Are you considering an Ultra Short Throw (UST) projector for your home? Then you might want to check out the results of the 2022 Laser TV Showdown, held last week and hosted by Projector Central and ProjectorScreen.com. This event brought 14 high performance ultra short throw projectors together into a dark (and sometimes not so dark) room to see which ones produced the very best moving pictures. The event organizers broke the event down into two categories: "Triple Laser" for projectors with three lasers used as the light source and "Single Laser" for those that use one laser light source. This ensured a level playing field for all competitors.

So What's a UST Projector and Who Wants One Anyway?

Good question. Thanks for asking! A traditional home theater projector (long throw or medium throw) is typically mounted on the ceiling or rear wall of a room, while the screen is mounted in the front of the room. Most home theater projectors need a fair amount of distance between projector and screen in order to create a large image. While an adjustable zoom lens (and adjustable lens shift) can give you some flexibility as to where you mount your projector, you will usually need at least a few feet - possibly up to 15 feet or more - between projector and screen in order to create a large projection image. The drawbacks here are that you may need to run long power and audio/video cables along or in the ceiling or walls to the projector and you may simply not have enough runway to reach your desired screen size. Also, depending on your DIY skill level, you may want to hire a professional installer to get everything set up correctly. And this can add a bit to your overall budget.

Ultra Short Throw projectors can be placed very close to the screen and still create a huge image.

An Ultra Short Throw (UST) projector can be placed just a few inches away from the front wall and still get an enormous image: 100 inches diagonal or even larger. UST projectors use special optical assemblies and processors to create a high quality, high resolution image without geometric distortion, without the space requirements of a traditional projector. UST Projectors are for those who want a huge screen movie theater experience at home for a fraction of the cost of a full scale high-end home theater projection system or a giant flat panel TV.

UST Projectors like this one from LG provide huge screen entertainment at home without the complexity of a traditional home theater projection system.

UST projectors are sometimes referred to as "Laser TVs" because they use one or more lasers as the light source. Hisense was the first to coin that phrase, but now the term "Laser TV" is used by many to describe laser-powered UST projectors. Laser light sources are superior to traditional lamps in that they are expected to last 20,000 hours or more without any need for lamp replacement. Also, because the projector itself goes in front of the viewer, a UST projector cabinet can include its own built-in powered speakers. So you may not need to buy a separate soundbar or component system to handle the sound. Of course, we'd always recommend investing in a good home theater sound system so you can get the BIG SOUND to match that BIG PICTURE. But I digress...

Hosts Brian Gluck from ProjectorScreen.com and Rob Sabin from Projector Central get psyched for the 2022 Laser TV Showdown. Photo courtesy of ProjectorScreen.com.

Leveling the Playing, Er... Viewing Field

Before the event, all UST projectors in the shootout were calibrated for their top performance by professional calibrators, and all Triple Laser models used identical screens: a 100" Spectra Projection Vantage ambient light rejecting screen. This screen was engineered specifically for use with UST projectors. Content varied among test patterns, test videos and movie clips, each selected to highlight a particular challenge in image reproduction. The judges considered color accuracy and saturation, upscaling and deinterlacing, image uniformity, geometry, brightness, contrast, black level performance and shadow detail (among other things). I'm sure the judges and event organizers were exhausted at the end of the day. I'm getting tired just writing about it.

Rob Sabin, Editor in Chief of Projector Central emceed the event, along with a little help from Brian Gluck, President of ProjectorScreen.com. The judging panel was comprised of six individuals from diverse backgrounds, all with deep knowledge and expertise in the home theater projector space.

Judges for the 2022 UST Projector Shootout:

In order to view the projectors' performance under the most common lighting conditions, and with a variety of content, each projector was calibrated for three different modes: SDR Day (Standard Dynamic Range Bright Room), SDR Dark Room and HDR (High Dynamic Range) Dark Room. Event hosts set each projector to the appropriate calibration preset for the separate groups of test material. By the way, if you buy one of these projectors, or really any high quality projection display, we'd recommend hiring a professional calibrator so that you can also get the best performance out of your projector. One size calibration does not fit all in the projector world, and a poorly calibrated display can really kill that home theater vibe.

Judges at the 2022 Laser TV Showdown check out the images on the top UST projectors. Photo courtesy of ProjectorScreen.com.

On the morning of August 4th, the judges cast their eyes upon the eight single laser-driven competitors. They stared, they squinted, they scribbled notes and discussed deep meaningful things like Color Gamut, Soap Opera Effect and HDR Tone Mapping. After lunch, and giving their tired eyes a rest, the judges resumed their judginess with the six triple-laser competitors. Results of the competition were a bit surprising, at least for me. While the winner of the single laser event was from an established brand in the projection space, the winner of the triple laser competition was from a company I'd never even heard of before. And I like to think I pay attention to these things (well, most of the time anyway... Squirrel!).

Projectors in the Single Laser UST Projector Shootout:

Projectors in the Triple Laser UST Projector Shootout:

The top spot in the Triple Laser competition went to the Formovie Theater UST projector. Also known as the Fengmi T1, this is a 4K DLP-based projector, rated for 2800 Lumens and priced at an affordable $2999.99 (the least expensive Tri-Laser projector in the bunch). The Formovie was extremely highly rated for color accuracy, contrast and motion reproduction. It also excelled at HDR tone mapping, which is the ability to map high dynamic range content to the specific luminance capabilities of the projector.

Although Dolby Vision capability wasn't one of the test criteria, the Formovie was the only projector among the Triple Laser models to include Dolby Vision support. So Dolby Vision content on Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs and streaming services should look particularly good on this projector. However, the Trimovie isn't perfect. It featured a relatively poor lag time of 41.9 ms, meaning it may not be the best choice for serious gamers. It also lacks support for 3D, so if that's something that matters to you, you'll have to look elsewhere.

The Formovie Theater projector was just released earlier this year and took the top spot for Triple Laser projectors.

The Formovie projector beat out the LG HU915QB by the slimmest of margins with an overall score of 9.08 compared to the LG projector's 9.01. But the LG projector sells for $6,499 - more than twice the price of the Formovie - so that's another point to consider.

In the single laser projector shootout, the winner was BenQ's V7050i. It's a 4K DLP-based projector rated for 2500 Peak Lumens, priced at $3499.99. The BenQ scored highly on brightness and contrast tests. It also was highly rated for color accuracy, skin tone reproduction and motion reproduction. Like the Formovie projector, the BenQ didn't have a great motion lag score. In fact, it was near the bottom at a whopping 69.1 ms of lag time. If you're not into gaming though, this spec isn't relevant. 3D fans will be happy to hear that the BenQ projector does support 3D via optional active 3D Glasses. The BenQ V7050i actually had the highest overall score in the competition, a 9.15 out of 10 - a few hundredths of a point above the Formovie triple laser model.

BenQ's V7050i projector took home the gold for single laser projectors in 2022.

In second place in the single laser competition was the Hisense 100L5G with 8.9 out of 10. And while the Hisense projector sells for $500 more than the BenQ, the Hisense comes with a 100" screen bundled in for that price. Considering that most good UST projector screens sell for over $1,000, the Hisense projector/screen bundle offers excellent value.

Those who are seriously shopping for a UST projector will want to spend some time and check out the complete results and scorecards on ProjectorScreen.com's web site. The competition was a close one in both the Tri-Laser and Single Laser categories and there may be specific picture quality elements, features or aesthetics that matter to you more than others: