Idea for when it gets old... Build your own rear projection TV, after all no need to focus, easy setup! More power efficient than an LCD TV!

DJ's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTcQTLp7Nhk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Budding film makers, scene backdrop.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5162179_make-homemade-rear-projection-screen.html

Multitouch Display
http://labs.ideo.com/2009/02/11/hacked-rear-projection-tv-into-multitouch-display/

Types of materials
http://www.avforums.com/forums/projector-screens/686434-how-make-rear-projection-screen.html

Awesome! Weaved wax paper screen! Keeps screen bright even in lit room.
http://forums.makezine.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=43

Does anybody know of a good ATSC TV tuner that I can hook to this projector via VGA port that will utilize the full 848x480 resolution? I don't want to waste the projector with a low def composite connection, that will only give me about 240 lines of resolution.

All the ATSC tuners I have found so far will do 800x600 or 640x480 with 4:3 ratio, but don't have a specific wide screen 848x480 or even 800x480 native support.

rlnicoli wrote:I have one of these and I use it as a 140" TV. Think of it as a drive-in theater. You can start watching it at dusk. Yes, a smaller image is brighter and yes, you can't have the lights on. But do you really need the lights on when you are watching a movie on your 140" screen for this price.

what are you using as your output source for your 140in TV?

Projector arrived today!! (Houston,TX)

dynamoned wrote:According to the user guide posted earlier by bmrbill, there is a 3.5mm audio jack, so yes, you can attach speakers with a 3.5mm audio plug.

I use a Jambox... my iPhone or iPad stream sound via Bluetooth. It is awesome. I have both this blue model and the new black model. The newest model has a hmdi output & is 2x's brighter (hard to tell the difference though).

In daylight you can use a blank sheet of white paper for a screen... but for movie viewing you really need it to be dark.

Received mine last night. Disobeyed the set up instructions and started using it after only 2 hours of charging, but left the power cable plugged in. In a totally dark room, it was very servicable at 6' projection distance.

Used my iPod 4touch and WiFi Netflix to watch cartoons with my kids, and then an episode of Doctor Who. For the price, there's no way you can do better than this -- but if you are looking for HDTV quality for filmstrip price, you will be disappointed. This delivers a servicable image (a little dark in terms of color balance) on a white surface, and you need a decent sound amplification solution to really get enough sound for a group of people to watch and listen in -- totally good for family movie night. Will be testing it with our Wii this weekend for the big screen game experience.

Anyone figure out how to project photos using this with the ipad2? I got Netflix working, which is pretty sweet (even with some light in the room), but i have no idea what to use to project phtos.

Just got mine when I got home from work. Right now I just hooked it up to the Xbox360 and this is through composite(svideo) looks AWESOME, 100" movies are sweet. Even with the crappy resolution from Svideo it still looks great. I'll be getting a VGA adapter when they go back down from $40 to $19 again...

Also if anyone want's a better mount than the tripod they sell, pick up something like this, I'm just using the spare one I had its from verizon but it works great.

http://www.amazon.com/Flexible-Stand-Holder-Mount-Iphone/dp/tech-data/B0042DIZ5S

Plus it keeps the hotter part of the projector in the air to allow it to breath better.

Mine arrived yesterday. Straight forward setup with my canon camera, but unable to receive signal from my iPod touch v.2. Attempting Netflix, wifi, Bluetooth sound OK, no picture. Thoughts?
Btw: camera video is cool. I can see the potential.

wjkrysak wrote:Mine arrived yesterday. Straight forward setup with my canon camera, but unable to receive signal from my iPod touch v.2. Attempting Netflix, wifi, Bluetooth sound OK, no picture. Thoughts?
Btw: camera video is cool. I can see the potential.

Same boat. For the life of me cannot make this thing work with any of my apple devices. Tried iPhone 4, iPod video (5g), and iPad 1.

What am I missing?

Update: I see that micro vision calls this cable a component video cable for iPod. When I try my apple component cables to my iPad it immediately recognizes them when I plug it into my iPad and starts outputting over the cable. When I plug the showwx cable in, the iPad it like it does not even realize anything has happened. I think it got a bum cable....

Got my projector today. Tested it on an iPad 2, it sorts of work for certain programs. It does NOT do mirroring of the iPad screen to the projector.

Here is what I found:
Youtube works, movies are shown in the projector, but not on the iPad2

Photos works only in slideshow mode, not when flipping through the pictures

Keynote works only when presenting a slide, not when editing it

I suspect this is a software issue. Does anybody know how to jailbreak the iPad 2 and enable full screen mirroring?

kinwin wrote:Got my projector today. Tested it on an iPad 2, it sorts of work for certain programs. It does NOT do mirroring of the iPad screen to the projector.

Here is what I found:
Youtube works, movies are shown in the projector, but not on the iPad2

Photos works only in slideshow mode, not when flipping through the pictures

Keynote works only when presenting a slide, not when editing it

I suspect this is a software issue. Does anybody know how to jailbreak the iPad 2 and enable full screen mirroring?

I can't even get my iPad to recognize the iPod cable. Does it recognize it immediately, or is there a trick i am missing?

What ipad apps work with showwx? is there any movie apps that I can use that will play pretty much any movie that I throw at it without converting?

arkowi wrote:I can't even get my iPad to recognize the iPod cable. Does it recognize it immediately, or is there a trick i am missing?

There is no trick to it, just hook up the cable. You can't tell by looking at the ipad if the cable is good or not. The ipad doesn't give you any indication at all, you have to run each program with the projector to figure out if it works or not.

kinwin wrote:There is no trick to it, just hook up the cable. You can't tell by looking at the ipad if the cable is good or not. The ipad doesn't give you any indication at all, you have to run each program with the projector to figure out if it works or not.

When I hook my Apple video cables up to my iPad or iPhone while playing a video, the screen changes to say "outputting to TV", nothing like that happens with the ShowWX cable. It's as if I didn't plug anything in at all.

Think I might have a bum cable. I'll contact the company for support.

Got mine today and not video output from the unit at all. BLue LED power light is solid, so wonder if it is DOA.

I got mine today and it works great! Very impressed with it's "dark room" performance.

One question: If I put my ear up near it I can hear a buzzing (which I assume is the little mirror moving around super fast). I was kind of surprized that I could actually hear it buzz, I figured it was a MEMS device that was so small/light that I wouldn't be able to hear it.

Anybody else hearing a very faint buzzing noise from their projector when it's on? (You have to put your ear near it, it's not annoying or super noticeable if you are not listening for it...) I just want to make sure mine is operating "normally" and the buzz isn't a sign of problems to come...

Mine arrived. It works with the dvd player, but not my iPod Touch 4g (audio only). The troubleshooting bit in the manual says

"Make sure the iPod has TV-out functionality and is enabled. Make sure the SHOWWX video mode is correct for the cable being used."

How do I make sure the video mode is correct?

Seems like the VGA dock is just a pass through and does nothing else(per the first comment on Amazon) .
That said it must be fairly simple to hack a VGA cable to fit to the connector.

Which is what Im trying to identify and buy .Anyone know what type of connector this is ?

Also , if this thing could be hacked (huge if) ,there is very little to stop this from going 720p (limited by how fast the mirror can sweep/reset)

Stilton wrote:I just received my SHOWWX (fast shipping, Woot!) and am pleased to announce that it absolutely works with my iPod Touch (4th generation) using only the included cables - no other adapter needed.

And after a quick look, I'll say that the picture is very impressive and surprisingly bright. Seems like a good value!

Is your ipod touch 4g jailbroken? I received mine, but it doesn't work with ipod video component cable provided.

I got mine today and I suspect that I have a bum Ipod cable. I have tested it on an Ipad 2 Ipod classic and Ipod touch. Each one does the same thing, nothing. I turn on the projector it show me the image by picop screen, I then plug in the apple devices and there is no change on either of them. Not sure whats up

arkowi wrote:I can't even get my iPad to recognize the iPod cable. Does it recognize it immediately, or is there a trick i am missing?

Hi.. Go to your Ipad vedio settings and enable the TV Out option. then you can project it..

gummareddypura wrote:Hi.. Go to your Ipad vedio settings and enable the TV Out option. then you can project it..

There isn't an option for that under the video settings of an iPad it just let's you change the formatte there not turn it off and on

neonenergy wrote:Waitaminute... the VGA adapter's not included? ಠ_ಠ

That's another $19.69 on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/MicroVision-SHOWWX-VGA-Dock-Adapter/dp/B003PJ34OM/ref=pd_sim_e1

When I cut and pasted the amazon web page you suggested it showed the adapter at $39.95. Am I doing something wrong? I need this cable to attach the projector to my laptop.

dmrobertson wrote:When I cut and pasted the amazon web page you suggested it showed the adapter at $39.95. Am I doing something wrong? I need this cable to attach the projector to my laptop.

The $19 one (and a $21-priced one from Amazon) both sold out in the very early morning of the deal; there were a couple other stores offering these in the $25-$30 range when I got mine. All the stores that sold it below $39 sold out, and as such the price on that link is the lowest price from any store which has any remaining in stock.

Got it yesterday and played around with it. First I plugged it into my Samsung Tablet 7" model using a cable that outputs from the proprietary outlet Samsung to an RCA type connection, that then I connected to the Pico projector's RCA cord. Works darn fine! Limitation so far in visual imagery and preciseness is entirely attributable to the Samsung's screen resolution. Amole (sic) screen looks fine on the Samsung, but when blown up and projected through the Pico ... forget it. The text is terrible and unreadable. Images are fine.

Then today I took an RCA/VGA to composite video adapter and plugged one end to the Pico and the other end to the connector on my laptop and nothing happened. Guess there is some electronics that goes into the Microvision adapter that my simple contraption is missing. Connected the Pico and my desktop and nothing happened.

The $39.95 price for Microvision's adapter is about as good as it gets now. Their own website bumped up the price to $49.95. There's probably a cheaper solution out there but it will take some time to dig out.

Meanwhile, projecting an Android tablet through the Pico will get me to using this new toy! LOL.

RonnyBoy wrote:
Then today I took an RCA/VGA to composite video adapter and plugged one end to the Pico and the other end to the connector on my laptop and nothing happened. Guess there is some electronics that goes into the Microvision adapter that my simple contraption is missing. Connected the Pico and my desktop and nothing happened.

The video card in your laptop/desktop has to support s-video signal. There are converter boxes, but they are $$$ so you may as well get the vga dock

Still haven't got mine. Those of you who did, and had trouble connecting it to your Apple products, have you been in touch with the Showwxx tech support? How did that go?

rkinnett wrote:A cheap VGA to RCA/S-Vid adapter can be had for $1.49 at Overstock..

Do you have to have some other adapter to use this cable? It does not look like the RCA/S-Vid end will fit into the projector.

Ok so the only way to do mirroring on the iPad 2 with this would be to buy the $25 Apple VGA adapter cable and the VGA adapter for this guy. Gets closer to half the price of the newer projector with HDMI that also does mirroring.

Hello, some how it's not working with my ipod touch (4th generation), any idea?

Dianrez wrote:Still haven't got mine. Those of you who did, and had trouble connecting it to your Apple products, have you been in touch with the Showwxx tech support? How did that go?

I had the problems connecting with apple products and I belive it has to do with the cable because the projector is working. I called Microvision and talked with a operator very briefly before she transfered me to tech support and I left a mesage

cc971172 wrote:I had the problems connecting with apple products and I belive it has to do with the cable because the projector is working. I called Microvision and talked with a operator very briefly before she transfered me to tech support and I left a mesage

Something is very fishy with these cables. I am in the same boat as you.

I am on vacation this week and I didn't bring my device with me, so I can't really call tech support.

Please report back on your findings!

Joditindell wrote:Do you have to have some other adapter to use this cable? It does not look like the RCA/S-Vid end will fit into the projector.

You would need a Male-to-Male RCA plug. Note, though, that the device producing the video (i.e. computer) MUST have a special type of graphics card, such that the VGA output will produce the necessary additional information that would go out into the RCA jack.

Krumlov wrote:Can I hook speakers up to the projector?

I give presentations that have sound on occasion, so that would be a huge plus.

Try Goal Zero's battery powered portable speakers that runs from you phone or Ipod. They run about $20 and will run about 40 hours from one charge.

dudical32 wrote:Is your ipod touch 4g jailbroken? I received mine, but it doesn't work with ipod video component cable provided.

Same thing with me, unable to connect my ipod touch (4th generation). Noticed something, turned on netflix in ipod after connecting to the projector. while I'm trying to plug out the projector. It pauses the video. So some signal transmission is happening, but the video is not projecting still

madmanwithabox wrote:Does anybody know of a good ATSC TV tuner that I can hook to this projector via VGA port that will utilize the full 848x480 resolution? I don't want to waste the projector with a low def composite connection, that will only give me about 240 lines of resolution.

Composite output is 640x480 either interlaced or progressive. Your resolution will only be limited by the source material (e.g. VHS which is 320x240). You would not lose resolution. I think you might be confused how interlaced signals work. A 640x480 signal interlaced draws every other line with a gap in between for the next line alternating 60 times a second. This happens so fast it looks virtually the same as 480 lines drawn 30 times a second (look up "persistence of vision"). The projector will actually deinterlace the 480i and convert to 480p for essentially the same image quality.

Plenty of concern with connecting to "apple" product for which it was designed. Showwx & woot response?

Got mine and when I plug it into my iphone 4 the phone displays "accessory is not optomized for this iphone", and then the projector does nothing (just displays the start up screen.) Since my phone displays this message when I plug in the cable (whether or not the projector is plugged in) I assume the cable is bad. My ipod touch did nothing, and my wife's iphone 4 displayed the same message.

My DVD player worked just fine.

I emailed support, but I have received no response. My guess is that they are gonna get a lot of emails and calls.