Jim Salter

Cinemood is a $300 ultra-portable, lithium-ion-powered projector in a light-weight (8oz) kind issue roughly the scale of a Rubik’s Dice. It is an Android gadget with no video enter that tasks from manufacturing facility pre-loaded movies or onboard streaming apps like Netflix or YouTube at 640×360—and it is not a short-throw projector, both. In our testing, Cinemood wanted a 12-foot throw distance to show a reasonably washed-out picture concerning the dimension of a 65-inch TV set.

With a purpose to keep away from burying the lede, you may as properly know up entrance, we don’t suggest this gadget at this value—however we do have some good alternate options for you on the finish of the overview in case you’re out there for a comparatively low-cost and moveable projector.

A story of two projectors

Earlier than we get into the actual overview, let’s speak somewhat inside baseball. A few months in the past, a vendor I would by no means heard of pitched me on reviewing Vava—a high-end, 4K decision, ultra-short-throw residence theater projector with a $2,500 price ticket. This projector claimed to offer a 150-inch show from just a few inches’ distance, a Harmon-Kardon sound system, and extra. I stated certain, sounds enjoyable.

A day or two later, I obtained one other electronic mail requesting my delivery deal with in order that the projector could possibly be shipped to me. The little element I missed is that the request for a delivery deal with was not from the Vava particular person—it was from somebody pushing Cinemood, a $300 Web of Issues-grade projector that was neither ultra-short-throw nor 4K, nor outfitted with something in any respect like an built-in Harmon-Kardon sound system.

With that background out of the best way, let’s overview Cinemood… and if you wish to get pleasure from imagining my confusion and frustration every step of the best way as I mistakenly imagine that I am testing a $2,500 gadget, be happy.

The setup course of was not pleasurable

There is a rising pattern in IoT units of simply not bothering with printed documentation, and anticipating the person will choose up all she or he must know from the gadget’s smartphone app. Let it by no means be stated that Cinemood is just not fashionable—there was no included documentation in anyway. I assumed perhaps I may get began with out putting in the app in any respect, so I attempted simply plugging within the gadget. Its energy LED instantly lit up inexperienced, however the projector did not hearth up, and experimentally urgent each single button on it did nothing in any respect.

I assumed this meant I would want to affiliate a smartphone earlier than I may do something with Cinemood, so I downloaded and put in the app. The app advised me to ensure that Bluetooth and site providers had been enabled and that I used to be close to Cinemood. Ultimately, I needed to really place my cellphone instantly on the Cinemood. It nonetheless could not discover the gadget, and it provided no additional assist.

Ultimately, I began urgent buttons randomly once more. After I lengthy pressed the button with an obese “you spelled it mistaken” crimson squiggle on it, the gadget powered off. Lengthy-pressing the button once more turned it again on—however this time, the LED was white, not inexperienced, and the projector itself lit up, too. Success! After a longish preliminary boot sequence, my cellphone discovered the projector and vice versa, and I entered into an hour of setup hell.

Throughout Cinemood’s setup sequence, you will need to give it your cellphone quantity—and it should be in full worldwide format, together with the +1. That is made further tough by the dearth of a “+” key on the on-screen keyboard; in case you omit the +, or the 1, or make any of a number of different doable formatting errors, Cinemood tells you the cellphone quantity is “invalid” however offers no additional hints. When you lastly work out it’s worthwhile to put within the + utilizing your cellphone’s keyboard (since Cinemood’s personal projected keyboard would not have one) the system sends you an SMS for verification.

Along with your cellphone quantity, Cinemood tries to get a credit score or debit card quantity—it seems like that is obligatory, however in case you reduce your cellphone’s on-screen keyboard, you may discover a “skip” button to faucet—and an electronic mail deal with. As soon as I would efficiently given Cinemood the whole lot it requested me for, it… properly, it returned me to the very starting of the setup course of. I went via this loop about 4 instances earlier than giving up and power-cycling it. Regardless of having assured me through the setup loop that I would by no means want a password, it requested me for one upon rebooting.

I went via this setup loop just a few extra instances, power-cycled one other few extra instances, and ultimately found out precisely the suitable time to hit “proceed with out smartphone”—which really simply left me totally configured, with the smartphone app paired and dealing.

Utilizing Cinemood

Bear in mind after I stated that I mistakenly thought I used to be going to be reviewing a $2,500 4K projector? I figured I would want a greater show atmosphere than I may conjure up at residence, so I reserved some area in a big assembly room with a giant hanging display supposed for the room’s personal ceiling-mounted, high-def projector.

This was overkill.

With Cinemood fired up and the smartphone app lastly paired, I began taking part in with the space and lightweight ranges to seek out the place Cinemood was most comfy. It wanted no less than ten ft of throw distance to get an honest sized show, at which level it was too washed out for the room lights to be up, or actually even dim. With a roughly 55″ projection, the room wanted to be totally darkish for Cinemood’s brightness to be acceptable.

One in every of Cinemood’s marketed options is Disney content material pre-loaded on the gadget. Do not count on characteristic movies, full-length cartoons, and even cartoons you’ve got doubtless heard of, although. I did not discover any Mickey or Donald, just a few My Little Pony knockoffs and a bunch of more and more esoteric shorts, none of which had been longer than 5 minutes. Cinemood additionally claims to allow you to add your individual content material, but when that actually is feasible, neither I nor anybody who’s reviewed the app on Google Play appears to have figured it out. Did I point out there isn’t any documentation in any respect?

Establishing YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime apps on Cinemood does work, though it requires endurance and confidence. There are already icons for these providers, however the icons have a cryptic “two seconds” caption beneath them. So far as I may (ultimately) inform, that is Cinemood’s method of telling you one thing is not put in—it naively assumes that any distant content material would require two seconds to obtain, no matter your Web connection velocity or the scale of the obtain.

In actuality, it took one thing like a minute for the YouTube app to obtain and set up itself, all of which happens within the background with completely no progress bar, explanatory textual content, or every other indication of what is going on on. As soon as it completed putting in the app, the “two seconds” caption went away, the icon was marginally brighter, and if tapped, the app would launch after a short delay (once more, with no progress bar or indicator). When you make your method via all of this, YouTube and Netflix do work fairly properly.

This interface is already irritating, however including insult to harm, the Bluetooth-paired distant controls on the cellphone work intermittently at greatest. Incessantly, tapping the test mark button on the cellphone leads to the button lighting on the smartphone, however the ensuing motion not going down on the projector. “Laggy response or dropped packet” is a sport you may develop into very accustomed to in case you spend a lot time with Cinemood.

Giving Cinemood one other probability

Though I wasn’t impressed with Cinemood, I did begin out underneath the mistaken impression it was a 4K projector which value practically ten instances as a lot. Perhaps I wasn’t being truthful. So I took it out to my dad and mom’ home and tried it out in a spare bed room.

In case you have the complete wall-to-wall distance to work with in a 12′ deep room, you possibly can handle a couple of 65-inchh projection space with Cinemood. It is washed out, and with solely a 640×360 actual decision, it is distinctly fuzzy—my mother, who’s in her seventies, complained about it and made me fiddle with the main target for fairly some time earlier than grudgingly admitting that it was as sharp because it was going to get. On the optimistic aspect, the little built-in speaker—which was very tinny and unhappy within the huge assembly room—sounded significantly better in a small bed room.

All carping apart, Cinemood each appeared and sounded adequate to maintain my mother engaged via about half an hour of introduction to the unusual world of Davie504, bassist extraordinaire and basic YouTube weirdo. Whereas you are able to do higher—even significantly better—than Cinemood for the cash, it did reach an applicable atmosphere.

We did not drain the battery all the best way, however we used it sufficient to forged aspersions on the claimed “as much as five-hour” battery life. Cinemood was right down to 75% after about half an hour of use on battery alone; it’s best to have the ability to get one typical film out of it, however I would not financial institution on it making it all through a screening of Gone With The Wind or Titanic.

Moveable projectors we are able to suggest

Cinemood occupies a bizarre area in projector land. With its personal onboard Android OS and no precise video inputs, it most intently resembles Pet Dice, which we reviewed final yr.

Pet Dice is a greater gadget than Cinemood practically all the best way round; it options 720P decision (you’d want 4 Cinemoods to create an equal projection), touchscreen interactivity on the projected picture itself, extremely short-throw distance, vastly larger brightness, a a lot snappier interface, and a really extensive collection of installable Android apps.

Sadly, Pet Dice remains to be retailing at $1,000, and it is considerably bigger and heavier than Cinemood—it’s moveable, nevertheless it’s not one thing you’d simply hand to the youngsters and inform them to have at it.

If you do not have the finances for Pet Dice, otherwise you need one thing each light-weight and battery-powered, there’s AAXA’s line of sub-$300 pico LED projectors. Though the most recent S2 mannequin would not have any cartoons preloaded on it, it may well play video from USB thumb drives or mirror the show from a tool supporting USB-C video. Even higher, it has honest-to-goodness HDMI and composite A/V inputs.

AAXA S2’s show is native 720P, and 400 lumens brightness (in comparison with Cinemood’s 360P and 35 lumens). When on the battery, it defaults to half brightness—however that is nonetheless a lot, a lot brighter than Cinemood. Though we have by no means had our arms on an S2, the equally priced P300 is rated for a similar brightness—and we have seen shows given on the P300 at half brightness, in daylit rooms with the overhead lights on full.

Like Cinemood, the audio on the P300 was nothing to write down residence about, and we do not count on the S2’s inner speaker might be a lot totally different. We’re unsure what to consider the six-hour runtime AAXA claims for the S2—it is perhaps legit; we had no hassle getting the P300’s whole 150 minute rated runtime out of it.

If finances—or with the ability to simply hand the gadget to your children—is the first consider your projector purchasing, you may additionally contemplate AAXA’s KP-101-01 “shirt pocket” sized projector. The show on this sub-$150 projector is just rated at 25 lumens—somewhat decrease than Cinemood’s acknowledged 35 lumen score, although simply throughout the margin of error—however the native decision is 720P, similar to the larger AAXA projectors.

You continue to get actual HDMI and composite A/V inputs on the KP-101-01, plus an SD card reader for preloading motion pictures your self—though the place and the way you purchase downloadable film information to make use of with it’s fully on you. The onboard battery is just good for 80 minutes, although, so chances are you’ll wish to add an $80 battery financial institution that features A/C output in case you’re going tenting.