Projectors will be a distinct segment choice in your front room, if solely as a result of they usually require a whole lot of particular care that typical TVs don’t—like a separate reflective display screen, darkish curtains or rooms with no home windows, and sophisticated ceiling mount techniques. The AWOL LTV-3500 Professional doesn’t get rid of these issues fully, but it surely considerably shifts the stability of these trade-offs. That comes at a value, although.
The AWOL LTV 3500 Professional is a small improve over the LTV-3500 (7/10, WIRED Review), which I appreciated after I reviewed it in 2022. The newer model provides help for Dolby Imaginative and prescient and Control4 good house integration, however is in any other case largely the identical because the older mannequin. (If you happen to store used, you would possibly have the ability to discover the unique LTV-3500, however the Professional is what most retailers are promoting now.)
Like its predecessor, the LTV-3500 Professional makes an attempt to justify its value level by being the very best it may be at completely every thing. Since it is a short-throw projector, it is simple to arrange by simply placing it on an leisure unit (though it may be mounted to a ceiling). It offers glorious, excessive distinction HDR image high quality, and it could actually challenge as much as a 150-inch display screen in full 4K readability. If you are going to spend this a lot on a projector, you might as properly get your cash’s value.
Readability in Broad Daylight
Essentially the most notable facet of the LTV-3500 Professional is how impressively vivid it’s. The projector is rated at 3,500 ANSI lumens—for comparability, our high-end pick in our projector guide clocks in at solely 2,700 lumens. In sensible phrases, which means I used to be in a position to see the picture clearly even on the bottom brightness setting, and with ambient lights turned on.
In my testing, I might watch motion pictures and play video games in my front room, which has a big, sliding glass door that faces the dawn. With the blinds totally open, the image could be somewhat washed out, which is to be anticipated. Nevertheless, with the blinds closed, even with important mild bleed from the home windows spilling in across the sides of the blinds, I might comfortably watch reveals or play video games and nearly overlook that I wasn’t watching on a typical panel TV.
If something, the brightness was nearly too overwhelming. As soon as, whereas having a visitor over, we sat speaking on the sofa within the night. We paused the present we would began watching on Netflix to speak and let it sit for some time. Then Netflix began to cycle by a slideshow of promos for its different reveals, and when one with a predominantly white background appeared, it felt like an angel from heaven confirmed up, blasting our eyes with blinding mild and telling us to be not afraid. Finally, my visitor requested me to easily flip the projector off.
I ought to be aware that I doubt this will likely be a lot of an issue for most individuals. I used to be utilizing the projector in a reasonably small front room, and as such was probably sitting means too near the display screen for its measurement. Think about sitting within the entrance row of a movie show, for instance. If you happen to plan to place this in a small area, you would possibly wish to use the bottom brightness setting or place the projector to make the display screen as small as doable. That leads us to the second most notable facet of this projector.
Huge Display screen, Minimal House
Each time I had company over, they might instantly ask the identical query upon seeing the display screen: “The place’s the projector?” Most projectors require mounting behind the sofa or on the ceiling, however the LTV-3500 Professional sits instantly on a typical TV stand—a feat that just one different projector in our Best Projectors guide can pull off—and initiatives a picture straight up onto the wall.
How giant the display screen will likely be relies upon closely on how far you may put the projector away from the wall—which, in my testing, was tougher than it sounds. To get a 120-inch display screen (the utmost is 150 inches), I needed to put my leisure unit a couple of foot away from the wall and then place the projector as far to the very fringe of my leisure unit as I might whereas nonetheless balancing it safely.
