The Formovie Theater has been a respected model in the ultra short throw (UST) projector market for several years now. With high brightness, good contrasts and an effective sound system, it has established itself as a reference among projection enthusiasts. Building on this reputation, Formovie set out to produce a cheaper, more compact model, but just as effective or almost.
The Cinema Edge takes up much less space and cost around €2,000 at launch, while the Theater cost around €3,000. It is in direct competition with the Hisense PL1 which has also dropped in price, reaching €1300 at the time of writing these lines.
Le Formovie Cinema Edge.
© Les Numériques
This price is in any case much more acceptable for the Cinema Edge which risks attracting more than one user, even if we find the Theater currently at €2200 after the arrival on the market of the Theater Premium which replaces it. The Cinema Edge must necessarily make some sacrifices compared to the Theater, including the transition from a triple laser to a mono laser, the loss of Dolby Vision compatibility, as well as a less efficient audio system.
That said, we retain many of the features that have made Formovie strong, even gaining some very interesting elements. First of all, a complete Google TV interface (and the arrival of native Netflix), and greater brightness than on the Theater (2100 ISO lumens compared to 1800)!
On the technical side, the definition is 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels) and the projection is in DLP with a blue phosphor laser and a projection ratio of 0.23:1. The lifespan of the laser is announced at 25,000 hours, enough to watch several films per day for more than 15 years. We remind you that a tensioned canvas, a perfectly smooth white wall, or even an ALR or CLR screen is necessary to get the most out of an ultra short throw video projector.
Will Cinema Edge be able to dethrone its big brother? This is what we will see through this test!
All brightness and colorimetry measurements mentioned in this article were carried out with a SpectraCal C6-HDR probe and CalMAN Ultimate software.
Image quality
The Cinema Edge can project an image from 80 to 150 inches diagonally. To obtain one 2 m wide, the standard for our tests, we positioned the video projector barely 17 cm from our canvas. Please note, you must remember to unblock the HDMI ports in the settings to enjoy your content in 4K, because not all sources are automatically detected.
Ad Astra displays deep blacks.
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The video projector benefits from various image processing technologies, including noise reduction, local contrast management, as well as a particularly efficient motion compensation engine (MEMC). We recommend setting the latter to Low or turning it off to avoid the “soap opera” effect, but this will come at the cost of a little Jew (image jerking). As with the Theater, the Cinema Edge offers a multitude of setting options for adjusting saturation, hues, white balance, etc., allowing careful calibration as needed.
Smaug in The Hobbit.
© Les Numériques
As usual, we set the projector to Film mode, the most faithful. Be careful, on this model you must also set the brightness in the projector settings to Standard. Desktop mode is brighter with a peak of 190 cd/m², but it completely shifts colors and white balance towards blue. The average color temperature climbs to 15,000 K in this mode!
Compare photos
1. Delta E average SDR 9.2 2. Average temperature 8217 K 3. Average gamma 2.27
As standard, it drops to 8200 K, which is much more acceptable, but still far too cold and far from the expected 6500 K. Colors are also far from perfect with a fairly noticeable average delta E of 9.2. It will be necessary to calibrate the projector to return to a more acceptable result… The gamma, on the other hand, is rather correct with an average of 2.3, despite a small drop at the end of the curve and the whites therefore a little overexposed.
Wall-E.
© Les Numériques
This was already the strength of the Theater, but the Cinema Edge is even more gifted in terms of contrasts. We measured a dynamic contrast of 3280:1, which is simply enormous. This is even the best result in our comparison at the time of writing these lines.
HDR
The Formovie Cinema Edge is compatible with HDR10, HLG and HDR10+, but not with Dolby Vision which is reserved for the Theater.
On the left, the EOTF curve in HDR10, 10% window; on the right, the HDR luminance curve, 10% window.
The EOTF curve is followed very well up to around 40%, but the video projector has difficulty reproducing the brightness of the signal sent. The curve is smoothed quite significantly, but the whites will have the advantage of not being burned into the image.
The brightness of the video projector is in any case very high – which is always welcome in projection – with a peak at 169 cd/m². There will therefore be better reproduction of luminous objects and the possibility of watching films with the lights on, even more so if you are using an ALR or CLR screen. It is therefore brighter than the Hisense PL1 and even more than its big brother, the Theater!
Delta E average in HDR – 9.2.
The delta E in HDR, on the other hand, is just as bad as in SDR with an average of 9.2 as well. Finally, the coverage of color spaces is not very wide, with laser sorting technology remaining more efficient on this point. We measured coverage of 76.8% of DCI-P3 and 56% of Rec 2020. Rec 709 for its part is almost entirely covered at 91%.
On the left, coverage of the DCI-P3 space; on the right, the REC-2020.
Construction & Ergonomie
The compactness of the Cinema Edge (46 x 31 x 9 cm) and its 7 kg contrast sharply with the volume of the Theater (55 x 35 x 11 cm for 10 kg), which still takes up quite a bit of space on a TV stand. Like any ultra short throw video projector, you simply position it a few centimeters from the projection surface and move it back a little to obtain a larger image. To give you an idea, you will benefit from an 80 inch image at 14 cm from the screen, 100 inches at 23 cm and 150 inches at 49 cm.
The Cinema Edge is more compact and lighter than the Theater.
© Les Numériques
It is also possible to slightly adjust the tilt of the video projector using the dials placed on either side of the chassis. Focusing is unfortunately done manually, as is keystone correction. Too bad, most portable video projectors now have these features.
Focus remains manual.
© Les Numériques
The dials to adjust the tilt of the projector.
© Les Numériques
In terms of connectivity, you will find almost everything you need, namely three HDMI 2.1 ports (including one eARC), two USB-A ports, a mini-jack output, an SPDIF optical audio output and an Ethernet port. Wifi 6 is present, as well as Bluetooth 5.0.
The connectivity is very complete.
Formovie is switching its OS from Android to Google TV, which means Netflix is now natively supported. The other best-known platforms (Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+, Canal+, Arte, etc.) are also there to benefit from their content.
L’interface Google TV.
© Les Numériques
While noise can be annoying on certain video projector models, the Cinema Edge does well with 35.4 dB measured during our test. It is not the quietest in our comparison and you will hear a hiss, but quite light.
A quick note on the very basic remote control with a few shortcuts to the menus and YouTube and Netflix only. We would have liked access to the image settings to be done directly via a menu appearing on the screen rather than having to go through the main Google menu, but that's a detail. By the way, the remote control is unfortunately not backlit.
The remote control is pretty basic.
© Les Numériques
Game
The Cinema Edge is not specifically designed for video games, but in its defense, this is the case for most video projectors on the market today. The refresh rate is limited to 60 Hz and you will have to make do with a display delay (input lag) of 40 ms. We can play solo games without too much problem or with friends locally, but online multiplayer should be more complicated.
