After a long winter and rainy spring, a change of scenery from the indoor theater is a welcome relief. While there are plenty of options for outdoor-capable projectors and screens with some slap-dash packages on Amazon that pair one of each, there aren't any combos that are specifically designed for the casual family experience—only some multi-thousand dollar options meant to entertain crowds of dozens to hundreds. Part of the issue is that projector companies and screen companies are rarely under the same business umbrella, but that is no longer the case. Elite Screens has been offering high-quality affordable screen options for years and at the end of 2019 announced their new venture, Elite Projector. The MosicGO Sport MGFU-S mobile cinema bundle, which goes for $1,299, is their first effort.

Features and Setup

The MosicGO Sport MGFU-S bundle comes with an ultra-short-throw DLP projector, a tripod for the projector, and a 58-inch diagonal Yard Master 2 screen. There are two soft-sided zippered bags for holding it all (one for the screen and stand, one for the projector and tripod). Everything fits nicely and is very easy to transport—both bags have handles and weigh about 11 pounds each. There's a thin plastic cover that's on the projector that looks to be just for shipping, but I recommend keeping it and replacing it each time you store the projector for safety in case something gets loose and bounces around in the bag. There was obviously some thought put in to the portability of the bundle. It's a definite benefit to having the projector and screen manufacturer related.

On the right side towards the front of the Sport MGFU-S are the AV connections. There are two HDMI 1.4 ports, a USB-C, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Along the right side away from the projector lens is the power button, the DC in plug, and a 12V trigger. On the left side of the projector are two USB-A ports and a USB-C port, all for power delivery only (so no displaying pictures or videos from a USB stick). While the USB power is on the other side of the projector from the HDMI, a streaming stick with a decent length USB power cable should be able to reach and connect. My Roku Streaming Stick+ connected and powered up with zero problems. All of the connections have rubber covers that are attached to the projector to protect them from any moisture when not in use. On the front of the projector are two yellow buttons—one that adjusts light source brightness on a short press or turns the light off on a long press, and another that switches to Bluetooth mode with a short press or Bluetooth pairing with a long press. The projector is IPX2 rated, which means it's protected from spraying water when tilted up to 15 degrees vertically, so you should be okay if a light rain starts during your outdoor movie.

The projector's Osram RGB LED light source has a published light output of 1,500 LED lumens or 1,000 ANSI lumens with a contrast ratio of 20,000:1. (The way we perceive light generated by an LED light source is different than a traditional lamp source, and is generally accepted to appear brighter for the same lumen measurement. You can read more about it in M. David Stone's "Are 'LED lumens' a Real Thing" article.) It has a lamp life of up to 25,000 hours, which should easily last the entire time you have the projector—especially since the MosicGO is a special event, temporary setup solution. It has a Texas Instruments 0.47-inch DMD chip with a native resolution of 1080p (1920x1080), and can project an image up to 100-inch diagonal (although the included screen is just 58-inches). If you want to check throw distance for a larger screen than the one provided, you can use the ProjectorCentral Elite Projector MosicGO Sport Projection Calculator.

Setup of the projector and screen takes less than 10 minutes and can be accomplished by one person. No tools are required to set up the Yard Master 2. There are built-in clips on each side that click into place as you open the lightweight aluminum frame. The two legs are attached to the frame with hand screws, and the CineWhite 1.1 gain projection screen with black masking uses snaps to connect to the frame. There are fabric loops at each corner to pull if you need some extra stretch for the corner snaps (very useful for the last one you attach). The screen stand is very lightweight, so placement after its set up is easy. There were crease marks left after I set it up and while they diminished over time (at one point I had the screen up overnight) a few of the marks never fully flattened out. With a movie playing it occasionally took me out of the action, but wasn't overly distracting.

The most difficult part of setup, as with any fixed-throw UST projector, is making sure the placement of the MosicGO Sport is correct to properly align the image on the screen. It has a throw ratio of 0.3, so the back of the projector only needs to be about three inches from the screen to fill the 58-inch diagonal. There's an auto keystone feature that attempts to adjust the picture when it's set up, but I found it wasn't too reliable. The image almost always ended up with jagged edges and I needed to fine tune the adjustment with the remote every time (the up and down buttons on the d-pad will do it). With the auto keystone, I could never get both sides to be square—the top right edge always had a bit of a convex curve—and I if tried to change the tripod position to get the angle better, the auto keystone would activate and throw off my repositioning. For most times that I set the MosicGO Sport up, I went without the keystone turned on. This also disables the remote keystone fine tuning, so you're reliant on the physical placement of the projector. The tripod aids in getting good positioning, especially if you're on an uneven surface such as grass. In the end, my picture was always a bit more of an isosceles trapezoid than a rectangle, but that's part of the difficulty of any UST projector, and since the MosicGO Sport is really only up for a few hours at a time, the slight trapezoid was completely acceptable for my viewing.

Setup for the projector isn't limited to the tripod, though. There are four adjustable rubber feet on the MosicGO for table placement. In addition, the tripod connection plate the projector comes with can be removed and the four mounting points can be used to connect to a ceiling mount with M4 screws. The MosicGO also supports rear projection while placed on a table or mounted on the ceiling.

The MosicGO Sport has a built-in battery that last for up to three hours (the less expensive Lite model does not have the built-in battery). If you're using the USB ports to power or charge something, that battery life will obviously diminish. With the projector powering my Roku Streaming Stick+, I was able to watch an average length movie without concern of the projector turning off. If I was planning on a long Marvel film, I'd make sure an outlet and extension cord was nearby. Battery life is indicated by an LED on the front of the projector—green for 80% and above, orange for 15-79%, and red for 14% or under. At 10% the projector will automatically shut off, so it's recommended to charge the projector when it hits red status. Charging from 10% to full takes a couple hours (the very first charge from took me almost three).

The remote is small, black, and light with no backlight. There are dedicated buttons for source connections, a mute and volume controls, an on button (although the power push button on the side of the projector needs to be on), a Bluetooth button, directional pad, menu, source toggle, and home button. Some of these are redundant—the home button just goes to HDMI 1, as will the source toggle—but it does what it needs. The buttons you'll likely use the most are the volume up/down, and they're placed perfectly where my thumb lands. If you don't want to use the remote or misplaced it, on the top right of the projector are the same controls, though pressing them while the projector is on the tripod will cause it to shake a little. Menu navigation is a little frustrating as the up and down buttons don't move the cursor, so in order to move through the menu options you have to use the left and right buttons. Plus, if you have the auto-keystone feature on, the up and down will adjust that no matter what menu is open (or if the menu is closed). I can't count the number of times I accidentally adjusted the keystone instead of scrolling through the menu (until I finally turned keystone off).

There is a stereo speaker pair rated at a peak of 8W. You can connect a source via Bluetooth to use the MosicGO as a standalone Bluetooth speaker. The volume is a 10-point scale and can play decently loud for a small stereo pair in a small enclosure. As expected there isn't much low end response and while dialogue can be heard, it's missing the presence I would hope for and can be a little hollow. That being said, after accepting the shortcomings, the internal speakers worked fine for all my viewing.

Key MosicGO Features

• 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution with 0.47-inch TI DLP DMD chip
• 1,500 LED lumens / 1,000 ANSI lumens
• Osram LED light source with life up to 25,000 hours
• Fixed zoom UST with 0.3 throw ratio
• HDMI and USB-C video connections
• Built-in battery with up to 3-hour life that can charge devices
• Input lag of only 17ms for gaming
• Projector can act as stereo Bluetooth speaker (2 x 8W)
• 58-inch CineWhite 1.1 gain Yard Master 2 screen
• Lightweight aluminum frame
• Tripod included for projector

Performance

Preset Modes. The MosicGO Sport has six different display modes, or color effects as they're called in the menu—Vivid, User, Standard, Game, Movie, Photo. Interestingly, the brightness across all the display modes is relatively consistent (see the Brightness chart below). At least, there isn't as wide a variation as normally seen from one mode to another. The image can be further adjusted by color temperature and gamma. The brightest light output I measured, 876 ANSI lumens, was in User mode with color temperature also set to User. The lowest measurement while in the brightest light output setting was in Photo mode and was still 845 ANSI lumens, only a 4% difference.

While the brightness between modes has little variation, the same cannot be said for color accuracy. Movie looked the best to my eye overall, and I would sometimes flip the color temperature back and forth between the off setting (which was very similar to sRGB) and the 6500K setting for a bit more vibrancy in the reds. For my eyes, Vivid, expectedly, looked a bit too oversaturated, Photo was too contrasty, and Game was very washed out. User and Standard were identical (although you can adjust the hue and saturation for RGBCMY in User) and looked good, but I preferred the greens on Movie.

Viewing. Some of the biggest release news to happen during quarantine has been Hamilton on Disney+. I was already an enormous fan (in a previous life I was a music teacher and music director for theatrical productions), so I was eagerly awaiting the show's arrival on streaming. Overall, the show looked great on the MosicGO. The image could be a bit soft, especially towards the top edge, but the presentation didn't suffer much especially since the production kept the focus almost always framed at center screen. Skin tones had a little too much orange in them and some detail was lost in the shadows because the projector's black level is a bit high. Not surprisingly, the speakers certainly couldn't give the score its due—heavily influenced by hip hop, it has some heavy low end orchestrations and the production's mix accentuates that when it's heard through a full-range system. Still, there was plenty of volume and the words were easily intelligible (an absolute necessity for a show as lyrically dense as this), making the presentation completely captivating.

The demo track on Spears & Munsil's Benchmark Blu-ray showed some the nice, vibrant greens that the MosicGO Sport can reproduce. The reds were a bit muted with the color temperature in the off setting, but a change to the 6500K setting helped them pop a bit more. This could also be seen while playing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order on my Xbox One X. Viewed with color temp set to Off, Dathomir, a predominantly red-toned landscape, didn't have the same depth that I'm used to on other displays. The red had a more washed out look to it. Changing to 6500K helped a bit, but still didn't have quite the same depth I've seen in the past. The low 16.7 ms input lag, as good as most dedicated gaming projectors (see below), was excellent and didn't disrupt my playing in any way.

Conclusion

At $1,299, there is nothing on the market anywhere near the price of the Elite Projector MosicGO Sport projector and screen bundle. To get everything you need in one thoughtfully collected package takes all of the stress out of the shopping. It's easy to get set up and, as long as you aren't a rectangle perfectionist, you can be watching and enjoying in under 15 minutes. The color accuracy is good for the price, input lag is excellent for gaming, and there's enough brightness even if you have any light pollution in your neighborhood, although it's definitely best to wait for the sun to set (particularly if you have a darker movie on the schedule). If you're aching to get out of the house for movies, even if it's just to the backyard, the MosicGO Sport will give you what you need.

Measurements

Brightness (Lumens) measurements comments and table. In the User display mode with User color temperature and set to the brightest light source setting, the Elite Projector MosicGO Sport measured 876 ANSI lumens. When switched to its medium light source brightness, light output dropped by 33% to 645 lumens, and on its lowest light source setting brightness dropped by 52% to 459 lumens. Color brightness measured 91% of white.

The full mix of display modes measured as follow:

Elite Projector MosicGO Sport ANSI Lumens

Mode	Bright	Medium	Low
User	876	645	459
Movie	861	642	457
Photo	845	615	435
Vivid	866	640	468
Standard	866	628	445
Game	855	628	445

Brightness Uniformity. Brightness uniformity measured at 66%, with the brightest sections along the top of the image and the dimmest along the bottom. The bottom left of my sample was visibly dimmer than most of the rest of the image with real world material.

Fan Noise. Fan noise for the MosicGO is listed at 32 dB and there's no perceptible change to the fan noise when the light source brightness setting is changed. With an outside noise floor and the projector sitting right up at the screen, any fan noise blends completely into the background and causes no distraction whatsoever.

Input Lag. With a Leo Bodnar 1080p Lag Tester, the MosicGO measured 16.7ms in all picture modes. At this speed there is no perceptible lag when playing video games.

Connections

• HDMI 1.4 (x2)
• USB-C (x2, one for video, one for power only)
• USB (x2 for power only, 5V 1A)
• 3.5mm audio out
• 12V trigger

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Elite Projector Outdoor MosicGO Sport MGFU-S projector page.

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