Yup… with my current projector, I am rarely even using the projector Andoid OS itself, it mainly acts as a screen for my laptop. I got a tracking number, but since its now been about a week since I got it with no update, I suspect they just reserved it for me, rather than actually pack and send my Picopix. My plan with this projector was that the 1080p should make it alot more useful than my 720p projector for computer work.
So I am considering asking for a refund since it really wont work for me to essentially not having HDMI input. Without zooming or 4 corner adjustment, the chance of it being useful seems slim to none. Anyone actually finding any scenario where they could use the HDMI input effectively? I mean, my projectors so far always had some type of zoom. Vertical keystone adjustment… hmmm, is that auto adjusted? I mean, it might work but I surely prefer being able to manually adjust it as well. But that alone hardly seems like its going to give me a useful screen. The shelf I just for my projector is placed as it is because it was possible to adjust these things.
That sounds like a semi-fixed to fixed mounting scenario where a non-portable projector might tick more of your feature boxes.
Most projectors have a very limited optical zoom range as it’s difficult to get good optical performance throughout the range. The projectors I’ve used have ranged from 1.2:1 to 1.5:1 zoom ratio. These have been fixed-mount projectors, nothing remotely as small as the PPM. As for digital zoom, the 80%-100% digital zoom would be the equivalent of a 1.25:1 zoom lens, but with a significant loss of both light output and resolution (the initial 50%-100% digital zoom as mentioned earlier in the campaign would have cut light output and total usable pixels to one fourth at the 50% setting). In a pinch the digital zoom would help reducing the size of the projected image if it’s completely impossible to move the projector closer to the projection surface but in a fixed installation you would be much better off moving the shelf/mount.
I am already reducing its size by 50% but its clearly not a half of 720p resolution as it is now, so its either not all digital zoom or it must be more than 720p. I guess Xgimi must know what they are doing. Moving the projector to the exact spot where it needs to be is pretty much impossible in most scenarios I would argue. So either it ends up being too small or it ends up being distorted or too big. Moving the shelf closer? That is not much of an option either. I guess projectors must generally be shitty. My first projector cost me 3000 dollars, but it was pretty high end. Still is I guess. 1080p, optical… everything, high contrast range… but it was about 10 years ago. That is why the price was so high and those light bulbs… they dont last very long. Well, I guess everything is relative, but I have used up 3 bulbs, the one that is in it now has already begun flickering. Its also very big, gets very hot and is very noisy.
The Z4 Aurora is small, almost silent, built in Android, 4 corner stone correction… I think its digital zoom… up to 300" screen. I guess I got lucky picking this one. Cost me 700 dollars. The speakers are Hardon Kardon, or something like that… I keep being amazed by the quality of speakers that fit inside such a small projector.
I guess I have to try the Z6 projector they made, it is 1080p, but only one HDMI port, only one USB port… but while that is the bare minimum I guess it is enough. They dont have built in batteries, but that was never a feature I was looking for, seems more of a nice to have.
I’ve used the program airparrot to cast my pc screen to my Apple TV, there’s a good chance this would let you cast your pc to the ppm and you’d then get your zoom and four corner correction as well as not having to use a cable.
Weirdly, it seems like you can zoom further than 80% albeit manually via the 4 corner correction. I’m really curious why the zoom is only until 80% if it’s all digital anyway.
So far I like the 4 corner correction and zoom being available as it give you much flexibility in many scenarios but I still try hard not to use them to be honest. I like my picture at its best as much as possible. Also, HDMI/typeC not passing through Android might have helped with the less input lag for gaming so I’m kinda good with it and accepted it.
I wonder how the zoom is implemented in the Xgimi then. I haven’t seen any optical zoom options on any of the tiny light engines, but I can’t rule out that they have one.
Yeah, my non-portable 1080p projector was US$3500 in 2007, that one has excellent CR and is plenty bright but still only 1.2:1 optical zoom ratio (no digital zoom). Those were meant to be ceiling mounted where placement was determined by the throw ratio and desired screen size. I can understand that there are expectations that portable projectors should just adapt to the situation but nobody’s really willing to pay the price (yet).
Projectors are “shitty” because the volume is so low, it’s still too much of a niche market, even though the portable ones start to show up in a lot of places.
Well… I guess that is also something I will have to look for then. I was not sure my current projector had optical zoom, but it did seem strange if digital zoom would be this effective.
Given that it cost me 700 dollars, it does not seem like an overly expensive feature, but that was an early backer price I think.
I guess I will have to get a projector that is larger than my current projector if I want to keep having an optical zoom then.
Seems like getting a refund for this projector is possible, but I have to wait for the shipping company to get it so I can tell them to send it back. Getting 1080p I was willing to give up on having 2 HDMI ports and 2 USB ports, but no optical zoom and no 4 corner keystone correction for the HDMI input just makes it seem pretty pointless.
Maybe Xgimi will make another miniprojector or maybe I can find the Z6 projector somewhere, I just have to ensure it has optical zoom as well. Pretty sure the ones newer than the Z6 Polar were actually more lacking in features for some reason.
The suggestion didn’t go down well because a lot of sources are not able to do any kind of image quality alterations, let alone adjusting the vertical or horizontal keystone (read: consoles, bluray players, pcs?)
What’s done is done.
For a large enterprise such as Philips to run a crowdfunding project, one can presume that interaction with customers is the major objective. There were way too much time and chances for Philips get to know the needs of the community, if HDMI source not supporting BT/Zoom/4-C was not a intended deception in the first place.
I rather believe this was a design choice, with cost consideration. If you had to do it over again, just make sure what you sell is what you said to make. Fair trade. Period.
Yes I have this problem, the main reason I bought the projector was for the digital zoom, I have the screen size just right - but as soon as a switch to HDMI (Apple TV) the screen is massive and I can’t use it. This is very disappointing. Is there any workaround???
I have been testing my Picopix before returning it. Even though its not optical, I would be able to live with the digital zoom and such… if only it worked for HDMI sources… and that the projector had some Android app that could act as a remote, because the remote does not seem to work. It just blinks red and wont be discovered as a bluetooth device. Seems 4 corner keystone correction cannot be done without the remote, not even when trying to use USB controllers of… any kind as far as I can tell.
I will try to test how well it works to stream content to it. I have read that restarting the projector might help getting the remote to work, so hoping I can get that to happen. Already took me an hour trying to just setup this projector. Does seem very promising I think, but… not really sure I can defend its cost so far. I was tempted to keep it if just the streaming works… well… very very well…but even then I usually turn on my laptop, then close it and it is on my projector. Pretty sure I will have a hard time making that happen with any wireless option.
It seems pretty close to being an amazing projector though, maybe if they make a another projector, I would be willing to bet on that as well.
Okay… wireless display seems really bad. Tried Chromecasting to it… not anywhere close to the quality of my Chromecast dongle. Much lower than 720p and the latency is pretty horrible. I guess I will just finish the refund stuff tomorrow. Mirecast seems to require an adapter or something? Its a 5ghz router, so the connection should be pretty great. I updated the firmware and it seemed to download with 10-30mb per second.
Sucks, I had pretty high hopes for this projector.
Found out I had been connecting the controller the wrong way, I had been pressing vol-up instead of vol-down in the connection keycombo. So the controller probably does work as intended.
