I’m not that disappointed with the W7000 at all. You have to realize what an “engineering sample” can be. I’ve received engineering samples where the HDMI isn’t operative. and others where you can’t get to the CMS with HDMI, and still others with only one working input (maybe an HDMI). Not to mention missing menus, menus in asian languages (that can’t be changed) and so on. A few weeks means an awful lot of fixing. The question is what shows up as full production in a couple of weeks. Most of the glitchy stuff, some flicker, I would hope has already been taken care of in newer firmware versions. I hope to talk with them tomorrow, regarding the black levels. I suspect they’ve simply backed off in how much range they use. I’d like to see more. I would suspect it’s the same iris as the W6000, in which case they may have changed it for more smoothness, and gone too far? Ahh, the conjecture.

I will say this. I’ve been watching X-Men: First Class – you’ll all be seeing lots of images – I like the color etc. of the movie, even great dark scenes. The BenQ really looks great on it. Oh, the dark scenes could have used the blacker blacks, (and part no doubt due to the brightness), but the BenQ just really looked like what I always liked about DLP projectors. Depth, dark rich colors, etc. The W7000 unless there’s an improvement in blacks won’t match the Epson 5010 on those dark scenes, but when it comes to more typical scenes, the BenQ is certainly ready to take on the Epson 5010 and the PT-AE7000.

So, I hope firmware 1.0x o 1.1… will take care of all the details. BenQ probably is already 2-4 firmware versions past this one, since this projector’s been in the US, apparently, for weeks.

Grant, – I still like the Acer first as a family room projector. I wasn’t expecting good blacks from it, at it’s price point, but it has them. I am curious to see this weekend, or early next week, how much difference there is between the Acer and the BenQ in that area. Remember, most of these projectors are pretty great, it’s only when you compare. BTW as to the reviewer. Always a good thing. People do things for all kinds of reasons – for example, (whether or not that was part of his reason), those “dedicated home theater projectors” from Sony and JVC, aren’t near as bright as the Acer… Mike my calibrator, sold off his JVC RS1 and bought an Epson last year… change of pace?
I never know what I’m doing until I do it. I still use my RS20 when not reviewing something else (or watching sports), but I want 3D, I might keep my JVC and buy a lower cost projector like the Acer or Epson 3010. There are always trade-offs. -art