Display technologies play a very important role in the usage experience of a computer user. Whether it is employing the latest liquid crystal display (LCD) to enhance desktop usage or using cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors to ensure the best gaming experiences possible, using the right display technology is the key to getting the maximum potential out of one’s computer setup.
Projectors have usually been the earmark of corporate presentations and movie enthusiasts primarily because of their relative complexity and high total cost. Only lately have projectors dropped in price and more robustly support various standards and resolutions. Digital light processing (DLP) has been one of the key factors that led to a drop in the price of projectors, at the same time improving their ability to support images of higher resolutions. ViewSonic has been a global leader in both LCD as well as CRT display technologies for quite some time now. With the presence of a strong warranty structure, it has become a brand that is heavily trusted by thousands of computer users across the world.
Portability
The ViewSonic PJ513DB is a portable projector that is designed to be lightweight and easy to install. While the entire package weighs about 3.6 kilograms, the actual projector weighs less than 2.6 kilograms. The projector is very easy to set up and the on-board DLP technology lets it fluidly scale up or down any surface onto which the image is projected. In order to keep it as portable as possible, the projector ships with a minimal number of peripherals. It also comes with a spiffy remote
Controller, one power cable and a lens cap. The remote control allows for different adjustments, ensuring that fiddling around with the PJ513DB’s settings is as easy as possible. The carry bag is also compact and has specific pockets for the projector’s components.
ViewSonic PJ513DB DLP projector
Visuals
The native resolution of 800×600 is a slight letdown, given that most desktop resolution settings comfortably sit at 1024×768. This makes presentations slightly chunky in size, and could prove to be a bit of hassle when downscaling Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to the native resolution. In order to test the visual quality of the PJ513DB, a variety of tests were conducted, each stressing the maximum capability of the projector.
For all tests, the projector was aligned against a white projection sheet at a distance of five meters and lighting was kept at a minimum. First in line was the movie playback test. A DVD copy of Hancock was used for this purpose and the PC was paired up with the Creative Inspire 5.1 surround speaker system. Will Smith’s superhero flick came alive on the screen with crystal clear, cinema-like quality. The colors were rich and the contrasts were deep and natural. The projector’s lower resolution proved to be a non-issue in this case, as it easily scaled the lower resolution of the DVD on to its native resolution with clear results.
Next in line was connecting the PJ513DB with the Xbox 360 at a resolution of 800×600. The VGA cable was used for this purpose, and connectivity was a breeze with Microsoft’s console. It’s always interesting to play next generation games on very large displays as it allows the many small details put in by developers to appear sharper on the screen, bringing to life titles such as Too Human and Assassin’s Creed with aplomb. There was no noticeable lag in fast-moving games either, and the setup worked superbly. The 800×600 resolution did prove to be restrictive, however, and could be disconcerting for high-definition television (HDTV) owners used to clearer moving pictures.
Moving to desktop presentations, PowerPoint and Adobe PDF presentations appeared clear and well formed on the projector. There was no visible irregularity on alphabets and graphical objects, a testament of the strong visual processing engine of the PJ513DB. Overall, the projector did well across all its tests.
Conclusion
The price of the PJ513DB DLP projector makes it a very attractive proposition. Given its portability as well as excellent visual quality, it is hard to say no to such a strong offer. It is, however, difficult to recommend it to HDTV enthusiasts as the native resolution of 800×600, although excellent for its price, is just not high enough for their requirements. For garners, it is imperative that all gaming be done with 4X antialiasing to get the maximum benefit out of the projector.
Movie enthusiasts and corporate presenters are highly recommended to go for the purchase as the PJ513DB is very well-suited to their needs.
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