Technology News

As vendors find new ways to outdo each other with their desktop NAS devices, we’ve watched their products get bigger, faster, and heavier with more and more disk bays. Synology’s latest DS409slim shows that size isn’t everything, as this new four-drive device fits in the palm of your hand and is probably the smallest of its kind in the world.

Measuring a tiny 106 x 120 x 142 mm (W x H x D), the DS409slim takes advantage of 2.5-inch small form factor (SFF) hard drives and accommodates a quartet of them in hot-swappable Straps located at the back. The smaller drives consume less power than their 3.5-inch counterparts and in turn generate less heat, so cooling requirements can be reduced.

It is worth noting that there is a 6 cm fan under the device, which is thermally controlled. We ran tests on a pair of WD Scorpio Blue 250GB SATA drives and over a two week period we didn’t notice the fan ever turning on. In fact, the device always felt cool to the touch, so it’s fair to say that the DS409slim is virtually silent.

Although the device’s control board is tiny, it still offers decent specs and features a 1.2GHz Marvell 6281 processor combined with 128MB of DDR2 memory. Networking looks good, as you’ll find a Gigabit Ethernet port on the back and eSATA and USB 2.0 ports on top, as well as another USB 2.0 port on the front.

The power button is on the left side and it has a light blue status LED. Below that is a copy button and pressing it sends the contents of a storage device plugged into the front USB port to a pre-defined folder on the appliance.

Installation is handled smoothly by the included wizard utility, which locates the appliance on the network and offers to set up a system partition on the drives and download the Linux kernel from the CD-ROM. You then switch to browser management, where you’re greeted by the nifty Ajax-based Disk Station Manager, which we think is one of the best-designed NAS interfaces — in fact, it’s even better than that of Netgear’s ReadyNAS appliances.

Your first task is to create a RAID array, and you can choose from JBODs, Mirrors, Stripes, RAID5 with or without a hot spare, and even redundant RAID6 with two drives. For performance testing, we chose a high-speed RAID0 stripe that took only a few minutes to create.

Where you go from here is entirely up to you, and there’s a huge range of options, as the DS409slim is packed with all the features that Synology’s larger devices offer. Windows, Linux and Mac clients are on the guest list and access can be secured via a local user and group database or AD authentication. You can limit the storage space they can use by applying quotas, and for FTP services you can use encrypted transfers and set bandwidth usage limits for uploads and downloads.

The Surveillance Station looks useful as the appliance is licensed out of the box to record feeds from up to five IP cameras such as those from Axis, Panasonic and Vivotek. We tested this with an Axis 216FD and were able to view its live feed via the separate web interface, record continuously or on a schedule to the default monitor directory on the appliance and also apply motion detection.

For multimedia, you have the ubiquitous iTunes server and you can password protect your music folder and create smart playlists on the device. Add Synology’s optional remote receiver plus a pair of certified USB speakers, and Audio Station can be used to play music straight from the device. You can use Photo Station 3 to store your images on the device and publish them on the web, and the interface for this includes a blog function that can be accessed securely over HTTPS.

You can run your own website from the appliance as it comes with an Apache web server along with PHP and the latest MySQL. Backup capabilities are plentiful as the appliance can manage jobs that back up data from one local folder to another or to an external USB storage device.

Data can also be backed up to another Synology appliance or another rsync-compatible appliance over the network. For workstation backup, you get a copy of Synology’s Data Replicator 3, and after a full backup is complete, it monitors selected sources and backs up new or changed files in real time.

The DS409slim may be small, but it’s capable, with copies of a 2.52GB video clip to and from a dual 2.8GHz Xeon X5560 Broadberry CyberServe capable of respectable read and write speeds of 43MB/s and 36 MB/s delivers. FTP speeds were in the same range, with the FileZilla client reporting speeds of 48MB/s and 36MB/s, respectively.

“‘Verdict”‘

The Synology DS409slim is one of the most impressive desktop NAS appliances we’ve seen so far this year. You pay a small premium for this miniaturization, but this device is small, quiet, fairly fast, and packed to the brim with features.

(middle)””Synology Assistant will find the appliance for you and provide a quick link to the Smart Disk Station Manager interface””(/middle)

(middle)”‘Surveillance Station allows viewing and recording feeds from multiple IP cameras on the appliance”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘Two separate utilities are provided to automate the process of downloading FTP, HTTP and BitTorrent files to the appliance.”‘(/middle)

(middle)”‘The included Data Replicator 3 provides workstation backup and real-time protection for selected files and folders”‘(/middle)

(middle)””FTP services are different and you can use the DS409slim to host your own website.””(/middle)

A color laser printer for under €150 is still a pretty rare beast, and Konica Minolta’s Magiccolour 1600W is aimed at the student and home office markets, according to the company. This makes it a direct competitor for some higher specification inkjet printers, so why go down the color laser route?

The answers are usually print cost and speed, and we’ll look at those two aspects a little later. This is a fairly small printer for a color laser, but a tad larger than a typical single-function inkjet printer – more the size of an all-in-one.

Finished in black and cream, the printer looks very neat when closed, but to print from it you have to open the top cover, which becomes the output tray, and the front cover, which then doubles as the paper input tray, holding up to 250 sheets – there is no multi-purpose feed. There’s also no cover for the paper when the tray is open, so you should probably tuck the paper away and close the device when you’re not printing to avoid dust settling on the paper.

The control panel consists of Ready, Error, and Low Toner lights for each of the four colors. There’s a button to cancel jobs and another one that says “Rotate Toner,” which is the first clue that this device uses a carousel-based laser engine.

The carousel mechanism means there is only one imaging drum and each of the four colors is applied to it by rotating its toner cartridge into position. These mechanisms tend to be cheaper to produce, but the technique means each color image has to be built up in four steps, which takes about four times as long as printing a single color.

The back of the printer is where the power outlet is, but the single USB 2.0 data port is awkwardly located at the back on the right side panel, so the cable is more intrusive.

The Magicolor 1600W comes with all components pre-installed, so you can almost plug it in and go. In fact, of course, you need to install the drivers that come with it, but that’s the work of a few moments. Drivers for Windows 2000 and later are provided, but there is no support for OSX or Linux.

The Windows driver is well specified and includes support for poster printing and up to 16 pages per sheet, as well as overlays, watermarks and reasonable color adjustment controls. There are also fields in the driver for duplex printing and alternate tray options, although none of these features are mentioned as options.

Customers considering this device will likely look to alternatives such as the Samsung CLP-315, which is very similarly priced, but the Konica Minolta device beats it on all of our speed tests. Our five-page black text document took 27 seconds to complete, a speed of 11.1 pages per minute, and when we increased the page run to 20 pages, the speed also increased to 16.7 pages per minute. This is in contrast to a claimed speed of 20ppm for black, so not far from spec.

The five-page text and color graphics document took 1:09, which is 4.35ppm, and the company claims 5ppm, so again pretty close. If you compare these speeds to a typical inkjet printer, such as B. the top-of-the-line Canon PIXMA iP4600, £90, the Konica Minolta machine takes about a third of the Canon’s time to print our five-page text and color graphics document, so even with the (for a laser) slow carousel mechanism you’re at it gain speed.

The output quality of the Magiccolour 1600W is what you would expect from a laser printer. Black text is generally clean, although there is very slight fuzz at character edges. For most purposes, you won’t notice this, and colored business graphics are bright and solid. The vivid colors produced are ideal for popping color highlights, although the colors would have benefited from a slight softening when printing our sample photo. There are good controls in the driver for this.

As well as the toner cartridges, which are available in 1,500 or 2,500 page capacities – only 2,500 pages for black and white – you’ll need to replace the imaging unit after 45,000 black and white pages or 11,250 color pages and the fuser unit after 50,000, no matter how high the color content. It’s entirely possible that a color laser printer aimed at this market will never reach 50,000 pages in its lifetime, but we’ve factored in the cost of these consumables to come up with a page cost of 3.71p for black and 13.4p for colour. The color cost is a bit high, but the black cost is comparable to similar machines.

verdict

This is a solid entry-level color laser printer that produces high-quality prints faster than many of its competitors in both the laser and inkjet sectors. It’s easy to use and maintain, and not too big if space is at a premium.

However, you shouldn’t think of a color laser as a particularly cheap option when it comes to printing color pages. Although you may need to change supplies more frequently, inkjet printers can actually be cheaper. If you are a student or a sole proprietor, such cost differences may be particularly important to you.

points in detail

• print speed 7

• functions 7

• value 8

• print quality 8

To press

No brand embodies the phrase “hit and miss” more than Sony right now. Recent Sony televisions have ranged wildly from insanely good to disturbingly flawed. So when we receive the new KDL-40V5500, we really have no idea what to expect. We can only hope that Sony has solved the various problems that have let some of its recent TVs down and that the 40V5500 will therefore sit at the ‘insanely good’ end of the Sony TV spectrum.

The 40-inch set gets off to a solid if uninspiring start thanks to its design. Because while the basic styling isn’t exactly innovative, the bezel is at least slim and glossy enough to be appealing. The set also has the nifty transparent stripe at the bottom that is now a Sony trademark.

However, where the 40V5500 really gets interesting is in its connections. First off, there are four HDMIs, although previous Sony experiences would have led us to expect only three. Another highlight is a USB port that lets you play MP3, JPEG, and even movie files. But what’s really intriguing is the discovery of an Ethernet port.

We’ve seen such sockets on previous Sony devices to stream files from a connected PC. But crucially, the 40V5500’s DLNA Ethernet socket goes a crucial step further by allowing you to bring the TV online.

Exploring the features available through this online system – dubbed the Applicast – it’s immediately clear that Sony has opted for a “purpose-bound” approach to online functionality. In other words, instead of giving you unlimited access to the delights of the World Wide Web, the TV ‘only’ lets you access material prepared specifically for presentation on a TV, not a PC, via a Sony portal.

This approach to online access is by far the most widespread in the TV world to date, with only Philips so far announcing its intention to give you access to the internet as a whole. But I have to say that Sony’s desire to control your online experience seems particularly extreme. Because while other manufacturers tend to partner with other third-party content providers like Yahoo, YouTube, Flickr, etc., Sony is providing all the content itself, at least for now.

So it’s not particularly surprising to find that the scope of the service is fairly limited. The highlight is probably an RSS newsfeed “widget” that lets you subscribe to newsletters from your favorite sites. Also of note is Photo Frame online, which provides a selection of downloadable photos and artwork for use as screensavers. Only a handful of images were available in the Nature, Architecture, and Art categories during our review, but I suspect/hope that number will increase significantly over time.

Beyond that, however, you’re limited to a world clock, an on-screen calculator and, well, that’s it really. Everything works well and is beautifully presented, but it’s really hard to ignore the amount of extra stuff that other online TV brands – notably Samsung – can currently offer.

You may also have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the wireless functionality of the 40V5500. The reason is simply that the set doesn’t support it! There’s no wireless receiver/transmitter built into the TV, and unlike Samsung’s Online TVs, you can’t add wireless functionality via an optional dongle that plugs into the USB port.

Having to hardwire the TV to your broadband connection — not always an easy task, depending on the location of your router/phone line — is a potential aggravation that, frankly, in today’s Wi-Fi age, is hard to digest and quite a bit “unfinished” feel of the 40V5500’s internet functionality.

Moving on to other key features of the 40V5500, I quickly found a couple of interesting “eco” tricks: a two-stage power saving system that dials back the power of the backlight, and the ability to actually turn off the picture when you’re “watching” something. where the only thing that really matters is the audio track.

A more common Eco element of the 40V5500 is a light sensor that can automatically adjust image brightness based on the ambient light in your room.

In terms of picture quality, I was intrigued that the 40V5500 features Sony’s latest generation of Bravia Engine video processing, cleverly dubbed Bravia Engine 3. And while we weren’t provided with full details of all of its improvements and refinements, we were reassured that Bravia Engine 3 isn’t just a minor upgrade. In fact, the chipset that powers it has been more or less redesigned from the ground up.

Not that Bravia Engine 3 is the only processing trick worth mentioning. An expanded image adjustment submenu also gives you control over a variety of other processing tweaks, such as: B. Sony’s vivid live color system and a black correction tool. Blu-ray fans will be pleased to know that the 40V5500 features Sony’s 24p True Cinema mode for enhanced 1080p/24 playback.

All in all, while you won’t find 100Hz processing (you’ll need to step up to Sony’s new W5500 range for that), there’s enough going on behind the scenes of the 40V5500’s pictures to give real hope as to how good they might be. And for a while at least, it seems like the 40V5500’s picture performance will more than live up to our expectations.

Take his colors for example. They are amazingly good, look sensationally full and bright, but above all they are strikingly natural and believable, especially in high-definition tariffs.

Such definitive color performance can only be achieved when a TV has a credible black level response and this is certainly true of the 40V5500. Dark scenes suffer from less telltale gray than the vast majority of competing LCD TVs, producing the deepest black levels Sony has yet achieved outside of its 55X4500 LED TV.

Concerns I had about the 40V5500’s lack of 100Hz processing also turn out to be largely unfounded. Because it actually handles movement very well, for example football players rushing around the screen, without losing huge amounts of detail and clarity. Pan shots can look a little stuttered and fuzzy when they’re really fast, but given the 40V5500’s affordable price point, there’s mostly nothing to complain about here.

The KDL-40V5500’s solid clarity in motion also helps it superbly reproduce the gorgeous sharpness and texture of HD sources. The unit’s Full HD resolution also undoubtedly plays a role, but the 40V5500’s HD pictures are so exceptionally clean and sharp that the new Bravia Engine 3 circuitry must also be heavily involved, which bodes well for the others to come Sony TVs for this year.

In fact, the new Bravia Engine update does a great job even with standard definition, making it look sharper but also cleaner than previous Sony LCD TVs.

As you can probably imagine from all this positive talk, the 40V5500 is capable of producing some truly outstanding images. In fact, it does so for the vast majority of its runtime. But you’ll surely have noticed that it still only scores an 8 for images.

There’s really only one reason for this, and it couldn’t be more frustrating: backlight inconsistency. In other words, in very dark scenes, there can be light clustering, making some areas of the image appear brighter than others. This is clearly distracting and made all the more annoying by the fact that I’ve had cause to moan about the same issue on some previous Sony TVs I’ve tested.

However, to put this in perspective, I should stress that the problem is much, much less pronounced than, say, on Sony’s W4500 TVs. You won’t see it at all except in very evenly dark scenes, and provided you’ve got the backlight, brightness and contrast settings sensibly curbed, the effect is very subtle.

But while it’s possible to calibrate away the problem almost entirely, the resulting image won’t be as bright as many people would like, especially if their living room is regularly filled with ambient light. And since many other brands of TVs exist without the sort of backlight inconsistencies discovered on this Sony, I really don’t see why an inherent panel flaw should force anyone to impose their picture settings on themselves.

The 40V5500’s excellent but flawed pictures are complemented by fairly satisfactory audio. Vocals sound believable and clear even under pressure, and there’s an amazing amount of harshness-free high-frequency detail to hear, too. I was also impressed with how well the midrange extends during action scenes, although my only complaint is that there isn’t as much bass as I’d like to hear.

“‘Verdict”‘

In many ways the 40V5500 really is a great TV. After all, for most of the time you sit there and look at it, the images could have your jaw dropping open in admiration. It’s just a real shame that all that quality should be wiped out by the return of Sony’s inconsistent backlighting issue.

To be fair, the subtlety of the problem here is such that it very rarely bothers your display, so it’s possible that some, maybe even many, people who take a 40V5500 for a test run will end up buying one anyway. But such a lack of my money makes it impossible to give this set an unqualified recommendation.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 8

• value 8

• picture quality 8

• design 7

• sound quality 8

characteristics

Physical Specifications

Der Markt für Digitalkameras trotzt weiterhin dem Untergang und der Dunkelheit, die den Rest der Wirtschaft umgeben. Die Leute kaufen immer noch neue Kameras, und immer mehr von ihnen entscheiden sich für digitale Spiegelreflexkameras.

Die meisten Hersteller auf dem Consumer-DSLR-Markt (Pentax, Canon, Nikon, Panasonic, Sony, Olympus und Samsung) stellen Einstiegsmodelle her, die speziell auf Einsteiger und Umsteiger von digitalen Kompaktkameras ausgerichtet sind.

Das Modell von Pentax in dieser Kategorie ist die neue Km (in einigen Gebieten als K2000 bekannt), eine anfängerfreundliche 10,2-Megapixel-APS-C-Kamera, die derzeit für rund 360 £ verkauft wird, komplett mit einem 18-55-mm-Kit-Objektiv.

Der Wettbewerb auf dem DSLR-Einstiegsmarkt ist hart, und die Km wird es mit einigen beeindruckenden, beliebten und preisgünstigen Konkurrenten aufnehmen. Dazu gehören die Canon EOS 1000D (430 £ Kit), die Nikon D60 (380 £ Kit), die Olympus E-420 (300 £ Kit) und die Sony Alpha A200 (290 £ Kit).

Die Pentax Km hat im Vergleich zu diesen anderen Modellen einen recht guten Preis, insbesondere wenn man bedenkt, dass sie über eine integrierte Bildstabilisierung mit Sensorverschiebung verfügt. Von den anderen Einstiegsmodellen kann nur die Sony A200 den gleichen Anspruch erheben, obwohl der Kit-Preis der Nikon D60 ein einfaches VR-Objektiv enthält.

Die Km ist im Vergleich zu anderen APS-C-Modellen eine sehr kleine Kamera. Es misst nur 122,5 x 91,5 x 67,5 mm. Von den anderen Einsteigermodellen ist nur die Olympus E-420 kleiner, aber die hat natürlich einen Four-Thirds-Sensor und Objektivanschluss. Mit einem Gewicht von 525 g ist der Km für seine Größe überraschend schwer, tatsächlich ist er von den oben aufgeführten Einstiegsmodellen das schwerste, aber dieses Gewicht wirkt sich direkt auf die Verarbeitungsqualität aus; Nachdem ich alle anderen aktuellen DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse verwendet habe, fühlt sich die Km sicherlich am solidesten an.

Es ist eine gut aussehende Kamera mit klaren Linien und attraktivem Design. Die Karosserie besteht aus Kunststoff über einem Metallchassis, das in mattem Schwarz mit einer Chromzierleiste ausgeführt ist, obwohl auch eine ziemlich wunderschöne weiße Version in limitierter Auflage erhältlich ist.

Trotz der geringen Größe lässt sich die Km gut handhaben und macht den Eindruck, eine „richtige Kamera“ zu sein. Es hat das meiste überschüssige Fett von der linken Seite des Körpers verloren und lässt auf der rechten Seite viel Platz für einen anständigen Handgriff, und das Gewicht der vier AA-Batterien im Griff hilft, die Kamera auszugleichen. Wie bei den meisten anderen DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse sind die Bedienelemente relativ einfach, näher an einer High-End-Kompaktkamera als an einer anspruchsvolleren DSLR wie der K20D oder K200D. Es verfügt über eine Menütaste und ein Steuerkreuz mit sekundären Funktionen auf den Steuerkreuztasten für Weißabgleich, ISO-Einstellung, Blitzmodus und Selbstauslöser/Antriebsmodus. Es gibt separate Tasten für Belichtungskorrektur und Autofokus sowie ein hilfreiches „?“ Schaltfläche, die Erklärungen und Tipps zu vielen Funktionen der Kamera bietet.

Die Km hat auch einen nützlichen grafischen Informationsbildschirm und ein Menü, ähnlich dem Typ, der zuerst von Olympus verwendet wurde und jetzt von den meisten anderen DSLR-Herstellern übernommen wird. Es bietet eine schnelle und intuitive Möglichkeit, die wichtigsten Aufnahmefunktionen der Kamera einzustellen, aber es gibt auch ein umfassendes konventionelles Menü.

Für eine Einsteigerkamera bietet die Km viele Optionen, einschließlich einer langen Liste benutzerdefinierter Setup-Optionen, mehr als die meisten ihrer unmittelbaren Konkurrenten, würde ich sagen. Dinge wie ein grafisches Farbanpassungssystem, vierstufig einstellbare Rauschunterdrückung bei hohem ISO-Wert, optionale Rauschunterdrückung bei langsamer Verschlusszeit, Optionen zur Verwendung älterer Objektive, einstellbarer automatischer ISO-Bereich, Spiegeln während des Selbstauslöser-Countdowns, sogar die Helligkeit von Die Power-LED kann eingestellt werden. Die Km verwenden entweder das proprietäre PEF Raw-Format von Pentax oder das beliebte Adobe DNG-Format.

Ein interessantes Feature ist die digitale Filteroption, die in der einen oder anderen Form bei vielen Pentax-Kameras zu finden ist. Es umfasst eine einfarbige Maske, Starburst, Weichzeichner und mehrere Optionen zum Ändern des Bildtons, darunter Hochkontrast, Retro und „Spielzeugkamera“. Alle Filter sind einstellbar, und Sie können viel Spaß beim Spielen mit ihnen haben, obwohl einige der Effekte im endgültigen Bild etwas grob aussehen.

Es gibt jedoch ein oder zwei Merkmale, die durch ihre Abwesenheit bemerkenswert sind. Die rätselhafteste Auslassung ist das Fehlen eines beleuchteten AF-Zielpunkts im Sucher, etwas, das bei so ziemlich jeder anderen existierenden Digitalkamera zu finden ist. Der Km verfügt über ein ziemlich gutes Fünfpunkt-AF-System mit einer Auswahl zwischen Weitbereichs- oder Mittelpunktfokussierung und fokussiert bei den meisten Lichtverhältnissen schnell und genau, jedoch für Aufnahmen, bei denen sich das Hauptmotiv nicht in der Bildmitte befindet , oder wenn ein präziser Fokuspunkt erwünscht ist, wie z. B. bei der Makrofotografie, wäre es von Vorteil, genau zu wissen, worauf die Kamera fokussiert. Es ist möglich, auf bestimmte Punkte zu fokussieren, indem Sie den Center-Spot-AF und die Neueinstellung des Bildausschnitts verwenden, aber andere Spiegelreflexkameras der Einstiegsklasse haben wählbare AF-Punkte mit beleuchteten Sucherzielen. Ein weiterer bemerkenswerter Mangel ist eine Blendenstopp-Vorschaufunktion, aber um fair zu sein, gibt es eine Reihe von DSLRs, denen diese nützliche Funktion fehlt.

Wie die meisten DSLRs startet die Km sehr schnell und ist in weniger als einer Sekunde aufnahmebereit. Wie ich bereits erwähnt habe, ist das AF-System vielleicht etwas uninformativ, aber es ist schnell und genau. Die Leistung bei schlechten Lichtverhältnissen ist ebenfalls ziemlich gut, aber es muss der aufklappbare Blitz angehoben werden, damit die AF-Assist-Blitzfunktion funktioniert, was bedeutet, dass es schwierig ist, Aufnahmen bei schlechten Lichtverhältnissen zu machen, ohne dass der Blitz ausgelöst wird.

Die Aufnahmegeschwindigkeit der Kamera ist variabel, je nachdem, ob der Raw-Modus verwendet wird oder nicht. Wenn Sie nur JPEG aufnehmen, kann es im Einzelbildmodus mit konstant zwei Aufnahmen pro Sekunde aufnehmen, während es im Hochgeschwindigkeits-Serienmodus mit bis zu drei Bildern pro Sekunde für etwa sechs oder sieben Bilder aufnehmen kann, bevor es etwas langsamer wird wenn sich der Puffer füllt. Es hat auch einen kontinuierlichen Modus mit niedriger Geschwindigkeit, der konstante 1,3 fps beibehält.

Bei Einzelaufnahmen im Raw-Modus kann die Km im Durchschnitt etwa ein Bild pro Sekunde aufnehmen, obwohl sie nach fünf Bildern merklich langsamer wird, während sie in High-Speed-Serienaufnahme eine Reihe von vier Schüssen mit 2 fps abfeuern kann, sich dann aber verlangsamt etwa ein Bild pro Sekunde. Im Raw+JPEG-Modus ist der Hochgeschwindigkeits-Burst auf nur drei Frames begrenzt. Die meisten DSLRs der Einstiegsklasse haben eine ziemlich begrenzte Leistung, und es gibt nicht viele Gelegenheiten, in denen der kleine Puffer ein Problem darstellt, aber er ist ein begrenzender Faktor für die Leistung der K-M.

Kommen wir schließlich zur Bildqualität, und hier gibt es gute Neuigkeiten. Beim Fotografieren im Raw-Modus erzeugt die Km scharfe, perfekt belichtete Bilder mit hervorragender natürlicher Farbwiedergabe und kann es problemlos mit jedem ihrer unmittelbaren Konkurrenten und sogar mit einigen teureren Modellen aufnehmen. Das SMC Pentax 18-55mm f/3.5 – 5.6 DAL Objektiv ist vielleicht ein bisschen in die Jahre gekommen, aber es ist immer noch eines der besten Standard-Zoom-Kit-Objektive auf dem Markt, mit ausgezeichneter Schärfe von Ecke zu Ecke und minimaler chromatischer Aberration die es erzeugt, lässt sich leicht in der Software korrigieren.

In der Standardeinstellung „Hell“ ist der JPEG-Modus ziemlich übersättigt, vermutlich um Bilder zu erzeugen, die eher denen einer Kompaktkamera ähneln. Glücklicherweise enthält das Menü ein sehr gutes Farbanpassungssystem, und das einfache Umschalten auf den zweiten voreingestellten Farbmodus „Natürlich“ führt zu viel besseren Ergebnissen.

Auch das Bildrauschen wird sehr gut gehandhabt, mit guter Bildqualität bis 800 ISO und brauchbaren Bildern bei 1600 ISO. Selbst 3200 ISO sind keine komplette Katastrophe, solange man die Bilder nicht zu sehr in die Luft jagen möchte.

“‘Urteil”‘

Die Pentax Km ist eine gute Einsteigerkamera. Es hat eine bessere Verarbeitungsqualität als die meisten seiner Konkurrenten, es handhabt und funktioniert gut und ist in der Lage, selbst in den Händen eines Anfängers hervorragende Ergebnisse zu erzielen, während es dennoch genügend Funktionen und benutzerdefinierte Optionen bietet, um erfahrenere Fotografen zufrieden zu stellen. Das einzige wirkliche Problem ist das ärgerliche Fehlen von AF-Messfeldern im Sucher, was sowohl verwirrend als auch unbequem ist.

„Auf den nächsten Seiten zeigen wir eine Reihe von Testaufnahmen. Auf dieser Seite wurde das Bild in voller Größe bei den minimalen und maximalen ISO-Einstellungen verkleinert, damit Sie das vollständige Bild sehen können, und eine Reihe von Zuschnitten in voller Auflösung wurde von Originalbildern bei einer Reihe von ISO-Einstellungen vorgenommen, um die Gesamtbildqualität zu zeigen. Diese ISO-Testbilder werden in Innenräumen mit reflektiertem natürlichem Licht für maximale Konsistenz aufgenommen. ”

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Dies ist das Vollbild bei 100 ISO, der Mindesteinstellung. Der Km kann auf 1/3 EV ISO-Einstellungen eingestellt werden, aber wir zeigen hier nur der Kürze halber die ganzen Stopp-Einstellungen.

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Die Bildqualität ist bei 100 ISO ausgezeichnet, obwohl die standardmäßige JPEG-Einstellung etwas übersättigt ist.

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Bei 200 ISO immer noch sehr gut.

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Bei 400 ISO immer noch sehr gut.

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Bei 800 ISO gibt es ein kleines Schattenrauschen, aber das Bild ist gut druckbar.

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Einige Schattendetails sind bei 1600 ISO verloren gegangen, aber Farbbalance und Belichtung sind immer noch gut.

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Definitiv ein bisschen laut bei 3200 ISO, aber selbst das wäre für kleine Ausdrucke oder Webbilder in Ordnung.

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Dies ist das Vollbild bei 3200 ISO.

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„Auf den nächsten beiden Seiten finden Sie eine Reihe allgemeiner Testaufnahmen. In einigen Fällen wurde das Bild in voller Größe aus Bandbreitengründen verkleinert und ein Ausschnitt aus dem Originalbild in voller Auflösung wurde darunter platziert, um die Gesamtbildqualität zu zeigen. Einige andere Bilder können angeklickt werden, um das Originalbild in voller Größe anzuzeigen. ”

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Hier ist meine übliche DSLR-Testaufnahme der Strandpromenade von Sidmouth, obwohl, wie Sie sehen können, die Ferienzeit noch nicht wirklich begonnen hat.

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Vergleichen Sie dies mit der Sony A200 und anderen 10-Megapixel-DSLRs.

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Das Wetter war nicht gerade ideal zum Fotografieren, aber die Km macht trotzdem Spaß.

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Das Pentax 18-55 mm DAL-Kit-Objektiv erzeugt einige chromatische Aberrationen….

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…aber es ist ziemlich einfach, es entweder in der mitgelieferten Silkypix-Software oder in Adobe Camera Raw zu bereinigen.

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„Hier sind einige allgemeine Testaufnahmen, die dabei helfen sollen, die Gesamtbildqualität der Kamera zu beurteilen, einschließlich des Dynamikbereichs, der Farbwiedergabe und des Zoombereichs des Objektivs. Einige Bilder können angeklickt werden, um das Originalbild in voller Größe herunterzuladen. ”

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Die Farbwiedergabe ist im Standard-JPEG-Modus etwas übersättigt…

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…aber das Einstellen der Voreinstellung „Natural“ ist weniger grell.

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Das Herumspielen mit der Raw-Konvertierung führt zu qualitativ hochwertigen Ergebnissen.

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Kontrast, Schärfe und Details sind hervorragend.

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Einige der eingebauten Filter und Effekte sind ein bisschen Hit-or-Miss.

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Punkte im Detail

• Wert 8

• Bildqualität 9

• Verarbeitungsqualität 9

Merkmale

While Sanyo’s televisions are typically associated with the low end of the market with average performance, its projectors are widely regarded as some of the best in the business.

That doesn’t mean they’re ridiculously expensive, though. On the contrary, the brand’s new high-contrast Full HD offering, the PLV-Z3000, is available for under £2,000. That makes it a cool £200 cheaper than the impressive Panasonic PT-AE3000 I recently reviewed, with which the Z3000 seems to have at least a few things in common when it comes to specs.

Before we dive into those specs, however, I regret to report that the Z3000 is about the most dismal projector I’ve ever seen. Its strikingly large body shows off all the design flair of a breeze block, as a sculpted dark gray finish wraps around a style-free rectangular body for a depressing effect. It’s basically the AV projector equivalent of a wet rainy day in Stockport – hardly what you want in your living room or cinema room!

Thankfully, things look a little better if you turn your attention to the rear of the projector and find a couple of HDMIs and two component video ports leading the HD load. There is also a D-Sub PC connector and a control connector for system builders.

However, as I begin to browse the Z3000’s extravagant feature claims, my objections to the thing’s ugliness fade into the background. Because there really seems to be a lot to do for such a cheap machine. For example, the projector unusually runs with a 100Hz engine (which jumps to 96Hz for 24p playback) to make motion appear smoother and smoother. Also, like the Panasonic, it has adaptive framing processing.

Next, it adds a new optical compensation plate to the lens array that drastically reduces light leakage, helping the Z3000 achieve a whopping (by LCD projector standards) contrast ratio of 65,000:1. Also contributing to that contrast number is a new variable aperture system with a lamplight volume control mechanism that can apparently adjust the lens’ aperture setting every 1/60th of a second – easily fast enough to prevent you from seeing obvious jumps in brightness during a normal viewing experience. Additionally, Sanyo claims to have reduced the bezel’s operating noise, so you should rarely, if ever, hear it opening and closing.

Speaking of running noise, I was also very impressed with Sanyo’s claim that the Z3000 can run with just 19dB of noise provided you use its low brightness settings. The 19dB figure is exceptionally low for such an affordable projector and the projector mostly lives up to its reputation as it runs quieter than any other affordable projector I can think of unless you foolishly run the lamp at full Brightness.

Sanyo has also tried to make a big deal out of the fact that the Z3000 is – as far as we know – the first projector to feature a 5:5 pull-down mode to deliver a more natural, smoother image from 60Hz inputs deliver. Which would be great if the UK actually had that many 60Hz sources!

Basic setup of the Z3000 is a breeze – provided you can find a coffee table big enough to support its considerable bulk. Thanks to the provision of exceptionally flexible horizontal and vertical image shift wheels on the side of the projector, I was able to position an image perfectly on my screen in no time at all – without the need for awkward, distorting keystone correction.

The projector’s on-screen menus aren’t bad either, in a matter-of-fact way. The only criticism here is that I found the image unusually difficult to calibrate properly. And worryingly, this seemed more to do with issues with the image itself than the projector not giving me enough adjustment tools to do the job. More on that later.

Among the main features of the menus to become familiar with are a selection of lamp power presets, two of which are dim, geared towards home theater use; gamma adjustment; adjustment of noise reduction; two “dynamic” aperture settings and one fixed option; the possibility of reducing the range of the iris; options for automatic black stretching, contrast enhancement and transient enhancement; an adjustable smooth motion mode; this 5:5 pulldown system; and last but not least, a really sophisticated color management system.

The latter actually allows you to select small target areas of the image (which is frozen at the moment you select the function) and adjust the level, phase and gamma of the selected tone using a “sliding scale” with slightly different shades on both Pages adjust the original. Helpfully, there are before and after boxes so you can track exactly what the impact of your changes is.

If that all sounds a bit scary, the projector also comes with a variety of pre-installed picture presets, including Brilliant Cinema, Creative Cinema, Pure Cinema and Natural. Although I have to say that I didn’t find any of them entirely convincing, mainly for the reason that I just wasn’t blown away by the color response of the projector when using one of them.

Seriously, none of the out-of-the-box modes seemed to deliver a color palette that I felt completely confident in, and to be honest while the considerable time invested in the innovative but very time-consuming color management system resulted in significant improvements, I never felt like the results looked quite “right”.

To be more specific, skin tones tend to look slightly orange, some greens look slightly anemic, and some dark scenes seem to carry a slightly green undercurrent.

As an interesting addition to this, two of the three cinema presets provided don’t add much brightness to the image at all, a phenomenon I usually associate with a projector struggling a little to get its colors right.

It is probably due to this apparent suspicion of brightness that the Z3000 does not deliver quite as much bite and dynamics as some of its competitors, including Panasonic’s PT-AE3000, even in dark scenes – or better combined dark/light scenes.

At this point, it’s high time to step in and make it categorically clear that, contrary to what you’re probably thinking, the Z3000 certainly isn’t a bad projector. For example, it handles black levels very well for a projector at its price point. There may be a bit more gray over the darkest black than with the Panasonic PT-AE3000, but I’d say the Z3000 actually outperforms the Panasonic slightly when it comes to reproducing subtle shadow detail in dark areas. This allows the Z3000’s dark scenes to appear slightly three-dimensional.

The Z3000 also produces a really sharp image, usually on par with the Panasonic, apart from perhaps a little more blur when depicting movement. Not that the Z3000 handles movement badly, mind you. When it comes to reducing judder, it’s even better than the Panasonic.

There is still some judder – even with the Smooth Motion mode set to full. But that judder seems to face you slightly less than it can on the brighter, sharper Panasonic. And I certainly prefer the relaxed approach to judder reduction exhibited by the Z3000 to the nauseating and side-effect-inducing aggressive approach observed at some settings for Sony’s MotionFlow projection technology and Philips’ HD Natural Motion system will .

I was also pleased not to notice any sign of the dreaded “chicken wire” effect from LCDs, even when viewing the projector on a 100-inch screen, and should also remind you not to worry as this is more of a LCD than a DLP projector is about the rainbow noise of DLP.

Overall, while I couldn’t entirely overcome the projector’s color issues, I did get close enough to show that the Z3000 can produce images that look truly superb for a sub-£2k projector.

“‘Verdict”‘

I might as well get straight to the point here and say that personally, if money is no object, I’d pick the Panasonic PT-AE3000 over this Sanyo. Partly because of the Panasonic’s really handy built-in anamorphic lens setting, but mostly because I find the default color settings much better and the rendering of dark scenes more dynamic.

But if you’d rather save a few hundred pounds to buy a couple of Blu-rays – and get a handy three-year guarantee too – then rest assured that the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 is still a very talented machine. Although you might need some help initially if you want it to look its best.

points in detail

• value 8

• functions 8

• picture quality 8

• draft 4

There is growing interest in inkjet all-in-ones that can handle both A3 and A4 documents, and Brother have several models that can more or less do this. More or less, because on this model of the MFC-5890CN, the A3 support only extends to printing. The device’s scanner is an A4 device, so A3 scans and copies are off.

As you can expect with the larger paper capacity, this is no small machine. However, Brother has managed to design it so that it doesn’t take up much more desk space than a typical A4 machine. Running top to bottom, the unit has a fairly tall automatic document feeder (ADF) at the top with a fold-out input tray that juts out at an oblique angle when open.

Below that is a sloping control panel at the front with all the usual controls. On the left are dedicated fax buttons, a number pad for dialing, the machine’s LCD display, mode buttons, menu navigation, and finally four buttons for black and white and color copying, job cancellation, and sleep mode.

As is now common on Brother machines, the LCD display is double-wide, which is particularly helpful when printing from memory cards – all popular types are supported – as you can see a thumbnail of the image and a menu of options at the same time.

The single paper tray can hold 150 sheets of paper and doesn’t have a built-in sheet feeder, but it does have a slide-out base and top cover, so you only need to enlarge it when printing on A3 paper. If most of your work is A4 or smaller, the tray doesn’t protrude from the front of the MFC-5890CN at all.

Brother doesn’t seem to have found out where sockets are conventionally positioned. The phone line and handset connectors are located on the back on the left next to the power outlet. USB and ethernet sockets are tidier but less convenient as you have to fold up the scanner area and run the cables through a duct to a position just behind the control panel inside the machine.

The company does much better with the ink cartridges, all four of which are inserted behind a fold-down cover to the right of the paper compartment. A one-off loading cycle then makes the machine ready to print within a few minutes.

The included software includes Brother’s MFL-Pro software suite, which takes care of scanning and uploading images from memory cards, as well as printing and OCR via the Nuance PaperPort 11SE.

As usual, the print speeds seem to have been plucked from the ether, with Brother claiming 35ppm for black and white printing and 28ppm for colour. Even in draft mode, which btw prints better than some and is probably usable for internal documentation, we can’t see how you could achieve these speeds.

In our tests, a five-page black text print took 1 minute 14 seconds, which translates to 4.05 pages per minute, and when we ran the 20-page test, which helps reduce processing time, the speed only jumped to 4.53 Pages per minute, about one-sixth the maximum rated speed. Our five-page text and color graphics print took 1 minute 55 seconds, or 2.61 ppm, so for all normal A4 pages the MFC-5890CN is slower than some of its direct competitors.

When printing A3 pages, the device is proportionally slightly faster. A five-page text print was completed in less than two minutes, and the corresponding text and color graphics page took just under three minutes.

Photo prints were also more on par with competing devices. The Brother printer produced a 15 x 10cm photo in 3 minutes 46 seconds in the highest photo mode, but in standard photo mode it took just 1 minute 39 seconds and there is very little visible difference between the two. Printouts from an SD card and from the device’s PictBridge socket each took 1 minute 42 seconds. A borderless A3 photo took a coffee break of 14 minutes and 30 seconds.

Print quality is reasonable for text, with only a small amount of unevenness visible around curved characters. Color graphics were also reproduced reasonably well, albeit without much life in the colors. Registration of black text over color is good.

A single sided copy from the scanner glass shows some loss of color making the copies look even more flimsy, but the result is serviceable. Photographic prints are reproduced well, with natural colors and high levels of detail, although overall they’re not quite as realistic as the best offerings from Canon or HP.

Scanning photos to a PC shows the same lightening of tone as copies, although the surprisingly high optical resolution of the scanner head of 1200 x 2400ppi ensures good levels of detail.

The four ink cartridges are the only consumables on this machine and we found them at prices putting the cost per page at 2.68p for black and white and 6.10p for colour. Black printing costs are about average for a machine in this class, but color costs are a few pence per sheet lower than most of the competition, giving good overall economy.

“‘Verdict”‘

Brother’s MFC-5890CN is a worthwhile all-in-one workhorse from a company that’s a growing force in business multifunction devices. It’s better suited for someone who needs the occasional A3 print than someone who prints A3 materials on a regular basis, and you’ll have to look for another model if you want to scan or copy in larger format.

points in detail

• print speed 7

• functions 8

• value 8

• print quality 8

characteristics

To press

to scan

Whatever else you may think of Philips, you certainly can’t deny that the brand is a true innovator. It’s always been that way to some degree, but Philips’ R&D department seems to have been in overdrive this year, and over the past few months has splurged on us with such goodies as new, ultra-powerful picture processing, a debut TV with LED backlighting and most recently a heavily refined version of its Aurea Light Frame technology.

But you know, for all the cleverness, quality and sheer extravagance of some of those earlier TVs, the new ‘Essence’ 42PES0001 is, to me, the brand’s most successful innovation to date. Why? Because it blends elegance with cold yet brilliant practicality so effortlessly that it has to be seen to be believed.

The key to what I love about this TV is that every single inch is designed to make it the ultimate hang-on-the-wall TV. This might seem rather odd when I tell you that the TV actually comes attached to a neat desktop stand, but trust me: the Essence takes the basic ‘hang it up’ concept and twists it in increasingly typical Philips fashion on 11′.

First off, the 42PES0001’s screen is surprisingly slim; only 38mm deep to be precise. What’s more, this stunning slimness isn’t compromised by unfortunate large, sticky bits like those found in JVC’s ‘Super Slim’ 42DS9 sets. It’s also worth mentioning that the 42PES0001’s screen weighs less than 17 kg.

The “price” for this is the fact that the screen has no built-in tuners. Instead, the usual digital and analogue tuners are housed in an external media receiver box that comes with the screen along with all the TV’s connections.

But far from being a downside to the 42PES0001, I’d argue that external receiver box is actually a good thing. For starters, if you’re serious enough about hanging your TV on the wall to have the best part of two grand squirted onto one essence, the last thing you want is to have to deal with tons of cables, who stick out it. An external connection box with only a single cable running to the screen is much tidier.

In fact, the Essence outperforms Pioneer’s KRP-500A plasma TV in this regard because while the Pioneer system required separate power cords for its screen and media box, this Philips brings power, video and audio from the media receiver to the screen in just a ” Umbilical cord”.

The external media receiver’s body doesn’t hurt either, as it’s beautifully designed, with a glossy dark finish that looks almost as futuristic as the screen. Of course, the glossy finish of the receiver also matches the rich black finish of the exceptionally thin display bezel – a bezel that barely extends half an inch wide around the entire screen; a space-saving design reminiscent of Toshiba’s Picture Frame LCD models.

In fact, the TV’s bezel is so thin that there’s just room for a tiny Philips logo at the bottom and a “pin-hole” power indicator.

Speakers are always a touchy subject with extremely thin TVs, especially if you have wall mounting in mind. But again, Philips has found a remarkably elegant solution in the form of a really elegantly designed speaker bar which – but only if you want to use it in place of a separate audio system – can be secured to the bottom edge of the TV with a simple two-screw bracket . Additionally, this speaker bar connects to the TV’s audio output via a small row of touch-sensitive pins built into the mounting bracket, eliminating the need to fiddle with audio cables last year. Refined.

The Essence has already gone further than the vast majority of flat screen TVs to make wall mounting an absolute no-brainer. But we still haven’t gotten to what is arguably its most inspirational touch: its wall mount. The special thing about it – apart from the fact that it is included in the scope of delivery and not as an optional extra! – is the fact that it’s curved, allowing the TV to move around that curve until you want it to snap into place. This makes it infinitely easier to get the TV level on your wall because if you don’t drill the mounting holes perfectly level you can simply slide the TV around the bracket curve until you correct your drilling error. As a man who is what Barry White was to the marathon I really can’t overstate how brilliant I think this wall mount is.

At this point, I’d probably break in some bad news just in case you think my excitement is starting to get the best of me. While the Essence is undeniably beautiful, slim and practical, it also can’t ‘glow’ in the way virtually all other mid-to-high-end Philips TVs do these days. That’s because the thinness of the TV’s frame has made it impossible for Philips to house its eye-catching Ambilight technology, which sees relaxing, immersive pools of colored light pour out of the TV’s back and sides.

It’s a real shame because Ambilight generally works best in a wall-mounted environment. Also, the extreme slimness of the Essence’s frame would have meant there would have been less physical ‘barrier’ between the image and the Ambilight ‘pools’. But if push comes to shove, if losing Ambilight is the price to pay for the Essence’s stunning on-wall practicality, then so be it.

Coming back to the media receiver, I notice that I haven’t really addressed its connections yet. So there you go: it includes three HDMIs, a USB port, a DLNA-certified Ethernet port for PC networking, component and VGA PC inputs and a digital audio output – as well as the usual SCARTs and so on.

In an ideal world, a fourth HDMI might have been nice, but it’s hard to be grumpy when the box manages to offer such an unusual level of multimedia flexibility. Finally, its USB and Ethernet ports can handle MP3, .alb (slideshow), MPEG1 and MPEG2 files, as well as the usual JPEGs, while the Ethernet port supports a huge list of media server applications, including Windows Media Player 11 , PacketVideo Twonky Media 4.4.2 and Nero 8.

The Media Receiver from The Essence also has some pretty important things “under the hood”. Because the chipset of the latest video processor Perfect Pixel HD Engine from Philips is hidden there. We won’t go into great detail here as we’ve already covered it extensively in other recent Philips reviews. But essentially, it’s designed to improve color, contrast, detail levels, motion rendering, and video noise levels. The same, of course, applies to countless other video processing engines from competing manufacturers. But we’ve found time and time again that the Philips motor is significantly more aggressive and powerful than any of its competitors.

In conclusion, I can’t help but admire the Essence’s extraordinarily practical yet beautiful design. Actually, all I have to say about the images produced by its screen is that they are not in the slightest negatively affected by the screen’s super-flat status. The pictures of the Essence are among the finest in the world of flat screen TVs.

I refer you to recent reviews of the Philips Aurea II and in particular the 42PFL9703 for a full description of how the Essence’s pictures break down. But in summary, if you love exceptionally dynamic yet authentic colour, incredibly sharp detail and sharpness, and some of the best black levels in the LCD world (outside of LED backlighting, at least) then the Essence will do just fine.

Of course, the usual Philips tab applies here. Indeed, if you want to get the most out of the Essence, you’ll need to spend far more time tinkering with the numerous settings it offers than you would on a ‘normal’ TV. If you don’t do this – and get at least a basic understanding of what all the picture options actually do – you can end up with issues like obvious glitches in fast motion, overused edges, and even some overcooked colors.

Particularly controversial is the HD Natural Motion processing, which reproduces movement with an intriguing fluidity but also tends to introduce some fairly aggressive glitches even at the minimum setting. Some people can’t tolerate this feature at all, although personally I think it’s fine for regular TV shows and only becomes problematic for sports, HD movies, and console games.

But in any case, the key point about this feature – and one that many other reviewers seem to forget – is that you can disable it entirely if you don’t like it. And even if it does, the increased jerking only slightly spoils the still absolutely brilliant LCD images.

We suspect you could argue that paying for a high-spec feature like HD Natural Motion that you ultimately don’t use isn’t great. But while the Essence is certainly very expensive for a 42-inch LCD TV, to me the uniqueness of its offering and the extent of its innovation justifies the cost with or without HD Natural Motion.

Finally, if we turn to the speaker bar that comes with the 42PES0001, it’s good without being truly brilliant. On the other hand, it’s capable of good volume levels and the soundstage remains amazingly open and detailed even when pushed very loud. On the downside, there’s not enough bass to provide a truly satisfying counterpoint to the high-frequency enthusiasm. But let’s be fair here; In the context of the sound produced by many regular flat-screen TVs, let alone one that’s only 40mm or so thick, the Essence’s efforts are actually pretty good.

“‘Verdict”‘

On paper, I think the Essence’s claim to fame as the easiest TV to ever hang on the wall probably sounds a bit dull compared to things like LED backlighting and the Aurea Light Frame. But in reality, the extremes to which Philips has pushed its wall-hanging goals with the Essence, while maintaining a firm grip on aesthetic beauty AND performance standards, has resulted in a product that, dare I say it, touches at least a little seems to be genius.

How we test televisions

We test every TV we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to properly compare features. We will always tell you what we find. We never accept money to rate a product.

Learn more about how we test in our Ethics Policy.

Used as the main TV during the period

Tested over a week

Tested with industry calibrated tools, discs and real world use

Tested with broadcast content (HD/SD), video streams and demo discs

points in detail

• functions 9

• value 7

• picture quality 9

• draft 10

• sound quality 8

characteristics

Physical Specifications

A few weeks ago we looked at an intriguing new concept from projector manufacturer Optoma aimed at the gaming community. The GameTime GT-3000 bundle consists of a DLP projector, a separate colour-matched 2.1 speaker system and a specially designed carrying case to carry it all around – all for the incredible price of £349.

While the GT-3000 was reasonably ok, it ultimately failed to win TrustedReviews’ hearts due to the lack of HD support. While the Nintendo Wii might be ok for Christmas parties, we spend most of our gaming time in the HD company of a PS3 or Xbox 360. Sorry Wii fans, but that’s just the way it is!

We therefore receive the bigger brother of the GT-3000, the GT-7000, with significantly more excitement. Because despite being just £150 more than the GT-3000, the GT-7000 introduces native HD Ready resolution and HDMI input to the party, making it far more likely to ignite our gaming appetite.

In fact, its much-improved HD credentials aren’t the only improvement the GT-7000 brings. It also claims a contrast ratio of 4,000:1 – twice that of the GT-3000, which raises real hopes that the GT-7000 will be able to handle the GT-3000’s somewhat disappointing black levels.

My hopes that this will be the case grow with the discovery that the GT-7000’s brightness is rated at 1600 lumens versus the GT-3000’s 2300 lumens. In my experience, while manufacturers’ stated specs can never be fully trusted, the GT-7000’s contrast-boosting contrast/brightness balance is far more likely to produce truly likable results than the GT-3000’s brightness bias.

In my eyes, the GT-7000 also surpasses its cheaper brother aesthetically. It’s basically the same remarkably small, slightly matter-of-fact shape as the GT-3000, but it has a piano black finish that’s much classier and easier to keep clean than the GT-3000’s ‘ice white’.

The GT-7000’s speakers are, as far as we can tell, identical to the GT-3000’s, apart from being black rather than white. They are quite attractively designed and look like a classic iPod speaker accessory. And their design is pretty clever too, thanks to the way they’re ‘flat-packed’ for transport but feature a fold-down subwoofer that allows the stereo speakers to stand upright when placed on a table.

As we’ve already noted, the GT-7000’s connections include an HDMI input. But gamers might also appreciate a component video connection and a D-SUB PC input. There’s also an S-Video connection and, surprisingly, even a 12V trigger output that could be used to automatically turn on a motorized screen. We’ve seen that many projectors costing thousands of pounds don’t offer these handy little jacks, so kudos to Optoma for being so thoughtful.

As you’d expect from a device that’s designed more as a “casual device” for casual users, setting up the GT-7000 is a breeze. Simple zoom and focus rings sort out image size and sharpness, while there are menu options to shift the image sideways or vertically a respectable distance, and vertical keystone correction to straighten the edges of the image when you’re sitting the projector above or below center of the screen.

However, if you want to dig deeper into your setup, you can. Other options in the menus include Overscan adjustment, EdgeMask adjustment, a range of themed image presets, various degamma settings (which are really worth experimenting with), and even the ability to adjust red, green, and blue gain and bias of the image to optimize elements.

Remarkably for such a cheap projector, the GT-7000 features Texas Instruments’ BrilliantColor and Tru-Vivid processing systems, which make colors appear more intense.

To be honest, the first thing I did when I actually tested the GT-7000 was reduce BrilliantColor to its level two or three (out of 10). Because if you leave it higher, images tend to look distractingly grainy and “forced”. Also, I personally wouldn’t recommend using the TruVivid setting at all, as while it can improve the vibrancy of objects with lots of colors, it can make skin tones look distinctly odd. Not for the first time, I feel that features like TruVivid and BrilliantColor should be left to true high-end projectors that are better equipped to get the most out of them.

Another provocative setting is the gamma preset control. Because messing around with it can have a huge impact on the overall flavor of the final image, and as such it’s a feature that you should revisit regularly depending on whether you’re watching a movie or TV show, or of course playing a game.

Indeed, provided you take these fairly basic precautions, the GT-7000 can produce some amazingly good images for such an insanely cheap projector.

The black levels in particular are a revelation, making Dead Space’s endlessly dark corners eerily black and believable on Xbox 360, and helping to create a good sense of scale. In other words, the GT-7000’s black levels give a sense of ‘being there’, much more successfully than any other under £800 projector I’ve seen – including the GT-3000. This is clearly an extremely important strength for a projector that focuses on gamers.

I was also pleased with the sharpness of the GT-7000’s images. Extremely textured graphics like those of Gears of War 2 look truly HD, with decent sharpness, solid detail, and less evidence of scaling “softness” than we found on the non-HD-capable GT-3000. The additional resolution of the GT-7000 also helps produce color blends more subtly, reducing the streaking effect experienced by the GT-3000.

While not as bright on paper as the GT-3000, to me the GT-7000’s images are actually far more dynamic thanks to the vastly improved black level response. So much so that the GT-7000 proves crucially the perfect projector for Blu-ray movies and games, making the GameTime name actually feel unnecessarily restrictive.

Still more good news is that the GT-7000’s colors look both more richly saturated and much more naturally toned than those of the GT-3000. I have to be realistic and say that we’re clearly not talking about color nuance or accuracy to compete with a regular or high-end projector. But the tones are generally good enough to convince rather than distract, and in fact it’s that respectable color palette along with the really, really decent black level response that ultimately makes the GT-7000 so much better than any other projector we can think of can the same money.

As is always the case with a budget DLP projector, the GT-7000 suffers from the technology’s rainbow effect, where red, green and blue stripes dart around in your peripheral field of vision or appear over very bright picture elements. This can be a little annoying during gameplay, which tends to use higher contrast images than your average movie or TV show. But actually the problem is much less apparent than with the GT-3000 or indeed many of the more expensive DLP projectors we can think of. In addition, the GT-7000 also manages impressively those dual DLP problems of dot creep in dark areas and hissing noise over moving skin tones.

I wasn’t as concerned with the GT-7000’s standard definition performance as I expected, either. Sure, the lack of really high-quality video processing circuitry means standard-definition pictures look pretty soft, and there’s little if any effort to reduce the MPEG blocking noise found in many digital broadcasts. But actually the slightly soft flavor of the GT-7000’s standard Def picture seems to reduce grain and mosquito noise, and provided you adjust the video and gamma presets to suit the type of source you’re watching, there’s less of a problem, too through dodgy hues than I would have expected from such a dirt cheap projector.

One concern I have, however, is that the GT-7000’s surprisingly high output seems to almost push the physical limits of the projector body. In other words, although its cooling fans seem to be working extremely hard judging by the occasionally annoying amount of noise they emit, the GT-7000 projector runs very hot. While this can be handy for keeping the house warm if you run out of heating oil over the New Year, it’s a bit of a concern when it comes to the projector’s longevity. That said, the GT-7000 comes with Optoma’s five-year color guarantee, so maybe I’m worrying too much.

As for the sound produced by the GT-7000’s included speakers, I’m afraid the situation is just as uninspiring as it was with the GT-3000. Because while the small speakers can get louder than you’d expect at first glance, and can handle relatively undemanding audio like Viva Pinata 2’s “cute” soundtrack, they tend to fall apart with the explosive theatrics of something like Gears of War 2 The midrange distorts and even disappears under duress, all too often taking the vocals with it.

“‘Verdict”‘

Although the GT-7000’s audio system is a disappointment, the projector more than makes up for it by producing amazingly good images for such an amazingly affordable device. In fact, it’s good enough to perform believably on both HD movies and games, giving it an all-round appeal that makes the £480 asking price look so cheap it’s almost obscene. But in a nice way.

points in detail

• value 10

• functions 7

• picture quality 7

• design 7