BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review - General Performance-3

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Art Feierman

W5000 Projector Measurements and Calibration-2


White (100 IRE)	6724K
Light gray (80 IRE)	6722K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	6702K
Low gray (30 IRE)	6533K

Sadly, green was a little strong, enough, that it needs some correction. Otherwise, that is a superb set of readings.

By selecting User 1, instead of Cinema, then selecting Cinema as the starting point (all on the first menu), with minor adjustment, the end result proved to be a truly excellent set of numbers, and corresponding color accuracy for movie watching:

Comment doing the calibration based on Cinema 1, doesn't seem to give exactly the same balance to start, as Cinema, (more blue in user 1), but overall, made the calibration a snap.

Gain R50, G49, B45, Bias, R48, G48, B46


White (100 IRE)	6610K
Light gray (80 IRE)	6619K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	6599K
Low gray (30 IRE	6313K

With these settings the noticeable green shift, is gone!

Dynamic, Lamp Hi, Iris 19, Color Temp Cool (default) provided an image too blue


White (100 IRE)	9184K
Light gray (80 IRE)	9141K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	9028K
Low gray (30 IRE)	9265K

Better to just change Dynamic's Color Temp to Normal for performance in the mid upper 7000K range - great for sports, etc.


White (100 IRE)	7574K
Light gray (80 IRE	7589K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	7509K
Low gray (30 IRE)	7548K

In Standard mode, I only measured white (100 IRE), which with color temp set to warm, was a very respectable 6636K. I expect that the color temp would have a similarly tight range.

Back to Dynamic. For maximum lumens, you need to switch the Color Temp to Native, which then gives you about 1200 lumens. Surprisingly, the measurements were still pretty good, in the 7500K - 8K range.

W5000 Image Noise

Ouch! This is the noisiest projector in terms of basic image noise, that I've reviewed for some time. DLP's it seems, tend to have more noticeable image noise. I find the amount here to be borderline acceptable. With Brilliant Color turned off, the noise level is notably higher than the recent Epson - 3LCD, Sony - LCoS, and even the HD803 - DLP projectors.

It is enough that you might occasionally notice it without looking for it. You are most likely to spot it in bright blue skys, light gray and white clouds, and other larger fairly stationary parts of images.

Some say that image noise can make a movie look more "film-like" in that it is "sort of" like the grain in film. While it can be dismissed that way, I'm not buying. Less noise is better. I found that reducing the Clarity control setting for detail enhancement does help a very little.

There is actually a noise control feature (also in the Clarity Control sub-menu), but it is grayed out, according to BenQ, for sources higher than 480/576. Why? No idea! It says 2 (grayed out), but whether it is working at all, who knows. If it is, it isn't doing a great job, that's for sure.

Kick in Brilliant Color, and image noise becomes more noticeable. Not that you will care, watching a football game, but if you need Brilliant Color's brightness for movie viewing, the noise is definitely there. Combine that with the other aspects of BenQ's Brilliant Color implementation, and you have some image issues, that purists will not find it acceptable.