BenQ W7000 Projector

Greetings Projector fans,

As usual, I’m a day late and a dollar short, in getting out this blog.  This time I can share the blame with our friends at BenQ.  A promised Wednesday delivery turned into a Thursday afternoon one after they were a little slow getting an upgraded W7000 projector shipped out to me.  Too bad, I could have driven up there on Tuesday… saved a couple days.

No worries though.  I’ve been viewing the W7000 for several hours, primarily concentrating on black level performance and dark shadow detail.  Mind you I’ve only adjusted the contrast and brightness (and color saturation).  This W7000 has not been calibrated, nor have I yet tried dropping in Mike’s calibration settings from the engineering sample.

As a result, colors are not where we would want them to be for a full comparison, but we already know that the BenQ W7000 projector calibrates rather well.   I will try the old settings to see if they do the job.  Quite honestly, my first impression is that the default color tables look at least very similar to what I saw with firmware 0.22.   If I find them to be, however, more different than I anticipate, at that point we’ll decide over here, whether to calibrate this W7000.  Quite honestly, I’d rather not.  It gets expensive paying Mike to calibrate the same model projector several times.

Before I lay the “results” on you, I did want to point out a few things.  First, the BenQ in its “best” mode, even with Brilliant Color turned off, and lamp on economic, it’s still a bit brighter than the Epson it it’s calibrated Natural (“best”) mode, with lamp on full.

Yep, don’t forget:  The BenQ W7000 is a light canon compared to everything else in the field, anywhere near its price, when it comes to “best” mode brightness.

Black Level Performance of the BenQ W7000 projector

Wow, what a difference between the first W7000 projector and this one. “Night and Day” almost comes to mind. Whereas the first W7000 had black level performance that would be just about average for $1000 – $1500 projectors, along the lines of the Epson 8350, and probably without blacks as good as the Acer H9500BD, this one easily is superior.  In other words, the sample W7000 had only decent blacks for a lower priced projector.

But the BenQ W7000 sells for around $2500, making it one of the less expensive 3D capable projectors that should be a step up in performance from those lower cost models.

The older W6000 had excellent blacks for a projector in its class. OK, not as good as the Epson Home Cinema 8700UB, but pretty close. (the Epson was the best we had seen a year ago, without spending more than twice its $2000ish street price). Thus the great disappointment when the engineering sample of the W7000 arrived, with black performance obviously inferior to the W6000!

The answer you have been waiting for: The BenQ W7000 projector has extremely good black level performance. I’ve viewed side by side with the Epson Home Cinema 5010, which has the best blacks under $3000. The Epson wins, but not by a whole lot. In fact, it sort of plays out like this:

In “best” mode, on normally bright scenes, the BenQ is brighter than the Epson. On the darkest scenes, it can be even a bit more bright compared to the Epson, as it seems the Epson iris closes down further. When viewing side by side, the Epson appears, overall, about 20-30% less bright, and the blacks definitely seem darker by at least that much.

I’d have to say that the W7000 definitely is still a bit short of the Epson in black level performance. On the other hand, I seriously doubt that the Panasonic PT-AE7000, the Sony VPL-HW30 or the Optoma HD8300 can match/beat the W7000′s black level performance. Now I haven’t had a Panasonic PT-AE7000 here for quite a while, but applying memory (or what’s left of mine), I’d put the BenQ and the Panasonic to be about tie, with the W7000 having the slightest edge. The W7000, though, in terms of blacks is a lot closer to the PT-AE7000 than the Epson. Funny about that, I do believe that was about the same pecking order last year, with the Epson 8700UB, the Panasonic PT-AE4000 and the BenQ W6000.

So, where does that leave you? Probably with the BenQ W7000 being one of the best projector choices available. If you want a big screen for 2D, you can’t beat this projector – 140″ diagonal – not a problem, the W7000 won’t even break a sweat.

In 3D, the W7000 does very well, but really is not significantly less bright than the Epson or Panasonic, despite the 3D mode measuring far less. BenQ’s 3D brightness is still pretty good, but not the brightest out there. It shouldn’t have a problem leaving the JVC RS45, or the Sony HW30, for example, in the dust on 3D viewing brightness. Of course glasses and other factors come into play.

That’s it folks, if the black level issue was preventing you to make a decision, you are now free to make your call.  I’ve only really looked at this just arrived W7000 for black level performance so far, but that was the primary question mark remaining in our review.  On a related note, the BenQ and the Epson are pretty similar when it comes to dark shadow detail.  I mean almost identical.  In my side by side viewing today, the Epson had the slightest advantage, but I had to really look hard.  I have to call them a tie.

In the next 24 hours the full review will be updated. Included in that update will be some side by side images, including the Bond night train scene, comparing the W7000 to the Epson Home Cinema 5010 that I have here.

No doubt about it, the W7000 is now my favorite DLP home theater projector dollar for dollar, under $5K! In fact I can’t really think of any of the DLP’s under that price that I’d pay more for, than this $2500ish BenQ, if I want 3D as well as 2D.   There are certainly other big time competitors out there within $1000 more than the W7000′s price, but this BenQ is capable of competing with any of them. You’ll have to weigh the trade-offs compared to other projectors, to figure out if this one’s for you. -art

PS.  Later today, I’ll be exploring shadow detail a bit more, and will post those comments in the full review.

Mitsubishi HC7800D 3D Home Theater Projector

But first – one more time: Happy New Year!

OK, to the Mitsubishi HC7800D projector. This projector (pre-production unit) looks to replace the HC6800 but it features a change in technology, from LCD to DLP, and of course, adds 3D abilities. The HC7800D I got to work with (for a week), I returned to them Thursday (two days ago), as they needed it for the CES show. They will return to me, either that HC7800, or another, with newer (hopefully final production) firmware, when we all get back from the show in a week.

The HC7800D sports an MSRP of $3995, but MAP – the minimum advertised price is $2495 (or was it $2499?). Sales are going to be through CEDIA dealers, that is, local, installing type dealers.

Let’s touch on some key points:

The HC7800D isn’t too unusual in terms of brightness. Calibrated, it’s Best mode measured 668 lumens, (in User Memory 1, Brilliant Color off, mid-point on the zoom lens). That’s just a tad more than the Epson 5010, a bigger step brighter than the Panasonic, and similar to a number of other DLP projectors. It certainly is no match in brightness with the BenQ W7000, a projector built to be a light cannon, and the brightest DLP projector we’ve reviewed in more than a year.

I should note, that the regular preset modes Cinema and Video don’t even allow basic items like Brightness and Contrast to be adjusted. That may be due to the not final production firmware, or it may be the way the final versions ship. It’s not really a problem anyway, with three User Memories available, and you can base them on those other modes.

Maximum brightness of the HC7800D came in at 1299 lumens (with BC on) , but it’s really overwhelmingly green. Since the High Bright mode (native lamp) doesn’t allow you to do much in adjusting, forget about it. Ok, maybe if you need every lumen, and are willing to forego anything resembling decent color – but I hope not.

Kicking on Brilliant Color gives a nice boost of about 22%, but grayscale suffers. According to Mike, by the time you correct for that when calibrating with BC on, the end result is the same brightness as calibrated with BC off. Where you’ll want BC on is for less critical viewing – such as sports. Mind you BC on isn’t bad, the User mode with BC on looks really good, just not as good as it calibrated with it off. Turn it on to enjoy those extra 150 lumens that are available: The combination of BC on, User Memory, etc. yields 816 lumens. 3D does just slightly better with 866.

Mitsubishi HC7800D image from The Fifth Element

Hardware – ahh – lens is in the front (just making sure you’re paying attention). Lens shift is on the top, right behind the zoom lens dial, hidden behind a small pop-up door. The round control panel is on the top, near the back. The 1.5:1 zoom is nice and sharp.

3D on the HC7800D looked really good in terms of seeming cleaner than most other projectors coming through here. I have to say, I think it’s cleaner than the JVC RS45, which arrived in time to overlap the the HC7800D’s visit.

The thing is, the HC7800D is typical of most 3D capable home theater projectors we’ve reviewed so far: It just isn’t bright enough in 3D. Oh, like many others it will be fine for occasional 3D viewing. If you are more serious about 3D, you can go with a particularly high gain screen to help out, or stick to a smaller screen (under 100″) and modest gain, the 3D. Myself I normally have to recommend that having a brighter projector is a better solution than a really high gain screen (2.0 gain or more).

Inputs were very typical, with a pair of HDMI 1.4a inputs, and a standard collection of other connectors… Placement flexibility, BTW is pretty good, with the 1.5:1 zoom combining with lens shift to make things pretty easy.

All in all, a small screen projector designed for a dedicated theater or other cave. Really good 2D calibrated image, with DLP clarity and richness, Clean, but underpowered 3D. Black levels are respectable but not outstanding. Better than the early sample W7000 (which is supposed to be much improved with the final firmware), but not a match for the Epson’s Panasonic, Sony HW30ES, etc.

Ok folks, you get the idea. It may be DLP in the middle of the Mitsubishi lineup this time instead of 3LCD, but the HC7800D, seems to fit what Mitsubishi likes as a feature set in this position. One of my favorites, their HC4000, another DLP down below $1500 is their entry level projector (no 3D). On the high end is the HC9000D LCoS projector, which was our favorite value in last year’s crop of LCoS projectors sporting 3D.

I’m going to try to get most of the full HC7800D review posted by late Sunday night, but, if you know me… And Monday, I head to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics show, gone for a week. I’m pretty certain, that the full review will really get finished then. Hang in there… -art

OK, I got distracted with all the holiday activities.  Let me bring you all up to speed on what I finally heard back from BenQ, in terms of answers to my questions.

Lot’s of hopefully really good news:

I’ll run though a number of items I mentioned to them, and their response.

First, regarding the dip we found in the W7000′s cyan secondary color.    BenQ says that is corrected in the January firmware.  That required Mike to go into the CMS to get a good calibration, something we normally don’t do.

Black Level not as good as the W6000: Their exact response:  ”We did the measurement of the latest unit of W7000 and W6000 we have, and the result shows that they are about the same”

We expect that “about the same”, means the W7000 is at least as good, so we’ll cross our fingers until we get to test the new firmware.

Next:  When exiting 3D, found back in 2D with the lamp flickering:  BenQ response:  Fixed on the mass production units.

Aspect Ratio squished with DirecTV This turned out to be interesting, and not BenQ’s fault.  Out here, just about the same time the W7000 arrived, DirecTV changed their Guide and menu systems to HD resolution (finally after all these years).  Seems they are the cause of this problem.  I’ve seen this aspect ratio shift half a dozen times now, (mostly on CNBC, but not only), and I’ve now seen it do it on the Mitsubishi HC7800D, and also my 2 year old Sony LCDTV (which has never done anything like this before.

So, we can cross that one off the list.

Next:

Switching to User 1, all the settings seemed to be replaced by defaults. (temporarily, then upon power down and back up, your settings return)…  Response:  Will be fixed in next version F/W in Jan’12

Finally, as some of you know, BenQ has provided a small first shipment of projectors to dealers.  My understanding is that those units do not have all of the issues above addressed.

And that raised this big question:  What about the folks buying the early (late Dec.) projectors, in terms of getting the new firmware.

Good news there, too: The written word from BenQ:  ”We will provide the FW upgrade service for those customers who buy the first batch projectors. Not a problem.”

(Hooray!)  I expected no less, of course.

I’ve written before, about BenQ being one of the more responsive companies out there – specifically several years back (in the 720p days), they had a serious lamp issue with their PE7700. They took care of everyone, upgrading every projector and replacing every lamp, where the problem showed up (and that was most of the projectors shipped the first 6 months (the lamps lasted, typically 500+ hours, not 2000, but that still means it took many months before anyone was aware of the issue.  BenQ even paid shipping for everyone to send in their PE7700s for upgrade!

That folks is it!   As predicted in the first blog, almost all the problems were of the nature of being the kind of problems that show up in engineering samples, that we expect are fixed by full production.

W7000 Projector - Killer on NFL football!

Of these, the most critical, by far, is the black levels. Black levels were a particular strength of the W6000 (along with brightness), offering probably the best blacks of any DLP home theater projector under $3000 last year, but not quite up to, say the Epson “UB” projectors like the 8700UB.

If the W7000 can match the W6000 in terms of blacks, it certainly will have to be considered one of the top performing projectors anywhere near the price.

And that takes me to talking about the formal review itself, which, but for these issues, should have published more than a week ago.  Instead, I’ve been focusing on these blogs to keep you all up to speed.  Here’s the plan going forward.

1.  Parts of the review are already completed, and will post in the next 48 hours.  Unfortunately, some critical sections will have to wait until I can get the firmware upgraded.

BenQ W7000 - image from the movie Red

2.  Going up first will be “most” of the Overview page (index), the Physical Tour page, the Performance page, parts of the Image Quality page (but not Black levels / shadow detail) which will have to wait for the firmware.  I will also put up the calibration page, although that likely will have some changes with the new firmware.  Hopefully, the new firmware will only require resetting the CMS (taking out the Cyan changes), and that the remaining settings will then provide the same results.  It may turn out that a new calibration will be needed to end up with the proper grayscale calibration.

For those of you who like to check out all the images, the photo shoot is long ago complete, so just about all of the images except those specifically used for discussions on black levels and shadow detail, should also be posted.

My hope will be that I can get firmware next week (or even this week?).  As soon as BenQ says “ok” I’ll make the 20 mile drive to their offices in Irvine CA, and get that firmware.)  My hope would be to have the review completed within 72 hours of getting the firmware!

That’s it folks, best we can do.  I’ll also be posting a “First Look” blog review of that Mitsubishi HC7800D, also hopefully in the next 48, and will endevour to have the full Mitsubishi review up over the weekend or next Monday.

Finally, a partial Summary page will also go up.

BUT!   A final determination as to whether the W7000 will qualify for a Hot Product Award, a Special Interest Award, or no award at all, will have to wait until I’ve had a close look at the next firmware.

And that folks, is it for now!  -art

PS.  one more time – Happy New Year!

Greetings and happy holidays.

It’s almost Christmas Eve here in southern California, and we hope everyone is enjoying the season as much as we are.  I’ll be knocking off after I finish this W7000 projector blog.  (finally)

I had intended to try and get a good portion of the review  up and running this evening, but there wasn’t enough time.  I’ve still got 100+ images to process (Lisa’s overseas – so I have to do all that myself), and tons of writing to do.  But, more importantly, at this point, I really want to speak with the BenQ folks for information on the newer firmware that’s already out there.  (I am working with an early engineering sample – firmware 0.22). By now, BenQ should be up to at least at 1.0 firmware.  We’ve noted a number of issues in the earlier blog from two days ago.

Let’s talk BenQ W7000 and our engineering sample!  Based on comments and emails, I want to start off by discussing what an engineering sample is, since understanding that is important.  Then back to the W7000 projector.  First, for those of you concerned after reading the first blog – relax!

BenQ W7000, an exceptionally bright projector

This BenQ W7000 is likely to be one of the best projectors around the price, if the final versions are clean, and there’s a bit of performance improvement in one area.

I elaborated yesterday when answering a  comment about engineering samples, but most of you might miss that.

Over the years, we’ve probably reviewed at least a dozen engineering samples out of something approaching 200 projectors.  In almost every case, we were able to bring in a full production version of the projector, not too long after first consumer shipments, to confirm that all the things missing, or not working, or acting strangely, are fixed.    That’s the plan here.   Although the differences are a bit vague, let’s say that engineering samples are typically “unfinished” whereas a pre-production version is normally finished, and very close to what will ship.    The reason we like do engineering samples when we can get them, is that it means we can give you folks a heads up, by the time the projectors are beginning to ship, and then we get a second look, for updating you.

Unfinished?  By unfinished, I mean that some projectors have had only HDMI working, a few had menus only in Japanese, or Chinese or Korean.  In one case, in HDMI we couldn’t access most color controls making a calibration impossible.  In another, HDMI was the only input working – no component, computer, or even composite video.  I’ve had one where the case wasn’t even close to final.  (the entire top piece was blank, and made of the wrong material.  Entire modes are often missing, menus incomplete, if it’s a whole new projector, it’s probably a good bit dimmer than a full production projector.  And they usually have a bunch of glitches and non-working features.

This BenQ W7000 fits the bill.  As I reported, some glitches, and possibly even some menu items might be missing, but as I have also said, most of what’s missing or not right, should be just fine by the time full production W7000 projectors ship.

For that reason, we’ll post the review in a few days, but we plan on a major update within the next couple of weeks.

Great. With that out of the way, time to talk more about the BenQ W7000 itself.

I’ve been watching football on the W7000 all day while writing and minding my fantasy football.  Wow, it’s a sharp image.  It’s very bright!  I’m filling my Studiotek 130 at full 16:9 size of 98″ diagonal for regular viewing, but when I’m watching DirecTVs NFL Mix, with it’s 8 separate games going on one screen, I zoomed out so that I was filling the full width of my 124″ diagonal screen, which works out to the equivalent of about 130″ (in 16:9).  Boy is it bright.  Even at the larger size, (with some of the unneeded (non game) parts of the image off the screen, the W7000 was effortlessly bright, even running in “best calibrated mode”.  That was with my rear lights on, and my shutters just a little open as usual (sunny day).  No problem.

I’ve done some more 3D viewing.  As I had reported, I believe, the BenQ when in 3D seems to be a little less bright than the Epsons (3010 and 5010 series), and the Panasonic PT-AE7000.   But not by much.   I found previously, that the Panasonic and Epson seem about equally bright.  I normally view in 3D with the glasses setting in the medium of 3 positions, when available.   Bright usually has lot of ghosting, while for me, low and medium aren’t too different, with low a touch cleaner.

Well the BenQ doesn’t have any glasses options (don’t expect them too, either) – that feature seems to be showing up on 3 chip LCoS and 3LCD projectors but not DLP.    Basically my impression is that the W7000 falls in between the Epson 5010′s medium and low brightness glasses settings (this is a feature controlled by the projector – you won’t see any difference to the image in brightness unless you have the glasses on).  There isn’t a whole lot of difference between those two modes.   Switching back and forth between the different classes (both projectors running at the same time), it took a bit of time to get the overall feel that the Epson was brighter.  In other words, if a full production W7000 is at all brighter than this engineering sample, it should be at least as bright as those other bright projectors in 3D.

Movie viewing is a pleasure, but for the blacks that could/should be a bit blacker. Classic, rich, deep  colors, well calibrated as we have come to expect from DLP projectors.

Black level performance is actually at the top of my list of questions when I talk with BenQ this week, rather than some of those reported glitches.  We shall see if production projectors do better blacks – boy if they do, look out!

Brilliant Color – the implementation is subtle (compared to most).  It really doesn’t get “over the top” like so many do.  The BenQ’s image is still excellent with BC on, but still, as expected, the W7000 is a little more natural looking with Brilliant Color turned off.

BenQ W7000 - X-Men - Cityscape

Touring the BenQ W7000 – I’m going get the Tour page up perhaps first, so you get a feel for the W7000 hardware.  Remote and most menus look like they have for years, and I’m a fan of both.  It’s basically the same remote that I loved when I owned BenQ projectors way back to the PE-8700 and PE8720, 4,5,6 years ago.  It’s got good range, a great backlight and good organization!

The collection of inputs is pretty standard, no surprises, that too will be covered in depth on the Tour page.

3D brightness – seconds ago, I found more lumens, from playing around.  You will all love this, especially in regard to things “missing” on engineering samples.

In 3D mode, first of all, the menu is all kinds of stretched, they haven’t grabbed it, and made it 3D, pretty ugly, but functional.

When the W7000 was setup next to the Epson 5010 in 3D,  as reported above, it wasn’t quite as bright, but very close.  Now I should have been running with Brilliant Color on, as I was looking for max lumens.  Well, I got that wrong, and I think it relates to some work not yet done on this .22 firmware.

When in 3D with BC On, the projector seems to be in a Warm or Normal Color Temp modes – basically, based on our calibrated best.   When I went to the Color Temp settings, though and tried to change to other Color Temps, I could change it from Normal to Warm, Cool and Native, but while the words changed, the picture did not.  That’s right, essentially, in 3D on this projector, the Color Temp looks good, but we can’t get to the one really bright mode – Native.

But:

Turn Brilliant Color to OFF, and strangely, now 3D drops into the Native Color Temp mode, and brightness goes up.

Now that I’m aware of these idiosyncrasies, I’ll take another look, against the Epson to see which one rules in terms of brightness.  It’s quite possible I was in their “3D best”, rather than 3D brightest.  I don’t think so, but, I’ll get back to you.  Real soon!

BenQ W7000 Projector - Image from X-Men FC

We’re not going to try that with this engineering sample, but we will give 3D gaming a spin when the production version shows up.  Meantime I’ve dropped in the PS3′s hot new game UnChartered: Drakes Deception.  I even tried playing it for a few minutes.  The 3D looks pretty good (says the non-gamer), but, in this case, the game is 720p.  With all this screen surface, I sure would prefer a game in 1080.  Pete or Scott will ultmately get a full production unit to test for lag, and for their gaming expertise.

Uh-oh, family obligations.  OK, I’m out of here!  I’m going to stop back tomorrow or after Santa leaves, and drop in a few images for you.  One last time – happy holidays! -art

PS.  Was watching a replay of the old Uconn vs. Oklahoma BCS Tostidos Bowl in 3D on ESPN 3D, few a few minutes.  Turning off BC, really made a difference.

On a related note, ESPN 3D is coming over in 1080i/60.  Their 3D implementation (DirecTV + ESPN 3D), definitely isn’t a sharp as a 2D 1080p signal, no doubt about that.   I had thought that ESPN 3D was 720p (will check), in which case DirecTV may be converting it to 1080i.

But first:

Greetings and happy holidays!   That’s from the whole crew here at Projector Reviews.   And with that, out of the way…

Back to the business of the BenQ W7000 home theater projector.  It’s a single chip DLP projector, small-medium in size.  It sports a 1.5:1 zoom lens, and both vertical and horizontal lens shift (it uses a joystick).  The BenQ W7000 is 3D capable, and comes with glasses.

Not surprisingly, it seems rather sharp, since it’s a single chip DLP.  By the same token it has at default a fair amount of sharpening going on, and it’s Clarity filter, which at first makes you think “razor sharp” under close inspection is paying a price for that, with sometimes visibly haloed objects, etc.  I’ve turned Clarity most of the way down, from the defaults.

I’m not sure the measurements Mike took, will hold up, by the time production firmware is in the projectors.  Overall the projector produces a good grayscale, but when Mike looked at the primaries and secondaries, there was a big dip in Cyan.  For that reason, he did go into the CMS and adjust Cyan.  We only mess with the individual colors when there’s a real issue, such as here.  I would expect that cyan issue to be addressed in newer firmware.  If not, no problem, Mike corrected for it just fine.

BENQ W7000 LIGHT CANNON!

OK, check this out sports fans.  Not a single mode measured less than 1000 lumens, even without engaging Brilliant Color.

Post calibration, in User 1, the projector – with Brilliant Color on, measured a whopping 1571 lumens!  At maximum, Mike came up with just a few lumens shy of 2000, and he wasn’t pushing any adjustments to maximize that.  His improvement of Dynamic mode, in terms of color, still yielded over 1750 lumens.  Of course, that’s with Brilliant Color on, and that will affect the image a bit, such as flattening the colors, so that you might see faces as having slight flat spots. (Very typical of Brilliant Color).  Mike indicates that the projector does calibrate better with Brilliant Color on, but, probably more work with the CMS should level the field if you want calibrated color without the  ”artificial” boost – a bit more pop and wow, added to the image.

Even as 3D brightness is always an issue, this, folks, is going to be a hot product for the big screen crowd.

Black levels are worth a comment.  I’m disappointed so far.   It’s been a long time since I’ve had a W6000, but I’d venture to guess that the blacks on this W7000, at best, just equal the W6000, and probably are not quite as good.   It’s definitely at the “entry level” end of the ultra high contrast projectors.  It’s not even close to the Epson 5010, which can almost beat the W7000 even with its dynamic iris off.

I’m hoping production W7000′s will push the iris further to dig out some deeper blacks on those really dark scenes.  Still, making it to being an ultra high contrast means never saying your really sorry.

3D brightness was not what I expected.   First when you switch into 3D mode on this projector, I’ve been having intermittent problems – again, stuff that should be gone with the firmware in first shipments.  The W7000 had stopped taking commands from the remote (had to restart).  Also, the lamp at times flickered.  I think this projector got really confused at one point.  Even some of the settings went back to default.   (and then reappeared after powering the W7000 down, and restarting.  Very strange, but very engineering sample, kind of problems.  I shut it down and restarted, and all was well again.

Back to 3D and brightness.   I’m hoping this will change, but the single 3D mode that exists isn’t near as bright on the screen as the brightest 2D mode, and that’s before you put on the glasses.  This may well change.

Now, even with the 3D image starting off darker, the BenQ W7000 is still pretty bright as a 3D projector.  Putting the BenQ, and the Epson 5010 side by side in 3D, overall, the Epson has a slight advantage.  The Epson has three glasses modes of brightness, the highest (brightest)  setting definitely adds ghosting (as expected).

The BenQ W7000 comes in perhaps just a tiny bit less bright than the Epson in Medium (on the glasses), and is brighter than the Epson, when the Epson glasses are in Low, for best image quality.  The BenQ (at least  on this engineering sample) does not offer glasses brightness (or related) controls.

Basically, for “serious 3D viewing” I would consider the Epson to be just a tad brighter.   You should consider it a tie, for now.

I’ve already contacted BenQ and waiting to hear back.  As I said above, a number of things will likely be corrected or improved.  I hope to have some answers for the full review.

Also of note, besides a dynamic iris (Dynamic Black), the W7000 offers CFI for smooth motion.  I believe it also works in 3D, but will need to confirm.

That’s it for now, folks I’ll add to this, tomorrow,  gotta get some sleep. -art

PS.  Assuming all these “minor” issues are resolved, the W7000 will likely demand serious attention from almost everyone shopping its price range, which is right around $2500 here in the US.

Greetings home theater projector fans,

Sorry, I’ve been remiss, regarding my blog.  I’ve just finished answering probably 25+ comments scattered around a dozen different blog pieces, so with those questions all answered, deflected, or ducked, it’s time to clue you all in to what new home theater projectors are in the works and inbound!

I think you’ll be impressed:

In process right now:

Sony VPL-VW95ES 2D 3D Projector

1.  Sony VPL-VW95ES Home Theater Projector – 85% written pages starting to post this afternoon (saturday), the usual trailing items (proofing, menus, calibration settings) will be added later Would you believe:  I actually finished a screens recommendation page in time for the first uploads.

2.  SIM2 Nero 2  aka the Nero 3D-2

This is SIM2′s “low” cost ($19,995) 2D and 3D single chip projector for the rich among us.  (not the super rich – they buy 3 chip DLPs).

SIM2 Nero 3D-2 home theater projector

I’ve been watching this rather sexy looking home theater projector for far more than a dozen hours so far, and as of today, it’s my primary for the next few days (a good 20 hours more of viewing, including football tomorrow).   I’ll start posting the Nero 2 projector review this coming Wednesday (12/14 if all goes well).

In bound home theater projectors:

1.  BenQ W7000 – an engineering sample is expected to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.  If I’m still writing up the Nero 2 projector, then the BenQ W7000 projector will likely go right over to Mike’s for immediate calibration so that the W7000 becomes the focus of my universe (well, my review universe) by Thursday evening.

The W7000 is long overdue, the W6000 has been around a good 2 years, and was a great roughly $2500 projector when it first hit, and it has stayed competitive thanks to price drops, but it’s time for something new. The W7000 starts out with a big plus, as a 2D and 3D capable projector and that is:  The W6000 was about the brightest serious home theater projector under $10,000 when it hit the market!

As such, even if BenQ does not make the W7000 brighter, it should still be up there in brightness (or close) to the Epsons and Panasonic, which are the current 3D projectors with the most respectable brightness for 3D.

I will promise (assuming it arrives as scheduled) that the BenQ W7000 projector review  will post before Christmas Eve.

2.  Mitsubishi HC7800D – a DLP, 1600 lumen 2D/3D capable home theater projector.  The HC7800D was supposed to arrive this week, but Mitsubishi now says end of next week or during the week before Christmas.

With the BenQ now in front of it, I don’t see how I can publish the H7800D review before Santa hits the skies, but I will promise a typical  - Mitsubishi HC7800D First Look review on this blog, before Christmas eve.

The HC7800D should be interesting – first it’s a single chip projector, and it seem, on paper, to be similar or close in brightness to the Acer H9500BD projector.  The H7800D claims 1600 lumens, the Acer (another DLP) claimed 2000 but (in our improved “brightest” mode) measured about 1500.  Most likely the the Mitsubishi, which should certainly have decent brightness for 3D  will have a slight to moderate disadvantage, compared to the Acer H9500BD, and probably also, the  Epson Home Cinema 3010  and 5010 (LCD), the Panasonic (LCD) and the BenQ W7000.  But it should be brighter than just about everything else.. We shall see.

The HC7800D is geared first as a family room projector.  True, it won’t be a match for that Panasonic PT-AR100U projector, which claims 2800 lumens, but remember, that AR100U is 2D only, making it an especially bright  family room projector – but only if  you don’t care about 3D at all.

The Mistsubishi HC7800D helps fill out one’s choice of options in the $1500 – $2500 dollar range, I think, but I still don’t know what MAP pricing is, which is the best indication of what it will sell for on the street.

I’ll be taking a particularly close look at the HC7800D’s 2D to 3D conversion, which they claim is really excellent.  I’ve yet to like any projector’s attempt at conversion, so I’m looking forward to a possible “breakthrough” when I try the HC7800D’s.

Also we’ll be closely looking at the H7800D as a 2D and 3D gaming projector.

Wrap up!

That folks is the lineup through the end of the year.  Look for one additional review prior to the CES show which starts January 10th.  A couple of possible projectors are vying for that slot, but I really haven’t gotten any promises in terms of delivery.

Also, please note, for those that haven’t yet noticed – we now have Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Linked-In sites.

Expect me to be blogging a couple of times, tweeting, and “facing” from the Consumer Electronics Show.  I’ll try to tweet about any really dazzling things I see, and then follow that up.   -art

If you’ve carefully read the individual projector reviews, you won’t be surprised, but…We’ve got lots of side-by-side photos for your consideration.  And maybe we’ll throw you a curve?

Each year, it seems the two best selling non-entry level projectors are the Epson UB projectors, which the Home Cinema 5010 is the latest (despite the dropping of the Ultra-Black reference), and the Panasonic 1080p projector, this year, the PT-AE7000.

We pick a projector winner for 2D and one for 3D.  You’ll have to figure out your balance of importance between 2D and 3D, a couple of other choices, and then then your final selection shouldn’t be too difficult to determine!  Have a blast! -art

Pricing turns out to be lower than most of us originally anticipated.

Here are the official numbers per Epson:  and about $300 each less than I had expected until recently.

Home Cinema 5010 –  MAP of $2699!!! MSRP now $2999 (originally expected to have an MSRP of $3499 as announced at the  CEDIA show in Sept.)

Home Cinema 5010e – MAP of $2999!! MSRP now $3499  (previously expected to be just below $4K)

Wow!   What is most stunning about this pricing, is that since both Panasonic and Epson have offered the  first 1080p home theater projectors (Panasonic PT-AE1000 and Epson Home Cinema 1080), the Epson projectors have always  sold anywhere from $200 to $500 more online.   This is the first time Epson has ever launched a 1080p projector, with a price below – in this case $300 less – than the Panasonic equivalent.  Even the Epson Home Cinema 5010e, is only the same price as the PT-AE7000.

And that certainly has had an impact as how I’m considering their value propositions…

And, it may help answer a question I asked Epson, which was – why discontinue the 8700UB, if the HC5010 is going to be $1000 more?  When you consider there are plenty of folks only interested in 2D, that would like the Epson “best in class” black peformance of the 8700UB for about $2000..  Well, now I can guess that killing the 8700UB likely inspired them not to have a $1400 space between the Home Cinema 3010 and the 5010, and therefore drop hundreds below $3,000.  I conjecture this pricing also explains something else that has puzzled me, but I’ll save that for the full Epson projector review.

The other thing you want to know right now is this:

Officially, I start writing up the Home Cinema 5010 review as soon as I hit publish on this blog. I will have large chunks of the Epson HC5010 review  - and 5010e comments, uploaded to the main site, before dawn (pacific zone) Thursday – which is Thanksgiving here, in the US.  I’m actually giving myself all of Thursday off.

I could give you more tidbits etc, now that I’ve spent dozens of hours watching the HC5010 projector, but I won’t be getting much sleep tonight and tomorrow night as it is, if you want to be reading this before Black Friday.

So, with that in mind, I’m Adios, out-of-here, gone – back to  Dreamweaver, I am using to  create the Epson Home Cinema 5010 projector review for you.

Happy Thanksgiving!  -art

Acer H9500 3D projector - $1699 MSRP

Greetings home theater projector fans.

Update 11/22/11 – the bulk of the review is posted, but for the competitors and screen recommendation pages.  Some more images (menus) and content to still be added.

Here’s the direct link to the Acer H9500BD home entertainment projector review. Enjoy! -art

I must admit, going into this review, never having seen the projector before, and not knowing too much about it, I didn’t have very high expectations.  As it turns out I was right (only kidding) wrong.

The Acer seems to have several  rough edges, as many under $2000 projectors do (MSRP is $1699), but it also had a couple of real positive surprises.

And the first of those is that this just might be an ultra high contrast projector.  I don’t think either the Optoma HD33 or the Epson Home Cinema 3010 are particularly close to the Acer H9500BD in this regard.  I took some side by sides, comparing to the the Epson 3010, and the Acer smoked it at blacks.    That alone makes this projector worth reckoning with.

And get this:  It’s got vertical and horizontal lens shift. The vertical is about 0 offset, so not a match for a typical LCD projector, but that’s still a nice touch, since few projectors below the Acer H9500BD’s price have lens shift.

The H9500BD is a single chip DLP, claims 2000 lumens.  3D brightness isn’t up to the Panasonic or Epson projectors but it seems to be closer to the Epson’s Dynamic 3D mode than to it’s 600 and change 3D Cinema mode.   The Acer H9500BD projector does have a dynamic iris, and CFI – smooth motion.  That’s more than most projectors under $1995 can claim, and they operate in 3D too.

There are not controls for grayscale calibration – I told you some rough edges. As a result the closest grayscale balance (per Mike) is right around 7000K, not 6500K.  OK, that’s it for now.   I’m still up in the air on this projector.  3D seems to have to be turned on, or off, manually (still playing) a mess sometimes up on the screen until you change the 3D setting.  A rough edge.  OK, I’ve got more homework to do.

Look for a good chunk of the review to post Monday late night.   I’m doing housekeeping on the Acer – still watching, checking out things, but already shifted much of my viewing to the Epson Home Cinema 5010 Projector which I’m going to try to have up late Wednesday night – well in time for Black Friday decision making.  (or Cyber Monday)

I’m going to try to get the Acer H9500 projector over to Scott S, for his take on the H9500BD’s gaming skills.  The H9500BD is Nvidia 3DTV ready so  Scott should be able to do 3D PC based gaming.  So far, all the other projectors we hoped would work, were too new, with nVidia not yet having released the drivers.

Happy holidays folks!   And good shopping.  Look for a few of our advertisers to be launching holiday specials banners, over the next couple of days.  Hopefully some really good deals, and your favorite projectors and accessories in stock!   -art

Mostly I’ve got great news so far, but also a disapointment or two, but the news is mostly good.

Black levels are really good.  I actually haven’t run it against the 8700UB, but I did put it up against the PT-AE7000 that’s here, and I’d have to say, there’s at least as big an advantage with the Epson Home Cinema 5010 when compared to the PT-AE7000, as “last year’s” Home Cinema 8700UB had against the older PT-AE4000.

In 2D, based on what I consider most important, Looks like the Epson has the picture quality advantage over the Panny.  The Panny of course has a cool feature set, and the Epson jazzes its up with side by side picture viewing, etc.

But I’ll save all that for the review.

I’ve got no issues with the Epson doing 2D.  It closely resembles the 8700UB, but with a healthy boost of lumens under the hood.  Black levels are still about the best this side of a higher end projector like my RS20, or the newer version, the roughly $7500 RS45.   That’s a lot more change to further improve black levels which are pretty darn good.

My complaint, if any, is with 3D.   Oh, let’s be clear, I love the reasonable 3D brightness with Dynamic mode, and even 3D Cinema mode, is as bright or almost as bright as a couple LCoS projectors in their brightest 3D modes.  I also found the color to be slightly better than the Panny when they are both doing their brightest efforts.

What bothers me, is that we are denied, I believe, all of the dynamic features – definitely no CFI, and no Dynamic iris, and for that matter, their dynamic sharpening – Super-Res, when in 3D on this pre-production projector.    I’m awaiting confirmation whether these might be implemented on full production projectors.  I’ve already contacted them and pointed out that most competitors do have such features active in 3D.

Now, I love my blacks, and want great blacks in 3D too.   At least I can settle for the fact that 3D is never especially bright, so overall black levels are well below what 2D would look like with the dynamic iris turned off.

Still, I did shoot the Epson vs. the Panasonic and Optoma, and both easily beat it at 3D blacks.

Now from my take, the Epson advantage in 2D, is more important than, say the Panasonic advantage in 3D.  That’s not in measured difference, but do the lower brightness levels used for 3D viewing, lowering the blacks as well.  IN the old days, many of us bought HC gray screens just to lower the overall black level.

As always, great placement flexibility.  And warranty.  An interesting feature I haven’t played with much relates to pixel alignment.  it’s an auto feature, and and haven’t figured it out yet, but I suspect it’s digital, and softens a bit.   It could even be doing something like JVC does to call some of their projectors 4k, which is to double projector, with some shift.   I’ll get back to you all on this, in the full review.

Tomorrow will be my first serious test of the Split Screen feature.  It’s not that I don’t have other displays here, but I will put up an NFL game from HDMI while feeding computer signal to the other window.  Do some Fantasy football, side by side with the game.  (And each will still be larger than my friends 50″ LCDTVs.)

BTW, in doing the photo shoot against the Panasonic and the Optoma HD8300, I should note that the HD8300 was in the middle regarding black level performance, but it was definitely closer to the Epson, than the Panasonic, which is to say, that the HD8300 has slightly better blacks than the Panny.

OK, that’s it, gotta blog the Acer, right now, then start writing up the Acer H9500BD, full review.

Hey folks the Acer turns out to be a pleasant surprise, so check out the next blog, and the Acer’s review.  It’s priced down there with the lower priced Epsons and the Optoma HD33, etc.

BTW, the Epson Home Cinema 3010 – the $1599 Epson, will be on the way to Pete for his gaming projector blog.  He’ll let everyone know about lag, and how well it plays.

OK, off to do that Acer -art