Customer Reviews

EyeClops Mini Projector

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(69)
3 star:		(35)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(74)

 

 

I have been delighted with the Eyeclops mini projector. It was purchased to watch movies and play video games on my ceiling at night and it serves this purpose in a satisfactory manner. The poor contrast and low quality resolution can make dark video games more challenging, but overall, it produces a fairly impressive image for the price. This is not meant to compete with high-end projectors, but then again, you do find it in the toy department for a reason.

Pros: Portable, reasonably sturdy, great price.

Cons: Low resolution, poor contrast, LED lamp requires near total darkness, patches of image are tinted red or green.

I know this is a toy, but... The pictures of the family watching a movie on the ceiling and on the side of a tent are very misleading. According to the instructions, the projector must be within 5 feet of the display surface (the ceiling or the side of the tent), and to get the image to be as large as is pictured the projector must be more than 5 feet away. And I found that when the projector is more than even just 3 feet from the display area the picture begins to get fuzzy. When you project from 3 feet from the surface the projected image isn't even as large as my 15" computer monitor. I bought this for my 9 year old for his birthday. All of the cables to connect to my computer and to a DVR brought the price of the present up to $120, and now that I've seen the results I know my son will be disappointed in the present. Hope this is helpful.

I'm an adult and think this is a great product, especially for the price. I got my first one from Amazon right before Xmas for $29.98 shipped. I just ordered another one from drugstore dot com for $34.98 shipped. The unit will not power on if you don't have a live feed going through it - so for those of you who got it and think it's broken, you're wrong. You need to turn on the device you want to project first then turn on the projector and it will work fine - this is smart - saves the lcds for longer life. If you don't like the sound you have the option to hook up speakers to it through the headphone jack. The focus wheel does work - you just need to move it very slowly - once you get the focus to where you like it, leave it alone. Of course if you move the projector or make the image bigger or smaller, you'll need to focus again. You can project it on the wall, but the texture/color on the wall won't give you the best picture - you can do one of 2 things I tried that work great - goto Michaels with your 40% off coupon and get a white glue board (about $1.50) and use that as your screen - better yet, get a 24 x 36 poster frame - take out the plastic shield and reverse the paper inside that comes with it so it's on the white side and then put the frame back on - voila - you now have a white screen you can hang on the wall anywhere for very cheap price. I've done both and it really helps give the picture/projector justice.
You need to realize that this is NOT a professional projector, however,...it's lcd (no bulb to replace ever, and you'll get plenty of life out of it), very portable, excellent value, and if you get creative about how to make the picture look more clear/visible you'll be very happy with it. This projector isn't just for kids - there are many uses for it (holiday image projections, effects, project dvd movie on back seat of car, etc...). I don't work for Jakks Pacific, but I do like that they put a cool little device like this on the market for a reasonable price. Oh,....I watch tv on my ceiling every night - the picture is clear - the room just needs to be completely dark. For those of you who whine about it, you're just not setting it up right or you expect dlp resolution from it which isn't realistic for what you paid!
Happy New Year! ;-)

I want to start the same way a few other reviewers have - this is a Toy, not a high end electronic device. Having said that, watching Sponge Bob videos 'on the big screen' hasn't gotten old after two weeks. I would assume watching other brightly colored cartoons would be just as enjoyable. Once again - Toy not Tech.

This will be a mostly technical review. I had the Jakks EyeClops Mini Projector in my shopping cart for a couple weeks before I finally purchased it on Amazon. I bought it when it had gone down to 60% off, I figured, what the heck. It is a very small projector. The actual projector is 3.5" x 3.5" x 2". Yeah, it's that small. It's got composite in (yellow/red/white), a volume control, a headphone jack, a DC in, a focus control, and a single "on" button. It's resolution is 320x240. It makes a little bit of fan noise when it's on.
This projector is not bright, I don't know the lumens, but it's not bright. If you have a dark room, it'll go 7-8 feet, don't expect more. If it has to compete with ambient light, that number goes down fast. I can lay on my bed and project on the ceiling from my computer, very comfortable for watching videos off hulu, youtube, etc... As I mentioned, resolution is 320x240, to put that in perspective, normal standard def TV is 640x480, so it's "half". Not horrible, not great. The projector's throw (D/W) is 2. That is, if it is 2ft back from a wall, it'll make a 1ft wide image. The color of an image produced is not completely consistent. 3 of the 4 corners are tinted with the LEDs creating the image. That is, a white projection will look white in the center, a bit red in one corner, blue, and green in two other corners. This effect is evident with images of solid colors, but for normal video playback, it's not that bad, you barely notice it.
It has a standard tripod threaded socket on the bottom, but there is a layer of plastic below the threads, so some tripod mounts may be too short. It comes with a mount, though, that attaches to the huge battery compartment. Sure, you could plug it in, but where's the fun in that? Instead of the 4D batteries it recommends, I use a smaller 4xAA enclosure from Radio Shack that I wired to the correct DC jack. With 4 2500mAh NiMH rechargeable AA batteries I get about two hours of portable use. You should be able to get a cable to go from your iDevice to this projector online for under ten bucks.
This is a small, inexpensive, durable (I dropped it the first day, still works fine, but it is, after all, a projector), and convenient projector that can be powered with batteries with a low resolution and low lumens that is fun for hobbies/projects, novel ways of showing videos and slides, and can probably stand up to kids well (not personally tested). It is not the home entertainment projector you want in your living room : )
Personally, I love mine and am considering getting a 2nd, I mean, how can you not??

I bought this for an amazingly low thirty five bucks (used) and it was well worth it. the picture is blurry even when it is focused... the colors are strange, mine is red in the bottom corner for some reason. since it is LED it runs cool and the fan is quiet, but it cant be "upgraded" to a brighter bulb so viewing has to be in pitch blackness. I got a kick out of the belt clip, why is it there?!? so many things were missing from this to make it perfect, but I was only looking for cheap. I'm going to try a Torpedo or Sharper Image projector next... I did get what I paid for and I'm happy with it. just wish it was brighter.

Pros:
10/10 Cheap
9/10 durable
10/10 battery and ac powered
9/10 very portable
11/10 battery life++ (7+ hours already and perfect)

Cons:
2/10 poor focusing
0/10 no color correction
3/10 not bright enough
4/10 Sound quality is high pitched and tinny... (I hooked it to Ipod speakers and way better)

Even in a totally dark room, the EyeClops' picture was dim and fuzzy. We were finally able to get a mediocre picture by moving the projector to about 18 inches of the wall, but the tradeoff was that the projected image was smaller than our TV screen. Even my kids, who would watch TV if we put wax paper in front of the screen, found this unwatchable.

I bought this for my son a few weeks ago from Toy's R Us. I returned it the next day. The concept is good but for the price, you expect better. I know the limitation of the projector being a toy, but to sell something that doesn't even work is pure evil. The box has tons of false advertising and the company should be punished for this.

After we brought it home, we set it up in my dining room right away. I plugged in my old XBox with the Halo game. The resolution was so bad that we could hardly figure out anything. Undeterred, I tried again but this time in my son's bedroom under total darkness. Without turning on the light, I could hardly see 2 feet in front of me. Turn the project on, same problem. The images are so bad that you get eye strain by just watching it for 2 minutes. Tried adjusting the focus, no luck. The only positive thing about this toy is the sound. If you want your kids to start wearing glasses, this toy is for you. Otherwise, don't waste your money.

This is a toy. Do not expect it to give you a picture like a sophisticated piece of electronics. No the picture is not very clear - but it is clear enough to watch a movie outside (at night) and to play a video game. No you can't read the print within a video game or a movie very well but don't expect to. If you want a projector that gives you clear resolution and very good contrast then don't buy a projector from the toy department.

Overall my son (15) and family are very happy with this projector. There's no way I would spend the money on a 'real' projector so this is really the only alternative. If you want something fun to take movies outside or play video games on the ceiling and you're not expecting too much you'll enjoy this TOY. It's very nice that it can take 4 D batteries (for outside play) or be plugged in (for inside play). The sound is a little tinny but nothing horribly upsetting. For less than $100 I am very happy with this product (as I have been with all of the Eyeclops products we've bought so far).

I watch movies with my niece with the mini-projector and we have so much fun together. It's great for quality time! I didn't have the greatest expectations and I was pleasantly surprised.