Viewsonic Pro8100 redux: A second look coming
July 11th, 2008 Art Feierman
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Greetings all!
About two and a half weeks ago I published a full review of the Viewsonic Pro8100 1080 3LCD Home Theater Projector. Overall, it was very impressive, but had one glaring (ok, not so glaring) flaw. I found the dynamic iris to have problems. It was often visible in its operation, to the point of occasionally being distracting. It didn’t just adjust from scene to scene, but seemed to overshoot where it was heading (opening or closing) before settling back to where it should be.
This resulted in making its action more visible than if it simply adjusted to exactly where it should go. The action was visible enough that you could often see it at work, even in a single scene if the lighting (content) changed even slightly.
I brought this to Viewsonic’s attention (pat on my back), and they seemed to really appreciate it, advising that they were already working on improving the dynamic iris, but that the commentary has spurred them to do a firmware update almost immediately (a pat on their back), instead of holding off, perhaps until the next model, which is no doubt many months away. Remember, this is Viewsonic’s first serious 1080p home theater projector, and they are off to a pretty good start.
I agreed to take a second look. Unfortunately, I had just shipped the Viewsonic Pro8100 back to them a couple of hours before they called me. Today, I received notification that they are shipping the same unit back with the newest firmware.
That new firmware now offers 3 different dynamic iris modes (instead of one), plus, of course, dynamic iris off.
Assuming the new settings provide a much more ideal iris action, this will elevate the overall performance of the Pro8100 projector, already a very good home theater projector, so I’m looking forward to my second look.
I should note, that the firmware is user upgradable, so any who have or still get one with the older firmware, can quickly update it. I will provide the firmware information when I post an updated review, next week.
The projector should arrive on Tuesday, the 15th, so I should be able to get to it before my one week vacation that starts on July 19th.
Stay tuned! -art
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September 15th, 2009 at 4:43 am
Hi Art,
I did not see any updates or change in your March-09 review of Viewsonic projector Pro8100. I guessed the iris problem was solved after you got a firmware update from Viewsonic. Currently, the price has been reduced and it seems attractive buy to me.
Keep up the good work.
Saumil
September 15th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
I agree, I’ve heard some feedback indicating that the Viewsonic’s iris has been improved. And I’m also hearing that the projector can be found, if I got this straight, well below $2000, and possibly around $1500?
That changes everything! Yes, it’s a very serious projector under $2K, and probably an excellent value while they last. Certainly its rather more full featured than any other DLP well below $2000. -art
October 20th, 2009 at 6:19 am
I realize this is old hat, but I’d like to see a redux of the Pro8100 against the current crop of budget 1080p projectors, since it’s street price is now under $1300.
The improved iris settings (#3 particularly) makes a BIG difference in the performance/watchability of the Pro8100, and gives the projector a slight black level boost as well without sacrificing shadow detail, which is amazing on this projector.
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Craig, I’ve received a number of emails asking me about the Pro8100 compared to any number of lower cost projectors, now that it’s well less than half of its original selling price. Problem is, the Pro8100 review was about 15 months ago, and 40 home theater projector reviews ago. Further, as everyone can tell from that review, I wasn’t particularly enamored with the Pro8100 at its price point, and with it’s dynamic iris. Because I was not overly impressed, my recollections are now vague (I haven’t, for example used it in the different reviews Competitors pages, etc.
Readers have advised that the improved firmware for the iris pretty much dealt with my issues there, but I haven’t seen a Pro8100 since. If Viewsonic is going to keep selling the Pro8100, I would take another look at the “improved version” but honestly, there’s not a chance of that happening until January, when I catch up on all the new projectors.
That said, the Pro8100 with improved iris should be pretty formidable at $1300. Certainly, I would be curious to how it stacks up against the Mitsubishi HC3800 which lacks a dynamic iris, so doesn’t have “ultra-high contrast” blacks, but otherwise produces a really impressive image. And also the Epson Home Cinema 8100, which like the Viewsonic is a 3LCD. BTW my guess is that black level performance is probably not up to the Epson’s but roughly comparable with the Mitsubishi, the Sanyo PLV-Z700, and better than the Optoma HD20. That’s all educated guesswork though. -art