With its 1,920-by-1,080 resolution and 4,000-lumen rating, the DLP-based NEC Display Solutions NP-PE401H ($1,999) is of obvious interest if you need to show images with lots of fine detail at an image size suitable for a midsize room. It’s a little short on convenience features; for instance, it has a 1.1x zoom. But that’s why NEC calls it an entry-level, professional-installation projector. More important is that it does a good job on all the basics, making it worth considering.

The NP-PE401H ($1,699.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) is a step up in resolution from our Editors’ Choice for high-resolution projectors. The 1,400-by-1,050 Canon REALiS SX80 Mark II ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) offers other advantages that make up for the slightly lower resolution, including unusually capable color management. However, if you’re more concerned with showing a lot of clearly readable detail at once, the NP-PE401H’s higher resolution can make it the better fit.

Basics and Setup
Weighing in at 10 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 4.7 by 13.8 by 11.1 inches (HWD), the NP-PE401H is small and light enough to carry with you if you need to, but heavy enough so it’s best suited for permanent installation or room-to-room portability on a cart.

Setup is standard fare, with a manual focus and with the manual 1.1x zoom offering little flexibility in how far you can put the projector from the screen for a given size image. In comparison, the BenQ SH940 ($2,999.99 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) offers 1.5x zoom, and the Acer P7505 ( at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) offers a full 2x. Both are also DLP-based, 1,920-by-1,080 projectors aimed primarily at permanent installation.

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Image inputs are somewhat limited by today’s standards, which is another reason NEC calls the NP-PE401H an entry-level projector. The only choices are two HDMI ports, one VGA port for a computer or component video, and composite video and S-video ports.

Brightness
Strictly as a point of reference, using the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations, and assuming a 1.0 gain screen, the 4,000-lumen rating for the NP-PE401H would make it bright enough for roughly a 250- to 335-inch (diagonal) image in theater-dark lighting at the projector’s native 16:9 aspect ratio. In moderate ambient light, it would be bright enough for a roughly 165-inch (diagonal) image. For smaller image sizes, you can lower the brightness by taking advantage of Eco mode for the lamp, using preset modes with lower brightness levels, or both.

As with almost all DLP projectors, however, the NP-PE401H’s color brightness is lower than its white brightness. This means color images won’t be as bright as you would expect from the white brightness level. The difference can also affect color quality. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, Why It Matters.)

Image Quality, 3D, and Audio
Quality for data images is near excellent, although it varied a little in my tests depending on the preset mode and connection. On our standard suite of DisplayMate(Opens in a new window) tests, color balance was excellent, with suitably neutral grays at all levels in all modes. Colors were also fully saturated in all preset modes, but red and blue were noticeably dark in the brightest mode, as is typical for projectors with a difference between white brightness and color brightness.

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The projector also handles detail well. White text on black, for example, is highly readable at 9 points, and black text on white is highly readable at 6.8 points. I saw some pixel jitter and dynamic moire, but only with an analog (VGA) connection and only on images with closely spaced lines or dots. If you tend to use those types of images, you can avoid the problem by using the HDMI connection instead.

The NP-PE401H does a good job of avoiding showing rainbow artifacts with static data screens. The only time I saw even a hint of them was with one screen designed to bring them out. With video, I saw them less often than with most DLP projectors, but often enough that if you show more than a few minutes of video at a time, they could be bothersome to anyone in your audience who sees them easily.

The projector offers HDMI 1.4a 3D support, which lets you show 3D from a Blu-Ray player or other video device. The stereo audio system, with two 8-watt speakers, is a bit of a disappointment. To get a high enough volume for a midsize room, you’ll need to connect an external sound system to the audio output.

If you need a 1,920-by-1,080 projector with more convenience features, like a more capable zoom lens or more choices in connectors, be sure to take a look at the BenQ SH940 and the Acer P7505. Similarly, if you have an application where you need to get colors just so, the Editors’ Choice Canon SX80 Mark II is the better choice. If you don’t need any of those capabilities, however, the NEC NP-PE401H is a small, relatively lightweight alternative that can give you near-excellent quality for data images, along with video quality good enough for short sessions.