The big picture on the best home theater projectors

It's possible, easy in fact, to get a movie theater experience at home. With an inexpensive projector you can watch movies and TV shows on a 100-inch-plus screen. Paired with a soundbar or a receiver and speakers, you can get pictures and sound at least as good as your local cinema.

Modern home theater projectors have impressive picture quality, good brightness in ambient light, vivid colors and a quality contrast ratio — and you can pick one up starting at around $200. Here we offer three of CNET's top picks, suited for different budgets and preferences.

WHAT Epson Home Cinema 5050UB

THE COST $2,999.99

AVAILABLE FROM epson.com

Take an excellent contrast ratio, paired with impressive brightness and accurate color, all with better detail than what's possible with a 1080p native resolution projector, and you've got all the pieces for a fantastic image. This home entertainment projector is not cheap, but it offers a significant step up in image quality over other projectors on this list. It comes with HDMI 2.0, which allows you to do 4K60p. Extensive lens shift and a motorized zoom are the icing on the cake.

WHAT BenQ HT2060

THE COST $999

AVAILABLE FROM benq.com

The BenQ HT2060 replaces longtime favorite, the HT2050A. It has many similarities, including 1080p resolution, lens shift and great color accuracy. New to the HT2060 is a move to LEDs instead of a traditional lamp to create light. The LEDs should last the life of the projector, which means no more replacing lamps every few years. Another plus is impressive color accuracy and depth.

The downsides are a reduction in brightness overall, though the HT2060 is still a bright projector. The HT2060 is about 25% more expensive than the HT2050A. but because you don't need to replace the lamps, the cost of ownership over the projector's lifetime is far lower compared to the HT2050A.

WHAT AAXA P8 mini smart projector

THE COST $249

AVAILABLE FROM aaxatech.com

The tiny AAXA P8 performs far bigger than its size suggests. Though in fairness, the handheld size doesn't suggest it could project an image at all. It looks more like a toy but it's reasonably bright, has a built-in speaker and is inexpensive.

It doesn't have a battery, nor does it have any streaming apps. It does have an HDMI input and a USB connection, so you can connect a streaming stick and get all the streaming apps you could possibly want.