YouTube Review
Another Review
Product Website
$279 at Amazon
$289 at Walmart
$299.95 at Apple
$299.99 at Best Buy

CNet video review, very informative! http://cnettv.cnet.com/optoma-neo-i/9742-1_53-50101386.html

Pretty good reviews on Amazon:
http://amzn.to/vyyiE9

Video Projector and Speaker System... white tundra frost!!

$279 at amazon.com. If I only had $220 I would buy this in a second.

Woot referencing (and ergo, I assume watches) Adventure Time?!?!?!?!?!

This just became the. Best. Website. EVER.

EDIT: And speaking of references, IGN.com mentioned Woot in one of their new articles! I mean...it's a very brief mention...and it's not exactly the nicest thing in the world...but, hey, advertising people!

http://games.ign.com/articles/121/1215386p1.html

50 lumens is really garbage. For about twice the money you can get a very decent projector that is about 2000 lumens.

50 lumens spread over a 120" screen is pretty crazy, as would be the resolution from an iPod at that size. Maybe that would be visible in a pitch-black room, but not under any other lighting condition.

You probably won't be able to plug your iPod directly into the brighter projector, though.

Sorry, not impressed by this, although I'm also not impressed by watching a movie on an iPod screen...

Would this work very well on a heavy knockdown textured wall?

Same price on Amazon for refurbished, whereas this one is brand new.

50 lumens??? I feel like you could project 50 lumens with a bic lighter.

I really wonder about the image though - 50 lumens isn't very bright. Seems like this is only good for very dark spaces.

sccali wrote:50 lumens??? I feel like you could project 50 lumens with a bic lighter.

For comparison, a 40W light bulb is about 500 lumens. But, the 50 for this projector is ANSI lumens and I don't know or care what that means.

At first glance I thought it was a Roomba

Get a portable battery and DJ Roomba becomes, VJ Roomba!!! WOO HOO follow the crazy robot playing music videos on anything it can!!

I smell an art installation exhibit.

I would recommend the square trade on this one.

I've had the built in pico project die on me on my camcorder twice. Once after 92 days, the second time ~20 days later.

I am having trust issues with this technology...


-woot4jam

Is it a bad thing that I'm getting my news from Woot? Wasn't aware of the whole Christoforo fiasco before the writeup here.

Can someone give me more information about this item. I'm having an old bastard, bad brain fart. Before I blow $215 for the wife, I need to know exactly what it does. Thank u!

Wow, the CNET review is impressive for a device that is so new to the market at this price point. I find CNET to be careful and, one might even say, often overcritical, on picture quality-type issues. So the fact that they praise, and almost love, this product is remarkable.

MichXelle wrote:Can someone give me more information about this item. I'm having an old bastard, bad brain fart. Before I blow $215 for the wife, I need to know exactly what it does. Thank u!

It makes coffee.

Brightness: 50 ANSI Lumens
Next!

broonoff wrote:Brightness: 50 ANSI Lumens
Next!

I was very surprised by how bright and usable the 50 lumens on the Optoma PT-100 projector turned out to be. It actually provided a good image in a 60 watt lit room and in a darker room looked very nice.

I would imagine much of the same electronics that are in the previously wooted Optoma PT-100 are in this device, but this projector is ranked higher in FULL ON/OFF Contrast (the pt-100 is rated at 800:1, this is rated at 2000:1). The result should be an even brighter looking image than the PT-100 even though it is the same lumens.

Going by my experience with similar pt-100 product, as long as you don't expect to fire it up in a fully lit room and keep your screen size about 80" or smaller you should be very pleased with the resulting image this puts out. The fact it won't get hot, the light source will never need replaced, it can be turned on and off without a cool down period, and it is light and easy to tote around make it a good alternative to other projection systems.

I would also like to say that Optoma customer service is top notch. I have owned Optoma products for over 10 years now. I just recently upgraded my theater room projector to an HD33 this Christmas, I previously owned HD70, HD20 Home Theater projectors. When my previously wooted PT-100 went bad after about 100 days Optoma treated me right and honored the warranty even though it was slightly past the 90 day refurbished warranty period.

Do we get the soccer ball and athletes pictured, or are those bundled with the ipod?

acdawg wrote:YouTube Review

I'd like to point out that this video, while long and a bit badly paced, does show the system projecting in a daylight window lit room at around the 5:00 mark. At the 7:00 mark he makes the screen a bit larger in the same lightly lit room. To reinstate from my previous post, I was really surprised by how much brighter 50 lumens was than I expected out of the Optoma PT100 that I bought from woot! With a higher contrast ratio this should look even brighter.

Was considering buying one until I read the remark about Adventure Time...

I think a lot of people just immediately jump to the conclusion
that 50 lumens is inadequate. I'm thinking of using it to review
camcorder footage (plugged into a batt) while tent camping.
But also, while on the road, it should be good for projecting
~50" picture on motel wall. I've always preferred to use any
projector in a dark room, and that's going to go triple for a
50 lumen unit. But PicoPros has posted a 7 minute review
showing this unit in low ambient light, AND a dark room...
and it's impressive. I'm thinkin' I'm in on this one.

http://www.picopros.com/article/review-optoma-neo-i-projector

p.s. I don't use Netflix, etc., ...for those who that's important to,
this device probably isn't for you.

This is an interesting product. I have the Optoma PK301 and I absolutely love it. The picture is extremely impressive for its size but the speakers are justifiably lacking. Headphones and splitters can remedy that to an extent but who wants to wear those in a social setting. If I'm the only one around I'm usually perfectly happy with headphones watching movies directly from my iPhone. If other people are watching, component sized speakers or an iPod dock are pretty much mandatory anyway. If you don't already have a quality pico projector and would like one this is a bargain. It doesn't seem all that small but it will prevent you from the inevitable dragging around the equipment you'll need for sound and iPod connectivity. I might pick this one up anyway.

broonoff wrote:Brightness: 50 ANSI Lumens
Next!

Based upon how long you have been a member (Jan 2006) you've been saying "Next" a lot (approx 2,183 times, just on Woot) since you haven't wooted before.

Is anything a good deal in your opinion or do you have everything already?

luckbealady wrote:Would this work very well on a heavy knockdown textured wall?

Same price on Amazon for refurbished, whereas this one is brand new.

It doesn't care what kind of wall you have. If you have a textured wall, you're going to be watching a textured image.

Lance19 wrote:I think a lot of people just immediately jump to the conclusion
that 50 lumens is inadequate. I'm thinking of using it to review
camcorder footage (plugged into a batt) while tent camping.
But also, while on the road, it should be good for projecting
~50" picture on motel wall. I've always preferred to use any
projector in a dark room, and that's going to go triple for a
50 lumen unit. But PicoPros has posted a 7 minute review
showing this unit in low ambient light, AND a dark room...
and it's impressive. I'm thinkin' I'm in on this one.

http://www.picopros.com/article/review-optoma-neo-i-projector

p.s. I don't use Netflix, etc., ...for those who that's important to,
this device probably isn't for you.

That's because 50 lumens IS inadequate. The pictures have likely been doctored the same way McDonald's doctors the pictures of their burgers when they advertise them. I have a 145 lumen flashlight that fits in my pocket!!!

Don't forget that perceived brightness is roughly logarithmic, not linear. A 50-lumen projector would only appear about 4 times less bright than a 5000-lumen projector, not 100 times less bright. at least I think that's how the math works though I could be wrong.

You will still need extreme darkness to enjoy a 50-lumen image. For instance my 11-lumen PK-101 requires PURE darkness in order to really see the image at all.

One important thing to note: video output from an iPhone or iPod depends entirely on the software that allows it. Picture slideshows and videos synced to the iPod app will work, but for instance Netflix can choose whether or not to support video-out. The only way to "force" video output is to jailbreak and use something like Resupported4 or TVOut2 (don't know about iOS5 compatibility with those right now).

50 lunens is bright enough for a good picture but I think 80-90" is a more realistic size you would end up watching it at. Remember the darker the movie the brighter the screen needs to be to show the detail in it. Also its not hd, and picture quality will depend on how much you compress a movie when you put it on your ipod. I have the Optoma PK102 which is only 20 lumens and I get a good 40-50" screen but it can runs off a battery so I take it camping and such. this one needs 19 volts a 2.1 amps, you would be very lucky to find a battery to make it mobile, but still a alright set up and your ipod charges while its playing so it wont die mid show.

sccali wrote:50 lumens??? I feel like you could project 50 lumens with a bic lighter.

A Bic lighter is only 9.5 lumens unless it's very windy then it's zero lumens. I read this once in "All About Lumens"

Real projectors have come down in price so much. I would just spend an extra hundred bucks and get something with specs that crush this. If you don't have the extra hundred bucks maybe you shoulddnt bespending the money to begin with.

woot4jam wrote:I would recommend the square trade on this one.

I've had the built in pico project die on me on my camcorder twice. Once after 92 days, the second time ~20 days later.

I am having trust issues with this technology...


-woot4jam

I got an email from Square Trade today for 30% off but in the fine print it says "Coupon offer not available on Woot.com". Anyone know what that's about?

I got one of these in the summer when it was new. Its true that you have to watch it in the dark. So what, night time is when you watch movies anyway, right ?

Various goods and bads from my perspective. Its extremely light in weight, and because its LED, you dont have to worry about the bulb burning out, you dont have to worry about energy efficiency, and you dont have to worry about heat production.

Sound quality is ok for quiet enclosed space, but not acceptable for a veranda where we had it. There is no sound output, so you can't hook up external speakers. The box brags that the speakers are x watts ! wow, but dont believe the hype. We typically watch netflix, or at times, youtube, on it, and for HD netflix, the picture is great (for what it is). Netflix streams at a higher resolution than the projector is capable of, so the fact that it coming from an ipod or iphone is irrelevant. The image quality is equal to that of a dvd, and this is acceptable at times, thought if you are used to blu-ray, then you will not be able to stand it more than occasionally.

Its very portable, so good for special occasions, but not a replacement for a 1080p 2000 lumens projector

I agree. 50 lumens is barely better than 0 lumens.

I have an old 150 lumen projector, and its ok- at night.

Also, why anyone wants to watch a movie outside a real screen is beyone me.

New season of Adventure Time? there's a new season of Adventure Time?!!! Algebraic!

Great write up. When I read that email chain on Tuesday I wondered what those guys could possibly be thinking, first to talk to a customer that way and then second to talk to Mike from Penny Arcade like that. The name dropping almost seemed like a movie. Then I had to wonder if it wasn't some crazy PR stunt to get the controller some recognition. The 4chan backlash and reading his tweets make me think it most certainly is not. Silly marketing guy!

As for this item, I could see giving it to one of my kids to play games on their wall, but if I wanted to watch movies on it, I think I'd spend a little more and get a much nicer projector. Though this might be nice for someone that spends a fair amount of time at a campground or something. All in all, the picture is better than I would expect for 50 lumens (without a doubt DLP helps with that) but it isn't where I would want it.

I bought this projector a week before a family vacation this year, and was amazed at how well it performed. I projected it onto a textured wooden garage, and was extremely happy with the results. Kids loved it. I use a WD media player, with a 500GB bus-powered WD hard drive, all connected via HDMI, and it works perfectly. Is the built in sound great? No, not great, but more than sufficient that folks in a 20-30 ft radius could hear it just fine. I would buy this again in a hearbeat.