Dr. J. Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector Review

Sometimes you don’t know you need something until you try it. That’s the case with the Dr. J Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector. I had the chance to try it out for this review and discovered how many different ways it could come in handy. These are just so many different ways that it can connect that once you see its clear, large images projected, you start to realize all the ways it could be beneficial.

Setting Up the AK-40

Unboxing

The Dr. J Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector includes the basics of what you will need.

Included in the box are:

• Projector
• User manual
• Simple Projection Screen
• Remote
• AV Cable
• HDMI Cable
• Power Cable

Depending on how you plan to use the projector, there is a good possibility that the cables you need will not be provided. Additionally, two AA batteries are not included for the remote. Confusingly, the manual is marked as a “User manual” but referred to within as “Quickstart Guide” in the manual.

Starting the Projector

Powering It On

The first thing you must do is power on the projector. Start by inserting one end of the power plug into the back of the projector and the other end into a power outlet.

Turn on the I/O switch right above where you inserted the plug. Turn on the projector with the power button on the top of the projector. You will hear a noticeably loud fan, and the light on the front will project across the room.

It’s time for a little confession. I was only getting a blurry light projected instead of the menu. I could not figure out where I was going wrong. I was looking up YouTube videos, searching FAQs, etc. I saw a video removing the lens. It further confused me until I realized that’s not the lens – it’s the lens cap! But it’s clear plastic and not an obvious cap. Make sure you take that off!

Set Up the Wi-Fi

The image above is only blurry because I was so excited to finally get the image on my wall that I bypassed fixing it until later. Click on Setup by using the remote or the buttons on top of the projector. Again, confusingly, the menu doesn’t look like its image in the manual.

Go to “network” in the menu and select “scan.” This will scan for available networks. Select your network from the list, add your password, and it brings you back to the network screen, where you can see all your network information. The rest of the tabs were not needed for basic setup.

Using the Projector

iPhone

I thought I needed to use my iPhone plugged into the Dr. J Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector. Luckily I had a Lightning-to-HDMI dongle, so I used that to connect. Without even thinking about it, at one point, I disconnected my phone to search for content I wanted to display. I learned I could still use it without it being connected.

What I did need to do is select “iOS Cast” on the Dr. J Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector menu, then select “Screen Mirroring” from the Control Center on my iPhone. This displayed my iPhone’s screen on my wall. Alternatively, you could display it on the projector screen.

You can see in the image above that it’s a bit out of focus. There are two dials on the top of the projector where you can dial in the focus and keystone to get a clearer image.

iPad

Working with the iPad worked in much the same way as the iPhone for obvious reasons. Again, it worked wirelessly. Here, you can see how sharp the image became with the proper focus, despite just being displayed on my wall.

I was able to project everything I wanted from my iPad and iPhone. Above is a YouTube video and below is a Facebook Live video. (I had cruising on my mind that night.)

While I only set up the projector to my iPhone and iPad, it can be set up to nearly anything with the ports on the back, although you may need to use your own cables. You can connect it to a computer, gaming system, streaming device, etc.

Projection Screen

Obviously, looking through the images in this review, I did not have a great space to show movies or anything else. That is the largest blank space I have on my walls. For this reason, a large projection screen is provided.

To me, it still wasn’t the best solution. It isn’t much more than a large white sheet. Adhesive tabs and hooks are provided; however, I didn’t want to put these up on my wall inside.

To solve this problem, I hung it up in my garage, which was easy enough to do. It was just a matter of affixing the tabs and hooks to the wall.

It didn’t provide the best experience, however. You can see in the image that the sides of the screen didn’t stay straight. Additionally, I had to lift the bottom of the screen higher than the back to get the image to appear the right way. It could have been helped by having something on the bottom of the projector to adjust for that.

Additionally, for some reason, I could not get YouTube to play. I could inside my house, but not outside in the garage. The image on the screen is another Facebook video. The manual stipulates that the projector can’t show material with a copyright, such as Netflix or Hulu, over USB but that you should be able to over wireless. However, you can beat the clarity. It’s a little difficult to see, however, as this time I was viewing it in the daytime.

I was able to do it with wireless inside but not outside.

Specifications

Here are a few of the necessary specifications.

Display Technology	LCD
Native Resolution	1920 x 1080p
Light	LED
Projector Distance	1m to 9m
Aspect Ratio	4:3/16:9
Audio File	WMA, MP3, M4A (AAC)
Picture File	JPEG, BMP, PNG
Video File	MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, RM, AVIRMVB, MOV, MKV, DIVX, VOB, M-JPEG

Final Thoughts

In rating the Dr. J Professional AK-40 Wi-Fi Projector, I decided to discard the idea of the projection screen, as I feel it takes away from the great experience with the projector. The picture quality, I felt, was amazing. And once I got past the lens cap, it really couldn’t have been easier to set up and can be used in so many, many different ways.