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Some home theater projectors have 700 ANSI lumens, some projectors have 3000 ANSI lumens … so what’s the difference and how many are you going to need for your home theater? Anyone shopping for a projector will ask the same question. More lumens is not always better and there are several reasons why. Be careful, if you spend more money than you need, you may not be happy with the image and end up spending a lot more money down the road on the same projector you weren’t happy with in the first place.

* Here is everything you need to know about ANSI Lumens:

What does ANSI Lumens mean?

ANSI is an acronym for “INmerican NOnational Standards Isubstitute. ” Lumen it is a measure of the intensity of light waves. All projectors that use ANSI as a standard have been measured with the same instruments and it is an accurate display of how many lumens are actually inside a home theater projector. For example, projector “A” was measured in ANSI lumens with ANSI instruments and projector “B” was measured with manufacturers’ instruments. Both projectors claim to have 1000 lumens, but it is a safe bet to assume that projector “A” actually has 1000 lumens, while projector “B” may only have 700 lumens because it was not measured by the national standard.

Always buy a projector that is measured in ANSI lumens. That way, you know for sure that you bought the correct projector based on how many actual lumens you have directly affecting the image quality in your home theater system.

3 reasons why too many ANSI lumens can be bad:

Reflection of light: If you ever took a laser pointer and pointed it at a white wall in the dark, you will notice the bright red dot on the wall. You will also notice that the red dot is so bright that it creates a diffuse light around the dot. The same is true when a home theater projector is too bright. The image is blurred because the bright image fades in the light.

If the image is too bright, it will in turn reflect light around the room and illuminate the theater. Now the room is not only too bright for a home theater, but the walls of the room will reflect the light back onto the projector screen and further blur the image.

Bulb life: The more lumens, the brighter the projector bulb is. The brighter the bulb, the hotter it gets. The hotter the bulb heats up, the faster it burns out. I don’t know about you, but spending $ 200 on a home theater projector bulb more times than I need won’t make me very happy.

Cost: Bottom line, if you’re going to buy an expensive projector with more lumens and then spend money every year on a bulb because the lamp gets too hot, you’re going to throw hundreds of dollars out of the window for no reason.

How many ANSI lumens do you need?

• Low or no ambient lighting – 800 to 1200 ANSI lumens: If you have a completely dark home theater or if you have enough ambient light to watch but not enough to read a newspaper in your home theater room, all you need is a projector with 800+ lumens, but no more than 1200 lumens .
• Low to Moderate Ambient Lighting – 1200 – 1800 ANSI Lumens: If you want to view your home theater projector with ambient lighting from where you can barely read a newspaper to enough to read a book, you will need at least 1200 but no more than 1800 ANSI lumens.
• Moderate to High Ambient Lighting – 2000 to 2800 ANSI Lumens: If your home theater system is illuminated with enough ambient light to see clearly, you will need at least 2000 lumens to view the image. The image will appear washed out if the projector screen is white, so it is recommended to purchase a darker screen, such as a silver screen or a black diamond screen.
• High Ambient Lighting for an Outdoor Theater: 2800-4000 ANSI Lumens: If you plan to use your projector outdoors or in a theater with windows, outside light, or bright lighting, you will need a projector with at least 2800 ANSI lumens, and to be safe some places should work around 3200 lumens. You will notice that the colors will fade unless you use a screen color other than white.