Product Reviews

Gone are the days of a grey-suit giving presentations, illustrated with black and white handouts and monochrome overheads. To woo a prospective client these days, your message has to be considerably slicker looking. The fact that we've seen the portable digital projector becoming more prevalent of late isn't, therefore, that surprising. Equally predictable is the increase in the number and type of projectors now available, from the bulky Toshiba TLP510 (reviewed issue 42, p170) to the truly portable InFocus LP420 (reviewed issue 42, p165).

Like the InFocus LP420, the Plus UP-800 is a DLP (digital light processing) projector, built around a Texas Instruments DMD (digital micromirror device). Rather than passing light through LCD cells to generate the projected image, DLP features a different way of processing light. The technology makes use of thousands of microscopic hinged mirrors to reflect light from a metal halide bulb through a rotating coloured wheel.

Thanks to the compact nature of the DLP system and Plus' excellent carry bag design, the UP-800 is very portable. Rather than putting the unit into a protective satchel, the bag wraps securely round it and is neatly closed by means of a zip and a strip of Velcro.

When you've arrived at your destination, accompanied by your laptop and a UP-800, you'll want to get set up as quickly as possible. On the plugs and wires front it's as easy as you'd expect. All you need to do is connect the two devices using the included VGA cable and you're away, but that's not the whole story; because the cost of projectors is still quite high it's likely that in most offices they'll be shared resources. That means a lot of different signals from different computers at different refresh rates and resolutions.

Ideally, we'd expect a projector to latch onto any video signal and adapt itself to make the best and sharpest use of it. This is the case with the UP-800 to a certain extent, but there were some minor glitches. In testing with an IBM ThinkPad, equipped with a NeoMagic MagicGraph 128XD chipset, I found the UP-800's automatic setup feature struggled when the projector was addressed as an external

ADVERTISEMENT

CRT monitor. This resulted in a lot of screen corruption. However, when the notebook was set up in simultaneous LCD and external monitor mode, the projector was perfectly happy. Carrying out the same test on an Evesham Micros Voyager 3500 notebook equipped with a Chips & Technologies chipset proved to be no problem, however.

Once you manage to get an acceptable image from the projector, you can use the two retractable feet at the front to level off the projected. To make best use of the available projection area, the Plus is equipped with a zoom lens, which can be adjusted by moving the sliding collar around the manual focus lens to adjust the size of the image. Of course, the ultimate size of the projected picture is a product of the distance between the wall and the unit, but the zoom is impressively efficient and straightforward to use. It can be used to project images with a diagonal of up to 7.2m in size.

Next under scrutiny is image quality. Again, the automatic setup mode proved a little unsatisfactory. Vertical bands of mild interference were visible, particularly when the screen was filled with text. Switching to manual adjustment lets you tune out the shimmer but it would obviously be preferable not to have to worry about this in a pressured presentation environment. That said, manual adjustment of all the UP-800's features is made easy thanks to an excellent on-screen menu system that's also fully accessible from the easy-to-use remote control.

As for overall consistency, the UP-800 performs well. When using various test patterns, the image was consistent from left to right but revealed slightly darker patches in the bottom corners. Lighter screens tended to develop a slight flicker but this was by no means as noticeable as in the first DLP projector reviewed in PC Pro, the Davis PowerBeam V (reviewed issue 39, p193).

With any projector, running costs shouldn't be underestimated. Replacing the 270W metal halide bulb will cost you £245 a time. Each lasts for a claimed 2,000 hours, although the manual recommends replacement after 1,000 because the bulbs tend to develop inconsistencies or so-called 'hotspots' after this period. This is identical to the bulb life of the InFocus LP420 and makes for reasonable running costs of 26p per hour. To keep track of the bulb's age, the UP-800 keeps count for you and this information is accessible through the on-screen menu system.

Ultimately, the Plus UP-800 is not outstanding. It is well built and compact, but not quite as light as the InFocus LP420. The price is nothing out of the ordinary either. To put it quite simply, at £3,995, the UP-800 doesn't even offer a price advantage over the InFocus LP420, which has recently come down in price to £4,000.