One day I got a targeted ad in my phone notifications from Shopee -- Indonesian Amazon, more or less. It was for a 1080p smart projector for $20. Never did I think a projector was something I needed before, as I have a 43" TV with a Slackware media PC at an appropriate distance away from my couch. But then... the cheap refurb media PC gave up the ghost. And I thought back to a friend in my old artist community housing that had a projector that worked amazingly well.

My wife's asthma has been acting up bad lately as she has a case of pneumonia, which also means we're spending a lot more time in our bedroom, where the air purifier lives. On an impulse I told wife we were getting a projector. It was only $20 so what did we have to lose?

As much as I'd love to link to or name the specific model I purchased, an image of the model is as close as I can come -- it's a generic Chinese unbranded smart projector.

It came in the mail shortly after I ordered it with a power cord and HDMI cable. There are slots in the back for AUX audio and USB as well. I set it up on a dresser and pointed it at a wall. Then I registered a throwaway Google account on it and grabbed Jellyfin from the play store, and connected it to my regular workhouse computer via the process discussed here.

I'm generally adverse to "smart TVs" but if they can run Jellyfish or Kodi, have Google Play store, or have HDMI/USB it checks the boxes for me.

Huge success! We can watch high resolution videos at a width of ~140cm in our bedroom, in bed. As long as it's dark and we use an external speaker -- there's no complaints about this setup. If it were a $100 projector I'd have been hesitant to purchase it and I would have never considered any projector much more than that. But for now, the $20 projector is working very well. The colors pop. The software is enough to get the job done. If and when it dies, I'll drop an update.