Through the introduction and analysis of the lamp, LED, and laser projector, we can conclude the points below.
Light source Lamp LED Laser Brightness High Low Higher Lamp life Short Long Longer Price Cheap Cheaper Expensive Lamp, LED, and laser has both pros and cons. Among the three light sources, the laser projector is the brightest and the most expensive; the LED projector is the cheapest but has the lowest brightness; the lamp projector has the shortest lamp lifespan but the moderate price.
How to Select Projector Light Source?
Lamp, LED, and laser has their own advantages and disadvantages. You can select a proper one based on your budget and usage scenarios.
By Budget
If you have a budget of $200 or below, you can choose an LED projector.
If you have a budget of $ 1,500 or below, you can choose a lamp projector or a smart LED projector.
If you have a budget of $2,000 or above, you can choose a laser projector.
By Usage Scenarios
If you use the projector mainly at night, you can choose a lamp projector or LED projector with at least 200 ANSI lumens.
If you use the projector during the daytime or under strong ambient light, you can choose a lamp projector or laser projector with more than 2,000 ANSI lumens.
If you want the projector to work as a home theater, you can choose a laser projector because it has good overall performance.
That’s all for the introduction and comparison between lamp, LED, and laser projectors.
native resolution and supported resolution？
Resolution is a vital parameter when users pick a projector. You may see two resolution numbers in the specification table, native resolution and supported resolution.
Native Resolution
The native resolution is also called physical resolution or standard resolution, which can reflect the exact pixels of projectors.
The native resolution of the common home projector is 720P or 1080P. Some high-end projectors’ resolution may reach 4K. A resolution of 720P is widely seen in some portable mini projectors. To get a good image experience, the native resolution of the projector is at least 720P.
Supported Resolution
Supported resolution is also called compatible resolution. If a projector’s supported resolution is labeled as 4K, it means that the projector can play 4K source videos by compressing them into a lower resolution.
Therefore, the native resolution of a projector can really reflect the image quality of a projector. You should pay more attention to the native resolution of a projector instead of the supported resolution.
Common Resolutions in Projector
XGA vs WXGA vs WUXGA vs WSXGA+
| XGA | WXGA | WSXGA+ | WUXGA | |
| Resolution | 1024x768P | 1280x 800P | 1680x1050P | 1920x1200P |
| Aspect ratio | 4:3 | 16:10 | 16:10 | 16:10 |
| Full Name | Extended Graphics Array | Wide Extended Graphics Array | Wide Super Extended Graphics Array Plus | Wide Ultra XGA |
480P vs 720P vs 1080P
1080P vs 2k vs 4K vs 8K
