Short Throw Projector

Between 0.4 and 1.0 on the throw ratio scale sits the Short Throw Projector, which fills a 100 inch screen from 3 to 6 feet away. That distance lets it live on a low table, a wall bracket or a short ceiling arm just in front of the screen, out of the traffic path. Most make 2,000 to 4,000 ANSI lumens because the same designs get sold into classrooms and meeting rooms, where ambient light is a given rather than a choice.

It splits the difference between its neighbors. A Home Theater Projector needs 9 to 15 feet and repays it with better contrast and a lens that shifts. An Ultra Short Throw Projector sits closer still but locks you into a matching screen and constant alignment. A Business Projector often uses a short throw lens as well, so read the throw ratio rather than the category name on the box. Where a room is small and the wall behind the seats is glass or a doorway, this is the placement that works.

Small bedrooms, spare rooms around 12 by 12 feet, classrooms and interactive whiteboard setups fit it well. Anyone presenting to a room benefits from standing beside the screen without casting a shadow across it. Skip it for a dedicated cinema room where you have the depth for a longer lens, and skip it for a screen much over 120 inches, where a wide lens at close range starts to lose focus uniformity at the corners.

Wide lenses are hard to make, so check the corners. Display a page of small white text on black and look for softness and color fringing at the edges, then check for a visible curve along the top edge. Verify how much lens shift there is, if any, because many short throw models offer none and expect you to use keystone correction, which trades resolution for convenience. Confirm the exact distance for the screen size you want, since the difference between 0.5 and 0.6 moves the projector a foot.

Fix it in place rather than moving it between rooms, because refocusing and realigning each time wears out the patience that made you buy it. Keep the lens out of reach of hands at a low table height, and clean it with a blower rather than a cloth. In a classroom or a carpeted room, treat the filter as a monthly job instead of an annual one.