Small, ultra portable projectors are great when you have to travel to give a presentation, but in more permanent installations such as a classroom or conference room, bigger and brighter is almost always better.The new Panasonic D4000 projector provides a hefty 4000 lumens that blazes through even brightly lit rooms to provide clear, vivid pictures from a plethora of video sources.While its footprint may be larger than most projectors being sold these days, the capabilities and design of the D4000 make it stand out in many important areas.
The Panasonic D4000 sports a dual lamp arrangement allowing for up to a maximum of 4000 lumens of projection power or 2000 lumens in economy mode.4000 lumens is more than enough to project a clear, bright image even when the room lights are left on.The D4000 also sports the ability to project images in full high definition (HDTV) detail when connected to an HDTV receiver, DVR, or Hi-Def DVD player. Users can also use the D4000U as a television projector via traditional RCA cables or component video cables, or as a computer monitor via a DVI or VGA cable.In almost all cases the picture clarity and colors are vivid and very lifelike even when there is ambient light in the room.
The D4000 is very well styled and attractive, albeit the size of the unit precludes it from being unobtrusive on a table top. The unit it more fitting to be mounted on the ceiling, and is designed to be able to be mounted in almost any orientation. Buttons on the PT-D4000U are easy to access and most are duplicated on the remote.
The unit is incredibly quiet, much more so than almost any portable video projector on the market. The noise is limited to around 29 decibels in eco-mode, and is thanks to the use of liquid cooling technology rather than forced air cooling as is used in most other projectors. The only time a user will likely notice any noise from the unit is just after shut down when a traditional fan cooling system takes over for a minute or so.
The Panasonic PT-D4000U is by no means cheap, retailing for around $6500 in the US. However, the features and quality of the projector make the price tag worth it for high demand applications such as school classrooms and office conference rooms.