Projector Reviews Images

Acer VL7860 4K UHD Laser Projector Review – Hardware 2

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Art Feierman

Acer VL7860 4K UHD Laser Projector Review – Hardware 2: Control Panel, Remote Control, Menus

VL7860 Control Panel

control panel
A nice and clean control panel. relatively easy to read if the room isn't well lit

The Acer VL7860’s control panel, shown here, is located on the top of the projector. It’s pretty standard fare. It includes the essential buttons to display and navigate the on-screen menus.

The panel consists of a round navigation area surrounded by four large buttons in a rectangular area.

At the top left is Power, the top right is Source, bottom right is the Menu button to access the navigation, and bottom left is the back button which walks you back up one level at a time in the menus.

In the middle of all of this are the four arrow keys, and, and in the middle of them, the Enter button.

There are 3 status lights located just above the control panel, one each for Power, Lamp, and Temperature. You can see that top IR receiver for the remote control located just above the status lights.

That covers the control panel, in all its simplicity.

Remote Control

The Acer VL7860 comes with a pretty compact remote control with a manually activated backlight. The backlight is bright, but not overwhelming (like Optoma tends to do). The color makes it very readable (by comparison Sony’s blue LEDs make it much harder to read their remote’s buttons in the dark).

The top row of buttons include those for Power, Backlight and Input Source. The second row has buttons for Accu-Motion (CFI), HDR and Color (picture) Mode.

Some buttons are not used as this remote is shared with a number of other Acer projectors. For example, there’s a 3D button, on a remote for a projector with no 3D capabilities (OK, that is a cheap, but harmless dig).

Below those two top rows is the navigation area, four arrow keys arranged in a cross configuration with the Enter button in the center. Menu is slightly below to the right, while the Back button, that steps you back a level in the menus, is below on the left.

The up and down arrows double as keystone correction controls when not in the menu system. Again, for home use, keystone correction is best avoided (as it degrades the picture quality/sharpness), but it can be very handy in a business or school projector environment, where the modest amount of lens shift isn’t enough to result in a good rectangular image shape.

In addition to the Source button on the top row, there are separate buttons for VGA and HDMI switching below the navigation.

remote

Below those are the 4-way Navigation buttons and below those are the Menu and Back buttons. Toward the bottom of the remote are three rows of four buttons each. These provide direct access to several of the projector’s available functions/adjustments without the need to navigation thru the full menu structure (note the 3D button is not active for the V7850).

In addition to the VGA and HDMI, the 16 buttons in four rows at the bottom include direct access to controls including brightness, gamma, sharpness, contrast, aspect ratio, and their “Super-Resolution” a generic term, that Epson has long used for their suite of sharpening tools, and which Acer, it seems also has adapted. That’s the way it is with generic terms. You can trademark Accu-Motion, but not Super-Resolution.

All that’s left are a Freeze button to freeze the screen (even while content continues to change), and a Hide button which blacks out the screen, while there is still content to project.

That’s about it. For a pretty compact remote, I found I liked it, range was very good, and I didn’t mind the 16 small, identical buttons (which would be hard to memorize where the ones you might use are located). The reasons I didn’t mind – most folks won’t be typically using them. The Menus and top buttons are where most of the action is.

Very bottom line: A good, solid remote. And perhaps best – its white, so if you are using this projector in a darkened room, especially one with darker surfaces, it’s easy to spot on a table. I spend too much of my life looking for black remotes in a very dark room.

I figure any manufacturer with a black projector remote should have at least one button on it that glows fairly brightly in the dark! Long ago I started putting a day-glo type strip on each black remote that I use. It sure helps finding them in the middle of a movie. That’s my 2 cents!

The Menus

That does it for our tour of the Acer VL7860's hardware! Next up is our discussion of the projector's picture and sound quality.

Acer VL7860 4K UHD Laser Projector Review – Hardware 2: Control Panel, Remote Control, Menus

VL7860 Control Panel

control panel
A nice and clean control panel. relatively easy to read if the room isn't well lit

The Acer VL7860’s control panel, shown here, is located on the top of the projector. It’s pretty standard fare. It includes the essential buttons to display and navigate the on-screen menus.

The panel consists of a round navigation area surrounded by four large buttons in a rectangular area.

At the top left is Power, the top right is Source, bottom right is the Menu button to access the navigation, and bottom left is the back button which walks you back up one level at a time in the menus.

In the middle of all of this are the four arrow keys, and, and in the middle of them, the Enter button.

There are 3 status lights located just above the control panel, one each for Power, Lamp, and Temperature. You can see that top IR receiver for the remote control located just above the status lights.

That covers the control panel, in all its simplicity.

Remote Control

The Acer VL7860 comes with a pretty compact remote control with a manually activated backlight. The backlight is bright, but not overwhelming (like Optoma tends to do). The color makes it very readable (by comparison Sony’s blue LEDs make it much harder to read their remote’s buttons in the dark).

The top row of buttons include those for Power, Backlight and Input Source. The second row has buttons for Accu-Motion (CFI), HDR and Color (picture) Mode.

Some buttons are not used as this remote is shared with a number of other Acer projectors. For example, there’s a 3D button, on a remote for a projector with no 3D capabilities (OK, that is a cheap, but harmless dig).

Below those two top rows is the navigation area, four arrow keys arranged in a cross configuration with the Enter button in the center. Menu is slightly below to the right, while the Back button, that steps you back a level in the menus, is below on the left.

The up and down arrows double as keystone correction controls when not in the menu system. Again, for home use, keystone correction is best avoided (as it degrades the picture quality/sharpness), but it can be very handy in a business or school projector environment, where the modest amount of lens shift isn’t enough to result in a good rectangular image shape.

In addition to the Source button on the top row, there are separate buttons for VGA and HDMI switching below the navigation.

remote

Below those are the 4-way Navigation buttons and below those are the Menu and Back buttons. Toward the bottom of the remote are three rows of four buttons each. These provide direct access to several of the projector’s available functions/adjustments without the need to navigation thru the full menu structure (note the 3D button is not active for the V7850).

In addition to the VGA and HDMI, the 16 buttons in four rows at the bottom include direct access to controls including brightness, gamma, sharpness, contrast, aspect ratio, and their “Super-Resolution” a generic term, that Epson has long used for their suite of sharpening tools, and which Acer, it seems also has adapted. That’s the way it is with generic terms. You can trademark Accu-Motion, but not Super-Resolution.

All that’s left are a Freeze button to freeze the screen (even while content continues to change), and a Hide button which blacks out the screen, while there is still content to project.

That’s about it. For a pretty compact remote, I found I liked it, range was very good, and I didn’t mind the 16 small, identical buttons (which would be hard to memorize where the ones you might use are located). The reasons I didn’t mind – most folks won’t be typically using them. The Menus and top buttons are where most of the action is.

Very bottom line: A good, solid remote. And perhaps best – its white, so if you are using this projector in a darkened room, especially one with darker surfaces, it’s easy to spot on a table. I spend too much of my life looking for black remotes in a very dark room.

I figure any manufacturer with a black projector remote should have at least one button on it that glows fairly brightly in the dark! Long ago I started putting a day-glo type strip on each black remote that I use. It sure helps finding them in the middle of a movie. That’s my 2 cents!

The Menus

That does it for our tour of the Acer VL7860's hardware! Next up is our discussion of the projector's picture and sound quality.

Latest Reviews

February 25, 2024

Introducing the Hisense C1: A cube-shaped 4K UHD lifestyle projector with an RGB triple laser light source and integrated JBL ...

February 19, 2024

The BenQ X3100i is a 4LED, 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160p) 0.65" DLP short-throw gaming projector that offers a BenQ-rated ...

January 20, 2024

The BenQ V5000i is a $3,499 smart ultra-short throw 4K projector with RGB triple laser source. Ideal for vibrant, bright ...

January 2, 2024

The BenQ HT3560 is a 4K UHD projector offering vibrant colors and advanced features for $1,599. It offers a manufacturer-rated ...

© 2024 Projector Reviews

crossmenu linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram