CE Pro August 2021 - 59

I used the projector remote
to scroll through selections,
and when I played one of
a 1080p concert video it
worked fi ne - I kept audio
to the built-in speakers, and
with Harman Kardon doing
the engineering they will fi ll
a rec room easily.
The ViewSonic remote
is bare bones but lets you
quickly dig into menu items
if you know which buttons
to hit - for instance, the
automated focus button
is right below the power
button and comes in handy.
Actually, in my experience
the combination of LED
light source and automated
instead of manual focus
(usually via a ring around the
lens) are nice diff erentiators
typically uncommon at this
price point. I don't like manual
focus because it always
seems to drift a smidge;
meanwhile, the image settings
menu will take you to
a test screen to help dial in
the image clarity.
Performance &
Conclusions
Rather than work with the
included apps, which did not
seem to work for me too
consistently, I used the Sony
player to access Netfl ix,
YouTube and Blu-ray and
Ultra HD BD disc content.
As I did with a recent BenQ
4K projector review, via
the Sony player I watched
a range of UHD content
such as nature, travel and
concert footage on YouTube,
shows such as " The Blacklist, "
" Stranger Things " and
" Breaking Bad " on Netfl ix,
and discs that included " Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, "
" Oceans: Our Blue Planet "
and " Die Hard " plus regular
Blu-ray HD discs.
Scenes from " The Blacklist "
showcased the X1004K's
strong work on detail
with close-up shots like facial
features, revealing all the
little wrinkles, creases, shave
marks, makeup caking and
other fi ne skin/hair textures.
Simple but satisfying images
like a scraped up, dirty old
car in a shot meant to take
place on the busy streets of
Indonesia really captured the
authenticity of the backdrop.
On a " Flying over Scotland "
video on YouTube,
absolutely breathtaking in
Ultra HD with vistas of craggy
mountains, emerald green
pastures, cliff side waterfalls
and such, the ViewSonic
projector did a solid job
rendering the rich landscapes
and gradients of green color
and texture in the grasses
and forests in particular. The
slow panning of the scene
occasionally caused a minor
amount of motion judder -
users can play around with
some of the processing
settings in the menu like the
Frame Interpolation, but I
found leaving it off was still
better than having it look
unnaturally smooth.
I did play with the color
temperature settings in
the image menu, since the
default seemed a tad warm
and green hued. ViewSonic
has preset color settings
for movie, gaming, tv and
user-generated, and for the
most part I stuck with movie
and at 7500 Kelvin.
Other nature scenes on
YouTube and the " Oceans "
disc gave me a good sense
of how the X100-4K handled
more fi ne detail like animal
fur and skin, and here
too it proved more than
capable delivering a solid
image. The lifelike visuals in
" Oceans " including all the
waves, rocks, clouds plus the
slow-motion eff ects, came
across well for an engaging
large-scale experience.
Picking out small people
and other nuggets from high
aerial views is one of the fun
advantages of big-screen 4K,
and between the YouTube
channels and " Oceans "
disc the X100-4K proved
capable.
Overall, the projector
exceeded my expectations
given the cost of entry into
upgrading from, say, a 55inch
display to a 100-inch or
greater 4K screen. If customers
have not experienced
this size picture before, installers
can really wow them
at a budget price.
I did not dig too deep
into the image settings, but
calibrators have an arsenal to
fi ne tune the color management
by individual colors,
and ISF certifi ed technicians
can access the ISF Day and
Night modes to optimize
color in diff erent light conditions.
This
could be a solid selection
for customers seeking
secondary big-scale media
rooms, and in case the projector
must be left out in the
open I'll add that it is very
cool looking. You will need
to account for its depth, but
the X100-4K is more elliptical
and sleeker than your average
projector. A winner all-around
for serving up entry-level but
large-size 4K fun.
ViewSonic
X100-4K
Projector
SPECS
2,900 lumens brightness
DLP LED projector
3840 x 2160 4K Ultra HD
resolution
1.2-1.44 throw ratio;
throw distance 3.2810.43
feet
Display size 40-200
diagonal inches
Vertical (+60%, -0%),
horizontal (+25%, -25%)
lens shift
4 HDMI 2.0 ports, USB
3.0, USB 2.0, VGA, micro
USB, 2 Ethernet LAN, 12V
triggers, RS232 control,
SPDIF audio out, 3.5mm
audio out
2 x 20-watt Harman
Kardon speakers
Dimensions of 16.4 x 18.2
x 6.3 inches; 16.9 pounds
$1,817; viewsonic.com
CE PRO
VERDICT
PROS: Colors are nicely
saturated and inky; crisp
detail provided by 4K;
budget price point for more
potential customers
CONS: Some fan noise;
non-4K imagery could be tad
soft depending on source
cepro.com August 2021 CE Pro | 59
http://www.viewsonic.com http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro August 2021

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