www.cine4home.de (Test: Projection Design Action! model two Test Action model two DLP Projektor ProjectionDesign Action modell two)

Image quality is the main focus of each and every projector, which nowadays has to fulfill high expectations regarding contrast as well as color and sharpness. But apart from a good projected picture the projector itself should also be “good looking” in many living rooms. Manufacturers trouble themselves increasingly more to let a certain design flow into their equipment, but only few models accomplish the balancing act between noble design and inconspicuousness.

This mixture succeeded well however with the "Action! Model Two” by the Norwegian manufacturer Projection Design. With unbelievably compact dimensions of 234 x 278 x 94mm the projector is one of the smallest home-cinema-optimized DLP HD beamer currently on the market. Additionally, the mini beamer exhibits a very noble design, which makes it appealing and well suited for living rooms.

Not least the model two is available in three different colors, so that each taste is served. The white version landed in our test laboratory, which best pleases us personally and can most appealingly be integrated in most living rooms.

But as previously mentioned a projector has not only to look beautiful, it must also make a good impression in its actual discipline: image projection. In a dark room one only sees what comes out in front. How well the possible image quality can be with these compact dimensions, we will examine in this detailed test for you.

As one can see from the pictures at first sight, the Action! Model Two is an extremely appealing living room projector. The noble design combined with the individual lacquer finish and the compact dimensions impresses each prospective customer.

Astonishing above all is the build quality of the machine: the housing is made of metal to a large extent and shows a stability which we have never seen with any other home cinema projector, bar none. Nothing rattles, nothing seems fragile, no disturbing edges or slits cloud that impression.

Each projector ordered is actually manufactured by hand in Norway. Only this way the manufacturer can ensure this grandiose quality of workmanship, which has of course its price: approximately €4500.- the buyer must pay for the noble projector “made in Europe”, before he can call it his own.

Altogether the machine does not leave anything to be desired concerning choice of materials, design and build quality. A chassis can not be built any better than this.

After appearances we now turn to the inner sanctum. Basically it is always interesting to observe how much care and trouble the manufacturers gave themselves with the actual technical structure. For this purpose we removed the sturdy projector cover. This, as well as the whole housing, is made of metal; a further skillful measure in order to minimize the dimensions of the device so that no further shielding is necessary.

As expected a very compactly built inside is shown, where no cubic centimeter of air was given away. To the right of the optics is the power pack, which supplies the projector and the lamp with current.

Of interest is the decoupled ventilation, which allowed the technical designers to set an old rule of thumb out of play: the smaller the louder. Despite the minimal dimensions of the Action! Model Two it is one of the quietest 720p-DLP projectors on the market, in our test it did not disturb movie viewing. The necessary circulating air moves through vents on the equipment back, left side and front.

With placement it must be noted that all ventilation slots are kept free, in order to avoid air congestion. From the vents light is spilled slightly, which we felt somewhat disturbing.

Placed over the optical block is the also very compactly arranged main board. On it, we meet two old acquaintances again.

Under the board is the optical block/optical path, which we dismantled for a technical explanation for you:

At the beginning of the optical path is the lamp, which is very unconventionally placed directly beside the optics with the Action model two.

The lamp is a particularly small 220W UHP lamp, which can be regulated down in ten stages to 180W (Eco). With a life span of up to 3000 hours it fulfills the current state of technology.

The light coming from the lamp is led directly to the color wheel, as is typical with single DLP, which takes over the sequential color production. In the Action! Model Two however no conventional 6-Segment color wheel, but instead a 7-segment wheel with additional dark green segment is used.

The beginning of the optical path (above) with color wheel window

The special color wheel of the Action! Model Two

As one can infer from the photo above well, it is a home-cinema-optimized color wheel: the red segments take most place, in order to work against the lack of red of the UHP lamp. An additional dark green segment can be found only with high-end projectors, it reduces noise and False Contour effects in dark images, more about that in our picture test below.

After the color wheel the colored light goes through a “tunnel” (red arrow), before it comes to the first optics. From here it arrives over mirrors into the actual light chamber.

It is fascinating to see how the technical designers even managed to integrate Lens Shift with this compact U-shaped optical path. To regular readers of our Website it is well-known that with a DLP projector, Lens Shift can be realized only with a glass prism. The Action! Model Two is no different; such a glass prism is present, which is placed directly in front of the DMD chip.

The extremely good build quality of the projector is noticeable also here: the entire optical path is well encased, by placing the glass prism in front of the DMD chip no disturbing dust grains in focus level are to be expected. Because of this encapsulated structure one can only get a view of the DMD by the optical exit, through the reflecting prism.

Left in the picture: Light entrance
Right in the picture: Light exit with DMD chip (arrow)

On the DMD with its approximately 900.000 mirrors the actual imaging takes place, afterwards the light leaves the projector via the optics, which projects the finished picture on the screen.

Altogether the optical structure of the projector is very impressive: on an unbelievably small area engineers succeeded in designing a modern optical path with 7-segment color wheel and optical Lens Shift by a prism. The selected U-form is particularly helpful. In combination with the outstanding build quality, also on the inside of the machine the highest claims of quality are fulfilled, our compliments.

With a projector in the elevated price range the user should not have to make any compromises with regard to connections. It is again impressive what Projection Design has succeeded in making the tiny projector so versatile regarding communication..

For the picture feed, 1x component (Cinch), 1x S-video (Hosiden), 1x Composite (Cinch), 1x VGA (Sub D) and 1x DVI is at the users disposal. The latter accepts both digital (HDCP) signals, and analog RGB signals. Thus the projector is compatible to almost any present transmission standard. However, a second DVI and/or HDMI connection would have been desirable.

In addition to the picture inputs the Projection Design even offers numerous communication ports for automation and external controls: USB (for control with a computer mouse), RS232 (for controlling and monitoring of numerous functions), RC (connection of a cable remote control) and LAN (for control over a local network). A projector can hardly offer more integration possibilities into modern multimedia installations.

Now, we are going to take a look at the placement characteristics of the Action! Model Two. Pretty often a large deficit of DLP projectors is the reduced placement flexibility. Particularly low-priced models exhibit a large offset (vertical shift of the image position) as well as a reduced zoom range.

As already described under technology, the model two belongs to the few home cinema models which exhibit a mechanical vertical Lens Shift. It is possible to vary the installation height with placement without endeavoring a digital keystone correction.

The optical Lens Shift of the Action! Model Two facilitates easy installation, particularly in not very high home cinema rooms, however the flexibility of LCD projectors is still not reached.

Also concerning projection distances the model two achieves very good values for DLP projectors, but for the typical picture dimensions of between 2m and 3m one needs sufficient space.

For most living room sizes the necessary distances of the projector should be suitable, however. In addition the table above shows the maximum possible offset above or under the projection picture on (see sketch above). By the way: in addition to the standard optics a Short Throw optic system is planned, so that large picture diagonals can be realized even from shorter projection distances .

The spacing graph out of the operating manual (see above) is particularly practical. Those who wish more precision, we recommend taking a look at the spec sheet.

With regard to placement, the Action! Model Two scores also, however only in the context of the placement characteristics typical for DLP. It is leading the pack with its practical Lens Shift however the LCD technology at present certainly provides even more flexibility. Nevertheless: integration in a room might not lead into large problems in most living rooms, in particular thanks to the compact dimensions of the projector.

Much has changed over the past couple of years regarding the operation and especially the offered functions, as home theater projectors become ever more complex. From an elevated model, as the Action! Model Two is, we expect something special.

The remote control provided with the Action! Model Two is no "design beauty" by far, unlike the projector itself, however extremely functional.

The operation is quite large in its dimensions, nevertheless it has an ergonomical grip and lies well in hand. The reason for its size: the sheer number of keys, as almost every substantial display function has its own key. Fortunately all buttons are well grouped in topics.

The direct source selection buttons, which make the annoying zapping through all inputs unnecessary, are very praise worthy. Despite the many keys the cursor keys are generously designed and easy to operate with the thumb because of their central location. In dark rooms electrical lighting can be activated for all operating knobs, which makes the inscriptions easily readable. The range of the infrared transmitter is also very good, with our tests the projector always reacted immediately and reliably to each pressing of keys. A special gimmick, which otherwise remains reserved only to presentation beamers, is also offered by the model two remote: a laser pointer (can be quite useful for digital slide projection).

Also without remote control the Action! Model Two remains completely controllable, thanks to the keys located on projector top. Situated here also is the control lamp, which always keeps the user up to date by different colors.

The on screen menus of the Projection Design Action! Model Two appear very simple optically, however they are arranged according to the usual topic concept.

The menus show the usual combination of symbols and texts, a good mixture for both well educated people and illiterates ;-)

The screenshots above show the functions of the first category : “Picture”. Depending upon signal source the substantial parameters can be adjusted here, such as brightness, contrast, color saturation and sharpness. During progressive component feed even the color space can be selected.

In the second main category “Dynamic” all relevant functions are present concerning gamma and lamp brightness. The first functions would have fitted better in the picture menu thematically. For gamma only factory presets are available, a gamma equalizer is not offered. The function “Lamp Power” is practical, with it the lamp brightness can be adjusted in 10 stages.

In the “Advanced” menu, further picture parameters (which likewise would have better fitted in the “Picture”-menu), as well as functions for horizontal and vertical image position adjustment with analog feeds are present. Very extensive and technically oriented is the “Color Management” section:

With "Color Management" the color temperature can be adjusted both directly in Kelvin and in the coordinate system of the color space. Alternatively the classical RGB gain/bias automatic controller for adjusting the white level is usable, both for projector and for input signal (source correction). With such an elaborate menu an exact adjustment should not represent a problem, adjustment possibilities on the primary colors however would have been desirable.

“Setup” contains all parameters relevant to placement: projection mode, language as well as horizontal and vertical keystone adjustment can be set, and also control options such as Eco-mode and automatic “Source Scan” are at the users disposal. For all those who want to use a SCART RGB receiver, the function “RGB video” is particularly pleasing; it allows the switching of the component/Composite inputs to RGBS, in this way making satellite connection with optimum image quality possible.

In the category “Utlities” the user finds only little of actual use. Besides the system information, which offers a practical overview of all selected options, only the lamp reset and the service menu (only for authorized dealers\specialists) are necessary functions among those listed.

The last column “Miscellaneous” contains features which one otherwise would not find with projectors: the projector can be pre-programmed to switch itself on or off on certain times and dates. With “PIN” the projector can be protected against unauthorized access.

Altogether the structure of the menu of the Action! Model Two shows to be very versatile. Both in the display range and for installation more than sufficient functions are offered, in order to be prepared for all eventualities. The projector hereby wins on flexibility, particularly with individual room integrations. The whole concept is well supported by the high-quality remote control. The partially insignificant columns, which are also not consistently arranged according to topic, are worthy of criticism. After a short time one gets used to the system however, so that the projector shows a solid performance here as well.

In our technical overview the small projector already showed some positive surprises. And also the operation with its innumerable functions suggests good picture control. In the picture test, it will be very interesting to see how much quality can be stuffed in such a compact housing.

In the Action! Model Two the top model of the 720p-line from Texas Instruments is used as DMD chip for imaging: the HD2+ DC3 (Darkchip). With particularly good reflection characteristics it makes a high image contrast possible.

Outstanding results are achieved, as typical with DLP, regarding screendoor on the projection screen. High resolution in combination with the high fill rate of the DMD technology permits a very subtle pixel representation, which one does not notice from appropriate viewing distances.

With single chip projectors, the technical structure by means of the color wheel still makes it necessary to compromise between chroma and picture brightness, because the light passing by the color segments in the wheel is always filtered, whereby a part of the light is “thrown away”. The technical designers can compensate this loss only by the color choice of the individual filter segments. While some evade to a white segment (primarily within the presentation range) the Action! Model Two is clearly geared for home cinema needs. This becomes apparent with the additional dark segment meant to decrease DLP artifacts. But a color wheel has a limited surface, and each additional segment costs light.

The color space diagram above shows, that engineers found a healthy compromise here. In relation to the HD video standard (dark triangle) the projector shows slight restrictions in green and blue. First (green) is absolutely typical for DLP projectors and a compromise, which in principle is done with DLP-projectors to increase the maximum brightness. The slightly too pale blue however is cause for further optimizations.

The tuning of the secondary colors worked very well, Magenta and Yellow are very close to their optimum values, only Cyan is a little on the Green side. Altogether, with this color space the projector is able to reproduce the cinema colors strongly and at the same time accurately. The movie picture convinces with radiant colors, which only lose perfection in the last detail. But as we already mentioned, this is mainly a result of the technical limitations of single chip projection; on the whole the emphasis of the constructors is well balanced.

One of the advertised special features of the Action! Model Two is the "Real Color" option. According to the manufacturer, this ensures a perfectly to the D65 standard tuned projector from the factory, as well as numerous adjustment options, which should allow for a technically precise calibration of the projector without additional measuring equipment.

These kinds of promises are made by many manufacturers but not rarely the actual results on the screen are very disappointing. The more surprised we were with the new Projection Design. With the aid of the Picture menu we selected the "6500K" preset, connected a neutral DVD-player and measured the color temperature across all brightness's.

As our measurements show the manufacturer kept his promise regarding "Real Color". With excellent accuracy the D65 standard is maintained from dark grey to white, the slight deviations are hardly at all visible to the eye. But also when selecting other Color Temperatures from the complex Color Management menu, results show astonishing accuracy. More can not be expected from a projector: "Switch on and nearly perfect colors out of the box, without lifting a finger".

Currently, LCD projectors with good adaptive iris's score with their very high on\off contrast ratios; high maximum brightness with very good black level. DLP projectors countered with equally good on\off contrast ratios, as well as very high in-picture contrast ratios. Especially because of the latter DLP projectors provide for an even greater image depth with many picture compositions as their crystal competitors do.

The Projection Design Action! Model Two is no exception here. With a maximum contrast ratio of about 3000:1 and with an in-picture contrast ratio (measured with a checkerboard pattern) of about 580:1, it combines a good on\off contrast ratio with a very good image depth.

Our measurements show the data provided by the manufacturer are very honest especially regarding the possible brightness's. What very often is not told however is the fact that the maximum contrast and the maximum brightness are not achieved while adhering to the D65 color temperature (video standard). The maximum measurements above therefore result in a picture representation that is too green. Nevertheless: for the occasional sports event under daylight viewing conditions, where representing perfect colors is not a main concern (because of the imperfect television transmissions), the projector with its light reserves is very well suited.

With accurate movie viewing in a dark room, a net contrast ratio of 1800:1 to 2300:1 remains, with a brightness of up to 710 Lumen. These are good results, which can be recommended for an image width of up to 2.8 meters (with controlled light conditions).

Especially high praise we would like to give to the fact that the lamp brightness can be adjusted in 10 (!) steps. This allows the user to find the perfect compromise between picture brightness and cooling loudness for his room, the projector gains flexibility.

Regarding movieprojection, the Action! Model Two shows an appealing image depth with these values, which also makes dark scenes look appropriately three dimensional. With regard to absolute black level a few remarks must be made, as a little less scattered light would have been welcome. Altogether however, the projector is perfectly capable of making the most out of its typical DLP strengths, in picture contrast. We can only advise not to become too confused by the strictly technical data provided by many manufacturers (with regard to on\off contrast ratio).

Apart from correct color temperature, the brightness (gamma) distribution of a projector should also be tuned well, to ensure a good use of the contrast range. Only if the gamma is correct the projector will show a realistic image composition with every picture content.

The Action! Model Two offers six different gamma presets to choose from, a direct adjustment option, like for instance a gamma equalizer, is not offered. In other words: the user is dependent on the precision of the factory presets, there is no possibility to adjust afterwards. We have examined how good these presets actually are. But before that the dynamic range has to be adjusted for digital transmissions: "Enhanced" and "Normal" are at the disposal (as usual). But beware: with our review machine these parameters were switched, with "Normal" video signals the machine had to be set at "Enhanced" and vice versa. Such small errors are quickly made with firmware programming, but should be corrected before leaving the factory. Fortunately no drawbacks come from this (as long as one is aware of the switch).

The gamma presets are named "Film 1 / 2", "Video 1 / 2" and "Computer 1 / 2". Following logic, we begin with the film modes:

With "Film1" (diagram above) the projector is at the limits of its performance capability: with its especially steep ratio of 2.61, contrasts between bright and dark are emphasized extremely, making the picture subjectively more spacious. The drawback of this preset: many nuances are shifted into a very dark range, so that dark details are quickly lost in rooms that are not optimized and have a relatively high amount of scattered light. Praiseworthy is the fact that the projector does not lose any detail in this mode (thanks to its dark segment in the color wheel), but an optimized room is all but a necessity.

When using the Film2-preset the projector shows a much more flat curve ratio of 2.48. Here the projector offers a clearly improved level in the dark ranges, which makes this mode especially recommendable. In dark rooms without much scattered light it achieves a very good image depth, in both dark and bright scenes.

As the name suggests, the "Video1" preset is adjusted to the video standard (2.2 ratio), the one that is currently used with video mastering. This gamma preset emphasizes dark details even more and is therefore universally suited for just about every room (in dark rooms, Film2 is recommended however).

The "Video2" preset is outside of the range of video standards. Apparently, this preset is devised for projection in not optimized rooms. Its steep curve with flatter top (almost "clipping") enhances the brightness of the picture, so that everything remains visible even with ambient light. For normal home cinema operation this mode is not recommended.

The "Computer1/2" presets are very much like the "Video2" preset. There modes are also meant to be used for presentations in bright rooms, and they serve their purpose well, but there modes are neither devised nor suited for movie projection.

Despite the absence of adjustment option for the gamma distribution, the projector offers an efficient image representation under different projection circumstances thanks to its versatile factory presets. For home theater application, "Film 1/2" and "Video 1" (depending on room conditions) can be recommended. In these modes the projector achieves an impressive image depth, which reproduces the naturalness of the film original extremely well. No details are lost in the dark and bright partitions do not seem over-emphasized. So the Action! Model Two presents itself well in this category also, however we do subtract some points for correction possibilities not being present.

Remark:
The measurements and recommendations above apply only when White Boost is turned off. If White Boost is enabled, the gamma curve is negatively affected:

The optics appear to be extremely small, as does the entire projector. It is interesting to see how well such small optics can perform with projection of large image sizes.

The first problems show when adjusting the sharpness: this has to be done with a lot of patience and feeling before an equal sharpness over the entire projection screen is achieved. Just a few millimeters too far to the right or left, and one of the edges of the screen appears to be unsharp. In addition one has to keep in mind that the projector should be positioned absolutely parallel to the screen. With a little practice however the picture can be adjusted so that every part of the image appear equally sharp on the screen.

With regard to brightness uniformity the projector achieves good, but not perfect results: with full screen pictures of one color the bottom of the screen is slightly brighter, but in normal movie operation this is absolutely invisible. With regard to brightness uniformity the Action! Model Two is clearly more precise than for instance a Mitsubishi HC3000.

Even with regard to convergence the Action! Model Two achieves a good level. Color seams do not get in the way of movie operation, only with test images a faint lack of green can be seen (see image above). Requirement for good results however is a very well adjusted sharpness, which one should take a couple of minutes time for!

The picture menus do not show an adjustable Overscan option, so we can only hope that the projector does not cut off any edges of the picture.

With a digital input signal, these hopes become true, because the projector does not appear to miss any information and displays the full content of the image on the screen.

This good result does not depend on resolution; at both 576p, 720p and 1080i no Overscan is detectable. When feeding the machine an analog source, the story is a little different:

A mediocre Overscan of 20 pixels left and right, and 10 pixels from top and bottom are meaningful with an analog feed, as not rarely disturbances on the edges of the screen are visible with Overscan turned off. Even then, a variable Overscan adjustment would have been a nice feature, as many other projector models already offer.

3.8 DLP artefacts: Picture Noise / False Contour / Banding (Know How link here)

As already explained under Technology, the Action! Model Two uses a special color wheel with a dark green segment. The purpose of this segment is to minimize Picture noise and False Contour effects, the most annoying artifacts of the DLP projection technology. The underlying principle is as simple as it is ingenious: the dark segment filters the light of the lamp optically down to a very dark color. In the next step, the DMD can employ fast switching sequences (as normally done with bright image content) because the light has already been dimmed. Theoretically, this shows less noise and less dynamic reduction in the dark portions of the image. But this is theory, let's see how this translates into practice:

Indeed the Projection Design shows exemplary results with regard to picture noise. With 10% brightness the noise is very subtle, with 20% it is hardly visible at all. Even the darkest details show only a tiny amount of noise, which is not visible from normal viewing distances.

We were also more than pleasantly surprised with regard to the False Contour effect (color reductions and lag with fast movements, predominantly in dark ranges) . Even with moderately fast movements the annoying effect remains at an exemplary level, disturbing reductions with flowing transitions are small. Visibility of disturbing color reductions (banding) ranges from slight to non-existent.

It appears that the elaborate construction, which can only be found in the higher price ranges, more than pays off with the Action! Model Two. The projector succeeds in reducing the typical DLP artifacts to a more than acceptable level. This shows a very well thought out picture preparation.

The rainbow effect remains, and here a single chip projector can not work any miracles. With frequencies between 200Hz and 250Hz, the projector offers fast color repetitions, which should only annoy very sensitive eyes with the rainbow effect.

Remark:
Sensitivity to the rainbow effect is very personal. This is why we recommend to test your sensitivity to the rainbow effect yourself before buying a projector.

De-interlacing will remain to be an issue for as long as PAL will remain our television standard, which will be many, many years. Not too long ago it was standard practice with DLP projectors to include a efficient de-interlacer in the machine, which converts the incoming half-image signal into a progressive picture representation. Unfortunately, in the mean time most manufacturers have eliminated the de-interlacer because of incomprehensible reasons, probably because of progressive DVD players. But at least in this country a good de-interlacer is a necessity for viewing television transmissions, because only few receivers provide a progressive picture output.

As before, Projection Design uses a de-interlacer from Faroudja. This solution has lead to very good results in many other DLP projectors, but the name alone is not a guarantee for good de-interlacing. So, how does the Action! Model Two perform?

Video material
A good de-interlacer for video material is needed when the projector is used for watching sports and television also. The Faroudja chip used in the Action! Model Two performs well here; video material is processed according to the motion adaptive procedure, so that static picture elements have a maximum resolution. The DCDI system helps to reduce annoying aliasing in the picture, which is a big advantage especially with sports events like football or tennis.

Film material
Equally excellent is the processing of film de-interlacing for movies, which have been recorded with 24 (25) pictures per second. The projector has no problem with PAL material and reliably finds the right rhythm for weaving the two half-images together. It rarely loses the rhythm so that it can be recommended for movie representation without question.

It is good to see that some manufacturers do take care with regard to interlacing. The Action! Model Two achieves very good results here, and therefore high notes.

In the Technology section of this review we have already shown that this projector uses signal processing chips from Faroudja and Pixelworks. We have examined how well this tandem operates:

With a good video projector it is important that it retains the full picture sharpness, without artificially over-sharpening it. With suitable test images the unwanted "Edge Enhancement" effect can be tested.

In the screenshot above can be seen that the Action! Model Two hardly leads to any annoying double outlines. In addition, the picture sharpness can be adjusted using the sharpness slider in the menu, but beware: the slider operates exactly the other way around as expected: the higher the slider position, the softer the picture becomes (0 = maximum sharpness, 5 = minimal sharpness). If the user is informed about this switch, the sharpness can be adjusted quite well.

Once adjusted the projector projects a picture without annoying double outlines, where even the highest DVD resolutions (6.67 MHz) do not show a drop in level. This allows for a good reconstruction of the sharpness of the picture, but a better scaling would have made an even higher detail representation possible. Especially in the 6MHz range the reproduction is soft.

The color resolution is exemplary, with both analog and digital feeds. The color signals remain cleanly separated from each other up to the highest frequency, making the smallest color details appear sharp in the picture.

Vertically there are also no weaknesses, the usual signal resolutions are displayed without any scaling deviations.

The signal processing ensures a good picture sharpness, which does justice to the quality of the source signal. Potential for improvement is mainly in the area of scaling, which could be better and free from linearity deviations with a more modern scaler.

A "HD Ready" beamer like the Action! Model Two only shows its true colors when it is fed with the appropriate image material, since our usual PAL signal only supplies less than half the native resolution of the projector, which makes the image half as sharp as theoretically possible.

To get to most out of the projector we therefore have fed it with current HDTV material from a HD-DVD player. With reference tittles like "Million Dollar Baby", "Phantom of the Opera" and "Serenity" the projector can show what it is capable of. And our viewing test showed the capabilities of this little Projection Design model: compared to PAL, the picture sharpness is much better and hardly leaves anything to be desired. A little more sharpness could have been obtained with better scaling, however. Good HDTV sources (e.g. HD-DVD VC1 encoding) exhibit a signal with an extremely low noise, which the Action! Model Two is able to reproduce that way on the screen as well with the aid of its special color wheel. As soon as HDTV is introduced in this country, this is a clear "must" for the Action! Model Two.

It is very impressive to see the image quality the little dwarf from Norway is capable of. Rarely have we seen such a balanced DLP-image on our screen, which does not show any weaknesses in practically any domain. With a contrast ratio of about 2000:1 at correct colors in combination with a good gamma curve, the picture shows depth and clearly shows the advantages of the DLP technology (high ANSI contrast). Black level and maximum brightness are well balanced and can be adjusted perfectly to home requirements using the lamp dimmer.

With regard to color reproduction the Action! Model Two convinces because of its exemplary factory tuning. The Action! Model Two consequently follows the "Perfection out of the Box" principle. This way the projector fulfills the high expectation of the prospective buyer, especially in this higher price range. Only with regard to color space some DLP typical compromises have been made, whereby particularly strong Green and Blue tones lose some of their brilliance.

Exemplary is the Faroudja de-interlacing. With sports, shows or movies, even with interlaced feeds the projector succeeds in displaying the maximum sharpness, free from any annoying artifacts. This (unfortunately) is still a rarity with home cinema projectors. The sharpness is further enhanced by the good signal processing, which unfortunately shows slight weaknesses in certain areas.

The projector convinced us especially with its (very few) DLP artifacts. Because of the additional dark segment in the color wheel the projector succeeds in keeping both Noise and False Contour to an exemplary level. Only rarely did we have a DLP projector in our test studio with a picture that was this free from Noise or color reduction as with the Action! Model Two. The engineers have put much effort into the design, as results this good could not be found in the cheaper price ranges until now.

Evaluation picture overall: 1,7 (Good +)
Black Level & Contrast	1,6 (Good +)
Gamma	2,2 (Good)
Sharpness & interpolation	2,1 (Good -)
Color Space \ Temperature	2,1 / 1,3 (Very Good / Good)
De-Interlacing	1,4 (Very Good -)
Other aspects	1,6 (Good +)

(all evaluations refer to the respective kind of projection and the current state of the art. Therefore, a direct comparison between systems is only possible under certain conditions)

We have to admit, we fell in love a little with the Action! Model Two during this review: directly after unpacking the unbelievably compact dimensions are surprising. The appealing design makes the projector look simply cute. But because of this cuteness, intuitively one could think less of the capabilities of this projector.

Our pessimism was already contradicted when we examined the build quality: hardly any other projector has such high handling qualities as the Projection Design Action! Model Two does. The hand crafted, "made in Europe" definitely pays off here, and the slightly higher price seems more than justified. Next surprise was the overall build: numerous inputs, control ports and even an optical lens shift the designers have squeezed into the small device, the Technology-section of our review shows how well they did. This makes placement of the projector appealingly flexible.

Operation of the Action! Model Two is clear and elaborate, small details like the switched DVI mode and the sharpness control that is reversed should be corrected however, even if they do not have a negative impact on the operation of the machine. The remote control works flawlessly and is, as everything else, very clear and flexible.

Last but not least, the picture quality. And as we just explained, this is very impressive. At the very latest when viewing a movie in HDTV with the Action! Model Two it is clear that the "little one" does not have to hide himself for its larger competitors, but manages to surpass them in many areas. Very positive are the few DLP artifacts, which are particularly useful when displaying HD material.

The Action! Model Two is a machine full of positive surprises, from unpacking to setting up to operation up to actually projecting a movie. Despite its somewhat higher price the projector is more than worth the money. The Projection Design Action! Model Two can be summarized in one sentence: "Perfect living room integration combined with very good picture quality".

5. Evaluation

+ Very well tuned to D65 White Level from Factory
+ Color Management System
+ Exemplary De-Interlacer
+ Few DLP artifacts because of additional ND segment
+ Exemplary build quality / Metal housing
+ Appealing Design and very compact dimensions
+ Optical Lens Shift

- Light emission out of the air vents
- Linearity deviations at some places in the scaling
- Picture sharpness not easy to adjust, depending on Zoom
- White Boost induces gamma distortion
- No second digital input

Evaluation overall : 1,6 (Good +)
Equipement	1,6 (Good +)
Operation	1,8 (Good +)
Technology	1,7 (Good +)
Picture	1,7 (Good +)
Price\Performance	1,4 (Very Good -)

(all evaluations refer to the respective kind of projection and the current state of the art. Therefore, a direct comparison between systems is only possible under certain conditions)

- Projection lens: 1,9 – 2,4 : 1 distance to wideness, completely from LD-glass, a-spherical Zoom lens

- Lamp Life: 3000 hours typically with Standard-setting (2250 hours with High)

- Connectivity: DVI-D (HDCP) (DVI or HDMI Digital RGB); 1x RCA (YPbPr, YCbCr) (Component-Video); 1x S-Video (S-Video); 1x RCA (Composite-Video); HDD-15 (RGBHV, RGBS, RGSB, YUV)

- Operation: LAN (TCP/IP), RS232, USB IR-remote control with IR-Repeater input