Cinemood - Storyteller Wireless Smart Dlp Projector Reviews

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REVIEW – When the whole family wants to watch a motion-picture show or encounter the large game together, we gather around the large screen TV in the living room. When I desire to catch a Dota match on Twitch or see the latest Dude Perfect video on YouTube, I utilise my iPad. Is there room in our family for a gadget that fits somewhere in betwixt these extremes? It would need to combine the have-it-anywhere convenience of an iPad with the screen-is-large-enough-for-two of a TV. CINEMOOD's Portable Movie Theater (PMT) wants to be this gadget!

What is information technology?

The PMT is a smart, portable projector. It'southward a projector that turns whatever shine, white surface into a screen for watching videos and other digital content. Information technology's small and calorie-free enough to be very portable. Want to join a friend on the beanbag and project on the wall? No problem. Want to lay on a bed together and projection onto the ceiling? Still no problem. Information technology's also smart, which means that it's more than just a projector. The PMT has its ain operating organization that connects to your WIFI, runs apps, and downloads content from the Internet. Conceptually, it'southward very similar to an AppleTV or a Roku, but it uses a projector instead of plugging into your TV.

I call back the PMT has ii target audiences in listen. Starting time, it'due south clearly aimed at little kids. It'south minor, calorie-free, and like shooting fish in a barrel for kids to have anywhere without whatsoever cables, and it comes pre-loaded with content geared towards footling kids. Second, it's also aimed at couples or friends who want to spontaneously savour a video together from traditional sources like YouTube, Netflix, and Amazon Prime number Video.

What'due south in the box?

The projector
A micro-to-USB cablevision with wall charger
A rubber stand for belongings the projector steady
A transmission with half-dozen pages of English instructions

Hardware specs

three in ten 3 in x 3 in
0.five lbs
Internal, rechargeable, non-replaceable battery with upwardly to 5 hours of battery life
3.5mm audio support
16 GB of internal retentiveness, though only 6.eight GB are free out of the box
two.four GHz WIFI and Bluetooth four.0 back up
Back up for a diversity of audio, video, and image formats
Screen mirroring (iOS simply)

Design and features

Exercise you remember EVE, the beautiful petty robot that WALL-E met? The PMT kind of reminds me of her: small, white, and minimalist. It's a slick-looking lilliputian gadget.

Installation and setup

The PMT comes charged, merely my unit was but nearly 30% charged, so the first footstep was to charge information technology upward with the wall charger and USB cable, which I plugged into the micro-USB port. When it's charging, a trivial LED on the side turns red; when finished, information technology turns light-green. The manual notes that I should merely charge the PMT while it is off, so once the battery is drained, I won't be able to apply the projector until I accuse it once again. The starting time fourth dimension I started the projector, it asked if I wanted English or Russian.

Hardware

The PMT itself is a dainty chip of hardware, sturdy and well-congenital, made of white plastic; it seems very durable to me. The projector is a decent quality for the price. The colors are reasonably rich and vibrant when I project on the wall a couple anxiety in front of me; when projecting onto a wall that's 6 anxiety away, it's a lot more washed out. This projector is not very bright (35 lumens), so I can just use it at night or in a night room. The speakers are small and very tinny-sounding, as I would expect from such a small device. Little kids probably won't notice this, merely adults volition want to use a better sound source. The PMT comes with a 3.5mm audio jack, and then I plugged in the headphones that came with my iPhone and got clear and ameliorate sound. Of course, using headphones defeats the point of a device that tin exist shared with others, so I plugged the PMT into my Soundcast VG5. These two are a nice combination, equally the VG5 not merely provides great audio but as well acts equally a small stand.

It would exist even amend if the sound could be connected via Bluetooth instead of an audio cablevision. Fortunately, the PMT supports Bluetooth audio, and it paired with the VG5 without whatsoever problem.

The power button is on the left side near the LED. I'm not sure what processor is inside CINEMOOD's projector, but it's not exactly fast. When I press the power button (the one with the little ruddy lightning symbol), it takes over a minute to boot up.

On top of the PMT are the navigation buttons. While in the OS, these are used to navigate through the apps and select content to picket. When playing a show, they are used to command the volume, fast forrad, rewind, and pause. The only problem I found—and it's a huge i—is that at that place's not really a intermission button. If you striking the center button, it shows the suspension symbol, but it actually stops the video; when I click again to restart, it starts from the start. This makes it nigh useless for watching any long content, similar a movie, where you might want to suspension to get some more than popcorn or take a bio pause.

On the right side is a rocker button that is used to focus the projector. There's also a flashlight button that turns on the projector as a light in case you demand to see something in a dark room. It'south a nice lilliputian touch on.

The operating system (OS)

The operating system in the PMT is called CINEMOOD Bone, and I suspect it's a version of Android. Information technology comes with a variety of pre-installed apps, many of which I'll draw below. Apps cannot exist removed, but unwanted content can be deleted by pressing and holding the cheque button. The content remains visible and can exist downloaded from the net at whatsoever fourth dimension. Deleting the unwanted content frees upwardly space for your own content.

1 of the first things that the Bone wanted to do is connect to my WIFI, so it can access online content. In the Settings app, I checked for updates to the OS. It took several minutes to download and install the current update, and I'chiliad currently on version 4.9.89.

Mobile app

I downloaded the CINEMOOD mobile app from Apple'south app store. Later on pairing via Bluetooth, information technology functions every bit a remote control, providing the 5 navigation buttons and the focus push button as well as a battery indicator. Pairing was sometimes a problem; occasionally I had to reboot the CMT before the app could find it.

Content

The CINEMOOD organizes its content then that all the kid content is seen first. I tapped past it until I found the Apps Department and then tapped downward to find the YouTube app. When I started it, I was faced with a dialogue box that said, "You lot should exist logged in your CINEMOOD account for this action." I can't sentinel YouTube without an account; in fact, a lot of the content on this device is locked out until unless I create an business relationship.

I went back up and found Settings and tapped down to detect the Account app. This brought up the following message: "Enter your phone number." CINEMOOD wants my telephone number!? I tried inbound a random number, but they transport a text message with a code that I accept to enter in society to create the account. This made me mad. If I spend hundreds of dollars to purchase a gadget, why would they lock me out of parts of it until I give them my phone? Aught nearly a projector requires my telephone number to piece of work. I used My Trash Mobile to enter a temporary telephone number and the lawmaking that they sent. CINEMOOD so asked for my e-mail, and so I used TempMail to enter a temporary e-mail. Then it asked for my credit card number. Seriously!? The PMT isn't a habitation theater, information technology'due south a trojan horse designed to collect my personal information. At first, I was stuck, because there'due south no way I'yard giving CINEMOOD my credit card just to prepare up an business relationship. Eventually, I plant a bit of a silver lining for this tempest cloud: I can apply the mobile app to help with the account creation process. It makes information technology easier to enter my telephone and email, and information technology also gives me the choice to defer adding my credit carte until a later date, which I did. Now I tin employ the YouTube app, but it's a rather limited app. In that location's no dwelling or trending section, and no manner to view my subscription. I tin just watch videos well-nigh CINEMOOD—I'm rolling my eyes here—or I tin can search by subject field. At that place's no way to sort or filter any of the results, so I pretty have to scout the superlative hits that are returned.

Later watching a couple of videos, I decided to go back and check out the child'southward content. In the Listen section, there are sound books that are read out aloud to yous. The titles are in the public domain, like Alice in Wonderland and Treasure Island. In that location's also some classical music, like Vivaldi's Four Seasons, and an assortment of other music and sounds.

In the Dream Time department, in that location are some items designed to calm a child downwards before bedtime. There are some serenity music and something called "themes," which was music with an animated paradigm that runs for 2 minutes. There are ten themes, one is gratuitous, but the residuum have a lock symbol on them. If I want to access this content, I will need to pay $1 for each of them. If the averages hold out, that'll toll me $nine for 18 minutes of content. As it turns out, there's a LOT of content on this device for which I accept to pay extra. I started counting and quit once I reached $400. Be careful! If you enter your credit card, your kids could spend hundreds of dollars downloading extra content.

In the Scout department, there's video content that your kids can watch. There's a bunch of short cartoons that volition merely appeal to little kids and some educational videos. There'southward besides a Disney app, which has some safety videos and more educational videos. To be articulate, this device doesn't have any Disney movies, similar The Incredibles or Moana. The Disney videos that they do have are freely available on YouTube.

In the Read section, at that place are books for kids to read. When I select a volume, it takes me to a splash screen with Russian words. It appears as if the app is frozen at this point, but information technology'due south not; the secret is to use the right navigation button to "plow" to the adjacent folio in the book. The books in this section are likewise in the public domain.

The Scenery department appears to show relaxing videos of various destinations, such as beaches or underwater, just the content is all locked. The Play department was mayhap the most interesting, as it teaches kids how to create shadow puppets and so displays a white screen for them to practice. Some of the boob tutorials were free; others toll money.

Back in the Apps section, in that location's an app for Netflix and one for Amazon Prime Video. At this point, I'm honestly too scared to enter my credentials for these services; I don't really know if CINEMOOD is intercepting them or not. Aye, I'm probably paranoid, simply given the rest of what they've done, I'm unwilling to accept the risk. There'southward also a Telegram app, only I don't know why I would employ the PMT to read my email and two other apps that I've never heard of, IVI and Ameba.

The internal content that comes with the PMT is bully content; it will probably continue your kids entertained for many hours. Unfortunately, there'due south really zilch astonishing virtually information technology, every bit you tin get all this content (or something similar) for free on the Internet. If you accept cable Television, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, or even just YouTube, you already have better content bachelor at your fingertips. By the mode, there's no fashion to filter any type of inappropriate content from your kids. If y'all unlock YouTube, Netflix, etc., your kids volition be able to lookout anything they can discover.

The next source for content is that which you lot load on the PMT yourself. There are two ways to do this. First, yous tin can connect your PMT to your computer and copy files over. I used the USB cable, the same on that I used for charging and connected the PMT to my Windows 10 estimator. I then copied an MP3, a JPG, a MOV, and an M4V. All of these showed up in the My Stories app in the My section and could exist viewed and played without whatsoever problem. If you use a Mac to re-create the files, you'll need to install Android File Transfer onto your computer. Second, you lot can plug a USB bulldoze direct into the PMT. To do this yous will either need a USB drive with a micro USB plug, or you'll need a female-to-female USB adapter. I don't have either of these, so I was unable to test this characteristic.

The terminal source of content is from an iOS device. According to CINEMOOD's website, if I update the CINEMOOD OS (and I did), then I tin can utilise the screen mirroring characteristic on my iPhone to display content on the PMT. This is the feature that I'chiliad most excited almost, but I could never get it to piece of work. The screen mirroring on my iPhone can find and connect to my AppleTV with no trouble, but information technology tin't find the PMT.

Android and iOS device both take app stores for their devices, just at that place's no equivalent for CINEMOOD Bone. I only get the apps that come up with the device, unless perhaps they release new apps that are available with an Bone update.

Extra Features

The website says that the PMT should last for v hours on a charge, and that's exactly what I got in my testing. Continue in heed that the battery is not replaceable, and so one time it wears out, the PMT won't work any longer.

The PMT comes with a rubber stand up, which can be used to keep its identify and adapt the viewing angle.

What I like

Slick pattern
Good hardware

What needs to exist improved

Fix the pause push button
Remove the account creation process
End trying to accuse hundreds of dollars for additional content
Add together parental controls
Set up iOS screen mirroring
Add the power to remove unwanted apps

Last thoughts

I recall the idea of a portable projector that makes information technology easy to admission video content for kids and adults is a slap-up thought. CINEMOOD'due south flaws, however, go along it from realizing this idea. The lack of a functional suspension button solitary is a deal-billow for me. Their attempts to collect my personal information and go me to spend hundreds of dollars on additional content leaves me not trusting this company or its product. I'thousand lamentable to say it, but I merely can't recommend this gadget to you lot. I think you lot'd exist amend off either buying tablets for your kids or using a pico projector that uses the content on your phone, tablet, or Roku stick.

Price: $349.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Cinemood.

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Source: https://the-gadgeteer.com/2019/06/19/cinemood-portable-movie-theater-review/