If you attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas at the beginning of this year, you would likely have come away believing that the line between business and consumer electronics is blurring. The new InFocus X1 projector, designed for both work and entertainment applications, further erases the divide. The 6.8-pound projector's attractive price will fit many business and home budgets, but a few shortcomings detract from the overall appeal.

At 800-by-600, the resolution provided by the X1's Texas Instruments SVGA DLP chip is lower than that of many projectors but more than sufficient for viewing movies and PowerPoint presentations. InFocus rates its projector at only 1,000 ANSI lumens; we measured 905, which means that this unit is better suited for smaller screens or rooms with reduced ambient lighting. The contrast ratio is outstanding at 378:1, but the brightness uniformity ratio is about average at 1.24:1 with a noticeable glow along the left edge on an all-black image.

Image quality is generally good, though the focus tends to be off a bit in the upper-left-hand corner. We saw no ghosting or streaking, color ramps were smooth, and color tracking is excellent. Scaling of higher- and lower-resolution images is fair, but not as smooth as with the best projectors. Colors look a bit off, with muddy yellows and darker reds—problems common to most DLP projectors.

Setup is easy. The manual-focus capability and an optical zoom lens make adjusting image size simple. On the back of the projector, in addition to a standard VGA input for analog computer signals, there's a pass-through connector for a VGA monitor—a feature not always found on low-priced models. A special input accepts a standard S-Video connector or, with an optional adapter, component video. There's also a composite video port, a single stereo audio jack, and a USB port, should you decide to plug in the remote, which will give you control of the mouse cursor. InFocus doesn't bundle a USB cable, though. On the remote, you can light up the button legends, which is a handy feature.

The projector auto-sync feature is activated by a control-panel button but not duplicated on the remote. The feature gets the image size and position correct, but eliminating pixel jitter requires tweaking. You can reset the projector to the factory defaults, but the instructions for doing so are buried in the on-screen menu system under the Service options.

The projector uses Faroudja DCDi technology to produce outstanding images. A DVD movie we played in 16:9 format had excellent skin tones, no apparent motion artifacts, and high contrast that resulted in an excellent home-theater experience.

In the end, the X1 makes the trip from conference room to family room and back again with ease. A better auto-sync and perhaps a slightly brighter image would make the projector easier to set up and more versatile, but for the price, the InFocus X1 represents an attractive value.