High Performance Home Theater Projectors: BenQ's long awaited PE8720 darkchip3 Projector

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 received an evaluation, pre-production PE8720 home theater projector from BenQ almost 3 weeks ago, and have been using it extensively in my home theater, instead of my old BenQ PE8700+ home theater projector. I'll start by saying this is by far the best home theater projector yet from BenQ, whose other 720p projectors (my old PE-8700+ and current PE-7700 projector) both which have received excellent reviews in the past on my site, other sites, and major A/V and home theater magazines.

Some basic information on the BenQ PE-8720 home theater projector:

• 1000 lumens
• Powered by a single Darkchip3 DLP chip
• Maximum contrast: 6200:1
• Lamp life: 2000 hours at full power, 3000 in economy mode
• Noise: less than -26db full power, less than -23db, economy mode
• Faroudja video processing, (DCDi, etc.)
• Sealed light path.

This is a preliminary review, in that, I will update it - probably around November 7-10. Here's the scoop. Again, the BenQ PE8720 I received is a pre-production projector. When first reviewing it, I was dissapointed with the image performance in their Cinema, and Home Theater modes. (Keep reading!) I find the images to have too high a gamma, resulting in images that have excellent black levels, and bright whites, but in the mid areas of color and whites, the projector seemed too dark. The result, is that if you are viewing content shot on a bright, sunny day, instead of getting vibrant, bright imagery, it seems like the content was shot on a hazy day. Sun lit faces don't look "sun bathed" as they should, and the same is true for other objects like grass fields, buildings, etc.

I immediately addressed this to BenQ, and have been working with product people in the US, and BenQ arranged for a couple of conference calls with their engineers in Taiwan to discuss.

The latest word is that they are reworking the IRE color tables, and that production units should perform much better than my evaluation PE-8720 projector.

That said, there is also a "Family room" mode on the BenQ PE8720. Now this mode seems to solve all the problems in dark rooms - so it's gamma and IRE settings seem to be close to what I have been looking for. It's just that I expect this performance to be in the Cinema and Home Theater modes, not in the Family room mode which is designed for rooms with more than minimal ambient light.

As a result of my experiences so far, I am giving BenQ's top of the line home theater projector a "provisional" Hot Product Award - with the final decision on hold until they provide me a production unit or upgrade the settings on the pre-production projector I have right now. BenQ has been extremely cooperative. The performance in Family Room mode on the BenQ projector is good enough to earn the Hot Product Award, but I'm hoping all the setting will perform as they should.

By any stretch of the imagination, the PE8720 home theater projector (once fine tuned) appears to outperform my personal favorite, affordable Darkchip 3 powered projector, the Optoma H78DC3. It is immediately brighter, and produces a sharper image. On the other hand, it will sell for at least $2500 - $3000 more. (In other words the H78DC3 projector remains a superb value, and remains highly recommended.)

Sorry for the long preamble. It's time to get the review going here. We'll start with a tour of this BenQ projector.

The Physical Tour

First, the BenQ PE-8720 is a large projector, surprisingly so, with a white and silver finish. (It looks good).

As usual, we'll start at the front. The first thing you'll notice is that the BenQ PE-8720 home theater projector has a huge lens, center mounted. It is recessed and completely motorized, for focus, zoom (a 1.35:1 zoom ratio for respectable placement flexibility), and has power vertical lens shift. There is also a infra-red sensor for the PE-8720's remote control. On the bottom are four large disk adjustable feet. This is great if you are not ceiling mounting as they adjust enough to handle low table placement, etc., especially in conjuction with lens shift.

Moving to the top, you'll find the control panel - It's large and spread out, and easy to use. Close to the lens are the 4 arrow keys, which (when not in menu mode) handle focus (left and right), and zoom (up and down). In addition, on the lower row of buttons below, there are two for the motorized lens shift.

Of the six buttons below, top left is power, then Menu/Exit, and on the right of the PE-8720 projector control panel, is the Sourc/Enter. (Press to change sources, or it functions as the Enter key when you are in the menus. On the row below the left button allows you to choose between default settings or any of 3 user savable settings.

All-in-all, the BenQ PE8720 control panel is well laid out, logical and easy to use. Of course most of us will rely on the BenQ projector's remote control, which will be addressed in the Projector Performance - Other, section (along with the menu structures).

That takes us to the back of the PE8720, for the input panel. This BenQ projector is well endowed, with an HDMI input, one set of component inputs (3 RCA jacks) and a second set with 5 BNC connectors, that can be used as a second component input, or for data input from a computer. In addition there are the standard composite and S-video inputs, a 12volt trigger for motorized screens, and an RS-232 port for "command and control" and also to upload firmware changes, (as I expect to do very soon, with the new color tables).

What you can't see, is the sealed light path inside, which prevents dust and dirt getting between the lamp and the lens, and ending up appearing as small blurry areas on the screen. Since this DLP projector has a sealed light path (as do many DLP projectors), no worries. There is still a filter to clean, but that has to do with keeping the projector running cool. Note, LCD projectors do need occasional cleaning, to remove any dust motes from spoiling your image!

The BenQ projector can be shelf mounted as well as table or ceiling, as it vents out the front.

The BenQ PE-8720 projector's zoom lens, with it's previously mentioned 1.35:1 range zoom is fairly long throw, so it will be able to sit on the back wall in many people's home theaters and family rooms. The preliminary spec sheet indicates there may be a second version with a shorter throw zoom, but no word yet.

I almost forgot, BenQ is apparently serious about entering the higher end of the market. The PE8720 comes with a cable cover. You can remove the back piece of the projector, and then, after all your cables are in place, put on the cable cover. If you are ceiling mounting, you'll have all your cables exit the back, to the top, and the cable cover will hide all the cable connections and the entire back input and power connector areas. Literally, very NEAT!

OK, let's move to the next page, and look at the BenQ PE-8720 home theater projector's image quality!

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