Best Ultra Short Throw Projector Shootout - 2022

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The ProjectorScreen.com & Projector Central 2022 Laser TV Showdown

ProjectorScreen.com, the web's leading projection specialty retailer has teamed up with Projector Central, The World's Largest Projector Resource to bring you this LaserTV Showdown - the Ultimate Ultra Short Throw Projector Shootout.

We are no strangers to doing projector shootouts or ultra short throw projectors, and our UST Shootout series on Youtube and on our website have been some of our most popular and requested content.

For those of you not familiar with Rob Sabin or Projector Central, let me tell you that these guys are the real-deal. Projector Central is the world's largest database of projector information and one of the most authoritative resources and review websites in the industry.

Rob did an utterly amazing job being the Skipper of this ship, with me helping out as his lowly Gilligan. This however was no ordinary 3 hour tour; this extremely ambitious event was possibly the greatest voyage the projection industry has ever embarked on with the most extensive amount of projectors in one place and a group of judges so knowledgeable that I at some points doubted my qualifications to be a part of this.

I also want to emphasize the fact that although we had help from several sponsors in putting on this event by providing us with some gear, none of the brands competing were sponsors nor provided us with anything other than a projector to include, if we or Projector Central did not already have in our collection.

Despite receiving several requests for sponsorship opportunities from the various brands competing, Projector Central and I decided it was best to self-finance the entire competition so that there would be no perception of influence and impropriety in regards to a sponsor's ratings or winning.

Furthermore, since I have "skin in the game" as a reseller of the products competing, I was far removed from the content selection, recruiting of the judges, determining the judging criteria and ballot tabulation. We did however help wrangle up the sponsors and gear, provide the facility and most of the projectors, performed all of the dark room instrument calibrations via our ISF certified calibrator Dave Harper (Rob did the bright room calibrations to the viewing space by eye) and provided technical, operational and at times, emotional support.

Judges

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How We Picked The Best

The projectors were evaluated using a series of test patterns from our Murideo generators and movie/TV program clips from our Kaleidescape player, Oppo UHD disc player and DirectTV box that put each projector to the test. We challenged their color accuracy, dynamic range with both SDR and HDR content, resolution/detail with still and motion video, image scaling/processing, contrast and brightness.

All content was distributed to all projectors at the same time via hardware and connectivity provided by our sponsors at AV Pro Edge - and let me tell you that this was no small feat considering all of the different EDID's, HDMI conflicts, video sources and displays.

Each laser TV was paired with an identical 100" Spectra Projection Vantage ambient light rejecting screen engineered to work with UST projectors.

All of the projectors in the Laser TV Showdown were calibrated in 3 modes; SDR Day (Bright Room), SDR Dark Room and HDR Dark Room.

Calibration was done by our very own ISF certified calibrator, Dave Harper.

We also had a JVC NZ8 projector paired with a Stewart Studiotek130 screen setup in the darkened, adjoining suite that our judges were able to view as a reference for what the source material "should" look like. The USTs were not being judged against this pairing, it was only for reference purposes.

Judges were given ballot sheets to rate each projector for specific attributes of picture quality, such as Color Accuracy, Contrast, Black Level/Shadow Detail, and Detail/Sharpness. For tabulation, the highest grade within each attribute was assigned a score of 10 and all other scores are relative, making the final result a pure ranking with the spread between each projector retained.

Additionally, some picture quality attributes were given different weights to reflect their importance to overall image quality with motion handling, 4,000-Nit Tone-Mapping, and Color Gamut given less weight than those related to color accuracy, contrast and black level.

While the cost of a laser TV is an incredibly important factor for most shoppers, price was not factored into the rankings; the judging was done purely on the basis of image quality.

We also did not factor in the built in soundbar on these UST projectors. We’ll have a supplemental showdown coming soon comparing the sound systems on each projector that will be added as an addendum to this post, so keep an eye out for that in the near future.

The judging consisted of 2 independent rounds. The morning started off with our panel scrutinizing 8 single laser projectors followed by a round of 6 triple laser projectors after a brief break for lunch where I let everyone order no more than 2 things off of the dollar menu.... just kidding - they were allowed 3.

We pitted these 14 different laser tv projectors split across 2 different rounds, head to in the largest battle royale the projection world has ever seen!

Who will win the title of the best ultra short throw projector in the 2022 LaserTV Showdown? Let’s cut right to the chase and find out!

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Here is how the judges scored each triple laser ultra short throw projector:

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Here is how the judges scored each single laser ultra short throw projector:

Update

The Epson LS800 was just released. Unfortunately we couldn't get our hands on this new projector before the ultra short throw projector shootout. Make sure to keep your eyes out for the next showdown where we'll be including the Epson LS800 UST.

Sponsors

I really have to give an extra special thank you to our sponsor AVPro Edge / Murideo and particularly Jason Dustal who provided us with such an array of generators, analyzers, distribution and connectivity equipment along with their expertise to help ensure that all went well with our signals, EDID and HDMI connections.

Jeti really came through for us by providing us with a spectradiometer which had the required bandwidth to efficiently profile our colorimeters and ensure a accurate calibration on such a large number of projectors.

Spectra Projection provided us with a whopping 8 screens to use for this competition which ensured all projectors were using an identical & uniform surface that was ideal for the type of competition we held.

Kaleidescape came through for me once again by providing us a loaded movie server with all of the additional content that Rob asked for to really put these USTs through a stress test.

JVC hooked us up big time by sending over a calibrated NZ8 projector unit for us to use as a reference, while I am still waiting for the unit for our home theater showroom (different than this UST room).

Conclusion

This was a pretty exhaustive effort and all parties involved from the judges, to my team and that of Projector Central, did a tremendous job and a service to projector enthusiasts everywhere.

I can't stress enough what an amazing job Rob Sabin did and the amount of effort he put forth to really make this the definitive event of it's type. The scale of our ambitions with this showdown was great and I doubt there is anyone, anywhere that could have pulled this off better than him.

I've had the pleasure of meeting our judge Mark Henninger previously as he attended the UST Showcase event that we hosted at ProjectorScreen.com earlier this year. It was my first time meeting all of the other judges, despite being familiar with them all from their review work elsewhere. What an absolutely interesting, affable and knowledgeable crew, all of which I would gladly work and socialize with again.

It was also really amazing to see how when reviewing a projector juxtaposed next to several others, it really can change your perception of a projector's performance and attributes when reviewed and analyzed in a bubble. It really helps put things in perspective when being able to directly compare against so many other units as well as such a stellar reference projector & screen combination.

You may be used to this in a television showroom, but when it comes to ultra short throw projectors, there is no larger collection to be able to view at the same time than what we have here at ProjectorScreen.com

We look forward to adding the results of our analysis of the built in audio for these ultra short throw projectors. We would have loved to have our panel been able to have judged the audio, but with the mammoth task of a 14 projector comparative review, the time was just not there. Rob & I will be updating our coverage of the event to reflect the audio sometime in the very near future.

Keep this page bookmarked and check back soon as we will be adding some additional content that I just didn't have time to squeeze in before we published this as we wanted to share the results with you all as soon as possible.

Projector Central's official write-up and coverage of our 2022 Laser TV Showdown Results can be found here