As a retired professor volunteering in a senior citizen's program, I must tote what I need to teach cultural history. That includes equipment to show films and images and to play reasonable quality recorded music, as well as to lecture. The LG HS201 is ideal for my purposes. With 200 lumens it is the first LED projector that I have seen that is sufficiently bright and that has a usable built-in stereo sound system, although I do augment its meager 2 watts with external speakers. The USB port facilitates set-up and frees me from a tangle of cables, as I can easily put a couple of slightly compressed movies, an hour of MP3 classical music, and nearly 100 JPEG images onto an 8GB flash drive. The fan noise is barely audible--an estimated 29 DB--and at under 2 lbs. the projector is truly portable.
Most of its purported shortcomings are no more than compromises necessary to bring a lamp-free projector to market at a $500 price. For that figure, one should not expect a zoom lens, a tilt adjustment, or anything like a theater sound system. Incidentally, only the HS 200G and HS201G, neither of which is currently marketed in the USA, offer a standard carrying bag, and just the HS200 series, also not yet sold here, includes an FM audio transmitter. However, there is one LG HS201 defect that can and should be remedied at the earliest opportunity. The owner's manual is written in the unidiomatic English of a non-native speaker, and some of the manual's technical writing defies comprehension. A newly edited version would be helpful.
If you are interested in buying the LG HS201, I would suggest four accessories at first: (a) a USB flash drive of 8 or 16GB; (b) a lightweight tripod, rated at over 6 lbs; (c) a pair of small speakers; and (d) a carrying bag. With these, you should be good to go! LG HS201 Slim LED Front Projector
So LED projectors are much easier to maintain than normal projectors. Not having to be careful about letting the lamp cool is great. But LED's are dim. Nothing on the order of Pico Projectors, but right on the edge of affecting the projector's usefulness. This is the first LED Projector I have owned and I can say that the colored LED's as the light source provides a really rich, vivid color to the image. As compared to a bright white light shown through a filter wheel on a traditional DLP projector, the LED's in the Phlatlight Chipset make the most out of the limited amount of light they produce by providing better than neccessary color depth that makes the image seem brighter than it probably is. And among all LED Projectors this LG model is currently the brightest. Although there is a limit to how brightly lit a room can be, while still leaving an enjoyable image from the LG HS201, daytime viewability is very adequate with this projector. Each generation of products based on these Phlatlight chipsets is better than the last. Whereas the Dell and Acer palmtop LED projectors from two years ago may have been too dim to accept, this model finally makes the grade and needs make no excuses for what it is. It is cool, quiet, light-weight, rugged and it provides a relatively bright and highly saturated image in a room with some lighting. However, as the room lights are dimmed the image does of course become more enjoyable.
Benq's GP1 is a great machine with color corrections built in (for projecting on a colored wall) as well as key stone adjustments and is a great effort. However, the BenQ is built around a 100 lumen Phatlight LED chipset where as this LG uses a 200 Lumen Phatlight LED chipset. That makes all the difference. Also, LG should get some credit for responding to the complaints that were made about all of the different manufacturers last-generation LED Projectors. Most notably the touch controls used by Samsung, BenQ, and previously LG are now replaced by regular backlit buttons which provide a normal tactile feedback while navigating the menus. Also, there is relatively no lag in navigating the menus. Those two things led to nightmarish controls on many last generation Samsung and Benq projectors. Here all works as it should. Secondly, LG utilizes a small, light weight AC Adapter on the HS201 instead of the giant monster power bricks from the previous models that almost weighed more than the projectors that they powered.
I can not say too many times that this model is what every LED projector should haver been all along. Aside from the slight rainbow tinge when you glance across the screen (which some people never even notice) this projector is as good as an LED DLP unit can be, until Luminus starts building affordable chipsets of at least double this lumen output. The fact that this is a third generation product shows in how well baked the whole experience is. At $500 these projectors are worth at least the asking price.
This is my 5th projector. I am a long time user that has had various projectors since 1995. My last couple of projectors were both Epson and because I like a bright picture I would run Presentation mode towards the end of the bulb life and the bulbs would wear out in about 2000 hours.
After reading reviews all over the Internet about the LG LED projector I took a chance on it knowing the resolution would not be as high as my previous projectors. I had a budget this time of $900 and after looking at how much bulb replacement is every year and a half I decided to try it. If the LED projector was not good enough I would use it for HDTV viewing only and for DVD movies I would install another projector next to it just for movies.
Out of the box I was blown away by how bright and rich the colors are on this LED projector. 200 Lumens can be watched during the day in a windowed room as long as blinds are used. Where the projector really shines is at night where you get the kind of colors you are use to seeing on a plasma. LED is definitely the future. The color adjustment will take you a good day to figure out how to adjust. I was using some presets from AVForum users but it really comes down to tweaking it for a nice mixture of both TV and DVD.
The throw on this projector is great, I actually moved it forward a foot from my old ceiling mount location and the picture is larger on the screen then it was with my last Epson projector. I am running a screen that is 156" Diagonal so if I was willing to have a smaller screen size this projector would probably be bright enough for watching tv during the day in a windowed room.
My favorite part of this projector is the color, LED life on the bulb of 30,000 hours plus, and the very large picture. It is much better than I was expecting and I am not purchasing another projector unless it is a LED with the improvements listed below.
Improvements needed:
720P would make a big difference.
Screen door effect can be seen on white and within text on anything over an 80" screen.
Brightness, perfect at night but would like to see it be a little bit brighter for viewing during the day.'
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