InFocus 7210 DLP Projector

Reviewed by

Kevin Miller

on 04/28/2005

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Page 2

Overall, the InFocus 7210 delivers an excellent picture. Prior to calibration, its performance was quite impressive compared to that of most of the competition. Grayscale tracking in the 6,500K setting with gamma set to Film came fairly close to ideal, although grayscale calibration definitely improved the 7210's overall color accuracy (see the geek box for more).

Defaults for color, tint, and especially contrast were not ideal, but we've come to expect that; we've seen much worse from most consumer digital TVs. The factory preset of 50 for contrast clips detail in white areas a bit. We found 45 the highest usable contrast setting, producing ample light output on our 72-inch-wide Stewart Filmscreen Studiotek 130 screen. The 7210 could easily fill larger screens as well.

The video processing is good, and as long as the 2:3 pull-down option is engaged, the projector does an excellent job recognizing and dealing with film-based material. The lens is a big improvement over the one on the first-generation 7200, with far fewer chromatic aberrations and no detectable barrel distortion. Color decoding is quite good, with only a slight error in green and no red push whatsoever. Black-level and contrast-ratio performance are also better than on the less expensive 7205, thanks to the 7210's DC3 chip.

Dark material, such as space scenes from the excellent DVDs of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and Alien revealed deep, rich blacks. We saw some low-level noise (dithering), but that is common to DLP technology, a function of the bit rate in the video processing. Star Wars also showed off the 7210's excellent color saturation and natural-looking skin tones.

The HD content from Time Warner Cable of New York City was awesome. The HDNet channel looked great, with excellent detail and rich, vibrant colors that were so saturated they almost looked wet. We also measured a full 720 lines of vertical resolution from our signal generator via the component-video outputs.

The InFocus 7210 is an excellent value in its category. The similarly priced Sharp XV-Z12000 has some additional flexibility, such as vertical lens shift, and it also has a superior lens, but it doesn't use the DC3 chip.

Geek box

TEST	RESULT	SCORE
Before color temp (20/80)	6,200/5,975K	Good
After color temp (20/80)	6,650/6,600K	Average
Before grayscale variation	+/-497K	Good
After grayscale variation	+/-114K	Average
Overscan	1%	Good
Color decoder error: red	0%	Good
Color decoder error: green	+5%	Good
DC restoration	All patterns stable	Good
2:3 pull-down, 24fps	Y	Good
Defeatable edge enhancement	Y	Good