Whether you use an external processor or not, you’ll find setting up the system to be quite simple. The remote and on-screen menu are substantially easier to use than Runco’s previous models and rival the best of the company’s competitors. There are separate buttons for every important projector feature, including inputs, aspect ratios and power functions. Everything is easy to find and to access, and the projector reacts quickly. If you use a more advanced control system, like a Crestron Smart Touch or even a Philips Pronto remote, rest assured that this unit can be easily integrated into that system.

I had to make some adjustments to the picture controls for DVD signals, but any decent installer will do that for you. The projector will remember separate picture settings for each input, which means you don’t have to change the settings every time you change inputs. In addition, you can save three memory settings for each input and then recall them from the remote.

With the projector adjusted to industry-standard settings, the picture really popped. I watched a six-foot-wide image on a Stewart Filmscreen StudioTec 130 screen. Colors were vibrant yet seemed natural, image details were razor sharp, and black levels were exceptionally dark. Sitting too close, I could see video noise or snow in dark shadows, but the exceptional black level more than made up for it. This is a substantial achievement given the relatively small screen size. Many DLP projectors can be too bright, especially in the dark portions of the image, and they look better on larger screens that disperse or absorb some of the excess light.

While shadows were dark, the overall image was bright. In fact, Runco is one of the few companies offering legitimate light-output specifica tions in its product brochures. The measurements I took were even slightly better than Runco’s, which is commendable. The projector’s gray scale or color temperature, an industry reference that relates to the hue or color tone of the image, was also reasonably accurate. Darker images were a touch red and brighter images were slightly blue, but this was obvious only to our test equipment. Regular viewing shows an image cast in rich, neutral colors. For more technical measurements, click here .