The Panasonic reads images on an SD card, but not just any old SD card. It must be formatted either in a Panasonic camera or using the company’s ImageCreator software. In other words you can’t whip a memory card out of a Canon camera and project your pictures on the PT-P1SD. This means keeping one formatted card on hand just for the projector.

Panasonic claim that their ImageCreator application will turn PowerPoint presentations into a form that can be saved to the SD card and run from the projector without a computer. Well, sort of. In converting the PowerPoint all animations are lost and every layer on slides is flattened and the end result is a static and boring presentation.

Another way to bore -- er, sorry -- amuse friends and family is to show you pictures on your huge widescreen plasma or LCD TV. Or even on your not-quite-so-huge CRT telly. We have been trying the Panasonic DMR-EH65 DVD recorder ($990) fitted with a 250gb hard drive. Panasonic is committed to the SD card as the universal memory medium and this DVD recorder has a card slot.

This recorder is also fussy about card formatting. A memory card straight from a Panasonic camera will load images onto the hard drive but cards from other cameras won’t work. Panasonic devices look for a particular folder structure on the memory cards.

The Pioneer DVR 640H (we tested its predecessor, the 630H) has similar specs to the Panasonic but it is more universally accommodating. The Pioneer ($900) has a standard USB socket on the front of the machine which will carry the image file data from any camera onto the hard drive. The Pioneer is also generally more user-friendly and has selectable image processing outputs for CRT, plasma or LCD displays. The pity is that Pioneer don’t include image processing to correct the brightness/contrast/saturation of digital images to match them to television displays.

The two DVD recorders and the projector cannot really be used with images straight from the camera. Images are too contrasty with inky mid tones and garishly over-saturated colours. It is misleading to sell them as display devices suitable for showing pictures straight from the camera memory. In reality images must be processed in something like Photoshop to make them suitable for projection or television and then re-recorded to memory card or written to CD/DVD for transfer to the machine.

Bottom line: we like the Panasonic PT-P1SD projector for its portability and versatility and of the two DVD recorders we prefer the Pioneer for its universality and user-friendliness. If you’re looking to replace your old VHS recorder we highly recommend the Pioneer.

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