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Comealong with us to a sideshow, starring the Torpedo EntertainmentProjector by Senario, a $169 LCD unit made in China. We'll show youjust how plum-awful a projector can be. We picked one up at a localTarget store, put it on our test bench, and were shown a thing or twoabout projectors, video, plastic, and the difference between a toy and a real product. (And yes, it was in the toy department at Target.)
At $169, how bad could it be? Answer: horrible, and not even worththat. Perhaps you've heard of the "screen door effect" that's commonwith low-end LCD projectors. A screen door would be a blessing comparedto this. Watching this felt more like being behind the bars of a jailcell than having a screen door in front of us.
After that initial shock, it was time to run some of our projectortest patterns, playing them back at the native resolution of thislittle monster, which is supposed to project video at 920x240 pixels,but we're still not really sure whether that was what we are looking ator not. It's probably closer to a cellphone-like 320x240.
We popped up a white test pattern, and with our precision lightmeter, measured the lowest light levels of any projector that has evergraced (or sullied) our Midwest Test Facility. At the center of thescreen, it was putting out a pathetic 120 lumens, and even that wasprofoundly uneven, with 70 lumens on the right side of the screen, 80on the left, and 90 up top. There are dim light bulbs that are muchbrighter than this. Unless the room was completely dark, we couldhardly see an image at all. We didn't realize the term "candlepower"was going to be taken literally here.
What about contrast ratio? Well, there wasn't any. We projected awhite chip chart with numerous degrees of white down to light gray (seea shot of the projected chart in the gallery below), and you can hardlytell the difference between any of the chips. It was the worst contrastratio, or lack thereof, we've ever seen.
We tried watching a DVD, and from the very beginning, it was some ofthe worst video we've ever encountered. For example, the FBI warning atthe beginning of the DVD was not legible at all. It looked likehieroglyphics.
Games fared no better, looking as pixelated as any video could everpossibly be. And don't think we're just being projector snobs here,even though that's exactly what we are. Going into this review, werealized the low price of this projector, but didn't expect the qualityto hit such a low point. The projector even smelled bad, like mildew,and made way more noise than we could bear if we wanted to concentrateon watching a movie or playing a game.
The upside? It looks kinda cool. But for $169, not cool enough. Ifthis is a toy aimed at kids, it's not going to work. Even the mostbleary-eyed numbskull kids would smell a rat, wondering why a Santa waspunishing them. If you have a bad little boy in the house, this mightjust be the perfect gift.