Search by any keyword or phrase
in item name or description

Optoma PK301 Pico Pocket Projector

See larger image

Average Customer Rating:	4.0
Brand:	Optoma Technology
Model:	PK301
Color:	Black
Weight:	0.5 pounds
Dimensions:	2.7 inches x 1.2 inches x 4.7 inches [Width x Length x Height]

Product Categories

DLP Projectors; Electronics: International Shipping Available; Mini; iPhone; Video Player; 16:9; PC

Product description

Optoma's PK301 Pico pocket projector provides projection power anywhere. Featuring up to 50 ANSI lumens and native widescreen WVGA resolution, the palm-sized PK301 enables you to easily share videos, photos and graphics at home or on the road. Enjoy unlimited content playback at your fingertips with the microSD card slot, HDMI and VGA connectivity. Compact and robustly-featured, the PK301 sets a new standard for mobile projecting.

Features

MicroSD card slot allows for memory expansion up to 16 GB

Project large widescreen images of up to 120" diagonal

LED light source lasts over 20,000 hours while producing excellent color

Full assortment of I/O ports, including USB, VGA, HDMI and video, allow for easy connection to most analog or digital devices

Extended power battery pack, iPod kit-share the fun from iPods and iPhones,Female USB adapter -project images and videos from USB ,Mini HDMI cable

Customer reviews

« PK301 by Tracy Thibault »

Hello folks.

I got my PK301 about a month ago. I chose this model for two reasons. The size and the brightness of the illumination from the device. After getting my device I made some discoveries.

the battery that comes with the device will last around an hour. so be quick with your presentations. if you happen to buy the remote control you will need to know 2 things. there is not an ON button on the remote. and it is an infrared remote control. The infrared sensor is on the back of the PK301; so you will need to either stand behind the unit or place some sort of reflective device behind it.

The PK301 focuses very well, has a very sharp image, and the color is very vivid.

The brightness of the unit is great for screens that do not have any room lighting reflecting off it. If there is any room lighting reflecting off a white screen. you will not see the projected image very well. As long as the screen has no extra lighting on the screen, the projection works very well.

It will project a screen up to 59 inches and keep the quality of the image.

The PK301 has software stored on the onboard memory for the device. I would suggest installing but don't bother with upgrading the software. If you upgrade the software you will not be able to upload power points to the unit. at least not without using a work around. the work around being that you use PowerPoint to save the presentation slides as separate .jpg images. oh and the serial number for your software comes with the packaging. so do not throw away your cheesy directions.

I like this unit and I will still use it in smaller presentation rooms. as for large rooms I need more Lumens from the lighting. a Larger unit will be much more useful.

If you're thinking of using this for in your room personal theater, this is a good unit. just remember to keep the lighting in the room in mind before buying one.

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2010-09-04

« Nice Unit But Be Aware of USB Limitations »

I think every product review of the PK301 on the web says something like: "the PK301 will play videos directly from a hard disk". But, in fact, the PK301 does not support external hard drives. This is clear in the user manual which you can find on Optoma's web site. Page 4 of the user manual says:

"USB device: Support USB Flash Drive up to 5V/150mA, but does not support USB Hard Disk Drive"

There is a USB cable included, but you can only use it to attach your PK301 to your computer to add/delete files from the microSD card which you (may) have installed in your PK301. You can also download the user manual and the MediaConverter Windows software from an internal read-only drive.

If you want to play videos from a USB thumb drive, you MUST buy this proprietary USB cable which is not included: OptomaBC-PK3AUSY Micro USB To USB (type A Female, .3M,) for the PK201 and PK301

Yes, the optional remote control does not have an "off" button. Also, the receiver for the remote control is on the back of the unit so you can't control the unit from the front or side. Sheesh. Those are the worst of the usability issues.

The unit has performed well so far for our video nights. If you're wondering about the screen size versus distance from the screen, you should check out the table in the user manual. Basically, you can't have the unit more than about 10 feet from the screen before it starts to get too big and fuzzy. The table in the user manual lists the max screen size when the unit is about 8.5 feet from the screen, but that seems a bit short.

Videos must be converted to a flavor of MP4 in order to play directly off of the microSD card or thumb drive. Note to Mac users: you can use the free Handbrake application to convert the videos. Check out the FAQ about this on the Optoma web site.

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2010-08-25

« The best pocket projector out there »

I love this thing. I purchased it because I wanted to add some multi-media to my Sunday school class that I teach. Everyone who sees it loves it. I go to church with it in my pocket, and bring it out when it's needed. I love that you don't have to attach it to anything, using the existing software you can convert Videos & Power points straight onto the device. I added a 2 GB Micro SD card to hold any media that I want to show.

The sound is way too quiet to use, so I bought a X-mini Capsule Speaker to go with it, I also have a tiny tripod that I use with it as well, everything fits into my pockets. (Although I usually put the power cable & tripod into my scripture case).

The software is a bit buggy but once you get it working it does the job. I also purchased the remote, and one complaint I have about that is the infrared port is on the back of the projector and I stand in front of it, so I have to do a little walk around the room when I want to change the slide, but it's manageable.

I have not seen any other projector that is this small and so (50 lumens) bright!

Rating: (4 out of 5) @ 2010-08-05

« Wow Certainly worth the wait! »

I had pre-ordered this projector for almost a month before it was shipped, which gave me time to contemplate my purchase decision. I went around to the shops and checked the PK 201, 102 models and other brands like the 3M pico projector and the Samsung palm sized LED projector. Especially that I have a full size DLP HD projector that i bough last year. The inconvenience of having to setup the screen and the speakers in the garden to watch a nice cinematic experience on giant screen reduced these occasions to just a handful through a year. I had high hopes for the portable battery operated projector but I was aware of the fact that its power was low and can only be used in dimmed rooms.

It finally arrived, and much to my surprise it beat my expectations just out of the box. it looks and feels better than any of the other ones i have examined first hand. The casing is sturdy and compact although the zoom swivel looks fragile.

The picture quality is very good and can certainly beat the quality of a regular TV. i used it with a nokia micro SD card from my old mobile and i ran a slide show on the ceiling with short videos it took my breath away. i hooked it up to my iphone and watched a full movie in my bedroom in full widescreen mode, you will be in for a good surprise :) you only need the AV cable for the iphone or ipad and a bluetooth or wired earphones and you have you 100% portable cinema box that fits in your pocket. I also tried it with apple TV connected through the HDMI link. It delivers a very nice picture. the built in speaker is good enough for my kids to watch cartoon while sitting just behind the projector.

Although I love this projector i have a few comments to make.

The battery life is not enough for one full movie and does not charge well if you operate the projector while it is plugged to power source.
It heats up a little too quickly, i know it is summer time but in 10 minutes it's casing is hot.

With that said, my final verdict is still excellent and highly recommended.

I also recommend the following accessories:
1) A small tripod is very important for ventilation and also positioning
2) The remote is very handy because the buttons on the projector are small and as they dim you cannot make out which button you are pressing. also good for slide shows and short videos off the memory card.

Rating: (5 out of 5) @ 2010-07-21

« Decent, but documentation and software need work »

If you want to use the device to carry around media, be sure to get a microSD card because the onboard memory is less than 100 megabytes; up to 16GB supposedly is supported - I used an old 1GB card from a phone I had and it worked fine (a 16GB is on order). Using the device to carry the photos, movies, and presentations was useful; you do end up driving the device directly, and because of its small size, you'll also want the remote as you get tired of pressing the small buttons and rocking the device picture, so you'd need to order that too as noted in another review.

The MediaConverter 3.0 software is not intuitive, buggy, and the help data almost non-existent; I think this is only needed for converting videos however - for photos just using the PC's external drive interface seems to work fine. The MediaConverter created two photos that the device couldn't read, for example, but dragging them separately worked just fine; converting a Powerpoint presentation also failed the first time, but worked the second (it also told me I needed Office Powerpoint 2007 which I already had). The MediaConverter says to just "drag and drop" files, but that never worked, I always had to use one of the other two direct selection methods.

It is amazing how poor the documentation is for the software, as well as the device; I was able to figure everything out, but if you're not as used to computery interfaces your mileage may vary. If you just drive the device from a laptop, that would not be an issue though. The small size is everything for this device; you do sacrifice brightness and resolution compared to the bigger models but this guy does a credible display job, and the size makes it something you don't need to think twice about throwing in your travel bag.