In the market for a home theatre projector that doesn’t break the bank? Although a few years old at this point, the Epson HC2040 (aka HC2045) is a few years old at this point but has solid reviews, is quiet in eco, bright and should last a long time to come. Projector technology does not change very quick and if you want a bright image, at the expense of deep blacks, this projector is the way to go. Especially if you can find it second hand (check the hours used) or at half off retail!

The Aun C80 is a basic 720p projector offering approximately 240 ANSI lumens of brightness and a native resolution of 1280 x 720. Compared to most budget projectors in its price range the image quality of this projector is quite high due to the higher resolution. Most budget projectors under $100 are only 480p. Unfortunately, like most budget projectors it has several trade offs over mainstream brands: it is not usable in the daylight and the fan is quite loud. If you’re going to be using a projector as a daily driver I recommend spending more money on something from Epson and Optima, however for the occasional movie night in a totally dark room this projector does the trick.

This projector represents a lot of value for under a hundred dollars. Of course it won’t be as good as a true HD projector or something like the Epson HC2040, but for those who want a cheap projector for occasional use that has decent performance, this will be one of the better choices. The brightness is decent, the color balance is good and the fan is quiet enough.

This Amaz-Play HDP-100 projector is a compact projector with acceptable brightness and a sharp picture, but the picture is too blue and the fan is quite loud. It works fine for movies and multimedia but for applications that require accurate colour I would recommend looking at the WH-80B or something with 100+ lumens instead.

Although it is called “EZ-cap” this device is less than easy to use and getting good results is not for the faint at heart (or technologically incapable). It’s very straightforward and simple to use the included software and record from an input device, but the results when using that software have been less than stellar from my testing.

My DLP Projector did not have enough HDMI ports to support my devices and a switcher was the solution. Now I do not have to constantly unplug and fiddle with wires to get my PC, game system or computer connected to my projector. Switching sources is as easy as pushing a button on the device itself or using the remote.