Projectors Tests Reviews

Ultimea Nova C40: test / review

Published on: 28-10-2024 / Modified: 28-10-2024

Projectors follow trends and the current trend is tilt-and-shift projectors. The first projector of this type that I tested was the JMGO N1 Ultra and since then, many others have followed the same direction. Today I will focus on Ultimeda, a brand that I had already seen on Chinese sites like Banggood but that I had not yet had the opportunity to test. I was surprised to see that this brand had a fairly wide range of video projectors ranging from simple projectors to an ultra-short throw projector model. They mostly use names from mythology like Thor, Apollo or Poseidon but their latest, the Ultimea Nova C40 does not seem to follow the same logic.

The Ultimea Nova C40 is available for less than €300, it is probably the first thing that will catch your attention. At this price, we find a jungle of projectors on Chinese sites but they are often from the same technical base and have the same strengths and weaknesses. So I am curious to see if this Ultimea Nova C40 will be able to distinguish itself from other brands like Thundeal, Wanbo or Blitzwolf.

Where to buy

The Ultimea Nova C40 is available from Banggood: Ultimea Nova C40 / Banggood

I have a promo code to lower the price towards 250€.

Promo code: BGUNovaC40

Manufacturer web site:
https://www.ultimea.com
Site where I have bought or received the Ultimea Nova C40: https://www.banggood...

Price Ultimea Nova C40

Not yet available / tested

Timeline

October 25, 2024: Received the projector in preview from Banggood, the test can begin.

Why this projector?

I recently tested entry-level projectors, including the XGIMI Mogo 3 Pro or the Formovie Xming Episode One. I was positively surprised by these two projectors because even if they are not perfect, they have undeniable qualities and demonstrate that it is still possible to do interesting things in the entry-level.

The Ultimea Nova C40 has in theory some interesting assets with a brightness at 600 iso, it does better than the other 2 projectors that I have just mentioned, it offers in theory a contrast of 1000:1 and is natively compatible with Netflix. All this is therefore quite interesting, it remains to be seen if the projector will keep its promises when I start taking objective measurements.

Unpacking

The box clearly shows that this brand is not at its first try. The box has no influence on the performance but it shows that someone has thought about the external appearance of the product, very small companies do not have this luxury. Whoever designed this box did a pretty good job because when I received the box, I confused it with a more expensive projector that I was supposed to receive at the same time.

The box doesn't actually contain much, there is of course the projector, a remote control (without battery), a power cable and an HDMI cable.

Operating system

Not yet available / tested

Finish

The Ultimea Nova C40 projector is a tilt projector, which means that it is mounted on a vertical rotating axis that allows it to be oriented for wall or ceiling projection. This projector model offers greater placement flexibility and is capable of vertical projection towards the ceiling, which was not the case with the XGIMI Mogo 3 Pro.

This projector has a metallic appearance but is mainly made of plastic. The use of this metallic aspect and this color in particular is reminiscent of what is done by other brands and I suppose it is a conscious choice to attract your attention. This type of design is quite close to the N1 range from JMGO.

Here is an example of the ceiling orientation, no need for offset, the projector manages to make a straight projection towards the ceiling:

The sides are equipped with large heat evacuation grilles, this type of projector generally produces more heat than a LED / DLP projector. If the heat is significant, the ventilation will probably be noisy, but I will come back to this point later in this test.

At the back, the connectivity is limited to the minimum, but it is in principle sufficient for a projector of this type. There is a USB port, HDMI, a jack-type audio output and a video input. I also see the presence of an infrared sensor, which suggests that this projector must be placed in front of you so that the remote control can send its infrared signal to the projector.

With an optical block of this size, we find ourselves in front of an LCD projector using a large light source and passing it through mirrors to the output. This is a fairly common mechanism in this price range.

The remote control is quite basic but includes the necessary features with a relief that should allow you to locate the buttons in the dark. The remote control requires 2 AAA batteries which are not supplied with the projector.

Projection room

My projection room is rectangular, 4.6m by 2.9m (height 2.2m). I have two projection walls, one white wall 2.9m wide with just white paint with a possible 4m setback. I then have a 133 inch ALR screen on another wall with a possible setback of 2.8m. I mainly use the ALR screen except when the layout or type of projector is not suitable for this situation.

Battery autonomy

This projector is not equipped with a battery.

Power consumption

I measured a power consumption of about 70 watts, so this projector is quite energy efficient.

Operating noise

The Ultimea Nova C40 emits an audible ventilation noise, I measured a little over 40 db directly above the projector but if I move away one meter, the measurement drops below 35 db. This projector is therefore quite discreet despite the use of two large ventilation grilles.

Image quality

I used two trailers of very different nature to illustrate the image quality of this projector. The image is quite good for a projector in this price range but has some weaknesses that I will detail in the following paragraphs. In summary, the colors are too cold and sometimes a little bland, the level of detail is not at the level of dlp/led projectors but it is the same for all projectors of this type.

Colorimetry

More explanations on colorimetry

Measuring color fidelity (colorimetry) is not a subjective question, it is something completely measurable. This measurement is carried out with a device (colorimeter, spectrometer, ...) which measures the difference between the real color and the displayed color. This difference is expressed in delta E (abbreviation: dE). A dE greater than 3 indicates a deviation perceptible to the human eye.

The dE must therefore be as low as possible but projectors rarely have a dE lower than 3 out of the box. They are often between 5 and 10, only a calibration can correctly adjust the colors.

For a perfect calibration, you must call a professional. I give you my parameters which correspond to my situation. These settings might work for your situation but it is not a guarantee, so take them as an indication of the direction to follow.

I measured the color fidelity to evaluate the performance of this projector and I obtained the following results:

Configuration / dE colors / white temperature / dE gray
Standard / 11.74 / 10941K / 34.79
Light 11.67 / 10776K / 36.59
Soft 15.01 / >12000K / 38.52
Game 14.54 / >12000K / 38.65

All configurations produce an image that is too cold with sometimes a fairly pronounced bluish tint, this is almost always the case with this type of projector. This Ultimea does no better or worse than other LCDs in this price range.

Fortunately, it is possible to improve the situation by calibrating the projector, there are no miracles but the situation improves greatly:
Calibrated 6.55 / 6579K / 5.65

To obtain this type of result you must use a custom color temperature, lower the blue quite strongly, lower the green a little bit and increase the red. The values depend on the screen used but just by reducing the blue, the color fidelity will already greatly improve.

The color space is lower than REC709, here too it is the same as with other projectors of this type. The color coverage is therefore lower than what can be obtained on an XGIMI Mogo 3 Pro for example.

Brightness

More explanations on brightness

The brightness for a projector is absolutely crucial. The brightness is measured in ANSI lumens and the values provided by the manufacturer are very often higher than reality.

I measure the brightness with a lux meter and I convert my measurements into ANSI lumens in relation to the projection surface. You thus obtain a real value.

A video projector, even if it is bright, cannot compete with a television. The contribution of light (natural or artificial) will have the effect of drastically reducing the contrast of your image. With a brightness lower than 1000 ANSI lumens, the projector must be used in total darkness.

This projector has a theoretical brightness of 600 lumens and I even got more light with my white screen offering a gain of 1.2
Depending on the configuration chosen, I got a brightness of 340 to 754 lumens (standard mode). With this level of brightness, you will have to use this projector in total darkness.

The brightness is not uniform, I can clearly see darker areas appearing in the four corners of the image. This is again the same for all projectors of this type. This does not affect the playback of a film too much but if you project a very bright image, you will see the difference in brightness.

Sharpness

Not yet available / tested

Contrast

More explanations on contrast

Contrast (on/off) is used to measure the difference between white and black. This measurement gives an indication of the ability of a projector to produce a good rendering in dark scenes.

A contrast lower than 500:1 should be considered as a very low contrast and the consequence will be especially visible in dark scenes where you will lose details. This is less of a problem for sports, bright films or even cartoons.

A low contrast ratio does not mean that a projector is not usable, you just have to be aware that for films like Aliens, dark scenes will no longer allow you to distinguish details.

The Ultimea Nova C40 has a theoretical contrast of 1000:1 and I even got a higher contrast on my white screen with 1291:1.

Here is the measured contrast for each type of configuration:
Standard: 760:1
Light 1016:1
Soft 668:1
Game 708:1

To illustrate the contrast level, I always use the Batman trailer. You will see that this projector does quite well with dark scenes.

Motion compensation

Image size and projection distance

More explanations on the projection distance

The projection distance determines the size of the image and the size of the image is determined by the projector's throw ratio. If a projector has a throw ratio of 1.2, it will have an image width of 83 cm with possibly a gray border.

The distance also plays a role in the brightness because the brightness decreases with the square of the distance. A projector placed at 4 meters will therefore lose 4 times more brightness than a projector placed at 2 meters.

Keystone image correction does not modify the projection cone, it resizes the image inside the projection cone. This means that in the event of a significant correction, you will see a large gray border appear around your image.

The Ultimea Nova C40 has a throw ratio of 1.25:1 which means that for every meter of distance from the projection surface, you increase the width of the screen by 80 cm. The size of the image has a direct impact on the brightness. With 600 lumens, you will have to keep the projector less than 2.5 meters from your screen to have a sufficiently bright image. You can gain a little distance with a screen with a gain greater than 1.

Screen choice

For this type of projector, the only solution for a screen is a white screen with if possible a gain greater than 1. A gray screen will have the effect of reducing the brightness and as this projector is not very bright you will have to significantly reduce the size of the image.

Audio quality

More explanations on audio quality

I use several types of music tracks to illustrate the sound quality of the projector but the rendering will always be limited by the recording device. Since I always use the same device, you will be able to compare the difference on the same basis.

I regularly use well-known songs protected by copyright to illustrate the sound quality of a video projector. It therefore sometimes happens that YouTube decides to block my videos for these reasons. In this case, you can listen to the soundtracks directly on YouTube and hope that YouTube has not completely blocked my channel.

I still have to make a recording with Spotify, I will do it when I am finished testing the other projectors in my queue. The sound quality is average and there is some distortion of the sound when you put the volume above 75%

Video games

Encoutered bugs

Not yet available / tested

ALR/CLR Projection screen

Are you looking for a good ALR/CLR screen for your projector? I may have what you need:
ALR/CLR NothingProjector Screen

Test / Review conclusion

The Ultimea Nova C40 rides the trend of tilting projectors and offers quite interesting flexibility of use, especially compared to other projectors in this price range. Here you can easily consider a straight projection towards the ceiling, you just have to understand that the middle of the optical block corresponds to the middle of the image and find the right placement.

The level of finish of this projector gives it the appearance of a mid-range projector, the plastic used is of very good quality.

This projector uses LCD technology also used in many other brands such as Thundeal, Wanbo or Blitzwolf. All these projectors have the same strengths and weaknesses. The colorimetry is too cold and the color space is inferior to REC709. The Ultimea has some adjustment possibilities allowing it to significantly improve color fidelity and this allows it to stand out from the crowd. There are obviously no miracles, you will not be able to compete with a mid-range projector but in this price range, the image is really good.

The contrast is also good for an entry-level projector, it will allow you to watch darker movies without losing too much detail like with mid-range LED/DLP projectors.

The gaming mode reduces latency to 27 ms, so you can consider connecting this projector to a game console.

This projector is aimed at an audience that is aiming for a budget of less than €400 and who is not looking for the ultimate cinematic experience. It represents a good compromise between price and image quality, you get a 2 meter image with good contrast and very moderate electricity consumption. It is a good candidate as a first projector or as a backup projector.

Strengths

Contrast
Energy consumption
Reduced operating noise
Placement flexibility
Android TV (Netflix compatibility)
Possibility to improve colorimetry through settings
Low latency allowing it to be combined with a game console
Level of finish

Weaknesses

Limited brightness, loss in the corners
Sound distortion at high volume
Slow response of the remote control
Factory colorimetry quite cold
Sharpness a little too soft

LAURENT WILLEN
Head of myself on this blog

I share my passions on my blog in my free time since 2006, I prefer that to watching nonsense on TV or on social networks. I work alone, I am undoubtedly one of the last survivors of the world of blogs and personal sites.

My speciality? Digital in all its forms. I have spent the last 25 years working for multinationals where I managed digital teams and generated revenues of over €500 million per year. I have expertise in telecoms, media, aviation, travel and tourism.