RECOMMENDATION NEEDED: cheap projector for living room
May 18, 2020 6:59 AM   Subscribe

I am looking for recommendations on a relatively cheap (~$150) projector to stream Hulu, Netflix, etc. in my living room.

When my partner and I moved in together, we decided not to purchase a TV. We still enjoy movies and some tv shows on Amazon, Netflix, and the like.

We both have iPhones and MacBook Pros. Ideally I’d like something that allowed me to connect wirelessly and stream content from the phones or laptops via Bluetooth or WiFi. If that pushes the price up, then we can also do HDMI or USB.

I don’t need anything fancy, and we are simply projecting on the walls (all white) until we purchase a simple screen. I just want something that works and won’t break down in a year.

Any ideas?
posted by zooropa to Technology (3 answers total)
 
A friend of mine bought this one for backyard movies and has been really pleased with it.
posted by something something at 7:10 AM on May 18, 2020


At that price point, it is probably easier to plug in a separate device like a Chromecast if you want to control it wirelessly via your laptop. We just use a Fire Stick on ours so we can control it directly and that works with no issue. I believe you can do screen mirroring on the 4K Fire Stick, but I've never tried it out.

Also consider sound options - a small speaker on the projector itself is not ideal. It gets very complicated very quickly if you want to have anything more than stereo sound, but it minimum, you should be able to get a long cable to connect the projector to a more substantial speaker situation in the front of the room. With ours, we just use a 3.5mm to RCA cable to connect to an AUX input on a receiver.

I'm not linking to the one we bought because it's currently 3x the price we paid (I assume pandemic gouging at play), but at your price point, you are looking at a "mini" projector that has a native resolution of 480 (similar to the ones already linked in other comments). They are barebones with an LED lamp shining through a small LCD screen and minimal keystone and focus adjustments on the lens. It should work fine if your room is fairly dark and you are not super concerned with the picture quality. The lower resolution, color accuracy, and the contrast ratio aren't going to be great, but if you are just looking for something to get a bigger picture, they can be fun.

We primarily use ours for kids movies and I've never gotten a complaint from them about the picture quality. :)
posted by hankscorpio83 at 7:25 AM on May 18, 2020 [1 favorite]


I bought a CiBest projector for ~$100 three or so years ago (it's the GP90 model but looks to no longer be available). It was cheap, had decent (780p, I believe) picture quality, and the best reviews among its cheap tier competitors.

It's been great for us for the last three years, in that it's worked without drama. It's overmatched by daytime use, has no wireless functionality (and bad enough UI that I'd probably just use the cable even if it did), and makes a really annoying sound when it turns on, but it means that we can watch shows and movies at night with a huge picture without spending much. If you're willing to deal with USB/HDMI, I'd probably recommend getting the best projector you can for your money and not to worry about bluetooth, but more generally I have no regrets about buying a cheap projector for home use. If you want a cheap projector to work as well as an expensive one you're asking for trouble, but it sounds like you just want an ok projection solution, and you can definitely get that for $150.
posted by lhputtgrass at 3:48 PM on May 18, 2020


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