AWOL Vision Aetherion Max Review

Introduction

I’m a big fan of UST projectors, having swapped out a TV for a 100-inch screen and the AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro. As good as that set-up is, there are a few little niggling things about it, so I was keen to give the replacement, the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max, a try.

Smaller, sharper and able to sit closer to the screen, the new projector has fewer compromises while delivering a stunning viewing experience. Is it time you ditched a TV? Read my full review to find out.

Design

• Motorised lens cover
• Three HDMI 2.1 inputs

As good as the LTV-3500 Pro was, it was quite a large, box-like projector. More functional than a slick modern device designed to sit in a living room. The AWOL Vision Aetherion Max immediately fixes that: it’s sleeker, smaller and lighter than its predecessor, taking up a lot less room.

There’s a brand-new lens assembly, too, with a throw ratio of just 0.2:1 vs the 0.25:1 of the LTV-3500 Pro. It might not sound like much, but the difference is big in my living room. With the LTV-3500 Pro, I had to pull the TV cabinet out quite a way from the wall to fill a 100-inch screen; with the Aetherion Max, the cabinet is just a couple of inches from the wall.

With this throw ratio, the projector needs to be 6.2 inches from the screen to get a 100-inch image. Overall, that lets the Aetherion Max fit more naturally into the living room without it protruding into everyday life (metaphorically and literally).

Looking around the projector, there are a few other big changes. First, there’s now a mechanical lens cover that slides over the glass when the projector turns off. That’s good, as this cover prevents hair and dust from settling on the lens.

With UST projectors, anything that settles on the lens is dramatically enhanced on screen, and I’d often find odd distortion patterns on the LST-3500 Pro thanks to cat hair. Now, I have fewer problems like this, and I only occasionally need to clean the lens.

At the back of the projector are the inputs, with three HDMI 2.1 inputs, one of which supports eARC. There’s also a USB-C DisplayPort input for connecting a laptop or tablet.

I would have preferred one more HDMI input, as I ran out of ports: Sky Q, Sonos ARC and a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player are my fill, so I have to swap cables around when I want to use the PS5.

This level of ports is pretty standard for a projector of this type, but TVs generally have more.

With the previous projectors, AWOL Vision provided media streaming via a supplied Amazon Fire TV Stick that plugged into a hidden compartment at the back. With this new model, you get Google TV built in. Overall, it’s a neater solution, although there is a restriction that I’ll come to later.

The power button has been moved to the side, replacing the touch-sensitive button on top of the old one. That’s a little change that may seem of no significance to most, but it’s one that I appreciate: I have a cat that loves to jump up onto the projector, and would turn the LTV-3500 Pro on by accident.

Most of the time, you’ll use the Bluetooth remote, which has an integrated microphone for activating Google’s voice assistant. It’s a nice remote: clean and simple, backlit, and with shortcut buttons to launch YouTube, Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.

Features

• Runs Google TV
• Needs to be manually aligned

Rather than running a basic operating system for image adjustment, with streaming handled by a Fire TV Stick, the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max runs Google TV. That’s not a huge surprise, and Google TV powers the majority of smart projectors that I’ve reviewed, including AWOL Vision’s sister brand’s Valerion VisionMaster Pro 2.

The advantage is a simpler setup process with everything in one place, and you can even use your phone to connect your Google Account. Google TV works here as it does elsewhere: it has a large, simple interface with apps neatly laid out, and it works smoothly on this projector.

You get all of the apps that you’d expect, except BBC iPlayer. There’s a licensing issue between the BBC and Google, and nothing that AWOL Vision (or, indeed, other projector manufacturers) can do about it. It’s a frustrating problem, and means you’ll need another source if you want these apps (I have to use my Sky Q box when I want to watch iPlayer).

Most smart projectors have automatic setup routines to get a square picture, but the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max does not. Instead, you need to manually get a square picture by physically adjusting the image, with manual keystone correction available if you do need to finetune the image.

Avoiding digital correction makes for a better picture overall, even if it is more fiddly. And, it is more fiddly.

With the keystone correction box on-screen, acting as a guide, the projector needs to be rotated left and right to line it up, and its feet can be adjusted to tilt the projector to get a square picture.

It’s worth paying attention to the screen, too. I’ve got a fixed 100-inch screen, but the wall of my Victorian home it’s mounted on is far from straight, so the screen needs to be adjusted on its mounts to level it, and I need a small wedge in the centre to keep the screen from bowing. It’s a lot of manual fiddling and gentle moving to get everything lined up.

With everything square, there’s then manual focus to take care of. The on-screen display has concentric boxes in each corner, and your job is to get each one in focus. As the projector sits so close to the screen, the focus is slightly harder to get right than on the LTV-3500 Pro, and needs some finetuning to get it spot on.

There’s quite a bit of time involved in getting the main image right, and should someone knock the projector, the image gets thrown off, and you’ll need to manually readjust the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max again.

I think it’s worth it, but if you don’t want any hassle and just want a perfect, aligned image from the start, a UST projector is not for you.

The AWOL Vision Aetherion Max takes many of its menus and features from the Valerion line-up. There are multiple picture modes including Standard, Sports, Game, Cinema and Filmmaker modes, plus HDR content gets its own modes. 

For HDR10 there’s HDR Standard, HDR Bright and HDR Dark, while Dolby Vision gets Dolby Vision Custom, Dolby Vision Bright and Dolby Vision Dark. I found that the standard or custom versions were best, with the Dark and Bright options causing the projector to omit a high-pitched buzz.

Apparently, this is caused by the Anti-RBE (rainbow effect) technology, which is activated in certain modes. A firmware update that will allow this feature to be turned off is being developed, but for now, it’s a curious and slightly annoying bug.

Once a mode has been selected, there are loads of additional options to cycle through. Enhanced Black Level is worth turning on; it adjusts the laser power based on the current scene to improve contrast.

There’s also an option to adjust the iris. The default mode has the iris fully open for maximum brightness, but I like the first setting, which adjusts the iris to enhance dark scenes at the expense of a bit of brightness.

Dolby Vision content is adjusted on a per-scene basis, according to the metadata, but if you have other HDR content, there’s an option to use the tone mapping option, which really helps bring out detail in the mid-range. For completeness, there’s also IMAX Enhanced built in.

There are dedicated Filmmaker and IMAX modes built in. With the Content Type Auto Detection, the projector can switch to the right mode if the content has the corresponding tags.

I’d skip the Brightness Enhancer option; it adds an odd colour cast to the image without really making it brighter. Plus, it comes with a warning that this can reduce laser backlight life.

I quite like the Low options for AI Contrast and AI Super Resolution. The former brings out a bit more detail across the image, and the latter gently sharpens without overprocessing the image.

There’s then a full colour tuner to go through, so you can have this projector fully calibrated.

As with the Valerion range, there’s an AI menu, which brings up the option for AI Scene, which adapts picture quality automatically (I’m not a huge fan and turned it off); Dark Detail, to enhance dark parts of the image; and Super Resolution to boost sharpness (I left both on, but see how you get on).

Finally, there’s motion compensation, which I left on on its lowest setting, as it can just take out a bit of jerkiness from some footage.

Picture Quality

• Very bright image
• Super sharp
• Excellent colour reproduction

The AWOL Vision LTV-3500 Pro was bright (3000 ISO Lumen), but the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max is even brighter at 3300 ISO Lumen. That’s the kind of brightness that means this projector can be watched in the day, with curtains open, making it a real TV replacement.

But, as I’ll come to, this level of brightness is also built for the searing highlights of some HDR content: something that projectors often struggle with.

As is common for a projector like this, it’s a DLP model, using a 0.47-inch DMD chip, which has a native resolution of 1920×1080 (Full HD). XPR technology is used to shift the sensor four times per second to build up a 4K image.

With a good base resolution, XPR works perfectly, and the final image looks as sharp here as it does on a TV with a native 4K resolution. Even small text is sharp.

Overall sharpness is better here than with the LTV-3500 Pro. That’s down to a new DLP controller, the new sapphire glass lens assembly, and AWOL Vision’s PixelLock that maintains individual pixel stability.

New to this model is the anti-RBE technology, which helps reduce the rainbow effect. As noted above, this turns on automatically for some picture modes, but causes the projector to emit a high-pitched buzz. I haven’t particularly noticed a bad rainbow effect even with the feature turned off.

Image quality is beautiful across the board, and a step up from even that of the LTV-3500 Pro. With the brightness on offer here, HDR scenes that thrive on peak brightness work well here.

In Deadpool vs Wolverine, the ‘flame on’ scene bursts off the screen and almost hurts your eyes, as it should. But, the level of detail in the Human Torch’s face is spot on. This is the cinematic experience that a projector should be able to deliver.

In purely dark scenes, the level of detail that the projector can resolve is impressive, with a claimed 6000:1 native contrast ratio (up from 1500:1 on the LTV-3500 Pro). The baby ape’s face from the start of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is resolved perfectly, with each line visible and even strands of air.

As the funeral progresses, there is a high-contrast scene, which the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max handles brilliantly. The flames of the funeral pyre burn bright, but the apes in the foreground can all be seen clearly; cheaper projectors tend to be able to show one or the other, but not both.

This scene also shows what a good job the image processing does. Look carefully at the ash flying from the fire, and it’s sharp and clear; most projectors end up slightly blurring this detail.

Similarly, the running wheel scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is shown with the brightness of the wheel, but the shadow detail is resolved right to the back of the frame.

Colours are brilliant: rich where needed but clean and realistic, giving a refined appearance. 

Fast motion and panning prove to be no issue, as you can tell from the image below of the eagle grabbing a fish. There’s intentional motion blur but no judder or tearing in the image.

When used for regular TV, the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max will have to deal with some lower-quality images. For example, rewatching Poirot, the projector had to deal with a 4:3, SD image. 

This kind of content makes you realise how far TV has come, but the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max does a pretty good job with it. There’s noise in the image (from the source), but the upscaling is pretty good, all things considered.

I did find that Sky Q UHD images, in particular, benefited from the colour enhancement feature; they looked a little washed out. With this mode turned on, content, such as football, looked great.

The AWOL Vision Aetherion Max supports Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), with support for AMD FreeSync. Turning this feature on locks the projector to 1080p and disables 4K inputs, but gives you a refresh rate of up to 240Hz.

It’s really a question of what you want. For me, on my PS5, I’d rather have a 4K image, which is smooth enough for the types of games I’m playing, rather than dropping down resolution.

There’s also Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM). Turn this on in your games console and the projector will automatically switch to its Game mode (input lag of 1ms at 4K, according to AWOL Vision).

Sound Quality

• Loud, clear audio
• Expandable to full surround sound

Audio is provided by two 25W full-range drivers and two 20W tweeters. It’s a decent mix, and firmly pushes the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max into high-end TV quality. There’s enough bass to do soundtracks justice, and clear audio for speech.

Stereo separation isn’t quite there, as there’s not enough space between the speakers, but that’s to be expected. At this price, I’d definitely pair the projector with a full surround sound system. 

You can do this via the HDMI eARC output, but the AWOL Vision Aetherion Max is also compatible with the AWOL Vision ThunderBeat 4.1.2 system, with the projector taking over centre speaker duties.

Should you buy it?

FAQs

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