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The XGIMI Horizon Pro Ultra HD video projector has a fairly impressive automatic keystone correction and obstacle detection system. This greatly facilitates its placement in the room, but still reveals some small flaws.
XGIMI Horizon Pro
Introductory price 1699 €
The XGIMI Horizon Pro video projector has a Texas Instruments 0.47-inch DMD (DLP470TE) DLP chip displaying a native Ultra HD definition of 3840 x 2160 pixels thanks to wobulation (extremely fast display of several Full HD images offset from each other to others) at 240 Hz to stream four Full HD images side-by-side to produce an Ultra HD 60 Hz image with 8.3 million actual pixels. The chip is mated to a 2200 lumen led light source, all paired with a 16W Harman Kardon audio system and powered by Android 10 with Android TV, and even Google TV in its latest update.
On the left, Ultra HD optics. On the right, the 1 megapixel CMOS camera, the brightness sensor and the depth of field (ToF) sensor. © The Digital
In addition to its all-in-one concept, the originality of this model is its ability to focus, correct keystone and even resize the image to avoid obstacles completely automatically. For this, the Horizon Pro projector uses a camera to correct keystone and a ToF (time of flight) depth sensor consisting of a light source and a sensor.
When the video projector is not in line with the screen, the image is distorted and goes out of frame. On most video projectors, software correction of the keystone is offered, but it remains manual: you have to move the corners of the screen to obtain an image with the right dimensions. On the XGIMI model, just press the adjustment button on the remote control and click on “Auto Keystone Correction”. The video projector then displays a specific pattern and automatically adapts the image. The process is fast, and the results stunning.
The default image is unusable and it is perfectly proportioned after the automatic keystone correction is performed. However, there are still some problems. The low contrast of the projector leaves the bright frame around the original image very visible. It is forgotten quite quickly when watching content, but a higher contrast would make it possible to completely forget this frame. The sharpness of the image is also not perfectly homogeneous since the video projector cannot focus on the whole image, the top left corner being further away than the bottom right corner. The other flaw is the loss of definition. Indeed, in this case, the image no longer exploits the Ultra HD capacities of the original sensor, but simply a small part of this definition on which the image is resized. In our case, the image is resized to a little over a quarter of the original surface, i.e. a Full HD definition still retained. The DLP Ultra HD chip also makes it possible to maintain a fairly high level of detail, despite the reduction in the size of the image.
Even more impressive, the system detects objects present in the projection field and resizes the image next to the object in question. This is very practical when an object on the wall, a painting or a radiator for example, remains in the field of the image.
The different options offered. © The Digital
The digital zoom setting. © The Digital
By default, the automatic adjustment procedure must be launched manually. However, in the options, it is possible to choose to launch the automatic adjustment at each start or as soon as the projector moves. It is also possible to zoom in or zoom out slightly in the image. Again, this is a digital zoom, which is therefore done with a loss of definition. Fortunately, the native Ultra HD image is defined enough to manage the zoom properly.
Finally, the automatic keystone correction and the automatic resizing of the image to avoid an object prove to be very effective and make the projector much easier to use in a room, for example, where the installation in the axis of screen or wall remains complicated.
We look forward to seeing you on Monday for the full review of the XGIMI Horizon Pro projector.