Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 48
 GAME ON! With this Incredible LED projector! The Essential Review! December 29, 2009
W. Flanders
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
The Essential Review!
WOW All I can say is I'm very impressed! I have been looking at getting an $850 -$1000 Dollar 720p projector for a year now. Then I saw this thing, looked at the reviews and decided to take a chance(Here is everything I wish was in the reviews I read). I was very happy with my purchase and with the 30,000 hour life span I can enjoy this thing ALL the time and not have to worry about burning up bulbs. That alone makes it worth while. I love playing games and watching movies so this makes everything BIGGER!
I was amazed at the difference between LCD/DLP and LED. With standard bulbs, your shooting white light through a LCD or a color wheel. With LED's you have RED,GREEN and BLUE LEDs making RED, GREEN and Blue light. The color is much richer and more brilliant. The 200 ANSI Lumen rating can be almost completely ignored. With LEDs and bulbs your NOT comparing apples to apples, I can have 2 60 watt CFL bulbs in the back of the room on and still play games on the projector with no problems. The only real issue is the 800 X 600 resolution. The projector up-scales nicely to 1024/768 and other resolutions with NO problems. The controls are all that I expected and more and are easy to use.
If your balking about the resolution being too low, or the brightness. Just open up your wallet and dump about $1200 - $3000 into a HD DLP projector. And if you enjoy DVDs, video/PC games, youTube, and taking a giant screen over to your friends house for games or the Superbowl party this is the projector for you.
I'm going to break down the projector into all the uses you could use it for:
PC Games: The bright color looks great on modern games and plays well with older ones too. I played one of the hardest games to display well, Counter Strike. Absolutely NO MOTION BLUR when spinning around 180 degrees. I did have issues with dark shadows and HDR lighting. However after tweaking the projector and the games video settings I was able to play it in my living room on a huge 92" screen. I found that each game needed to be tweaked a little however it was no problem for this projector. Most of my games will display at 800X600 and if they didn't 1024 X 768 looked fine. A very nice monitor replacement.
Video Games: (Wii, Gamecube, XBOX, PS2, Dreamcast, N64, SEGA Genesis) Standard resolution video games played great on this projector, as I said before the LED light, brilliant color and No motion blur made for a great gaming experience. In Mario Kart 4 player everyone gets there own 46 inch screen. I just cant describe how awesome that is. Also I was able to see beyond the edges of the screen you would normally see on a tube TV.
Movies: Ahh the LED projector really shines here. As with the Video Game everything looks great. And with the resolution 800X600 blue rays also take advantage of the higher resolution. Everything looks very nice. Note that if your using the HDMI port for sound you can output via the headphone jack to an analog aux in.
Computer: Connecting this to your PC for games is great but watching some youTube/Hulu with friends is great too. Visualizing WinAmp with MilkDrop looked Impressive. Everything looks nice at 800/600 and most all web sites display properly. Text is clearly visible at native res. It also helps to use the MS clear type text tool, as on any LCD monitor.
Portability: Its small, smaller than the pictures look. It would be great at presentations and trade shows. If your mounting it, It uses a camera mount, single screw. I got the ceiling mount on Amazon, it worked great. (I mounted that on a small piece of wood on my ceiling) Taking it down to go to a friends house takes a few seconds. (I will be taking this to my next LAN party INSTEAD of a monitor)
Slide show: I have tried out the picture slide show, It was about what I expected. I think that almost everyone will attach this to a computer for viewing movies and pictures so this is a extra feature.
Conclusion: Wow! You read this far! Its great order it!
I'm going to watch my projector.
Brightest LED-based projector... for now January 8, 2010
hwmd
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had an old 1000-lumen Acer projector at home with a bulb that gave up again, so I took a chance on this new projector. What a great gamble.
This thing is brighter than the 200 lumens would make it sound at first. Now I wouldn't go taking this to Miami Beach and try to to Powerpoint out by the ocean, but even in a modestly-lit room, and especially a dimly-lit room, this thing has nearly as much oomph, from a brightness perspective, as my cruddy old Acer which was rated at about 1000 lumen. Nice. And if you tinker with the settings, it gets even better.
One note is the short throw distance / throw ratio. The other reviewers aren't kidding about this, and neither am I. I need to get a bigger projector screen now, because the unit doesn't have a zoom dial to let you adjust the throw distance. I think the ratio is somewhere around 1.5. The native resolution on this is 800x600, if I'm not mistaken, but it'll accept signals with 1024x768 and scale it.
The build itself is kind of slick. It's a handy little unit, about the size of your hand if you are a giant, otherwise about the size of an three VHS tapes stacked on top of each other. But a lot curvier and sexier.
I haven't tried the USB feature (Divx playback), but based on the menus, I would guess that there's a photo browser and video browser built in somewhere. I haven't exactly read the manual yet because I've been too busy watching movies & TV on this thing.
So, here's my take on this: this is the future, folks. LEDs have finally gotten bright enough and cheap enough for prime-time use in consumer and portable business projectors. Would I like a couple hundred lumen more? Sure. But if you're an early adopter, have at it -- this is a bright-enough, affordable, feature-rich unit that you can carry in your purse (or in your satchel, if you're a man too embarassed to say that you carry a purse).
If you're not an early adopter, and you can wait, then wait -- I have no doubt these things will get better over even the next 2-3 years. I'm amazed at how far this has come from a the Mitsubishi PK20 LED projector of only 2-3 years ago, which was rated at 20 lumens and produced a horribly dim image.
Oh by the way, speaking of which, if I were in the market for a business projector to take on the road, this would be it. With this particular throw ratio (i.e. big image at short distance), and lightweight package, unless you really really need a battery-powered projector, I'd go with this one.
I was amazed at quality for price, ease of use and the size and lack of noise were awesome May 24, 2010
Wes Lasher (Bloomington, IN)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Just a quick review after first impressions with the projector having tested it for about 8 hours with various inputs and using it in the field in a fairly tough lighting conditions.
I got it and set it up in my office on the wall in about 10 minutes, tried it with multiple sources and was amazed. I had enough time to watch a full Blu RAY through the HDMI input and it was incredible. Showed a 16:9 ratio and colors were amazing. And the amount of fine tuning you could was beyond what I expected. Tried the VGA input from computer and was very very pleased. The built in speakers were as good as one could expect for something so small, but most would want an additional audio connection to really match the visuals.
Incredibly quiet and no heat, plus it weighs very very little and I was able to mount on a tripod which was great for flexibility. I then used it for a wedding to project in a room to show a video that was prepared ahead of time played off my laptop... Again due to its small size and versatility I was able to set up a a small tripod, drape a black cloth around the whole thing and hide the laptop under that. Even in a room with huge sun lights (it was in a room that had an indoor pool and had 6, 20 foot windows in the ceiling) and with the early evening light coming into the room it still looked great.
Next test will be "movie night" outdoors on a screen at my friend's farm, so we will see how that looks.
So having never purchased one before and having not used one for a couple of years, I was amazed by this and very pleased with the purchase.
For those curious I am video producer, everything from some events to corporate training and sales video and all the way to documentary film editing and color correction, so just as a frame of reference for me to say it looked good, I wouldnt say it unless I meant it because I have to have a critical eye about this stuff all the time.
Hope it helps
Really impressed March 25, 2010
A. Delgadillo
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I am pretty new to the projector scene so I had to do a LOT of research before I worked up the nerve to buy one. Stumbled upon this little beaut and after looking at reviews and specs here and on other forums I decided to give it a try and WOW am I glad I did. For only $500 I don't have to worry about replacing a bulb because this is suppose to last like 10-20 years. Now, 800x600 resolution may not seem like much to some people but I hook up my PS3 through the HDMI connector and my movies look fantastic, the video games look pretty good too (just don't expect full 1080p quality and go comparing it to your HDTV. I have it about 8' away from the wall and I can get at least a 75" screen out of it. I hear there is an upgrade version of this coming out but I didn't want to spend much more than $500 for my first projector. But the only way I can see this monitor getting any better would be will 720p or 1080p resolution, but keep in mind 1080p LED projectors run for about $13K, so unless you count every single pixel and look at every single detail in video games than I really suggest this projector; its compact, bright, extremely quiet on ECO mode, vivid colors, and good contrast. So unless you want full 1080p out of your bluray movies, this does the work fine for not much cash!
Superior Technology and Great Price June 22, 2010
J. Treiber (Tokyo Japan)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have had my LG HS201 set up for about five days now and am extremely pleased with my purchase. As far as I am concerned, owning this tiny projector means I will never have to buy to buy a TV ever again. While I cannot speak for the projector's long-term quality, I can say that it works exactly as the other reviewers have described, and throws out a huge, bright, clear image which means that higher lumens are basically irrelevant with LED projectors of this sort. It's a solid-feeling device and the buttons on the top are easy to understand. I have tested the projector in various ways so I think I have a good idea of what it can do at this point. I usually project at 50% brightness directly onto a wall that's slightly cream in color, but that doesn't seem to alter the image's color.
I have attached my Canon PowerShot SX120IS camera and filled up the wall with photos. If nothing else the HS201 would be an excellent projector just for pictures since everything looks crisp and sharp, and the VGA videos taken with the camera looked surprisingly good too. I did this via video out rather than through USB by the way, as the projector didn't recognize the files via the USB hookup (the manual explains that not all USB devices are recognized -- not a big deal to me).
I then connected the HS201 to my MacBook through an adapter to the HS201's RGB port and played a DVD of the movie The Incredibles with some external speakers hooked up to the computer, which looked fantastic and was a pleasure to watch. For that I had to boost the brightness to 75%. My MacBook recognized the HS201, and in turn the HS201 recognized the MacBook without any problems. I measured the picture at 8 feet across and it looked fine. As as test I projected some YouTube videos on the MacBook via WiFi and while the HD videos looked great, the low resolution videos were difficult to watch. I also streamed an entire episode of V on Hulu through the projector and was stunned by how good it looked. I also downloaded a high-res trailer for the movie Tron Legacy and played that with Quicktime. Again, it looked just terrific. Computer programs such as those in the iWork suite look pretty good too, but are not at the resolution of my MacBook screen obviously. However, I may not have configured everything properly for optimal video out from the computer.
I then purchased and connected the HS201 to a JVC 5.1 surround home theater system with an upscaling DVD player (I am not interested in BluRay), but have only been using the standard video cable that came with the projector versus an HDMI cable. That may make a difference in quality, but how much? As with my MacBook, the image of the DVDs look great. I screened Princess and the Frog for my 7 and 3 year old daughters (they're absolutely delighted with the giant "screen" by the way) and it felt as though we were in a small, private theater. However, the image quality of a PBS documentary DVD from 2002 that I watched later was not nearly as good, but that was clearly because the original source was lower quality. These two videos were in different aspect ratios, so for Princess and the Frog I changed the HS201 to 16:9, and for the PBS video I switched it to 4:3, which was easy to do.
Finally, I am running my cable TV through an old VHS player and the output through the HS201 is extremely good, and fills up my wall. Sports are surprisingly fun to watch with such a huge picture. I live on a military base in Japan and the source is 4:3 only, but it's nonetheless a great way to watch TV. In fact I must add that though I rarely watch TV, and that I chiefly bought the projector for movies, the experience of having this projector makes me want to have the TV on more often. Not sure if that's good.
If you get one of these little beauties don't forget that you'll probably have to reconfigure your whole audio system, which are designed to sit beneath flat screen TVs against a wall. I set my system up in the middle of the room to go with the projector, which required purchasing longer speaker wires and creatively running those wires and power cables throughout the living room. Yet all of this effort has been worth it -- the HS201 is, in my opinion, a winner, and it has allowed me to leapfrog over ever having had to own a large flat panel TV.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 48
|
![AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (9.8 Feet/3.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001TH8UUA.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
![AmazonBasics High-Speed HDMI Cable (6.5 Feet/2.0 Meters) [Supports 3D + Audio Return Channel]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001T9NUJE.01._AA75_PU_PU-5_.jpg)
