What a difference a year makes. A year ago, the Toshiba TDP-S25U would have been an instant success in the sub-$1,000 projector market: an SVGA (800-by-600 pixel) DLP projector rated at 1,800 lumens for $999.12 (direct). Progress has a way of overtaking good products, however, and now the TDP-S24U doesn't stack up so well against the competition in its price class.

The TPD-S25U has some attractive features, like a pair of analog VGA computer inputs, as well as composite and S-Video inputs. A pass-through VGA connector lets you hook up to an external monitor. Digital keystone correction will help straighten the image (though we recommend that you use this only for video, as it can introduce unwanted artifacts on computer-program screens). And Toshiba offers the optional TDP-SC25U, a document camera that can connect to the projector, for just $200 more.

Unfortunately, the projector has some weaknesses, such as the lack of a USB connection, which means there is no support for mouse functions on the remote control. There is no dedicated auto-sync button on the remote control, and the legends for the buttons are in small print that can be difficult to read under some conditions.

Our testing of image quality using images from DisplayMate yielded mixed results. The auto-sync function worked well, and the response to both light and dark shades of gray was excellent. Color tracking was good, and we saw no apparent pixel defects. Brightness uniformity was uneven, with noticeable shadows in the corners. Focus was generally good, but the range of play in the optics made it difficult to control the focus precisely. We saw noticeable banding in color ramps, and while yellow in DLP projectors is typically muddy, yellow here was nearly green.

In our measurements, the brightness came in at 1,403 lumens. This is considerably less than specified, but still adequate for a sizable image in a room with normal ambient lighting conditions. The contrast ratio was excellent at 398:1, but the brightness variance ration of 1.38:1 does not accurately represent the image quality we saw, as the shadowed corners were outside the measurement area.

With a video signal, we saw a considerable amount of noise in the image, though facial tones and other gradients looked fairly good. The sound system was not as loud as that of some other projectors, and was somewhat distorted at the upper half of the volume range.

None of these flaws are fatal, but they are enough to push the TDP-S25U back among the also-rans. There are other projectors available at the same price or less that provide equal or better performance with more features.

Benchmark Results:
Brightness (lumens): 1,403
Contrast ratio: 398:1
Brightness Variance ratio: 1.35:1