Formovie Theater UST 4K laser projector hands-on review: Great picture quality at a high price

[Redaktion]

The Formovie Theater ultra-short throw 4K laser projector is a compact UST projector stuffed to the gills with features. While it delivers a solid media experience, it is ultimately overpriced compared to other UST projectors on the market.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Formovie-Theater-UST-4K-laser-projector-hands-on-review-Great-picture-quality-at-a-high-price.696443.0.html

[S.Yu]

Yup, another example of projection that unless you absolutely have no place to put that panel, the 98" Redmi would be a far better buy in almost every aspect.

[davidm]

Can't wait until the pin is put to the UST bubble and someone releases one that's just a good short throw projector with hdmi in, bluetooth and ¼ audio and ... that's it. Everyone has a bluetooth speaker lying around, or you can carry one in your pocket, along with the power cord y'know. And plug whatever you want in for input and output. All the bells and whistles are just a distraction for gullible "reviewers" who fall for it every time.

[Panozguy]

I own both.  The Aura is a good projector.  The Formovie Theater is subjectively better in every way except for a bit of soft focus in the upper left.  It's brighter, colors are far more saturated, it's smaller.

The Theater isn't perfect but I feel like you may have gotten a bum unit for review.  The Aura's single laser/color wheel is not even in the same category as the Theater.

To each, their own - but go read other reviews of both before you make a buying decision between the two.

[S.Yu]

Again, don't buy fake 4k dithered from 1080P, don't buy "decentered resolution", don't buy fake HDR that can't even emulate HDR500 because there's only ~100nits to go around, don't buy the rainbow effect which is a worse headache than PWM, don't buy 60Hz when nearly every single panel supports higher, last but not least, don't buy display technology that only works with the sun down.

[Avi]

Hi,
What about the VAVA CHROMA.
Will you test it later on?
I believe that it is a state of the art ust projector.

[Mitch64]

My Samsung premier LSP 9 T is far better than both paired with ALR screen picture is stunning

[Mitch64]

Can't wait until the pin is put to the UST bubble and someone releases one that's just a good short throw projector with hdmi in, bluetooth and ¼ audio and ... that's it. Everyone has a bluetooth speaker lying around, or you can carry one in your pocket, along with the power cord y'know. And plug whatever you want in for input and output. All the bells and whistles are just a distraction for gullible "reviewers" who fall for it every time.

think your wrong buy the Samsung lsp9 t it's stunning picture with or without my ALR screen

[Mitch64]

Again, don't buy fake 4k dithered from 1080P, don't buy "decentered resolution", don't buy fake HDR that can't even emulate HDR500 because there's only ~100nits to go around, don't buy the rainbow effect which is a worse headache than PWM, don't buy 60Hz when nearly every single panel supports higher, last but not least, don't buy display technology that only works with the sun down.

so my Samsung lsp 9 t is crap

[S.Yu]

Again, don't buy fake 4k dithered from 1080P, don't buy "decentered resolution", don't buy fake HDR that can't even emulate HDR500 because there's only ~100nits to go around, don't buy the rainbow effect which is a worse headache than PWM, don't buy 60Hz when nearly every single panel supports higher, last but not least, don't buy display technology that only works with the sun down.

so my Samsung lsp 9 t is crap

Considering what panel that money can buy, that arguably stands. Unless you absolutely need 120-140", you can buy a much better viewing experience for less than 50% the money.

[Thomas44]

Quoted : « Another issue I encountered dealt with keystone correction. The Theater provides 4- or 8-point keystone correction, and while it works well, there was a bend along the top-right border that I could never straighten out »

Seriously ?????

You put a UST on a wall which is not perfectly flat/levelled and you complain about the Formovie.

Not issue at all for me and concerning the blurry perception if you read all the review you have to wait 15-30 minutes until the UST get warm and then you can set the focus correctly.

The price is high ? No when you know that this UST is the best (winner of a 2022 showdown) and better than a LG which cost twice more.

[Thomas44]

Yup, another example of projection that unless you absolutely have no place to put that panel, the 98" Redmi would be a far better buy in almost every aspect.

Another one speaking about something he does not know.

98 inches is small first. Then if you're single thats's maybe of to have a 100 inch panel in a living room but I do not know a lot of wife who would accept to have such a big panel.

And again in terme of projection 100 inches is small.

120 inches is ok and 150 is good. We are not close to see 120 or 150 inches panels and you can imagine the power consumption and also the weight issue if you want to hang the panel on a wall

I have this UST since last September and my 83 inches Sony OLED TV has never been turned on since every evening.

[NikoB]

that can't even emulate HDR500

Projectors will never be able to work with static metadata from the first primitive HDR10 standard. But projectors, like any device with a limited dynamic range, by virtue of the technology itself, may well work successfully with HDR10 + or otherwise Dynamic HDR, where there are essentially no requirements for brightness as such, and the metadata itself is dynamically linked and recalculated according to the characteristics of the device. Like semi-manual Dolby Vision, it's just that D-HDR10 does it almost automatically.

Projectors that support HDMI 2.1 don't care about Static HDR. It's not a problem with projectors - it's a problem with crap content made in studios. Crap in every sense, not just technically inappropriate Dynamic HDR in transport stream mode.

In fact, today there is nothing to watch on projectors (as well as in cinemas around the world). My projector is gathering dust without turning on for months - because there is nothing to watch.

Hollywood RIP, and in general the world of cinema.

And what remains for top-end projectors? Demonstrate beautiful videos of nature, YouTube, yes games, but none of them is essentially suitable for games either because of the monstrous input lag and the response of the matrices.

The projectors gave that indispensable physical effect at 100 "+ with the correct landing in the near zone, which the owners of 50-75" TVs never had, no matter how cool the picture characteristics were. This effect can only be experienced in commercial theaters (and again, only with the right seat in the hall - in the right place, which all film distributors and experts are well aware of).

In this zone, special geometric-physical proportions are observed when deep physical effects occur at the brain level. If the sizes in the frame are smaller - there will be no effect, if the sizes of objects in the frame are larger, the effect will not be again.

At home, getting this effect is much easier with a projector than consistently getting a seat in such an area in public cinemas.

But when the entire film industry degenerated into a cheap attraction for extremely stupid teenagers, not adults, and there was simply nothing to watch, investments in projectors became meaningless for several years.

Now only the gaming industry reigns in the world, and in this area, projectors are uncomfortable and an extremely expensive, essentially meaningless solution ...

[S.Yu]

Yup, another example of projection that unless you absolutely have no place to put that panel, the 98" Redmi would be a far better buy in almost every aspect.

Another one speaking about something he does not know.

98 inches is small first. Then if you're single thats's maybe of to have a 100 inch panel in a living room but I do not know a lot of wife who would accept to have such a big panel.

And again in terme of projection 100 inches is small.

120 inches is ok and 150 is good. We are not close to see 120 or 150 inches panels and you can imagine the power consumption and also the weight issue if you want to hang the panel on a wall

I have this UST since last September and my 83 inches Sony OLED TV has never been turned on since every evening.

lmfao. At 120" you have what, 70,80nits left? And at 150"? Completely out of the question. You know not "a lot of wife" that would allow a 100" panel? Then you know of "a lot of wife" that would allow a 150" fresnel screen? And to do what, project an image with soft corners full of rainbow artifacts? You know those 1 chip DLP solutions might fool your eyes, but they don't fool mine.

[NikoB]

To watch a movie in complete darkness, 100 lux is enough. Otherwise, the projectors do not look if the screen is white-matte, and not a special black one with a price of half a projector and a bunch of jambs at the same time. Projectors have maximum contrast only in 100% darkness and high-quality processing of the room to suppress reflections.

It's completely pointless to try to play HDR10 content on a projector. They cannot support this standard a priori. But Dynamic HDR can with HDMI2.1 and the same source/content. In principle, HDR10+(D-HDR) is supported by proprietary extensions on HDMI 2.0b as well, but it is not part of the protocol.

100 nit in complete darkness - this is too bright for the eyes in bright scenes and creates an excessive amount of spurious reflections, so it is completely redundant.

The paradox is that all cheap projectors (usually "multimedia" series) have excessive brightness in cinema mode and cannot be reduced in any way, except for setup ND filters.

But true cinema projectors, on the contrary, have special cinema filters that reduce the luminous flux by 2-4 times intentionally, for this very reason - on standard 120"(4 sq.m) it  don't need more than 600-700 lumens in full darkness with white matte screen.