Casio XJ-A250V Projector - Physical Tour
5-5-2011 - Art Feierman
Time for your tour of the Casio XJ-A250V projector's physical form, including layout, inputs, speaker, control panel, and remote control.
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Casio XJ-A250V Appearance
The Casio XJ-A250V is one of their Green Slim projectors, their thinnest, and lightest projectors, which explains the "thin". The green comes from the already mentioned hybrid light engine, which uses laser and LED lighting. Despite the small size, the Casio projector is big on one thing: The recessed zoom lens (shown immediately bleow, has a 2:1 zoom range. None of the other projectors in this report had more than a 1.3:1 except of course, the Sanyo with it's interchangeable lenses. Short of the Sanyo, the Casio therefore has the most placement flexibility.
The front of the Casio XJ-250V projector, also has an IR sensor for the remote, and it has a button to drop the centered single front foot.
From a placement standpoint, the 2:1 zoom lens will allow you to place the projector as close as 7 feet, 11 inches from a 100 inch diagonal 16:10 (WXGA) screen, and as far back as 15 feet 10 inches.
The control panel, discussed below, is located on the top, running along the back of the XJ-250V.
The input and connection panel is on the back. That will also be discussed below.
Casio XJ-A250V Setup and Use: Control Panel and Menus
The full control panel (covered below), is on the top by the back center, and is pretty typical, except for being of the membrane, press down variety, instead of traditional buttons.
Note that this Casio has three power modes. Instead of bright and low (eco), they have an Eco mode, but when turned off, there are two different brighntess settings.
The Casio XJ-A250V's menu system is reasonably well laid out. A few features will be pointed out below. My biggest complaints are that the Picture modes (ie. Standard, Game...), only exist when in Eco mode. When you switch to the two non-eco, brighter modes, they disappear and, instead you have just Warm Medium and Cool color temp settings, and separate color controls for R,G, and B. Better would have been to offer both, in non-eco mode. Almost all users of a projector like this would rather select something like Video mode, than mess with those other controls.
Once I got past that, and that the overly large menu which is right in the middle of the screen (and unlike many projectors, cannot be moved), no other real issues. That large menu can make it hard to do adjustments since the menu is probably blocking your view of what you want to see adjusted. It drove me crazy trying to take our standard test image of text, pie charts and the mode, trying to position all of that so it could be seen, with the menu still open.
OK, below you ca take a quick look at each of the key menus.
A lot of the normal action takes place on this first menu, which has pre-set modes.
Casio XJ-A250V Remote Control
The Casio XJ-A250V remote control is a medium small one. Unlike most remotes, it's more squarish, not long and narrow. It does hold well in the hand however, and I really did like the layout. Not a ton of buttons, but, seems I knew where all the ones I needed were, in must a few minutes.
Let's take it from the top! On the right is the power switch. Opposite on the left top, is the Input button. Just below centered, are four buttons, two for Zoom Up and Down, and two for focus. On either side, are smaller buttons for the navigation. On the left, you'll find the Menu, and the Escape button on the right. Naturally, below that are the navigation arrows, and the typical center Enter button.
Below all that, are a Function button, and then three small buttons in a row: Auto for locking in a PC signal, Blank (the screen), and Freeze (the screen).
The next row has two: Color Mode which lets you toggle through your choices, and Volume. Further down are the brightness buttons - Bright, and Eco. To the right, the Aspect ratio button. Now I failed to mention some buttons going down the right side. First there's a pair for the Digital Zoom feature, and below it, a pair for Keystone correction.
Lastly, the Casio offers a Pointer, and the bottom right button controls it.
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Casio XJ-A250V Input Panel and Connections
The XJ-A250V is a projector not really designed for typical education use. For that reason, it's definitely a bit thin on inputs and outputs.
There's a rear infra-red sensor for the remote on the back, far left. Next comes a single mini jack for stereo audio and composite video. The HD15 computer VGA jack is next. It can work with the typical analog computer source, or handle a component video source.
Lastly, you will find an HDMI input. (For our testing, we did everything via HDMI, with no issues.) There's also a Kensington Lock slot, and a power cord receptacle. Note that the power cord has a "Mickey Mouse" connector on the projctor end, this 3 prong connector looks like Mickey - round face, two round ears.
The back also has two screw thread adustable feet, to complement the adjstable front foot.