Pocket projector Cinemood Storyteller: children's cinema on the palm
We have already seen a number of positive reviews about this children's projector, but they didn’t answer the main questions - would it be so easy for children to treat him, how good and bright a picture he gives and whether he can even be called a projector, or is it a “toy” ?
All answers are under the cut.
Before us is not just another pocket projector on batteries, which cannot work without a smartphone or any other source of content. No, this is a standalone gadget with a nice and easy-to-learn menu. With it, you can turn on cartoons or fairy tales at any moment when you need to distract your child from another “life injustice”, for example, a line or a long road.
The projector transmits both YouTube videos and MegaFon mobile TVs running on a smartphone. In fact, this is a full-fledged autonomous entertainment complex, which is convenient to take with you.
Some official information. Cinemood Storyteller with accessories is packaged in two small boxes hidden under one cover. Included with the projector is a charger, micro-USB cable and an OTG adapter for connecting flash drives with movies. By the way, in the box with the projector there is a comfortable elastic stand, which is useful for fixing on any surface.
Cute glossy cube with rounded edges looks like a small robot from cartoons, and in size it resembles the famous Rubik's puzzle. The cube is asked to be in hand - to boast of a solid, solid assembly and precise fit of all the details. On the front side there is a black insert with a cunning squint of the projector lens, along the contour there are four holes for sound output and ventilation of the projector lamp.
A monolithic black overlay passes along the sides, masking another speaker on the rear panel, as well as control elements. On the left side there is a power key and an LED indicator, plus a headphone output and microUSB. On the right is a projector focusing rocker and a hint button that switches the device to flashlight mode.
On the top of the gadget rendered microphone hole. There are also large navigation control buttons with a confirmation button in the center. The keys are pressed quite tightly, with a pleasant click and uniform white backlight.
Behind, under the black stripe, there are 2.5-watt speaker holes and an inconspicuous NFC sensor, the purpose of which will be described later.
The gadget is equipped with a compact DLP-projector with a lamp brightness of 35 lumens and a DMD-matrix with a resolution of 640x360 pixels. By the standards of stationary solutions, the characteristics are quite modest, but the parameters are similar in comparison with similarly similar mobile accessories. The gadget almost does not heat up during operation (maximum 30 ° on the surface of the case) and does not make noise, since a special passive cooling system is built in here.
Technical characteristics of Cinemood Storyteller
The first inclusion of the Cinemood Storyteller, with the initial loading of parameters, takes about 20 seconds. The device immediately offers to connect to a home Wi-Fi network. It is necessary to download content and work as a wireless projector for smartphones. The smartphone, by the way, can also be used as a cube control panel by downloading a proprietary application for iOS or Android .
In addition, you can control the cube with Apple Watch.
The device is running under its own operating system CINEMOOD OS, whose interface resembles game consoles. All menus are decorated with animated horizontal lists of icons, with a vertical transition to the previous section. Of the minuses, we note only the lack of through scrolling, but you can always go up and get back to the top of the list.
Shortcuts in the main menu of Storyteller are grouped by content type: videos, cartoons, ready-made story sets, mobile TV Megafon, filmstrips and file manager (will appear when you connect a USB flash drive). Separately - the tab of games with shadows and settings, where you can adjust the general parameters of the device. The device is intuitively clear: unlike tablets and smartphones, there are no subtle and deep settings here, so the child can also use the gadget.
The settings of the projector itself are reduced to correcting geometric distortions, mirror image inversion and adjusting the focal length. Formally, it can be from 30 cm to five meters, but the effective range is slightly smaller. With a maximum of five meters, the picture on the screen (wall) reaches three meters diagonally, but the brightness and contrast are barely enough to view colorful cartoons in the dark. If you shorten the distance to three meters, there will be no complaints about the color rendition - the diagonal of the final picture will remain quite impressive - about two meters.
According to the pre-installed children's content, Cinemood Storyteller is strikingly different from the popular today “children's tablets”, which are filled with trendy evil birds for the sake of marketing. Immediately at the base are the works of SoyuzMultFilma and the digitization of the filmstrips of the Soviet times. From the modern there is Smeshariki and Am-Yum (Cut The Rope). Present and English-speaking cartoons for young children, which are well suited for learning a foreign language.
The first tab contains classic fairy tales in the format of audio books, voiced by male and female voices, with a classical background music. Offhand here are more than a hundred works, sorted by heroes and situations.
Tab view contains many cartoons, sorted by heroes. Separate attention deserves an impressive collection of Soviet animation in a valuable old voice acting. There is a favorite "Well, wait a minute!", Despite the limitations of 18+.
The “read” section is our favorite filmstrips. More than a hundred are already loaded into the device’s memory. The collection can be replenished regularly for free (or for a nominal fee) with the help of a store, where new filmstrips constantly appear - digitizing Soviet 35 mm slides. To view it is enough to select the desired one and change the slides by scrolling down.
Collections are thematic zones of various characters from cartoons. They open when you buy special covers with NFC tags, which differ in appearance and change the appearance of the device: Hoopla Kidz, Seals Forward, Smeshariki or Am Nyam. The collection starts automatically, it is worth wearing a particular case on the Storyteller. When first used, the case opens access to the collection and automatically downloads content via Wi-Fi.
The more child covers, the more open collections with characters. Each of the zones is decorated in its own style, with a certain set of cartoons and animated background.
The games section contains educational videos that will help you get comfortable with the theater of shadows and will teach children to organize their own theatrical productions.
Despite all the richness of children's content and friendly management, Cinemood Storyteller has interesting features for adults. First of all, it is MegaFon mobile TV, which is available to all subscribers of this operator.
You can activate the service directly through Storyteller. TV works over the Internet via Wi-Fi. Users are available about 50 free channels, if necessary, you can purchase an extended package.
The device can work as a wireless projector, broadcasting video from Youtube running on a smartphone. To do this, you need to select the option “broadcast to an external device” on the phone, and both gadgets must be inside the same Wi-Fi network.
But the most interesting feature of Cinemood Storyteller is the pocket media center. When you connect a USB-carrier, this tiny device is capable of playing music and showing photos, as well as playing movies up to Full-HD. To view a large company, you can connect external speakers through a 3.5 mm jack or via Bluetooth, and via micro-USB to charge the gadget from portable charging.
Pocket projector Cinemood Storytellerr is equipped with a classic mobile power scheme with a 4000 mAh battery, voltage of 5 volts. This allows you to charge it from any charger with microUSB, and the complete 2A — the adapter fully charges the cube for 3.5 hours.
This is enough for five hours of continuous viewing of video with the maximum volume of sound, or for three to four hours of watching mobile TV / videos from Youtube. Filmstrips or photographs (that is, pictures, not videos) can be watched a little longer. For music or radio, you can use the battery for about ten hours: a minute after you start listening, Cinemood Storyteller turns off the projector lamp, extending the runtime without recharging.
The system turns off the power after two minutes of idle gadget - it is convenient and allows you to save battery power. So, if you use the projector 30-40 minutes a day, a full charge will be enough for almost a week. On a long trip, you can recharge it at any time from the PowerBank, without interrupting viewing.
Is Cinemood Storyteller a kids' multimedia player, mobile projector, or portable media center? The answer depends on how you are going to use it. A mobile, neat and durable companion of an active user of advanced gadgets, possessing a rare and valuable collection of filmstrips and children's cartoons, like parents had in their childhood - this is how it is.
If you are looking for something new and technological in your Hi-Tech collection, Cinemood Storyteller is one of the most interesting purchase candidates. You shouldn’t even mention the delight of children from this personal projector - not a single tablet will show movies about wildlife on the whole wall in the room.
All answers are under the cut.
Small yes removed
Before us is not just another pocket projector on batteries, which cannot work without a smartphone or any other source of content. No, this is a standalone gadget with a nice and easy-to-learn menu. With it, you can turn on cartoons or fairy tales at any moment when you need to distract your child from another “life injustice”, for example, a line or a long road.
The projector transmits both YouTube videos and MegaFon mobile TVs running on a smartphone. In fact, this is a full-fledged autonomous entertainment complex, which is convenient to take with you.
Equipment
Some official information. Cinemood Storyteller with accessories is packaged in two small boxes hidden under one cover. Included with the projector is a charger, micro-USB cable and an OTG adapter for connecting flash drives with movies. By the way, in the box with the projector there is a comfortable elastic stand, which is useful for fixing on any surface.
Appearance
Cute glossy cube with rounded edges looks like a small robot from cartoons, and in size it resembles the famous Rubik's puzzle. The cube is asked to be in hand - to boast of a solid, solid assembly and precise fit of all the details. On the front side there is a black insert with a cunning squint of the projector lens, along the contour there are four holes for sound output and ventilation of the projector lamp.
A monolithic black overlay passes along the sides, masking another speaker on the rear panel, as well as control elements. On the left side there is a power key and an LED indicator, plus a headphone output and microUSB. On the right is a projector focusing rocker and a hint button that switches the device to flashlight mode.
On the top of the gadget rendered microphone hole. There are also large navigation control buttons with a confirmation button in the center. The keys are pressed quite tightly, with a pleasant click and uniform white backlight.
Behind, under the black stripe, there are 2.5-watt speaker holes and an inconspicuous NFC sensor, the purpose of which will be described later.
Projector
The gadget is equipped with a compact DLP-projector with a lamp brightness of 35 lumens and a DMD-matrix with a resolution of 640x360 pixels. By the standards of stationary solutions, the characteristics are quite modest, but the parameters are similar in comparison with similarly similar mobile accessories. The gadget almost does not heat up during operation (maximum 30 ° on the surface of the case) and does not make noise, since a special passive cooling system is built in here.
Technical characteristics of Cinemood Storyteller
| projector
| DLP 640x360, 35 Lm
|
| projection size
| 20 cm - 3.8 m
|
| operating system
| CINEMOOD OS
|
| memory
| built-in 32 GB + USB-OTG
|
| supported formats
| VIDEO: mp4, 3gp, avi, mkv, webm, mov, 3g2, 3gpp, asf, divx, f4v, flv, h264, m2ts, m4v, mod, mpeg, mpg, mts, mxf, ogv, wmv.
AUDIO: mp3, aac, m4a. BOOKS: pdf. PHOTO: png, jpg, bmp, jpeg, gif. |
| wireless connection
| Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0, NFC
|
| wire connection
| Micro USB, 3.5 mm
|
| built-in sound
| Bang & Olufsen 2.5W speaker
|
| external sound
| Bluetooth A2DP, line-out 3.5 mm
|
| nutrition
| 4000 mAh battery, USB charging
|
| dimensions
| 78.3 x 78.3 x 78.3 mm, 260 g
|
| price
| 29,990
|
Interface management
The first inclusion of the Cinemood Storyteller, with the initial loading of parameters, takes about 20 seconds. The device immediately offers to connect to a home Wi-Fi network. It is necessary to download content and work as a wireless projector for smartphones. The smartphone, by the way, can also be used as a cube control panel by downloading a proprietary application for iOS or Android .
In addition, you can control the cube with Apple Watch.
The device is running under its own operating system CINEMOOD OS, whose interface resembles game consoles. All menus are decorated with animated horizontal lists of icons, with a vertical transition to the previous section. Of the minuses, we note only the lack of through scrolling, but you can always go up and get back to the top of the list.
Shortcuts in the main menu of Storyteller are grouped by content type: videos, cartoons, ready-made story sets, mobile TV Megafon, filmstrips and file manager (will appear when you connect a USB flash drive). Separately - the tab of games with shadows and settings, where you can adjust the general parameters of the device. The device is intuitively clear: unlike tablets and smartphones, there are no subtle and deep settings here, so the child can also use the gadget.
The settings of the projector itself are reduced to correcting geometric distortions, mirror image inversion and adjusting the focal length. Formally, it can be from 30 cm to five meters, but the effective range is slightly smaller. With a maximum of five meters, the picture on the screen (wall) reaches three meters diagonally, but the brightness and contrast are barely enough to view colorful cartoons in the dark. If you shorten the distance to three meters, there will be no complaints about the color rendition - the diagonal of the final picture will remain quite impressive - about two meters.
Children's entertainment
According to the pre-installed children's content, Cinemood Storyteller is strikingly different from the popular today “children's tablets”, which are filled with trendy evil birds for the sake of marketing. Immediately at the base are the works of SoyuzMultFilma and the digitization of the filmstrips of the Soviet times. From the modern there is Smeshariki and Am-Yum (Cut The Rope). Present and English-speaking cartoons for young children, which are well suited for learning a foreign language.
The first tab contains classic fairy tales in the format of audio books, voiced by male and female voices, with a classical background music. Offhand here are more than a hundred works, sorted by heroes and situations.
Tab view contains many cartoons, sorted by heroes. Separate attention deserves an impressive collection of Soviet animation in a valuable old voice acting. There is a favorite "Well, wait a minute!", Despite the limitations of 18+.
The “read” section is our favorite filmstrips. More than a hundred are already loaded into the device’s memory. The collection can be replenished regularly for free (or for a nominal fee) with the help of a store, where new filmstrips constantly appear - digitizing Soviet 35 mm slides. To view it is enough to select the desired one and change the slides by scrolling down.
Collections are thematic zones of various characters from cartoons. They open when you buy special covers with NFC tags, which differ in appearance and change the appearance of the device: Hoopla Kidz, Seals Forward, Smeshariki or Am Nyam. The collection starts automatically, it is worth wearing a particular case on the Storyteller. When first used, the case opens access to the collection and automatically downloads content via Wi-Fi.
The more child covers, the more open collections with characters. Each of the zones is decorated in its own style, with a certain set of cartoons and animated background.
The games section contains educational videos that will help you get comfortable with the theater of shadows and will teach children to organize their own theatrical productions.
Video, Streaming and TV
Despite all the richness of children's content and friendly management, Cinemood Storyteller has interesting features for adults. First of all, it is MegaFon mobile TV, which is available to all subscribers of this operator.
You can activate the service directly through Storyteller. TV works over the Internet via Wi-Fi. Users are available about 50 free channels, if necessary, you can purchase an extended package.
The device can work as a wireless projector, broadcasting video from Youtube running on a smartphone. To do this, you need to select the option “broadcast to an external device” on the phone, and both gadgets must be inside the same Wi-Fi network.
But the most interesting feature of Cinemood Storyteller is the pocket media center. When you connect a USB-carrier, this tiny device is capable of playing music and showing photos, as well as playing movies up to Full-HD. To view a large company, you can connect external speakers through a 3.5 mm jack or via Bluetooth, and via micro-USB to charge the gadget from portable charging.
Nutrition
Pocket projector Cinemood Storytellerr is equipped with a classic mobile power scheme with a 4000 mAh battery, voltage of 5 volts. This allows you to charge it from any charger with microUSB, and the complete 2A — the adapter fully charges the cube for 3.5 hours.
This is enough for five hours of continuous viewing of video with the maximum volume of sound, or for three to four hours of watching mobile TV / videos from Youtube. Filmstrips or photographs (that is, pictures, not videos) can be watched a little longer. For music or radio, you can use the battery for about ten hours: a minute after you start listening, Cinemood Storyteller turns off the projector lamp, extending the runtime without recharging.
The system turns off the power after two minutes of idle gadget - it is convenient and allows you to save battery power. So, if you use the projector 30-40 minutes a day, a full charge will be enough for almost a week. On a long trip, you can recharge it at any time from the PowerBank, without interrupting viewing.
What is the result?
Is Cinemood Storyteller a kids' multimedia player, mobile projector, or portable media center? The answer depends on how you are going to use it. A mobile, neat and durable companion of an active user of advanced gadgets, possessing a rare and valuable collection of filmstrips and children's cartoons, like parents had in their childhood - this is how it is.
If you are looking for something new and technological in your Hi-Tech collection, Cinemood Storyteller is one of the most interesting purchase candidates. You shouldn’t even mention the delight of children from this personal projector - not a single tablet will show movies about wildlife on the whole wall in the room.
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