Projectors are simply better than OLEDs for movie watching, and no amount of TV brain can change this.
-
The best screen is the one you have near you. No argument from me. And funny enough, I still watch VHS movies on CRT TVs—love them, never getting rid of them.
Thing is, being happy with what you have is perfectly valid. If your OLED brings you joy, that’s all that really matters. Movies are bigger than the box they’re played on, and they’ll find a way to connect regardless. What I’m pushing back on isn’t personal enjoyment—it’s the belief, often repeated in the “OLED cult,” that projection is obsolete and that “perfect black pixels” are the pinnacle of cinema. That’s just not true.
Projectors remain the gold standard for how films are meant to be seen. Directors don’t screen their work on OLED panels—they use projectors in grading suites and theatres. Projection delivers scale, reflected light, and cinematic framing in a way an emissive display simply can’t. OLED is gorgeous, yes, but it’s still a fixed-size glowing slab. A high-end projector on a 120–150 inch screen gives you the sense of immersion that defines the theatrical experience.
So it’s absolutely fine to be satisfied with your current setup—but it’s important not to confuse satisfaction with having the “ultimate” movie experience. OLED gives you one kind of beauty. Projection gives you cinema.
You’re calling people with different visual preferences than you ignorant cultists. Surely that qualifies as you pushing back on personal enjoyment?
You know, filmmakers don’t always like the tech they’re using. Matching their equipment isn’t always the same thing as matching their vision. All art is comprise.
You remember the Hobbit trilogy? That was a pretty famous instance of a director going against the grain visually, giving it a higher than normal frame rate. Looking like a soap opera rather than cinema, as you put it. On purpose. Audiences hated that. He spent more money making it and they said it looked cheap. They could see motion in enough clarity that it looked like they were seeing a human with facial prosthetics rather than a dwarf. It looked objectively more real than a regular frame rate but that proved too real for most.
Now if I were the sort that likes to turn on motion smoothing, do you think Peter Jackson who tried to pioneer high frame rate theatrical releases would disagree with me doing that for his earlier 24 FPS movies, like the good Lord of the Rings? Or does making the motion look more real make the movie more like he wishes it always had been?
Me, I don’t like high frame rate movies either. If he came out and said motion smoothing is the best way to watch the older movies then I would still leave it off. That’s barely even a hypothetical, since he said the theatrical cut is the best way to watch yet I still prefer the Extended Editions.
If he said OLEDs were the best way to watch them, would you stop watching on a projector? Of course you wouldn’t. You like projectors better. Directorial intent is irrelevant.
The correct response to weird gatekeepers who talk shit about projectors isn’t to gatekeep back in the opposite direction, it’s to just continue enjoying what you enjoy. And when somebody asks for advice on their home theater, sing the praises of your beloved projectors. But this long and unprompted argument you just started against faceless masses with accusations that people who disagree with you aren’t capable of forming their own opinions, maybe don’t be doing that so much.
-
Projectors are simply better than OLEDs for movie watching, and no amount of TV brain can change this.
The cult of OLED has convinced people that one single spec—perfect blacks—matters more than everything else. But cinema isn’t about looking into a glowing rectangle with black pixels. It’s about immersion, scale, and light that feels like the real world. If you care about movies as movies, projection isn’t just better—it’s the only serious choice.
Start with size. Movies were never meant to be watched at 65 or 77 inches. A decent 4K laser projector can give you 120 to 150 inches without breaking a sweat. That’s an image that swallows your entire field of vision and changes the way you perceive the film. Wide shots become landscapes. Close-ups feel intimate. Action feels overwhelming in the best way.
OLEDs top out at 97 inches in the consumer market, and anything beyond that is microLED wall territory—Samsung’s “The Wall” runs over $200,000 for 146 inches. Meanwhile, a 4K laser projector with a proper screen costs $5,000–8,000 and achieves the same or greater size. The scale difference alone makes OLED feel like a toy by comparison.
And then there’s light. OLED is emissive. Each pixel is a miniature flashlight shooting photons directly into your eyes. Yes, it produces perfect blacks, but it also produces eye strain. Your pupils are constantly constricting and dilating to deal with rapid HDR changes.
Projectors use reflected light, which is how our eyes evolved to see the world. A laser beam hits a screen, scatters, and bounces back softly and naturally. That’s why projection looks filmic instead of hyper-real. It’s why a three-hour epic is comfortable on a projector and fatiguing on OLED. When movies are mastered for theatrical presentation, they’re mastered on projectors. That reflected light is the reference, not a self-glowing slab.
OLED fans will argue that projectors can’t work in anything but a dark room. That used to be true when we were talking about bulb-based machines and matte white screens. But today’s high-end laser projectors have solved this.
Laser phosphor and RGB models push 3,000–5,000+ lumens without losing color accuracy, and when paired with an ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen, they can produce a bright, contrast-rich image in a normal living room with windows or lamps on. ALR screens are designed to selectively reflect light from the projector while absorbing or deflecting ambient light from other angles. The result is a 120–150 inch image that’s still crisp and cinematic even in spaces where an OLED would otherwise seem like the only option. That completely destroys the “dark room only” myth.
Aspect ratio flexibility is another win for projectors. Most movies aren’t shot in 16:9, but OLEDs are stuck with that rectangle. Watching Lawrence of Arabia or Dune on OLED means black bars eating up screen space. On a projection setup with masking, you can run constant image height—CinemaScope films expand to fill the frame completely. No bars. No compromises. It looks exactly as intended, and the image dominates the room the way it’s supposed to.
Motion also reads differently. OLEDs are sample-and-hold displays, which smear fast movement unless you enable black-frame insertion. That drops brightness and introduces flicker. Projectors have a different cadence. They mimic the way film frames roll in theatres, delivering movement that feels cinematic instead of soap-opera smooth. The difference isn’t subtle once you’ve seen both.
HDR is another place where OLED flexes numbers but misses the point. Yes, OLEDs can spike to 1,000–1,500 nits. But theatrical reference brightness is 48 nits (14 foot-lamberts). Movies aren’t designed to blind you with specular highlights. They’re designed to stretch across a massive screen with consistent luminance. A sunset on OLED is a bright pixel cluster. On a projector, it’s an expanse of color that fills twelve feet of wall. It feels expansive rather than harsh.
Color reproduction is where modern projectors push into true cinema territory. RGB laser light engines often exceed DCI-P3 and reach into Rec.2020. That means you’re seeing color closer to what filmmakers master for. On a massive screen, that richness envelops you. Reds feel deep, blues glow, and alien landscapes look otherworldly. On OLED, even with good calibration, you’re still looking at colors confined to a small rectangle.
Projectors also offer flexibility OLED cannot match. One projector can be scaled down to 90 inches for casual TV or pushed to 150 inches for movie night. Move houses? Resize the screen. Change aspect ratios? Use masking. Upgrade later? Swap the projector but keep the screen. An OLED is a glowing slab of fixed size. If you want bigger, you replace the whole thing.
And then there’s cost. You can get a cheap 1080p projector for under $100—something that instantly delivers a big-screen experience for next to nothing. Midrange models with decent HDR and brightness run a few hundred. A top-tier 4K ultra short throw laser with an ALR screen and HDR support might be $5,000–8,000. Compare that to an OLED panel at 97 inches, which costs around $30,000, or a microLED wall at 146 inches for over $200,000. The value proposition isn’t close. Projection scales from cheap-and-cheerful to reference-grade cinema, while OLED scales from expensive to absurd.
And this is exactly why people still go to the movies. It’s not because OLEDs don’t look great—they do. It’s because cinema is projection. It’s immersive size, reflected light, and framing designed for the big screen. For $15, you can get that at your local theatre. For $100, you can get it in your living room with an entry-level projector. For $5,000, you can have glorious 4K HDR laser projection beamed at a 150-inch canvas. OLED can’t touch that.
So let’s be clear: OLED has one advantage, and that’s pixel-level blackness. But movies aren’t about spec sheets. Movies are about experience. And in every way that matters—size, immersion, comfort, color, flexibility, cost, and alignment with the theatrical standard—projectors leave OLED in the dust.
OLED gives you perfect black bars. Projectors give you cinema.
wrote last edited by [email protected]I agree with roughly half of what you're saying.
One glaringly bad and wrong bit of reasoning is this.When movies are mastered for theatrical presentation, they’re mastered on projectors.
Yes, obviously. Theaters have projectors. It would only make sense to master those versions on projectors.
But that's not the master you get on consumer Blu-ray or streaming. Those masters are color graded on Sony dual layer LCDs with HDR and 1,000,000:1 contrast ratios. Because most home screens are LCD or OLED.
-
Nobody serious about home cinema is claiming that a bargain-basement Epson business projector can hold up against daylight or even a campfire. That’s not the point. The point is that modern high-end laser projectors paired with the right screen do solve that problem.
Take the Hisense PX3-PRO, for example. It’s an ultra-short throw RGB laser projector capable of over 3,000 lumens, and when paired with a proper ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen, it produces vivid, saturated color and strong contrast even under bright fluorescent lighting. There are demonstrations of this exact combo holding its own in well-lit showrooms. These machines are designed from the ground up for living rooms with ambient light, not blacked-out home theatres.
So yeah, if you set up a $600 lamp-based projector on a white wall, it’ll get washed out by a campfire. But that’s irrelevant to the argument. The relevant fact is that a $5,000–$8,000 laser projector with ALR screen delivers a 120–150 inch image that remains bright and cinematic in normal lighting conditions. That is the comparison point against OLED. And at that size, OLED doesn’t even enter the conversation unless you’re prepared to spend six figures.
You are the one that said:
And then there’s cost. You can get a cheap 1080p projector for under $100—something that instantly delivers a big-screen experience for next to nothin
So no, you’re not getting big screen performance for under thousands of dollars. If you’re at the point of buying an oled that costs 6k dollars then you might want to look into projectors. Until then, lol no.
-
You are the one that said:
And then there’s cost. You can get a cheap 1080p projector for under $100—something that instantly delivers a big-screen experience for next to nothin
So no, you’re not getting big screen performance for under thousands of dollars. If you’re at the point of buying an oled that costs 6k dollars then you might want to look into projectors. Until then, lol no.
Except an OLED can’t give you a 150” image without costing a fortune—while even a $100 projector can. That’s really the point I was making.
Of course, a budget projector won’t hold up in daylight or offer accurate colour. Nobody expects it to. But it will still put a huge picture on your wall, and that’s the one thing even the cheapest projectors always manage to do.
So it feels a bit off to suggest otherwise—especially since you already own a projector and know firsthand how big the image can get.
-
I'd question the $100. Everytime I read a computer magazine and they tested super cheap projectors, they come with fake HD, abysmal color reproduction and I don't think they have lasers in them. Better not buy a random one to watch movies.
How do other people handle different requirements? Do you have multiple TVs and projectors and a home cinema, or do you just watch the 8 'o clock news and the evening program while cooking dinner on 120" as well?
I'm preparing to move and combine households soon. For shits and giggles, we've been tallying up screens and projectors for just us two adults. We're at 25 so far. Proooobably time to trim down the hobby gear some.
-
Except an OLED can’t give you a 150” image without costing a fortune—while even a $100 projector can. That’s really the point I was making.
Of course, a budget projector won’t hold up in daylight or offer accurate colour. Nobody expects it to. But it will still put a huge picture on your wall, and that’s the one thing even the cheapest projectors always manage to do.
So it feels a bit off to suggest otherwise—especially since you already own a projector and know firsthand how big the image can get.
Like I said, I have a $600 projector (might have been $700, hard to remember, it’s a Benq stored away), and it’s not doing 150”. It says it can do 100”, but that’s generous as well. It would be best at something like 80”. And then you’re back to just competing with OLEDs. Sorry but that part of the argument was just so disingenuous.
LTT has many videos about trying to use projectors. You would think they would use them more if they actually were that much better. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars on projectors. And yet they still use regular TVs for almost everything.
-
Like I said, I have a $600 projector (might have been $700, hard to remember, it’s a Benq stored away), and it’s not doing 150”. It says it can do 100”, but that’s generous as well. It would be best at something like 80”. And then you’re back to just competing with OLEDs. Sorry but that part of the argument was just so disingenuous.
LTT has many videos about trying to use projectors. You would think they would use them more if they actually were that much better. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars on projectors. And yet they still use regular TVs for almost everything.
Wait—how old is your BenQ?
I’ve got a far cheaper projector, and it pushes 150″ just fine. Granted, it needs more throw distance, and it’s loud. But hitting 150″? No
EDIT: Even the Aurzen Roku TV Smart Projector advertises a 150” picture, and that is $200.
So either your BenQ is old and obsolete or it’s busted.
-
Projectors are simply better than OLEDs for movie watching, and no amount of TV brain can change this.
The cult of OLED has convinced people that one single spec—perfect blacks—matters more than everything else. But cinema isn’t about looking into a glowing rectangle with black pixels. It’s about immersion, scale, and light that feels like the real world. If you care about movies as movies, projection isn’t just better—it’s the only serious choice.
Start with size. Movies were never meant to be watched at 65 or 77 inches. A decent 4K laser projector can give you 120 to 150 inches without breaking a sweat. That’s an image that swallows your entire field of vision and changes the way you perceive the film. Wide shots become landscapes. Close-ups feel intimate. Action feels overwhelming in the best way.
OLEDs top out at 97 inches in the consumer market, and anything beyond that is microLED wall territory—Samsung’s “The Wall” runs over $200,000 for 146 inches. Meanwhile, a 4K laser projector with a proper screen costs $5,000–8,000 and achieves the same or greater size. The scale difference alone makes OLED feel like a toy by comparison.
And then there’s light. OLED is emissive. Each pixel is a miniature flashlight shooting photons directly into your eyes. Yes, it produces perfect blacks, but it also produces eye strain. Your pupils are constantly constricting and dilating to deal with rapid HDR changes.
Projectors use reflected light, which is how our eyes evolved to see the world. A laser beam hits a screen, scatters, and bounces back softly and naturally. That’s why projection looks filmic instead of hyper-real. It’s why a three-hour epic is comfortable on a projector and fatiguing on OLED. When movies are mastered for theatrical presentation, they’re mastered on projectors. That reflected light is the reference, not a self-glowing slab.
OLED fans will argue that projectors can’t work in anything but a dark room. That used to be true when we were talking about bulb-based machines and matte white screens. But today’s high-end laser projectors have solved this.
Laser phosphor and RGB models push 3,000–5,000+ lumens without losing color accuracy, and when paired with an ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen, they can produce a bright, contrast-rich image in a normal living room with windows or lamps on. ALR screens are designed to selectively reflect light from the projector while absorbing or deflecting ambient light from other angles. The result is a 120–150 inch image that’s still crisp and cinematic even in spaces where an OLED would otherwise seem like the only option. That completely destroys the “dark room only” myth.
Aspect ratio flexibility is another win for projectors. Most movies aren’t shot in 16:9, but OLEDs are stuck with that rectangle. Watching Lawrence of Arabia or Dune on OLED means black bars eating up screen space. On a projection setup with masking, you can run constant image height—CinemaScope films expand to fill the frame completely. No bars. No compromises. It looks exactly as intended, and the image dominates the room the way it’s supposed to.
Motion also reads differently. OLEDs are sample-and-hold displays, which smear fast movement unless you enable black-frame insertion. That drops brightness and introduces flicker. Projectors have a different cadence. They mimic the way film frames roll in theatres, delivering movement that feels cinematic instead of soap-opera smooth. The difference isn’t subtle once you’ve seen both.
HDR is another place where OLED flexes numbers but misses the point. Yes, OLEDs can spike to 1,000–1,500 nits. But theatrical reference brightness is 48 nits (14 foot-lamberts). Movies aren’t designed to blind you with specular highlights. They’re designed to stretch across a massive screen with consistent luminance. A sunset on OLED is a bright pixel cluster. On a projector, it’s an expanse of color that fills twelve feet of wall. It feels expansive rather than harsh.
Color reproduction is where modern projectors push into true cinema territory. RGB laser light engines often exceed DCI-P3 and reach into Rec.2020. That means you’re seeing color closer to what filmmakers master for. On a massive screen, that richness envelops you. Reds feel deep, blues glow, and alien landscapes look otherworldly. On OLED, even with good calibration, you’re still looking at colors confined to a small rectangle.
Projectors also offer flexibility OLED cannot match. One projector can be scaled down to 90 inches for casual TV or pushed to 150 inches for movie night. Move houses? Resize the screen. Change aspect ratios? Use masking. Upgrade later? Swap the projector but keep the screen. An OLED is a glowing slab of fixed size. If you want bigger, you replace the whole thing.
And then there’s cost. You can get a cheap 1080p projector for under $100—something that instantly delivers a big-screen experience for next to nothing. Midrange models with decent HDR and brightness run a few hundred. A top-tier 4K ultra short throw laser with an ALR screen and HDR support might be $5,000–8,000. Compare that to an OLED panel at 97 inches, which costs around $30,000, or a microLED wall at 146 inches for over $200,000. The value proposition isn’t close. Projection scales from cheap-and-cheerful to reference-grade cinema, while OLED scales from expensive to absurd.
And this is exactly why people still go to the movies. It’s not because OLEDs don’t look great—they do. It’s because cinema is projection. It’s immersive size, reflected light, and framing designed for the big screen. For $15, you can get that at your local theatre. For $100, you can get it in your living room with an entry-level projector. For $5,000, you can have glorious 4K HDR laser projection beamed at a 150-inch canvas. OLED can’t touch that.
So let’s be clear: OLED has one advantage, and that’s pixel-level blackness. But movies aren’t about spec sheets. Movies are about experience. And in every way that matters—size, immersion, comfort, color, flexibility, cost, and alignment with the theatrical standard—projectors leave OLED in the dust.
OLED gives you perfect black bars. Projectors give you cinema.
agreed. the tv as a device has evolved into something horrible
-
Wait—how old is your BenQ?
I’ve got a far cheaper projector, and it pushes 150″ just fine. Granted, it needs more throw distance, and it’s loud. But hitting 150″? No
EDIT: Even the Aurzen Roku TV Smart Projector advertises a 150” picture, and that is $200.
So either your BenQ is old and obsolete or it’s busted.
It’s two or three years old. Maybe you just have lower standards than me, but just because it puts a 150” image on the wall doesn’t mean it’s actually going to be watchable at that size. And just because a projector advertises something also doesn’t mean that’s gonna be the case.
-
Projectors are simply better than OLEDs for movie watching, and no amount of TV brain can change this.
The cult of OLED has convinced people that one single spec—perfect blacks—matters more than everything else. But cinema isn’t about looking into a glowing rectangle with black pixels. It’s about immersion, scale, and light that feels like the real world. If you care about movies as movies, projection isn’t just better—it’s the only serious choice.
Start with size. Movies were never meant to be watched at 65 or 77 inches. A decent 4K laser projector can give you 120 to 150 inches without breaking a sweat. That’s an image that swallows your entire field of vision and changes the way you perceive the film. Wide shots become landscapes. Close-ups feel intimate. Action feels overwhelming in the best way.
OLEDs top out at 97 inches in the consumer market, and anything beyond that is microLED wall territory—Samsung’s “The Wall” runs over $200,000 for 146 inches. Meanwhile, a 4K laser projector with a proper screen costs $5,000–8,000 and achieves the same or greater size. The scale difference alone makes OLED feel like a toy by comparison.
And then there’s light. OLED is emissive. Each pixel is a miniature flashlight shooting photons directly into your eyes. Yes, it produces perfect blacks, but it also produces eye strain. Your pupils are constantly constricting and dilating to deal with rapid HDR changes.
Projectors use reflected light, which is how our eyes evolved to see the world. A laser beam hits a screen, scatters, and bounces back softly and naturally. That’s why projection looks filmic instead of hyper-real. It’s why a three-hour epic is comfortable on a projector and fatiguing on OLED. When movies are mastered for theatrical presentation, they’re mastered on projectors. That reflected light is the reference, not a self-glowing slab.
OLED fans will argue that projectors can’t work in anything but a dark room. That used to be true when we were talking about bulb-based machines and matte white screens. But today’s high-end laser projectors have solved this.
Laser phosphor and RGB models push 3,000–5,000+ lumens without losing color accuracy, and when paired with an ALR (ambient light rejecting) screen, they can produce a bright, contrast-rich image in a normal living room with windows or lamps on. ALR screens are designed to selectively reflect light from the projector while absorbing or deflecting ambient light from other angles. The result is a 120–150 inch image that’s still crisp and cinematic even in spaces where an OLED would otherwise seem like the only option. That completely destroys the “dark room only” myth.
Aspect ratio flexibility is another win for projectors. Most movies aren’t shot in 16:9, but OLEDs are stuck with that rectangle. Watching Lawrence of Arabia or Dune on OLED means black bars eating up screen space. On a projection setup with masking, you can run constant image height—CinemaScope films expand to fill the frame completely. No bars. No compromises. It looks exactly as intended, and the image dominates the room the way it’s supposed to.
Motion also reads differently. OLEDs are sample-and-hold displays, which smear fast movement unless you enable black-frame insertion. That drops brightness and introduces flicker. Projectors have a different cadence. They mimic the way film frames roll in theatres, delivering movement that feels cinematic instead of soap-opera smooth. The difference isn’t subtle once you’ve seen both.
HDR is another place where OLED flexes numbers but misses the point. Yes, OLEDs can spike to 1,000–1,500 nits. But theatrical reference brightness is 48 nits (14 foot-lamberts). Movies aren’t designed to blind you with specular highlights. They’re designed to stretch across a massive screen with consistent luminance. A sunset on OLED is a bright pixel cluster. On a projector, it’s an expanse of color that fills twelve feet of wall. It feels expansive rather than harsh.
Color reproduction is where modern projectors push into true cinema territory. RGB laser light engines often exceed DCI-P3 and reach into Rec.2020. That means you’re seeing color closer to what filmmakers master for. On a massive screen, that richness envelops you. Reds feel deep, blues glow, and alien landscapes look otherworldly. On OLED, even with good calibration, you’re still looking at colors confined to a small rectangle.
Projectors also offer flexibility OLED cannot match. One projector can be scaled down to 90 inches for casual TV or pushed to 150 inches for movie night. Move houses? Resize the screen. Change aspect ratios? Use masking. Upgrade later? Swap the projector but keep the screen. An OLED is a glowing slab of fixed size. If you want bigger, you replace the whole thing.
And then there’s cost. You can get a cheap 1080p projector for under $100—something that instantly delivers a big-screen experience for next to nothing. Midrange models with decent HDR and brightness run a few hundred. A top-tier 4K ultra short throw laser with an ALR screen and HDR support might be $5,000–8,000. Compare that to an OLED panel at 97 inches, which costs around $30,000, or a microLED wall at 146 inches for over $200,000. The value proposition isn’t close. Projection scales from cheap-and-cheerful to reference-grade cinema, while OLED scales from expensive to absurd.
And this is exactly why people still go to the movies. It’s not because OLEDs don’t look great—they do. It’s because cinema is projection. It’s immersive size, reflected light, and framing designed for the big screen. For $15, you can get that at your local theatre. For $100, you can get it in your living room with an entry-level projector. For $5,000, you can have glorious 4K HDR laser projection beamed at a 150-inch canvas. OLED can’t touch that.
So let’s be clear: OLED has one advantage, and that’s pixel-level blackness. But movies aren’t about spec sheets. Movies are about experience. And in every way that matters—size, immersion, comfort, color, flexibility, cost, and alignment with the theatrical standard—projectors leave OLED in the dust.
OLED gives you perfect black bars. Projectors give you cinema.
Truth is only very few people only watch movies.
You watch the news, tv shows, play some games, during the day etc etc
You just need something that does it all well. And oled tvs do that
