Philips ProPix 860 Projector Review
Disclaimer: This was translated into English from Spanish by ChatGPT. I could have posted it in Spanish and relied on Reddit’s automatic translation, but I don’t trust it enough. Sorry for the inconvenience.
First, let’s go over the basic specifications of this projector:
- 2,600 ANSI lumens
- 3LED light source rated for 30,000 hours
- Throw ratio: 1.49–1.65:1
- Supports screens up to 150"
- 0.65" DMD
- 1,500:1 native contrast ratio
- 2.5 kg weight
- HDR10 and HLG support, Game Mode, and CMS
- 2× HDMI, 1× RS232, USB-A 5V 1.5A, 3.5 mm audio out
Now, let’s talk about some of the tests I’ve performed and my experience using it over the past two days.
- Let’s start with its ability to adapt to a room, which is quite poor. There is no autofocus, no auto keystone, no manual four-corner keystone adjustment, and the only options available are vertical keystone correction and digital zoom.
- This is an office projector with no built-in operating system. It does have some features specifically intended for office use, such as Freeze mode, Pg Up/Pg Down buttons, and a dedicated button for displaying the presentation pattern.
- Its HDMI ports do not support CEC, and the included remote only works via infrared. This also makes sense considering that it is primarily an office projector.
- The zoom is dependent on the focus, and vice versa, so getting both properly adjusted can be somewhat difficult.
- By default, it has six picture modes: Presentation, Spreadsheet, Movie, Standard, User 1, and User 2.
- There is also a shortcut button for selecting between the three power modes for the light source: Eco, Normal, and Dynamic (dynamic contrast mode). There is no dedicated brightness mode for the light source.
Once the projector is properly positioned, it powers on quickly and automatically searches for an input source, so it starts directly on my Roku Stick. From that point onward, the interface experience will depend on whichever media player you prefer.
The colors in Standard mode look very good, although some adjustment to the brightness and contrast is necessary to avoid elevated blacks and to increase brightness slightly. Using the test patterns available on YouTube, I found that a brightness setting of 46 and contrast of 15 works well for SDR, while brightness 47 and contrast 17 work well for HDR.
Likewise, the 6500K color temperature mode looks good—not too yellow and not too green.
The only color that required some attention was yellow. It had a greenish tint that made it look more like fluorescent yellow. Using the CMS, I was able to correct this by changing the hue to -65 for SDR and -75 for HDR.
With that, we can wrap up the subjective image-quality portion. I don't have the equipment to measure color gamut coverage or EOTF tracking. What I can confirm is that, with these settings, yellow no longer looks green, there is no elevated black level or black crush, and the projector is capable of distinguishing RGB values 253 and 254 from 255.
Now let's move on to some more technical tests.
- Noise: It isn't particularly quiet, but it isn't particularly loud either. Here are measurements of the noise level taken at 30 cm and 5 cm from the projector.
- Brightness: It is decent. I'm not going to discuss Presentation mode because, well... it's green. In User 1 mode, after calibration, I was able to measure a total of 1,100 ANSI lumens. Here is a measurement of the brightest part of the image and another of the darkest part, so you can also see the brightness uniformity.
- Contrast: This is the projector's strongest point. Its 0.65" DMD helps a lot here. I was able to measure around 1,500:1 native contrast and around 3,000:1 dynamic contrast. Here are some measurements of the light output in Dynamic mode and the perceived black level on the screen.
Contras Test, Changes betwen 5 and 6, Native is 11
1/30s 1600 ISO Samung S23 For the Eyes there is no hotspotting.
If you think this looks very similar to the review that my fellow reviewer JayceOoi did of the Philips GamePix 800, that's because it is. This projector is basically the same unit without the Google TV dongle. However, that model is marketed as a gaming projector, with support for 120 Hz and 8 ms input lag. Have they cut those features from the office model? Let's find out.
With my laptop connected to HDMI 1, the projector definitely accepts a 120 Hz signal and activates its Game Mode, which is a good sign.
But is that 120 Hz actually real? Well, here is a screenshot of the Blur Busters 120 Hz Frameskipping Test.
12 Squares at 1/10S Shutter speed
Voilà! No frame skipping!
As for input lag, following JayceOoi's testing method, I decided to test it myself and found that, at 120 Hz in Game Mode, the projector actually has less input lag than my laptop's own display. So I can confidently say that there is no significant input lag affecting gaming performance.
InputLag Less than laptop screen itself (No Optimus Laptop D: )
Now, I'm not saying that this is an excellent budget gaming projector. Image quality is considerably reduced when Game Mode is enabled. It's not unbearable, but it may require better configuration on the PC side, and I'm not entirely sure how to optimize that.
Here is a series of videos showing the image quality in HDR and SDR, time it takes to transition from an HDR signal to an SDR signal, The Gain of my Screen, as well as the amount of RBE a 30p content.
Keep in mind that these videos show my projection onto an 80" long-throw Fresnel screen with a 1.6 gain. In reality, the screen is just the raw material attached directly to the wall.
The video is a little bit more saturated on video than IRL
It is like 8s to do the change. (8K World)
The rectangle is just an Letter size white paper (Veritasium)