There are now a whole range of home projectors which let people turn the wall of their living room into a cinema screen or immersive gaming space.
While some people are happy to take their chances with a cheap projector, and connoisseurs with big wallets will go for the very best they can get, most people are looking to balance quality and cost through a mid-range system. YouTube reviewer The Hook Up recently tested and reviewed 15 of them, reporting that the Paris Rhône SP005 True 4K Ultra HD Projector provided the best viewing experience.
Getting Good Visuals
The first thing that most people think about with a home theatre system is the quality of the image, and this is an area where the Paris Rhône 4K excels.
This device uses a single LCD projector system with an LED light source, creating a 4K resolution full color image.
It’s advertised as having a brightness of 600 lumens, but according to The Hook Up it actually does better than this. He found that it achieved over 680 lumens of brightness, ensuring that the image stands out.
The review also found that the Paris Rhône 4K has a decent contrast ratio of nearly 2,200 to 1. This is a measure of how distinct the darkest and brightest parts of an image will be from one another, and while the Paris Rhône was in the middle of the range of reviewed projectors for this, it’s good enough to make an enjoyable image.
Any mid-range projector is going to have a visual weakness, and the biggest weakness The Hook Up’s review found in the Paris Rhône’s visuals was color space coverage. It displays around 65% of the SDR color space, meaning that some colors aren’t as varied or nuanced as with other projectors. But the brightness and contrast go a long way in making up for this.
Avoiding Blurred Images
Clarity is important to the image, and this is affected by the positioning of the projector and the way that it offsets its image when projecting.
Vertical offset projectors have to be positioned facing the middle of screen for the best image. Zero offset projectors like the Paris Rhône 4K, on the other hand, work best when the bottom of the projector lines up with the bottom of the screen. This is much more convenient if the projector is set up on a coffee table, as you don’t have to tilt the projector, skewing its image. It’s also better if the projector is ceiling mounted as a more permanent feature, at which point the bottom of both projector and screen can become the top.
Both sorts of projector can use a system called Keystone to correct for any misalignment. This uses software to align the corners of projection with the corners of the screen, regardless of how the projector is positioned. The Paris Rhône 4K has both auto and manual options for this, meaning that you can do it the easy way if you’re a casual viewer, or get into the details if you’re more tech savvy and a cinematic purist.
The Paris Rhône’s Keystone systems is particularly effective, according to The Hook Up’s review. Adjusting in this way usually leaves one side of the screen less clear than the other, but with this projector, it’s clear all the way across.
Together, these features provide the projector with focus and clarity. Combine that with great brightness and good contrast, and you’ve got a crisp, clear image, a visual experience that beats any other mid-price projector. Out of fifteen mid-range projectors, The Hook Up rated it as providing the best viewing experience.
Other Features
While many home cinema fans have a separate speaker system, a mid-range system should have usable internal speakers. The dual speaker system on the Paris Rhône 4K has great bass and treble as well as good midrange, creating a quality of sound that’s more than good enough to enjoy a whole movie. While there’s some noise from the fan, The Hook Up found that it was no more than average for a mid-price system, meaning that it won’t intrude on your viewing.
This isn’t the ideal system for gamers, as there’s a 60 millisecond input lag. You can get away with playing racing games, but nothing more hardcore. Fortunately, that lag is irrelevant for normal viewing and listening, or for a gamer who keeps that habit on their monitor and saves the projector for TV and movies.
The projector has an operating system based on Android 9 using mouse mode, which can run apps like Netflix and Prime. This means that you can watch without an external device, using the projector for the whole system. Given that the device is as small and compact as some less powerful projectors, that’s useful for if you want to treat it as a portable device, for use in different places.
But for a top-quality viewing experience, it’s best to connect it to an external device. This will give you a wider range of viewing options, as well as more user-friendly controls. This isn’t unique to the Paris Rhône model. Mid-range projectors simply aren’t equipped with the range of streaming apps and platforms you can get through a laptop or a smart TV. They’re a way to improve the viewing experience with other devices, not something you’ll want to use on its own.
Worth the Money?
According to The Hook Up, the Paris Rhône 4K projector has the best overall visuals of any mid-range projector. It’s convenient to use and has decent sound quality, and would be suitable for anyone who wants to watch TV and movies on a big scale. While it’s priced near the top of the mid-range selection, deals like this hundred dollar discount mean that you can get the projector for a better price, giving you some of the best value for money a projector can provide. And if you want to check The Hook Up’s full review first, you can watch it on YouTube.
