Search AudioEnz
	Articles
	Current reviews Opinion Music reviews KnowledgeBase Acrobat files
	News
	Current
	Community
	Feedback Forum
	Buying
	Dealer lists Classifieds
	About AudioEnz
	About AudioEnz Contact details Want to review? Privacy policy

The Right Royal Image

Can LCD finally be crowned king of projection?
By Max Christoffersen

April 2001

NEC VT540 LCD video projector $12,995

The king is dead! Long live the King!

Every few months it seems the cry can be heard that LCD is the new King of projection. And as the 21st Century dawns, the reign of CRT projectors is finally over.

But is LCD really better than CRT? There is no doubt that the CRT King is bruised and bloodied, but right now, it is still in charge. But for how much longer is the real question?

And that question was never more relevant than with the arrival of the pint-sized performer, the NEC VT540 LCD projector. It’s not a heavyweight in terms of profile for LCD projection (that is taken by the Sony VW10HT) but it should be. This little NEC has really thrown down a challenge in terms of image quality, flexibility of use, unique features and price point for the LCD class. The NEC 540 really takes it to the heavyweights of LCD projection - and wins.

The NEC is smaller (slightly bigger than an A4 sheet of paper) lighter and easier to use than many other leading LCD machines. And it does it all for less cost. The NEC is bright enough for viewing in a standard Kiwi lounge in high ambient light (afternoon viewing) conditions or with a screen size as big as 100"x 56"!

Under the hood, the 540 is HDTV capable (should we ever see it) and it features NEC's proprietary VORTEX image enhancement system that maximises image quality at or below its native (XGA) resolution. Quite a trick! The NEC will handle both 16x9 and 4:3 DVD images and zoom functions are selected via easy-to-use-intuitive-on-screen menus.

Composite and S-Video are through the normal connectors. RGB and component video are through a VGA connector

There is though, one minor hitch, the NEC will only accept 480p video signals through a single 15-pin VGA port, giving away its corporate office compatibility colours. Standard NTSC, PAL, and SECAM are input through a standard composite RCA or S-video jack.

The VT540 also offers independent brightness and contrast adjustments of red, green, and blue for all sources as well as three factory preset gamma correction settings, "Normal," "Natural 1," and "Natural 2." I preferred the look of Natural 1 which seemed to produce the most accurate flesh tones and softer CRT like image.

One thing that is seldom mentioned in LCD evaluation is running cost. And NEC has addressed this too. At its high light output, the lamp life is 2000 hours. The system has an "economy" setting that reduces brightness to about 700 lumens. This further reduces the already low fan noise and boosts lamp life to 3000 hours. (At a bulb replacement cost of $600+ you need to factor this into any purchase decision).

So what does all this look like? First-up, A Bug's Life is an 'easy image' to project as it has bright vibrant colours with clean edge definition and the NEC certainly showed A Bug's Life at its best. The bugs were extremely detailed and the colours were so vibrant that a comment from the cheap seats suggested it was 'like having the sun on all the time'.

Okay so the 540 does bright and breezy, but how does it deal with dark and difficult? Aliens continues to be a test DVD and the scenes with Ripley and crew walking through the derelict building remain a challenge to reproduce. The NEC did a fair job of presenting an image with depth of field and attention to detail from dark scenes.

But as with all LCD projectors, the problem of blacks appearing to be like a light grey gauze over the projected image was evident. But for all but the most committed of projection enthusiasts, the NEC will deliver on almost all fronts.

These scenes all have a grey screen where there should be black. But to be fair, the overall image was so compelling that the black issue could easily be forgotten as the enjoyment of a projector with such tight focus and superb colours captured the attention.

Overall the image quality, easy-use and image control and flexibility make the NEC 540 a genuine contender fort 'best in class.'

The CRT king may still in charge, but there are now a few genuine heirs to the 'projection throne' and the NEC 540 is easily one of them! You simply must-see this projector in action!

The NEC 540 offers the best LCD projector value available today!

Want to comment on this review? Click here for Feedback