Add-on Features for your Home Theater Projectors  

So you know what your want to need for your home theater projector. Or do you? Your top priority may be your image quality, but have you ever wondered about power saving issues? What about features that makes your projector a whole lot more convenient?  

It is likely that you will come across more than a few models that fulfill your needs, and when it comes to the final decision, how do you choose? These fancy features can also help you decide between one projector and another. 

Power Management 

You look for energy efficiency symbols when buying refrigerators and lamps. So why not home theater projectors? Sure, it may not be the appliance that is sucking up most of the power at home, but every watt saved is more money to spend else where. If two projectors are comparable in quality, there is no reason not to buy the one that is more efficient. If you're not sure which is, always check with the seller on its power rating.  

Other than energy savings, power management is also about protecting your equipment. You invest thousands in your home theater projector, so you definitely want to protect it against power surges. Some projectors have protective features installed within them, but this in normally found in the power connection between your projector and the power plug. Your projector is also connected to many other devices, all of which could be the source of power surge. If your projector is especially expensive, you may want to get additional protection connectors that act as in-betweens. 

Remote Control Features 

Any controller that allows me to click without getting out of my sofa is good enough for me right? Wrong! Controller design differs from one manufacturer to the next and different designs have their own pros and cons! Think about this, have you ever switched from one handphone brand to another? Remember how frustrated or even helpless you felt when you couldn??¡ê¡èt find that simple function? 

It's the same for controllers. Some menus are easier to navigate, some are messier. You may think it's all about getting use to, but then you're unlikely to fiddle with the functions often enough to get use to. Imagine if you were all smiles to get your party started, but you found some colour correction issue and spent the next half hour searching for how to adjust it.  

Before you buy your home theater projector, be sure to try out the remote control and navigate through its menu. 

Keystone Correction and Len Shift 

Have you ever tried to set up your home theater projector and found that your screen was too high or at an angle to your projector? Your image becomes skewed on one side because your projector is not exactly throwing the image flatly onto the screen. To adjust your image to appear correctly, you can either perform a keystone correction or adjust your projector.  

Keystone correction is a correction of the projection by adjusting the skewed edges to be projected either longer or shorter, thus achieving a proper rectangular screen image. Keystone correction can be performed manually; many modern projectors are also able to correct the image automatically and very quickly. However, this adjustment is not perfect; some of the image still appears slightly distorted after adjustment.  

Adjusting your projector as a whole to correct the image may not also be possible. Your projector could be installed on a fixed mount or you may be limited by space constraint. However, the lens shift features allows for flexible movement of the projection mouth. This flexibility may be horizontal-wise, vertical-wise or circular all round. By adjusting only the mouth of the projector, you will be able to fix the skewed image. 

Keystone correction is useful as a quick fix for temporary installation. This is especially useful if you bring your home theater projector around. For permanent installations, a lens shift is recommended. Lens shift feature also increase the ease of installation of your projector.  

Wireless Projectors 

For users who bring their home theater projector from place to place, a small projector is definitely very helpful. However, connection requirement from place to place differs and extra length cables are normally carried in-case connection points are found far away. In fact, the cables are usually bulkier than the projectors being carried around. Luckily, projectors come with wireless capabilities today! Unfortunately, wireless projectors require your data source to be able to transmit wirelessly as well. In the future, wireless source may become common enough to make your wireless projector truly versatile. 

Noise 

It is a rarely used specification for comparing projectors, but home theater projectors do have a operating noise rating in decibels. However, the most particular users find it an important feature to look out for when choosing their projectors. You don't want to hear a constant churning sound in the background while you watch your movie don't you? As a guide, operating noise should be lower than 29 decibels for it to be inaudible. 

24/7 Operation 

Using your home theater projector for watching tv? Lamp life is one of your top considerations. But did you know some projectors were designed specially for 24/7 operations? These projectors have extra cooling capacity to allow for prolonged used. A 24/7 projector with 3000 hour lamp life will last very much longer than a normal projector with 3000 hour lamp life rating! Overheating in the normal projector means that the lamp life will be very much shortened compared to its rating. 

Carry Case 

Carrying your home theater projector around often? There is no safer and better way to transport your projector than by using the original packaging it came in. However, it can be quite a chore to pack your projector back into all that Styrofoam packings each time you move it around. How about a carry case? Your projector comes with a carry case specially design for its safe carry. Its easy, its convenience and most of all, it looks so much cooler than having to handle awkward Styrofoam packings at your friend's house. 
 

Home theater projectors manufacturers are also coming out with new features all the time! Take the time to ask around and check out new features which you didn't know about. It could be the one feature that makes you choose one over the other.