Latest Reviews
 |  | | Posted: 08/12/08 | | 'ATTRACTIVE DESIGN AND SOLID PERFORMANCE' | | Strengths:
The curves and elegant design of Hitachi's PJ-TX200 are complimented by an opulent high-gloss finish, extravagant grilles and an stylish colour scheme.
The projector's connections are solid enough, featuring the de rigeur HDMI and component jacks for high-definition duties, plus a PC jack, the usual S video/ composite video stuff, and a 12V trigger jack.
Distinguishing features
The TX200's LCD panels deliver a 1280 x 720 native resolution and, according to Hitachi's specifications, a contrast ratio of 7000:1. This is achieved via a dynamic iris system, whereby the projector continually assesses the content of the source image, and adjusts how much light the iris lets out accordingly. Note that while it's not exactly a ‘cheat' method, this system means you'll only get even close to the 7000:1 contrast ratio maximum by sacrificing quite a bit of brightness during dark scenes.
The lens arrangement Hitachi has used for the TX200 is a so-called Super ED array, consisting of four ultra-low dispersion and aspherical lenses. This system allegedly delivers exceptional colour toning and fine detail, as well as, hopefully, reducing the appearance of the grid-like ‘chicken wire effect' witnessed on many lesser LCD projectors.
Also worth a mention is an impressive selection of gamma and iris adjustments, together with 10-bit digital image processing delivering a claimed 1.07 billion colours. Who's counting, though?
Performance
The TX200 is one of the finest affordable HD Ready LCD projector available. For starters, by LCD standards its black level really is outstanding. With the auto iris function active, dark scenes suffer far less with the greying over, flatness and lack of detail common to LCD projectors.
Colours, meanwhile, also outstrip practically every other LCD projector we've seen. They combine the extreme vibrancy and brightness common to LCD with a naturalism and subtlety of tone that's anything but common to LCD.
LCD can usually be depended on for providing plenty of sharpness and fine detailing, and the TX200 certainly doesn't disappoint. The clarity and texture evident in a HD broadcast, for example, is done exceptional justice by the TX200, as every last detail is resolved without serious accompanying dot crawl or grain. The TX200's sharpness makes it arguably the finest PC machine here, too.
What's more, the TX200's sharpness is achieved even while its lens arrangement does a mostly excellent job of suppressing LCD's pixel grid structure.
| | Weaknesses:
A concern about the TX200 is that using the projector's ‘Auto2' iris mode can cause the picture's brightness to leap about quite distractingly. So avoid it! | | Overall:
There's no doubt that the TX200 is one of the finest LCD HD Ready projectors, and well worth considering if you want a machine that's as accomplished with PCs as it is movies. Nice one Hitachi. |
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| | | | Performance | | 80% | | Build | | 100% | | Value | | 80% |
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| | | Posted: 30/01/08
Updated: 11/12/08 | | 'Budget price projector that looks attractive and performs s' | | Strengths:
There are quite a few features that I really liked about the projector. It had a pretty good start-up time at under 30 seconds and an equally impressive shutdown time which was close to 40 seconds. The performance was very silent, with no fan noise even in a completely quiet environment.
Having a easily navigable menu system was another plus point for the MP611c. All the options were easily accessible, which made the initial setup a breeze. The zoom and focus functionality was found on the same ring that encapsulates the projection lens, which was, once again, convenient to use. The thing is that the MP611c was extremely easy to set up thanks to its easy accessibility. | | Weaknesses:
I selected VGA input to play movies on the MP611c, primarily because compared to composite and S-Video (my other alternatives), the VGA input would give me the purest quality, and sure enough, the image was, to an extent, impressive. The black levels were considerably deep but though colors stood out pretty well they lacked a certain vibrance in parts that required it. Don't get me wrong, the image quality wasn't dull, but when you're pampered with the kind of lively colors from flat panel TVs these days, these drawbacks do stand out a bit more.
| | Overall:
The BenQ MP611c DLP projector may be available at a budget price, but it definitely doesn't look like one. It's 10.9x3.7x8.7 inch size makes it considerably small in size and the 2.68kg weight is not too heavy to carry either. It's top portion has the shiny plastic finish like the PS3 and just about every consumer electronic these days.
The top section also has all the controls like power, directional buttons, menu, source etc. along with three light indicators for Power, Temperature and Lamp.
The MP611c supports a native resolution of 800x600 (SVGA) and a maximum resolution of 1280x1024 (SXGA), which means that it's best for standard definition resolution when it comes to video formats. It has composite and s-video inputs, so you can directly plug-in your DVD player or your digital cable TV connection.
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| | | | Performance | | 60% | | Build | | 60% | | Value | | 80% |
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