The Class of 2000
Will this group of projector graduates be able to cut it in the real world? Find out which projectors scored well on our standardized tests and which may need to head back to school.
By Peter H. Putman

From Video Systems Magazine, October 2000

 

 

 

 


NEC MultiSync VT540
Mitsubishi LVP-X400U
Hard to believe that it’s October already, but the fourth quarter — traditionally the big roll-out month for new projectors first shown at INFOCOMM — is upon us. With it comes a never-ending parade of new models, ranging from featherweight designs to full-featured installation projectors. Trying to pick one that suits your needs is not an easy task.

As usual, I picked 11 models that I saw in Anaheim that looked interesting. All of the review units were either shipping at the time of this review or now are on their way to dealers.

The ultraportable category always draws a crowd, and was represented by InFocus’ Lite Pro 335, Proxima’s UltraLight DX-3, Toshiba’s TLP-B2, and Hitachi’s CP-S220W. Each of these projectors weighs five pounds or less, and three of them use XGA imaging devices (the CP-S220W is the lone SVGA entry in this review).

Desktop projectors are nearly as popular, and five of them make up this category, although three are borderline ultraportables. Mitsubishi’s LVP-X400 leads the way, followed by Sanyo’s PLC-XP20N, Sony’s VPL-CX10, Panasonic’s PT-L711U, and NEC’s MultiSync VT540. The latter three projectors actually weigh less than 10 pounds, but have slightly larger housings (and feature sets) than the ultraportables listed.

Finally, I took a look at the installation market with Sharp’s XG-V10WU and Barco’s BarcoReality 6400DLC. The Sharp projector is brand-new, while the 6400DLC has been in the product line for almost a year. Neither of these boxes could be considered anything but installation or “roll-around cart” products because they both weigh more than 40 pounds. In an unusual twist, the LCD panels in both entrants are Sony’s 1280x1024 polysilicon types.

Panasonic PT-L711U
Proxima Ultralight DX3

The drill

All projectors were put through a pretty intensive test cycle. First, each model was allowed to warm up for 20 minutes. The RGB inputs were calibrated using a combination of Kayye Consulting DisplayMate and Extron Electronics test patterns, while the video inputs were set up with Joe Kane’s Video Essentials calibration DVD.

Next, I took measurements for ANSI brightness, contrast, uniformity, and color temperature. Each projector’s zoom lens was set to its mid-point for these tests (the only reasonable way to measure light output) and the factory default color temperature setting was used with one exception — I set the Barco projector to its D6500K option, rather than its Projector White factory setting.

A variety of fine text patterns from an Extron VTG-200 generator, spreadsheets and Projection Shoot-Out7 CD-ROM test patterns, were used to evaluate lens quality and each projector’s autosync function. Autosync is a circuit that goes by many different names and should correctly resize and center different input signals to fit the available native resolution of the projector.

Last but not least, I took a critical look at each projector’s video quality, using Video Essentials and test DVDs, including The Fifth Element, Austin Powers 2, and a James Taylor concert DVD. For those projectors with HD compatibility, I used a Sencore 996 server and Panasonic TU-DST50 DTV tuner to look at a variety of 1080i programs. S-Video and component YCbCr/YPbPr were used for video and switched through an Extron Electronics 128HX Crosspoint component switcher.

Next: Out of the box




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