Toshiba TLP-S30U

Performance of Toshiba TLP-S30U

Toshiba's TLP-S30U is one of the brightest projectors we tested, delivering 1,163 lumens (close to its spec of 1,400). With its low-power mode turned on, brightness drops by 18 percent to 953 lumens, which is still adequate for most small-room applications. More important, the noise level drops by 30 percent, making the TLP-S30U quieter than the average for this class of device.

In regular operation, the TLP-S30U is noisy, hot, and slow on the uptake. Its fan is the loudest we've tested, at 41.2 decibels. And the air emitted through its exhaust port measures a toasty 160 degrees Fahrenheit. Its 1-minute, 6-second warm-up time is almost twice as long as that of any other projector we've tested. The cool-down period was interminable at more than 3 minutes.

The TLP-S30U performed moderately well on our imaging and qualitative tests. The 186:1 contrast ratio is low, especially compared to the 400:1 that Toshiba claims. Its 6,750-degree kelvin (K) color temperature is only a hair's breadth away from the ideal, sunlight-white range of 5,500 K to 6,500 K. In our other tests, this projector did an excellent job matching the colors of a typical monitor--meaning you'll see fewer clashing color combos during your next presentation. The reds and blues were right on the money. The greens shifted just slightly toward yellowish. We could distinguish shades of gray over almost the entire range of 255 shades; some had a greenish tint, but there was no banding or streaking. Only one test slide showed any flicker. In our DVD test with The Matrix, complex motion was quite smooth, with no artifacts. As is the case with many LCD projectors, however, the grid of fine horizontal and vertical lines separating each pixel was readily visible.