Casio XJ-M255 DLP projector

The projector product category is easily one of the more dormant ones out there. Other than a few home theater enthusiasts and primarily organisations that require them, no one really goes out to buy projectors. Prices therefore don’t drop drastically and hardware only improves a little from time to time.

A whole bunch of features

Casio hopes to change that with the XJ-M255, which falls under their Signature series of projectors. One of the features that Casio boasts about with this projector is its lamp-free design. There’s also a three-year warranty bundled with 20,000 hours of lifetime for their hybrid lighting technology. 

Features

The Casio XJ-M255 is a DLP projector that supports a native resolution of 1280x800 pixels, which is a 16:10 aspect ratio display output. Casio rates the projector to have a brightness level of 3,000 lumens. 

A whole bunch of connectivity options including HDMI and USB

Connectivity options are aplenty. The HDMI input is most welcome and so are the composite, standard D-Sub and S-video connects. 3.5mm analog audio in and out ports along with RCA connectors are also present at the rear of the projector. Network capabilities are also present. The bundled remote is somewhat large to hold in hand. It’s light, but it isn’t very striking. Casio could’ve used more colours to make it stand out. There are clear demarcations to indicate separate functions of the remote.

The user interface of the Casio XJ-M255 is simplistic. The fonts and styles used are really basic. More colour, icons and large fonts could have probably enhanced the look. Nevertheless, users won’t be using the primary settings menu of the projector most of the time. The interface is exhaustive and covers everything from colour profiles to economy modes. There’s even a ceiling mode to invert the image and a projection mode, which mirrors the image.

Easy-to-use stand that's handy is raising the XJ-M255

The projector supports media playback and even presentations. A USB port at the rear lets you connect portable hard drives and flash drives to it. We first tried playing back videos across all formats and it wouldn’t work. One is expected to convert everything from presentations, videos to a compatible Casio format before playing it. This takes sometime and does get pretty cumbersome. Once converted, the media formats play well. JPEG images are viewable without conversion. The interface does slow down when you have a large drive with a deep folder structure and files in each folder. Casio bundles the necessary software convertors, which includes a 2D to 3D video conversion software. The remote has a pointer mode that allows you to use direction keys to point out items on screen. The controls are sluggish and slow.

A large but comprehensive remote control

The bundled 3D glasses are active shutter glasses. Setting up the projector is simple. Use of HDMI makes it even simpler and the projector is detected by the notebook we tested it on, perfectly fine. Casio has partenerd with Cestron to deliver remote access capability for some of the projectors. The MJ255 is included in this and it’s clear from the Cestron branding at the rear of the projector. The top of projector has a basic set of controls too. Next to those, are indicators including one for temperature warning.