Hi legends,
Hoping to set up an outdoor cinema for the kids over school hols.
Saw this: https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/kogan-4000-lumens-full-hd-proje… but can't seem to find any reviews. Price is right though!
Anyone here have experience with the Kogan projectors, or this one specifically? Otherwise, any other hot tips?
Cheers!
Yeah if I can't get anything around the $300 mark (which is fair, it's not much money) I'll go S/H!
With these Chinese projectors you need to take the lumen rating with a grain of salt. At best you will be able to project on a 1.5m wide screen and for anything beyond the low brightness would make it unwatchable.
Personally I would get one with Wi-Fi, BT and Android O/S built in.
After seeing many of the cheap LED projectors and how frustratingly dim they were, I ended up just going for something secondhand with reasonably low lamp hours. Should be able to find something full-HD under $300 if you keep an eye out.
+1
Get any used brand name projector.
Even a SVGA will be fine.
XGA is decent
WXGA is achievable (I sold my WXGA, for $150, with some lamp life remaining)
but you'll generally have to buy a new lamp soon, right? how much should I roughly factor in for that?
Not necessarily.
Depends on the reason for sale by the previous owner.
Lamp hours should be available from the seller.
Pricing should vary according to the lamp hours. The last projector I onsold was an Infocus brand WXGA with only 500 hours on the lamp, ~1500 hours remaining. I got $160 on eBay. If the lamp was still worth 75% of its replacement cost, the projector value would have been around $110.
Lamp costs vary with projector manufacturer, but no more than $100 delivered in my experience with Infocus and Epson.
Search around for an Anker Nebula Mars Lite… I have one, got a new one from Ebay USA for I think around $350 plus some postage, so a wee bit higher than $300. I think its perfect for your needs, its bright enough to use outside, is built like a tank, has strong built in speakers and a battery life that'll get you through a movie.
You'll need to shop around to try and find one at the price I got mine for, but you are on OzBargain so you are up to the challenge :)
The Epson EH-TW5600 (https://www.ozbargain.com.au/product/epson-eh-tw5600) has been a popular OzBargain choice in the past. OPs for recent deals have said 'Often recommended as the best budget projector' and 'quality for your dollar'.
I've had one for almost 2 years, and been very happy with it.
However, even as a 'budget projector', you're probably looking at two or three times your budget for this Epson model.