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I've been using a pair of RayNeo Air 2 "XR" glasses for the past week. "Xtended Reality" is not really true VR, but instead, simply provides a huge 1080p screen in the middle of your field of vision. They're flawed in a handful of ways, especially with blur/visibility around the edges. I need to increase the font size to read with them. Despite those flaws, it's extremely liberating to be able to position myself in any way I want and still be able to see the main focus of my work. I think I'll just keep investing in glasses like these and never buy another monitor ever again.

My experience with projectors is that they are noisy, power hungry beasts with display quality far inferior to monitors. Has that changed?

Honestly this would be good for infra diagrams, miro boards, wireframes etc. — sometimes a laptop screen can feel claustrophobic

The room setup being weird is the thing that strikes me about this. My desk (probably like many?) is against a wall, not a distance from it. That dead space between back of desk and wall with the projection on it isn’t going to work in many rooms, is it?

I’ve tried this with a cheap projector from Amazon, it almost worked but unfortunately the edges of the screen were too blurry, only central area of the screen was perfect, the projector’s fan was noisy as it generates a lot of heat, and the placement was a bit hard and messy, I didn’t want to drill it and hang it as it was just a test.

Then I’ve tried oculus quest 2 and honestly it might be paranoia but I’ve noticed my near sight dropping too obviously after just couple of sessions.

(2021)

I'm generally interested in alternatives (televisions, HMDs, etc.) to traditional monitors, but I don't see many benefits to the setup described in his post. It would be more interesting if the image were projected onto the ceiling since that can result in a more relaxed posture and is an orientation very difficult to achieve with a monitor.

> Main plus points: Larger viewing surface;

This seems entirely dependent on angular distance. An average desktop monitor would be similar to the setup here.

> Indirect, reflected light is easier on the eyes than a direct, projected one.

Is this true? I'd guess that it is more a matter of overall brightness. I don't think the eye can distinguish between an emitted and reflected photon.

I've considered using my cheap projector as a second monitor, however its fan is so noise I don't think I would endure much time, and even though the resolution is not bad I still feel it adds unnecessary strain focusing to read/write

We have one of these as our 'TV', just projected onto a white wall. The main advantage it has over a large TV is that it's easy to move. Disadvantages are that it is lower resolution, although it's fine for home entertainment. 1080p is on the low end for a productive work monitor.

This particular projector has a very short throw, so you can get a massive screen from just a few feet away. But the larger the screen the less bright it will be and the darker you'll need to make the room, which can limit its use during the day.

It's also a reliable source of heat, which can be an issue depending on the season.

What about the fan noise?

Why not buy an 85” tv? They are dirt cheap and you can place them far. For webcam, I have used my dslr in the past but any webcam works as now Google meet autozooms in on the face

I’d consider energy use. I use a projector for home cinema and it draws more power (over 200W) than I would want to pay for to run for a whole working day.