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SubscribeIf you were looking for evidence of a grand shift in the consumer projector space today, all you needed to do was tour the 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas last week. Let's start with what was missing: the classic home theater projector. Aside from the static display of a singular new gaming model I encountered, the traditional lens-on-front, rectangular box projector was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, what I saw in abundance was ever-more ultra-short throw Laser TVs, and what felt like a little mini-explosion of what we have come to call lifestyle projectors. In both categories, these new products came from both established companies and, more frequently, relatively unknown or new brands attempting to establish themselves in these emerging growth areas.
To some extent, we can attribute the dearth of traditional home theater projectors to a changing CES. A trade-only event that started 57 years ago as a showcase for television and hi-fi manufacturers has become the world's leading venue for promoting and launching sophisticated consumer and business technologies, drawing this year more than 4,300 exhibitors and a final tally of about 135,000 attendees. Unlike at CEDIA in the U.S. and ISE in Europe, which focus on the needs of residential and commercial integrators, it's more difficult now to find serious home theater demos in Vegas. Even a stalwart like JVC, which held court for years in a suite at the Venetian Towers surrounded by high performance audio manufacturers, has finally given up in favor of CEDIA and regional consumer audio shows now bolstered by the CES High End Audio defectors. Sigh. Some of my best CES memories are from the days I spent hopping room to room at the Venetian, enjoying one great theater or audio demo after another and treating my ears and eyes to delicious, state-of-the-art treats. As the saying goes, them days is over.
That said, anyone with access to retail sales data knows that the consumer projector industry is shifting. Enthusiast sales of dark-room theater projectors are said to be waning, and the exciting growth projections are in these UST living room projectors and portable/transportable projectors that facilitate the easy toss of a big image on whatever wall happens to be nearby. If you didn't notice, both of those are mass-market sectors that have the potential to dwarf the dark-room home-theater segment.
As usual, there were a variety of price points represented on the show floor, ranging from a couple of premium 8K USTs to inexpensive LCD projectors that go for less than $200. But what was surprising, if not reassuring, was the sophistication and performance of the better projectors in each of these areas. Following, by manufacturer in alphabetical order, is our rundown of CES 2024 projector highlights.
Anker. Anker's Nebula brand was promoting its first two Google TV-equipped portable projectors released late last year, the Mars 3 Air (our review is pending) and the new generation Capsule 3. The new Google TV streaming platform, which actually first appeared in the 2023 Hisense UST models, is distinct from the prior Android TV-driven projectors in that it comes equipped with a working Netflix app—a serious omission from many Android projectors to date. It was seen at CES across a variety of models at different price points, and represents a welcome feature for projectors that would otherwise require a separate dongle to access this popular service. Both Anker models are 1080p resolution with LED light engines, with the Mars 3 Air ($599, or $499 with current promotions) spec'd at 400 ANSI lumens and the ability, with its built-in battery fully charged, to watch for up to 2.5 hours. The Capsule 3 mini-canister ($549) is listed at 200 ANSI lumens and also boasts 2.5-hours of watch time on its built-in battery.
AWOL Vision. AWOL was showing off its range of UST projector models including some clever demos that first appeared in its booth at CEDIA last September. One of these was a 2.35:1 widescreen image constructed from a pair of edge-blended LTV-3000 Pro projectors projecting onto a custom lenticular ALR screen. Although the company was using a third-party solution for the blending, officials said they were working on a software solution for future to accommodate 21:9 and even 32:9 aspect ratios for gamers and business applications. Also being demo'd, for the first time, was a WiSA-like wireless audio system for home theater that could be offered later this year. It will use the UST projector's integrated speaker as the center channel and surround it with left/right and rear surround satellites, along with a wireless subwoofer, that require only a power connection to a nearby wall outlet.
Dangbei. Dangbei was displaying its own first Google TV-equipped lifestyle projectors with integrated Netflix, notably the upcoming Atom (shown), a squat 1080p laser projector measuring approximately 8x8 inches square and less than 2 inches tall. It has an ALPD light engine generating a claimed 1,200 ISO lumens of brightness and boasts sophisticated intelligent setup that includes auto-focus, auto-keystone, screen-fit, and obstacle avoidance. It'll be priced at $899 before discounts. A pair of 4K laser models are also on the way for later in the year, including the Mars Pro 2, with 2,450 ISO lumens, and the X5 Ultra, using an advanced triple laser RGB + LED hybrid light source to achieve a 110% BT.2020 gamut rating.
Formovie. Formovie, whose Formovie Theater projector won top prize in the fall at the 2023 ProjectorCentral/ProjectorScreen.com Laser TV showdown for the second year in a row, showed off the Formovie 4K Max on a 150-inch, 16:9 lenticular ALR screen from Spectra Projection. Spec'd officially at 4,500 CVIA lumens (not ANSI or ISO), it is the company's brightest ever laser TV, utilizing a single-laser ALPD 3.0 light engine rated for Rec.709 color gamut. It is available now in the U.S. for $3,699 through their importer ProjectorScreen.com, but with the FengOS operating system and streaming platform intended for the Chinese market, a trait it shares with the Formovie X5 lifestyle projector and the single-laser C3 UST models. ProjectorScreen ships it with an Amazon Firestick 4K dongle as it does with the X5. Also shown at Formovie's booth was a family of budget-priced portables with LCD imagers and LED light engines from its sister brand Xming.
Hisense. Hisense devoted a good amount of space at CES to its projection business, showing off a variety of projector and screen technologies, some of it still early prototype. The 8K UST laser projector it showed at CES a year ago was on hand again but remains vaporware; company execs said it'll be late 2024 or more likely 2025 before that product sees release. When it does come, it'll supposedly be using a new-generation 0.94-inch DLP chip with a native 4K array and four-phase pixel-shifting to achieve the 8K onscreen resolution. Hisense showed it with a hardback screen offering integrated audio transducers that turn the whole screen into a speaker system, similar to the approach found in some "hidden" speaker technology installed by integrators. Unfortunately, it sounded fairly thin and lacked midrange and high-end detail, so hopefully Hisense will make some improvements before potentially offering this late this year or in early 2025. A more successful demo showed off a high performing rollable, fresnel screen in a floor-rising canister being sold overseas that could be available soon in the U.S. Thanks to a trigger link with the demo projector, the upcoming PX3-Pro, the projector was able to expand or truncate the image as the screen rose and fell, eliminating what would normally be overspill onto the wall behind the screen.
Meanwhile, one of the projector tech highlights of the whole show was a prototype UST from Hisense and Barco using what's being called Barco Bright technology to significantly boost HDR performance. Unlike flatpanel displays, which can independently brighten or dim both individual pixels and/or the backlight behind them to enable local dimming for deeper blacks or brighter highlights, projectors by nature deliver the same light level to all the pixels on their imaging chip. With laser engines you can dynamically dim the overall light output if desired, but it affects all the pixels on the screen, so you can't maintain or boost brightness for the highlight areas while independently deepening the blacks. One way around this is a dual-modulation projection system, like that used in Christie's high end Eclipse HDR projector, which has a six-chip system in which the first three chips are used to control light output from the laser source before it is applied to the actual RGB imaging chips—essentially a form of local dimming. Barco is using an alternate approach that monitors the incoming signal for each frame and then engages some kind of phase modulation to steer the available light reserves to the brighter portions of the frame and away from the darker areas. The result is claimed to be up to a 50% deepening of blacks, and a 500% boost in the peak brightness of highlights. Demo clips from one of the Star Trek reboots and a Transformers movie were eye-catching, but most impressive was the Barco Bright splash screen that expertly mixed a super-bright HDR highlight against a dark black background. There was no word on when Barco Bright might actually be released in a Hisense UST.
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LG Electronics. LG introduced another new lifestyle projector at CES, following up last year's PU700R LED projector with the CineBeam Qube, a super-compact, wide-gamut triple-laser RGB projector rivaled in size among discrete RGB models only by the even smaller and lighter Optoma ML1080. However, the Qube offers 4K resolution against the Optoma's 1080p, along with a similarly spec'd 500 ANSI lumen brightness rating. Other features include integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a webOS streaming platform, auto keystone-correction and focus, a metal housing with a convenient adjustable handle/tilt stand, and some cool leather-look carry case options. It's targeted for release at the end of the first quarter, with final pricing to be determined. The company also announced that several models in its business projector line will be upgraded to follow the BU70QGA flagship and ProBeam BU53RG short throw in adding the company's webOS Signage platform that provides integrated and third-party content management applications.
Nexigo. Nexigo is among the the new players making noise in the laser TV category with the recently-released Aurora Pro, a 2,400-lumen, Dolby Vision-compatible RGB tri-laser projector. Their large booth space in the CES main hall also showed a new, triple-laser lifestyle model to compete with the likes of XGIMI's Horizon Ultra and JMGO's N1 Ultra. The TriVision Ultra uses an ALPD 5.0 tri-laser/LED light engine to deliver a rated 2,500 ANSI lumens and 110% BT.2020 gamut, and boasts Dolby Vision compatibility, a 26-watt audio system, and a low 4 millseconds rated lag time. Projected release is sometime in the second quarter at a price to be determined but estimated in the $2,000-$2,500 range.
Samsung. Samsung's projector division made a series of significant announcements for CES, leading with the Premiere 8, which was described in greater detail after a prototype was shown at CES one year ago. Slugged to be a triple-laser RGB projector with 4,000 lumens of brightness and 8K resolution when it hopefully appears later this year, it claims to being the first UST with wireless connectivity, utilizing Samsung's Wi-Fi based One Connect technology to send up to 8K signals a maximum of 10 meters or about 33 feet from a separate connection hub. The image—up to 150 inches diagonal, which is said to require about of foot of wall clearance—is backed up by a 100-watt 8.2.2 channel Dolby Atmos sound system that takes advantage of something called Sound-on-Screen technology to better elevate the virtual source of the audio to the image. The projector's metal and wood housing includes a dust-cover that hides the lens when it is not in use.
Another interesting new feature found on the Premiere 8 and the other 2024 introductions described below is Lightwarp, which can turn the projector's image into an interactive display. We've seen earlier attempts at this concept in desktop projectors like the Hachi Infinite M1 ultra short throw projector and in a prototype from MicroVision, a firm that specializes in LiDAR tech for automobiles, as well as in the many sensor-equipped interactive USTs promoted for classroom whiteboard use. But the compact Premiere 5 UST introduced by Samsung at CES is said to be the smallest triple-laser RGB ultra-short throw projector, measuring about 5.5 inches square by 8 inches tall. (Two other new compact RGB projectors, the previously mentioned Optoma ML1080/ML1080ST and just announced LG Qube, are short- or long-throw models rather than USTs.) It throws a 100-inch image from about 17 inches away from a wall, and boasts auto-keystone, auto-focus, and auto color-balance adjustments. The lumen rating was not immediately available, though the projector has a 10-watt speaker system on board and the ability to use it as Bluetooth smart speaker or to turn off the image with an "audio-only" mode. Like the other Samsung 2024 introductions, the company's Samsung Gaming Hub, introduced in the recently updated Freestyle portable, will be included as part of each projector's online streaming platform/interface.
Finally, Samsung says it will update its existing LSP7T single-laser and LSP9T triple-laser USTs this year, reintroducing them as the Premiere 7 and Premiere 9. Both will get a boost in brightness and a Quantum 4K video processor.
Ultimea. Ultimea (pronounced ult-eh-mia) is yet another new brand promoting a 4K, triple-laser RGB UST, in this case the Thor T60, which is among the brightest out there with a rated 4,000 lumens. It features Dolby Vision compliance, a 30-watt sound system (15 watts x 2) with Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD decoding, and an Android TV streaming platform. It was shown in a room at the Venetian along with the Thor T50, a single laser UST model, a variety of LED-driven portables with LCD imagers, and a slew of soundbar packages for home theater audio.
ViewSonic. The company announced one pending new projector, the LX700-4K, another Designed-for Xbox gaming model that was loosely described as a single laser+phosphor version of the X2-4K released in 2023. These projectors have been tested by Microsoft's Xbox team to meet some specific gaming criteria, notably the ability to handle 1440p/120Hz signals. While the X2-4K is an LED projector rated for 2,000 lumens (we measured 1,657 in our review), the LX700-4K puts out a claimed 3,500 ANSI for bigger images and brighter environments. It's expected to be released in the May-June timeframe for an expected street price of $1,599.
XGIMI. On the heels of its introduction of the Horizon Ultra lifestyle projector last year, XGIMI has announced a planned step-up model in the Horizon Max, one of the most talked-about projectors at CES. Unlike the Ultra, which features a sophisticated 4LED plus laser light engine, the Max will go even further in reducing laser speckle and expanding color gamut with what's being called a Dual Light 2.0 light source. It starts with a traditional triple-laser RGB source, but then splits off the blue laser to a phosphor wheel to generate blue and additional yellow-green spectrum that's eventually blended in; it's the combination of the narrow-bandwidth direct laser light with the wider-bandwidth phosphor illumination that helps break the potential for speckle. The Max will also feature ISA (Intelligent Screen Adaptation) 5.0 for auto setup. Along with the advanced ISA features from earlier versions (rapid auto-focus, auto-keystone, and obstacle avoidance), this latest generation has the potential to integrate with motorized actuators that can automatically spin a centrally located projector to a specific wall within a room, something that was demo'd at the show. Perhaps more of interest to enthusiasts is that XGIMI has earned IMAX-Enhanced certification and also includes Dolby Vision HDR compliance. The Max, which is due out toward end of the year with a rated brightness up to 3,100 ISO lumens and contrast of 2,000:1, is rated for images up to 200 inches diagonal. The image quality on a 180-inch matte white screen in a dark-room theater environment actually looked quite good. Pricing wasn't announced, but it's expected to come in under $3,000.
Another eye-catching XGIMI product announced was the Aladdin, a large circular disc projector that combines a projector with an LED overhead lighting fixture. It's designed to be mounted where an existing dome light or chandelier might hang today, and features a 360-degree Harman Kardon sound system and Bluetooth connectivity so it can be used as a speaker. Surprisingly, there's no on-board zoom to alter the image size, so that's fixed by the 0.7:1 throw ratio of the lens and whatever distance your existing light fixture/mounting location sits from the wall, though you have some flexibility on image height thanks to vertical lens shift. It'll do a 100-inch image from about 6 feet. No pricing or ship date was announced.
Yaber. Along with teasing some new models coming in 2024 or early 2025, Yaber showed off its existing line of budget LED smart projectors with LCD imagers, including the K2 (shown), which retails for $399 and offers 800 ANSI lumens of brightness, 1080p resolution, a 20-watt JBL/Dolby sound system, auto-focus and -keystone, and a cool "Tap to Screencast" feature utilizing NFC technology. Along with a number of portable column and box projectors, late 2024 introductions will include the K300 laser UST, a DLP model set to deliver 950 ANSI lumens and 1080p resolution for about $1,000.
