Optoma Pico Projector - Physical Tour
5/8/2009 - Art Feierman
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Appearance
It's tiny, it's mostly black, with a silver band for styling. Tiny is the operative term. The Pico is small enough 
that it takes up significantly less space than a pack of cigarettes. It's actual dimensions are roughly 4 inches by 2 inches by .6 inches. It certainly is a good looking little device.
Everyone who's stopped by, thinks its really cute!
One nice touch is that the Pico has a small screw hole on the bottom, and comes with a tripod adapter. Screw in the adaptor, and you can then mount the Pico on any tripod with the standard sized threaded screw. Shown here: The Pico mounted to the head of one of my full sized tripods.
Control Panel
What control panel? The Optoma Pico has only the power switch, which can be in Off, Low power, and Full Power. There is also a small mostly recessed dial on the side for adjusting the focus. Looking at the Optoma Pico projector from the back, the power switch is on the left side, the focus, on the right, near the front.
Optoma Pico Inputs
The Pico has exactly two inputs! One is for a composite video source (a mini-jack that takes in composite video and left and right audio signals. The other is a USB connector which is used to recharge the internal battery. In this image, you can see the provided video cable plugged into the right side of the Optoma Pico PK101.
Optoma Pico Menus
Talk about easy! The Pico has no menus. This is strictly a plug in your source, turn it on, and project. There are no color controls, or any other controls for that matter.
Remote Control
There's no remote control either! Afterall, the only feature a remote could control, would be the power, since there is only one input and that is the composite video input.
Optoma Pico Lens Throw
The lens is fixed - no zoom. The ratio of the lens itself is 1.9:1 - that is, the distance from the screen is 1.9 times the width of the projected image. Thus, to project a 20 inch wide image (25 inches diagonal), the projector would be placed 1.9 x 20 inches from the surface you are projecting on. In this example, 38 inches back.
Lens Shift
Not only is there no adjustable lens shift, but there is no lens offset either. The correct placement of the projector is so that the lens is centered relative to your screen. That means it should be at the same height as the middle of the screen, and half way between the two sides. Place it there, and you get a nice rectangular image. Place it below (or above), and you get the usual trapazoidal shape with the image wider at the top (or the bottom). The Pico doesn't have any keystone correction, which is used in larger projectors without lens shift, to adjust a trapazoidal image back to a rectangular one.