ViewSonic PJ258D ViewDock Projector

Life may be full of compromises, but having to watch video on an iPod’s small screen shouldn’t be one of them. Not when you can easily haul this 4-pound Viewsonic front projector wherever you want and have its built-in iPod video dock spit out big video anytime, anywhere.

Just put it down and plug it in. You’ll know right away it’s powering up because the fan is like a hair dryer running on overload. Fortunately, you can drive the volume of the built-in speaker that integrates with the iPod high enough to hear over the roar. The alternative is to send the iPod’s audio out to external speakers. And yes there are video inputs for using the projector with a DVD player, game console, cable box, etc. (as in S-video, composite, or a computer input that also takes an adaptor for use with component outputs).

The main menu allows you to turn on or off the built-in speakers, set the aspect ratio to standard (4:3) or widescreen (16:9) and adjust the picture parameters to look best with iPod video. You can also adjust the bulb intensity to gain more life on the bulb, but I didn’t. You level the projector with its built-in screw feet. There’s also a digital keystone correction though using that will degrade video resolution.

The unit comes with two iPod dock attachments depending on which iPod model you have (30GB or 60GB). Once everything is connected and ready to go, the projector takes about 2 minutes to reach full brightness. You manually start the iPod playing and then either select it as the video source using a non-backlit remote or let the projector do an “auto-seek” on its own (this remote also controls speaker volume, “freezes” the image, and start/stop an iPod selection and moves forward/backwards through the menu).

I got a bright image up that was about the equivalent of a 72-inch diagonal display from about 14 feet away on my projection screen (going bigger is possible but this self-imposed limit seemed to look best to me). The manual focus ring turns smoothly and is oversized so you won’t touch the lens, and the zoom is adequate for fine-tuning image size and works through a top mounted lever.

Playing standard iPod video (320 x 240 resolution) was only just OK—it’s not the projector’s fault that it magnifies all the inherent problems from blockiness and grain to a generally soft image reminiscent of early MTV music videos. Everything looked much better playing at 640 x 480: for example the Pixar short, Boundin’, which was sharp, clear and highly colorful at this resolution (actually it’s 640 x 352 but that’s close enough).

I also tried a direct comparison: ripping both low and high resolution versions of the opening credits from HBO’s Entourage, which features a car driving down a street at night with storefronts and neon lights. Credits were soft and difficult to read in the low-res version, fast moving scenes were blurry, and detail was lost in the dark. The higher resolution had none of these problems; there was much better color, contrast and focus.

Hooking up a DVD player to the S-video input, I played the same opening from the DVD. It was like getting a new prescription for your glasses: the image being noticeably sharper, colors crisper, and better shading and tighter detail (I could read even the smaller credits and see distinct highlights flashing on the car). Obviously the better the source video, the better the results will be.

The PJ258D is curvy, black and svelte (it’s even got one of those security locking slots). And it’s no slouch when it comes to belting out a large picture (helped by the better-than-DVD resolution and bright bulb). Sure, using it with an iPod is the big draw, but this Viewsonic’s made to party and is fun to use. When was the last time anyone said that about a front projector? yy