Toshiba TDP-S25 review

Features
This is a sub-£1,000 DLP projector, so you can't expect much in the way of bonus features. Another indication that this is a business projector at heart is that you can flip the image round for rear projection, for example if you're making a presentation on stage. Of more relevance to home users is that you can ceiling-mount it and flip the image upside down. While the projector is clearly meant to be portable, it's good that you can use it in a traditional home-cinema setup.

Our projector began to produce an unpleasant melting-plastic smell after half an hour's use, which might have been because it was a brand-new model. You can turn the fan up from standard to high to increase air circulation in the projector, but doing so raises the operating noise past an already high level. You can also change the lamp power from standard to low, but this reduces the brightness, and it's not too bright to begin with. If you want to keep an eye on what's going on inside the projector, you can call up Status mode inside the main menu system, which will even tell you how long you've used your current lamp so you know when to replace it.

The projector also features a rudimentary mono speaker which is more use for the business user than in a home cinema. It's tinny and lacks any vocal clarity or bass. As it's a bonus feature of the projector and not meant for serious use, we can't really knock it, and it might prove useful if you're ever stuck for speakers. You also get a remote control, VGA cable and power cable. Like the projector itself, the remote is a little too big to be carried around comfortably.

You can make a fair few adjustments to the picture, especially given that this is a budget projector. There are modes to increase the perceived brightness level and you can alter the blue, red and green levels of the picture. You can also change the aspect ratio of widescreen material -- since this is a 4:3 projector, you'll need to decide if you want your movie with large or small black bars at the top and bottom. This is another reason for home-cinema enthusiasts to dismiss the projector. The throw ratio isn't that great, either.

The projector can also cycle through its inputs until it finds a signal and power off automatically if it doesn't detect anything for a set period of time.

Performance
For a cheap projector, the Toshiba punches its weight, thanks to the highly dependable DLP chipset. It's good at reproducing colours, particularly through VGA, and motion is beautifully smooth. If you're using S-video or composite, colour reproduction is dull, but the picture is still smooth. Cheaper projectors can usually be identified by their lack of contrast depth and the TDP-S25 is no different. We tested Ronin, a particularly dark film, and there was a painful lack of detail to the streets of Paris at the beginning of the film. It also falls down on brightness, which will be very important to the business user whose main environment is a well-lit room.

The speaker is next to useless for movie viewing. We thought that the speaker on the Archos AV480 was bad, but this thing takes the biscuit. It's only meant to be used as a business aid, though -- perhaps if you're one of those people that like to do PowerPoint presentations with sound effects.

Edited by Mary Lojkine
Additional editing by Nick Hide