There seems to be a standard technical specification for projectors towards which all the leading models are converging: It must be 16:9, equipped with an HDMI socket and, for the best contrast, be a DLP model.
Well here's a projector that dares to be different – different enough perhaps to be mistaken for just another data projector. In fact, it is a data projector, with more than enough power and flexibility in its colour settings to cope with large rooms and big audiences, even when projecting onto plain walls that are not necessarily white. It has a low-noise cooling system and a remote control that works over a longer than usual range which doesn't need to be pointed straight at the projector. Sadly, it is a little too big and heavy to be considered truly portable.
But the SX60 is arguably also a home cinema projector, though it appears to lack some of the features most will may consider essential – like HDMI, for example. The Canon is equipped with DVI HDCP, which amounts to much the same
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thing. DVI HDCP is compatible with HDMI, with the exception that it won't auto-negotiate screen resolution, which is not really an issue in practice. DVI is also a much more rugged, professional interface.
Unlike most home cinema projectors, the Canon is not DLP, or even a plain vanilla LCD. It uses LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicon) technology, a reflective variation on the LCD theme that is virtually free of the intrusive grid between pixel rows and columns. This high ‘fill factor' stems from the fact that the circuitry that drives the individual pixels is located on the edge of the chip, rather than within the pixel structure itself (as it is with LCD).