LG PF1500 Full HD Portable LED Smart TV Home Theater Projector with Magic Remote

I have preferred projection TV environments since I bought my first Advent Front Projection. I paid about $2,000 in 1981 for the last projection set that Advent manufactured. This set had a 6 foot reflective screen and a huge 250 pound base. The unit overheated so I had to install a fan and replace several of the diodes in the power supply. The system required constant fiddling with the convergence to get the three beams to align properly. Despite the cost and difficulties, my friends were all amazed at the large clear and colorful image we received from NTSC and from my trusty laser disk player.Over the years, I have bought many different projectors. I had a Kloss unit that projected a large image on my wall and an Ampro that cost thousands of dollars that produced a brighter image onto a wall. My first LCD projector cost me $8,000.00. It was an NEC 800 x 600 projector. Today, I have at least eight projectors. My main theater room has two projectors. One is a Vivitek 1155HD. This is a relatively inexpensive 1080P 3D projector that has a 2500 lumen bulb. The bulb will last about 3000 hours before burning out. So that I can watch news and other non-critical programs, I have a second low-cost projector in the room. It is a Pyle 720P that uses an LCD.I have a Vivitek Qumi 5, LG PW800, Optima GP250, Exelvan 720P projector, and a 3M unit with built-in Roku. My second favorite projector from the group is the LG PW800. The PW800 is very watchable. It is rated at 800 Lumens. I find the image much more realistic than the Vivitek Qumi 5 which costs about the same.Recently, my sister in law and her daughter came to stay with us for an extended period.so I lost access to my video room. While I had been very happy with my PW800 in my office, I missed the brightness and dramatic image I got from my Vivitek 1155HD. I had been watching the price for the LG PF 1500 for over a year. For two or three days, Amazon offered the projector for $699.95. Most of the time, the price was $849.95 or higher. I snapped up the unit and the price went back up in a couple of days.My Vivitek 1155HD beats the LG PF1500 in shear performance and offers 3D. I bought the Vivitek for a very good price on Woot. However, I am reluctant to watch the Vivitek casually because new bulbs cost about $250.00. I bought the LG PF1500 because it is the only projector under $1,000 I could find that offer full 1080P and uses a bright LED bulb. The fact that the LED is rated at 30,000 hours means I would have to buy 10 lamps at a cost of $2,500 to match the LG PF1500..The LG PF1500 had a strikingly better resolution than the PW800. Computer text was much easier to read. I struggled to use it with my PC Stick at first because I had set the projector at 16:9 and there was about 10% overscan. I reset the projector to "just scan" and everything worked. I did several adjustments on the set using calibration videos on YouTube.The image quality is brighter and more dramatic than the PW800.If I had to choose only one projector, I would buy the LG PF1500. It is so much better than the 720P projectors that I have that would not want to use any of them as my main projector. The Vivitek provides an overall better viewing experience but that advantage comes at the cost of having to buy a new bulb every couple of years or so.I suggest that you should try the different economy modes offered by the LG PF1500. I found that in my basement, that sometimes using the Minimum setting for the economy mode, the image looks less contrasty than when the mode is set in a more efficient mode. That is because, because my basement is nearly totally dark, the blacks have too much light behind them when the brightness is set to the full setting.I have a 65 inch Panasonic Plasma and a Samsung 40 inch 4K set. Neither of them are as enjoyable to watch as the LG PF1500. The combination of the large image and the way the light is projected is much more like going to the movies than watching images behind reflective glass.The LG PF includes some smart features such as the inclusion of Netflix. It also has a built-in tuner. I don't use either of these features. The LG PF1500 only has one HDMI input which I think is too limited but I use an AV receiver so it doesn't matter to me.The big drawback for any projection system is ambient light. No matter how bright the projector is, any light will degrade the image. I use the LG PF1500 in my basement and at night, it nearly totally dark. The image is watchable with the lights dimmed but any light will take away from the impact.One of the things that strikes me the most is how portable the LG PF1500 is. I can not imagine a better projector for business use. I have been in meetings where the bulbs pop or where projectors are not bright enough to project clearly. The PF1500 packs a lot of punch for such a small projector. My PW800 is smaller but I doubt it would work well in a typical corporate meeting.In summary, the lG PF 1500 isn't the best projector available but it is the most sensible I have ever found. While other projectors with bulbs can create a brighter image, that brightness comes at a cost. The LG PF1500 comes closest to what a bulb based projector can provide but has all the advantages of a LED based light system.ProsGreat colorLong life1080P resolutionPricePortabilityConsLimited ZoomLess bright than traditional lamp based projectors

Regrettably, I had to return this projector. I have been waiting SO long for a 1080p LED projector with a nice clear picture and sufficient lumen output. I started by trying out the Optoma ML 500 a few years ago, but the picture had a "soft" appearance. I thought this was the one, and it was in so many ways, but it has a fatal flaw.This projector has great reviews and amazing features. When I got it out and set it up, I was extremely pleased. Sharp, beautiful image. Impressive lumen output for an LED projector. Long lasting LED bulb. Lightweight. Portable. Even a TV tuner! Amazing....and then I tried gaming on it. I'm saying this as someone who has never noticed input lag on any TV or projector that I've owned. I'm not picky or hypersensitive. It was unplayable. Yes, I had it in game mode, which, according to Projector Central, reduces the input lag on this projector to 70 ms. I'm not sure what 70 ms looks like, but if this was 70 ms, I'm going to have to look for 20-30 ms response time MAX.I tried playing Borderlands 2 through my laptop's HDMI connection, and I simply couldn't play the game well because the input lag was so extreme. I would have to try to predict where I'd want the reticule in the next second because it would take seemingly a quarter of a second to actually move where I wanted it. I'd look at my laptop screen, which was being mirrored, and everything was responsive. It wasn't just the game. It noticeably lagged just using the mouse.There was some judder in panning sequences while watching a movie. TV was great though. I didn't notice any issues there. It was smooth, crisp, and clear on over the air HD channels.I think this is the nature of a breakthrough product, and I hate to give it two stars, but for all the groundbreaking features of this projector, it's unacceptable to perform this poorly in such an important area (to me). I'm going to have to wait until the next generation.My planned use for this was 50% gaming and 50% movies/TV, so I had to send it back. If you don't plan on gaming, you might consider this.UPDATE 10/15/15REVISED: 2 stars to 4 starsI can't say the input lag is as bad as I thought it was. It seems that my Macbook Pro's HDMI connection is what lags, as it does the same thing on my new TV. It also did so wirelessly to my TV through an Apple TV box. So while I suspect this projector has some lag issues due to the tests at projector central (170 ms lag), I imagine it's not nearly as bad as I thought it was. It's too bad I don't have it to test with my PS4. If I knew then what I know now, I don't think I would have returned this.