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Display Review — Panasonic PT-LB30U

Sep 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Jeff Sauer

XGA microportable projector makes it easy to look good.

If you were to imagine a 3000-lumen projector, what would it be like? Would it be a luggable desktop model that weighs about 9-10lbs.? Or would it be a larger fixed-install model, with dual lamps and a whole lot more settings options than most people will ever use? Would the increased brightness wash out the colors?

Panasonic's answer to all of those questions is, simply, no. At 5.5lbs., the new XGA-resolution, LCD-based PT-LB30U is advanced in terms of lumens per pound, but that's just a start. The LB30 also makes sure you have a good-looking image, regardless of ambient light conditions, and it does so automatically. The LB30 is a projector that just works, without much setup, without fanfare, and certainly without hassle. And, by the way, it boots up in two seconds.

On the surface the LB30 is an unassuming microportable with a fairly generic silver box chassis and only three buttons on top. There's one for Power, an “A” button for automatic setup, and an “IN” button for input selection. That's in case you need to toggle between two inputs (it auto-senses individual inputs, of course). It does have an obligatory menu button for access to onscreen settings, but it's hidden in the back on the connection panel. There's a good chance you'll rarely use it, because the LB30 does most things automatically.

Picture this: a presenter walks into a room and puts the LB30 on a table, plugs it in, connects a computer source, then boots the computer and hits the power button on the LB30. The projector lamp turns on quickly enough to see the computer's first BIOS start-up screen (it's at not full brightness, but on and displaying). While the computer is booting, the presenter manually adjusts the projector's feet to set the image height on the screen or wall, and adjusts for focus and image size/zoom using the (slightly awkward) lens rings. After that, the LB30 handles the stuff that is likely to be forgotten or omitted for lack of understanding.

The Panasonic PT-LB30U has a built-in level that automatically detects the vertical projection angle and adjusts keystone correction to yield a proper rectangular image. Naturally, if the screen isn't at a 90-degree angle from the floor, keystone would have to be set manually through the menus. A few other projectors on the market offer the same auto-keystone functionality.

More intriguing is the LB30's built-in light meter to detect ambient light brightness automatically. You might expect that it would use that ambient light information to simply adjust the lamp's output, dropping into a power-saving economy mode if the room is dark enough. That's not the case. Instead, Panasonic incorporates a proprietary technology called Daylight View that actually adjusts colors so that high room brightness or glare doesn't wash out onscreen images.

In fact, Daylight View has no effect on light levels or black or white. Panasonic assumes that most users will always want the brightest image, and that's supported by common usage statistics. Since the LB30 targets business usage far more than movie watching, it's hard to argue with the assumption. It is a shame, though, that when ambient light is well controlled, the unit does not save power and lamp life automatically and improve the viewer's experience (against many users' “best” judgment). Daylight View also does not automatically adjust color temperature, which would require a more sophisticated light meter, but it does offer common lighting presets in the onscreen menus.

Daylight View does, however, adjust colors in response to varying ambient light. It does it continuously within a second or so of light changes, as when someone turns on or off the room lights. Interestingly, there is no perceivable change to saturated primary or even secondary colors. Instead, it's the pastel shades that would ordinarily suffer against high ambient light that get adjusted toward more saturation. To a purist, of course, fooling with color might not sound like a very good idea. But put it in context: if sunlight or fluorescent bulbs already change perceived colors, it's harder to argue. Considering the typical laissez-faire usage of most business projectors, Daylight View is a helpful innovation.

On the test bench, the LB30 is solid. I measured 2743 ANSI lumens instead of Panasonic's claimed 3000, but that's well within the unfortunate industry norm for lumen reporting. Brightness does peak at right about 3000 lumens. What's more, brightness uniformity of 87 percent is really very good for such a small and bright projector.

The LB30 is a three-panel, LCD-based projector, and that means its full-on/off contrast ratio isn't going to hit the wild numbers of many DLP models. I measured 384:1 and that's fairly normal, if a little modest, for LCD models. The same is true of a more representative ANSI checkerboard contrast ratio of 121:1 against both LCD- and DLP-based projectors.

Panasonic's grayscale range is good — surprisingly good, considering the high brightness. It's squeezed on the top and bottom (white and black), but that's almost a given. Primary color reproduction is good, although the LB30 comes short of full NTSC blue and limits the ranges between blue and magenta and cyan.

The LB30 is large for its 5.5 lbs. (roughly 13"×9"×3"). The microportable weight dictates its fairly modest connectivity options, at least compared to those of other 3000-lumen projectors. In addition to composite and S-Video, it does offer component via a (not included) splitter cable to 15-pin VGA. There are two 15-pin inputs, one of which smartly switches between a second input and a local monitor output. There's also a nine-pin serial connector (although surprisingly no USB for mouse control), stereo-mini in/out audio for the RGB inputs, and RCA audio for the video inputs.

While the PT-LB30U will find itself primarily in the luggage of traveling presenters and on AV carts moving between classrooms and conference rooms, Panasonic's smart automatic setup features make it a good choice for anyone. You'll regularly move it around and just expect it to work.

Its Daylight View feature isn't meant for the video professional who's looking for highly accurate color. However, it is meant for the large majority of users for whom projector setup is an afterthought or given no thought at all. In that reality, image quality is only as good as the person setting up the projector. Panasonic has taken a nice step forward with the LB30 by adding some intelligent processing to improve real-life situations.

And that two-second power-up cycle? Maybe my fingers were giddy on the stopwatch, but I think it's actually less. Way cool.

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BOTTOM LINE

Company: Panasonic
Secaucus, N.J.; (800) 528-8601
www.panasonic.com/business

Product: PT-LB30U multimedia projector

Assets: Daylight View automatic color adjustment, high brightness, very fast boot up.

Caveats: Modest contrast ratio, limited color range between blue, cyan, and magenta.

Demographic: Road warriors and other business presenters, conference-to-classroom mobility.
Price: $3,799

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