Earlier this year, China's Dangbei made tapping into Netflix using a Full HD projector a little easier with the officially licensed Emotn N1 and Neo models. But they weren't the brightest smart projectors in the class, so now the company has rectified that with its new Mars laser projector.
Connected smart projectors can be a great way to enjoy big-screen entertainment without a gargantuan TV dominating the living space, but many lack native support for Netflix. A quick search online reveals various ways to get around this, but as Dangbei explained when the Neo launched, "Netflix will regularly check and will ban the apps on unlicensed products."
The company's own Neo Full HD projector and the N1 from sub-brand Emotn are both approved to run Netflix out of the box, but they're pretty much restricted to after-dark viewing due to the relatively low brightness of their LED light sources. Enter the new Mars model to light up the viewing experience.
This projector is built around Advanced Laser Phosphor Display technology that enables brightness output of 2,100 ISO lumens, and could mean that daylight viewing is possible without needing to pull the drapes (though low ambient light will still yield the best results). AI-assisted brightness adjustment automatically adapts the light output to room ambiance.
Though the use of a color wheel in ALDP projectors can result in rainbow effects, they don't suffer from the speckle issues of RGB laser light sources – with Dangbei saying that "the Mars prioritizes the comfort of viewers and a speckle-free experience to take home entertainment and movie nights to another level."
The mains-powered Full HD projector is reported capable of throwing up to 180-diagonal-inch visuals on the display surface, it supports HDR10 and HLG content, and sports Time-of-Flight sensor and a vision camera that help with autofocus, six-way keystone corrections, obstacle avoidance and fit-to-screen chops.
A Linux operating system runs the show "for a fast, smooth and stable experience." Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity is cooked in, as well Ethernet LAN, and there are HDMI and USB ports for cabling to sources such as media players or consoles (input lag is reported to be 20 ms). It also rocks two 10-W Dolby speakers, plus S/PDIF audio out for hooking up to home audio systems.
The Dangbei Mars is on sale now via Amazon for US$999.99, with a launch discount coupon of $100 available for a limited time.
Source: Dangbei
