2019 Holiday Guide To Five Great Home Theater Projectors Over $2000

Posted on November 22, 2019 by Nikki Zelinger

Welcome to our Holiday Guide To Five Great Home Theater Projectors Over $2000. Here’s your chance to learn about some awesome projectors and screens that will change the way you enjoy movies, HDTV, streaming and more!

You’ll find the scoop on a number of great home projectors at different price points, and even, where appropriate, links to some great deals for some of them. We’ve got affordable 4K UHD DLP projectors, a genuine native 4K Sony, a high-end BenQ, and two of that hot new class of “bright room” projectors known as ultra short throw projectors, which are more generally referred to as Laser TVs!

The holidays are upon us. That means it is projector-buying time!

Estimates have it that roughly 200,000 home theater/home entertainment projectors are purchased each year in the US market alone, with more than half of them being purchased between early September and the Super Bowl.

You are reading this, so we figure you want to be one of the next 200K folks that really know how to enjoy their viewing!

Make the move – bring a serious theater experience into your home this holiday season, enjoying all those holiday films (and the loud, fun, movies with explosions, etc.) with your family as you hunker down for a long cold winter (not us, we’re now in Florida)!

In this guide, we’ve assembled five of what we think are great home theater projectors for over $2000. At this price range, you get real, serious performance worthy of your home theater, or even your living room with a couple of these new ultra short throw projectors!

Spoiler alert! One of these projectors won’t be shipping until Q1, but we wanted to include it here, because, well, some of you are probably going to want to wait for it.

It’s a Sony! And yet, this projector is the lowest cost native 4K projector available today, you would figure Sony’s would cost more than the competition. No matter, meet the excellent $4999.99 VPL-VW295ES! This is one nice projector. Works fine in a dedicated theater, but also has the muscle to be used (with the proper screen – see our screen section in this guide), in media rooms and living rooms with good lighting control. If you want more info than in these paragraphs, check out our full review, thanks! -art (your friendly reviewer and editor).

Scene from The Hunger Games, projected by the Sony VPL-VW295ES - Impressive! and this is only 1080p content (Blu-ray)!

The VPL-VW295ES, is as mentioned, the least expensive projector using native 4K panels, by a full $1000, to the next least expensive and half the price of the 3^rd least expensive! Having native 4K resolution translates into drastically smaller pixels (50% – 75% smaller) than any of those 4K “capable” projectors including those known as 4K UHD pixel shifting projectors.

All else being equal, you get a sharper, more detailed image than anything you can buy for less. But, that’s not the real reason to buy this Sony. Truth is, this Sony is only incrementally sharper than some of the better lower cost pixel shifters using lower resolution panels, to handle 4K.

pacific rim image of Sidney — Stunning image of Sidney harbor, shot in Art's home theater, untouched, from the 2nd Pacific Rim movie.

I have to emphasize that the key difference is the picture itself. Yes, sharpness is important, but even more so, it is the color – rich beautiful, and accurate color. The black levels are not as good as even more expensive Sony projectors (no dynamic iris) but definitely respectable, which is perfect for putting your new Sony projector in your family room, living room, or whatever other less-than-perfect room you have. That makes this a family projector – one everyone can enjoy. Just pair with a good ALR type screen and enjoy movies, sports and general HDTV in those brighter rooms.

This Sony’s HDR handling – High Dynamic Range – and P3 color – is the same as the movie theaters and a real improvement over good old 1080p.

The VPL-VW295ES gets extremely close to P3, with only one or two other lamp based projectors getting close at all to P3 color. Almost all of the 4K UHD DLP projectors work hard just to meet the much older REC 709 standard we’ve had for two decades.

Cityscape 4K from Pacific Rim — Cityscape, from Pacific Rim: Uprising - rich colors, good black levels, although Sony's higher end models have deeper blacks.

Along with the great picture, comes one of the most capable, feature laden projectors around. The zoom lens has motorized zoom, focus, and lens shift (lots of lens shift), making for a projector that’s easy to place in almost any room. And, for you movie fanatics, it works well with wide “cinemascope” screens! No lens memory, but adjusting with the remote to switch between screen aspect ratios takes well less than a minute.

The Sony VPL-VW295ES is simply a great native 4K projector. You can spend more – thousands more, typically – to get another such projector with better black levels. That’s a benefit in a dedicated fully darken-able home theater. Still, when you don’t want your room to be pitch black, it’s far less important. I had the VW295ES Sony at my place for an extended period, while reviewing it, so got to compare it to several other projectors. Hey, I’m still a fan! I watched in my theater, fully darkened, and also pretty bright with most window shutters open. The movies were great, the football was awesome, and so were my fave 1080 and 4K shows off of Netflix and satellite, including The Blacklist (4K Netflix) as well as concerts, music festivals, sitcoms, etc.

Upgrade your quality of life with a Sony VPL-VW295ES home theater projector! Enough said!

More Thoughts on Home Theater Projectors

Here are some more thoughts on home theater and home entertainment. Or, jump to the next page to learn about two great projectors – one from BenQ, and one from LG. Our third page features another BenQ, and also an Epson (announced, but not shipping yet).

Films, your favorite TV shows, sports, and video games all just look plain better when viewing on a 90” to 130” diagonal screen. What you get is total immersion that, in many ways, far surpasses the experience you get at your local Cineplex. Sure, you may still want to catch the occasional movie out, but with a home theater projector, you can control the amount of ambient light (movie theaters always have quite a bit, which degrades the quality of the image, and therefore, your entire experience), the rowdiness of the crowd (unless you have kids), and the price of food and drink!

Enjoy the theater experience in the comfort of your own home, whether you’re gearing up for sports watching or cozying up for a long winter of superior movie watching experiences.

In this Holiday Guide, all of our hand-picked home theater projectors are capable of handling 4K content. The projectors range from a very affordable $2,499, to just under $10K! (plus, a bonus blurb on a higher end projector). Most all of these projectors should be capable of handling a modest amount of ambient light, with some being better than others in rooms with less lighting control. Now, on to our additional projector recommendations!