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A very welcome feature is the manual zoom ring that also surrounds the lens. Although it’s obviously possible to create the size of image you want by moving the whole projector, having a manual zoom function is a real blessing if you’re planning on permanently mounting the unit on the ceiling. Most home cinema enthusiasts are likely to want to ceiling mount their projector, but you’re limited on where you can mount the device by the position of your ceiling beams. If you have no manual zoom option, the size of your image is totally dictated by where you are able to mount your projector, but with a zoom you still have some control over image size regardless of the positional limitations.

A quick glance at the inputs makes it clear that this projector is aimed at the serious home cinema buff. There’s no SCART socket, because most enthusiasts, myself included, hate SCART. What you do get are two component video inputs. Component video is the connection of choice for high-end video equipment. With the light and all three colours separated from each other, you’re getting the cleanest possible video signal. You also get a DVI connector which will take both analogue and digital DVI signals. There’s also a D-SUB input, an S-Video port and a composite video connector.

The MT500 will happily accept a progressive scan video input, which will keep users with high-end DVD players happy. A normal interlaced video image is created in two phases, with half the lines drawn in one pass and the other half in a second pass. This means that with a fast moving video source, the second half of lines will not line up with the first half. A progressive scan signal is non-interlaced and the entire image is drawn in one pass. This means that fast moving action sequences appear far smoother since there is no frame misalignment.

On the top of the unit are the control buttons. Here you’ll find the On/Standby button, the Menu/Exit button and the Enter button. There are also four directional buttons for navigating the menus. There’s also a hard power switch on the left side of the chassis next to the power socket. There are two warning lights, one showing when the unit is getting too hot and the other indicating a problem with the lamp.

Of course you’re not going to want to mess about with the control buttons on the projector if it’s mounted on your ceiling, so it’s a good thing that you get an infrared remote control in the box as well. The remote is full of useful shortcut buttons, like being able to jump directly to the correct input rather than cycling through a list. You can also choose the correct aspect ratio for the media you’re playing as well as adjust contrast, brightness colour etc. The buttons on the remote are illuminated whenever a button is pressed and there is a dedicated button just to illuminate the others as well. As remote controls go this isn’t the best I’ve used, and I expected something better considering the quality of the projector. That said, once the projector is set up there’s very little need to adjust it and you’re far more likely to be playing with the remote controls for your DVD player and amplifier. What is quite impressive however is that the remote seems to work no matter where you aim it, and no matter where you are in the room.

To get an idea of how good the image quality is on the MT500 I hooked it up to my Pioneer DV-737 DVD player. Although this player is a few years old now, it is still an excellent DVD source. I connected the DV-737 to the MT500 via component video using a good quality IXOS cable. Since the DV-737 can output a progressive scan signal I enabled this, to see the MT500 in the best possible light. I used two discs in particular to assess the projector. The first disc is the special edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, which is a beautiful print that’s been lovingly transferred to DVD. The second disc I chose was Lawrence of Arabia which, in my opinion, is one of the most stunning DVD transfers available.

I chose The Fellowship of the Ring because I wanted to see the scenes in the Mines of Moria, where imagery is very dark and detail can sometimes get lost. The battle scene in Moria was of particular interest since it is very dark and there’s a lot of movement and action going on. I have to say that I was very impressed with the contrast of the MT500; it was possible to pick out detail even in the darkest corners. With a non-interlaced source the image was clear no matter how much action was going on at once.

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