The offsite meeting room that we use for our team meetings wants to charge us £75 for the use of a projector. I can buy a projector on Amazon for less than that.

But is it worth it? Are there any good cheap portable projectors?

Good cheap portable. As far as I've seen you can have two.

This is the type of thing I offload to the Wirecutter:

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-pico-projector/

Dirt cheap projectors usually have crappy low native resolutions like 800x480. They spout "Full HD" since they accept that but just downscale. Usually they are fairly upfront if you read the details though.

Which is why Matt's suggestion looks very interesting.. 1280x800 native.

Thanks Matt (& Roger) been looking at getting a projector too.

This one, VANKYO Leisure 510, is much cheaper and seems to have excellent reviews. Not a "in the palm of your hand size", but that means it probably can run cooler as well:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VANKYO-Leisure-Projector-Projection-Carrying/dp/B07GWSGW5H/ref=sr_1_2

Link above is for the UK; look on Amazon.ca or Amazon.com for reviews.

A long way short of less than 75 GBP though mentioned in Roger's post.

Ah. For some reason I had assumed it was 75 quid PER MEETING.

It is. So even a £400 projector will amortise out fairly quickly.

Yup, as would the larger/cheaper £160 projector as well.

Funny, but this thread got me going again on projectors. I've never owned one before (too dim, too expensive, poor bulb life), but with the flood of low priced transmissive LCD projectors from Asia.. hard to resist.

So.. I found this ABOX A6 Projector on Amazon Canada: native 1920x1080, 200 ANSI lumens (or 4000 "marketing" Lumens), for a mere CAD$369, or about £218.

Given the generally very positive reception of their £100 720p model (ABOX A2), I figured the new 1080p version might be worth a try. Should be here tomorrow. I'll post a review on Amazon afterward, and will probably follow-up here again as well.

Cheers
Mark

I'd be particularly interested to know how it deals with Powerpoint type stuff in daylight, thanks Mark

Well, it is 11:20am and overcast outside, and I have the four pot lights on in my study. Here's what it looks like. Click on the link for FULL SIZE shot from my phone cam. That's a 69" diagonal display (the illuminated portion of a much larger screen) at 7' from the projector lens.

My Amazon review of this is now live on the ABOX A6 product page, or directly here.

Summary: Cheap/noisy real 1080p. Good for a dim room.

That seems pretty decent, actually. Especially that last photo of the people in the stands. More visible than I'd expect in a room that bright. Though it looks like your lights were off in that one which probably changed the white balance and light levels of your camera.

I recently installed one of these for one of my clients. This was in a legit home theater with no windows and tiered seating and all that. If it were MY 11K sqft home I'd go with a more impressive projector, but I usually don't have the last word in these situations It looked pretty good, but not quite as crisp or bright as I would have hoped.

The biggest issue I would have is the noise level. I was able to get the projector mounted as close to the ceiling as possible without having to adjust keystone too much. It's about 6' away from the heads of the people sitting farthest away from it. At that position I still found the fan noise distracting. I don't know, I've never had a projector in a home of my own, so I don't know what the ongoing experience is like, but I would need as quiet a fan as possible.

I think if I ever get my basement home theater going, I'll go with a projector like this one. Very bright (from what I can tell it's 2500 ANSI lumens), and the reviewers say the fan is pretty quiet.

I so want to build my home theater. All the wiring is run from when we recovered from a basement flooding, we've just had so many other projects to take care of before buying a bunch of home theater equipment...

I have decided that the fan noise is simply TOO LOUD to stick with it. Pity that, because it does have an LED bulb in it that will likely never need replacing. But.. back to Amazon with it.

Stepping up a notch now, to a DLP.

This BenQ MH530FHD 1080p 3300 Lumens DLP Projector (USA link here) has very positive reviews, and fan noise claims of around 29dB, which should be realistic (DLP bulbs can run hotter than LED bulbs, so the cooling need not be as intense, or so they say).

It also has a slightly shorter throw than the equivalent Optoma projector, and that's important for a smaller room.

The price here is about CAD$200 more than the budget ABOX A6, but it will be a LOT brighter as well as hopefully a lot quieter. Should be here tomorrow evening, so we'll see.

Cheers

Oooo that looks like a good choice. I might have to go with something like that too, if I ever get my act together. My basement is pretty dark but has some window wells, and a sliding door on the other end. I'll need all the brightness I can get. That also appears to be the new budget pick by Wirecutter.

Thanks for reminding me about getting the real brightness for these things. That Optoma I set up is marketed as 3300 but from what I can find online is ANSI 2350.

The current cheap native 1080p Optoma DLP is the HD27, with 3200 ANSI lumens. It and the BenQ above are pretty much the only two in their class. Costco also sells it here for the same price as Amazon, just a few bucks more than the BenQ.

I've chosen the BenQ on price, slightly shorter throw, and on an ever so slightly lower fan noise rating. Arriving here tomorrow evening.

The BenQ MH530FHD arrived, it is better. A LOT better.

Fan is still Loud by my uneducated reckoning, but not LOUD like the ABOX A6. It kinda vanishes from prominence while watching/listening to video content.

Picture quality is friggin' AMAZING!!

Colours are strong and smooth, brightness is fine with all of the room lights on, but contrast is much better in dim light typical of a home theater setup.

Oddly, with the ABOX I suffered slight motion queasiness watching stuff with the screen size set more than about 80" diagonal. No such issue with the BENQ -- 100" diagonal is just fine with my inner ear. Dunno why they differ, but they do.

I haven't had opportunity to try it in daylight yet, but there's no doubt it will be watchable then.

More later, after I work out the best projector and screen placements here.

Cheers

Here's another odd difference that really puzzles me. With the ABOX A6 projector, my venerable Zotac ZBOX ION2 computer that I use for MythTV was producing pink/magenta tones rather than reds when feeding out over HDMI.

I could unplug the cable from the ZBOX, plug it into my notebook, play the same content, and.. red, not magenta. Move the cable back to the ZBOX and it's pink/magenta again.

Now the weird bit: If I instead use the DVI-D output of the ZBOX, with a dongle to convert to an HDMI connector, and then the same cable etc.. from there to the projector: red, not pink. WTF?

The new BenQ projector doesn't seem to care: red is red, from either the HDMI or DVI-D source ports of the ZBOX.

So.. it's only a curiosity at this point, as the ABOX A6 has been sent back to Amazon. I'm keeping the BenQ. Just have to find a mounting position to give me the screen height+size that I want.

Cheers

Here it is with some direct sunlight leaking through the 90% shade blinds this morning. Perfectly watchable and MUCH better in-person than the photo makes it appear. But it is obviously lacking the same contrast it would get in less bright conditions.

I assume that the rainbow effect is just a photography issue and not something you're seeing live? I've heard some people can have an issue with that on DLP projectors.

It's gotta be, yeah.

Very short exposure time for the camera shutter would "freeze" the cycling of the color filter so that you only see 1/3 of the refresh cycle in the photograph.

I'm glad you guys are discussing this here, because I have frequently thought about whether I would want to switch to a projector system, and it's good to see how the state of the art is doing. I'm not ready to switch to a projector yet, but it's interesting to see this.

Ah, yes.. strictly the camera seeing that, not me. No noticeable "rainbow" effect at all, and I've run a LOT of content through it now.

From what I have read, I think this BenQ uses a RGBRGB wheel. Not sure how fast it spins though.

Very very pleased with this projector!

Now I am trying to get a permanent screen setup worked out, aiming for 100" diagonal at about 10' from the viewers' eyes. I have ordered a fiberglass backed 100" pull-down from Amazon -- Costco also has a similar item for $100 less though. And if I can work out how to store a shop-built rigid screen the cost will be about $20 instead.

For sure. My motivation is to have my office/study do extra duty as a part-time home theater setup, in addition to its current role as part-time guest room with a sofa bed.

So the setup has to be out of the way of normal functionality when not in use -- roll-up screen (or fold up or similar), and the projector will sit in the existing bookshelves. The surround system (Logitech Z-5500) is also easily tucked away.

There's just no place I could put any decent sized LCD in there (walls are covered with shelving, floor covered with worktables etc.), and going with a projector permits a massively large display that takes up no space when not in use.

And with the BenQ, I am pleasantly astonished at just how good a projected display can be, and this one compares quite favourably with our 42" LCD TV (in another room).

What the heck.. I've just ordered the HD27 from Costco so that I can do a head-to-head comparison of the two, and also to see if the HD27 is quieter or not.

The BenQ is a lot quieter than the ABOX A6, but is still louder than I would like for a projector that is sitting more or less directly over my head. The Optoma HD27 has a larger vertical offset, so I should be able to mount it another 6-7 inches higher up, which in-theory would reduce perceived noise levels. We'll see.

From what I've been reading, apparently sensitivity to the "rainbow effect" varies from person to person. I don't think it affects most folks.

That image looks good, Mark! Is the projector pretty dead-on straight? I ask because it looks like you've aligned it perfectly within a screen that has no bezels, as I don't see light spilling to the surfaces behind the screen (from what I can tell).

I'll be curious about your comparison to the Optoma. I found the model I installed to be pretty loud. And yeah, it also had a crazy vertical offset.

What material would you use for a screen, if going with the $20 option?

Yeah, I have the BenQ (in that photo) aligned perfectly with the 100" screen there, with zero keystone correction used. Looks really nice, but I do have a 100" pull-down fibreglass-backed screen on order: much easier to stow when not in use.

The home-brew screen is just a cut-down sheet of factory-primed (white) hardboard (aka. Masonite). A light coloured wall of sufficient size would also do the trick, and the BenQ even has "paint colour correction" in the menus!

The Optoma HD27 arrives here tomorrow. I'll be doing a very direct comparison between the two to figure out which to keep and which to send back. In theory, the new Optoma HD27 fan (24dB or 26dB?) is quieter than the BenQ (29dB).. in practice, we'll see.

The Optoma does have a larger "offset", which means I can mount it higher up and still be straight onto the screen. And mounting higher means further from the fan noise.

Cheers

The Optoma HD27 arrived here this afternoon, and the "head to head" comparison took all of five minutes to declare a runaway winner..

Returning the Optoma to Costco -- it has a high frequency whine (the colour wheel?) that makes it intolerable. Fan noise is similar to the BenQ, perhaps ever so slightly softer. But that whine.. Forget it. And the remote control works only if I stand in front of the projector and point it directly at the sensor. Duh.

The BenQ MH530FHD is the (rather obvious) keeper.

Okay, that's really awesome. I had a friend many years ago who used a projector on his living room wall. It worked well except for all the movies had a slightly tan tinge to them. It's great that the projector manufacturers are taking that into account.

Now that I have used a couple of current model DLP projectors here, the ABOX A6 looks better than I initially thought. It has the best remote control, and menus, and is the only one of the three with a built-in USB media player. It is also the only one with automatic software (vertical only) keystone correction -- a feature that is handy for portable use, moving from room to room or whatever.

But it was simply too LOUD for my study, about double the perceived volume of the BenQ projector. And a lot dimmer, but still surprisingly good for only 200 ANSI lumens.

It was also on Lightning Deals last night for CAD$300 instead of the usual CAD$370. If that price rolls around more often, the thing could be a really good choice for situations where the noise isn't as big of an issue.

There.. just had to get that off my chest in fairness.

I also find that pretty appealing. I might just shine onto a wall until I get the screen up...

BenQ actually calls it "Wall Color Correction", and offers a small selection of presets: Light Yellow, Pink, Light Green, Blue, and Blackboard. I imagine "Light Yellow" would also work for light beige. Other wall colours could be tweaked for with the usual projector colour adjustments, on the BenQ or on other projectors as well.

But.. on my BenQ at least, I have yet to figure out how to actually get it to permit me to adjust Color/Tint/Sharpness. Those menu items are grayed out here. The manual says "According to the detected signal type and selected picture mode, some of the below functions may not be available." I'm betting they're only available when the analog VGA input is used.

Finished the projection install today. I shelf mounted it in an existing wall unit, and added a 140mm external QUIET fan to draw the warm exhaust flow upwards and away from listeners' ears. All of the wiring goes to a power and keystone combo outlet, located at projector level and just right of the bookcase.

The 100" diagonal screen arrived yesterday, and is now hanging by chains from the ceiling over top of the electronics bench. When pulled down, the bottom is about 8cm above the table top.

The Logitech Z-5500 sound system is also now all in place with wires mostly tucked out of sight.

Despite being on the North-East corner of our home, this room is still quite bright, with four windows of its own plus light streaming in through the south facing doorway. The projector (BenQ) is still visible under these conditions, but quite faded, so I have added blackout drapes to the windows left of the screen, and fab'd a fold-away light blocking panel from cardboard for the other windows, for use when needed.

I have tried the ABOX A6 alongside the BenQ under similar conditions (all windows streaming light) and it is not very visible by comparison. But with just a bit of shade around the windows it also looks pretty good.

Yes, I still have an ABOX A6 -- the sellers wanted me to have another look at it so they sent me a freebie after I returned the original. Now that I've used the BenQ and Optoma projectors, the ABOX isn't really all that bad. Especially when the room is dimmed, which I find I want even for the BenQ DLP. So the only real bad mark on the ABOX is the fan noise, and I did update my Amazon review to be just a little bit kinder to it.

Cheers

Here (attached) is the original FULL SIZE version of photo4 ("Movie time!") from above, showing the movie setup in all of its glory, in case anyone wants to pixel peep.

Mission accomplished! It cost a tiny bit of shelf space, but otherwise the room is pretty much as before, and converts to a nice "home theater" setup with the pull of a drawstring (to deploy the screen), and optionally placement of some cardboard over the East window during daytime. For a sense of scale, note that the table below the screen is actually five feet wide, and the ceiling is nine feet above the floor.

Our home does have a space downstairs that was designated for "home theater" use, but this triple use of space upstairs is so much better for our situation. Something to think about perhaps.

Cheers

Okay, so the BenQ projector supports "3D Mode", and Amazon sells compatible 3D LCD shutter glasses for CAD$45/pair.

I know nothing much about 3D stuff: what else is required, other than a video file of a 3D recording?

Does the PC / video card need to do anything special?

EDIT: Answering my own question here, yes, a special "stereoscopic video player" application is needed. So for me here, that would be Bino. Mmmm.. probably not worth the $45 (for the glasses) to satisfy my curiosity about this discarded tech standard though.

Did you build that fan housing or was it something you found bought?

The fan housing was just cobbled together from wood scraps with hot-melt glue and the odd nail.

It it an open-sided box against the projector's air outflow grill, with an open top at the front for the 140mm fan. After building it, I thought it looked a little chunky, so I chopped off the bottom corner of the part that sticks out, making it into a 45 degree upward slope. Slopped on some white paint and.. there she be.

Gotcha. I haven't seen a fan housing like that, which is surprising. I would imagine it would be pretty useful with some of the places people are stashing electronics.

Damn good idea.

Today Amazon Canada has the ABOX A6 for CAD$260. At that price, it would be very hard to resist if I didn't already have a projector setup here now!

Pico projectors are so worth. Considering their dimensions and audio quality, they are perfect for non-stationary usage.