In a business/sales/scholastic environment, lumens is the premium requirement. You may even use an 800 X 600 SVGA resolution projector in such environment - but if it is equipped with at least 4,000 to 6,000 true lumens the picture still comes out very impressive. In a home cinema setting, it is Contrast which should be sought very closely, the higher the ANSI/native Contrast, the more ideal. Lumens matters but only if the enthusiast shoots for a more ambitious screen size - something like 150" and larger. If screen dimension is on the neighborhood of 70", 84", 90" to 100", even a 900-lumened projector is enough, but shooting for say 2,000 native lumens or more will, as a rule, gives more eye fatigue. The best reference-grade home cinema (and the last one made, most likely) CRT projector made - the Sony G90 - can at best only put out a true lumens of around 450 yet it is seen as the "holy grail" in cinematic projectors.
Of course, the brighter it is the better, especially that the state of the art in projector is irreversibly digital, no more analog. If you can take a projector choice and it has 2,500 lumens thats a very attractive unit to take home. But such lumens power is not really needed in a home setting, and particularly if the home can scarcely accomodate a 120" and up widescreen. For me Contrast is king as it "dictates" the black level and Gamma prowess of the unit. The darker the gamma (if its adjustable and without impacting inordinately shadow details) and the lower the black level floor, the more satisfying is the picture.
DLP's with Contrast of around 4- to 5,000:1 can be very good, SXRD/LCOS with native Contrast higher than 50,000:1 can be very satisfying....
Topic: lumens or contrast ratio (Read 787 times)