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Ansi Lumens vs. NITs vs CDM

If you are shopping for a display you may notice that some use ANSI Lumens, some use NITs and some use CDM.  So which is better?  Well NIT and CDM are the same thing, so that makes that part of the equation easy.  They are both a measure of Candelas Per Square Meter.  Get the full dynamic range out of a display viewed in broad daylight it needs to be 800 NIT.   Lumens is used for projectors, rather than NIT which is used for CRT’s, LCD’s, and Plasmas.  If you want to have the equivalent of an 800 NIT screen from your projector you need to look at the amount of screen size you have.  If you have a 4 square foot screen, you need 300 Lumen projector.  (That’s a small screen).

The ratio is 74.32 lumens per square foot if you want 800 NIT equivalent, but because most manufacturers are optimistic go with 75 to be safe.   For a home theater with controlled lighting you can likely be very happy with a 500 NIT equivalent which is 46.45 lumens per square foot of display. Now both of these numbers assume that what you are projecting on to is 100% reflective and has not light hitting it from other sources, which isn’t likely, but the numbers work for the most part because even if you have a surface that is 50% reflective, chances are you have a good deal of light not form the projector hitting it.

If you want to build your own 110 inch screen check out the DIY I wrote.

-- Brandon Wirtz

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Filed in: Rants and Tangents