Upgraded the HT with a XGIMI Horizon Pro 4k Projector

[donmathew90]

Another upgrade bug bit me late last year and no, it wasn't a subwoofer upgrade like it usually is

I wanted more immersion! I have a 65" Hisense Mini LED TV and while the picture quality was a huge upgrade from the 65" Hisense QLED TV, I wanted something bigger and I wanted it on a budget

So I started researching projectors. Found out that 4k projectors were really expensive in India unfortunately. All the good deals were in the US as usual. Found a good deal on Ebay on the XGIMI Horizon Pro (~$600). It was refurbished and sold directly by XGIMI themselves (comes with 2 years of warranty as well). Bought it and got a friend to bring it down for me.

Then I started breaking my head about the screen size and decided on a 100" screen. Checked out various brands and since I wanted to keep the costs low, I found this dealer from Delhi who sold a motorized 100", matte white, 1:1 gain (I think) screen for 7k. They're called Legendary screens. I'm guessing it's white labelled stuff from China. Got it within a week and since I'm blissfully unaware about good screens, it seems decent enough

The real headache was positioning the projector. Got the measurements from Projector Central and got it set up. But something went wrong and I have to depend on a bit of keystone correction. But the picture looks good enough. I'll set it up properly when I some time.

Coming to the picture quality of the projector, I was pleasantly surprised! The colours are vibrant enough. I knew it wasn't going to match the black levels of my TV but the size/immersion of the picture makes up for it.

Oh and I got a pair of 3d DLP Link glasses for 1.6k.

I think I spent 75k overall for this upgrade and it's been worth it!

 

[arnprasad]

Congrats! Done begging folks to get it from US. So hoping for someway to get GST off the Horizon Ultra in India so that its around 90K net of GST. At that price not sure if other offerings by Benq..etc come close. Happy to hear the views of others

 

[donmathew90]

Congrats! Done begging folks to get it from US. So hoping for someway to get GST off the Horizon Ultra in India so that its around 90K net of GST. At that price not sure if other offerings by Benq..etc come close. Happy to hear the views of others

Thanks! Have you explored the option of using Freight Forwarders?

 

[arnprasad]

Thanks! Have you explored the option of using Freight Forwarders?

Ultra is 1000 USD..so 90K..same as India price minus GST. So why bother. Thehookup channel gave rave reviews for the newer Horizon 20...but at 1.9 lacs all inclusive...too much..am sure it will come down to a lac in a year.

looking at 150-165 inches once i buy the projector as have experiened 120 inches for close to 15 yrs now

 

[donmathew90]

Ultra is 1000 USD..so 90K..same as India price minus GST. So why bother. Thehookup channel gave rave reviews for the newer Horizon 20...but at 1.9 lacs all inclusive...too much..am sure it will come down to a lac in a year.

looking at 150-165 inches once i buy the projector as have experiened 120 inches for close to 15 yrs now

That makes sense!

 

[thedude]

Recently picked up the Valerion VisionMaster Pro2 and paired it with a 133” acoustically woven screen.

For the price, this projector punches way above its weight. In overall image quality, it gets very close to Sony’s entry-level cinema projectors that cost more than 2×. In my room, the Pro2 actually shows better perceived color pop and a lower black floor, especially in darker scenes.

Setup and alignment took some time since I wanted to avoid keystone correction completely. Once the physical alignment was sorted, sharpness and geometry are spot on, edge to edge.

Even on a 133” AT screen (with black Velvet backing), brightness is more than sufficient, and HDR looks solid after basic tuning.

Overall, very happy with the purchase.

 

[donmathew90]

Recently picked up the Valerion VisionMaster Pro2 and paired it with a 133” acoustically woven screen.

For the price, this projector punches way above its weight. In overall image quality, it gets very close to Sony’s entry-level cinema projectors that cost more than 2×. In my room, the Pro2 actually shows better perceived color pop and a lower black floor, especially in darker scenes.

Setup and alignment took some time since I wanted to avoid keystone correction completely. Once the physical alignment was sorted, sharpness and geometry are spot on, edge to edge.

Even on a 133” AT screen (with black Velvet backing), brightness is more than sufficient, and HDR looks solid after basic tuning.

Overall, very happy with the purchase.

That's awesome! I wanted to test the waters with this one before I upgrade to something better. Heard good things about the Valerion on Reddit. Did you buy it in India?

 

[SanVJ]

Then I started breaking my head about the screen size and decided on a 100" screen. Checked out various brands and since I wanted to keep the costs low, I found this dealer from Delhi who sold a motorized 100", matte white, 1:1 gain (I think) screen for 7k. They're called Legendary screens. I'm guessing it's white labelled stuff from China. Got it within a week and since I'm blissfully unaware about good screens, it seems decent enough

I’m also in the market for a 100-inch screen. Can you share the dealer’s contact details? How has the screen been for you so far?

 

[donmathew90]

I’m also in the market for a 100-inch screen. Can you share the dealer’s contact details? How has the screen been for you so far?

I'll DM the contact details.

Since I don't know a lot about screens, it seems decent especially for 7k. The only issue I noticed is that the screen is curling at the sides but that seems to be a common issue with non tab-tensioned screens. He sells all kinds of screens BTW.

 

[thedude]

That's awesome! I wanted to test the waters with this one before I upgrade to something better. Heard good things about the Valerion on Reddit. Did you buy it in India?

Got it hand carried from the US.

Based on my research the Pro2 is the best performer after the MaX, among the Chinese (including the Nexigo).

The Xgimi Horizon 20 Max has the potential to better the Pro2 with some bug fixes in terms of tone mapping in HDR etc.

Until then the PRO2 is the best value proposition IMO.

 

[donmathew90]

Recently picked up the Valerion VisionMaster Pro2 and paired it with a 133” acoustically woven screen.

For the price, this projector punches way above its weight. In overall image quality, it gets very close to Sony’s entry-level cinema projectors that cost more than 2×. In my room, the Pro2 actually shows better perceived color pop and a lower black floor, especially in darker scenes.

Setup and alignment took some time since I wanted to avoid keystone correction completely. Once the physical alignment was sorted, sharpness and geometry are spot on, edge to edge.

Even on a 133” AT screen (with black Velvet backing), brightness is more than sufficient, and HDR looks solid after basic tuning.

Overall, very happy with the purchase.

How did you mount the projector? I got a wall mount from Amazon and the quality is quite bad!

 

[SatMumbai]

Another upgrade bug bit me late last year and no, it wasn't a subwoofer upgrade like it usually is

I wanted more immersion! I have a 65" Hisense Mini LED TV and while the picture quality was a huge upgrade from the 65" Hisense QLED TV, I wanted something bigger and I wanted it on a budget

So I started researching projectors. Found out that 4k projectors were really expensive in India unfortunately. All the good deals were in the US as usual. Found a good deal on Ebay on the XGIMI Horizon Pro (~$600). It was refurbished and sold directly by XGIMI themselves (comes with 2 years of warranty as well). Bought it and got a friend to bring it down for me.

Then I started breaking my head about the screen size and decided on a 100" screen. Checked out various brands and since I wanted to keep the costs low, I found this dealer from Delhi who sold a motorized 100", matte white, 1:1 gain (I think) screen for 7k. They're called Legendary screens. I'm guessing it's white labelled stuff from China. Got it within a week and since I'm blissfully unaware about good screens, it seems decent enough

The real headache was positioning the projector. Got the measurements from Projector Central and got it set up. But something went wrong and I have to depend on a bit of keystone correction. But the picture looks good enough. I'll set it up properly when I some time.

Coming to the picture quality of the projector, I was pleasantly surprised! The colours are vibrant enough. I knew it wasn't going to match the black levels of my TV but the size/immersion of the picture makes up for it.

Oh and I got a pair of 3d DLP Link glasses for 1.6k.

I think I spent 75k overall for this upgrade and it's been worth it!

Congratulations on your projector.. I think at this price the projector is a no brainer!

On a slight tangent.. I recently got Hisense 75U7Q mini LED TV and some how, I am unable to dial in the picture settings. I am super happy with the TV and it is like audiophile speakers as it just shows everything in PQ but in a more exaggerated way.. If the video has sunny shot then the sun is too powerful and if it is a gloomy day then it feels too gloomy. Older songs, like 90s look very good but the newer ones, I can see the exagerated processing done by the mixing artist. I played a lot with settings and I have settled on filmmaker mode which seem to do a decent job but backlight or brightness seem to be still very high.. I use Apple Tv as my source. So, if you can, please share your settings for general watching of 4K SDR content.

 

[donmathew90]

Congratulations on your projector.. I think at this price the projector is a no brainer!

On a slight tangent.. I recently got Hisense 75U7Q mini LED TV and some how, I am unable to dial in the picture settings. I am super happy with the TV and it is like audiophile speakers as it just shows everything in PQ but in a more exaggerated way.. If the video has sunny shot then the sun is too powerful and if it is a gloomy day then it feels too gloomy. Older songs, like 90s look very good but the newer ones, I can see the exagerated processing done by the mixing artist. I played a lot with settings and I have settled on filmmaker mode which seem to do a decent job but backlight or brightness seem to be still very high.. I use Apple Tv as my source. So, if you can, please share your settings for general watching of 4K SDR content.

I've got the U7Q as well I don't remember what I changed exactly but I definitely switched off motion compensation, clarity and some other things. I just checked with Chatgpt and adjusted everything accordingly. Try that out.

 

[arnprasad]

Got it hand carried from the US.

Based on my research the Pro2 is the best performer after the MaX, among the Chinese (including the Nexigo).

The Xgimi Horizon 20 Max has the potential to better the Pro2 with some bug fixes in terms of tone mapping in HDR etc.

Until then the PRO2 is the best value proposition IMO.

Congratulations!! How much did you pay in USD and how much customs duty was charged?

 

[arnprasad]

Just curious on screens..why aren't folks in this thread not looking at Inlight and Bigvue sold on Amazon? they are not VFM?

I also want a fixed screen 150-165 inch...was told by the Inlight owner that price goes up by 70%+ when you go from 150 to 165...online its 25K vs 45K between the two sizes

Let me know if you are aware of better deals

 

[thedude]

Just curious on screens..why aren't folks in this thread not looking at Inlight and Bigvue sold on Amazon? they are not VFM?

I also want a fixed screen 150-165 inch...was told by the Inlight owner that price goes up by 70%+ when you go from 150 to 165...online its 25K vs 45K between the two sizes

Let me know if you are aware of better deals

I tested multiple screen samples from Inlight (credit where it’s due - Tushar Anand is extremely helpful) in the ₹18k-₹33k range for a 133” screen, and honestly none of them paired well with a triple-laser projector. The performance ranged from mediocre to outright bad.

Based on my testing, triple-laser projectors really need a matte white screen with a slight beige tint. Anything else tends to distort colours, lower the brightness and hurt overall image quality. I eventually went with an acoustically woven screen from Osteq, which turned out to be a much better match. Their standard matte white fabric wasn’t great, so I had to step up to the AT material.

I didn’t rely on dealer demos alone - I literally carried my projector, Apple TV, and a tripod to multiple demo rooms and friends’ home theaters to test everything myself before finalizing the screen.

For mounting, I skipped a ceiling mount altogether. The Pro2 has no lens shift, and ceiling mounting severely limits horizontal alignment flexibility. Instead, I installed a wall shelf (IKEA Tolken countertop) using heavy-duty brackets (https://amzn.in/d/brLeT6x - 16”) and placed the projector on it. This gave me full control over height and horizontal positioning, which was critical since I choose to install the screen before the shelf went up. Not a pretty looking setup but flexible!

 

[arnprasad]

I tested multiple screen samples from Inlight (credit where it’s due - Tushar Anand is extremely helpful) in the ₹18k-₹33k range for a 133” screen, and honestly none of them paired well with a triple-laser projector. The performance ranged from mediocre to outright bad.

Based on my testing, triple-laser projectors really need a matte white screen with a slight beige tint. Anything else tends to distort colours, lower the brightness and hurt overall image quality. I eventually went with an acoustically woven screen from Osteq, which turned out to be a much better match. Their standard matte white fabric wasn’t great, so I had to step up to the AT material.

I didn’t rely on dealer demos alone - I literally carried my projector, Apple TV, and a tripod to multiple demo rooms and friends’ home theaters to test everything myself before finalizing the screen.

For mounting, I skipped a ceiling mount altogether. The Pro2 has no lens shift, and ceiling mounting severely limits horizontal alignment flexibility. Instead, I installed a wall shelf (IKEA Tolken countertop) using heavy-duty brackets (https://amzn.in/d/brLeT6x - 16”) and placed the projector on it. This gave me full control over height and horizontal positioning, which was critical since I choose to install the screen before the shelf went up. Not a pretty looking setup but flexible!

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Thanks for the reply. looking at your room and signature..you obviously are not an average HT guy

How much did you pay for the projector and what was experience in the airport+how much duty did you pay?

Also how much did you pay for the screen?

Am not clearly in your league...but may help others in the forum!

 

[thedude]

Thanks for the reply. looking at your room and signature..you obviously are not an average HT guy

How much did you pay for the projector and what was experience in the airport+how much duty did you pay?

Also how much did you pay for the screen?

Am not clearly in your league...but may help others in the forum!

I paid ₹2.2L for the Valerion. A neighbor carried it for me and faced no issues at the airport (mostly luck, I’d say).

I was quoted ₹50-60k for a 133” acoustically woven screen by dealers. I ended up paying significantly less since I know the OSTEQ distributor. Feel free to DM me if you want more details.

PS: Other screens I tested:

• Elite Screens AT (Grey, ₹88k) - perforated screen; the perforations were visible during content playback and laser speckle was very high. Terrible screen IMO.

• Screen Innovations Black Diamond ALR (₹70k) - Good screen but a poor match for triple-laser projectors. While black levels were excellent, laser speckle was high and overall brightness took a massive hit. Even at ~3000 lumens, the image was nowhere near bright enough on an ALR screen.

 

[donmathew90]

I tested multiple screen samples from Inlight (credit where it’s due - Tushar Anand is extremely helpful) in the ₹18k-₹33k range for a 133” screen, and honestly none of them paired well with a triple-laser projector. The performance ranged from mediocre to outright bad.

Based on my testing, triple-laser projectors really need a matte white screen with a slight beige tint. Anything else tends to distort colours, lower the brightness and hurt overall image quality. I eventually went with an acoustically woven screen from Osteq, which turned out to be a much better match. Their standard matte white fabric wasn’t great, so I had to step up to the AT material.

I didn’t rely on dealer demos alone - I literally carried my projector, Apple TV, and a tripod to multiple demo rooms and friends’ home theaters to test everything myself before finalizing the screen.

For mounting, I skipped a ceiling mount altogether. The Pro2 has no lens shift, and ceiling mounting severely limits horizontal alignment flexibility. Instead, I installed a wall shelf (IKEA Tolken countertop) using heavy-duty brackets (https://amzn.in/d/brLeT6x - 16”) and placed the projector on it. This gave me full control over height and horizontal positioning, which was critical since I choose to install the screen before the shelf went up. Not a pretty looking setup but flexible!

View attachment 94520

View attachment 94521

For a moment, I thought you were using a soundbar as the center speaker And then realized that you've got an AT screen so the center is probably behind that.

It's good that you didn't go with a usual projector mount because the ones we have access to are absolutely crap! I thought of using a shelf like you did but I've got big French windows at the rear so that's kinda out of the question.

 

[thedude]

For a moment, I thought you were using a soundbar as the center speaker And then realized that you've got an AT screen so the center is probably behind that.

It's good that you didn't go with a usual projector mount because the ones we have access to are absolutely crap! I thought of using a shelf like you did but I've got big French windows at the rear so that's kinda out of the question.

I don’t have speakers behind the screen. I just got the AT screen as I liked the quality.

I’m just testing a friends Samsung 990F. For the money I think it’s an extremely impressive sound. Probably more immersive than setups costing ₹3L ish.

For now I’m using McIntosh’s HDMI ARC input and a 2.0 with the Sonus Faber.

Will expand from here. May be an Arcam AVR next and so on…