How I brought the Movie Theatre to My Living Room

Picture Projection has been revolutionised. Smaller is better!

My Projector History

Do you remember the days when you had a business meeting and you had to whip out the projector and almost strained a muscle trying to lift it and set it up. I had those those days. I remember trying to get the picture square onto the mobile screen and just working up a sweat to make it happen. Not only was it heavy but everything about those projectors was manually done. Another thing about the old projectors was the heat that came from it when it was in operation. You had to make sure your conference room was well airconditioned to ensure you could run it for a few hours without any shutdowns.

The DLP projectors also could get very loud, sometimes the presenter would compete with the projector especially when the cooling fan started up. These old projectors did do the job though, they were no slouches once they were set up and running. One final thing, that was a real horror story for me was attempting to repair at your local authorised dealer. It seemed that they never had the parts when these projectors were giving problems. May be they were all about the sales and not the after sales service.

They probably knew that what they sold us may have been obsolete or nearing there. Most of the time it was less costly to buy a new one. However, a decent projector back in those days was around USD1500.00 to USD2000.00. In today's market, you have so much variety and prices are far lower, also projectors in the past were mainly seen as a piece of equipment for business places and not for personal use like watching movies and photos at home. Look at that behemoth below!

However technology has advanced tremendously over several years and equipment has been redesigned into phenomenally smaller pacakges and there are new found uses for technologies that were previously only used for a specific and limited purposes. Take a look at LEDs which have always form part of a radio's circuitry, now we are using them in our homes in our vehicles, street lights and the list goes on.

The younger and more compact design of the literally mini projector is totally different from the old DLP dinosaur of our recent past. First of all the new boy on the block is fanless therefore no fan noise as with the former generation, it is lightweight compared to the old boy, it is bulbless and uses a laser and high speed scanning technology to produce high definition picture projection. The mini projector also has instant auto focus, so there is no need to freak out about sharpness adjustments. The mini projector's screen size goes up to 100 inches. You can also project it on the ceiling without any issues. Finally, the projector only uses about 5 Watts, esssentially the same power as a light bulb.

Is this Projector Worth it?

Would I buy this? Yes! Overall, for something so small it is still quite powerful for its package, portability and performance. Take a look at the specifications.

• Resolution: 720p/60FPS

• Contrast: 80,000:1

• Ratio: 16:9

• Brightness: 30 ANSI (equivalent to 150 ANSI lumens in a standard DLP projector)

• Screen size: 100" (The projection distance is 3m depending on the environment)

• Audio output: 3.5 Audio Jack

• Speaker output: 1.0W (Maximum)

• Input interface: HDMI (v1.4 HDMI female connector)

• Rated voltage (V) / current: Rated input: DC 5V / 1.5A

• Operating temperature: 5 ° C to 35 ° C (41 ° F to 95 ° F)

• Size: 103mm x 50mm x 19mm

• Weight: 133 grams

• Mounting: Standard 1/4-20 UNC tripod mount

• Navigation: Multi-way switch

At USD280.00 how can you possibly go wrong here? The price I quoted here is VAT exclusive and specifically from Nebra Ltd a company based in the UK and they ship globally. You also need not worry about the power conversion, they have also taken that into consideration. If you are importing this projector into Barbados remember this product will attract duties. See the photo below of possible final payment.

Finally, as in the video don't have extravagant expectations but also understand that this projector is very good for its very small size.

If you click the Nebra Any Beam Link I do earn 3% on its sale. If you do buy I thank you for supporting my blog.