Viewsonic VX2703mh-LED

Pros Affordable. Energy-efficient. Good motion handling.

Cons Weak gray-scale performance. Light on features. So-so color accuracy. Bottom Line The Viewsonic VX2703mh-LED may not have the best performance or the best feature set, but it's an affordable 27-inch monitor that does a good job of displaying fast motion, and it is easy on your utility bill.

By John R. Delaney

With the ViewSonic VX2703mh-LED ($269.99) you get an energy-efficient 27-inch display for under $270, but you'll have to make some sacrifices. It has trouble displaying light shades of gray and, as is the case with other affordable big-screen monitors, it doesn't offer many features. However, its twisted-nematic (TN) panel has a fast pixel response. While its low price may be attractive, it still has a higher list price than our Editors' Choice for affordable big-screen monitors, the Acer H276HL, which outperforms the VX2703mh-LED across the board.

Design and Features
There's nothing fancy about the VX2703mh-LED, but it's not unattractive either. The 1,920-by-1,080 panel is housed in a matte-black cabinet that is 2 inches thick and has 0.75-inch bezels. The cabinet has four VESA mounting holes around back and is supported by a glossy-black base. The stand has a 19-degree tilt range, but it doesn't support height, swivel, or pivot adjustments. There are four clearly marked function buttons and a power switch on lower right side of the cabinet.

At the rear of the cabinet are HDMI, DVI, and VGA video inputs, an audio input, and a headphone jack. As with the Acer H276HL and the AOC e2752Vh, the VX2703mh-LED doesn't offer USB or DisplayPort connectivity. However, it does have a pair of built-in speakers, though they aren't very strong and sound tinny.

Picture settings are basic; you can adjust Brightness, Contrast, Color Temperature, Dynamic Contrast, and Aspect Ratio, and there are Auto-Adjust, Position, and Horizontal Size settings for use with an analog signal. Power-saving Eco modes include Off, Optimize (which decreases brightness by 25 percent), and Conserve (which decreases brightness by 50 percent).

The display is covered by a three-year warranty on parts, labor, and backlight, and it comes with VGA, DVI, and audio cables. It also comes with a quick-start guide and a resource disc with drivers and a user guide.

Performance
The VX2703mh-LED delivers a bright picture, but it has gray-scale issues. It couldn't correctly display very light shades of gray on the DisplayMate 64-Step Gray-Scale test; instead of gradating from darker to lighter grays, the three lightest shades appeared white-washed. As a result, highlight detail in my test images appeared washed out.

Full-screen color samples appeared uniform, but color accuracy was skewed. As shown on the chromaticity chart below, red and green (represented by the colored dots) were outside of their ideal CIE coordinate zones (represented by the boxes), while blue was only slightly off. Fortunately, none of the colors were off by such a wide margin as to cause tinting, but you don't get the bold color tone that you get with the Acer H276HL.

Despite its color issues, The Wolverine on Blu-ray looked great on the screen, and video action was smooth, thanks to the panel's 3-millisecond (gray-to-gray) pixel response. Gaming action was also fluid, with no noticeable blur while playing Aliens vs. Predator on a PC and Midnight Club on the PS3.

The VX2703mh-LED's TN panel produced narrow viewing angles. There was color shifting at around 60 degrees from center, and the screen appeared washed out at around 45 degrees from center when viewed from the top and bottom angles.

Power consumption was very good, but not as good as that of the Samsung LS27D590PS. The VX2703mh-LED used 27 watts of power during testing with Eco mode turned off and 22 watts with Eco mode set to Optimize. With Eco mode set to Conserve, it used only 17 watts, and the picture was still reasonably bright. In comparison, the Samsung LS27D590PS used 16 watts of power in Standard mode and just 13 watts in Power-Saving mode, and the Acer H276HL used 24 watts (Standard mode) and 22 watts (Power-Saving mode).

Conclusion
The Viewsonic VX2703mh-LED is a serviceable 27-inch monitor that won't put a big dent in your wallet, but its middling gray-scale performance and viewing angle issues hold it back. On the plus side, it delivers blur-free gaming performance and doesn't require a lot of power, but there are better-performing monitors out there for around the same money. For example, our Editors' Choice for affordable big-screen monitors, the Acer H276HL, offers accurate colors, wide viewing angles, and a slick design, and it has a list price that's $20 less.

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ViewSonic PJD6544w

Pros Bright. Portable. Sharp text. Strong audio. Good connectivity options.

Cons Mediocre overall image quality. Lacks a carrying case. Bottom Line The ViewSonic PJD6544w is a bright, lightweight WXGA projector with great text quality and a good range of connection options.

By Tony Hoffman

There's a lot to like about the ViewSonic PJD6544w ($839.99). It's bright, has good resolution, it is network ready with optional Wi-Fi, it has sharp text, it is light enough to be easily portable, and it's 3D compatible. The projector's overall image quality is so-so, but it's a good choice for presenters who use a lot of text.

The PJD6544w is rated at 3,500 lumens, has above-average brightness for a data projector, and provides WXGA (1,280-by-800) native resolution, at a 16:10 aspect ratio. It measures 4.5 by 11.6 by 8.6 inches (HWD), and is quite portable at 4.7 pounds, though it lacks a carrying case. The lens has a modest 1.2X zoom ratio.

This projector has a good set of connection ports: Two VGA ports (which double as component video); one monitor-out; audio-in and audio-out jacks; an S-video port; an RCA composite video jack; a USB Type B port for remote mouse control; a mini-USB port; a USB Type A port; an Ethernet port; and an HDMI port. The USB Type A port can either fit a USB thumb drive or an optional Wi-Fi adapter ($122.99). The included Crestron LAN controller and AMX Device Discovery programs let IT administrators remotely control and manage multiple projectors from a workstation in a school or corporation.

Testing
I tested the projector at a distance of about 8 feet away from the screen. The test image, measuring about 60 inches (diagonal), stood up well to a fair amount of ambient light.

In testing using the DisplayMate suite, the PJD6544w's data-image quality proved average for a DLP data projector, suitable for typical business and classroom presentations. Text quality was a strong point. With black text on white, text was readable at 6.8 points, and with white text on black, it was easy to read all but the smallest font size.

I noticed some tinting, with gray backgrounds looking slightly greenish. Colors—in particular, yellows and reds—were a bit on the dull side, which is not unusual in DLP projectors. (While LCD projectors have the same color brightness as white brightness, DLP projectors tend to have lower color brightness than their ratings.)

At default settings, there was considerable pixel jitter, which was greatly reduced by adjusting the phase setting. Switching from an analog (VGA) connection to HDMI eliminated the jitter, though it introduced mild reddish tinting in some lighter backgrounds.

I saw rainbow artifacts—little red-green-blue flashes, particularly in bright areas against dark backgrounds—in a few images. This rainbow effect, which is frequently seen in DLP-based projectors, is seldom a problem in data images, and that is the case with the PJD6544w.

Video and Audio
The rainbow effect is more of an issue in video. Rainbow artifacts were apparent enough that people who are sensitive to the effect will likely be distracted by it. I also noticed some posterization—sudden changes in brightness where they should be gradual—in scenes that tend to bring it out. Video with the PJD6544w is best kept to shorter video clips as part of presentations.

Audio from the PJD6544w 's single 16-watt speaker is strong, and of good quality. It can fill a small- to mid-sized room, and you shouldn't need to use powered external speakers with this projector.

As a DLP projector, the PJD6544w is 3D-ready, using the DLP-Link system, although you need to get your own active-shutter DLP-Link glasses. You can find ViewSonic's DLP-Link glasses for less than $100 a pair, and generic active-shutter glasses for less, but the cost can quickly add up if you plan to show 3D content to a group of people.

At 3,500 rated lumens, the PJD6544w is a bit brighter than the Editors' Choice NEC NP-M311W, which is rated at 3,100 lumens. The PJD6544w is also lighter than the NEC NP-M311, and it has 3D capabilities, which the NEC projector lacks. They have similar connection choices, and they both have strong audio. The NEC NP-M311 has better data-image quality and much better video than the PJD6544w, and a more generous zoom ratio (1.7x), allowing better flexibility as to where you place the projector in relation to the screen.

That said, the Viewsonic PJD6544w does have very good text quality, so it's a solid choice if you deal in a lot of text-heavy presentations. You can use it in a networked environment, and just as easily take it on a business trip. It's bright, light, and versatile, and that should be more than enough for many schools and businesses.

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