Display Review — NEC HT1000

The HT1000 acknowledges an emerging trend by taking video qualityseriously.

NEC’s HT1000 XGA projector is committed more to perfect colorsand deep blacks than high brightness, making it a true videoprojector.

It's hard to get too excited about many 7lb. projectors these days.For a time, a little more brightness and a little more contrast mightbest dozens of similar competitors, but incremental improvements hardlystir the senses. What's more, the hottest projectors these days are thetwo-pounders, right? Wrong! If you're a video person, one of thecoolest projectors is NEC's new 7.1lb. HT1000.

That HT stands for “home theater,” and NEC indeedmarkets this unit for residential use. But the XGA-resolution HT1000 isan affordable video projector that NEC sees just as comfortablysolving the business entertainment needs of nightclubs, museums,schools, and arcades. And while NEC has made plugging and playing easyfor home users, the company hasn't skimped on any of the fine-tuningand administrative features that pro A/V installers will surely demand— even while besting some visually comparable models by atwo-to-one price margin.

As competitive as the projector business has been, good video hasbeen surprisingly hard to come by without spending big money on a largepiece of equipment. Composite and S-Video inputs are an easy add-on foralmost all projectors, but the lucrative, if staid, business of showingPowerPoint slides and spreadsheet graphs is looking for lumens, notde-interlacing. Video people have had to take what they've been given.Thankfully, that's changing.

Several projectors in this size class now incorporate Faroudja'sDCDi de-interlacing technology, helping to minimize motion artifacts.Colors are more accurate and contrast ratios — essential to richvideo — are improving across the board. Contrast ratios havebecome particularly strong in DLP-based projectors.

Still, the deep blacks and perfect colors essential for video oftenrun contrary to that paramount data-projector quest for morebrightness. For example, most data-oriented DLP color wheels have aclear section dedicated to increasing brightness, and it's often largerthan the red, green, and blue sections. In extreme cases, the clearsection is larger than the three color sections combined. It's good forbrightness, but not for accurate video.

The HT1000, on the other hand, uses a color wheel with six equalsections of red, green, and blue (two each) in front of TexasInstruments' latest DDR version of the DLP micro-mirror device. Throwin NEC's gimmicky-or-not Vortex and SweetVision marketing names, andthe result is top-notch color reproduction, heretofore the domain ofhigher-priced three-panel LCD units. Add Faroudja's DCDi, componentinputs, excellent video scaling, a 10-bit video decoder, and some veryrich blacks and dark grays, and you've got an affordable projector thatfinally lives up the title of video projector.

NEC has opted for a native 4:3 aspect ratio in the HT1000(1024×768), and that bucks a minor trend for home-theater usersexpecting superior widescreen HD video. Here, widescreen resolutiondrops to a less mathematically perfect 1024×576, although the unitscales to support 16:9, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, and all HDTV resolutions. Thisisn't a bad choice overall. First, there's no worrying about qualityfrom an HD source into the HT1000, at least not at this price point,because NEC's scaling doesn't give much away. More importantly, 4:3 isstill by far the dominant display ratio for today's content. That'strue for sports, cable movies, and other television for home viewing— but more to the point for likely commercial entertainmentusers.

NEC certainly isn't targeting home use with the Kensington lockfeature that physically locks down all projector functions. Cabinetcontrols can also be locked out should the unit need to be placed in apublic area. Then, for all setup operations, an A/V professional woulduse the remote — or a network connection (via an optional PC cardadapter) — for remote computer access to primary projectoroperations, limited setup controls, and a maintenance monitor.

An entertainment venue or club can store a company logo onboard foruse as a startup or input-idle splash screen. There is also a digitalphoto viewer for movie theater-style advertisements.

The HT1000 also has excellent projector orientation controls,including both vertical and horizontal keystone correction. If you'rein widescreen “screen” mode and thus not utilizing theentire vertical resolution, you can shift the frame up or down. Thereis even a “cornerstone” — effectively a diagonalkeystone — feature for projecting a straight image from aparticularly awkward angle. In fact, the drill-down menu options foradjusting image, colors, positioning, screen size, etc., are sothorough that NEC is running the risk of baffling consumers. But it's aboon for commercial entertainment.

Unlike data projectors, for which brightness is king, videoprojectors must seek balance. Since video viewing is often done in aclosed, controlled environment, high brightness isn't nearly asimportant as it would be in a sun-filled conference room. It can evendetract from the proper mood when watching a movie at home or asporting event in a nightclub. (Of course, Sunday afternoon footballmay have to fight ambient sunlight, making too-dark projectorsineffective.)

NEC solves that potential problem through its EcoMode technology,which has had modest appeal in the bright-as-can-be world of dataprojection. It fits nicely here. EcoMode turns down the lamp, loweringbrightness and saving lamp life when the extra brightness is unwantedor simply unnecessary. EcoMode also offers the distinct advantage ofquieting the fan noise to an almost inaudible level.

The HT1000 is rated at 1000 ANSI lumens at full power, and Iactually measured slightly more than that: 1048 lumens. Switch toEcoMode and the rating drops down to 800 ANSI lumens (I measured analmost spot-on 811 lumens). More importantly, I actually preferred thelower brightness in a dark room set up for movie watching, althougheach room, bar, nightclub, or other venue will be different. But that'sa good reason for the option.

The HT1000 did well in the rest of the bench tests. Colors were veryaccurate. Uniformity of 94% is very solid, although I measured a moremiddling 85% uniformity in EcoMode. And while I didn't follow whatevertesting methodology produced NEC's claimed 3000:1 contrast ratio, bythe ANSI checkerboard I did measure a strong 260:1 ratio, 226:1 inEcoMode. Color temperature across a range of grayscale colors varied byless than 700 degrees K, a far smaller amount than most projectorsoffer.

A good deal of what makes the HT1000 such an effective videoprojector is technology that NEC has licensed and incorporated into theunit, like DCDi and TI's best DLP effort yet for video. Therefore, I'dexpect other companies to produce similarly impressive products.

However, there's no denying that NEC has incorporated some of itsown technology, including color balancing and the optical engine, toproduce a very high-caliber model. And NEC has put it on the market ata solid price. Until someone else can beat the quality and price, HTmight as well mean “hello there.”

Company: NEC Technologies Itasca, Ill.
(800) NEC-INFO
www.necvisualsystems.com

Product: HT1000

Assets: Good contrast and excellent color reproduction,thanks in part to TI's latest DDR version of the DLP micro-mirrordevice; many security options; Faroudja's DCDi de-interlacingtechnology helps minimize motion artifacts; EcoMode lengthens lamp lifeand cuts noise.

Demographic: A/V pros who outfit closed, controlledenvironments like arcades, nightclubs, and museums for videoprojection.

Price: $5,495

To comment on this article, email the Video Systems editorialstaff at vsfeedback@primediabusiness.com.