DirecTV is a broadcast satellite service provider. Meanwhile, a video projector is an alternative display device to the television set that you can use in order to watch movies and the like in a big screen that can fit inside your home in your living room or even outdoors in your backyard. DirecTV is based in California and is an AT&T subsidiary launched back in 1994, so it offers one of the best broadcast satellite services in the U.S.
Meanwhile, our research on the best possible projector to use for DirecTV viewing is the Kuman Portable 1080p Movie Projector. This is based on several considerations and criteria. We’ve tried quite a number of portable projectors and this one worked the best with DirecTV even though for the most part, all 21st Century projectors should be able to connect to any cable or satellite box.
What Is DirecTV?
DirecTV, DTV, or Direct TV is a direct broadcast satellite service provider based in the United States of America, specifically in El Segundo, California. This AT&T subsidiary was launched back in June 17, 1994. It’s been available for nearly 26 years and it has been transmitting or broadcasting digital satellite audio and video for TV in the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean. The main competitors of DirecTV include cable television providers and the Dish Network.
- DirecTV Receivers: AT&T acquired DirecTV for $6.7 billion on July 24, 2015 right after it received approval from the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission. Back in the day, receivers were made by DirecTV and other companies that include Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electronics, Panasonic, Sony Electronics, Philips, and Samsung Electronics. The DirecTV receivers made by these companies have been phased out across the years so that DirecTV could design their own models with others such as Thomson of France, LG of South Korea, and Pace Micro Technology of Britain.
- Satellite TV versus Cable TV: Instead of getting a direct cable feed of different channels you can get from different subscription tiers, you can instead capture the feed via satellite through DirecTV services and their receivers from companies that have manufactured satellite boxes under the Zenith or LG Electronics names or under the RCA, GE, and ProScan brands. They offer different means of accessing subscription TV and dedicated channels like HBO, Cartoon Network, MTV, TLC, and so forth. They’re different from streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, CrunchyRoll, or YouTube Red.
- DirecTV and TiVo: Back in September 3, 2008, DirecTV and TiVo announced that they’d work together in developing a TiVo service for DirecTV’s HD DVR platform that’s broadband-enabled. It was originally scheduled for release in the latter portion of 2009 then on Spring 2010, but it was delayed twice. In December 6, 2011 it was finally launched. It also has a new unit known as the THR22 that’s available in certain markets in the U.S but it doesn’t have all the features required of HR24 DVR.
- HDTV Broadcasting: Because HDTV broadcasting has become more and more common, DirecTV currently rebroadcasts local HDTV stations using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec while simultaneously deploying DVB-S2, a newer transmission protocol, over their newest satellites to keep up with their cable counterparts. This enables the service to put forth more HD shows over its satellite signal than was possible in the past using the DSS protocol and MPEG-2 compression. This tech has expanded into other satellites as subscriber equipment is upgraded with MPEG-4 receivers instead.
How to Hook Up DirecTV to a Projector
DirecTV is quite like its cable and satellite competition in that it offers interactive and HDTV services. It’s because of this reason that DirecTV is quite projector-ready the same way other TVs are cable-ready even though it’s more like the other way around and the projector should be DirecTV-ready instead. Regardless, if you’re curious if it’s possible to connect your DirecTV receiver to your projector instead of your HDTV, then yes. Absolutely. 21st Century tech allows this to be possible, and this new decade of the 2020s will continue that tradition moving forward.
- The Benefits of Using a Projector for Your DirecTV: First off, DirecTV is perfectly viewable by all modern projectors that are designed to connect to cable or satellite boxes with HDMI and/or USB connectors. What’s more, ever since DirecTV got its HD upgrade with the MPEG-4 AVC codec, it makes sense to use a projector and wide-screen for your TV viewing needs if you and your family and/or friends tend to watch series like Game of Thrones (even though that recently ended) or PPVs like the latest WrestleMania as a whole audience of sorts. This is because HD video is a waste of pixels in small screens. It’s better to see it in its full glory in the big screen, where you literally can see all 1080p or 4K pixels in action.
- Larger-Than-Life Images: If you wish to see larger-than-life while watching your favorite TV shows or movies, then you won’t go wrong with a projector. DirecTV in particular offers you endless content that’s practically on-demand but on a channel-by-channel basis like with cable TV. To be more specific, it offers a whopping 400 channels to satellite subscribers. Additionally, its receiver has connectors required to integrate any projector into your home entertainment system or cinema, even though we’re eyeing the Kuman H2 HDMI Projector in particular for your movie-viewing needs.
- Making The Proper Connections: When it comes to displaying your DirecTV programming and it 400 channels with your projector in five minutes or less, here’s what you need to do. First, connect one end of the RCA component cable or HDMI to the back of your DirecTV receiver. If it’s the latest one, there should be a respective port available for it. If you have an older or vintage device you wish to connect to your DirecTV receiver, you either need to get an older DirecTV model to allow a connection to happen or make use of adapters or converters to allow a newer DirecTV receiver to receive an older format of connector, like an A/V or SCART connection.
- RCA Component versus HDMI Ports: For RCA component cables, plug the yellow component cable unto the video out port, the red cable unto the Red R Audio port and the white cable to the L Audio port. For HDMI cables, it’s even simple. Just connect the HDMI output of your DirecTV on one end then connect the “Video In” HDMI input into your projector’s HDMI port. The type of output your projector has depends on the make, model, and year of the device, but for all modern projectors there should be an HDMI port and cable available for satellite and cable box connections. The beauty of HDMI is that it covers both the audio and video signals in one cable.
- Finishing Up with Audio: Once you’ve connected the RCA cables’ male connectors to their respective female ports, then you can turn on both your DirecTV receiver and your projector at no particular order. The images from the outputs on the receiver should display fine on your video projector whether it’s a LCD, DLP, or LCoS type of device. It’s the same deal with HDMI output to input ports but with the caveat that if you wish to use a separate sound system, you will need an HDMI splitter to split your HDMI signal from video to audio. This way, you can plug your audio into a separate stereo. Otherwise, use a wireless Bluetooth speaker instead.
Why Kuman H2 HDMI Projector Is Perfect as a DirecTV Display
The Kuman H2 Portable Movie Projector is a highly recommended DirecTV projector not because it’s absolutely the only projector that works with the DirecTV. Ever since the newly upgraded receiver with the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec for HD broadcasts was released, it included HDMI connections to HDTVs, which are the same connections that many other projectors aside from the Kuman one makes use of. This allows easy compatibility with a wide variety of projectors out there. (See Full Specs)
However, we view the Kuman H2 to be particularly excellent in terms of DirecTV projection performance based on our tests from a short-listed collection of mini projectors that ranked high on Amazon.com. It’s also a projector with quite a lot of impressive specs such as its 2,500 lumens, its 1080p HD projections, its 800 x 480 native resolution, and HDMI cable compatibility.
- Format Support Galore: The Kuman H2 Portable 1080p Mini Projector allows connection to any device with HDMI 2.0 cables and below as well as VGA, USB, TV/DTV, YPBPR for home theater or entertainment system use. Technically, any projector with an HDMI connection should be able to connect to a DTV receiver, but this one in particular clicked as easily as connecting it to an HDTV. There were no drops in quality or resolution as well as artifacting. It includes ports for VGA, RCA, YPBPR, AV, DTV, cable, HDMI, or even TV for dual monitor action.
- Kuman Sound Options: The Kuman H2 also includes an audio out and built-in speakers. The speakers aren’t loud enough for the needs of a home theater experience, so we tend to opt for the audio out instead in order to connect to our local stereo system complete with bass and subwoofer as well as extra sound bar up front. Additionally, we can also take the projector outside and have it work with a wireless Bluetooth speaker as long as we have the right transceiver attached to its audio out. From what we can hear, it replicated HD sound from Dolby or DTS quite excellently.
- Media Support Formats: The projector from Kuman is like a mini laptop or media player of its own because it works with picture formats such as GIF, TIF, PNG, JPE, JPG, BMP, JPEG, and so forth. Additionally, it also supports video formats such as WMV, MP4, AVI, 3G2, MPG, MPE, DAT, VOB, WMV, FLV, ASF, WSF, BUK, MKV, TS0, MOV, DIV, TRP, RMVB, RM, RMV, RM0, M2T, TP, TS, and so forth. In terms of music and audio files, it supports OGG, WAV, AAC, M4A, WMA, MP3, and more. It even reads TXT files for good measure, but not Adobe PDFs. As for USB, it mostly has a USB-A port for flash drive purposes. Its aspect ratio support is at 4:3 and 16:9 as well.
- Multi-Chip Optical Coating Lens and Playback: The lens of Kuman allows you to lens zoom with high-fidelity quality. The pixels look just right and since it’s an optical zoom instead of a digital zoom, there’s no pixilation or artifacting involved. It also supports playback for not only the obvious, which is DTV, but also a TV connection for dual or mirrored display action. It can also connect easily to headphones, earphones, earpods, an SD card, the U Disk, a BD, a DVD, an SD card, and a disc for a game console such as PS4, Switch, or Xbox One. It even comes with a piano finish surface, making it elegant and beautiful—a nice combination of form and function right there. The focus lens is also manually built to avoid collisions.
- LED Lamp in an LCD Projector: The Kuman H2 Portable 1080p Mini Projector is also a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) Projector with a Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamp. This means that it uses a lamp (sometimes made of LED, other times made of a metal-halide lamp) to send light to a prism or dichroic filters that separate the light into polysilicon panels for the blue, green, and red color components needed for a video signal. Because it uses a 2,600 lumen LED light, it’s more than bright enough for home and school use. It can’t take the presence of ambient light like a 3,600-lumen projector, but it produces enough for a dimmed home cinema or classroom with the curtains closed. Its LED lamp has a 20,000-hour lifespan to boot.
- What’s in The Box and The Unit: It comes with the unit itself, the infrared remote controller, RCA cables, HDMI cables, USB cables, VGA cables, several screws, and a user manual. The unit also has an additional HDMI interface and an optical keystone button in case you need to do some keystone correction when projecting at an angle or an inclined surface. It’s optical so that picture proportion is maintained and distortion is avoided or minimized. The picture quality won’t be affected in case you have no choice but to place your projector in a tilted angle. It also features MHL-enabled mobile phone support to play movies, games, and so forth through the Internet.
- More About The Wireless MHL Function: Because it has MHL support, the Kuman H2 can connect to your smartphone or tablet—that is, your iPhone, iPad, or Android device—through a wireless HDMI adapter. Through this feature, you can mirror your screen on a projector to view things like text, audio, and video. This is idea for your business presentation needs. This allows the Kuman H2 Portable 1080p Mini Projector to double as a business model projector even though it lacks the right resolution specs needed for such applications and it’s mostly a home cinema projector when push comes to shove. It’s a home entertainment model that can do business model projection work.
- Brightness and Projection Methods: We also favor the affordable Kuman H2 because of its native resolution of 800 x 480 that can go up to 1080p resolutions. It even supports 3D effects to boot. It, in fact, has three projection methods that add more to its versatility. It can do front, rear, and ceiling image projection depending on how you set it up. This allows you to be able to put it on a table or mount it on a ceiling and still get excellent viewing results. Consult the user manual for more details. It’s also an energy-saving device that has an LED that can run up to 20,000 hours or work for many years to come. Its appropriate throw distance ratio is 1:2 or about 6 meters. Its menu languages include English, Spanish, French, Chinese and many other languages (23 languages all-in-all).
- Awesome Projector When Push Comes to Shove: We never once came across a problem while projecting our DTV channels through this projector. It worked better than we expected and got the most bang out of our buck from this device. It also works with our 55-inch TV, but there are certain movies on HBO, Cinemax, and the like that we want to watch using the full widescreen theater experience that even the largest HDTV couldn’t replicate. It proves you don’t need to spend $700 and above in order to get a decent live projector for the Super Bowl or when you’re watching must-watch TV like the Walking Dead and the like. It’s also quite robust with a long-lasting LED lamp. What’s not to love?
In a Nutshell
As touched upon by the intro, DirecTV should be able to connect to your home cinema video or movie projector since it uses a satellite box to receive the digital MPEG-4 HD signal across the airwaves. Many projectors out there are capable of receiving and projecting content from cable or satellite boxes on top of your usual collection of media players like your laptop, desktop, DVD player, BD player, game consoles (such as the Sony PlayStation 3 and 4, the Nintendo Wii-U and Switch, and the Xbox 360 and One) tablet, and smartphone. However, not all projectors are made equal and some are better at projecting that HD signal with automatic plug-&-play convenience than others. This guide is here to explore one such projector.
References:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirecTV
- https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-hook-up-directv-to-a-projector
- https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/how-to-connect-projector-to-direct-tv.92469/
- the Kuman Portable 1080p Movie Projector
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