Hello all,
I apologize for being MIA for a little while. I am in the process of moving to Austin, TX for a new job and have not had time to sit down at all lately. But I do have some updates for you!
Yes, I'll share the Scrabble story too...
The first time I took a look at the w1200 projector it had some serious input lag issues. Any games that required quick motion of any kind were literally unplayable. BenQ offered to update the firmware to a newer version and claimed it would help with this issue. I was given a replacement unit with firmware V1.02 and the first thing I did was test input lag...
I found the updated BenQ W1200 to be
marginally faster than the original projector. Before the firmware update, the fastest response time I measured was 100ms - with an average of around 120ms (with all FI and NR features off). It seems they have improved speed by about 25% with the firmware update, bringing the fastest time to 70ms and an average of around 100ms.
To me, this is still in the realm of "unplayable". I tried playing some
Amplitude and I couldn't make it through the "Komputer Kontroller" track which I usually use as my qualitative input lag test. The lag was simply too great. I also attempted to play play the newly released FPS,
Gears of War 3. I found single player enjoyable enough in casual play, but once put in a fast paced online environment there was definitely a hint of disadvantage.
The verdict on V1.02 of the BenQ W1200 is pretty much the same as the original review unit. Though improvements have been made, the W1200 is a projector that I would recommend to movie enthusiasts rather than gamers. You can expect to get satisfactory results from slower paced RPGs or puzzle games like
Bejeweled or
Echochrome, but anyone looking for a 1080p machine for hardcore gaming is better off looking elsewhere.
However! I have been informed by BenQ that an even newer version of the firmware has come out (V1.04) which supposedly cuts the total input lag to around 25ms (all FI and NR features off). I have not tested this version of the firmware nor do I have plans on having BenQ send me another unit to do so, but
if any readers have a newer BenQ W1200 with the V1.04 firmware installed on it, I would be very curious to see the results. Please comment and let me know results. (I can show you where to download the input lag software) If the BenQ W1200 could achieve 25ms response times this would be a complete game changer, moving the BenQ W1200 much higher on the list of gaming recommended projectors.
So that's the scoop! Next order of business - I promised details on "Scrabble" so...here ya go!
I am currently in the process of moving to Austin, TX and there are literally boxes everywhere around the basement of my house. Before I left for my house hunting trip a few weeks ago I needed to ship the original W1200 back to BenQ to receive the firmware update. I didn't have enough time to make it to the store myself so I packed it up and placed the return shipping label on top of the box for my sister to take to FedEx. Now, I have no idea why...but my sister saw the Scrabble game and thought that is what I wanted shipped! So she slapped the board game in a box and mailed it to BenQ. Let's just say they were a little confused to find a Scrabble game instead of a W1200. 🙂 Still haven't gotten the game back yet...haha
That's all for now! Off to Austin, TX! 30Hrs drive...
-Pete
BTW...I did look at the Optima GT750 game projector. I'll write my review ASAP.
