There are so many projectors out on the market now, with all sorts of different features and at all different price points. But, if you’re looking for something that produces a bright and colourful picture, supports multiple video signal sources, has a fantastic customer support team to back it up, and won’t break the bank, then I say you can’t go wrong with the Jinhoo M30 LED mini projector
Although I found the price of $100.00 (CAD) to be very attractive, there were a few other features of the Jinhoo that stood out to me. These features included the 6500 LUX brightness, maximum 176″ projection size, 1920 x 1080 display resolution, 50,000 hour LED bulb life, small form factor, range of video inputs (HDMI, VGA, and A/V composite), the ability to play video files from USB and SD card, remote control, and only consuming 50 watts of power.
The projector also comes with its own 90″ x 50″ fine mesh fabric projector screen. The screen measures out to have a 100 inch projection size, but the projector can project up up to 176 inches. It also has the ability to perform as both front and rear projection screen. I’ve tried it both ways and it works really good.
Along with the screen, you also get a power cord, IR remote controller, A/V component cable, and an HDMI cable in the box.
The projector itself is compact, measuring a mere 8.5″ x 6″ x 3.5″ and has a nice solid feel to it. The buttons on the control panel have a nice solid “clicky” feel to them and the lens adjustment has a smooth action to it. The projector didn’t come with a tripod, but there is an extendable post on the front, if you need to prop up the projector during playback. There’s also a tripod mount on the bottom, so you can use your own standard tripod if you have one. You can project in several different ways: front, rear, and upside-down (if you mount the projector hanging from the ceiling).
It is capable of streaming video from your smartphone and/or iPad and can be upgraded via WiFi connection. It was very easy to get streaming media configured and updating the projector’s OS via my home’s WiFi couldn’t have been easier. The manual is actually very well written and explains how to set up these features in a matter of minutes.
On the left side of the projector, you’ll find all of the unit’s input and output ports, which include an audio out jack, A/V input jack, USB port, SD card reader, an HDMI port, and VGA port. You can play movies directly from USB storage devices and SD cards with the built in video player. I’ve been able to play movies encoded to AVI and MP4 without any difficulty. However, I have had issues with not being able to play certain MKV files. For these, I’ve re-encoded them to MP4 and they’ve worked fine. The player can also play MP3, OGG, and WMA sound files, as well as slideshows of PNG and JPG files.
The projector has a built-in dual 2W stereo speakers on the back. Unfortunately, this is probably the weakest feature of the projector. In my testing, the audio playback from the internal speakers has just been very low. There are some audio settings you can play with, like bass and treble levels, but the speakers themselves just don’t generate enough sound. Fortunately, there is a 3mm audio output jack and once I have my external speakers plugged in, the sound is excellent. The built-in equalizer has some pretty nice preset to choose from, like “theatre”, “sports”, “music”, and “news”. This makes it dead easy to change the audio levels to match the content you’re watching.
The projector’s cooling fan doesn’t generate a lot of noise like some other similar sized projectors and seems to draw an adequate amount of air to keep the unit cool. We’ve watched several hours of video so far and the projector doesn’t get very hot at all.
As for video playback, this little projector does an excellent job. Of course, it does the best job in a darkened room, but it still does a pretty good in a “mostly” dark room. We don’t have black out curtains in our living room, but I was still able to watch a movie just fine in the middle of the day, with just our normal curtains drawn. There’s a range of video settings you can play with, in order to get the best picture as possible, like noise reduction (which I use when playing movies we’ve recorded with our Neuros OSD – with 480p resolution), sharpness, brightness and contrast levels.
You also get a very nice remote control with the Jinhoo Mini Projector. Just like the buttons on the unit itself, the buttons on the remote have a nice “clicky” feel to them and are rubberized. It also has pretty good range, as I could still control the projector when sitting outside at about 40 feet away.
As for the warranty, Jinhoo say that they’ll fully replace or refund for any manufacturing defects for up to three years after purchase. They also mention that they will replace the unit once, if there’s an issue due to user error (I’m assuming that means something like if you drop the thing and break it). I sent Jinhoo an email recently, just mentioning to them that we’re enjoying the projector. They replied back to me the next day, so there’s obviously someone at the other end of the service department email. Reviews on Amazon also mention that Jinhoo are quick to reply to service related emails.
Overall, this little projector was a fantastic deal and performs better than I expected. It has a nice range of features and is really easy to set up and use just about anywhere. Not only does it work well with my Raspberry Pi 3b media player (via HDMI), but it also plays nice with my lower resolution A/V video players (those being my Neuros OSD, DVD player, VCR and Laserdisc). If you’ve been wanting an inexpensive home theater (indoor or outdoor), the Jinhoo would be a great way to get that project started. Yes, the built in sound is lacking, but that can easily be addressed. And if you’re concerned over the amount of waste going into the landfills or the amount of resources it takes to produce modern-day electronics or your household’s energy consumption, then I think this is a better choice than a 60″ plasma T.V., or something like that.
[tag]review, projector[/tag]