Ricoh PJ WXL4540 Short Throw Projector Review - Hardware Tour

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Art Feierman

Overview

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The PJ WXL4540 is just a little larger than a typical lamp-based, 3000 lumen class business/classroom projector. Even so, it still not all that large with a footprint of approx. 12" X 15" and a height of just 3.3". As seen in the 1st gallery photo above, it has white cabinet with the lens located in a recessed area a couple of inches back from the front of the projector . An IR receiver for the remote control is located on the front of the projector (in front of and below the lens position).

The right side of the projector, as seen in the 2nd photo above, has a ventilation inlet grill.

The rear of the projector, as seen in the 3rd photo above, has the input/output signal connectors toward the left (more details provided below) and the electrical power connector toward the right. There is a 2nd IR receiver for the remote control, visible in this photo, located on the top panel just to the rear of the projector's control pad.

The left side of the projector, as seen in the 4th photo above, has a grill for ventilation exhaust and also for the projector's single 10 watt speaker.

Connector Panel

The signal connector panel is shown in the photo above. This is located toward the left side of the projector's rear panel. The top row of connectors include an analog computer input, HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 digital video/audio inputs and a USB service connector. The second row of connectors include an analog computer output, composite video with companion right and left audio inputs (RCA style connectors) inputs, an audio output connector (such as for use with external speakers), an audio input and a microphone input. Finally, below these is a serial communications (RS232) connector for PC control.

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Control Pad & Status Lights

The projector's control pad and status lights, as shown in the photo above, are located on the top of the projector. Button for providing the basic projector functions including powering the projector on and off, displaying and navigating the on-screen menus, and selecting the signal input are provided. Three status lights are provided to indicate the power status, to indicate a over temperature condition and to indicate an issue with the light source.

Lens

The projector's short throw lens was already described in the previous section of this review. It has a short throw ratio of 0.521:1 meaning the projected image will be almost twice as wide as the distance from the projector's lens to the screen. For my testing I place the projector such that the distance from the lens to the screen was 42 inches and this resulted in a projected image that was 80 inches wide. I found the lens to produce a very sharp image, that when correctly focused, each of the projected image's 1280 X 800 pixels was clearly visible when viewed close up to the screen.

Remote Control

The supplied remote is a very compact unit (i.e., not much larger than a credit card) that is powered by a button cell battery. Across the top it has buttons for power, picture adjustments and signal input selection.

Below those are buttons to select the image's aspect ratio and a button for Audio/Video muting.

Below those are the buttons to display the on-screen menus along with 4-way navigation buttons. The up and down navigation buttons also do double duty to adjust the vertical digital keystone correction.

Toward the lower portion of the remote are buttons to freeze the current image, to put the projector into reduced power Eco mode, to digitally zoom (magnify) the image, and to adjust the volume of the projector's speaker.