Buy LG Electronics PA75U Slim LED Projector with WXGA Resolution WiDi and Smart TV Reviews 23 of 23 people found the following review helpful. 5Nice evolution in LED projectors By Leo Spaceman First, a shout out to folks over at avsforum -- a lot of great info and feedback there in case you havent checked it out. Now, my experience is based on upgrading from a LG HS201, which pumps out a measley 300 lumens, and also I am by no means a high-end home theater guy. My family watches TV and movies, a lot over streaming Netflix or AppleTV, and were not looking for ultra high-end home theater setups where this color needs to be perfect, or the audio has to be 5.1 or 7.1 or whatever. So grain of salt, home theater enthusiasts. Now that said, heres what I really like about this new unit - The LED light source. Our LG HS201 is still going strong and rated at 20,000-30,000 hours. By comparison, a conventional lamp-based projector is going to blow after about 2000 hours, and if youre like us, using this thing for, say, 2-3 hours a night and accidentally leaving it on for a few more because AppleTV has a good screensaver, youre basically looking at what amounts to a disposable projector because the bulbs are so expensive. - I actually like the different remotes. Theyre like the remote equivalent of the mullet, business in the front, party in the back. I wind up using the magic wand with the motion sensor more because it just seems simpler and I can still pretty much do everything I need to get to with that remote, just more on-screen navigation. - The TV features are neat. Having an over-the-air receiver is more fun than I realized, and the bundled antenna works just fine in my area, where I can pick up all the major networks (NBC, ABC, CBS, Fox, etc) as well as the random ones in languages I wish I knew better. - 3D function. I picked up some cheap SainSonic glasses here on Amazon and it just works. You can test it with 3D content using the YouTube native app on the projector -- theres a playlist of videos even you can use to test. I hadnt been looking for this in a projector but its nice to know that its there, and makes me look cool to other people which would be more of an issue if I were trying to compensate for the emptiness in my life and search for real meaning by unwisely buying material things in a subconscious effort to be otherwise validated by my friends and family and seek a temporary fleeting sense of meaning that then vanishes. So, yeah, 3D is awesome, you should totally try it. - Little things that arent present in the last generation, like auto-keystone and stuff like that. The projector sort of set itself up nicely, even as I have it flipped upside down in my setup and it just knew it and, as if to say here, here, dont fret about the emptiness in your life, and you know what, Ill do some of my own settings it was a really nice setup experience. You can still control all those things like keystone etc but its just really nice especially if youre not putting this projector permanently in a location but carrying it around to, say, Sales presentations where you dont believe in the product and feel as though youre selling your soul in addition to the product, and will be projecting in new environments from time to time. - Audio is perfectly satisfactory, but for audiophiles you will hate it. Theres a regular headphone jack thing and so you can get audio over to something else, but if youre looking for digital audio out or other things to fill the emptiness in your life, no, you wont find those here, sorry. - The resolution is really nice. I dont know what a 1080p projector image looks like. I do know that this feels like HD, because on a 100 wide aspect ratio screen, it feel sharp and colorful. Heres whats so-so - The brightness. Theres no way youre going to be able to see this during the day and compare it to a TV image. Now, granted, do I want a projector that can do 100,000 lumens without a lot of noise and with a lamp that lasts 2000 years and costs under $1000? Sure. But like democracy, this is maybe the best compromise we have right now. In this analogy, I am equating a system of government to the LED projector market, for those playing along at home. Do I think its 700 lumen? Maybe. Feels brighter than our old 300 lumen which is basically like saying a peanut M&M is bigger than a regular M&M; sure, thats true, but neither are really as big as a Snickers bar. I turn it up off of the worst eco mode, and even as I am destroying Americas energy future by using more energy (I guess), I am pleased by the brightness. But it wont compare to a full-blown non-LED projector. So if you love lamps being bright and burning out soon, and generally have wrestled well with your own mortality by now, dont get this. But if youd like to live under a little more comfort that this projector will last a good long time and be with you to develop a good working relationship with it, and view a lot of movies together and grow old together, then maybe get this one. - SmartTV features. Big thing is Plex compatability (which is where they get away with saying its Netflix compatiible etc) are a little rough around the edges but make the experience a lot cooler than just a plain old projector. If we werent so addicted to AppleTV and the iTunes ecosystem, Id go with the Plex functionality more often. Plex, by the way, is basically a system where you can host media on a server somewhere else in your house (say, on a Mac Mini or a Windows PC thats always on) and then fling it over to your projector (its called SmartLink I think in the menus). It not only flings stored media but there are Channels in Plex including Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, etc. which work to varying degrees of success. The navigation could be a little cleaner and easier, but isnt bad per se. - Other SmartTV features. Yeah, theres YouTube, Twitter, Google Maps. Some of these are awkward because really? Youre surfing Google Maps on a home entertainment projector? I wouldve rather they spent the time to embed some better native entertainment apps but oh well. Guess thats a mistake theyll have to live with for the rest of their lives, LG engineers... and I forgive you. - I kind of wish there was some more precise and/or automatic way of focusing. I also wish I had the ability to fly and teleport. Uh, what else... - On some of the forums they say theres a hum or something. I dont hear it in ours. If you crank the setting where it says youre at a high altitude, the fan comes on and so thats one thing. But I dont hear the hum theyre talking about. - The HDMI connection works just fine. - Its a fine-looking unit itself. Mostly understated, and I was impressed that they mounted most of the controls on the back so you could actually project upside down -- say off the top of a bookshelf opposite the projection screen -- to a projector and still do just fine. - You get used to the navigation after a while. I kind of wish there were better shortcut keys to get to the most commonly-used features for us, e.g. switching modes, but I guess Id have to use the other less slick remote. I also wish there were a keyboard to enter text just during setup, eg WiFi passwords. - If youre deciding between the PA70G or a non-entertainment projector and this one, Id go with this one if your intent is entertainment use. Its just sort of nice to have some of these features at the projector-level rather than via a connected device (eg AppleTV), even if the menus are a little weird. - WiFi 802.11n In short, were really enjoying this projector. Bold, colorful images, decent audio built-in, built-in entertainment junk, bright enough to hold its own against any other LED projectors, and fun with 3D if you feel like it. Go for it. 23 of 28 people found the following review helpful. 3Could have been perfect! By piy1000 After much research on LED projectors and this one coming up at a great price recently, we picked one up. Our projector comparisons are the BenQ W1070 1080P 3D Home Theater Projector (Silver) and Dell M110 Ultra-Mobile Projector -- the BenQ has gotten tons of rave reviews and the Dell is a lower lumen LED projector much more comparable to this model. Honestly, that little Dell can hold its own for total dark situation, however, it has no color adjustments. We were fortunate enough to be able to view one of the Dells in our home. The Good - Tons of feature - TV tuner works very well with the included external indoor antenna. - WiFi seems to be very strong - worked very well with plex once setup. Wasnt able to test the WiDi or mirroring, and Nero essentials didnt work on our Win7 Ultimate computer. - Colors are very good, nicely saturated without being comical. Skin tones are very nice. - Tons of settings. . . for nearly everything you can think of & it becomes a little daunting at times, however, we would rather have the setting options than not. - Setup wizard has its pluses, but it could be better. - Fans are very quiet on the lowest settings, although the high altitude mode does kick things up considerably. The highest brightness mode is rather loud, too. - Decent brightness. We are currently using ~90 with max eco mode (dimmest) at night and its plenty bright. However, like most projectors, this thing will not handle a lot of ambient light as blacks are washed out, but certainly bright enough for light controlled rooms and a reasonably sized screen (~110). - LED bulbs last up to 30,000 hours and dont decrease brightness over the lifespan as much are regular bulbs. - Handles just about any input: 1080p on down, but seems a little choppy with 1080p/60Hz but fine with 1080p/24Hz. - 3D. However, we havent tested the 3D features at this point in time. The Bad - Two separate remotes that could have been combined into one very good one - Focus issues -- our focus stops (the focus wheel just ends) just when its getting into focus. Thus, we cant really say it if could be sharper or not. - The only audio out is a headphone jack. - 1280x800 resolution -- would love to see a 1080p model (not a real negative as it is what it is) - the diamond pixels (horizontal pixels that are diagonal to the screen) are not great for text - Defective HDMI, in our case. All in all, LG is on the right track with this projector, but there area few missteps. Why anyone thinks anyone wants two remotes instead of one is beyond me. The wand/magic remote works well enough but it doesnt have everything the regular remote does and vice versa, thus, it seems like a beta product. If LG would have combined both remotes into one great remote it would have made for an excellent remote. There are many who have had focus issues with the previous model, the LG PA70G. This model seems to be better, however, in our case the focus stops a little short of where you need/want. Just as things are coming into focus the focus rings stops. We cant tell if we have gone far enough with the focus because we cant go back out of focus in both directions. Text can be made to look reasonably sharp, but strangely, this thing seems to go out of focus on its own quite regularly/easily. . . not sure whats going on with that. Since this first unit is being returned we wont attempt a fix. The third issue, and what I consider a failure, is the audio out. LG added lots of in-built media playing features that work pretty darn well! However, they decided to gimp those features with only a dual channel headphone jack for audio out. I see no reason to include a TV tuner, DLNA streaming, usb multimedia player, etc. . . to then gimp them all by not having a decent audio output that will allow for true surround to take place -- to play the embedded audio in its native format. I do understand that many will argue this is for business, however, I would argue that this is for more than just business. Otherwise, adding these previously mentioned multimedia features would be pointless. A business projector doesnt need a TV tuner or DLNA streaming; usb sure but not the other features which puts this projector into a multimedia class, not just business IMO. Its perfectly suitable for a bedroom, dorm room, etc. . and why not have decent sound? I could understand a SPDIF audio output along with the headphone jack but just the headphone jack is a failure IMO. Honestly, if this thing had a good audio output we wouldnt need any other connections than the audio out to a receiver, and the antenna of course -- everything else could be streamed or played off a usb hard drive, but LG failed to think intelligently here. By adding a decent audio out this little projector would have been the center of the entertainment driving everything. As it is, there really is NO point whatsoever to use the inbuilt features if you want decent audio which means we will be using it with HDMI input instead of the great WiFi streaming built into it, which is now a useless feature for us. Seriously..., one audio cable out instead of hdmi in and audio out as you still would need audio out for the tv and other features if you ever use them. This is just making you run an additional cable instead of reducing them. . . ridiculous. Apparently LG likes to double things -- two remotes when one would have been perfect, two connection cables when one would have been perfect. Nonetheless, ours has a bad HDMI, and possibly RGB, input. The color management settings are grayed out & inaccessible when using the HDMI input. According to LG the CM should be available and this has been confirmed by another user. However, like most documentation these days, instead of clearly noting the available settings per input, LG went with the generalized may vary depending on input which required us to do a lot more research than necessary to find out that the HDMI is bad. Were currently giving 3 stars due to a defective product. If the focus is bang on and we didnt have the defective HDMI I would give this 4 stars, subtracting only for the poor audio output. Recommendations Honestly, if everything is working properly on this projector its hard to beat at the sub $600 price we got it for. Factoring in the cost of bulbs/total ownership, this things is a pretty darn good deal and hard to beat. The weakness of this projector, as is with all current LED projectors, is total lumen output. Dont get me wrong, this things has plenty for a room with proper light control however, its not for a living room (lots of light) situation. Weve watched it in a room with large windows and it does well IF the blinds are closed -- bright shows are OK with the blinds more open (see the youtube video of the PA70G in daylight as its very accurate IMHO). The 1280x800 resolution isnt that bad. One might think at ~100 that the difference between 720p & 1080p would be massive. While it is noticeable it isnt massive and the 720p doesnt look bad at all especially if you are feeding it high quality content. Thats a trade off you should be aware of, but honestly, we think its good for ~100 size in a room with decent light control -- our number one pick for such a situation at this point in time. FYI, this projector, even when focus is good, is NOT great for text reading, thus setting it to 1080p isnt really a great option if reading much. . . unless you enlarge it significantly. This is due to the fact that the pixels are squares arranged in a diagonal pattern instead of horizontal, and of course not being higher resolution -- many often refer to these pixels as diamond pixels. They work very well for video but not exceptional for reading text. Update 5-15-2012 Just received and tested our second PA75U. 1. The focus is generally better. 1a. Focus wheel is much tighter/stiffer/harder to turn. The first projector was very very easy to turn which I believe allowed it to go out of focus due to its own vibration. 1b. The focus wheel still stops a little shorter than I would like however, it does seem a little more obvious that it is going out of focus by the time it comes to its end point. 2. On this particular projector when using HDMI you will get the color management and many other settings ONLY when graphics is set to 1080p, 720p, or 1280x600. . . clearly there is a bug at work here that LG does not know about -- cant imagine any logical reason to limit these settings ONLY to those resolutions mentioned. I only found this out due to my graphics card changing to 1280x600 between the many hooking/unhooking of the HDMI during testing as I generally run the projector at its native resolution (1280x720). Kind of ridiculous that you will NOT get those settings when running at native resolution! update: confirmed with LG that this is NOT a bug. They did limit color management and many other settings when using HDMI for only certain resolutions, those mentioned above. Personally, I dont get why they would do that. Update 5-15-2012 Apparently LG thinks there is a reason to limit settings per resolution when using the HDMI input. We spoke with a second LG tech support person who verified that the PA75U is in fact limited when using the HDMI per certain resolutions as we discovered and discussed above. So, there you go. Not even they are clear about it when you speak with them as the previous person did not mention whatsoever that the settings were dependent on the resolution setting. I still cannot fathom why they would NOT include the settings on the projectors NATIVE resolution -- ridiculous IMO! Other than a few odd choices by LG -- two remotes, limited audio output, and gimping settings on certain resolutions -- and a few bugs or more bad choices with the software -- usb video player will play all audio streams at once, and the clear motion, while actually doing great in smoothing out most frames and removing blur, it causes singular major judder frames, as if it saves up all the judder (every few seconds or so) for one frame which get a major judder/shift/jump, thus it isnt pleasant to use at all which is a real shame -- this second projector is looking very good other than those issues. Still not great for reading smaller text but video looks really good with very little image noise -- the BenQ W1070 we had added a lot of image noise compared to the PA75U, thus the picture looks clean and reasonably sharp for 720p. 9 of 11 people found the following review helpful. 5Great Projector - but NO Netflix, NO Hulu (as of April 2013) By Alan Smithee Although I am thrilled with the features of this projector, including built in wifi and the ability to play a number of different file formats, I am very disappointed to find that the available Smart TV apps are all garbage. Netflix is not available. Hulu is not available. Unfortunately I bought this at a retail chain where an employee confirmed the Smart TV features of this projector, including netflix and hulu - it seems to be a common and logical misperception that LG Smart TV Apps would, by default, include those popular video-streaming apps. Now I am stuck trying to return it. Ultimately, its a great projector. But the absence of those apps brings the value down, in my eyes, and it would appear that Ive overpaid. Best Price: 9soul/B00C13ON7K
Posted on: Sun, 10 Nov 2013 23:44:14 +0000