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CHiQ B5U 4k UST

108K views 381 replies 84 participants last post by  brian_1159 
#1 ·
Has anyone heard about that projector?

Specs:
0.21 Throw Ratio (I guess same as xiaomi, but bigger case)
1900 Ansi Lumens (They say real Ansi and a comparison with the viewsonic 10-4k makes it believable)
Later 0.47 Chip than Xiaomi A300 with PixelShift of course
30-35 ms Input lag - and thats what makes this interesting
30db noise - since its bigger than xiaomis I guess they can use bigger fans


price around 2200 € / Eu Shipping / warranty / english menus


youtube/6y6lNmOTLNo showcase video


Any thoughts about that?
 
#3 ·
I have seen this B5U in action compare to Xiaomi 4k and noticed as below...

*Brighter than Xiaomi 4k
*I can still see the pixels on Xiaomi 4k but hardly on B5U.
*Definitely quieter than Xiaomi 4k.
*Much bigger unit than Xiaomi 4k.
*Have the extra MEMC function.
*No keystone adjustment on B5U.
*Better option for colour adjustment.

Others that might have better observation, kindly do share...
 
#11 ·
I had contact with the Reseller in UK... it seemed that he tried to convince me buying it. (2200 Euro)@ personalprojector.co.uk

He has send me Screenshots of his InputLag Measurements ~40-45ms which seemed proper and not faked. They offer warranty, 14 day trial etc so it seeeeemed trustworthy. But I still hesitated because of the upcoming CES and I dont like the overall look of the projector (toooo gray and cheap/big)


Quote from mail:
"Apologies thought we had already sent the lag info, here it is..“According to our test, the input lag for B5U is between 30 and 35ms which we think is good for most of the games. The way we test the input lag is to send the signal from a PC to both the projector and a gaming monitor (Asus VP228HE which has a confirmed response time of 1ms), then we start a stop watch from the PC, taken photos of the screen from both the projector and the gaming monitor to measure the difference so we can determine the input lag. Attached are the screen photos we taken, please check”.
Re Xiaomi Projector – not sure which model you are looking at but bear in mind Xiaomi does not offer the guarantees of Chiq B5U

  • Chiq has very understated lumens and contrast (unlike 99% of Chinese manufacturers – we;’ve seen them exaggerated by between 6 – 20 times in real lumens)
  • Chiq has a UK / EU warranty and is serviced here not in China with parts in the UK
  • a free Amazon Fire Stick with this product
  • 14 day money back guarantee

As B5U is a new product im not sure if it will have a video comparison against Xiaomi. The offer may well have expired in the time a video like that appears but you can see clearly on the video below what you are going to get anyway in all lighting conditions and you can return it if its not suitable."

-But the attached screenshot said more 40-45



I own the 1080p Xiaomi and all the projectors of 2019 just seem like slightly improved version, so im gonna wait a little more.
 
#12 ·
I have recently bought the b5u from personnel projectors and so far so good love the build quality and the picture is sharp I just sold a optoma hz40ust and that was 4000 lumens the b5u is rated at 1900 yet looks brighter. I also bought a alr screen as part of the deal for £2700 and was delivered next day customer support is also great as I had to ask a few questions and they responded within the hour also rang to speak. 2 year warranty and 5 year parts and no need to send to China as it is all done in the UK.
 
#13 ·
Any details available like an actual manual? Or something that shows various measurements for planning purposes like the distance from wall for various screen sizes, vertical height/distance from screen, etc.

Also, number of HDMI ports seems very limited and not sure of the implications of no built in keystone adjustments. How does this projector compare overall to the other comparable Chinese models like cinema, fengmi, Luna pro, Veva, A300, etc (I probably spelled some of those wrong but you get the point)
 
#17 ·
Thank you Andy for the great feedback on the CHiQ B5U, we are glad to hear you are enjoying the projector.

Andy169 - "I have recently bought the b5u from personnel projectors and so far so good love the build quality and the picture is sharp I just sold a optoma hz40ust and that was 4000 lumens the b5u is rated at 1900 yet looks brighter. I also bought a alr screen as part of the deal for £2700 and was delivered next day customer support is also great as I had to ask a few questions and they responded within the hour also rang to speak. 2 year warranty and 5 year parts and no need to send to China as it is all done in the UK."
 
#20 ·
I have it set up haphazardly right now hooked up to an ATV 4K. I just wanted to make sure it works. It’s late now and I’ll do more testing tomorrow. But a few quick observations:

1) It’s relatively quiet. Much more quiet than my Viewsonic PX800HD. No coil whine that I can hear.
2) The GUI and menus leave a lot to be desired. I don’t see a lot of adjustments that can be made to the image outside of a few preset gamma modes. Picture modes include standard, UMAX (I’m guessing this is movie), text, sports, among others.
3) Relatively bright. It produces a very watchable image even wih my brightest floor lamp on 3ft from the screen, whereas the PX800 got very washed out anytime this lamp was on.
4) Anyone who’s a fan of FI will be happy. The option is available even with 4k sources.
5) It works on a standard US outlet. Mine came with the proper power cable.

Here’s the crazy thing. Once connected, the ATV asked if I wanted to switch to Dolby Vision mode. I selected yes just to see what would happen. Once enabled, the B5U’s available picture mode options become “Dolby Vision bright” and “Dolby Vision dark.” I’m not sure how it’s interpreting the data but it’s clear the B5U at least recognizes it.
 
#21 · (Edited)
More observations:

- I was wrong. There’s a decent amount of picture controls. Long pressing the settings button shows more options.
- OS is Android 8.0. There are no apps preinstalled. I’m not familiar with Android but I believe apps can be sideloaded.
- I measured input lag at 54.4ms using a HDFury Diva in game mode. The Diva has a ton of settings that may or may not contribute to lag so faster times may be possible with a dedicated device like a Bodnar.
- The motorized focus is a very nice touch.
- Build quality seems solid. It’s a large, heavy unit about 19” wide.
 
#23 ·
So far, I like it for the most part, enough that I put up the PX800 for sale. The difference in resolution is not as much of a jump (unless viewing text) as the wider color gamut and brightness. Black levels are noticeably better than the PX800.



A couple annoying things are:

1) there is only one user defined picture mode and, like many other models, once you make any change to a factory setting, it gets thrown into the user mode.

2) Because the remote is bluetooth, the profile doesn't exist in Logitech's Harmony database and it cannot be programmed manually. As of now, turning it on with my other devices is a two-remote process and I can't get CEC to turn it on either.

3) It doesn't seem to remember the last input and always defaults to HDMI 1.
 
#24 ·
So far, I like it for the most part, enough that I put up the PX800 for sale. The difference in resolution is not as much of a jump (unless viewing text) as the wider color gamut and brightness. Black levels are noticeably better than the PX800.



A couple annoying things are:

1) there is only one user defined picture mode and, like many other models, once you make any change to a factory setting, it gets thrown into the user mode.
Agreed.

2) Because the remote is bluetooth, the profile doesn't exist in Logitech's Harmony database and it cannot be programmed manually. As of now, turning it on with my other devices is a two-remote process and I can't get CEC to turn it on either.
I am also failed to get the CEC to work with my NR709 receiver. I can't turn on/off the receiver whenever I turn on/off the projector.

3) It doesn't seem to remember the last input and always defaults to HDMI 1.
When I turn on my projector, it always goes to main display and not HDMI 1.
 
#27 ·
In Response to aerodynamics:

1) there is only one user defined picture mode and, like many other models, once you make any change to a factory setting, it gets thrown into the user mode.

Yes, there is only screen mode which the customer can define.

2) Because the remote is bluetooth, the profile doesn't exist in Logitech's Harmony database and it cannot be programmed manually. As of now, turning it on with my other devices is a two-remote process and I can't get CEC to turn it on either.

There are too many third party IoT devices in the market, CHiQ are unable to guarantee the compatibility with third party products and there is ongoing CEC tests with third party devices at present. The manufacturer mentioned they are going to try to test the Logitech device and see if they can solve it in future firmware update.

3) It doesn't seem to remember the last input and always defaults to HDMI 1.

When a HDMI signal source is powered and plug in, the projector will switch to that source automatically in 10 seconds. If there is no new HDMI source detected, the projector will start up with the HDMI source that was connected last time.
 
#84 ·
Here are some useful links for the CHiQ B5U Projector:

Manual: B5U Manual 20811045279 JUN0.018.2614v1.0.pdf

Hi guys,
in the manual section labelled
83.1.2 Screen Size and Installation Distance
page 8 there is a list of screen sizes from 80" to 110".




It would be nice to add 120" screen too since it is pretty popular.
And since you guys are selling internationally, why not include the corresponding inches/meter distance for the measurements?
It would be much appreciated.

Cheers.
 
#41 ·
Difference between TrueColour and Colour Temp settings on B5U.



There are two color management settings which can be found on the projector. TrueColor (RGBCMY as you mentioned) and the Color Temp setting.

The TrueColor setting can be found at: Settings > Picture > TrueColor. Under TrueColor, you can tune different color space including: Red, blue, green, yellow and purple, it also give you the option to adjust the brightness and skin tone.

The color temperature setting can be accessed when video files are played on the projector by pressing the Menu key and go to Scene Mode > My Mode > Picture > Color Temp. You can adjust three color gains from there including Red gain, green gain and Blue gain.

The TrueColor settings are managing the DLP chips and the Color Temp settings are managing the Mstar media decoding chips. They works in a similar way, but they are different.

Any changes made under the TrueColor settings will be applied to the DLP chips which means the changes will be applied to the projector as an universal adjustment in regardless of the selected display scene mode.

Changes made under the Color Temp settings only applied to the user defined scene mode and only available for access when you are playing a video files due to the fact that it is a setting from the Mstar media decoding chips instead of the underlying DLP chips.

So, basically, you may think them in this way, the TrueColor settings are hardware settings while the Color Temp settings are software adjustment.

Also, TrueColor settings allow you to set value for more detailed color space than color Temp settings.

You can use both settings together according to your preference to achieve the best possible image performance as desired.
 
#52 ·
Hi, this is Hao from Changhong. Our CHiQ projectors come with 2 years manufacture plus 5 years ''right to repair''. Please refers to https://www.changhong.co.uk/warranty/ for our full warranty terms and conditions.

For customers outside the UK who ordered the projector from our dealers in the UK, the warranty is still valid. However, please be advised that the projector will need to be returned back to the UK for under-warranty service. We will bear the cost to return the projector back to the customer when the under-warranty service is done.
 
#55 ·
I made a video of it in action:
https://youtu.be/BjYsqXBOJuk
Commented on your vid:

Nice review. Wow...Dolby Vision on a projector? Unheard of! The ability to change the color beyond RGB gain, the low input lag, Dolby Vision and the inclusion of the MEMC chip indicates that it's a little more sophisticated than anything else on the market in the UST space. Now that there's a warranty via the UK distributor (even in the USA) this may be the one to beat if it the native contrast ratio and dynamic contrast ratio is similar to the Mijia/Fengmi/A300 level. I haven't seen any hard data regarding the later. It appears to have the lumens covered if my memory serves me.
 
#56 · (Edited)
So I was looking at the specs and it looks like it may have a different DLP chip (DLP470TP) than the Xiaomi's (DLP470TE) and instead have the newer DLP chip that supports 4K UHD at 60 Hz and full HD at 240 Hz like the new Optoma UHD50X. EDIT: The Optoma UHD50X has the DLP471TE but both support 1080p240 per features list.

It's wild speculation at this point and not confirmed, but very interesting if it does indeed have the newer chip. This might explain the lower input lag out of the box and why it may a appear to be a step up. hmmm...
 
#58 ·
So I was looking at the specs and it looks like it may have a different DLP chip (DLP470TP) than the Xiaomi's (DLP470TE) and instead have the newer DLP chip that supports 4K UHD at 60 Hz and full HD at 240 Hz like the new Optoma UHD50X.

It's wild speculation at this point and not confirmed, but very interesting if it does indeed have the newer chip. This might explain the lower input lag out of the box and why it may a appear to be a step up. hmmm...
Interesting about the DLP chip. What are the differences? I don't see any light border at all, even with my nose to the screen, so that could be a feature of this revised chip. As far as refresh rates, my GPU (RTX2060) only goes as high as 60hz at any resolution. The 240hz claim sounds like a marketing number much like what TV manufacturers do.

My theory on the lower input lag is that the OS is stripped down and the menus were converted to English (due to poor translation in some menu items), almost like it's been rooted from the factory.
 
#63 ·
AERODYNAMICS - Great review on the Chiq B5U as it’s a new product there are not many reviews out there as yet.

If the YOUTUBE VIDEO doesnt work see the UPDATED link


Here is a quick summary (albeit of the longer 17 minute version posted yesterday)
• Overall, pleasantly surprised
• Fengmi 4k was my alternative option before favouring B5U so it didn’t have to be rooted and B5U had the English menus
• B5U has best input lag times for gaming.
• can hit 45 milliseconds on input lag time I tested it got 54.2 milliseconds but maybe due to my delay via DiVo.
• When I'm playing video games I don't really notice any lag at all
• Free from bloatware, maximises memory space, prefer to use my own apps such as Apple TV, Netflix
• but you can add your own as its Android 8 (it does also come with a free Amazon Firestick)

Image Quality
o High level of picture and image control and also frame interpolation which you don't see often on a $2000 projector
o Pictures great
o black levels on this projector are pretty good
o Contrast is much better than any projectors I ever had
o Even with the lights on contrast is still good and still watchable. This was not possible with my previous projectors even on the same screen
• Dolby Vision - As far as I know this is the only projector on the market that can decode Dolby Vision and the colors look normal so it's not a hack.
• I bought this from the USA from a UK retailer
• I believe this is exclusive to this UK retailer for good reason
o The retailer is quick to respond after the sale
o They speak English so you know there's no language barrier
• Beware of customs fees (tax) which cost me $300 if importing
• Ordered the black model not the silver one which online images didn’t look great but the silver one actually looks nice when I actually got it

OUR RESPONSE
It does compare well against all the UST products on the market for the current price point and it’s a very high spec for sure.

With regards to the issues raised on the colour and the customs fees.

Apologies re the colour issue confusion as you are correct that its more of a silver colour than a black colour. This was a change for the higher build quality for the UK product and we have only just been made aware of this and it will be changed to silver on the site now.

Personal Projector Ltd are the UK retailer that will ship worldwide for you. As with any export outside the European Union (EU) the purchase terms require the importer to check with customs prior to shipping if there are any customs charges.

In many cases the items can go through customs unchecked and without further charge. Even if there are customs charges, there should be no customs duties but there could well be VAT or Sales Taxes as well as a handling fee depending on the courier / country its being imported into.

However, its worth noting that you don’t need to pay the 20% vat sales tax when shipping to outside the EU from the UK so that’s a huge saving on the total price.

Also, we can on request change the shipping terms for you on this item and ship Delivered Duty Paid (DDP) so that all costs are taken care of prior to shipping and there are no surprise custom fees. This maybe cheaper than taking the risk of customs charging you at the receiving end and we can give you a quote for DDP prior to shipping as there will be additional costs to pay after the order is placed. Please just email us.


FULL TEXT TRANSCRIPTION B5U Video Review (Original Long Version)
Hey what's up everybody.

Just wanted to do short video of the B5U ultra short throw projector.

It's fairly new model released late 2019 so there's not a lot of info on it online I've not seen a lot of reviews actually so I just wanted to give you a quick overview of the menus and my thoughts on the projector.

So far I've been pleasantly surprised.

I was going to purchase a Fengmi 4K ultra short throw and decided to cancel the order and purchase this instead because I didn't want to have to deal with rooting the O. S. As you can see the [B5U] menus come pre configured in English.

And all of the B5U menus, everything's in English already so you don't have to root anything you don't have to hack anything.

So that that was important to me to get lower input lag times and also English menus but after reading up on it during the research Fengmi just seemed really complicated so that's one of the reasons why I decided to go with B5U instead so what you're seeing right now is the main menu.

This is what you'll see when you booted up for the first time with nothing plugged into inputs.

As you can see its very minimalistic, there's no apps preinstalled there's no apps store.
So if you want to load any apps you have to side load them. It is running android 8.0
So I'm glad that they chose to do it this way because I would I probably wouldn't use the apps if they were pre installed anyway.
I use an apple TV and my PS4 for all my streaming and apps.
So I'm glad that they chose to leave it to save up some resources and memory and free from bloatware and crapware.

There is some crapware or what I would call crapware on the projector like this TV manager. Not sure exactly what it does but it's sort of reminds me of one of those freeware anti virus apps that you would download on your PC. Its got a bunch of tools optimizers.
Not really sure what it does but I want to use it and there's also this memory optimizer every time you hit the OK button on the remote.
I think what it does is it clears up the cache.

So other than that you know the Source is pretty self explanatory you can choose between the different sources.

Media is where you would go if you have files or USB files plugged into the projector.
System upgrade is where you'll go to update the firmware. I'm on the latest version.

Settings - pretty self explanatory it does have an extensive amount of picture controls if you go into the menu and true color you can basically adjust RGB C. M. Y. which is kind of cool.

I noticed a blue tint on all the picture modes but with this level of control I'm positive that it can be calibrated out. I'm not that critical of the viewing it's good to know that.

If I want to dial in or dial out the blue tint then I can do so, there is a sub menu.
Which I believe you can only access when videos playing so the menu has an additional white balance controls for RGB.

And I'm not sure if they're supposed to be used in conjunction with one another or one over the other.

But it's there so I'm confident that between true color settings and the native RGB controls that any sort of tint you see on the projector can be dialled or calibrated in/out.

So there's also frame interpolation which you don't see often on a $2000 projector.

But it's there but I leave it off.

I know a lot of people like the soap opera effect but I leave it off.

There's also a gamma mode. These are the options.

Dynamic or digital noise reduction dynamic dolby. I leave those off for input lag purposes and speaking of input lag….

Just been published by several U. K. retailers that this can hit 45 milliseconds on input lag time I tested it [ ] and got 54.2 milliseconds.

BUT I realize after the fact that I have my DiVo plugged in to my receiver and so the receiver could be adding some additional input lag time and that could be the ten milliseconds difference that I saw.

But when I'm playing video games I don't really notice any lag at all.

And to be honest the projector I had before was a viewsonic PHP XP100 HD.
Which is rated at sixteen milliseconds so a really fast input lag time BUT I don't notice a difference between this projector and that one to be honest.

So maybe if you're a competitive gamer or someone who plays a lot of first person shooters you might notice a difference but for the type of games that I play which are mostly sports games I don't notice a difference at all.

So that's the main thing, everything else I'm not going to go through because it's pretty self explanatory.

There is one thing I want to show here which is the motorized focus, another nice addition for a $2000 projector.

Speaking of which I purchased this from a U. K. online retailer for just under $2000.

And so if you're thinking about purchasing this I just want to give you a heads up.
One thing you should know is that you're going to get hit with a customs invoice.
Yes I was expecting to pay customs fees which is fine. I was just shocked when I got hit with a three hundred dollar bill.

So just give you a heads up if you plan to get this from a U. K. retailer look out for that and also one thing is I believe this B5U model to be a U. K. exclusive for the U. K. market only. I haven't seen this on any of the Chinese ecommerce websites like Ali Baba Ali express JD.com TAbou, all those websites don't carry this model.

I've only seen this on sale through U. K. retailers and that's the reason why I think that this model was made for the UK market which I appreciate for several reasons:

I've been in contact with the retailer I purchased it from several times after the fact and they've been quick to respond.

They speak English so you know there's no language barrier so that's always good. It remains to be seen how warranty work is going to be handled in the event that I need to do it. You know hopefully I won't but it's good to know that they can communicate with us and they will respond quickly.

So there's that one thing I want to show you and really the main purpose of this video.

I'm going to play a couple of video files here.

There are no projectors on the market that's capable of playing Dolby vision.

Or so they say.

What I noticed when I hooked up my apple TV to this for a first time is that apple TV asked whether I wanted to switch to Dolby vision mode.
I thought that was interesting so I clicked yes and everything looked normal nothing looked out of whack.

And every time I play Dolby Vision enabled movie or TV show from Netflix an Dolby Vision icon pops up in the upper left hand corner and so I wanted to verify that what I was seeing was not an anomaly.

So what we're going to do here is I have my NAS drive and it's got some Dolby vision demo files and we're gonna play that and you'll see that It's not just an apple TV thing, its not by accident.

At any time you play any sort of Dolby Vision content it decodes it, reads it, recognizes it so let's play this one.

And you'll notice in the upper left hand corner the Dolby vision local will pop up.

And again everything looks great everything looks normal.

The colors look the way they should as far as I can tell.

Pictures great.

Our black levels on this projector are pretty good.

I wouldn't say they're JVC or Sony level although I've never seen that before with my own eyes but I do have a lot of experience with use of DLP projectors. I had a BenQ W1070 before I've had other BenQs. I can't remember the model number but it's the one that had to RGB color wheel and was rated at 30000:1 as it was a really high output RGB projector. More recently I had a viewsonic VX800 HD and what I can tell you is that the black levels on the B5U aren't noticeably darker than any of those projectors.

Contrast is much better than any of those projectors I ever had but it could be a UST thing.

And this is a snow white screen by the way I purchase from Ali Baba similar to what you would see from X. Y. screens or elite. I'm of the opinion that they're all pretty much the same.

But to start right now I have all the lights off.

But even during the day when the light is coming through the window or if I turn it on when the lights was do that right now.

So we've got the lights on and as you can see.

The contrast quality is still pretty good.

So we got these lights on behind the screen and then I've got another lamp here.

About three feet away from the screen which we can turn on.

And that's going to affect the picture for a little bit more but it's still very watchable.

What I can tell you is that when I had the PX800 with the same screen anytime I turn on this lamp the picture was barely watchable.

And with the B5U it's a little bit brighter and lot more contrast - see.

Even with this light on which is about three feet away its still watchable.

Normally I don't have the lamp on because this is very bright.

So I I leave this back light on whenever I need or some sort of lighting in the room and it doesn't really affect the picture at all. Its very watchable the way it is now.

But let's turn off the lights.

Again the Dolby vision logo you see there.

I'm not sure what is doing. Dolby vision analyzes each frame. It's a sort dynamic tone and it recognizes the format and decodes it.

As far as I know this is the only projector on the market that can decode Dolby Vision and the colors look normal so it's not a hack.

And as a matter of fact let me show you something else.

When you're playing Dolby Vision Files. These are the two picture settings that you get.

You get Dolby vision bright and dark.

So you know that's basically what I wanted to show you.

The build quality of the projectors pretty nice it's got some weight to it and heavy.

One thing is that. I ordered the black model not the silver one.

And I noticed right off the bat before even opening a box that they shipped us the silver one because it says on the label so I was pretty upset but once I got into my hands and looking at it in person it's not bad at all it actually.

Looks nice when you when you look at but online through the pictures the silver one looks like cheap plastic toy but in reality it's pretty nice it's got this kind of luxury look to it.

I would still prefer a black one over it but the silver one looks nice and it was definitely not enough to make me want to return it and ship it back to the UK and pay for shipping all that.

If you have any questions or if you're thinking about purchasing the projector and want to know more about it drop a comment and I'll give you my thoughts.

So until next time I'll see you guys later.
 
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