Christmas Light Projector vs. Video Projector

Quick comparison

How we chose: the Nebula Capsule 3 Laser is the projector the Lazy Lighting team uses hands-on, including in our own videos. The other picks are based on manufacturer specifications; we have not tested them ourselves. Check current specifications and availability before buying. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

Three things sold as a “Christmas projector”

Store listings put three kinds of product under the same search. In photos of lit-up houses they look alike, but they work in completely different ways.

• Laser light projectors: a stake or tabletop unit that splits red, green and sometimes blue laser beams into hundreds of sharp points, the “star shower” look. Some drift the dots slowly or make them twinkle.
• LED pattern projectors: a bright LED shining through a patterned lens or a rotating disc, throwing snowflakes, stars, trees or Santa shapes. The shapes are larger and softer than laser dots.
• Window kits and video projectors: a real projector playing video. A kit bundles a small one with a translucent screen and Christmas loops; a home or portable projector plays anything you send it.

What a Christmas light projector can and can't show

A light projector's patterns are built in. You step through its modes with a button or remote, and that is the whole menu. Laser dots stay sharp at almost any distance, so one stake can speckle a two-storey front from the lawn. LED shapes soften as the throw gets longer, so place those units where the pattern looks crisp.

There is no video input, so you can't add Santa, a countdown or your own footage, and you can't keep the light out of a window or off the door. The pattern lands on everything in its path: siding, glass, gutters, the car. That is fine for a wash of moving color, and the wrong tool for a scene.

Window kits: a video projector in a Christmas box

Window kits sell the effect as a package: a small projector, translucent screen material for the inside of the glass, and a set of loops. AtmosFX's HoliScapes kit, for example, lists a 1280×720 LED projector, a 48 × 72-inch translucent fabric screen and a USB stick of scenes; the volumes on sale when we checked were Halloween ones, and its Christmas loops are sold separately.

So a kit is a video projector plus content. Check the projector for an HDMI or USB input, its native resolution and a brightness figure marked ANSI or ISO. If you already own a projector, buy just the screen and the loops.

Video projectors: what they add at Christmas

A video projector shows whatever you send it from a phone, laptop or streaming app: a sleigh crossing the garage door, snow falling behind one pane, a log fire on the chimney breast, family videos on the side of the house. Mapping apps need one, because they send ordinary video, and it earns its keep with movie nights for the rest of the year.

The price is higher than a stake light's, something has to play the video every evening, and in most cases it needs a dry, sheltered spot. Choose its brightness by the surface you are lighting, using the table below.

Weather ratings and six weeks outdoors

A stake light stays out from late November into January, so read the IP code on the box. The second digit is water: 4 means splashing from any direction, 5 means water jets, 6 means powerful jets. IP44 and IP65 are common on outdoor lights. No IP code means no water claim, which is normal for video projectors; neither of our picks lists one. An IP rating says nothing about cold, which is a separate limit (see below). For weeks of wet nights:

• Tilt the lens slightly down so rain runs off the glass.
• Use an outdoor-rated cord on a GFCI-protected outlet, with every plug joint raised and covered.
• After snow, clear the unit and wipe the lens: a frosted lens turns crisp dots into a smear.
• Re-aim after storms. Wind and frost heave knock stakes out of line, and a shifted pattern can land on a neighbor's house or above the roof.

Laser lights and aircraft: the FAA guidance

Laser lights bring a rule the other types don't. The FAA has warned that holiday laser displays meant for a house become a hazard when the beams reach the sky: pilots report being distracted or temporarily blinded by them, and the beams carry much farther than most owners expect. People whose displays affect pilots will be asked to adjust them or switch them off, and the FAA says refusing could lead to a civil penalty.

In practice, aim the unit so the whole pattern lands on the house, trees or shrubs, with nothing spilling over the roofline, and check the aim again after wind. The warning is about lasers, but keep any display's light off the road too, for the drivers' sake.

Why the lumen numbers don't compare

A light projector's brightness claim and a video projector's lumen rating measure different things. A laser light packs all of its output into small dots, so even a low-power unit looks vivid on dark siding. In the US its warning label states a laser class and a maximum output, usually in milliwatts, which tells you nothing about how bright the pattern will look across your house. LED pattern lights may list only watts, or a large lumen figure with no test standard behind it.

A video projector spreads its light over the whole frame. Leaving most of a mapped frame black doesn't push extra light into the parts that are lit: a thin outline along the roofline gets the same light per square foot as a fully white frame would. So you choose by the size of the frame. Nebula and XGIMI rate their projectors in ANSI or ISO lumens, which follow published test methods. Compare like with like, and ignore five-digit “lumens” with no standard named; on budget units they are advertising, not measured brightness.

What projection mapping adds at Christmas

Projection mapping fits video to the shapes of your house. You draw a shape over each window, the front door and any wall panel, give each one a scene, and everything outside those shapes stays black. The house looks decorated rather than covered by a rectangle of video. At Christmas, that opens up effects no stake light can match:

• Outline the windows, the door and the roofline with thin animated lines, a projected version of string lights that you can recolor or set chasing. White trim and fascia boards reflect far better than dark shingles.
• Hang an animated wreath on the front door, or between two upstairs windows, that sparkles or slowly turns.
• Fill one window with falling snow and put Santa in the next, each in its own shape.
• Wrap the garage door in moving gift-wrap patterns or a tree drawn in lights.

Mapping a Christmas display from your phone

Plan the frame first. To outline the roofline, the image has to cover the whole front, so even thin lines need house-front brightness. Lazy Lighting is our app for mapping from an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, and it includes 30 built-in Christmas scenes, 4 of them on the free plan. Lazy Lighting's Christmas guide walks through windows, garage doors and full house fronts, and Lazy Lighting Link, the receiver app for Google TV projectors such as both picks, takes the show without a cable. Other mapping apps that send a normal video signal work with these projectors too.

Use both: pattern light on the shrubs, video on the main surface

The two types work well together when each gets its own surface. Give the video projector the surface that matters most, usually the garage door, the main window or the middle of the house, and point the light projector at everything around it: shrubs, a tree, a side wall, the fence.

• Keep the pattern off the mapped surface. Dots landing on a scene's dark areas turn its black to grey and drain the contrast.
• Aim laser lights low into hedges and trees. The dots read like fairy lights on foliage, and a downward aim keeps the beams out of the sky.
• Pick patterns that suit the scene: white or cool-toned dots sit better beside falling snow than flashing red and green.

Timers and a nightly routine for a six-week display

Light projectors are the easy half: many have a built-in timer, and an outdoor-rated plug timer can switch them on at dusk and off at bedtime. A video projector needs more care. Many expect a proper shutdown from the remote so the fan can finish cooling, and a plug timer that cuts the power skips it. Use a sleep timer if the settings have one, or make shutdown part of the routine.

Our Christmas projector roundup covers getting the same alignment back over a long run, and our Christmas window projection guide covers running a window show every night until New Year. A routine that holds up from Thanksgiving weekend into January:

• Before dusk, check the forecast against the projector's rated minimum temperature.
• Put the projector back where you marked it on the first night, switch it on and play a test grid against the window and door edges. Keep auto keystone and auto focus off.
• Start the show from a phone on its charger, with Auto-Lock or screen timeout off.
• At your stop time, such as 9 or 10 p.m., shut the projector down and wait for the fan to stop.
• Bringing it in? Seal it in a bag or its case outside, and let it reach room temperature before opening it, so moisture condenses on the bag rather than inside.
• Once a week, wipe the lenses, check plug joints and re-aim any stake that has moved.

Cold-weather limits

Every projector has an operating temperature range in its specifications or manual, and Christmas is when it matters. XGIMI rates the Horizon 20 Pro to operate from 0°C to 40°C (32°F to 104°F). The Capsule 3 Laser's manual lists 0°C to 35°C (32°F to 95°F) in most regions and 0°C to 25°C in Europe and the UK. Plenty of December nights fall below freezing, and below the rated minimum you are outside what the manufacturer supports.

Check the figure for your own projector and plan around it: move the show to a window on the coldest nights and keep the outdoor display for milder evenings. Never shut a projector in a box to keep it warm, because it needs clear vents to shed its own heat. Stake lights have temperature limits too; check their manuals.

Which should you buy?

Start with the effect you want people to see from the sidewalk.

• Stars or snowflakes over the whole house, set up once: a laser or LED light projector with a suitable IP rating.
• Santa or snow in one window: the Nebula Capsule 3 Laser on a tripod indoors, aimed at a screen on the glass.
• A scene on the garage door or a mapped house front: the XGIMI Horizon 20 Pro or a similarly bright projector, sheltered and within its temperature rating.
• Both: video on the main surface, pattern lights on the shrubs around it.
• Already own a projector? Test it on the window before buying anything. Any video projector can play window loops and run a mapping app.