Looking for a projector around 30k for Movie watching. (2025)

[dafreaking]

Thanks for the detailed review of the projector. The major reason I'm considering a projector is because the distance from the sofa to the TV wall is 20 feet for my living room in my new home, and even a 75 incher might not be satisfactory from that distance. Open to all kinds of suggestions.

Do you have a good sound system?

Will make the experience more immersive. These things are good for "casual" use. The fact that you have such a large image at frankly a fraction of the price outweighs a lot of cons. They however are not designed for pixel peeping.

What is the colour of your walls. Are you planning on projecting this on a blank wall or do you intend to use a screen?

 

[TinTinSnowy]

Do you have a good sound system?

Not yet, I'll get one. Suggestions are welcome.

Will make the experience more immersive. These things are good for "casual" use. The fact that you have such a large image at frankly a fraction of the price outweighs a lot of cons. They however are not designed for pixel peeping.

Got it. Our current living room TV is hardly used, mostly for sports and movies. The use case won't change.

What is the colour of your walls. Are you planning on projecting this on a blank wall or do you intend to use a screen?

Painting is yet to be done as the home is under construction. The projection area is close to 13 feet, but I'll use 10 feet for projection, which will equal 120 inches. What kind of screen do you suggest?

 

[dafreaking]

Not yet, I'll get one. Suggestions are welcome.

Got it. Our current living room TV is hardly used, mostly for sports and movies. The use case won't change.

Painting is yet to be done as the home is under construction. The projection area is close to 13 feet, but I'll use 10 feet for projection, which will equal 120 inches. What kind of screen do you suggest?

Mine is attached to an AV receiver. If you have the budget. Go for that. That way it can be used as a music system too.

With sports it doesn't matter as much IMHO. However with movies, you want the best picture quality that you can get in your budget.

My walls are white and the projection is on a white surface. This works in a pinch, but there is a lot of bounced light which results in low contrast. I've been thinking of getting a screen, but will have to get the room painted to a darkish colour first and I'm not sure my landlord is too keen on that. Was thinking dark grey or blue. Then a screen would make sense.

 

[altair21]

Thanks! I am torn between going for a 75 inch tv (https://mahajanelectronics.com/prod...e-series-4k-qled-tv-75masterpiece-armani-gold) vs spending equivalent on a projector + screen to project 120 inch. I have a large space in the living room where limited light comes in due to it being in the north. We watch sports or movies in the evening. Our living room TV rarely turns on in the day.

I would personally go for the tv, in my experience (admittedly anecdotal), projectors are simply not worth it unless you are ready to spend 3+ lacs and get a upper middle tier projector at a minimum, cheap ones are cheap and just not worth it
A decent 75inch tv can be had for under 1.2 lacs in sales, easily worth it imo

 

[satyanjoy]

As a first time buyer ,, any decent projector at around 15k budget will suffice your requirement. As I experience, once you started watching the projector your eyes will get adjusted with the quality. Since you don't have any benchmark as usage yet, start there and see.

 

[win22ash]

The price is 30K with DTDC ground shipping. They said next week it will go up by 5K. I would say good luck with it.

Initial impressions:
Pro:

1. The Projector's 30 W speakers are loud and clear even at 50% volume. The sound image is so good that it feels like it is actually coming from the picture on display.
2. Low Power Consumption
3. Auto Focus
4. Bright even with lights

Cons:

1. Only one HDMI Port. This is a major hindrance, more than I thought it would be. Probably, it can be overcome with a good quality HDMI Splitter, but that would add 3K to the budget.
2. HDMI ARC does not work even after making sure the option is turned on in the settings. There is no eARC (no projector has this option at this price point).
3. Having gone through multiple reviews of similar projectors, I mistook the 4-D keystone correction to be Auto-Keystone correction, which it is not. This is a pain in the backside since you have to keep doing it every time the projector is moved.
4. The startup of the Projector is slow. It takes about 1 minute making me wonder what is the point of having a 4GB RAM. May be the processor is weak.
5. YouTube 4K videos via the native app stutter a lot.
6. The UI is sluggish.
7. YouTube and other Apps do not have a 4K option when a FireStick is connected to the Projector. This is a known limitation but it is worth mentioning.
8. The image and especially the text do not look sharp out of the box when viewed on a 110" screen from a distance of 13ft. The Projector's text during auto focus operation is crisp, but the text in the videos is slightly blurry.
9. The fan noise is considerable. I will measure the dB level later.
10. There is no optical zoom. Hence, the projector placement is pretty much fixed for your screen size.
11. There is no lens shift (neither horizontal nor vertical).

Overall, I am not impressed with it after 2 hours of usage. I might have to fine-tune it further to see what it is capable of. I am comparing it with my previous 720P Panasonic and 1080P Optomo Projectors.

100% Agree. For her, every projector is an outstanding value for money.

Even a cheap 4K LED TV will hands down beat these projectors. The only advantage is the life of the TVs. Most of these TVs have a max life expectancy between 3 to 5 years. Having said that, I do own a Sanyo 4K TV that has been running for the last 8 years. It ran into a backlight issue, which was repaired for 4K, but then the service guy returned it with a damaged screen where I can now see a horizontal line that comes up every 2 seconds, but it is still watchable.

Most projectors run much longer than these cheap TVs.

So after more hours of usage, what's your thoughts?

I was stuck on pixpaq Ray vs borsso Curve vs ultima atleast that looks good.

I don't know if there's any contender apart from these, toptro seems to have very wierd customer sale service so after sale is disaster for sure. So what's your say? Go ahead with curve?
I have tv so purely for movie watching purpose.
I was stuck between pixpaq Ray vs borsso bs40 vs ultima vs latest Curve.

Toptro seems to have very bad warranty claim response I believe. Is there anything else I can consider? Budget 35k.
I started at 20k but understanding my requirement is brightness as mynroom is super bright .
Also this ansi lumens game's these guys play dirty!! Unless someone reviews project's side bynside ansi is disaster as camera iso can be we'll manipulated!
I happen to go to see xgimi mogo pro 2 and 509 lumens was super sad even in an dead black room so brightenes was non negotiable. Any suggestions to add on ? Will be glad and thanks in advance.
Also guys what' brand has good post sales service? Long term?
Because after year these chinese items can go invisible leaving us in the darkness and non serviceable OEM parts!
Borsso guy sounded more professional after pixpaq and rest was disaster, automated ivr and no response in the end!

 

[buzz88]

I started my PJ journey with a cheap Chinese no-name projector like 7-8 years ago. Then got AUN AKEY6 from Aliexpress when it was still working and Projectors were rare on Amazon India and Indian market it general. It cost around 20-22K. I thought it looked pretty good. Then one day, I got to visit a friend and he had an Epson office/education series projector for events. It just blew out my AUN projector which was supposed to be the best Chinese PJ in the year it was released. Epson projectors were very costly at that time, so I got a friend to bring me one from Australia when they were returning. It was also from an education series but it had real 3800 Lumens brightness. It was significantly better than my Aun projector. Colours were bright, picture was sharp and full. Could even use it during daytime with some curtains. You don't know what you are missing out on until you have seen it yourself.

I have since upgraded again to a Benq TK850i, a 4k projector and am very happy with the purchase. Once you have experienced a real Benq or Epson or any of the highly rated projector brands that you can find reviews on https://www.projectorcentral.com and https://www.projectorreviews.com, you realise that cheap chinese projectors are mostly junk and fake specs, fake lumens. Don't get me wrong, it is fine to experiment with cheap PJs at the start but if you are serious about image quality or want a long term solution, just save money and invest in a good brand projector.

 

[skoka123]

So after more hours of usage, what's your thoughts?

I was stuck on pixpaq Ray vs borsso Curve vs ultima atleast that looks good.

I don't know if there's any contender apart from these, toptro seems to have very wierd customer sale service so after sale is disaster for sure. So what's your say? Go ahead with curve?
I have tv so purely for movie watching purpose.
I was stuck between pixpaq Ray vs borsso bs40 vs ultima vs latest Curve.

Toptro seems to have very bad warranty claim response I believe. Is there anything else I can consider? Budget 35k.
I started at 20k but understanding my requirement is brightness as mynroom is super bright .
Also this ansi lumens game's these guys play dirty!! Unless someone reviews project's side bynside ansi is disaster as camera iso can be we'll manipulated!
I happen to go to see xgimi mogo pro 2 and 509 lumens was super sad even in an dead black room so brightenes was non negotiable. Any suggestions to add on ? Will be glad and thanks in advance.
Also guys what' brand has good post sales service? Long term?
Because after year these chinese items can go invisible leaving us in the darkness and non serviceable OEM parts!
Borsso guy sounded more professional after pixpaq and rest was disaster, automated ivr and no response in the end!

You need an external player such as a Fire TV Stick. The inbuilt apps are a joke. It makes me wonder why give 4 GB RAM when the inbuilt apps are so bad. Maybe if the use case is to watch downloaded videos via USB, then it probably makes sense, but I did not use it for that purpose. There are lots of frame drops when playing 4K video via the native YouTube app (Photo Attached). When asked about it, they chose not to reply. The CEC doesn't work properly when connected to a AVR, but it can be easily overcome with some minor adjustments.

The Keystone correction is a pain when we need to do it manually. The throw ratio is fixed. Hence, any small movement of the projector, the Keystone has to be corrected. In a absolute dark room, you can see some light bleeding past the corrected image on the screen. While the picture fits within the Keystone corrected area, the projector light can be seen beyond the picture where the image used to be before the Keystone correction.

I mentioned about the text not being blurry. It can be fixed with manual focusing using the dedicated buttons provided in the remote. So, that is not an issue.

Overall, I would say, the more one uses it, the more you get used to getting adjusted to its limitations. It is not worth the 30 K. There are many software issues even with the May 30, 2025 Firmware. You can probably go for Borsso BS40 for 20K or Ultimate Gen 3 for 27K. Wanbo X5 Pro could also be an option to explore but calling their customer service did not give me much confidence in their ability to support customers.