Five ways to get the most from your HD projector

01 Manage brightness

The Epson EH-LS100 has an additional Light Source Mode with settings for Normal, Quiet, Extended and Custom brightness. In Quiet, brightness drops to 2,800 lumens, which is still comparable to the highest brightness of some rival home cinema models.

02 Embrace eco

If you’re watching in a fully dark room, it makes sense to ease back on lamp brightness. The Lamp output in the Optoma HD39Darbee is adjustable between Normal, Economic and Smart Eco, the latter automatically adjusting output based on content.

03 Live long and prosper

The Epson EH-LS100 has been designed for long periods of use, because the brand has effectively taken a 24/ 7 Pro AV commercial chassis and re-purposed it for consumer use. This is good news, because it means what we’re getting here is significantly over-engineered for the living room.

04 Keystone adjustment

If you can’t quite line up the projector for a perfectly straight widescreen image, use the horizontal and vertical keystone adjustment options to square up the geometry and get things looking spot on. Not ceiling mounting? The feet on your projector will be adjustable too, for some extra help.

05 Lamp replacement

If you don’t buy a projector with a laser light source, you will need to replace the projector lamp after a certain amount of time, because they dim after prolonged use. Lamp life varies between models, but the Optoma HD39Darbee (for example) will run for around 4,000 hours in Bright mode. Select the Eco setting and this can be extended to 10,000 hours – so how much brightness you need makes a big difference.