My family and I love decorating the house during the holidays. Whether it’s animatronics, inflatables, or just good ole’ fashion lights, there are few things as fun as dressing up your home for the holidays.
On the flip side, there are few things less enjoyable than putting away all your holiday decorations. It’s time consuming and a terrible reminder the holiday is over.
One company, AtmosFX, has created a digital decorating kit that allows you to decorate your home without all the terrible cleanup.
I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to play with the decorating kit for the last few weeks.
In the box
- Standard definition projector
- Mounting tripod
- Remote control
- Power adapter
- Standard window projection material
- Digital decoration SD card with 14 scenes
Specifications
- Display Technology: 4” Single LCD Panel Display
- Color: 16.8 million, 24-bit RGB
- Brightness: 300 ANSI LM
- Lamp: LED 24W
- Contrast Ratio: 2000:1
- Native Resolution: 800 x 480
- Lamp life: 30,000 hours
- Projection Distance: 3 feet to 20 feet
- Projection Size (diagonal): 40” to 180”
- Throw Ratio: 1.37:1
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3 / 16:9
- Keystone Correction: + or – 15 degrees
- Power Supply: 100-240 V
- Power Consumption: 60 W
- Input: USB/SD/HDMI/Composite
- Audio Output: 3.5mm or built-in speakers
- Projection Material: 4’ x 6’ — 86.5” diagonal
Design
The kit is essentially an A/V projector and an SD card with various scenes on it.
The projector resembles a typical, standard definition projector that you’d find in a school classroom.
The top of the projector has several function buttons and focus adjustment dials. The bottom contains a threaded input for a tri-pod. The front holds the projector lens, while the back contains several input ports, the power port, and an IR receiver. One side of the projector contains a second threaded tri-pod input and the other side has venting.
The kit also includes a remote control, a tri-pod, window projection material with adhesive, and an SD card with 14 digital scenes.
There really isn’t much to go over in regards to the design of the kit; as I said, it’s identical to just about every projector I’ve ever seen. The accessories are also pretty standard fare.
Performance
Using the digital kit is easy; you insert the SD card and plug in the projector. Once it’s powered up, you aim it at your “target” and adjust the focus.
“Advanced” setup involves placing the window projection material on your window. This takes a few minutes and requires you to fold the material to fit into your window and use adhesive to secure it. 
Once you’ve set up the material, you’ll have a surface perfect for projecting your effects onto.
The SD card I was provided contained 14 different scenes. Some scenes were for Christmas, some for Easter, but most were scary Halloween effects.
Using the effects is no different than selecting music to play on your phone or computer; you select the proper media and hit play.
Since it’s almost Halloween, I focused on the scarier effects. I recorded video of the effects from outside my house; unfortunately, the video doesn’t do the effects justice, but I’m going to post them anyway.
Close up
Far Away
My only issue when using the kit was when trying to adjust the angle of the projector. The tri-pod that’s include in the kit isn’t very strong. If you try to use the projector at an angle other than perfectly level, the tri-pod “slips” and the projector ends up pointing straight up or down. Other than that I experienced absolutely no issues with the kit.
Conslusion
The AtmosFx is a really fun way to decorate your house for the holidays. The 14 scenes included with the kit are fun, but AtmosFx sells even more on their website.
The kit is easy to setup and just as easy to take down.
The kit isn’t cheap at $199.99, but you can purchase media for almost every holiday. If you can afford the kit, I would definitely recommend it.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by AtmosFx. Please visit their site for more information and Amazon to order.
Product Information
| Price: | $199.99 |
| Manufacturer: | AtmosFx |
| Retailer: | Amazon |
| Requirements: |
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| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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Filed in categories: Reviews
Tagged: Halloween
AtmosFX digital decorating kit review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 22, 2017 at 10:00 am.
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First impressions: This little dude looks cool and is way small. It has almost a tactical (“tacti-cool”?) look and feel to it. I liked its appearance right out of the box.
There are three buttons on the top of the ANT: from left to right they are the power/play/pause, volume up/next track and volume down/previous track buttons. All of these buttons are covered by a single silicone strip which protects them from bumps as well as contributing to the speaker’s IPX7 water-resistance rating. The body of the ANT is also made from ABS plastic, which contributes to its shock-resistance, which Smartomi reports as having been tested to a 3-meter drop height.
On the bottom of the ANT, on the side opposed the control buttons, is another silicone strip with the words “OPEN CHARGER” and an arrow on it.
In the above photo, I’ve plugged in both of the cables included with the ANT, the micro USB charging cable (left) and the 3.5mm audio in auxiliary cable (right).
As mentioned above, one side of the ANT features a faux leather texture that is actually molded into the body, along with the SMARTOMI logo.
Another useful feature of the ANT is a leather strap that can be used to attach the speaker to a bag or even hung up in the shower other places with a carabiner, or to help give you a better grip it when holding it. Note that although it appears that is secured with a snap, it is actually a rivet that cannot be removed.
For a speaker of its compact size and shape, it puts out some decent sound. Good enough for my teenage daughter to have commandeered the ANT within a day of it arriving at my house and using it constantly. My daughter reported that she had the ANT paired with her iPhone in just a few seconds, and she was rocking and rolling (literally, since I’ve managed to get my children into some classic rock—parenting win!).
The ANT also has a tiny microphone hole on the side which enables it be used for hands-free phone calls.