Menards $34 Video Projector

[@wolframherzog636]

I think for the given low budget for the material bill the designers of this projector have done a pretty good job 👨🏼‍🔧

[@thenoisyelectron]

Agreed! This is clever! I appreciate cheap design if a product is cheap. It's only unacceptable when advertised as high quality. The only problem I have is the "1080p Compatible" which is just a way for 1080p to grab the eyes when browsing specs

[@nickthelick]

I was actually going to comment something a little bit similar, I was literally gonna say: "I guess there's two ways of looking at this product. Is it just cheap and nasty by using the most simplistic design and the cheapest materials possible, so as to grab as much money as possible from a poorer demographic of consumer? 🤔 OR... Has a company tasked an engineer to do their best effort in delivering a projector that is decent enough for the less-well-off consumer to be happy with the resulting picture clarity, by using the cheapest, least amount of materials to hand? 🤔 So yeah, two ways of looking at it! A cheap and nasty money grabber for poor people. OR... Is it a _good enough_ product, slaved over by a relatively low-paid in-house engineer, made as simplistic as possible for the poorer consumer to use and be happy with?"🤔 Am I making sense at all? 🤔 Because ultimately, the result is always the same whichever scenario!!! 😊😀🤔😉 (I threw in some bigg _ish_ words back there too, y'see?) 🤔 ✌🏼😀👍🏼 Wait a minute, did he just say that it's rebranded crap? 🤔 So, then it's the former suggestion, a cheap and nasty money grabber aimed at poor people?! 🤑💰💵💸😉

[@thenoisyelectron]

@@nickthelick I like the way you think man. I may be a bit cynical (ouu big word haha), but now you have me thinking this could be a case of an in-house engineer held hostage by a ridiculously strict bill of materials total cost

[@LordDrast420]

Its just E-WASTE, good video from Ben Heck but as far as the designers and manufacturers, its just more shit to fill the landfill.

[@nickthelick]

@@thenoisyelectron Yeah, well that's how some of these companies work. Y'know, sometimes delegating projects to their engineers. Not all companies but yeah, they do do that.

[@Enjoymentboy]

I got one of these off ebay back in 2015 and it also has the AV input but full 480 resolution and it was $40 shipped. I figured it was a stupid price and not worth it but the thing is pretty decent. My youngest daughter and I used to use it to play "drive-in" where I'd put it on the roof of my car in front of the open sunroof. Run the HDMI and power cables in through the sunroof to my head unit and power adaptor and project it on the side of the house. Sound coming from the car speakers made it much better. We had some great nights doing that. One of my other daughters took it with her to university and used it in a number of presentations in her chem and biology classes. I firmly believe I got my full $40 out of it.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Yup. AV and 480p and it would be SO much more useful.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Awwwww :D

[@damienhartley3222]

@@BenHeckHacks It's useful for retro gaming .

[@whosonfirst1309]

Dude you got 40$ of awesome memories, you made out big time.

[@Sir_Catnip]

You sound like a kick-ass dad...good job 👍👍

[@TheCheat420]

"it's gunna be so DIM it's going to be a memory slot." That genuinely made me laugh out loud. That's the kind of humor I've followed you for 10 years for lol.

[@RWL2012]

I was thinking SODIMM (laptop RAM stick) before he even said it haha

[@nrdesign1991]

320*240 - means you can play DooM in native resolution! (at least in the width) There's lots of room for a single board computer in there, for things like a projection clock, general data displays, etc.

[@myfavoriteviewer306]

I always wonder Menards looking at all the worryingly low priced "tech" and wondering, "I'm positive it's bad, but how bad". This is my favorite series on the channel because you've saved me literally dozens of dollars 😂

[@SimonJ57]

3 whole dozens with one video.

[@myfavoriteviewer306]

@@SimonJ57 Indeed!

[@CrawfordMethod]

Do you also wander?

[@myfavoriteviewer306]

@@CrawfordMethod Awe dang. I'd make some excuses like auto correct or just learning English a couple weeks ago, but I just plane suck at spelling 😉

[@Tsaukpaetra]

Dozens!

[@BenHeckHacks]

Oh don't worry! I went and bought the $82 one. Video incoming!

[@IntegerOfDoom]

This makes my $20 second hand projector look like a beast. 1024x768, eye searing brightness and a low enough latency for SNES games.

[@kbhasi]

Your comment reminds me of when I saw those cheap projectors for sale and looked at used older projectors instead, but never actually bought one due to my focus shifting towards more important things, since my only real use for a projector in my bedroom would be to project Milanote (virtual pinboard) onto a small empty wall in my bedroom.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

and pretty capable for Laserdisc and DVD projection too :O

[@guyod1]

Looks like the holiday projector I got on clearance that displayed Halloween christmas clips.

[@foxxify1]

Literally *just* saw that at Menards the other day and thought, "Y'know, I would love to see Ben tear this thing apart" as I was buying lightbulbs. What great timing! edit: this is also the only madlad who I've heard of describing the smell of his overpriced projector

[@wtmayhew]

I’m having deja vu all over again after reading that comment! I was in Menards this past Wednesday to pick up two ceramic light sockets and saw a pile of these little projectors in the electronics section and wondered just how de-contented they might be. Now we know,

[@FirstLast-vr7es]

That's pretty neat for what it is, honestly. I wasn't expecting much, but they shouldn't be putting "1080P" anywhere on that thing in any context at all.

[@bencanfield]

costs 1080pence

[@TheCoolDave]

Well, if you put a video in at 1080p, it will play it (kind of says that on box) but, the most it can output is 240..

[@NiHaoMike64]

Brookstone had some $15 pocket projectors a few years back. Modded to turn the brightness way down, they're great for a bedroom clock project.

[@connorleschinsky]

That was the best smallest projector that we could buy. Wish someone would make a updated version with double the resolution...

[@twilightknight123]

You might be laughing at it, but it's actually a very decent product for the price. Optics are not cheap so I'm actually very impressed

[@rkan2]

Absolutely

[@JasperJanssen]

@@jeremys6387 I mean. Just because they cost something doesn’t make the product worth anything. Sure, if you need a 240p projector with zero brightness, this is a totally neat product. If you don’t need such a low res projector with this small a lamp, it’s worthless. And almost everyone doesn’t need it.

[@wtmayhew]

This would make a great toy for a pre-teen kid. When I was a kid I had a projector with about a 10 Watt bulb that could show dim images from one side of the stereo pair of Sawyer’s Viewmaster discs. Adjusted for inflation, that 1960s Sawyer probably cost more this RCA projector. The RCA is way cooler - could actually play video games or watch movies with it.

[@wtmayhew]

I got an 800 x 600 version quite similar to this for $49 at Walmart’s Black Friday sale on Thanksgiving evening in 2019. It looks almost identical on the inside, including the hot melt glue and the PC board and LED/heat sink. I projected a screen mirror of NI Multisim running on my notebook PC at 1024 x 768. I expected the little projector to scale the image by simply doing decimation, but the projector averaged and half toned adjacent pixels from the higher resolution source into 800 x 600. The projected Multisim schematic was very legible. For about fifty bucks, I was impressed.

[@sfred]

I'm impressed that they aren't lying about the brightness. Usually it's out by an order of magnitude on this sort of tat.

[@MrCumstein]

Definitely 😂

[@zeitgeist909]

I don't get why on the KZbin Chinesium teardowns everyone sniggers and laughs? Why aren't we giving props to our Aisian brother designers who manage to eliminate components down to the barest of minimal for the device to function AND be sold at the minimum price? I think there is immence skill here that we always just seem to laugh at in the West. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

[@PowerNGlory]

Because they are mostly garbage and break easily? Just a hunch

[@kbhasi]

(2:23) A 'CO-FAN' ceiling fan installed in my aunt's flat came with a remote that used the exact same shell, and I knew it was originally intended to be used with some kind of media player! The power and mute keys were instead fan off and light power, the direction pad was the speed control (up, left, down, right, and enter were speeds 1-5 respectively), 'source' was motor reverse, and lastly, menu, back, volume down, and volume up were the 1, 2, 4, and 8 hour off timers respectively! I have a photo of the remote that I could send you if you want. There, that shell of that projector remote was probably what that off-brand 'CO-FAN' company used for their fan remote! (14:40) That screen reminds me of one that I'd find on an off-brand video camera from the early 2010s, like one I had back in 2011!

[@planetfoxdotnet]

I think this is aimed at kids. As a stupid child in 1989 I desperately wanted a video projector, but they cost like $10,000 and took two people to lift back then. I would have killed for something like this.

[@novamaster0]

I remember ordering theses from Aliexpress for around this price point back in 2016 Same quality, but with the 3.5mm to RCA & SD slots (They work decently enough) We brought it with us on a trip cause it needs low power, and the hotel we were staying at didn't accept HDMI signal from any of our other devices. But the most useful thing was when we first moved in, and slept on an inflatable mattress, we plugged our Nintendo 64 into the RCA jack of this thing and it was fun. Basically I've used it twice in 5 years, but every now and then it's useful and it's more rugged than a monitor, I've even used it to troubleshoot a Pi when I didn't have an extra monitor, but text was literally unreadable.

[@joelpichette]

well if they put the rca brand on the box, they have to take something out to keep the price low.

[@nimrodlevy]

Your videos are discovery channel worthy! I lean how suff works plus a good laugh. Thanks for the effort you put in these videos, always fun to watch!

In general, the word ensure is defined as the act of making sure something happens, while insure is the act of providing payment in the event of an accident. Insure is rarely used in place of ensure for formal writing, and it is best only to use insure while discussing insurance-related topics, such as insurance policies or insurance companies.

[@thatguyontheright1]

The last time I was this early for new Ben content, Ben had to sneak into a workshop to have access to a CNC machine.

[@timothyprice1916]

I would be impressed by the accomplishment of being able to bring that to market at that price point. It’s a poor engineer who mocks others designs without considering the products design parameters and budget.

[@TAGMedia7]

Ben, thanks for continuing to make videos since closing up shop on TBHS. I know I would have missed your videos, sensibilities and humor.

[@arnoldcp11]

"This thing is gonna be so dim, it's gonna be SODIMM its gonna be a memory slot..." You got me good on that one...it was a slow burn, but first I chuckled, then I laughed then I couldn't stop laughing. Thank you.

[@warwagon]

The Fact they make the letters 1080P big and prominent over the 280p is SOOOOOOO silimy!

[@widgity]

Unfortunately very common among cheaper projectors :(

[@awo1fman]

The price is a dead giveaway. You can't seriously expect genuine 1080p at anything less than 10 times the price.

[@jg374]

I've come across cheap action cameras that have 4K written in big text on them and appearing everywhere in the product listing - it turns out this is the "model name" and they actually appear to have 720p sensors or smaller (they actually seem to make acceptable, if wide angle and a bit rolling shutter prone webcams).

[@Hapasan808]

7:22 I was thinking the same thing, maybe even like the Disney World's Frozen ride's animatronics that have rear projected faces! (or is it front projected?)

[@hrofty]

"Ben, you could take some portable console and turn it into a projector-version, using original lcd without backlight. It would literally project pixel-perfect image! Just imagen Game & Project, or ProjectorBoy!!" ...i was typing as he turned on Dremel and destroyed poor thing for good.

[@BenHeckHacks]

It crossed my mind but I'd have to use an LCD as small or smaller, and the one inside wasn't very big.

[@agenericaccount3935]

They can’t keep getting away with this. But I hope they do. More Menard’s content better. This would be good for a gif art installation or something.

[@frollard]

21:00 on the trrs jack is it possible it's detecting plug insertion through a make-on-tip switch?

[@guerillagrueplays6301]

Not gonna lie, seeing you mess around with this kinda makes me wonder: Could you use the lenses from this and something like a RasPi to make your own projector? Maybe with a salvaged LCD screen out of a cell phone or other small device, to get something like a 720+ resolution output?

[@BenHeckHacks]

People used to do that back when 2nd LCD panels became affordable. You'd make a box with lenses and put the old panel in to create an image.

[@guerillagrueplays6301]

@@BenHeckHacks Neat! Still seems like a neat project then. After all, why hook a console up TO your projector when you could just have it built into the thing?

[@BenHeckHacks]

@@guerillagrueplays6301 The LCD inside this was fairly small. Maybe 2"? You'd have to find a new better screen that fit that size.

[@riffraff60]

@@BenHeckHacks replacement LCD screens for older resin 3D printers might work. They are just repurposed colour LCDs. They cost maybe $40

[@milestailprower]

240P native resolution lol! Does it properly handle 240P signals? I'd be surprised

[@sharedinventions]

What about building this into a historic CRT TV to project a picture on the original glass screen? 240P is be still low for that and the moiré effect would be bad.

[@sebastian19745]

I had one of these (similar specs but with A/V inputs and SD card slot) that I used outside of my shop to advertise at night. It was way cheaper than a LED or LCD panel and I had anyway a free white wall on a side on which I could project the video. It lasted almost a year and half until the LED gave up.

[@Azzysdesignworks]

I have the same projector, but bought it on clearance for 10 bucks a couple years ago, and I've used it with my sheer curtains at my shop to project slimer on them for Halloween. It's not the best, but at the same time it's not the worst. When the power goes out since I can run it off of a USB pack, it's a fun little thing for me and my daughter to do to watch movies.

[@hikaru-live]

This also reveals an upgrade path for this device: if you can find a better LCD module you can upgrade it.

[@TheBaldr]

That what I was thinking, you can find a better projector LCD that same size for under $50 off of places like aliexpress. However I don't know if the firmware would accept a LCD with a larger resolution.

[@nodrogstacey7813]

I've got a Unic LCD projector with a 5 inch panel in it. Seriously thinking of getting a 1440p 5" with driver board and modding it work. Add in a simple LED driver for the light and a power switch and it'll be good to go

[@youbecha64]

We use two of those (well, very slightly upgraded version) to back project some halloween animations (eyeball above door, scary ghosts in upstairs window), works good enough at night.

[@imSUPERcereal0]

I picked up one of these at Walmart, but it is 480p. I just needed something to put in the front room for cheap. Now it’s my favorite place to watch anime. It’s super cheaply built but works for what I wanted. Now I can save up for a nice projector and ceiling mount.

[@ScreenPrintR]

The SD card area, and AV input are probably for an upgraded model. We couldn't use bluetooth heads sets with one of our Samsung tv's. I googled it, and found you can set it up by going into the technician settings. However, if you don't have the SD card holder than you can't change the settings unless you add one.

[@deepfriedfilth]

22:10 Found a similar model at Goodwill a few years that, in addition, has VGA and AV (via 3.5mm jack) for under $5 that I hooked an old Golden Tee plug n play (also sub $5 Goodwill grab) to.. every time a friend brings up the pixelation/low resolution, I think of how it wouldn't be a bad option hooking an NES up to it! Plan is a multi-input portable emulation box in the form factor of a tabletop arcade controller, but with an embedded display via the projector. And as a nod to the 2600, (and to save on weight) I'll be using old wood paneling for the sidewalls.

[@partytempo]

God I love the Menards videos.

[@sinistermoon]

I did the exact same thing with shoes! Just put on the pair I stashed aside the other day. I also love New Balance since they come in the wider sizes and are super comfortable.

[@LightTheUnicorn]

Many, many years ago I got an almost identical but unbranded one of these as a gift. Mine did indeed have composite AV input, so I think yours is either missing a component or two for cost savings, and/or has the input disabled in software.

[@ichemnutcracker]

Didn't the Sega Genesis have RGB outputs on the board and a native resolution of 320x240? There has to be something you can do with that

[@BenHeckHacks]

Genesis has analog RGB off the chip. Can't use that here.

[@ichemnutcracker]

@@BenHeckHacks ah, bummer

[@pctrashtalk2069]

I'm thinking of it as the basis for a HUD displaying navigation from a cell phone app?

[@MatroxMillennium]

Hey, my projector downstairs runs at 90 inches! I mean that's not it's absolute maximum size, but with the wall size and throw distance I had available that's about the best I could do. It also happens to be a Sony VPH-1272Q CRT projector and will natively project 720p or 1080i quite handily.

[@bkucenski]

I used these cheap things with thin curtains to project videos on the windows during Christmas

[@eddiepetrick6222]

The 's' in fresnel is silent, kind of like the 'l' in solder.

[@downumop]

Fren-nel

[@themadmallard]

Don't anyone forget, another part of this story is RCA's name on this thing, another great brand name of a defunct company who's IP is owned by another company that just sells the name to the highest bidder who wants to slap that name on something to sell.

[@lodgecove]

“It smells like a shoe store”. The perfect quote from a 34 dollar projector review!

[@Breakfast_and_Bullets]

I'm surprised you didn't put in a beefier LED to see if that makes it useable

[@Probablyshouldnthave]

the perfect use case for this is you are flying into a meeting and need to present a powerpoint presentation you run to the store and grab this for $34

[@digitalmunky]

If you were to use something like this for front projection, how could you go about throwing a narrower focused beam across a greater distance?... so you could maintain a bit of brightness while not having the projector sit right in front of the display.

[@davebrooks993]

Hey, you should do a tear down of that medical video throat inspection device with the hdmi output. I believe someone gave you one or two at a convention a while ago. I would be curious to see what’s inside a “one time” use device with these features.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Basically nothing inside. A camera and LED on a flex PCB using HDMI as a pass through connector (it is not an HDMI device)

[@davebrooks993]

Not what I was expecting, but I suppose that makes sense.

[@esinohio]

I got one of these for making my rugs. I use it to throw a picture up on my rug backing and then trace it. Come to think of it, I've never used it for video.

[@Lion_McLionhead]

320x240 was all we had until our 20's. It might make a good animated picture frame or a starfield projector.

[@elitheelectronicsguy]

I could see a use of feeding in a logo then projecting it on the floor or direction arrows on the floor like at ikea.

[@rkan2]

Definitely not bright enough for that :D You need like 5000 lumens for that lol

[@elitheelectronicsguy]

@@rkan2 good point

[@mal2ksc]

I know someone who used the cheapest possible projector to display cartoon characters on the walls so she could paint the walls to match, rather than having to sketch on paper and the wall to get everything lined up. The resolution doesn't matter when it's basically just glorified tracing paper.

[@mattanimation]

That was so dimm it was a memory slot... Nice one dad

[@SteveBrandon]

I'd almost consider something like this for viewing DVDs projected on to my bedroom ceiling since the low resolution is irrelevant to me when I'm not wearing my glasses anyway. Normally, if I'm watching DVDs in my bedroom, I just watch them on this Macbook Pro which is old enough that it still has an optical drive but the idea of being able to watch DVDs in fuzzy vision lying flat on my back has a certain appeal.

[@NeoJ4K3]

It legitimately does actually, best real world use for it! I'm blind without my contact and would be great like you said! May have to get one lol

[@xaki6545]

SO-DIMM joke really got me

[@DigitalYojimbo]

Can you try upgrading it ? Perhaps a better led or higher res LCD ?

[@BackForwardPunch]

That thing would be awesome for playing NES, thats the exact right resolution… if it had analog inputs

[@dreamyrhodes]

Maybe you could get the composite input running with hacking the firmware from the SD card slot? Would be perfect resolution to attach C64 or Amiga to it

[@rkan2]

Eh? There is no sd card slot, just the pads.

[@brettito]

Even if you can't get it from the sd card vector, I would have liked to see him dump the firmware at least if at all possible.

[@projectzip]

“Active Matrix” “1993” and no Hackers reference! God dammit Ben. Cereal Killer has left the chat…….

[@drewdemien481]

That would be cool for kids or camping maybe. 12v ?

[@devonwilliams2423]

How did he come up with the Divide by 3 equaling the cost to make? Is there some sort of knowledge stating this, just interested; thanks!

[@geovani60624]

what about you using a 1080p screen driven by a raspberry pi and turn it into an actually usable projector? would be a nice project

[@jordanwaughtal7649]

So can you make it brighter with a bigger led? Or a flash light?

[@pokepress]

I've seen 480p versions of this kind of projectors. At least that resolution would be kind of usable. Assuming you could get a power source, it might be okay when camping.

[@InMyHead]

What we all really need is for you to watch your films and give us commentary along the way. Who else is with me on this???

[@Tater1337]

for a few more bucks you can get a 60" television link?

[@awo1fman]

The 12V power input is interesting. I can think of a few times when powering it from a battery or a car power socket could be useful.

[@povilasstaniulis9484]

Car power is way too dirty for something like this. But a battery or a power bank with 12V output would definitely work.

[@theQuantumPenguin]

Just saw this model at my Menards yesterday. They also had 1 copy of an upgraded version for 10$ more that claimed 480p. Good to see this one from the inside out.

[@BenHeckHacks]

There's a "Bluetooth Projector" at a whopping 800p for like $79

[@theQuantumPenguin]

@@BenHeckHacks May be the same one I saw. Package docs were confusing, saying 480p one place and 800x600 at another spot. The normal price could have been $79, the store I went to had 1 copy on sale for $43-44.

[@oisiaa]

My computer lab in about 1999 had a digital projector when they were very new. It cost thousands of dollars and had a quality similar to this as far as resolution goes.

[@SpartanX360]

240p? Is that from 90’s? Perfect if you wanna build arcade machine with onboard projector.

[@1blisslife]

Higher end versions of this do have that RCA plug and up to 720p resolution. Should look into one of those for $15 more Ben. It pales in comparison to my 4k projector, but for the money? It's an ok piece of equipment. Case looks similar to your teardown one btw & the one I got has Bluetooth and came with a case.

[@John_Ridley]

I saw that at Menards last week. There was another one there that had higher resolution and more light but still not much. I saw that other one first. When I got to this one and it was 240p and 15 lumens I got my best laugh of the day.

[@stevenclark2188]

How do you make a projector that weak for that cheap at that size? Is it just like an LCD/OLED with a plastic lens pointed at it? That's better than I thought. I expected a normal backlight stack instead of a high power LED and a transparent stack in the middle. Also the lens had at least one more group to it (the fresnel) than I expected.

[@Stoney3K]

This thing actually looks like it could be great for building head-up display, just shoot it diagonally at a sheet of acrylic.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yup. These lowcost projectors aren't that crap at all. They just have great purposes for other things than video projection.

[@littlewillie65]

Just for the info -- the USB port provides enough current to power a Roku Stick with no problems. The problem comes when you turn the unit off -- it still sends power to the USB port, to anything you have plugged into it is being powered as long the projector is plugged in.

[@matthewjbauer1990]

I was in Menards last weekend and saw this. It reminded me of a $50 version that I bought from Walmart a few years back. I ended up returning that projector because it really needed a dark room and at 90/100 inches, you can see every pixel.

[@databang]

Will you please plug it in? (4:00) thank you.

[@creativestudios3d]

Somehow, Ben, your videos keep me sane during these plague years.

[@TomBortels]

It was $34. it worked. I don't get the hate. Could *you* make a better one at that price? I'm actually impressed at how much functionality they got out of so little money.

[@TooLazyToFail]

I went to a conference once where they tried to use these for presentations. It went... poorly. That would have been about 2016 and I recall seeing them on sale for $40.

[@drew899]

Lol. I picked up 9 projectors from my schools surplus store the other day for at max $30 a pop lol. Got a funky little infocus LP120 DLP with 120~ hours clocked on it for a whole $3!

[@ZachAttackIsBack]

Why do they still manufacture 240p LCD screens? What other uses would the low resolution screen in this projector serve?

[@milestailprower]

I remember always wanting to build my own projector in middle school.

[@ProDigit80]

I wonder if you could change the 320x240 lcd with a 640x480 lcd? 21:40: look at all those test pads you're getting for the money. It also surprises me, the housing has so many screws. I'd be expecting a plastic clip system for $35.

[@tekvax01]

I one that is a bit smaller than that one, and it has the HDMI, the NTSC, and the analogue audio inputs, as well as the USB. :)

[@CompComp]

BEN! I didn't know you started your own channel. I just assumed you wanted to escape the public eye. Glad to see you again.

[@MrTonglong]

“The heat sink looks like something they’d make on Linus tech tips” hahaha, shots fired

[@inexpensivearms6952]

I kind of feel like if the imput lag isn't too bad on the video signal, you could make a pretty sweet emulation machine with integrated projector using one of these things. The native resolution of most of those games is 240p......

[@Astinsan]

Isn’t the av cable switched? If you don’t short the switch the media processor might ignore the input and not let it show up in the menu

[@y2kmadd]

I can think of several uses for it for shop projects.

[@joesmoe71]

You missed the part in the instructions with it says "Open service door - light wick of candle" Actually for the price it looks like a fun thing to experiment on and use for projects, like say try to "upgrade" a vintage kid's Show and Tell projector to add video support while keeping it look "projected"

[@BenHeckHacks]

That 15 Lumens had to be a mistake.

[@TheSeanUhTron]

I saw that projector in the Menards Black Friday flyer. I knew it was going to be poor quality, but I was almost curious as to just how bad it would be. Even those $100 ones are pretty bad, but those are at least 720p.

[@BenHeckHacks]

It's really a $48 projector being closed out (gotten rid of) at $34.

[@craigjensen6853]

I have a different brand with the same menu, you can change it to do rear projection. It might be useful for that.

[@BenHeckHacks]

Yes this one had flip as well! What do use yours for?

[@craigjensen6853]

​@@BenHeckHacks Mine was the $200 Walmart special, "Vankyo" brand but w/ true native 1080p and about 330 lumens, so it's decent enough to use as a primary media projector. I just noticed the flipping modes in the menu too and have been thinking of how to creatively use that. The fan is loud though, I'd like to replace it but it's one of those ducted fans and most of the noise isn't from the fan itself but the turbulence of the duct.

[@arkitson]

“That’s what she said!” I got you, Ben!

[@DavidSiebert]

How about using it for a HUD?