DLP Leader Increases Power, Connectivity & Storage to Meet "Road-Warrior" Needs

LAS VEGAS | January 7, 2010 | Optoma^® Technology, Inc.,the world’s bestselling brand of DLP^® projectors, today announced a major expansion of its Pico line of projectors, adding two new models, the PK201 and PK301. Both models offer greater brightness, more connectivity and storage options than previous Pico models, and are designed to be the perfect companion for business users and general consumers seeking a more robust alternative to the lower-powered projectors currently available.

"Mobility and portability are increasingly important to end-users, both for business and personal use,"said Jon Grodem, Optoma’s director of product and marketing. "These two new Pico projectors put us in the best position to meet the performance needs of more demanding users, enabling them to easily share videos, photos and graphics on the road or at home."

With its best-in-class brightness of 50 lumens, the PK301 delivers a feature set that makes it the ideal laptop and netbook companion and a perfect tool for road-warriors looking to share more content in a wide range of environments. Weighing just 8 ounces and measuring 4.7"(W) x 2.7"(D) x 1.2"(H), the palm-sized PK301 combines 16:9 WVGA widescreen resolution, a 2000:1 contrast ratio and a full complement of connectivity options, including HDMI and a MicroSD socket that supports up to 16GB.

The addition of an AC adapter allows the PK301 to pump out its 50 lumens of brightness indefinitely, while its internal battery produces 20 lumens for up to 45 minutes. For users who want longer battery life or prefer a brighter image under battery power, an optional extended power battery pack is available that will support the full 50 lumens output for 2 hours or more.

In addition to its mini HDMI input, the PK301 offers a host of other I/O connections, including a universal port capable of receiving VGA and component video signals. This makes connecting to the VGA port of laptops and netbooks for impromptu presentations easy. The component video capability allows higher quality connections to iPods and portable gaming devices.

"The PK301 is the gold-standard of Pico projectors," said Grodem. "It is a different direction in Pico projectors, but its 8 ounces are packed full of added power and features."

Lighter and smaller than its top-end counterpart, the PK201 weighs just 5.6 ounces with a lithium battery that powers the projector for more than 45 minutes in bright mode, and one hour or more in its 12-lumens "eco" mode.

"The Pico category is becoming a mainstay in the projection market, and we feel it’s important to offer a full range of products for users to choose from," said Grodem. "The PK201 is an ideal solution for the user who wants greater flexibility, but doesn’t need the higher lumens or want the slightly larger size of the PK301."

Both models employ a 0.5-watt speaker and an audio-out jack for connecting headphones or external speakers. Both also offer about 30 MB of internal memory and come with Optoma’s encoding software that formats most picture and video files for playback directly from the internal drive, the MicroSD card or other external memory devices. The supported file formats are AVI, MOV, MP4 and 3GP through video conversion software. Supported picture formats include JPEG, BMP, GIF and TIFF.

All Optoma Pico projectors employ Texas Instruments’ latest DLP Digital Micro-mirror device (the reflective chip that creates the image) combined with the latest in LED and optical technology to deliver the best images available in compact projection.

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