LG’s Minibeam projector creates 100-inch display from 15-inches away

Setting up a projector to create a large, unobstructed image used to be tricky. That’s not the case any more. Short-throw projectors like LG’s cool new Minibeam make it incredibly easy.

LG just unveiled the MiniBeam PF1000U in South Korea. It’s a compact little unit, but it’s capable of throwing some very large images. The PF1000U maxes out at a 100 inches wide, and it can do it from just about anywhere. To enjoy a glorious, 100-inch-wide movie on the PF1000U, all you need to do is pop it on top of a coffee table or cart and scoot it next to a wall. All that’s left to do is pop the popcorn and get comfortable on your couch.

The PF1000U is a short-throw projector, so it doesn’t need to be ceiling-mounted near the back wall of your room to provide a cinema-scale display. Its 8-foot-plus span can be achieved from as little as 15 inches away using a projector screen or wall.

That’s a .15 throw ratio, which is pretty impressive. A lot of short-throw projectors you can buy right now hover in the .3 range, which would only yield an image about 45 inches wide from the same distance.

LG has fully equipped the PF1000U, too. It’s got HDMI and VGA inputs and a USB port so you can play media stored on thumb drives or external hard drives. There’s also a variety of audio output options, including Bluetooth in case you want to connect to speakers wirelessly. You can also push video to the PF100U without plugging in a cable, thanks to support for WiDi and Miracast.

It’s a slick little projector. The only real downside at the moment is that it’s not on sale outside of Korea. LG could bring it to other markets, but we’ll have to wait and see if they ever will.