Around 2010, Texas Instruments began producing DLP chips that were designed for LED light. By combining red, blue, and green LEDs, manufacturers were able to create projectors that were much smaller and less expensive than traditional mercury lamp-based projectors. The major drawback is that many of these models were not bright enough for home cinema or meeting rooms.
Since then, projectors using LED’s have gotten smaller – and brighter. For home cinema enthusiasts who are looking to duplicate the experience of a commercial Digital Cinema movie theater that uses the DCI-P3 color space approved by Disney, Sony, and Paramount, there are now LED powered projectors that are bright enough to enable the same experience in a typical home theater. The BenQ HT9060 is an excellent example of how LED color saturation and accuracy can make a home theater picture look spectacular. According to hometheaterhifi.com, this was “…in many ways the best projector I’ve ever reviewed.”
On the smaller side of things, there are now many battery-powered LED projectors such as the BenQ GV-1 that have built-in audio and wireless streaming designed to enable you to project a movie from your phone. These are ideal for camping or ad-hoc projecting in areas where there may not be power. While they are not as bright as a regular projector – it’s a great way to share pictures or movies with a group.
The main drawback is that LED projectors have the lowest brightness levels of the three lamp-free technologies, so you will need a darker environment to make them look good. The home cinema models are typically under 2000 ANSI lumens, while the battery-powered projectors are usually between 200-400 ANSI lumens in brightness.