InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance Posted on September 1, 2008 By Art Feierman 1. InFocus X10 – DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review - InFocus X10 Projector: Highlights2. InFocus X10 – DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review: Overview3. InFocus X10 Projector: Physical Tour4. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality - InFocus X10: Image Quality Sections - InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Out of the Box Picture Quality - InFocus X10: Skin Tone Handling - Bottom Line: InFocus X10 Skin Tones5. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality2 - InFocus X10: Black Level and Shadow Detail - InFocus X10 Projector: Black Level Performance - Black Level Comparison6. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality3 - Satellite Comparison - InFocus X10: Shadow Detail Performance - Shadow Detail Comparison7. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality4 - Sequence Comparison8. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality5 - Thumbnails Comparison - Space Cowboys Comparsion9. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality6 - Projector Comparison - SD-DVD Comparison10. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality7 - Projector Black Level and Shadow Detail - InFocus X10 Projector: Image Sharpness - Image Sharpness Comparison11. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality8 - Computer Monitor Comparison - InFocus X10 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports - Bottom Line: InFocus X10 on HDTV and Sports12. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality9 - InFocus X10 Projector: Overall Image Quality - Overall Picture Quality: Bottom Line13. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - InFocus X10 Projector: Menus - InFocus X10 Projector: User Memory Settings - InFocus X10 Projector: Remote Control - InFocus X10 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens Shift14. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance2 - InFocus X10 Projector: SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - InFocus X10 Projector: Brightness - Brightness 15. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance3 - InFocus X10 Projector: Light Leakage - InFocus X10 Projector: Audible Noise Levels - InFocus X10 Projector: Screen Recommendations16. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance4 - InFocus X10 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Measurements - Post Calibration - RGB settings - Calibration Color accuracy17. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance5 - X10 Image Noise - InFocus X10: Other issues18. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Warranty19. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons - InFocus X10 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - InFocus X10 Projector: Pros20. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons2 - InFocus X10 Projector: Cons - InFocus X10 Projector: Typical Capabilities - InFocus X10 Projector: Competitive Aspects - InFocus X10 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z200021. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons3 - InFocus X10 vs. Panasonic PT-AE2000U - InFocus X10 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB - InFocus X10 vs. Optoma HD803 - InFocus X10 vs. BenQ W500022. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons4 - InFocus X10 vs. Mitsubishi HC5500 - InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary - InFocus X10 Projector: Bottom Line23. InFocus X10 Projector Specifications There’s lots of information about the X10 to cover in this section. These links will allow you to quickly get to any topics of interest to you. InFocus X10 Projector: MenusThe InFocus X10 home theater projector has what appears to be an the same set of menus as the InFocus IN83 we reviewed less than two months ago. Instead of repeating everything in this section, here’s a link to the IN83 menus description. Use the back button to return to this page. InFocus X10 Projector: User Memory SettingsLike the IN83, the X10 has three user savable memory settings. In addition there are two others – ISF Day, and ISF Night, password protected memories accessable by ISF certified calibrators. InFocus X10 Projector: Remote ControlThe InFocus X10 home theater projector also comes with the same remote control as the IN83. Here’s the full rundown: The relatively small InFocus X10 remote control fits nicely in your hand and is backlit by blue LEDs. To engage the backlight, press the trigger on the bottom side of the remote. The backlight nicely illuminates the graphics on each button, but at the same time makes it harder to read the text description right above each button. That means it’s in your interest to learn those graphic Icons. From the top. All alone on the top row, is the On/Off switch at the top center. Press once to turn on, once again, to turn off. If you have pressed the button once to turn the projector off, pressing it a second time cancels the operation. Just below are four buttons in a diamond configuration. On the left side of the diamond, is the menu button, which opens the menus (or pressing it once they are open, closes the menus). In the center are the up and down navigation arrow, and on the right, the Enter button. I favor menu systems that use four arrow keys instead of the InFocus’s two, as that seems to save a few keystrokes, but since you really aren’t going to access the menus often, it’s hardly worth quibbling over. Towards the bottom are three more rows of buttons, here are the buttons by row: First row, left to right: Resize, Overscan (overscan is used to eliminate noise around the edge of images, typically found on standard TV resolution broadcasts, and often on HDTV broadcasts of non HD material. It does mean that the image is no longer one for one pixel mapped, so it does affect apparent sharpness slightly). On the right is the Source button, which will have the projector search for an active source. On the middle row, you’ll find a Custom button – a nice touch, you can program it to handle the favorite function of your choice. In the middle, is a auto image button, letting the X10 do its best, and on the right, the Preset button which will let you choose your favorite preset, to match what you are watching. The last row has three source buttons, you can define them to the specfic sources you have hooked up, out of the much larger number of inputs available. All considered a very nice, but not exceptional remote control. I should note that the InFocus does not automatically adjust the apect ratio as the sources change. For example, if you are watching HDTV in 16:9 mode, and switch to a regular TV channel, you’ll manually have to change the aspect ratio, but pressing the aspect ratio button on the remote until 4:3 ratio appears. InFocus X10 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens ShiftThis InFocus is another “classic” DLP when it comes to lens attributes. The zoom is your basic 1.2:1 ratio, providing very limited placement flexibility (1.2:1 zooms are found on most DLP projectors). This provides about 2 feet of placement flexibility with a 100″ screen. By comparison 3LCD (and LCOS projectors), typically have 2:1 zooms – about 10 feet of placement, which means typically anywhere from the middle to the back of most rooms. That makes the X10 suitable for ceiling mounting in most rooms. Be sure to figure out where you need a projector to go in your room, before purchasing. The X10 lacks adjustable lens shift, making it unsuitable for shelf mounting, but, again, that’s true of almost all DLP projectors. The actual placement range, for a 100″, 16:9 aspect ratio screen is from approximately 13.5 feet, to 16.1 feet, from the screen, measured from the front of the lens. Fixed lens shift for that size screen will place a ceiling mounted InFocus (measured from the center of the lens), is about 17.5 inches. This means that the lens of the projector will be 17.5 inches above the top of the screen surface. This amount of lens shift, works great in rooms with fairly high celings but creates problems in rooms with less than eight feet of height. For a 7 foot ceiling (such as a basement might have), if your projector (lens) is only 12 inches below the ceiling, then, for a 100″ diagonal screen (49″ high), that puts the bottom of the screen surface at about 25 inches from the floor – a little low if you plan two rows of seating. Still, for an 8 foot ceiling that number increases to about 3 feet, which many consider close to ideal. Bottom line, if you want a rather large screen, say 120″ diagonal, to consider the InFocus X10, then ceiling height becomes a huge factor. 1. InFocus X10 – DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review - InFocus X10 Projector: Highlights2. InFocus X10 – DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review: Overview3. InFocus X10 Projector: Physical Tour4. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality - InFocus X10: Image Quality Sections - InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Out of the Box Picture Quality - InFocus X10: Skin Tone Handling - Bottom Line: InFocus X10 Skin Tones5. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality2 - InFocus X10: Black Level and Shadow Detail - InFocus X10 Projector: Black Level Performance - Black Level Comparison6. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality3 - Satellite Comparison - InFocus X10: Shadow Detail Performance - Shadow Detail Comparison7. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality4 - Sequence Comparison8. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality5 - Thumbnails Comparison - Space Cowboys Comparsion9. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality6 - Projector Comparison - SD-DVD Comparison10. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality7 - Projector Black Level and Shadow Detail - InFocus X10 Projector: Image Sharpness - Image Sharpness Comparison11. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality8 - Computer Monitor Comparison - InFocus X10 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports - Bottom Line: InFocus X10 on HDTV and Sports12. InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality9 - InFocus X10 Projector: Overall Image Quality - Overall Picture Quality: Bottom Line13. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance - InFocus X10 Projector: Menus - InFocus X10 Projector: User Memory Settings - InFocus X10 Projector: Remote Control - InFocus X10 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens Shift14. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance2 - InFocus X10 Projector: SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - InFocus X10 Projector: Brightness - Brightness 15. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance3 - InFocus X10 Projector: Light Leakage - InFocus X10 Projector: Audible Noise Levels - InFocus X10 Projector: Screen Recommendations16. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance4 - InFocus X10 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Measurements - Post Calibration - RGB settings - Calibration Color accuracy17. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance5 - X10 Image Noise - InFocus X10: Other issues18. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Warranty19. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons - InFocus X10 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - InFocus X10 Projector: Pros20. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons2 - InFocus X10 Projector: Cons - InFocus X10 Projector: Typical Capabilities - InFocus X10 Projector: Competitive Aspects - InFocus X10 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z200021. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons3 - InFocus X10 vs. Panasonic PT-AE2000U - InFocus X10 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080UB - InFocus X10 vs. Optoma HD803 - InFocus X10 vs. BenQ W500022. InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary, Competition, Pros and Cons4 - InFocus X10 vs. Mitsubishi HC5500 - InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector: Summary - InFocus X10 Projector: Bottom Line23. InFocus X10 Projector Specifications InFocus X10 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality9 InFocus X10 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance2