NEC's latest projector is designed for mobile business users and education. It's not the smallest or lightest projector, nor are its features market-leading, but it does sport an attractive iPod-like white-and-grey enclosure and produces good image quality overall. It comes with some neat features too, including two height adjustment levers, automatic and manual vertical keystone correction, a colour management system that lets you adjust the colours in an image individually, and an Eco Mode that helps to keep down operating costs and energy consumption. The MultiSync VT670 is worth a look if you're looking for a good balance between value, portability, and performance for general business usage. Video buffs and frequent travellers will be better served elsewhere.

Pros: Stylish design; bright; software lock; colour management system
Cons: No Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; poor geometry; lots of video noise


The MultiSync VT670 (93x260x294mm, 2.9kg) sits at the top end of NEC's entry-level range of business projectors. The LCD unit has a native resolution of 1024x768 pixels (XGA), a brightness of 2100 ANSI lumens from a 180-Watt lamp, contrast ratio of 400:1 and operating volume of 35dB (30dB in Eco Mode). NEC claims a typical lamp life of up to 2000 hours, or up to 3000 hours in Eco Mode. Replacement lamps cost £283 (ex. VAT). The specifications are only moderate, but they should be more than adequate for general business users and teachers.

NEC supplies the MultiSync VT670 with a power cable, RGB signal cable, Quick Setup Guide, CD-ROM containing driver software and an online manual, as well as a soft black carrying case. You also get a matching remote control, two AAA batteries, an infrared remote mouse receiver, tethered lens cover, and a carrying handle that screws to the bottom of the projector (two screws supplied). Unusually, the MultiSync VT670 also includes a pull-out air filter that helps to keep dust and dirt from getting inside the projector. The filter needs to be replaced every 100 hours of operation (more often in dusty conditions) to prevent the projector from overheating. NEC doesn't supply any replacement filters.

The projector is compatible with NTSC, PAL, SECAM, and HDTV (576p, 720p and 1080i) video formats. The lens' 4:3 aspect ratio doesn't support a 16:9 format, so may not appeal to those who playback a lot of DVD-Movies. Connectivity options are more accommodating, comprising two 15-pin VGA ports, S-Video and composite video ports, as well an infrared port. There's also dual audio input options as well as a digital audio input port (S/PDIF) - along with a built-in 1-Watt mono speaker - so you don't have to drive audio from your laptop or external A/V source. NEC also provides a PS/2 port for connecting a wired mouse, but there's no DVI input, USB port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or even a NIC.

Other key features of the MultiSync VT670 include two height adjustment levers, automatic and manual vertical keystone correction, a colour management system that lets you adjust the colours in an image individually, an Eco Mode that helps to keep down operating costs and energy consumption, an innovative manual wall colour correction tool that adapts images to the colour of a projection surface, as well as a cool-down time of just 20 seconds.

The MultiSync VT670 can also be programmed with an off-timer function to turn off automatically within a time period between 30 minutes and 8 hours. NEC hasn't forget about security either and includes a Kensington security lock for attaching the projector to a non-removable item (cable lock not supplied) and a software security feature that lets you password protect your configuration settings.

In out tests the MultiSync VT670 performed very well when projecting general office applications and digital photos from a laptop as well as from other video sources (a DVD player, Xbox, and DV camcorder). The unit's rated brightness level of 2100 ANSI lumens is also bright enough to view comfortably in a general working environment. Graphics, images and movies were also impressive, with good contrast and brightness levels and greyscale levels.

The MultiSync VT670 did not perform flawlessly, however. For instance, it took us quite a while to set the screen up correctly (the automatic keystone correction was useless), and the projector's geometry was below par. In particular, long lines didn't appear straight and the focus varied across the projected image. For instance, with a test image that displayed a screen full of white squares, a large number of squares appeared grey and fuzzy. We also noticed a considerable amount of noise on our video tests. Colours were really bright however, making the unit suitable for business presentations and classrooms.

Links:
MultiSync VT670 Web site

About our tests:
To test imaging devices BIOS uses DisplayMate Technologies' DisplayMate, a software utility for adjusting, setting up, calibrating, tuning, testing, evaluating and improving image and picture quality on displays. It's designed to help us achieve the highest possible image and picture quality on any type of computer monitor, projector, TV or HDTV, with support for analogue and digital CRT, LCD, DLP, LCoS and plasma technologies. BIOS uses the software to check every aspect of a display's performance, including sharpness and contrast, colour and greyscale accuracy, as well as screen geometry. Where possible, we always use a digital connection for image quality purposes.

BIOS, Sep 09, 04 | Print | Send | Comments (0) | Posted In Projector