IN78 Features, Setup and Connections

Some people trade their cars in every two years. I'm more the type of person who drives a car until it's well out of warranty and about ready to start incurring some major repairs. The IN78 is an incremental update to a very popular projector line that includes the IN72, IN74 and IN76 - in fact the user manual that I downloaded from the InFocus website mentioned those three projectors (and mysteriously, not the IN78!). Incremental upgrades are nice in that they update hardware and make sure that a product line is kept up to date, but they rarely astound or dazzle with new revolutionary performance or hardware. Such is the fate of the IN78, a fact made even more difficult due to its retail pricing of $3,499 which seems a tad high given the recent introduction of lower cost 1080p displays into the market. Still, the IN78 positions itself as a capable projector that performs high-level video processing and requires no color calibration out of the box. We'll see if it lives up to that promise.

Features and Favorites

The InFocus IN78 comes with some useful features that really stood out to me. Here are some of our favorites:

• Pixelworks DNX Video Processing
  The Pixelworks DNX system provides nearly everything on a single platform. Video decoding, deinterlacing, scaling, MPEG-decoding and color processing are all handled by the DNX system. This is positioned as one of the better processing solutions on the market today.
• DarkChip3 Technology
  A lower fill factor and higher resulting contrast ratio mark the characteristics of the DarkChip3 technology. While not exactly new, it is a marked improvement over the IN76.

Basic Setup and Installation

The only issues with setting up an InFocus IN78 projector is the 116% offset. This means that if you have an image that is 50-inches high, then the bottom of the screen must start 8 inches above the center of the lens (or below the center of the lens if ceiling mounted). For most this won't be an issue, but it could present some issues if you are trying to place the projector in a room with very short ceilings or other limitations. The projector defaulted to front projection, floor-mounting so it was easy for me to set up and start going through the menu system to fine tune. Zoom and focus are manual and the 1.3:1 Zoom lens offered enough flexibility to correctly dial in the projector to the screen. The lack of any kind of lens shift means that you will want to position the projector perfectly to avoid any keystoning effects in the image.

Throw Distance and Projection Screen Sizing

There was nothing odd about the zoom functions or ability of the IN78 to hit our 100-inch screen, except for the controls. Instead of a typical inner/outer ring control surrounding the lens, the IN78 provides a top-mounted zoom/focus concentric control for making these adjustments. The controls feel as if they have a direct 1:1 gear connection to the lens assembly and adjustments feel tight and controllable. Some projectors have unusually long throw distances but InFocus seems to have utilized a typical lens assembly that will satisfy a majority of home theater users. Pay attention to the chart below because there are no optional long- or short-throw lenses offered by InFocus.

Connections

On the rear of the IN78 you will find both HDMI and DVI-D connections. Component, composite and s-video are also present. A 12VDC trigger output and an RS-232 serial connection allow custom installers to more precisely control the projector and any connected devices such as a motorized screen system. A detachable standard power cord was a welcome sight and should be standard fare on any custom install product - attached cords are anathema to installers looking to make a nice, low profile ceiling mount. Since InFocus provides a DVI-D to HDMI adapter in the box, you essentially have two HDMI inputs should you choose to utilize them. This is a nicely flexible projector with ample inputs.