back to article This could be our favorite gadget of 2017: A portable projector

Every now and again in the world of gadgets there is a confluence of technologies that make something new possible. A better take on a familiar task. Think Walkmans, or camcorders. Or portable storage devices. Tablets. Drones. Games consoles. GPS navigation. XGIMI's CC Aurora portable projector feels a lot like that. This is …

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  1. GruntyMcPugh Silver badge

    Almost sounds interesting,.... but there's the Yoga Tab with a projector at that price point, and many, many other portable projectors at all price points, it's a pretty crowded market.

    Do millennials want to watch movies when they go camping? Isn't the point of camping to rough it a little?

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      "Isn't the point of camping to rough it a little?"

      Depends on whom you ask. I think of camping more as "getting away from people and all the noise of a city". If I could, I'd live on an acreage surrounded by trees all the time. I'm too poor. So I go camping.

      Camping with a projector to watch a movie while I poke the campfire? Sign me up.

      Now, if we could just extinct mosquitoes...

      1. Chemist

        "Camping with a projector to watch a movie while I poke the campfire ?"

        Camping with a projector to watch a movie of a campfire do you mean ?

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          "Camping with a projector to watch a movie of a campfire do you mean ?"

          Where's the fun in that? Who doesn't like fire? I like fire. Hmmmm. Fire.

          1. DropBear
            Flame

            Camping is for people who have an issue with the notion of comfort. Briefly put, I don't.

            1. Lee D Silver badge

              Camping is split - people who want to carry their stuff and people who don't. As such, comfort is subjective depending on whether you mean "can bring a small jacuzzi along to relax in" versus "don't have to carry said jacuzzi up the side of a mountain".

              I class "proper" camping as that you could hike with all your equipment and then set up camp using only that. As such, a box projector and a sheet would be the qualifying criteria for that, whereas a car / stereo system / fridge / etc. would not. Proper camping also means you can set up a camp at any time, anywhere, should the weather turn on you.

              Anything else is a "camping holiday" which means not being able to afford a proper hotel so staying in a caravan/tent but bringing a car load of stuff.

              Both have their place and their own comforts (hint: If you're uncomfortable when camping, you're doing something wrong... whether that's temperature, location, water penetration, food, sleeping arrangements, etc. it means you're in the wrong place, brought the wrong equipment or shouldn't be trying to camp in the first place because of some medical condition).

              But a plain white sheet and a small box, or a smartphone, hell even a laptop, and even a solar panel are quite within the definition of proper camping too. Smartphones especially. If nothing else they are an ideal backup compass/GPS even if not perfect, emergency communication tool, maybe even a reference tool (put that book about first aid and skinning rabbits on there, or try to ID that mushroom), as well as entertainment. If there's more than one of you, a smartphone and a projector to truly enjoy the evenings (darkness is quite limiting) is fine - hell, aim it at the floor of the tent and it'll do an okay job and is a damn sight less fragile than some LCD panel. Hell, I've lugged telescopes around, and model rockets, and all kinds. A decent rucksack can easily hold a tent, appropriate bedding (including a double sleeping bag), pots, pans, food, clothes, gadgets, radios, books, etc. plus certain backups of those and still have room to spare for completely luxury items like this and even room for batteries and panels enough to keep things charged.

          2. Shadow Systems

            At Trevor_Pott re: a bedsheet for a screen.

            My friends did that trick once & they thought it was awesome... Right up until the camp fire embers set the sheet on fire & they had to throw it (the sheet) in the lake. If you're going to use a sheet in that way, make sure it's NOT near the camp fire unless you also keep a fire extinguisher close at hand.

            After they put up the second screen & sat down to restart the movie, they were so drunk they started making shadow puppet theater instead. I'm not sure which was funnier: a movie about fire & the screen actually catching fire, or the re-enactment of various barnyard animals doing naughty things for every other camp site to see.

            *Cough*

            I'll get my coat, it's the one with the matches, Zippo, & bottles of lighter fluid in the poc- OW! OW! OW! Putmeout!Putmeout!Putmeout!

      2. Sgt_Oddball

        I live 'oop north and the countryside's alot cheaper. But the missus is a city girl and living in a suburb is the best I can manage from her at the moment.

        That said there's a lovely park but I think watching a film out there might constitute public performance and result in piracy types getting arsey.

        Looks promising though just not for me right now.

      3. Muscleguy

        If we made mosquitoes extinct numerous species of fresh and brackish water fish would go extinct along with lots of frogs and other amphibians whose tadpoles rely on mosquito larvae as food. Also birds and bats who feast on the adults.

        Back in Auckland, NZ as a teenager I kept and bred tropical fish and goldfish. I also raised mosquito larvae by the simply means of a washing up bowl left outside with water in it. I was careful to ensure no adults hatched so I was also helping to lower the population by getting them to breed in my genetic dead end 'pond'.

        The 'pond' also had daphnia in it and the two together are really good at getting tropicals like gouramis and bettas into breeding condition. It worked so well I had to be careful about giving them too often to the community tank when I didn't have space to breed any more. In that case I would simply put excess into the goldfish pond. They didn't last long in there.

    2. Pen-y-gors

      Given the general lack of flat white walls in the general area when out camping in the woods/fields/wilderness, won't the average millennial fairly-well-off youngster be a bit pissed off lugging an 8ft projector screen around with them?

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        If you clean the mold stains off the inside of your tent, you might find it is white! Sorry, I couldn't resist!

        My tent is white in the inside, but not all. In any case, I think camping is just shorthand for being away from a power socket.

        1. Roland6 Silver badge

          >I think camping is just shorthand for being away from a power socket.

          The specs say it can last up to four hours.

          So "camping" is just trying to make more out of a night out under canvas...

          In my house, 'camping' means: take over a local village hall with grounds, kids invite friends round and 'sleep' in tents, projector/sound system/xbox set up in hall permitting them to watch films or multiplayer CoD etc. - for which you need at least a 1080p projector.

      2. Wiltshire

        Take one king-sized white bedsheet and a ball of string.

        FTFY.

      3. Elmer Phud

        erm

        I used the wall of a marquee to project on to.

        Superb job.

        Oh, and I've also got a roll of rear-projection sheeting that can be hung between trees -- I am far to old to be a 'millennial' but not too old to think of easy ways to show movies in the woods.

      4. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        "Given the general lack of flat white walls in the general area when out camping in the woods/fields/wilderness, won't the average millennial fairly-well-off youngster be a bit pissed off lugging an 8ft projector screen around with them?"

        I'd just bring a white blanket and hang the thing off the side of the car, but hey, that's me. "Flat" is a luxury. You're camping, eh?

      5. Natalie Gritpants

        Just got to find a suitable Friesian and get it to stand still

      6. PNGuinn
        Joke

        Lack of white walls

        1. Go camping further north.

        2. In the woods.

        3. Find a constipated polar bear.

        4. Make friends.

    3. hammarbtyp

      Please, Please do not take it on camping trips.

      The rest of us go camping to get away from the hi-tech world for a little while and the last thing we want is some oik playing music videos outside the tent at some ungodly hour.

      1. Pen-y-gors

        @hammarbtyp

        The rest of us go camping to get away from the hi-tech world

        I dunno, not entirely - LED lights are a pretty neat invention. Beats setting fire to the tent with a candle. And an e-book reader means less weight than a dozen books.

        Main point of camping though is to get away from blasted humans! So I don't care what noise the others make, so long as they're at least 2 miles away.

        1. jake Silver badge

          Good lord.

          If you need one of these things (or any other hi-tech mind distraction) when you go camping, you're missing the entire point of going camping!

          <insert something about can't see the forest for trees here>

          1. Dave 126 Silver badge

            Re: Good lord.

            Sometimes I enjoy the tranquility of camping, watching the mists rise from a small lake at dawn as the birds sing and warmth slowly returns to the land.

            Sometimes I go camping and find myself dancing with a dozen women from the neighbouring campfire one of whom has MiniRigs* strapped around her, some under the influence of a substance first synthesized in 1970s California.

            C'est la vie.

            Either way, no one can deny that the white LED, the product of some high tech gallium alchemy is a far Eastern land, has made camping much easier. Less high tech but still appreciated is the Aeropress coffee device.

            * Brand name of a battery-shaped modular speaker system that seems to be popular on the festival circuit.

            1. H in The Hague

              Re: Good lord.

              "... some under the influence of a substance first synthesized in 1970s California."

              If you mean LSD, I think that was first synthesised in 1938 in Switzerland - if we can trust my old chemistry teacher and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide (the S stands for Saur = Acid). Not that I've ever tried it, I prefer a glass of bitter, or Barolo.

              1. Dave 126 Silver badge

                Re: Good lord.

                I didn't mean LSD. I meant something else, originally intended as a treatment for PTSD, though was adopted for recreational purposes - which was perhaps why its therapeutic potential wasn't fully explored. The chemist responsible died last year.

                [ Big yellow smiley face ]

                1. Duffy Moon

                  Re: Good lord.

                  "I didn't mean LSD. I meant something else"

                  I thought you might be referring to MDMA, but that was first synthesised in 1912.

                2. bigphil9009

                  Re: Good lord.

                  Do you mean MDMA? That was synthesized early in the 20th century by a German pharma company I think. However, if by chemist you mean the great Alexander Shulgin then he did synthesise loads of analogues and tested them in himself and his friends (and even had a licence from the DEA to do so!) He was an amazing chemist and empath. I had a copy of PIHKAL when I was at uni that I bought from WH Smiths! Those were the days... Still, I'm probably on some list somewhere now!

            2. BongoJoe

              Re: Good lord.

              still appreciated is the Aeropress coffee device.

              Thumbs up galore from this full timer motorhomer. Though we do have an espresso machine on board.

              Some things one simply cannot do without and for me it's caffeine. And gin.

            3. Simon Harris

              Re: Good lord.

              "Sometimes I go camping and find myself dancing with a dozen women from the neighbouring campfire"

              Never really been one for camping (it was probably cub-scout camps that put me off), but you might have sold it to me again!

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Good lord.

            If you need one of these things (or any other hi-tech mind distraction) when you go camping, you're missing the entire point of going camping!

            That's why I don't go camping. If I did, I would need something to distract me from the mosquitos that Trevor already mentioned, and the absence of a flush toilet and a coffee machine (although that may have actually been solved). And no Internet or takeaways. And rain.

            About the only benefit I see in camping is an absence of cubicle walls and other human beings :).

            1. PNGuinn
              Black Helicopters

              Re: Good lord. @AC

              Portable toilets have been around for ages - from the humble bucket with seat to fully sealed units with flush.

              For varying definitions of portable. AFAIK no one's made one that would fit in a rucksack, but that's just an engineering (and emptying) exercise.

              Standard height, seat with lid, flush water round the outside of the bowl, (pro tip: use a hand held garden sprayer - better "flush" and uses less water), pull out flush blade to seal your doings in the bottom tank, pressure release valve when you open the flush blade, 4 gal capacity waste tank. You'd be quite happy to bring it home in the back of the car part full - apart from the sloshing sound when you go round corners / over bumps you'd forget it was there.

              Portable, yeah, only weighs a few pounds, Filled with 4 gal of sh*t and pi** on the other hand ... Think luggable to the nearest emptying point.

              >> if you try this down under - watch out for 'ol redback.

              1. jake Silver badge

                Re: Good lord. @AC

                "AFAIK no one's made one that would fit in a rucksack"

                I've seen one. Collapsible alumin(i)um frame & inflatable seat. It used plastic grocery bags as the holding tank. Recommended for solid waste only. I never used it, nor was I tasked with packing out the result. Seemed a trifle flimsy to me, but the couple who used it claimed it was great.

                The way that I look at it, if a bear can shit in the woods, so can I ... they sell easily biodegradable paper, the stuff for septic tanks works well. Kick a small hole behind a tree/rock/bush, do your business, wipe, drop, cover hole. Piss on the same location a time or two to give the bugs some water to work with. Come back in a month and you'll never know you've been (as it were). Only issue is if someone got there the day before you did. I've never had that issue.

              2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

                Re: Good lord. @AC

                "You'd be quite happy to bring it home in the back of the car part full - apart from the sloshing sound when you go round corners / over bumps you'd forget it was there"

                Is there something special about human shit'n'piss that you need to bring it home with you to dispose of it instead of burying it in the woods with all the other animal shit'n'piss?

              3. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: Good lord. @AC

                Portable toilets have been around for ages - from the humble bucket with seat to fully sealed units with flush.

                For varying definitions of portable. AFAIK no one's made one that would fit in a rucksack, but that's just an engineering (and emptying) exercise.

                You could just use the rucksack if you have good rear exit aiming abilities, but joking aside, you just gave a long list why I won't go camping - I have no desire to investigate portable toilets.

                As Al Murray once said, I prefer to pass out near a firmly fitted appliance so that I later wake up with "Armitage Shanks" in mirror script on my forehead :)

          3. d3vy

            Re: Good lord.

            "If you need one of these things (or any other hi-tech mind distraction) when you go camping, you're missing the entire point of going camping!"

            Well maybe for you, personally when I go camping its a means to an end... Ill camp close to the bottom of a mountain (Normally in the closest camp site) so I can be off and up it at first light... That does not mean that I dont want to watch a movie or something similar the night before/if stuck in camp because of weather.

      2. VinceH

        "The rest of us go camping to get away from the hi-tech world for a little while"

        Stay away from camp sites and try a little wild camping* - you're then less likely to encounter other campers, let alone other campers with gadgets like this.

        * Though these days I'd rather opt for hotels and nice beds.

      3. CrazyOldCatMan Silver badge

        oik playing music videos outside the tent at some ungodly hour

        Or competing groups of yoofs trying to outdo each other with the volume and crapness of their doof-doof music.

        Makes one long for a proper 10KW tower stack to play a decent bit of Spock's Beard[1] back at them

        [1] Other fine modern Prog bands are available.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "Do millennials want to watch movies when they go camping? Isn't the point of camping to rough it a little?"

      IIRC millennials invented "glamping" so they could still have the comforts of home.

      1. Dave 126 Silver badge

        I thought glamping was invented by the generation before the millennials, the ones who used to rough it at festivals but now in their forties and fifties whose aging bodies appreciate a comfy beds and other creature comforts.

        1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

          "I thought glamping was invented by the generation before the millennials, the ones who used to rough it at festivals but now in their forties and fifties whose aging bodies appreciate a comfy beds and other creature comforts."

          I thought it was just a new buzzword for the sort of posh camp sites found in the south of France for at least the last three decades, ie pre-assembled multi-room, fully furnished tents.

    5. BongoJoe

      We currently live in a motorhome. I am writing this from the campsite by Perth Racecourse, last week we were by an abbey in County Durham and we're on a long tour around the UK living and working on board.

      We have Netflix courtesy of our dongle with the 3 card (all the Netflix we can binge) and we have enough data to work on board and, of course, to talk to other El Communards.

      We watch films and we have a PlayStation/4 on board. Why shouldn't we?

      And if we're still pushed to peel a starling or to start a fire with sticks, we're still able. though not necessarily willing.

      There's a few things that one needs on board and this is where the Great Sage Terry P was ever so right: good toilet paper and good denishtry... The latter is what I do lack and I am now able to get a bit part if they ever wish to remake Deliverance...

      1. coolcity

        Fair comment, but I've never really considered a motorhome to be anything but vaguely related to camping.

        Granted, camping isn't my field of expertise by any stretch of the imagination but it's really just a hotel suite on wheels isn't it?

        1. BongoJoe

          Fair comment, but I've never really considered a motorhome to be anything but vaguely related to camping.

          Granted, camping isn't my field of expertise by any stretch of the imagination but it's really just a hotel suite on wheels isn't it?

          Which is why the SSID of our motorhome's WiFi is "TheGinPalace"

    6. coolcity

      Agreed, in fact the Yoga Tab can be picked up for quite a bit less than that now and doesn't have the bugs. I bought the Yoga some time ago, with no interest whatsoever in the projector, but it's actually really good at least for indoor use (maybe not so much outdoors).

      But as for the "Amazon Echo and Google Home – even iPads – producing really quite impressive sound" - seriously? I'm no audiophile (couldn't afford to be if I wanted to anyway) but my idea of quite impressive sound is a little more expensive than that. I don't rate the Google Home at all for sound quality, and even that's supposed to be better than the Echo.

  2. Adam 52 Silver badge

    6.5" cube and 2kg

    So won't fit in a pocket, laptop bag or small rucksack. Not really portable in a "I'll just carry it around" way then.

    A conventional HD projector from LG has better resolution, is a quarter of the volume, a third the weight and in a much more usable 50mm high package. Not sure how battery life compares.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      Re: 6.5" cube and 2kg

      Other factors are brightness, ease of use and speaker quality.

      All engineering and product specification is largely compromise.

      1. Adam 52 Silver badge

        Re: 6.5" cube and 2kg

        Ah yes, the LG is four times "brighter" (as in four times the lumens).

        Engineering may be compromise, but in this case a large amount of the cost compromise appears to be marketing and freebies to journalists in order to shift a substandard product to a gullible audience.

    2. JDX Gold badge

      Re: 6.5" cube and 2kg

      It's smaller and lighter than a 6-pack of beer or a wine-box. I consider those to be pretty portable.

      If you can't get a 6" cube in a your 'small rucksack' then you maybe be confused between a rucksack and a handbag.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How much...

    ...are replacement bulbs?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: How much...

      About $569

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: How much...

        I assume 569 is a wild sarcastic guess?

        I'd have though that with projectors now being commonplace the price of the bulbs would have come down accordingly , to the point where you dont just buy another projector.

        I hope so i might need one soon!

        1. Martin an gof Silver badge

          Re: How much...

          I'd have though that with projectors now being commonplace the price of the bulbs would have come down accordingly , to the point where you dont just buy another projector.

          We use a lot of very expensive projectors at work, but I was looking at a smaller, cheaper more portable unit for another purpose recently. Spare lamps from most manufacturers seem to tend to be between a third and a half the cost of the new projector.

          M.

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