I am an avid product researcher (often to a fault), and easily spend 20+ hours looking through every UST projector I could find, comparing all the specs (and *actual* real-world performance reviews), and had just about decided to pay a stupid amount of money for a Samsung UST when I came across the ForMovie Theater.
I had decided I wanted a triple-laser projector, which unfortunately pushed me into the ~$6k+ range about wherever I looked, so when I saw this had triple laser for $3,500 I was skeptical. But after watching review and comparison videos (from just about every respected reviewer I could find), I bit the bullet.
Shipping took a while (4+ weeks, coming direct from China), but was fine for me, as I technically don’t have a place for it for another 6 months. I snatched it up, though, worried they would raise the price.
PICTURE:
For now, I have it set on a dresser drawer in our bedroom, just 2 inches from the wall. I fired it up and LAUGHED. The image was FAR brighter than I expected. When I pulled up some HDR, 4K landscape footage on YouTube, I laughed out loud again. I guess I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the color...POPPED. And—mind you—this was simply projected onto an off-white wall. My ALR screen hadn’t arrived yet, but I was still blown away.
SOUND:
B&W is no joke, so seeing they partnered with them to do the built-in speakers gave me added confidence that this wasn’t some cheap-skate brand. And, as expected, the built-in speakers sound amazing.
Obviously, there’s no subwoofer-level bass, but if you’re using this for a TV (a very expensive TV...), the built-in speakers are great.
I (and I assume most other purchasers) will be using 5.1 or 7.2.1 surround systems, so those fancy speakers will go unused. But if you need them, you won’t be disappointed.
ANDROID TV:
I don’t like this. It’s better than nothing (making this a “smart TV”), but I’ll be using my Apple TV exclusively, as the setup and usability of Android TV is just clunky. I spend 5 minutes setting it up, then it had to update, and after the update, I had to re-do the setup process all over again. It’s a one-time annoyance (and likely not a ForMovie issue) but still annoying.
FAN NOISE:
It’s there, but a low, pleasant hum—not a whiny, annoying sound. And you only hear it when it’s off (though why does the fan stay on when the unit is off? Perhaps that’s a defect on mine?). The moment you have ANY sound at all playing, you won’t hear it at all. So I mention it because it’s there, but honestly, it’s nothing to worry about at all.
PHYSICAL DESIGN:
I quite like it. It’s modern without trying too hard. The logo on the front does glow, but it’s much more subtle than I expected from online reviews. Honestly, you won’t even notice it.
THROW/IMAGE SIZE:
This is another standout for the Theater—to get the image size you see in my photos being just TWO INCHES AWAY is absolutely incredible. I’ll ultimately be using it with a Vividstorm 120” ALR screen and can’t wait to see it blown up to that size. I’m happy to know I won’t need to pull it out several feet to get that image—it should work well with my setup.
OVERALL:
Couldn’t be happier—truly zero regrets. I feel like I got a steal of a deal with this. Now I can only hope it stands the test of time. Please, ForMovie...stand by your product should something go wrong, and I’ll be a customer (and maven) for life.