Mitsubishi XD221U Projector - Physical Tour

Appearance

Well start our tour of the XD221U from the front. The lens is located to the right of center and is recessed. A particular design I find to be a real benefit if you are going to be moving the projector a lot. Pretty much eliminates any chance of jarring the lens out of alignment. Fine focus is controlled at the very front of the lens and zoom is controlled in the recessed area behind the lens. Movement is very smooth for both zoom and focus knobs.

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Behind, and a few inches back, you will find the only control functions on the projector itself. Provided, are a power-on button and a source control button. Simply keep pressing the source button to cycle through all the available sources. You will want to make sure you don’t lose the remote because all advanced functions like color adjustment, keystone correction, closed caption are only conveniently accessible via the remote control. If you do lose the remote you will have to use the RS232 port or LAN port to control the projectors advanced functions. You can order a replacement remote from Mitsubishi or your projector dealer.

To the left of the lens is the door to the projectors lamp. This is another smart design feature that projector manufacturers are adopting. It’s a real time and money saver if you are going to ceiling mount the projector since you won’t have to take it down just to replace the lamp. This is especially beneficial for EDU where you might have dozens or hundreds of lamps to replace.
The projectors functions are controlled using an infra-red signal. The IR sensor is just to the right of the lens and there is also an IR sensor in the rear of the projector so controlling it from either the front of the room or the back is no problem.

Heat dissipates from the left side of the projector and cool air is taken in from the right. It will be very important to have adequate space on the right side of the projector to let the projector breath. You will want to refer to the owners manual for exactly how many feet is necessary. Also always place the projector on a hard flat surface. Air is also taken in from under the projector. One nice thing about this projector is that it uses filter less technology. This is a real time and money saver for schools and large companies where you might have dozens of projectors to maintain.

Now lets move on to the rear of the projector. The Mitsubishi XD221U is well equipped and can handle just about any signal. From left to right there is an Audio Out input if you want to boost sound to a receiver and speaker system and to the right of that is a Audio In that pairs with the VGA input 1. Moving right again we have Audio Input 2 which pairs with the VGA input 2. VGA input 2 is also the input for component video. You will need a special cable if you plan to use component video. Next toVGA input 2 is a S-Video input and and a RCA input. For your convenience there is also a monitor out so you can easily see what you are projecting to your audience on a standard computer monitor.