TITAN

With one Noir Max I would get ~50 nits in Dynamic Mode, which isn't enough for good HDR. With two I get to ~100 nits, which should be barely enough. While yes, the "normal" Titan is brighter, the picture quality is not on the same level and it is more expensive. That would not be a good option for me...

I would get the XGIMI Titan Noir Max. The Kickstarter starts 23. April with a 3000$ price tag for the Max. Payment will be around 09. June, with shipping starting a few weeks later. And before Kickstarter begins, you can save an additional 200$ by paying a 50$ deposit on the XGIMI homepage. Get for the 200$ a few black curtains that you can pull in front of the white walls during movie watching and you will be golden! And after buying a projector try to get screen samples before buying a screen! I made two deposits so that I can stack two for my 220" 16:9 wall. Will be a heck of a first home Cinema!

YOU suggested buying two regular Titan, instead of two Titan Noir Max! Which would result in a worse experience for more money! Makes no sense for me...

Prioritizing actual dark room image quality, the Noir is the better choice. Prioritizing use with some lights on in the room and the quality that offers, then the Aetherion is the way to go. You get to choose one or the other. I'm a image quality guy, so I ordered the XGimi. (put a deposit down) I don't like the headaches that go with UST projectors such as perfectly flat screens being absolutely required. That alignment is a massive headache to get perfect. Dealing with center channel placement. Worrying about bumping into it. The expensive screen requirement for best possible ALR performance. In reality, you lose a fair bit of quality when you start turning lights on in a theater, but it's not like you are watching something unusable. It's TOTALLY fine to turn lights on in the room and you still have a very enjoyable image, with some lights on, especially for sports viewing. I took some photos of my old W1070 from BenQ on a 161" screen with some lights on in the room. The light closest to the screen I had pulled out, but other lights were on in the basement at the time... [W1070 With The Lights On - 161" Screen | AVS Forum](https://www.avsforum.com/threads/w1070-with-the-lights-on-161-screen.1720730/) If you are okay with a hit in image quality with the lights on and not having the same headaches that go with UST projectors, then I'd go with the XGimi. But, UST projectors do perform better in lit rooms.

Lol saying jvc and epson are overhyped is kinda wild. If you can afford jvc, epson and sony, just get them. The only reason you hear about the likes of xgimi, valerion, nexigo etc is due to price. They are significantly cheaper and perform ~80% of jvc, sony, epson. If you want the best and can afford it then just get jvc, Sony, epson - christie is excluded. You want the best bang value then get those china ones. Now for your comparison on viewsonic vs valerion vs xgimi noir. The viewsonic seems to be build for productivity and not content. Business centric projector care more about brightness than color accuracy, color volume, motion and contrast. Also, the likes of valerion max and titan noir have iris that trade the brightness for higher contrast - their laser also can dim to get better black level. Contrast, color and black level are more important for regular content than brightness. Hence, business projector are not suitable for lifestyle use and content. In your bright office to show ppt slides, better to get the viewsonic. For viewing content it's better to get regular pj.

Coming from OLED, worried about rainbow effect? Valerion Pro2 – best contrast, but triple laser can have speckle and faint rainbowing. Some notice it, some don't. XGIMI Titan Noir – no laser speckle, less rainbow risk. Safer bet if you're sensitive. Anker Nebula X1 – also triple laser, but Anker claims they fixed speckle. Still a risk. For bedroom, 120", coming from OLED – I'd lean XGIMI Titan Noir. Safer, less chance of annoying artifacts. Order somewhere with easy returns and test a high-contrast scene. 👍

Kickstarter is a risk, yeah. Horizon 20 is a smart test. Same laser type as Titan (no speckle), so if you don't see rainbow on it, you're safe. Honestly though, the Horizon 20 is a great projector on its own. You might not even want the Titan after trying it. Just buy from somewhere with returns (Amazon or similar), test it for a few days, and see how it feels. Good luck. 👍

One thing no one tells you about UST: those larger screen sizes are very hard to achieve with a UST due to the ‘throw’ required. Basically, the projector needs to be so far below the bottom edge of the screen and this space increases as your screen size increases. For example, to target a 135 inch screen the top of the projector needs to be placed 20” below the bottom edge of the screen. A 135” screen is over 66” tall. 66+20 is 86”. Your ceiling is only 96” tall so your projector is going to need to sit inches from the floor and more than 2 ft into the room. I *get* why people like the idea of UST but I’ve never found them to make much sense outside of lifestyle/portable use. Just get a conventional projector. A conventional projector, especially a ‘hometheater’ model, is much more versatile as you are no longer restricted on screen size or screen placement. In fact, many of today’s models would be able to fill your entire wall, floor to ceiling, (190”+ diagonal) to create a truly immersive, life-size image. As for your question of OLED vs Projection. I love the image an oled can create but unfortunately cannot deal with the small size. 83” is TINY. My bedroom screen is 96”. My media room is 120”. If I had more space my current projector could easily power a 150-165” screen without breaking a sweat. You could always jump to mini LED/LCD but I find LCD’s issues (poor motion handling, dirty screen effect, haloing) tends to increase with size. Nevermind a 100” LCD is 150+ lbs and a 115” LCD is nearly 200 lbs and still costs over $20K! My projectors are $7000, $3000 and $1000 and weigh less than 23lbs, 15lbs and 10lbs, respectively.

You’ve got lots of options at that price range. I have a BenQ W5850. I did a review for it here: https://www.avsforum.com/threads/benq-w5850-4k-laser-2600lm-100-dci-p3-home-cinema-projector-review-owners-thread.3342348/?post_id=64504492#post-64504492 The BenQ has a ‘shorter’ throw than most premium projectors which makes it necessary for those with smaller rooms. If you have a larger room you should also consider the Epson QB1000 as well as the JVC NZ500 a Sony 5000ES. The Epson is the brightest, the BenQ second brightest, the JVC and Sony aren’t as bright as the DLP or 3LCD but they have better contrast than either. You could also consider the new Xgimi Titan— which is brighter than all 4 and at a significant discount. Only thing is Xgimi is known for ambitious, aggressively priced product but they tend to launch in a ‘beta’ state with some bugs/firmware issues. So just be aware and maybe check out the owners thread over on AVS. Other things to consider: If you’re a gamer the BenQ has the lowest input lag and best motion handling. The Epson is the only one that supports 4K/120Hz though its motion won’t be as crisp as the BenQ. The JVC should be avoided for gaming as it has comparatively high input lag. The Sony is fine for gaming— not the best and not the worst. If you want 3D, the DLPs are your only options: BenQ W5850 or Xgimi Titan. One thing ai’m not sure of is if the Xgimi supports full resolution 3D— again check the owners thread. I tested the BenQ and it does. For contrast nothing beats Sony/JVC. But they also tend to be dimmer than competing models at any given price point. Basically you have to spend a more on a Sony/JVC to get similar lumen output as their competitors.

The Titan Noir is objectively better in brightness and contrast black levels, but there are some differences in how they both process the image and their lenses. Specifically, EBL seems more aggressive and makes greater alterations to the image to squeeze out contrast, whereas DBLE is more gentle right now and conservative in its approach. The Aetherion is said to have slightly less screen door effect because it’s XPR is seemingly running at a higher speed, but you may not really notice that anyways. It’s approach to rainbow reduction is slightly different, and the Aetherion may be better there right now, but that’s not important if you aren’t bothered by the rainbow effect and further updates can improve it anyways.  Don’t worry about black levels between these 2, they are both likely good enough that the other features become more important. Do you ultimately want to design your room around a UST or a long throw? That’s what the decision should be about. The UST will require a UST tailored ALR screen to get its best performance. That is a higher upfront cost. But it is probably the best solution if you know you will have lights on while watching. If you are a home theater enthusiast and want to squeeze out the most visual quality, then go with the Titan noir If you are not so demanding and just want something nice and big for family and friends, the Aetherion will be fine 

Everyone certainly has the right to tune their projectors they way they like. I'd never hamstring my projector to 100 nits. I watched the XGIMI titan on a 150" screen last night and had it firing 200+ nits.

I am not a shill, just a simple guy that needed a projector, my understanding of the brand is the old business thinking of your margin is my opportunity. Many brands were stagnant with high prices then XIGIMi comes with lense shift, higher ansi lumens and great quality at lower prices, why? Because they are hungry and want a good share of that margin, it is a great projector, anybody that has come to my house has immediately consider buying one based on the quality of the image. Their costumer service is great too. You may hate tha sub, but you might be missing out on good quality, order it via Amazon, if you are not impressed return it.