I searched high and low, read numerous reviews and nearly every comment before I decided to pull the trigger on this. I wanted a projector for outdoor, night time use and did not really care too much about the quality of the image. Given those were my expectations, I figured I likely could get away with one of these $50-60 projectors that are all over Amazon. It only gets 4 stars as it is very low end but again, its perfect if you have a purpose that its limitations can be overcome by.
I received it about an hour ago and it is exactly what I wanted. The first and most important thing for me is that it runs off 12v DC (2.0A) which means it will run off my Solar Generator (marine battery setup) without the need for an inverter - just needs a DC cable which I will make. This fits the bill perfectly to take when we camp.
The second thing is it is very small and it has a screw mount underneath that you can mount up to a standard tripod mount. One note is that if your tripod has the ability to flip vertically one of the legs may hit which you can overcome by turning it sideways but you lose some control to use the tripod for adjustments.
Yes, the picture is low resolution but fairly sharp once you adjust it. The lens does have throw adjustment which you use to 'focus'. I was able to get the 50-60" image at about 15' away and video met or slightly exceeded my already low expectations. The speaker is much louder than I expected but its cheap so it will be 'tingy' but if I'm doing a outdoor movie night, I'll just use the headphone output to an external powered speaker.
One final aspect that I didn't expect but am very excited about is that the USB port does provide power. I had to get an MHL adapter for my Galaxy S5 so I could use it to stream from it out of the projectors HDMI port but it requires power from a USB port. I was able to plug in the HDMI cable, the "charge" usb port and the MHL/Micro USB to my phone and now it will charge and play through the projector at the same time.
Update: I was able to take an MPEG4 movie and put it on a USB drive that I plugged in. Most of my movies are in M4V which is just another container but it will not see files with that extension. I renamed it to MP4 and it saw and was able to play the movie. Again, decent value projector if you have low light conditions and don't expect high resolution (you can see the squares of the pixels).
I also purchased the 2 year warranty from Amazon as it is Chinese 'junk' and I do expect it to self destruct but for the price I'll take the credit and buy another one.
| Manufacturer | Dowlab |
|---|---|
| Brand | Unknown |
| Item Weight | 1 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 5 x 5 x 2.2 inches |
| Item model number | FP3224B1-IV1 |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color | Black |
| Size | Projector (No Screen) |
| Manufacturer Part Number | FP3224B1-IV1 |
