Are there any decent budget projectors without lag?

[monel]

I've tried older projectors made by newer Chinese firms it seems, and a couple were decent without much noticeable lag. Fan noise was an issue.

A friend asked me recently and I looked online, the prices are way better than traditional brands but there is always a trade off.

Can anyone recommend some reviews or models, please?

[monel]

Also is a used or refurb machine a better bet, by the older brands...

[MartyG]

Probably. The compromises on cheap projectors are not so much the lag as everything else (focal plane consistency, throw ratio, claimed brightness, colour gamut, keystone correction, claimed resolution). You're always going to get noise with a projector given the nature of the beast (you have a hot lamp inside them that requires cooling).

It'll also depend on your use case, size of the room, brightness of the room. The brighter the room, the dimmer the picture will be. Unless you're mounting the projector straight on, it'll need to support some kind of keystone correction (and cheap projectors tend to do this poorly and manually). Small rooms will need a larger throw ratio (the ratio between distance of the projector and size of the projection). Small text needs better resolution, contrast and brightness.

If it's just for funsies, you might get away with something like the Elephas GC333 or W13, but you may well get a better experience from an older entry level from Epson or Benq. You need to take into account that the bulbs have limited lifespan, so a used one needs to take that into account.

Personally I'd stay away from cheap Chinese projectors for £100 or less on Amazon and spend in the £500/600 region for a named brand entry level that will have the specs as listed (rather than it being made up) and also budget for a screen to project it onto rather than a wall.

[monel]

Thanks for the comprehensive post. I was aware of some those issues. The refurb machines tend to have a new bulb fitted, but I wonder if previous usage has worn out anything else. They used to have a usage setting I wonder if people reset that.

One of the things with buying a decent projector is that if you only use it a few hours a month it makes more sense to upgrade your television.

The one or two Chinese ones I saw were quite decent for the cost, surprisingly so. However people have had bad experiences too, and on many sites the sellers kind of bribe people for reviews it seems.

[MartyG]

The problem with the reviews of these products is not just the legitamacy, it's also one of experience. I'm sure that there are genuine reviews on Amazon of those projectors from people who think their projector is good and it may be for them. However, without the experience of using higher end projectors you've really no base line for how a projector should behave, which for many of the cheap Chinese brands is poorly.

The Elephas ones are some of the better performing brands, but it still wouldn't stand up to the Benq and Epson entry level ones, let alone the high end Samsung and Sony models.

[Asura]

What do you want to do with it, [MENTION=11673]monel[/MENTION]?

It makes a huge difference. Like, if you want it to be your go-to television for the house, or to go in a hi-fi "cinema room", then that's different to if you want one to use in the garden for the occasion you have people over to watch the football.

I have a projector I use when camping that can run off a USB battery. In a dark campsite (i.e. away from urban light) it can throw a very bright image around 3m wide by 2m tall. It's only 720p (maybe even lower) but for this rough-and-ready use, it's ideal, as it's about the size of a matchbox and can charge up a decent way on a sunny day from a solar cell. Can even run a SNES mini through it.

But this projector is low-res and its colour repro is poor; it's just a very fun novelty for these situations.

[monel]

This was for a friend, but if I purchased one it would be occasional film and game use.

I can't justify the cost right now, if I'm sensible. I have seen expensive ones in use in the past and some newer budget ones.

It's just a piece of home tech that I'm not knowledgeable on. I know [MENTION=10111]QualityChimp[/MENTION] watches Power Rangers on one. That [MENTION=16924]QuantityChimp[/MENTION] was way cooler and more cultured.

[QualityChimp]

Hahaha

Everyone knows Quality over Quantity, mate.

Which ties in nicely with me agreeing with MartyG about getting a 2nd hand projector with a decent name to it than risk one of those cheaper ones with the advert where someone is holding it in their hand and it's filling an IMAX screen.

Mine is a BenQ and I've been really happy with it. It's ceiling mounted though, with a motorised screen, so it's out the way during the day, then drop it when it's Morphin' Time.

[monel]

QuantityChimp, or QC as we call him, had a holographic projector prototype made for the Russian space program, powered by PSP batteries. What a guy!

I would buy a refurb but again with a new bulb, I'm not sure if anything else would be too worn out.

[MartyG]

I think my biggest bugbear with these noname brands is their claimed nonsense of 9000/10000 Lumens. You need to understand what that measurement is tho.

Whilst they aren't technically always lying about this, what they're doing is holding the lightmeter in front of the lamp and measuring the output, which of course is going to give you a big reading. What you should be looking for is ANSI Lumens, this is a standadised measure of the light at the screen in 9 zones averaged out. None (and I guarantee it's none) of these projectors are going to have anywhere close to 10000 Lumens at the screen (inverse square law applies).

[dataDave]

Optoma's UHD35, which can go up to 240Hz. 16.7ms of display latency, so one frame at 4K for cinematic gaming, which is perfectly acceptable.

At 1080p, for retro/MiSTer gaming maybe, it rests on 4.2ms. Again, perfectly acceptable.

Amazon.de is showing €946.99 for me. That's an amazing price for what it's doing.

I want one, but not enough to break into my Tesla savings.

[monel]

Seen some nice Optoma ones, that's a big budget though.