It is an emerging trend which sees a lot of people replacing their televisions with a projector, full time. The mantra seems to be- “have a wall, will use projector.” Essentially, people want a bigger screen viewing experience, without having to spend insane amounts on a similarly sized television. This is the only logical explanation why Standard Definition (SD) projectors still exist, when even HD projectors are becoming less expensive by the day.

First Impression

Canon’s LV-8310 falls flat in the middle of this category. This is a non-HD projector, essentially targeting those who may want to connect something like a Tata Sky DTH to it. Dressed in white colour, this one looks classy, but runs the serious risk of becoming very dirty very quickly. The top panel has a thin ribbon of black, which hosts all the controls- power, menu, navigation, input and return. The rear panel is where all the input/output ports are placed- DVI-I (with HDCP) / Analog RGB, Analog RGB / Component, Composite, L / R Audio, S-Video, Stereo Mini Audio, RS-232C, RJ45. Even though the projector is big in size, it is not heavy, and is pretty solidly built as well. This one can be moved around a bit, without too much worry of tweaking your back!

Performance

Projectors which are not HD are best for viewing standard definition content, like DTH or cable television. For this review, we connected a Tata Sky STB to the projector using the composite video cable, and placed it 4 feet from the wall. From that distance, the projected image was about 60-inches. The LV-8310 has the manual control above the lens, which allows you to alter the display size. This is something which is not only convenient, but also not seen in many projectors. Staying at about 60-inches, I enjoyed a cricket match for quite a few hours.

The display quality was extremely good, keeping in mind that this is blowing up a standard definition resolution to a huge projected image. Colour is extremely vivid, no matter how high the brightness or contrast may be turned up. Speaking of which, at default settings, the contrast is quite bright. The power of 3000 lumens really does show up here! I had to turn it down a notch, because the match in the floodlight scenario seemed too bright. The sharpness levels, which again can be configured, are excellent. All in all, very elaborate video settings are on offer here. Also, switching between 4:3 and 16:10 ratio modes is simple. Ideally, when watching a movie, switch to 16:10 (ideal for 16:9 viewing) and then switch back to 4:3 when you have connected it to the laptop for document viewing. Basic picture modes of video, text and cinema make a lot of difference from the outset. Text mode turns down the contrast levels, assuming that you will be viewing a document page with lots of white space anyway.

Read on to know more about the performance, our verdict and the price...