Posted on October 2, 2011 By Lisa Feierman
As multimedia projectors continue to improve in performance and come down in price, the projected life and cost of a replacement lamp becomes a major factor in the decision of which projector to buy. Schools and businesses can quickly rack up hours of use, resulting in lamp costs that can easily exceed the projector’s cost over its life. The Casio XJ-M145 is one of an emerging class of multimedia projectors that eschew the traditional mercury lamp for a longer lasting solution. While many of these new projectors use an LED light source, LEDs are hard pressed to deliver the brightness levels often needed in presentations. Casio addresses this problem with the use of a combination LED and laser light source. A blue laser is used in conjunction with a fluorescent element to create high brightness green light, reserving the less important (for brightness purposes) red component to be handled by the LED. This combination translates to a 2500 lumen rating (see review for measured results), while providing a lamp life of up to 20,000 hours.
Casio combines this technology with a full featured XGA (1024 X 768) multimedia projector that includes both PC-free and wireless network presentation ability, as well as inputs for all display sources, including HDMI. The Casio XJ-M145 is also 3D-ready for 3D presentations from a compatible PC (optional 3D glasses required). The XJ-M145 is also quite portable, weighing in at 8.6 pounds and about the same width and length as a small laptop computer.
In addition to the XJ-M145, Casio also offers a full family of projectors with similar capabilities. There is the XJ-M155, which is the same as the M145 but rated at 3000 lumens. There are also WXGA versions of both the M145 and M155, identified as the XJ-M245 and XJ-M255. Finally, for those who want the LED/laser light source, but don’t need the network and PC-free presentation capability, there are versions of all four of the previously mentioned projectors without the USB port. These are the XJ-M140, M150, M240 and M250.
PC-Free Presentations –
Presentations can be made from a USB thumb drive or card reader connected to the XJ-M145’s USB port. PowerPoint presentations can be converted to a special file type (using the included software) allowing them to be viewed from the USB source. Similarly, movie files can be converted (via included software) to motion JPEG files for viewing over USB. The projector also accepts input from a Casio Document camera over USB. JPEG and BMP image files can be viewed directly from the USB source.
Automatic Brightness Adjustment –
The Casio XJ-M145 has a brightness sensor on the top of the projector that detects that level of ambient light in the room and increases or decreases the projector’s brightness accordingly when the projector is set to its Auto Eco mode.
MobiShow® WLAN Presentations by SmartPhone or PDA –
By installing AWIND’s MobiShow® on a SmartPhone of mobile terminal, you can project photographs and presentation files stored in the SmartPhone or terminal memory via the XJ-M145’s wireless LAN adapter.
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