NEC NP-V260X

The back of the NEC NP-V260X ($550 street) is bristling with ports and jacks that make it a good fit for a classroom or conference room?s data projection needs. Though it?s light enough to be easily portable, it?s best suited for use within a school or company rather than being lugged by a road warrior. In our testing, its image quality was decidedly better for data than for video. The DLP-based NP-V260X has an XGA (1,024 by 768) resolution, a 4:3 aspect ratio befitting data presentations. Its brightness is rated at 2,600 lumens.

The NP-V260X, a white projector with rounded corners, measures 3.7 by 12.2 by 9.7 inches (HWD) and weighs a reasonably light 5.5 pounds. Two factors make it less portable than it could be. Unlike most projectors in its weight class, it does not come with a carrying case. It also lacks a port for a USB thumb drive, meaning that it can?t run a standalone presentation and you?ll have to have a computer or other image source on hand for it to connect to (or at least access to a network).

As for connectivity, it does have an HDMI-in port, something we?re seeing in XGA as well as higher-resolution projectors. It also has S-Video, and the three RCA jacks for composite video and audio. There are 2 VGA-in ports for connecting to computers (each with its own audio-in jack) and one VGA-out for a monitor (with an audio-out jack). An Ethernet port for LAN connectivity and an RS232 port for PC control round out the picture.

Data and Video Image Testing

Although at 2,600 lumens of rated brightness, the NP-V260X is slightly dimmer than the similar the 3,000-lumen NEC NP-V300X ($779 direct, 3.5 stars), it?s still bright enough so the image, sized to about 65 inches in a diagonal to fill our test screen, stood up well even under considerable ambient light.

In my data image testing using the DisplayMate suite, the NP-V260X showed reasonably good image quality, and should be more than adequate for use in typical business and educational presentations. There was some color fringing at the borders between very bright and very dark areas, and some minor tinting of white areas. White-on-black type was reasonably sharp except at our smallest test size, which is typical of an XGA projector.

All single-chip DLP projectors are potentially subject to the rainbow effect, in which bright areas seem to break up into little red-green-blue rainbows. People vary in their sensitivity to it. I noticed it in the data test images that tend to bring it out, but wasn?t unduly distracted by it.

Video testing was a different matter. Rainbows were readily apparent in high-contrast test scenes, such as the apocalyptic battle scene at the beginning of Terminator 2. The effect was more pronounced than is usual with DLP projector, and was distracting to me?I seem to be about average in my sensitivity to the effect.? The NP-V260X is okay for short video clips as part of a presentation, but I?d hesitate to use it for longer clips, let alone movies.

Other Issues

The projector?s built-in audio system, which employs a single 7-watt speaker, is loud enough to fill a small conference room, with about average sound quality. The NP-V260X is 3D ready, using DLP Link, though you need active shutter glasses (which cost at least $50 a pair) to view content in 3D.

The NEC NP-V260X provides many more connection choices than most of the less expensive XGA business projectors we?ve looked at; the similarly priced Epson EX5210 Multimedia Projector ($549 direct, 3.5 stars) does add a port for a USB thumb drive as well as a USB port for connecting to a PC. The NEC NP-V300X provides similar features to the NP-V260X but at a higher brightness and price. If you need much higher brightness and better data image quality (and no rainbow effect) in an XGA-resolution projector, consider the Editors? Choice Epson PowerLite 1880 MultiMedia Projector ($1,399 direct, 4 stars). But apart from sticker shock, you?ll also pay a price in reduced portability, as it weighs 7.2 pounds?and like the NP-V260X, it lacks a carrying case. The NEC NP64 ($1,099 direct, 4 stars) is far more portable (3.9 pounds), bright at 3,000 lumens, and does come with a case.

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