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Turning Your iPhone into a Film Projector

Turning Your iPhone into a Film Projector

I enjoy downloading videos onto my iPhone, but sometimes I don’t want to watch a movie in the palm of my hand.

It turns out that I need a “pico projector”—a tiny projector that converts the small-screen viewing experience into a large-screen luxury. So I tested the Cinemin Swivel, which goes on sale this month for $349 from a company called WowWee Group Ltd.

The name sounds more like a pastry than a projector, but the Cinemin Swivel lives up to its “pico” designation. Barely the size of a candy bar and weighing 6.4 ounces (hardly more than an iPhone), the Swivel easily fit in my hand, pocket, and purse.

The Swivel was designed especially for the iPod and iPhone (which is what I used to test the device). It can project movies you have stored on your iPod, videos you stream from YouTube and other popular sites, and photos. It also works with a variety of other multimedia players, including laptops, DVD players, televisions, and video cameras; depending on your gadget, it may require an adapter or additional cable.

Operating the Swivel was exceptionally simple. I plugged it into my iPhone, selected a movie, switched on the projector lamp, focused the image, and sat back to enjoy my private screening. In a darkened room, the Swivel projected a luminous, clear image onto my wall.

Here’s where the “swivel” part comes in: the projector is hinged, and rotates up to 90 degrees. This allows you to place the Swivel on any flat surface and adjust the projection up the wall to the height you wish. I particularly liked tilting it the full 90 degrees to beam the image onto my ceiling. There was a bit of edge distortion if I tilted the image between zero and 90 degrees, but it didn’t bother me.

The potential projection surfaces for the Swivel seem infinite: I imagined holding screenings on a tent in the woods, an airplane tray table, a large person’s back. Even if you confine your film screenings to your living room wall or bedroom ceiling, the Swivel offers a great deal of cinematic pleasure.

But the Swivel has a fatal flaw: its sound-system. It comes with a built-in speaker, but even with the volume at full force the audio doesn’t reach a comfortable level. I had to hold it near my ear sometimes to catch a phrase. The sound is barely adequate when watching a movie alone; with a full house, it’s worthless.

A company representative explained that the current model offers a bit more volume, and that the speaker’s small size is in keeping with the light weight and portability of the Swivel. So unless you are a silent movie fan, you will have to plug in headphones or external speakers to amplify the volume.

The Swivel’s battery life is also only about two hours—enough for a three act romantic comedy, but barely enough to get halfway through “Schindler’s List.”

Is the Cinemin Swivel worth it? I love the concept of being able to project movies and images from my iPhone and iPod—it makes my videos portable and shareable. But, with the Swivel’s low volume and high price, I’ll still be standing in line for my movie ticket.

[Thanks: http://online.wsj.com]