BenQ PE8720 Projector Performance - Other
This review was based on a pre-production version of the PE8720. To read the summary update (Jan, 2006), based on the latest production version of this BenQ home theater projector, click here.
Please note, that this main review offers a great deal of information not found on the update, including the "physical tour", image quality, performance, and warranty information. The Summary, Pros and Cons link below has been updated to reflect the updated review.
Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons
I'll start with the BenQ projector's remote control, and move right to the menus, then look at all those other pesky issues, like noise, best screen choices, etc.
There's not a single thing wrong with the BenQ remote. This long white remote fits nicely in my hand, and the backlight button - by itself, near the bottom (but not too close), is easy to hit with my thumb, without shifting the remote in my hand. Hit it and all the 
buttons light up a bright orange (there's nothing I dislike more than a backlit remote who's buttons don't light up bright enough to be easily read!) From there, I can easily hit the menu button, and all the arrow keys, enter, etc., again without shifting my hand or needing my other hand.
That said, let's start at the top of the BenQ projector's remote.
Below the bright red power button are two rows of three source buttons. Below them are 5 aspect ratio buttons: Anamorphic, 4:3, Letter Box. then below, is the Wide button, and this is important, for you "regular" TV watchers.
Although I didn't test it, according to the manual, the Wide mode will take a 4:3 aspect ratio image like regular TV or "Full screen" dvd, and stretch it across the entire width of the screen. The really important point, is that this BenQ uses an algorithm to keep the center of the image virtually true, while stretching the left and the right third, so that you don't notice the distortion of stretching the image (since normally most of what you are looking at tends to be near the center). This non-linear stretching of the image, is a fairly common feature on most plasma displays, but rare on projectors (for some reason). I played with this, watching a non-Hi-Def football game, and found the results pleasing. The best way of describing the lack of this feature, is watching Shaq O'Neill play basketball. When you stretch the whole image he tends to look like a 5' 8" dwarf, not tall, but super wide! Kudos for adding this capability.
There is a preset button below these, and brings up a choice of the 5 preset modes - Cinema, Home Theater, Family Room, Photo and Gaming.
Then comes the three user savable settings. You can tweak your color, brightness, clarity, and many other options and save them. You'll probably want settings for fully dark, as well as ambient light viewing, as well as maybe a different setting for movies, vs say sports.
Finally we're down to the arrow keys, enter, and menu, and then below, you will find 4 buttons that allow you to get Brightness, contrast, color saturation and tint settings on your screen without having to go through the menus. The last section is - for lack of a better term, special features: Picture in Picture, Picture On Picture (two equally sized images), the Iris control.
Lastly, above the backlight button are three buttons for bringing lens controls on the screen: Zoom, focus and Lens.
As I said at the start, not a thing wrong with this remote! And as a last note, plenty of spacing between the buttons. Also after watching on the projector (and fooling around with settings) for a few hours, I pretty much learned where all the buttons I wanted were located, rarely needing the backlight.
All that is great, but the BenQ has lots of extra goodies on their menus, and it is time to explore some of the more interesting features that can impact the overall image quality.
Hitting the Menu button brings up a rather plain looking bar with 5 main menu options:
Picture has all the usual settings, brightness, contrast, etc., but also the Preset modes, which you can see on the next image. As noted, on this pre-production projector, I found the best setting to be the Family Room preset.
Below the preset option, are the extended settings which brings up separate color controls for Red, Green, Blue, Yellow (and in some modes, White).
I was able to get really good color by dialing down the red a bit, the blue up a touch, and 
yellow up a couple of clicks.
The second major menu choice on the Main menu, is the Display menu. As you can see, you can choose the aspect ratio as 
well as change sources, but also select Picture in Picture, or Picture On Picture (which gives you two side by side images of the same size).
Let's skip to the Advanced Menu. Here's where the real fine tuning can be done. If you are 
having the BenQ PE8720 projector calibrated, much of the "action" is here, most notably the white balance fine tuning which provides separate contrast and brightness controls for each of Red, Green, and Blue, and a choice of Warm, Normal, or Cool color mode. (For most of my testing I used either Normal or Cool, as the projector, as noted comes out of the box, a bit strong on reds.
In addition to the user savings mentioned, there are addition save modes, for these advanced color settings. These saved settings, I believe are also held as part of the main User settings.
Ok, that's enough menu items, but I did want to mention the Edge Optimizing, and the Clarity Control on the Advanced Menu.Both sound interesting, but the manual says almost nothing. I did notice that they will function on 480 sources, but not on 1080i. I am waiting for a bit of an explanation from BenQ, and will provide more info, when I understand what it is they are supposed to really do, and can then play with them and see what results are visible.
Lastly there is also a manual shutter control, which stops down the lens. Since I was working with large screens, I left it open all the way, but this could be handy if you are in an environment where the projector is overly bright. (It is one of the brightest home theater projectors I have worked with, having more "horsepower" (lumens) than the Panasonic PT-AE900u LCD home theater projector (in full power, dynamic iris on), the Marantz, VP-12S4, and the Optoma H78DC3 (in Brite mode). The BenQ projector is rated 1000 lumens, which isn't particularly high, but it does seem to be brighter.
Choosing a Screen
I just love this projector on my 128" Stewart Firehawk, however if you have darkened walls and a dark room, and a smaller screen (say 110" diagonal), a matte white surface 
should work fine. If you are going under 100" diagonal, you can stick with the matte white, and rely on the shutter control if your image is too bright. The BenQ projector has plenty of contrast, and excellent black levels, so I don't think a high contrast dark gray screen (like a Stewart Grayhawk) would be necessary. (BTW, the Firehawk works well in rooms with side ambient light as it rejects a good deal of the side light, as you can see in this daytime shot of my theater room (new 
shades and room painted dark are coming in the next couple of months. Just out of site is an upper window that is responsible for the washed out area on the top right of the screen. In the second picture, I have adjusted the exposure, so you can appreciate what the picture looks like with that ambient light in the room, however it does make the walls look much darker.
BenQ Projector Noise Levels
BenQ rates the projector at less than 26db in full power mode, and below 23db in low power mode (Lamp at 200W instead of 250W). The projector sounds a bit noisier than a couple of other HT projectors with similar specs, but not by much. More importantly the fan noise is unusually low pitched compared to most, and that makes the fan noise less noticeable. This is a very quiet projector, quiet enough to be a non-issue.
Lamp Life:
BenQ rates the PE8720 lamp at 2000 hours in full power mode, and 3000 in low power mode. I expect most people using 100" diagonal or less will be able to run in low power mode, and save some bucks.
Rainbow Effect
The BenQ PE-8720 is a typical high end DLP projector with a 5X 6 segment wheel. As I understand it, there is no difference is one's susceptability to the rainbow effect between projectors with 6, 7, or 8 segments. It's the 5X speed that's critical. Only a very tiny percentage of viewers will ever notice the rainbow effect with this projector even rarely, and even less will find it to be an annoyance. (Of course if you are the one....you'll need an LCD projector.)
Light Leaks?
Don't even think about worrying. Perhaps it's because this is such a large projector, and they have plenty of space to baffle the sound, and the light. Two very dim lights on the top panel are all you have to deal with, and they are as dim as you could hope for.
Lens Throw and Lens Offset
The PE8720's lens is longer throw than their PE7700. The projector will fill a 100" diagonal 16:9 screen from as close as 13.0 feet and as far back as 17.75 feet.
With that 100" diagonal image, if you are ceiling mounting the BenQ projector, the lens offset will allow the center of the projector's lens to be approximately 4.9" above the top of the screen surface (or 4.9 below the bottom when table mounting). Lens shift allows you plenty of flexibility if you wish the projector mounted lower (from ceiling), or on a shelf.
This review was based on a pre-production version of the PE8720. To read the summary update (Jan, 2006), based on the latest production version of this BenQ home theater projector, click here.
Please note, that this main review offers a great deal of information not found on the update, including the "physical tour", image quality, performance, and warranty information. The Summary, Pros and Cons link below has been updated to reflect the updated review.
Overview
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons