Epson Brightlink 585Wi Projector Review: Hardware Tour 2

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Art Feierman

BRIGHTLINK 585WI PROJECTOR - HARDWARE TOUR 2: Inputs and Connectors, Remote Control

Brightlink 585Wi Inputs and Connectors

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Talk about a lot of connectors. Fortunately most people will only use a modest number of these, as it would get very crowed in there if all were in use. That wouldn't happen though when you consider that would mean, for openers, having up to six different sources hooked up. Unlikely.

Let's start in what appears in the photo, as the top left, with the Microphone input. This is a nice touch. Using a Mic with the projector's 16 watt speaker will help any presenter better handle a somewhat noisy room, or a moderately large one.

As mentioned elsewhere, you can even use the mic feature with the projector lamp off, so that it can double as a small PA, without wasting lamp life or extra electricity.

Next over is the audio out, in case you need some bigger sound than the 16 watt internal speaker system offers. The remote will allow you to control the output volume. An RS232- serial port for traditional command and control by a computer. To its right is the first of two USB ports. This one is a "Type A", and can be used to plug in a USB thumb drive or other USB source.

On the far right is something unusual. There are a pair of jacks labeled Sync In, and Out. These are used if more than one Brightlink interactive projector is being used in the same room at the same time. The Sync allows the two to work together. You'll need the optional remote control cable kit specified in the manual to plug into each Sync.

The second row starts with a analog Computer 1 input and a Monitor Out. (both HD15 connectors). Should you need both as inputs you can change from Monitor Out to Computer 2 in the menus. These can be used for component video as well as analog computer. Next over is an S-video (DIN), and then a Composite video input (RCA). Finally, far right is the stereo audio input for those video connectors.

The lower row has another pair of stereo audio inputs on the left, then the USB "B" which might be used for display over USB. An RJ45 LAN connector let's the 585Wi tie into your local wired network.

Of important note, using USB Display to project your computer or other device's screen does impact the speed of interactive functions, by slowing them down. While still workable, I would recommend using HDMI, VGA, etc., rather than USB Display. Using USB Display is fine when you aren't doing interactive things, so might be just dandy, when hooking up a guest computer for a standard, non-interactive, presentation.

Last but hardly least, HDMI2 and HDM1. Note that HDMI1 indicates MHL, which is a new feature for this year's Brightlink projectors, and a great idea. It's discussed in the Special Features pages.

Not visible in the first photo is the place to plug in the included Wifi dongle, which you can see installed in the 2nd image.

The slider control for focusing the Brightlink projector is located behind the filter door. You can see the slider in the third image, the white tab to the left of the filters. It moves up or down to focus.

Brightlink 585Wi Remote Control

The Epson Brightlink's remotre control is a compact one. No, it's not a credit card type, it's far larger than that, has over 30 button on it. The range is pretty good. I tested it to a distance of a little more than 20 feet, standing behind the projector and didn't encounter any problems at that distance. It even seems to be a bit forgiving, not demanding that you point exactly at the projector from that distance.

Let's look at the remote control's feature set, starting at the top, as usual:

The power switch is a blue button (the only non-white button) at the top left. It's the usual, "press once for on, press twice to turn off." To its right is Source Search which let's you manually toggle through all the many inputs, or let it search to find the first one that's active. The next four buttons relate to those inputs. There's Computer, which toggles through the computer inputs, Video offers the S-Video and Composite, there's a button for USB, and below it, one for the LAN network (as source).

Next comes four rows that are first, a numeric pad, useful with this projector for several functions, including security. But five of the buttons take on other uses when not in Numeric mode. Those functions are labeled, and are: MHL Menu, Auto (for syncing to a computer - if needed), Aspect Ratio, Color Mode (toggle through the choices), and Pen Mode.

The next section is navigation Menu on the upper left, and the four arrow keys in a round configuration in the center. Enter button (which can double as right mouse click) is in the middle of those arrows. The Escape button is upper right, across from Menu.

There's a User button you can program (select a desired function) below Menu, and across from it, a button to bring up one of the three pointers.

Below all of that are three pair of buttons. Left are Page Up/Down for basic interactive (aka remote mousing), then E-zoom (digital zoom), and Volume Up/Down.

Three to go: A/V Mute (left), blanks the screen and audio, Freeze, which does what you expect: Freeze what's on the screen, and finally, bottom right, Epson's interactive Help function. (You'll see an example in the following section on menus.

That pretty much covers the Epson's remote control. Naturally it comes with batteries, a pair of double A's, to be specific. No backlight, but rarely is one needed on a projector that can light up a room with over 3000 lumens.