Netflix has arguably killed the home video market as well as the DVD and BD market in one fell swoop. Originally an online-based DVD delivery company, Netflix took one look into the digital piracy and illegal streaming scene, realized the billions of dollars that copyright holders are losing from such shenanigans, and decided to get into the business of offering a legal alternative to DVD rips for torrent and pirated streaming sites. Since then, Netflix has grown into a billion-dollar service.
Soon, Netflix became the de facto name when it came to streaming digital video content from Hollywood, South Korea, Japan, Bollywood, and elsewhere. Regardless, if you wish to watch Netflix anytime and anywhere, you won’t go wrong with the CINEMOOD Portable Movie Theater.
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What Should You Look for in a Netflix-Dedicated Mini Projector?
Netflix is the preferred method of watching movies and TV shows because of its convenience. They’re almost as convenient as the pirated digital copyrighted content of before, only this time they’re legal and you can avail of them for about $10 or so per month. They’re more convenient than buying and storing VHS tapes or Blu-Ray discs of movies for later viewing.
With that in mind, what makes CINEMOOD stand out of all other projectors capable of running Netflix? Theoretically, any projector will do. Most 21st Century projectors have Wi-Fi capabilities or are online-streaming-ready. Otherwise, you can always plug in an Amazon FireStick or Roku device on it to make Netflix available for it despite a lack of Wi-Fi connectivity. To wit:
- No Dongles, No FireSticks, No Frills, No Problem: You don’t need wireless dongles, Chromecasts, smartphone or laptop connections, or Amazon Fire TV Sticks in order to play Netflix on CINEMOOD. On the other hand, if you want more bang for your buck, you can try out the Optoma HD143X Projector instead. It’s no portable movie theater in one device, but it is a decently priced projector that remains cost-effective in terms of its overall Netflix value. It has all the bare necessities to ensure image quality beyond its price tag.
The Spartan projector might not have a sleek look or use lasers to project 4K resolution images. However, it does provide a killer image for its price point. It’s also a worthwhile buy for your Netflix-binging needs because it’s not a pain to setup. In regards to setup convenience, it’s right up there with CINEMOOD. It also comes with a universal mount and a Silver Ticket screen, you’re getting an extra 200 bucks in value for all your needs when it comes to doing a Lord of the Rings trilogy or Harry Potter movie marathon.
- For the Once-in-a-While Experience: The Nebula Capsule Portable Projector is similar to the CINEMOOD in terms of portability. It’s also much cheaper than the Optoma. In fact, the Nebula and CINEMOOD have similar price points, give or take a few dollars. However, it’s not a projector that will blow you away in terms of image quality, resolution (720p), black intensity, or brightness. It’s a strictly home cinema or theater projector that requires all the lights to be turned off and the curtains pulled down to give you an optimum Netflix viewing experience. It’s also mostly wireless, thus making it perfectly outdoorsy.
It’s as portable as CINEMOOD though, with it being about the size of a Coke can. It’s the perfect mobile or handheld projector for movie-viewing during camping as long as it’s done at night instead of the daytime. You can also project it on the tent walls or a bedsheet instead of a screen for good measure. Its battery lasts for four hours of operating time, which is as impressive as most laptops. It also comes with a built-in speaker. It’s also easy to set up to boot. It’s recommended though that you get an aux cord and speaker for it.
- Plug-and-Play Cinema: The CINEMOOD is technically a plug-and-play Netflix cinema in its own right. However, aside from it, there’s also the Epson Home Cinema LS 100. This ultra-short throw projector has a short throw as its main feature and “sacrifice” to ensure its portability. It does, however, produce quite the impressively large screen from only a few feet away and for a projector of its size. It is however quite pricey. In fact, it’s 10 times more expensive than a CINEMOOD or Nebula portable projector.
The reason why it’s expensive is that it can sit directly in front of a screen and beam a massive image. It doesn’t require mounts, wires on the ceiling, or any other paraphernalia. It’s much bigger than CINEMOOD, though. It’s the size of two shoeboxes. It makes up its expensiveness with its convenience. It’s considered a plug-and-play cinema because it can connect with anything that has an HDMI, USB, or AV connection. It’s also quite expensive because it has Epson-quality 4K resolution, good blacks, striking colors, and vibrant contrast. The image quality is jaw-dropping, to say the least.
- Space-Saving Screening and 4K Quality: Many of the recommended mini projectors for Netflix are of the short-throw variation. This is certainly the case with the BenQ TH671. This particular 3,000-lumen projector is about double the price of a CINEMOOD and Optoma. Does it have double the quality though? It offers a huge 100-inch image from 5 feet away, for one thing. It can be set anywhere in the house, from your coffee table to your study desk, in order to give you screenings of anything from Mad Max: Fury Road to the entire library of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s 50 percent more expensive than HD143X due to its ability to project at constrained spaces, but the CINEMOOD is capable of that too.
Finally, another Optoma projector model—UHD60—is available for your Netflix viewing pleasure because it offers a 4K resolution projection for under $2,000. It was actually one of the few projectors to be 4K without costing $4K. It’s about 6 times the cost of a CiNEMOOD but the fact that it’s a 4K projector makes it amazing than it doesn’t cost 10 times more instead. It has double the size of a 65-inch HDTV, with every pixel added ensuring you crystal-clear quality, detail, and fidelity, especially when you’re viewing 4K movies at 60 Fps, like in the case of The Hobbit Trilogy. How can the CINEMOOD compete with such quality? Through utility that truly takes advantage of the convenience of Netflix!
What Does CINEMOOD Bring to The Table?
The CINEMOOD Portable Movie Theater is our top pick for a portable or mini projector for Netflix viewing because unlike the other projectors on this guide, it’s made specifically to optimize your Netflix or online streaming experience. It’s the one truly Netflix-dedicated or streaming-dedicated powerhouse of a compact mini projector. All the other projectors treated their Netflix compatibility as a tertiary selling point.
CINEMOOD is a portable movie theater you can fit on the palm of your hand because it mostly uses Netflix as its main library of movies to show. It can also stream or project YouTube, Amazon Prime, Disney+ and more for good measure anytime and anywhere (that you have Internet). To wit:
- Netflix and Streaming Content Galore: The main reason why CINEMOOD is praised by publications such as Vogue, Forbes, USA Today, and Heavy is that it combines portability and utility together in a tight, easy-to-use projector package. It’s been called a “parenting game-changer” that’s portable, cable-free, and multifunctional. It’s easy-to-use and kid-friendly at the same time. It’s also been described as a mother’s little helper. It allows easy access to Netflix in one box that’s as self-explanatory to work with as an Android tablet or iPad.
- A Kid-Friendly Aspect to It: Although adults can also use it in order to view more mature fare on Netflix, HBO NOW, HBO Go, Disney+, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Sling TV, Fubo TV, Crackle, and so forth, the CINEMOOD mainly markets itself to families, children, and parents. It advertises how handy it is to carry around and project educational content from Disney while also streaming from YouTube, Amazon Prime, and Netflix at any time and any place in your home. It can be used to entertain and educate children as a tablet or TV would.
- Disney+ and Educational Disney Content: For the adults, you can avail of Disney+ through this movie box of sorts and project any of the Classic or Modern Disney Animated Films or any of the Disney-owned franchises such as the Star Wars movies, Pixar movies, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. In the same token, you can also have your kids peruse a digital library composed of 40 Disney e-books, 25 short safety videos, and cartoons outside of the full-length films. There are also 75 or so episodes of more cartoons, shadow puppetry, and e-books galore.
- Switch On and Play Plus Screen Mirroring: You can also upload and play your videos on the projector or use screen mirroring in order to showcase the movies available on your iPad or iPhone (only). It doesn’t need any cords, HDMI cables, AV cords, USB cables, a multitude of adapters, and so forth. This 3-inch portable box is your treasure chest of movie and TV content. It’s particularly handy around kids. They can view YouTube Kids or watch the most child-friendly Netflix content possible through the device’s parental controls, preloaded content, and Disney offerings for children that’s free of inappropriate content.
- It Has a Good Balance of Everything: The Optoma, Nebula, and Epson offerings above were a mixed bag of specs and features that make them ideal for Netflix viewing. Some take advantage of the HD and Ultra HD streaming offerings of the service while others were more about portability that reflect Netflix’s all-around accessibility at anyplace and anytime that has a Wi-Fi Internet signal. The thing that separates CINEMOOD from all those other Netflix mini projector prospects is that it has a good balance of portability and quality. It might not be the smallest of the projectors nor does it have the highest 4K resolution, however, it has a decent native resolution and HD support on top of easy Netflix accessibility for a projector its size.
- Affordable HD Resolution and Quality: CINEMOOD is 1080p supported. Its native resolution is 800 x 480 pixels. This is much lower than the 4K capabilities of the Optoma UHD60 for sure. What’s more, it’s a bigger deal for a projector to be in 4K because when a screen is double the size of a TV, every pixel available on 4K is displayed, resulting in fine detail never before possible in lower resolutions. However, CINEMOOD offers decent HD quality as a price point that’s 6 times less than what Optoma UHD60 offers. It’s also about 200 bucks cheaper than the more Spartan HD Optoma HD143X. CINEMOOD is a cost-effective choice.
- A Movie Theater on The Go: Another major selling point of this Netflix mini projector is the fact that all its best attributes make it capable of acting like a movie theater on the go. Just use this 5-ounce, 3-inch, kid-friendly, and intuitive projector with its 5-hour rechargeable battery in order to project up to 12-feet high projections in a dark environment. Yes, it’s not a presentation-level projector that projects images that remain bright in ambient light or in the midst of daylight. However, as long as you can find a dark or shady place in your home or hotel room as you travel, you can watch movies with it anywhere in the world practically.
- No Need for a Wall Outlet or Computer: Another advantage that CINEMOOD has is that it doesn’t need a wall outlet or laptop to work. Most so-called Netflix projectors are just mirror displays of Netflix playing on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet with Wi-Fi capabilities. They project the display and the movie being viewed on the device. There are also projectors that require a FireStick, Roku, or some other streaming device to connect to the Netflix app and stream movies. In the case of CINEMOOD, the projector itself is the streaming device. It’s battery-operated to boot. Warning though—CINEMOOD Chromecast isn’t compatible with certain Android devices such as Smartview.
- A World of Content for Your Contentment: A world of content is available at your fingertips with the CINEMOOD Mini Projector for Netflix. It allows access to all of Netflix’s library (geo-restrictions will apply though) available to your account. It also enables you to access and stream exclusive content from YouTube, YouTube Kids, Disney+, AmebaTV, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Crunchyroll, and so forth. The menu screen of CINEMOOD has all of these streaming sites available from the start. Just pick the service, log on with your account, and you’re good to go. No need to download anything from your Wi-Fi connection.
- No Wi-Fi? No Problem: Another amazing and exclusive service offered by the little Netflix streaming box projector is its download feature. If you don’t have Wi-Fi, it’s possible for you to still watch Amazon Prime and Netflix videos offline. First, you need to pick a library of movies you want to watch offline from the services then download them while you still have Wi-Fi. Afterwards, you can project and watch these downloaded movies offline on your offline Netflix or Amazon Prime account with little to no problem. No need to waste your mobile Internet data on your smartphone either!
- Great for Camping, Traveling, and Hiking: It’s not the most outdoorsy of projectors and some projectors are built better to withstand the rigors of the outside elements. However, the handheld, palmtop-sized portability of the Netflix-in-a-box mini projector by CINEMOOD does extend its usefulness beyond a means to serve as a nanny to your children. It can also serve as a movie projector outdoors, whether it’s a backyard screening of The Fast and The Furious franchise or as a means for you to distract yourself while you fish at a lake or wait around at camp at nightfall.
- Laptop Mirroring Isn’t Supported: One disadvantage that this Netflix mini projector has that thankfully doesn’t affect its Netflix capabilities is the fact that it doesn’t support laptop mirroring. As mentioned above, it doesn’t need to mirror laptops to connect to Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime. However, in the same token, it can’t mirror laptops at all so you can’t give it a second application like using it to project PowerPoint presentations for conferences and business meetings. It’s not that kind of projector. You also can’t screencast or mirror copyrighted content from HBO, Hulu, iTunes, and other streaming apps as an anti-piracy safeguard.
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The Verdict Regarding CINEMOOD
Netflix got into agreements with multiple copyright holders to stream their content through them. With the combined efforts of the Digital Copyright Millennium Act (DMCA) putting down pirate sites like MegaUpload and Pirate Bay, YouTube instating the Content ID defense against users uploading content they don’t own, and copyright holders publishing their content for streaming on Netflix, and the company soon blew up to epic proportions.
At any rate, even with the rise of other streaming services like longtime competitor Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, CrunchyRoll, and so forth, Netflix remains the king of the hill. As far as a portable Netflix portable projector goes, CINEMOOD is the cream of the crop if not the best of the best altogether. It helps that it was specifically made and designed with Netflix streaming in mind. It’s the size of a small speaker but with it, you can watch movies from all sorts of genres and studios with the same convenience you’ve come to expect from Netflix itself.
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