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May 2012

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Hitachi CP-X400 LCD Projector

by Jeff Sauer

It wasn’t too many years ago that a 7.7-pound projector would have been termed “ultra portable” and, even at something less than a thousand lumens of brightness, would have been eyed lustily by road-warrior traveling presenters. Today’s sub-eight-pound projectors are a lot different, of course. While travel projectors have dwindled down in size to between two to four pounds, that subeight- pound category has gone in the other direction, getting much brighter. The result is an installation category that boasts brightness, connectivity, and great flexibility in terms of placement and portability.

And that’s the appeal of Hitachi’s new CP-X400 ($2,995 MSRP). At 7.7 lbs., it’s easy to move from one location to another when needed, and diminutive enough to be unassuming even in tighter quarters, including smaller sanctuaries. Yet, at 3,000 lumens, the CP-X400 is also bright enough to fill those spaces with sharp images, even in the ambient light of midday. As a three-panel 3LCD-based projector, the CP-X400 can retain that brightness through a wide variety of image content without losing color accuracy. Still, the CP-X400 is built as an affordable projector that can meet the needs of educational organizations, small businesses, and houses of worship. It doesn’t have many frills—it has a straightforward native XGA resolution of 1024x768 and comes in a modest silver rectangle chassis—but delivers where it counts in terms of image and reliability.

CP-X400 Features
The CP-X400 rectangular chassis was designed more for utility than flash. The lens is tucked inside the front panel, putting it out of the way for portability’s sake and for streamlined, unobtrusive installation. A slit through the unit’s top allows access to the manual focus and zoom rings and the controls on the unit’s top are minimal, with just a power button, an input selector, and a large menu access/navigation arrow.

The handheld remote is also modest, but adds several dedicated buttons for accessing a variety of functions, including dedicated video and computer inputs, aspect ratio, and keystone correction, as well an easy set-up automatic keystone function. There are also several presentation-oriented buttons (hinting at the CP-X400 educational and small business appeal) like Page Up/Down, Home, End, Freeze, and Volume, as well as two somewhat redundant “My Button” functions on the remote that allow you to go directly to specific inputs or features.

Admittedly, there’s nothing particularly glamorous about the connection options; it’s just a proven array of ports that serves a good variety of likely needs. There are two 15-pin RGB ports, affording the ability to switch between two different data sources without re-cabling, as well as a 15-pin passthrough output for monitoring those inputs locally. For video inputs, like a live camera feed or DVD player, the CPX400 offers 3xRCA component video, S-Video, and composite. For multimedia presentations, Hitachi has included a six-watt speaker that might do the job in a pinch if no sound system is available, at least in a utilitarian manner in smaller rooms. The back panel also has both USB and RS-232 control ports.

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Jeff Sauer has covered the professional video and A/V industry for a dozen years and is an independent video producer and consultant in Massachusetts.