NEC is Automatic For The People

Having to touch the buttons on your projector can sometimes become annoying and eventually can build calluses on your fingers. If you are in the middle of a presentation, having to tweak your picture can be a bit of a disturbance and if you had the option to set the whole thing on auto pilot, I know you would.

Well here is the first chance for the world to see a couple of real contenders that can boast a fully automatic experience. The NEC LT30 and LT35 DLP projectors provide today’s user with a few automated features that make life easier. In my opinion, the most useful of the bunch very well could be the auto focus, which allows for a sharp picture every time regardless of what you may have thought was the right distance setting.

There is sensor on the front of the machine that measures the distance to the screen and adjusts the sharpness and focus so that your picture is clear even if the screen or the projector is moved. If I wanted to really disrupt the speakers’ presentation and make like Charlie Chaplin, I would occasionally get up and move across the image. That way, the projector would keep re-focusing in order to project clearly onto my body.

If you are presenting and you have a silly man or woman in your audience trying to mess with your automatic projector, make sure you position the projector at a level so that the image that is being beamed is out of the way. I have seen the automatic focus on old projector that utilizes slides, since some slides have different focus points, but I have never understood why a digital signal, or pre-prepared digital photos would need any kind of adjusting.

I know I have gone from awe to cynicism regarding auto-focus, but I hope you can all see the ridiculous nature of this feature. If you are already worried about having to move your projector around during your presentation, how much more time is it really going to take to adjust the focus?

If anyone wants to counter this argument, and especially those who are auto-focus lovers, I invite you to make a claim. Anyhow, the other auto feature that is now somewhat overshadowed is the keystone correction. This is something that everyone can truly use. The reason why this is so important is because, you cannot always control the height and perfect balance of your projector and where it sits.

Other than that the NEC LT30 and LT35 are pretty sweet and priced to sell at just under $2200 US.