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Casio XJ-L8300HN Projector Review – Summary

Posted on October 19, 2017 By Nikki Zelinger

Casio XJ-L8300HN Projector Review – Picture Quality: Summary, Pros, Cons

Summary

The Casio XJ-L8300HN is a DLP projector with a laser/phosphor light engine, making it lamp-free with a long rated light engine life of up to 20,000 hours. Though it didn’t meet its 5,000 lumen claim, it came close at 4,461 lumens in Bright mode. It features the new Texas Instruments 4K UHD chip, advanced networking, and great placement flexibility. The lens is a manual 1.5:1 zoom and has a generous amount of lens shift – 25% horizontal, 60% vertical. The warranty is great – three years parts and labor, with five years or 10,000 hours on the light engine.

The XJ-L8300HN’s inputs and connectors panel is simple, but well laid out. There’s a LAN and an HDBaseT port, two Trigger inputs (one for a remote, one to trigger external devices like a motorized screen), a pair of HDMIs (one HDMI HDCP 2.2 for handling 4K), an Audio Out, a Service port, a DC (5V 2A) connector, and a Serial port for old school command and control. If you need to run more than one HDBaseT signal, you can get an HDBaseT transmitter for around $300 or less online.

The projector’s control panel is basic and easy to access – it’s right next to the inputs and connectors on the side of the projector. The menus are easy to navigate, and are well laid out as well. The remote control is simple and backlit (blue), with the added bonus of being able to turn it on and off at will.

There are three color modes: Bright, Vivid, and Natural. Both Bright and Vivid are quite green, but Natural performs much better, with its colors looking almost true to color and good handling of skin tones. There are murky reds and mustard yellows when projecting solid reds and yellows, but this is not as noticeable when viewing regular content. There are two User Modes, however, so if you don’t like the look of Natural, you can make your own color mode.

Text and presentations looked fantastic, even when being projected from a less-than-full HD display (1366 x 768, which is still higher than 720p HD). HD content looked better on the XJ-L8300HN than on some lower cost home theater projectors I’ve seen, and I was impressed at how sharp the image was. Projecting 4K content is where this projector truly shines, with a beautifully clear image, as seen in the photos of Journey to Space on both the Picture Quality page and in the slider above.

I really can’t rave about the sharpness enough. This Casio produces a truly gorgeous image. I admit that I was a little disappointed at the lack of certain features I’ve seen in other high end business/education projectors (such as Edge Blending and Projection Mapping), but the quality of the image really impresses, and let’s face it, only a very small percent of installations call for edge blending or projection mapping. So, if your applications do not require advanced features such as those, and keeping sharpness while projecting a large image is important to you, you will definitely want to consider the XJ-L8300HN when searching for your business/education/commercial projector.

Pros

  • 5,000 Lumens
  • 4K UHD Resolution (3840 x 2160)
  • Hybrid Laser/Phosphor Light Engine
  • 20,000 Hour Rated Light Engine Life
  • DLP Technology
  • 20,000:1 Contrast Ratio
  • Generous Amount of Lens Shift – 25% Horizontal, 60% Vertical
  • 1.5:1 Manual Zoom Lens
  • Advanced Networking – Crestron RoomView, PJLink
    • HDBaseT receiver for running HDMI long distances over low cost CAT cable
  • Great Warranty – 3 Years on the Projector, 5 years or 10,000 Hours on Light Engine
  • Extremely Sharp – Text and presentations looked great, HD content looked excellent, and 4K content was nothing short of gorgeous
  • Large, Clear Image – 95” to 200” diagonally
  • PC-Free Presenting via HDMI devices such as Apple TV, Chromecast, etc. to connect phones or tablets
  • 12 volt (screen) trigger
  • Relatively quiet for a projector this bright, a real plus if you use in smaller, but bright rooms
  • Well priced for the feature set, including solid state light engine, and 4K UHD resolution

Cons

  • Came up a little short of brightness claim
  • No advanced features like Edge Blending or Projection Mapping
  • No built-in file viewer for USB presenting (and no USB input) (typically not found on this level of commercial projector – since it’s unlikely to be placed/mounted where you can plug in a USB stick easily
  • No wireless networking (but it has wired LAN)
  • “Best” picture mode is about 60% as bright as claimed maximum brightness (that’s actually pretty good for a DLP projector, but lower than most 3LCD projectors)
  • Supports 4K content, but does not support HDR or BT.2020 color space (typical of most commercial 4K capable projectors).
  • Rainbow Effect – though this is a minor issue, and by no means a “deal-breaker”
  • No HDR – this is less important to have on commercial projectors than on home theater, but when there’s 4K UHD resolution, I like to see HDR capabilities

Casio XJ-L8300HN Projector Review – Performance
Casio XJ-L8300HN 4K UHD Business/Education Projector Review-Specifications