Cheap mini projectors (yes, I know, buy cheap, bye bye money!)

[Andrew_McP]

As my bedbound mother fades away she often stares at the ceiling and I've wondered about wasting a smallish amount of money on a little projector so I could maybe put a seaside or countryside view up there for her. Might backfire and confuse her, but she's very far gone on the dementia path so... so she'll probably just not register it at all!

But I can't do much for her now, so I fancy trying. Has anyone had any recent experience of mini projectors? Might be useful to have one for later use projecting song lyrics at low res, so I could be persuaded to spend £100+, but I've looked at enough reviews to know not to expect too much. As ever though, some cheap junk is better than other cheap junk, so if anyone's dabbled recently, let me know. Cheers.

 

[sHo0sH]

As my bedbound mother fades away she often stares at the ceiling and I've wondered about wasting a smallish amount of money on a little projector so I could maybe put a seaside or countryside view up there for her. Might backfire and confuse her, but she's very far gone on the dementia path so... so she'll probably just not register it at all!

But I can't do much for her now, so I fancy trying. Has anyone had any recent experience of mini projectors? Might be useful to have one for later use projecting song lyrics at low res, so I could be persuaded to spend £100+, but I've looked at enough reviews to know not to expect too much. As ever though, some cheap junk is better than other cheap junk, so if anyone's dabbled recently, let me know. Cheers.

Sorry to hear about your mother, dementia is a really tough one.

I haven't personally used it - but my friend has this one - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08613LPND/ref=cm_sw_r_api_i_R4N2FEHJJYR3Z1GQQCJS_0 and is very happy with it.

 

[Andrew_McP]

Sorry to hear about your mother

Thanks, it's an emotionally complicated time, but I'm "happy" to see her suffering coming to an end... sooner rather than later based on what she hasn't drunk today. So I've hit buy on that (fully aware that I shouldn't expect miracles!) while I've an excuse to do it. Promised myself I'd take Mum to the seaside again before she shuffled off, but it was too long a round trip with too many complications, so... So the seaside will come to a ceiling near her!

Probably wasting £85 but I think I'm allowed to do one or two stupid things at a time like this.

 

[Andrew_McP]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08613LPND/ref=cm_sw_r_api_i_R4N2FEHJJYR3Z1GQQCJS_0 and is very happy with it.

It's fairly noisy until you turn the sound up loud-ish, but that's not a fair criticism of a projector. And of course it's not particularly bright, but it's doing exactly what I wanted this evening, and will be perfectly up to the later task of projecting chorus lyrics for a sing-song.

Mum is currently being exposed to birdsong and woodland scenes via Youtube. She's not looking at it, but she might, and even if she does for a few moments, they're going to be among the last few experiences she has before going back to the billions of years of oblivion thing. I consider it money well spent, so thanks for saving me from choice paralysis.

Link may work. No loss if it doesn't. [Phone was right next to the projector, but I've plugged decent speakers into it so the sound in the room is better than it seems].

Birdsong

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[sHo0sH]

It's fairly noisy until you turn the sound up loud-ish, but that's not a fair criticism of a projector. And of course it's not particularly bright, but it's doing exactly what I wanted this evening, and will be perfectly up to the later task of projecting chorus lyrics for a sing-song.

Mum is currently being exposed to birdsong and woodland scenes via Youtube. She's not looking at it, but she might, and even if she does for a few moments, they're going to be among the last few experiences she has before going back to the billions of years of oblivion thing. I consider it money well spent, so thanks for saving me from choice paralysis.

Link may work. No loss if it doesn't. [Phone was right next to the projector, but I've plugged decent speakers into it so the sound in the room is better than it seems].

Birdsong

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photos.app.goo.gl

Looks like its doing the trick nicely - I hope I am able to be there for my mum when the time comes and you can know that you've done what you can to make her comfortable. Best of luck for what's to come, I lost my father last year and whilst we weren't super close it was still pretty tough.

 

[shephga]

It's fairly noisy until you turn the sound up loud-ish, but that's not a fair criticism of a projector. And of course it's not particularly bright, but it's doing exactly what I wanted this evening, and will be perfectly up to the later task of projecting chorus lyrics for a sing-song.

Mum is currently being exposed to birdsong and woodland scenes via Youtube. She's not looking at it, but she might, and even if she does for a few moments, they're going to be among the last few experiences she has before going back to the billions of years of oblivion thing. I consider it money well spent, so thanks for saving me from choice paralysis.

Link may work. No loss if it doesn't. [Phone was right next to the projector, but I've plugged decent speakers into it so the sound in the room is better than it seems].

Birdsong

0 new items added to shared album

photos.app.goo.gl

Hi Andrew,

I lurk on these forums, very rarely post, and read this forum topic...

I just wanted to say what a lovely thing you've done for your poor mum, and I really hope it's of comfort to her.

It's such a brilliant and simple idea at the same time, what a great son you are!

The very best of wishes to your mum and you.

 

[Andrew_McP]

I really hope it's of comfort to her.

Thanks. It's been several years since anything on a screen meant anything to her, and I don't think much of anything reaches her now, in these final few days. But the "colour ambience" may register through her mostly closed eyelids, and her room does feel very restful with a bluebell wood & birdsong projected this evening. I guess if I feel that benefit, that helps me and if I'm relaxed it's better for her. So even if it's all going completely over her head (literally!) there's an indirect effect, of sorts.

 

[Rroff]

For budget projectors which are OK and usually fairly quiet consider Elephas - the image quality isn't going to be amazing but usually reasonably priced and OK and review well for what they are.

Make sure to double check what the actual native resolution is though - as many cheap projectors have like "720P HD", "1080p input" or Full HD compatible in the headline specs but are still even 852x480 native in this day and age.

 

[tonys]

I feel for you as the mother in law had vascular dementia and was not bothered by the TV, she kept turning it off. My mother was hard of hearing and turned the sound down so not to disturb the neighbours

 

[RoyMi6]

Always worth checking out The Hook Up videos for cheap projectors

Best of luck.

Just another thought as well - apart from this obviously not being a waste of money, as it’s a kind thing you’re trying to do, having a cheap projector around for the odd occasion isn’t usually a bad thing to have. He has quite a few uses on his channel for doing things like spooky Halloween videos on windows etc.

 

[Andrew_McP]

I feel for you as the mother in law had vascular dementia

Miserable disease, isn't it. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

having a cheap projector around for the odd occasion isn’t usually a bad thing to have.

It's "nice" to have an excuse, because I've been curious for a while. I also had a sliver of hope it would solve my video out problem on my PS4. It died about four years ago... I can hear everything working ok, but the video out stopped working after an update so I hoped it was an incompatibility with my TV. Nope, it's a dead video out.

The projector will, just about, be useful for projecting song lyrics, but it's right on the edge of being useless in normal light, so it might be asking a bit much of it. I do enjoy sitting in Mum's room "in a wood" with blackbirds singing though, so at least I'm getting a bit of use out of it even if she continues to ignore it.