InFocus IN3108 DLP Projector Review

IN3108 Build Quality

A business projector is a different animal than a home theater one. What you are looking for is a projector that is versatile, portable, and bright. It's one thing to pick up a projector off of eBay to play around with, but if you are looking to integrate projectors into a business setting, you're wanting a bit more. You want a projector that will allow you the most flexibility in setup and environment while also allowing for the widest range or connections and control. InFocus thinks they have done all that with their IN3108 DLP Projector.

Build Quality

The InFocus IN3108 DLP projector is, first and foremost, a very attractive product. It comes in a nice canvas carrying case that is well padded and braced at the sides, has a Velcro strap to hold the unit in place, and a padded fabric top to protect it from whatever else you might want to throw in there. It even has individually labeled pockets for each of the cable types. There is a card holder for your business card an extra mesh pocket to hold the manual. This is a projector that, InFocus at least, expects to be portable.

The projector itself sports a gloss black top and gray body. There is a manual adjustment control on the top and three connection points for ceiling mounts on the bottom. There are no visible controls when the IN3108 is powered down except for an illuminated power icon on the top in amber. Once you press it (there is no tactile feedback - it's like controlling one of those capacitance touch screen cell phones), the rest of the controls light up in blue. You have controls for Auto Image, cycling through Presets, Menu, Volume, and cycling through the different Sources. The only downside to this is that it is very easy to accidentally hit a control. The upside is that the top presents a very clean look and has a very high-tech "iPod-esque" feel.

The back of the unit has a number of different inputs and outputs. There are 3.5mm jacks for both audio in and out, composite, S-video, and HDMI inputs, stereo RCA inputs, two VGA computer inputs, a VGA monitor output, an RS-232 port for automation, and a USB "DisplayLink" port. While most of these are self explanatory, the DisplayLink is a bit different. The way this works is you can connect any (recent) Mac or PC to the projector via USB and get both video and audio without having to load in drivers. You'll need Windows XP SP2 or Vista or MAC OS 10.3 (Tiger) or better with a USB 2.0 port. The interesting part is that you can get a DisplayLink Extender which uses Ethernet to extend the range up to 330 feet. Using the DisplayLink technology, you can run up to 6 projectors off of one computer which is, frankly, awesome. All I need now is for InFocus to send me 5 more projectors to test this out with. And if we could set that part of the review up to coincide with the Super Bowl, that'd be great.

InFocus IN3108 Setup

I set up the InFocus IN3108 on my Da-Lite UPM-1 universal projector mount throwing to an 80' diagonal Da-Lite Tensioned Cosmopolitan Electrol screen. For protection, the projector was plugged into a Panamax MX5102 Uninterruptible Power Supply via the MIW-XT in-wall power extender. Signal was provided from a number of sources and resolutions via HDMI from a Denon AVR-4310CI.

The projector has three mounting holes on the bottom as well as rubber feet, the front of which extends with a push of a button for tabletop placement. There is an automatic sensor for the orientation so you won't have to manually select ceiling or table configuration. The IN3108 really is a plug and play projector. It auto senses inputs, it auto keystones, and it knows if it is on the ceiling. The focus is manual but there is digital zoom, horizontal and vertical lens shift (a very nice feature not normally found on these types of projectors), and some color correction control. For a 90" screen you have a minimum throw distance of 9.8 feet and a maximum of 10.9.

For controls, there are four menus - Basic, Advanced, Setup, and Status and Service. Status and Service will let you check your lamp hours and source info. Setup is for languages, screen saver, low lamp power, and other one time settings. You may want to visit this menu once or twice as you get your projector set up. In a fixed installation, you'll want to disable Auto Keystoning just for sanity's sake. The real picture controls are in the Basic and Advanced menus.

Basic

Here you'll find your Brightness, Contrast, Sharpness, Color, Tint, Lens Shift, Digital Zoom and more. Note that Color and Tint only apply to video sources. For most of these controls, when you hold down the button it jumps by increments of 5 or 10 (most are on a 100 point scale) though short individual pushes will change it one at a time. Missing is any sort of advanced grayscale calibration options which isn't exactly unexpected in this type of product.

Advanced

The Advanced menu has additional controls. The first thing you'll notice is the BrilliantColor control. This is sort of like "Torch" mode for when you are in well lit environments. This is where you'll get your brightest picture. The second option is "Normal Look" which is more appropriate for video in dimmed or dark environments. If you want your presentation to pop, keep BrilliantColor engaged just beware that if you dim the lights, you're likely to give your audience a headache. Other controls include White Peaking (increases white brightness for video sources), Color Temp (Bright, Cool, Warm, Warmest), Overscan, Phase, Gamma, and more.

One of the big pluses about the IN3108 projector is its LiteSwitch Instant ON/OFF feature. From the moment you press the power off button to the time you can start packing up the projector? About 13 seconds. That's fast. No more hanging around the board room making small talk waiting for the projector to cool down. What happens is the fan kicks on to high for a few seconds quickly cooling down the bulb. While this is loud, it really doesn't matter as you're done at this point. The unit will still be hot for a bit, though, so you may not want to immediately shove it in its case and into the trunk of your car. Still, you are able to pack it up and move it since it won't need to be plugged into the wall to operate the fan.

Changing the bulb is done from the top of the unit. You remove a screw (or two - the manual says one though the unit has two) through the grill on the side of the projector and slide the top cover off. This gives you immediate access to the bulb. What we like about this setup is that you can change the bulb without removing the projector from a ceiling mount. A huge bonus especially if you have a large number of projectors to maintain within a business and a welcome convenience if you don't.

Remote

As you'd expect, the InFocus IN3108 comes with a small palm-sized remote. It isn't one of those "easy to lose" credit card sized ones which we don't really like. It has a bit of bulk to it but not so much that it is heavy in the hand. There are a lot of buttons on the remote but the only ones you'll use regularly is the power button found at the top and the menu and control buttons just underneath. Under that, you have volume controls, source switching, screen blanking, and a few others. There are IR receivers on the front and back of the projector to accommodate all placement possibilities. The remote is functional and gave us few problems except that the battery cover was very loose. If you so much as looked at it funny, it fell off. We could have just got a bum remote but ours needed some tape or we were sure we'd lose the battery cover in just a few outings.

InFocus IN3108 Viewing Evaluation & Conclusion

Overall, we were very impressed with the picture from the InFocus IN3108 DLP Projector. The image was crisp and clean with very little rainbow effect. In fact, the only time we noticed RBE is when we were moving more than the images on the screen. As long as we were relaxing and watching the screen, RBE was completely absent. The projector wasn't silent but not overly loud. From our seated position about one foot in front of and five feet below the projector, we only noticed it during the quieter moments of playback. For presentations is should be just fine. We used the projector with a number of sources including Comcast High Definition cable, DVD, and Blu-ray. For all, the IN3108 presented a convincing and lifelike picture. Colors were well saturated and generally look realistic after we changed the BrilliantColor setting to Normal Look and the Color Temp to Warm. We found that the anywhere from 40 to 50 on the brightness setting was about right depending on the source (Blu-ray looked better closer to 50 while DVD looked better closer to 45) with Contrast about right a few points within 50.

If the InFocus IN3108 had a weak point, it was black levels. In the below picture from the Blu-ray version of Serenity, you can see how the blacks are really gray. Even then, some of the detail in the dark areas is still being lost. As we bumped up the brightness, the detail came through but at the expense of washing out the picture. We had to compromise between seeing the detail that we knew was there and having darker blacks.

You can also see, however, the detail that the InFocus IN3108 can produce. With a decent signal, you get stunning detail with little to no pixel blur. We were shocked at how crystal clear the picture was. Brightness was also not an issue. Even with lights on in the room, the picture was easily discernible and quite enjoyable. Changing the bulb to low power reduced the overall brightness but not significantly. Even in well lit environments you won't have much of a problem viewing most content.

    
    

One movie we love to test color saturation with is the Pixar classic, The Incredibles. As you can see, colors were well saturated and vivid. Detail was sharp and crisp. The IN3108 can accept virtually any source and is compatible with NTSC, PAL, SECAM, 480i, 576i, 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p/60 all via HDMI. With a 480i stream across HDMI, the picture was jittery and unstable. accurate deinterlacing is virtually non-existent on this projector. You'll want to mate it with as clean a source as possible. As it is really designed to be paired with a computer, this shouldn't be much of a problem.

Conclusion

It isn't hard to see that the InFocus IN3108 is a very nice business projector. While it doesn't offer the lowest price, you are getting a lot of features for your money. For those looking for a flexible projector that can be controlled and fed a signal via USB over great distances or just a projector they can break down in 13 seconds, the IN3108 has what you need. The picture was bright and detailed with well saturated colors. Dark detail was lacking but in a business setting, this isn't really much of a con. With side panel access for the lamp, you've got a projector that will be easy to service even in great numbers.

InFocus IN3108

About InFocus Corporation
InFocus is the industry pioneer and a global leader in the digital projection market. The company’s digital projectors make bright ideas brilliant everywhere people gather to communicate and be entertained – in meetings, presentations, classrooms and living rooms around the world. Backed by more than 20 years of experience and innovation in digital projection, as well as 240 patents, InFocus is dedicated to setting the industry standard for large format visual display. The company is based in Wilsonville, Oregon with operations in North America, Europe and Asia. InFocus is listed on NASDAQ under the symbol INFS. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.infocus.com.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Detail and Resolution
Deinterlacing & Scaling
Contrast and Black Levels
Color Reproduction
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value