02.06.2008 — It’s been nearly a year now, but it doesn’t seem all that long ago that Planar sent waves through the custom world with its acquisition of Runco International.

With all the hoopla surrounding that acquisition, it’s easy to forget that Planar itself had been forging a reputation within the industry as a manufacturer of quality video products.

Now, as a company with lines that include Runco and Vidikron, Planar has positioned its products as mid-tier solutions that offer installers step-up performance from the entry level, but just short of Vidikron and Runco.

Sitting as an introductory unit within its line of DLP projectors, Planar’s PD7060 provides integrators with a competitively priced 720p product.

DLP DarkChip3 Powers Projector

At the heart of the PD7060 is Texas Instruments’ (TI) DLP DarkChip3, which enables the projector to produce a resolution of 1280 x 720 or over 900,000 pixels, and TI’s DDP3020 video processing chip, which handles deinterlacing and noise reduction.

These technologies, in part, help the 16:9-friendly unit deliver a contrast ratio up to 3,500:1, a maximum ANSI Lumens brightness rating up to 1,000.

Externally, the projector, which is finished with a glossy black exterior, offers installers a choice of HDMI and DVI-D digital inputs and an array of analog inputs that include single component, S-Video, composite and RGB (HD-15).

Out-of-the-Box Settings Deliver

Thankfully, through the development of technologies like DLP, installers now have lightweight, easy-to-install projectors that don’t take a team of technicians to lift out of the box to hang.

The relatively small PD7060 lifts easily out of its box. In the case of my media room, it slid right into place on a shelf behind my seating area.

Next, I ran a Straight Wire HDMI/DVI cable from my Cary DVD-7 to the DVI input of the projector and tightened the fasteners down. Then, I ran a Straight Wire HDMI cable from my HD cable set-top box to the HDMI input, and I aligned the picture, which was just over 10 feet, to a Vutec SilverStar screen.

Initially, I was pleasantly surprised when I fired up the PD7060 to find that its picture looked very good straight from the box. I ran through the typical adjustments, including contrast, black level, hue, saturation and other settings, such as lamp output, etc.

Running through these adjustments, I found the settings to be really close to satisfactory with only slight tweaks necessary. Moreover, I found the projector to be really bright, even in its “economy mode.”

Brightness Shines, Fan is Loud

I was really knocked out by the how good this projector looked and how bright it was in a variety of room conditions.

During my time with it, I popped in DVDs like “Gladiator,” as well as some Ovation test patterns, and also I watched plenty of HD from my cable provider. Some of that programming included HBO’s showing of “King Kong,” several Red Sox games and ABC’s broadcast of “Finding Nemo.”

No matter what I threw at it, the PD7060 came through.