LG CineBeam UHD 4K Smart Projector

After seven years of excellent use of my Epson 2150 Home Cinema, I decided to upgrade to a 4K projector. I use my projector to watch TV, movies, sports, etc. daily. This decision meant that I had also to upgrade my home theatre receiver. Both the previous projector and my home theatre receiver were 1080. For this upgrade, I invested in a Sony Surround Sound Home Theater 8K A/V Receiver to accompany my LG CineBeam UHD 4K projector. Immediately, I experienced difficulties. My picture was jumpy and intermittent. I could no longer seamlessly switch from one input on my home theater to another. Before the upgrade, I would regularly switch between my Xfinity cable box, an Amazon Fire Stick, and a Fire TV Cube. I started panicking thinking I would have to return all of my new equipment, reconnect my old home theater receiver, and put my old projector back into the ceiling. So, I got on the phone with tech support. First, I called LG.

The only negative experience I had with LG is that their customer support appears to be set up for every class of appliance except a projector. The first guy said he was TV support and was not helpful. I knew he was TV support because I chose television on the automated prompt. After all, there was no option for a projector. I went online and initiated a chat. The chat agent called me and I proceeded to explain my issue. At that point, I was having difficulty figuring out how to resize the projector image to fit my 130-inch tab-tensioned screen while focusing it. I could get it focused, but the image was too big for the screen. When I reduced the image to fit the screen, I couldn’t get it focused. After quite a while on the phone, the tech support said he would research the issue and call me back the next morning. He even gave me a case number, but he never called back. Fortunately, I solved that problem on my own. I had to first focus the oversized image, then reduce it. I had done it the other way, and I couldn’t get the correctly sized image to focus. Once that problem was solved, I couldn’t get a consistent signal or switch from one input to another.

The SONY tech figured out that the SONY equipment was working properly, but that the LG projector was not receiving the signals from my various devices. He told me the problem was that I needed also to upgrade my HDMI cable to a high-speed 4k cable. That immediately concerned me because I have a 100 ft cable embedded in a ceiling that had been finished over the cable. No way I was going to rip apart the ceiling (thousands of dollars) to replace the HDMI cable. I did some online research and came across a solution that worked perfectly. I made every small investment in an HDMI 2.0 Repeater. This super mini HDMI repeater works by decoding and then re-encoding the HDMI signal to a new standard HDMI signal. It also extends the range of the signal. I was now getting perfect pictures from my Firestick and Fire TV Cube and was able to switch freely between them. I changed some of the display settings in the Fire Stick and Amazon Cube. However, I could not pick up the cable TV signal on my LG 4K receiver. Picking up that signal required one last piece of equipment upgrade. I swapped out my 1080 cable TV boxes for 4K boxes. Problem solved. Now, I am receiving a perfect 4K image on the LG from all devices, and I can easily switch from one to the other.
Now, let’s talk about the LG 4K projector features.

First, this projector is solid white and has a low profile, relatively flat design. If you mount your projector to the ceiling as I do, these are nice features. The white color blends in with the ceiling and the flat design means that you don’t have a large, bulky object hanging from your ceiling. The projector displays a very sharp 4K image. I project onto a 130-inch diagonal screen with absolute clarity and crisp pictures. Even though this projector has been out for a few years now, I still chose it over some competing models. The bundled features are a good value for the price. You’re getting a solid native 4K projector with a life expectancy of 10 or more years. I say this because the LG CineBeam UHD 4K projector utilizes an LED light source, as contrasted with the lamp used by many projectors. Hence, there is no lamp to replace, and the LED light source is projected to last 30,000 hours. If you use this projector for 8 hours per day, that’s approximately 10 years. However, most people don’t sit at home and watch TV or home theater for 8 hours a day. Consequently, you’re likely to get more than 10 years out of this projector.
Speaking of TVs, this projector is a lot like a big-screen smart TV. That’s one of the features that attracted me to it. I use my projector as a big-screen TV. And this one even has a Tuner input like a TV. I haven’t used the tuner because I connect my cable box via an HDMI cable, but if you’re like I am and are looking for a projector that you intend to use like a big-screen TV, I strongly recommend that you give this one close attention. The on-screen features are a lot like LG’s big-screen, smart TVs. This one supports HDR (High Dynamic Range). The colors are crisp and sharp. And for a projector that is equivalent to 1500 lumens, this one is quite bright.
Like an LG smart TV, this projector has a smart TV platform that includes both a web browser and the ability to load streaming apps. That means that you don’t even need an external streaming device like a Fire TV stick or Cube because you can load services like Netflix and Amazon Prime directly onto the projector by downloading these apps.
The LG Magic Remote is unlike any other remote I have seen. When you point it at the screen, it has a pointer, like a laser pointer; however, this one allows you to click directly on the feature you’re pointing at and choose those various settings with the pointer as you’re changing them. Very cool. There’s a lot of versatility here. You can change the color modes to ones like cinema, Vivid, Standard, Sports, etc., and you can edit the settings in each mode if you so desire to make it brighter, have more contrast, color, or tint, etc.
This LG HU70LA projector has two HDMI inputs for connecting external devices, two regular USB 2.0 inputs, and one USB C input. It also has an optical output for high-definition audio as well as an audio-out mini-jack and a LAN/ethernet input. Some people complain that it has poor-quality speakers; however, this wasn’t an issue for me because I connected my projector to a home theater system. The projector also has built-in wifi and Bluetooth. In summary, I highly recommend this LG HU70LA projector. I was looking for a projector that I could use as a big-screen TV for movies, binge series watching, sports, and the news. This one had everything I was looking for. And, as you can see from the attached screenshots, the picture is stunning with extremely vibrant colors, even when you have a light on in the same room or in an adjacent room. This LG projector is reasonably priced, delivers stunning 4K images and video, and has a ton of features – more than I can discuss in this review. Get one.

It is quiet enough the fan noise is not noticeable even within few feet of my head. The picture quality is good, but it is not a true 4K. Read the PDF manual which is linked from the web page.
I purchased this to use as a PC monitor and needed full resolution, but it turns out the resolution has to be reduced for the best quality.
The user interface is easy to use. It has a built-in TV turner which I don’t see much use as most people probably use a separate streaming or cable box.

The picture is not that bright and cannot be used in daylight. The room does not have to be dark, but it needs a dim room.

It can be placed on a table, but ceiling mounting is the best to keep it out of the way. It needs to be horizontally centered at the lens (not the body) for the best focus because it only has vertical adjustment.

This was a good starting projector at a reasonable price. I would go for the laser one the next time if I can afford it so that it can be used in daylight.

This is a really nice projector for anywhere with any ambient light. It is instant on and super bright which is great for a living room or basement that is not light controlled. I do not recommend it for “bat cave” darkened theaters because the black floor is not the best on it. This is due to the .49″ dlp chip that is used in it. It just can’t get the native contrast and black floor as other types of projector technology. For example, my 15 year old bulb LCD projector still has better black levels than this Laser/led one.

Colors and HDR are pretty fantastic on this though. I did notice that there was quite a green push when I was calibrating to rec709. When I was taking the green push out I was getting some “rainbow” color push around the perimeter of the image because I had to bias red so much. The lens shift is also kind of sloppy, so I also do not recommend this for people that are changing from cinescope to widescreen. Defiantly a set the aspect ratio and leave it alone projector. There is a lot of lens shift which is quite nice, so you can avoid using the keystone correction

Overall for a non-dedicated theater I would buy this and love it. For a dedicated home theater, I would recommend spending the money on a different option (like I am going to)