With something like that, I could project a really big image of my
favorite anime or videogame on a huge screen or something. Wouldn't that
be neat?
So when I saw the advertisement for one store in the local paper for a
Sharper Image device that did this for $80, I was really enthused.
Imagine! I wouldn't have to spend mucho buckos for a video projector!
Ok, so what do I think after trying it out? Should I wait until I've
used it with video? Should I use it with a projector screen, too?
Well, first off, this is going to be one of those "Uh oh" reviews.
The unit is called the Wonder Wall, and the outside of the box shows a
lot of promise. Up to 90 inches! That's how big diagonally it's supposed
to be able to go.
I imagine one of those little Plug and Play Ms. Pac-man game units isn't
the best way to test this out, but it illustrates a few things I noticed
with the unit.
The screen is not evenly illuminated. This is something that, in theory,
should be easily fixed. Something to make the light be evenly
distributed. Something that I should be able to stick in front of a 50
watt halogen bulb without burning it (not the bulb, I mean). Otherwise,
the bottom of the screen is darker than the top. Lightening the contrast
did yield seeing the entire screen, but it was too light for my tastes.
I definitely need to try it with real video.
The resolution of the screen the light shines through seems to be rather
limited. I could see individual pixels on the screen with Ms. Pac Man
when I finally got it focused right. (and barely saw the dots at the
bottom of the screen) This may work fine for video or newer game systems
where the entire display is used and not one area being particularly
more important than others, like dots in a Ms. Pac-man maze.
You really need this to shine directly perpendicular to your screen for
a decent display, but then that's true of most projectors, ne?
Oh yeah, one thing I think I should also be able to remedy is the
relatively LOUD COOLING FAN in this thing. It's loud. It runs at a
quarter amp, and this thing's loud. I have a bigger 2 amp fan that's
quieter than this thing. The fan is required for the halogen bulb but it
doesn't need to be so loud. I think this is a 2 inch cooling fan, but
there should be quieter ones out there. There are 9 screws to remove to
open this thing up, which voids the warranty, but hey, at this point it
probably doesn't matter. I didn't get an instruction booklet to tell me
how long the warranty period is!
Even though the unit accepts stereo audio input, there's a single tinny
speaker in this unit. I haven't checked to see if the headphone jack
passes the audio through in stereo at the moment. So if you're going to
watch movies with this thing, use some common sense and put your audio
through your home theatre Dolby unit. Most video projectors don't have
speakers anyway. Some do, but nobody makes serious use of them anyway.
Sharper Image originally sold this thing for $300, and it's clear why
they're out of business or going that way. If this is an example of the
nifty items they've offered over the years (remember the ion-based air
purifier?), then they deserve to go out of business. This is more like a
toy than a serious video projector unit. The box says to use in a mostly
(or completely) darkened room and they're not kidding. If this seemed
like a serious projector, then they'd have something.
The box didn't come with an instruction manual, which is kinda needed to
figure out how to change the halogen bulb when it needs to be replaced.
I can only hope the company who made it has a website and a PDF manual
can be downloaded from there.
As far as video adjustments, there's brightness (and or contrast) and
color saturation. That's it aside from the volume control and maybe
focus. When you turn the unit off, the bulb will go out, but the fan
will run for a while afterwards. I guess I should find out why, but if
it's to protect the bulb, well fine.
I think $80 is almost about right for this thing. $300 would have been a
rip-off.
Now to find a light diffuser of some sort for more even illumination and
a quieter fan, and it should perform better. I have a working slide
projector so I'm going to peek inside it to see why it works better and
then try to apply those principles to this unit. It needs a few tweaks
to be an ideal video projector.
Before I finish up, I noticed during operation there's a number of red
LEDs inside the unit when it's on. What are those for? Make it look cool
while it's on? No one's really going to be looking at that! There's one
that flashes when you turn it off so you don't unplug while the bulb
does a final cool-down, and that's about all you need.
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