BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance Posted on February 3, 2016 By Art Feierman 1. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review - HT3050 Projector Overview - BenQ HT3050 Highlights2. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - BenQ HT3050 Placement Flexibility - HT3050 As A Gaming Projector - Input Lag - ISF Certification - REC 709 Color - HT3050 Projector - Lacks CFI - HT3050 - Has 3D - BenQ HT3050 - Optional Wireless HDMI - HT3050 Speakers - SmartEco and Lamp Dimming3. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 1 - BenQ HT3050 Hardware Overview - BenQ HT3050 Lens Throw - HT3050 Control Panel - HT3050 Inputs and Connectors4. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - BenQ HT3050 Remote Control - BenQ HT3050 Menus - HT3050 Venting and Light Leakage5. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Picture Quality - HT3050 Out of the Box Picture Quality - HT3050 Handling Skin Tones - HT3050 Black Level Performance6. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - Sports and General HDTV Viewing with the HT3050 Projector - Dark Shadow Detail - Overall Picture Quality7. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance - HT3050 Brightness Measurements - Color Temps of Different Modes - Affect of Zoom Lens on Brightness - HT3050 Eco Mode, Brilliant Color's Affect on Brightness - HT3050 Post Grayscale Calibration Color Accuracy, Brightness8. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance 2 - HT3050 Sharpness - HT3050 Audible Noise - HT3050 Image Noise - Light Leakage9. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Calibration - BenQ HT3050 Pre-calibration Settings - BenQ HT3050 Calibration - Mike's Calibration Notes10. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary - HT3050 Picture Quality - Summary - Brightness11. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary 2 - HT3050 Value Proposition, Competition - The Bottom Line12. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications and Brochure BENQ HT3050 PROJECTOR – PERFORMANCE: Measured Brightness, Out of the box Color Temp, Lens Positioning, Brilliant Color HT3050 Brightness Measurements HT4050 Brightness by Color Mode: Default settings, lens at mid-zoom Mode Lumens Bright 2291 Vivid 2051 (BC On) REC 709 1538 (BC Off) 2051 (BC On) Game 1970 User 1, 2 2051 Relating to the first table. Bright mode, is easily the brightest, but as with almost all projectors, leaves a good bit to be desired in terms of color accuracy, with a yellow green emphasis. REC 709 and Vivid seem to be basically the same mode with the difference being that REC 709 has Brilliant Color (BC) off, so it’s not as bright, while Vivid, along with User 1 and 2, are the same 2051 (+/-) with BC on. Game – is slightly on the cool side (a touch more blue, less red) but its not quite as bright as Vivid. Whether there’s something about it that makes it more desirable for gaming, I don’t know. The REC 709 mode is a little on the warm side. While we didn’t do a full calibration including calibrating each of the primary and secondary colors, Mike did do the grayscale. It very nicely cooled down, as you can see in the table. Color Temps of Different Modes Color Temp by Mode, “right out of the box” with no adjustments (100 IRE) Mode Color Temp Bright 7373K Vivid 6171K Game 6929K REC 709, User 1,2 6104K, 6163K, 6180K Affect of Zoom Lens on Brightness HT3050 Lens Position vs Brightness in Lumens (Bright Mode) Wide Angle (closest) 2410 Mid Zoom 2191 Telephoto (furthest) 2183 There’s about a 10% drop off in brightness from full wide angle on the zoom – (which places the projector as close as is possible to your screen), and the mid-point setting on the zoom. Overall, from full wide angle to full telephoto, the drop is just over 20%, so that positioning won’t have a huge difference on brightness. Full telephoto is almost identical to mid-zoom in brightness a smidgeon lower, but well within our measuring accuracy. Still, if your room is challenging in terms of ambient light, closer positioning is a bit better. HT3050 Eco Mode, Brilliant Color's Affect on Brightness First there’s Eco mode. This is easy. Switch to Eco mode, and you get a drop off of about 39% in brightness. That’s interesting because the HT4050 only drops off by about 31%. SmartEco mode, when projecting a full white image, is the same as Full power. There’s also the usual slight shift in color temp. (our measurements, and calibration are with the lamp at full power). Brilliant Color Affects the picture via a number of methods giving a punchier look to things, but, in terms of it’s affect on brightness, that varies a lot from one model of projector to another. With the HT3050, engaging Brilliant Color increases brightness by approximately 27%. That explains almost all of the difference between the brightness of the REC 709 mode and Vivid. HT3050 Post Grayscale Calibration Color Accuracy, Brightness HT3050 Post Calibration Grayscale Balance (by IRE) IRE Color Temp 100 (white) 6216 90 6530 80 6506 70 6542 60 6603 50 6594 40 6598 30 6460 20 (very dark gray) 6614 Once the grayscale color balance was adjusted the HT3050 measured 1586 lumens with white measuring 6343K , actually increased brightness by a small amount: 48 lumens – roughly 3%. Except for full on white, the rest of the brightness range is a tight 154K. White is still a little warm, but overall: Nice color! 1. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review - HT3050 Projector Overview - BenQ HT3050 Highlights2. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - BenQ HT3050 Placement Flexibility - HT3050 As A Gaming Projector - Input Lag - ISF Certification - REC 709 Color - HT3050 Projector - Lacks CFI - HT3050 - Has 3D - BenQ HT3050 - Optional Wireless HDMI - HT3050 Speakers - SmartEco and Lamp Dimming3. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 1 - BenQ HT3050 Hardware Overview - BenQ HT3050 Lens Throw - HT3050 Control Panel - HT3050 Inputs and Connectors4. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - BenQ HT3050 Remote Control - BenQ HT3050 Menus - HT3050 Venting and Light Leakage5. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Picture Quality - HT3050 Out of the Box Picture Quality - HT3050 Handling Skin Tones - HT3050 Black Level Performance6. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - Sports and General HDTV Viewing with the HT3050 Projector - Dark Shadow Detail - Overall Picture Quality7. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance - HT3050 Brightness Measurements - Color Temps of Different Modes - Affect of Zoom Lens on Brightness - HT3050 Eco Mode, Brilliant Color's Affect on Brightness - HT3050 Post Grayscale Calibration Color Accuracy, Brightness8. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance 2 - HT3050 Sharpness - HT3050 Audible Noise - HT3050 Image Noise - Light Leakage9. BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Calibration - BenQ HT3050 Pre-calibration Settings - BenQ HT3050 Calibration - Mike's Calibration Notes10. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary - HT3050 Picture Quality - Summary - Brightness11. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary 2 - HT3050 Value Proposition, Competition - The Bottom Line12. BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications and Brochure BenQ HT3050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 BenQ HT3050 Projector Review – Performance 2