ProjectorCentral, "The World's Largest Projector Resource™," and online retailer ProjectorScreen.com have announced plans to once again join forces for their 2nd annual Laser TV Showdown, while also announcing a companion event: the first-ever Lifestyle Projector Showdown.

LaserTVShowdown Announcement 2023 800
The 2023 event will include both a Laser TV and transportable Lifestyle Projector Showdown.

After the successful 2022 Showdown, which faced-off a record 14 UST projectors, the 2023 Showdown will see up to 10 late-generation laser TVs competing directly side-by-side. A separate competition will be held on the same day to compare as many as five of the new premium laser and LED lifestyle projectors. These high-tech transportable projectors deliver surprising brightness for their size, excellent color accuracy with wide gamut, and advanced features for quick set-up on movie and game nights.

Scheduled for Thursday, October 26th at ProjectorScreen.com's New Jersey headquarters, the 2023 Showdown will be conducted under the aegis of ProjectorCentral Editor-in-Chief Rob Sabin, with ProjectorScreen.com providing the test facility and access to retail shelf samples to avoid wherever possible the use of cherry-picked units from the contending manufacturers.

As in 2022, the event will rely on expert industry judges from the A/V editorial and professional calibration communities. Sammie Prescott, Jr. of AV ChromaCal, a professional ISF Level III calibrator and Contributing Technical Editor for ProjectorCentral, will be calibrating all the units for optimal image quality in advance of the event and will be on site in the preceding days to help fine-tune each projector for its best performance.

Additionally six expert reviewers have been recruited to participate as judges, including:

  • Chris Eberle, professional ISF-trained display calibrator, display reviewer for Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity (hometheaterhifi.com), display reviewer for Tom's Hardware (tomshardware.com)
  • Andy Grimm, projector reviewer and contributor for Home Theater Review (hometheaterreview.com), display calibrator
  • John Higgins, Managing Editor, Tech, at Reviewed, part of the USA Today Network (reviewed.usatoday.com/tech), ISF-trained display calibrator
  • Mark Henninger, Editor-in-Chief for Sound & Vision (soundandvision.com), former Managing Editor for Home Theater Review, former Editor-in-Chief for AVSForum.com, THX-trained display calibrator
  • Ralph Potts, veteran Blu-ray Reviewer and A/V writer at AVSForum.com, Blu-ray Reviewer at Sound & Vision (soundandvision.com)
  • M. David Stone, long-time projector reviewer for PCMag.com, veteran contributor for ProjectorCentral

Both the UST Laser TV and Lifestyle projectors in the competitions will be judged on image quality across multiple criteria and use-cases, including with standard dynamic range (SDR) content in both bright- and dark-room conditions, and high dynamic range (HDR) content in dark-room conditions. The projectors will all be viewed on reference-quality 100-inch screens provided by sponsor Spectra Projection. The UST Laser TVs will be evaluated on 10 matching lenticular ALR (ambient-light rejecting) screens specifically designed for UST projectors, while the lifestyle projectors will be viewed on five matching matte white screens.

The lists of competing projectors for both the 2023 Laser TV Showdown and 2023 Lifestyle Showdown are being finalized and will be released shortly.

Comments (8) Post a Comment
Moke Posted Oct 9, 2023 5:57 AM PST
Please include at least one high scoring 2022 shootout UST projector as a control point for comparisons to this years group. The way that the analysis was done last year makes any accurate year to year comparison impossible otherwise. If you have one that is the exact same as last year, including the calibration, that would make it much easier to compare a projector from last year’s group head to head with a projector from this year’s group.

Also, defining the top scoring projector as a 10 as was done last year makes the statistician in me cringe…. If it’s possible to avoid that it would be highly appreciated. Let the score be the score.
Michael Posted Oct 9, 2023 9:54 AM PST
Please also score on the noise of each one. These are often used in smallish living rooms where fan noise can be constantly heard. I think of upgrading from my px1-pro to the lg915qb specifically because of noise.
Joe Posted Oct 9, 2023 12:34 PM PST
Maybe tbey can also report on 3D performance/settings/quality for these units. That would be a heloful change.
Will Posted Oct 9, 2023 2:29 PM PST
Also if it's like the first round using a long throw projector as reference you have to compare the others to the reference otherwise the scores are meaningless. Also makes the data statistician in me cringe.
Rob Sabin, Editor Posted Oct 9, 2023 3:02 PM PST
Thanks for the comments, guys. We will not be using a long-throw reference projector this year and some of the strong contenders from last year will definitely be in the competition. However, every projector is being calibrated from scratch for this year's event.
Bruce Posted Oct 9, 2023 4:08 PM PST
Gearing up for Black Friday, so I'm excited to hear about your 2nd Annual LTV ShowDown! I'd appreciate if you guys could please evaluate: -Dolby Vision results and if it compensates for projectors that may have some performance shortcomings in contrast, brightness, laser speckle and color gamut coverage. - Performance in rooms with a decent amount of ambient lighting. - 3D Mode performance. (there are still some diehards out here) Thanks Gents!
Dallas Posted Oct 9, 2023 9:45 PM PST
Please 🥺🙏 get the Ultimea Thor T60 laser projector that is set to be released in a month in this test/competition . I'd like to see how it stacks up to the competition
Zarko Posted Oct 11, 2023 4:12 AM PST
Don't forget about the new NexiGo Aurora Pro PJ92 as it seems to be a Formovie Theater Killer. Same laser-unit but improved contrast, color accuracy, lowest latency for gaming and even 3D. It is brand new - shipping startet yesterday.

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