Home Theater Projector Lumens and Throw Ratio, by Room Size

Placement sorts the five before brightness does

Throw ratio is lens-to-screen distance divided by screen width. Multiply a projector’s published ratio by the width of the image you want and you get the distance the lens has to sit from the wall. That one calculation splits these five projectors into two groups that cannot stand in for each other.

Projector	Published throw ratio
Hisense PX4-Pro	0.2:1
LG HU915QE	0.19:1
XGIMI Horizon Ultra	1.2 to 1.5:1
Epson Home Cinema 3800	1.32 to 2.15:1
ViewSonic PX701-4K	1.5 to 1.65:1

The two ultra-short-throw units, the Hisense and the LG, put the lens close to the wall. Their published ratios of 0.2:1 and 0.19:1 are within rounding of each other, so neither earns a placement advantage. The Epson covers the widest span because its 1.32 to 2.15:1 range comes from a 1.62x manual zoom. The ViewSonic’s 1.1x optical zoom pins it to a narrow band. The XGIMI’s 1.2 to 1.5:1 range is motorized and sits closest to the screen of the three.

Two details change the answer once you are working in a real room. First, UST distance is measured from the lens, and the console sits behind that point. Hisense publishes an 11.3-inch console depth, and independent testing of the LG records 13.7 inches. Neither company publishes where in the console the lens sits, so allow for the whole body between wall and seating. Second, the three long-throw projectors publish optical zoom and can be moved to make an image fit. No zoom figure was found for the Hisense or LG in the retrieved material, which is why the published screen range matters more for those two.

The screen-size range matters most on the UST models

For a zoom-lens projector, the published range is wide because the optics adjust. The Epson lists 0 to 300 inches, the ViewSonic 30 to 300 inches, and the XGIMI 40 to 200 inches with 60 to 120 inches recommended by XGIMI. For the Hisense, the range is 80 to 200 inches, and no zoom figure was found in the retrieved material. The practical test is whether an 80-inch image fits the wall you have.

LG does not publish a screen-size range for the HU915QE in any document retrieved. For an ultra-short-throw unit that is the single most important gap in its spec sheet: you cannot confirm before purchase that the size you want falls inside its usable range. That absence, not any measured shortcoming, is why the LG scores lowest on the screen-range factor.

Brightness figures are not measured on one standard

The five published brightness figures run from 2,300 to 3,700 lumens, but they do not sit on a single scale. Hisense (3,500), LG (3,700) and ViewSonic (3,200) publish ANSI lumens. Epson publishes 3,000 lumens of color brightness to the IDMS standard and 3,000 lumens of white brightness to the ISO standard, stating both separately. XGIMI publishes 2,300 ISO lumens measured under ISO 21118. An independent review measured that projector at 2,190 lumens maximum, dropping to 1,417 lumens after color calibration. XGIMI also settled a 2023 complaint from Epson over lumens claims on other Horizon-series models, after which it moved to ISO labeling.

None of the retrieved sources publishes a threshold of lumens per unit of room light, so PickPrism cannot tell you that a specific figure handles daylight. What the evidence supports is a ranking and a caution. The LG’s 3,700 ANSI lumens is the highest published figure here, the Hisense’s 3,500 is close behind, and the Epson’s 3,000 is the only figure that carries a separate color-brightness rating. Treat each number as the ceiling the manufacturer claims in its brightest mode. If your room has windows you cannot cover, favor the higher published figures and expect a calibrated picture mode to deliver less than the headline, as the XGIMI measurement shows.

The Epson’s lamp rating is the other side of the same decision. Running its brightest mode for a lit room drops the published lamp life from 5,000 hours in ECO to 3,500 hours in High. A buyer planning to use the full 3,000 lumens should plan around the lower number.

Every box says 4K; the chip line says something else

All five projectors put a 3840x2160 image on the screen, and none of the five is documented as using a chip with 8.3 million native pixels. Epson states it plainly: native 1920x1080 3LCD panels, shifted to 3840x2160 by its 4K PRO-UHD processing. For the Hisense, independent reporting identifies a 0.47-inch DLP chip, and Texas Instruments’ documentation for that chip gives a 1920x1080 native array quadrupled by four-phase XPR. For the LG, an independent review of the closely related HU915QB identifies a larger 0.66-inch chip with 2716x1528 native pixels and two-phase shifting.

ViewSonic states 3840x2160 as the resolution, and retailers market the projector as “HDR XPR 4K UHD”, which indicates pixel-shifting. ViewSonic’s own page does not give a chip pixel count. XGIMI’s product page says “Native resolution: 3840 x 2160” with no chip figure, while B&H’s listing for the same projector records a 0.47-inch 1920x1080 chip with XPR shifting. Those two statements are not reconciled anywhere in the retrieved material, and the XGIMI’s resolution score reflects that.

If native pixel count is the reason you are choosing among these five, the honest finding is that the LG’s larger chip is the only one documented above 1920x1080, and that documentation comes from a sibling model rather than the QE itself.

Contrast: read which condition is on the page

Four of the five publish a contrast ratio, and the four figures are tied to four different conditions. Epson’s 100,000:1 is stated with the Auto Iris enabled. Hisense’s 6,500:1 is stated with its seven-level iris engaged. ViewSonic’s 12,000:1 is stated only for SuperEco mode, with no figure for its Normal lamp mode. LG’s 2,000,000:1 is a marketed figure, and independent measurement of the HU915QE found approximately 2,707:1 native on/off in its brightest mode. No contrast ratio for the XGIMI Horizon Ultra could be confirmed from the retrieved material.

Because each figure is tied to a different condition, ranking the five by contrast would compare measurement conditions rather than projectors. The LG measurement is the only independent native figure in the set, and the gap between it and LG’s headline is the clearest illustration of why a dynamic ratio should not be read as a room-lighting guarantee.

Lamp or laser changes the ownership math

Three light-source types appear here. The Hisense uses a red, green and blue triple-laser array rated 25,000+ hours, and the XGIMI uses an LED plus laser hybrid rated 25,000 hours; those two ratings are effectively identical. The LG uses a three-channel RGB laser, but LG’s US product page does not publish a rated life in hours. The Epson uses a 250 W UHE lamp rated 5,000 hours in ECO, 4,000 in Medium and 3,500 in High. The ViewSonic uses a 203 W UHP lamp rated 6,000 hours in Normal mode or 20,000 hours in SuperEco.

That 20,000-hour SuperEco figure approaches the laser ratings, but it is the same mode ViewSonic ties its 12,000:1 contrast figure to, and the page does not publish the brightness that mode delivers. A lamp figure and a laser figure are both manufacturer ratings under the maker’s own conditions. What the lamp models add is a replaceable part; the laser and hybrid models do not list one.

When the simpler projector is enough

The ViewSonic PX701-4K is the lightest here at 6.17 lb (2.8 kg), against 15.2 lb for the Epson, 11.5 lb (5.2 kg) for the XGIMI, 18.3 lb for the Hisense console and 26.9 lb for the LG per independent testing. It publishes 3,200 ANSI lumens, a 30 to 300 inch range, two HDMI 2.0 inputs, a 10 W speaker, and ±40° keystone in both axes with digital lens shift up to 20%. It is also the only product here with a published input-lag figure, 4.2 ms at 240 Hz. For a room where the projector’s position falls inside its throw band, and where a chip pixel count is not the deciding factor, that is a complete set of published specifications for the job.

It is not enough when the placement band is wrong for your room. Its 1.1x optical zoom does not give the Epson’s 1.62x, and its lens shift is digital rather than the Epson’s ±60% vertical and ±24% horizontal manual optical shift. Digital shift and keystone reshape the image in processing; optical shift moves it without that step, which is why the Epson holds the placement award.

The Epson is the pick where the projector has to go somewhere awkward, above a doorway or on an off-center shelf. It is the wrong pick for anyone who wants the lens near the wall or wants to avoid lamp replacement. Its two HDMI 2.0 ports handle 4K HDR at 60 Hz but offer no HDMI 2.1 input, unlike the Hisense (two HDMI 2.1 with ALLM, plus two HDMI 2.0) and the LG (one HDMI 2.1 limited to 24 Gbps per independent testing, plus two HDMI 2.0). XGIMI does not state the HDMI version of its two inputs, one of which supports eARC.

The XGIMI case: setup automation against measured brightness

The XGIMI Horizon Ultra is the only product here whose published feature list centers on setup. Intelligent Screen Adaption 3.0 covers automatic keystone, autofocus, obstacle avoidance and wall-color adaptation from 3000K to 15000K, and the 1.2 to 1.5:1 zoom is motorized. For a projector that moves between rooms or sits on a shelf that gets bumped, those are the published specifications that matter. Against that, its 2,300 ISO-lumen rating is the lowest here, the independent measurement of 1,417 calibrated lumens is the lowest figure of any kind in this set, and no contrast ratio could be confirmed from the retrieved material. It fits a room you can darken and a screen inside XGIMI’s recommended 60 to 120 inch band. It does not fit a room where brightness is the constraint.

The discontinued unit

An independent review lists the LG HU915QE as discontinued. It still carries the highest published brightness and the only documented larger-chip pixel shift in the set, and LG’s page lists webOS 6.0 with built-in Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Prime Video, Apple TV and AirPlay 2, plus HDR10, HLG and HGiG support. What the status changes is the pre-purchase check: confirm current stock and warranty support with the seller. The missing screen-size range and missing laser-life figure were gaps before the discontinuation and remain gaps now.

What the specifications do not tell you

None of the retrieved documents measures how any of these projectors handles a specific screen material or how each performs at the edge of its stated screen range. Audio is published unevenly: Hisense lists six speakers at 66 W with Dolby Atmos and DTS:X support tuned by Devialet, ViewSonic lists a 10 W speaker, and the XGIMI Amazon listing describes two 12 W Harman Kardon speakers. The Epson and LG documents retrieved give no speaker output. The ViewSonic publishes 240 Hz and 4.2 ms, and the Hisense publishes ALLM on its HDMI 2.1 ports. Neither the Epson nor the XGIMI publishes an input-lag figure in the retrieved material.