BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Performance Posted on November 17, 2016 By Art Feierman 1. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review - BenQ HT6050 Projector Overview - BenQ HT6050 Highlights2. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - Interchangeable Lenses - High Speed Color Wheel for minimal Rainbow Effect - Lens Shift3. BenQ HT6050 Home Projector Review – Special Features 2 - Creative Frame Interpolation - CFI - aka "smooth motion" - HT6050 THX and ISF certifications - Brilliant Color - 3D - Optional Wireless Kit – Wireless HDMI - Is the HT6050 A Projector for Gamers4. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Hardware Tour - Hardware Overview - HT6050 Control Panel and Lens Shift Controls - HT6050 Inputs and Connectors5. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - Backlit Remote control - HT6050 Menus - Lens Throw6. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out of the Box Color and Picture - HT6050 - Handling Skin Tones - HT6050 Black Levels and Dark Shadow Detail - Dark Shadow Detail7. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - HT6050 Handling HDTV and Sports Content - HT6050 Overall Picture Quality8. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Performance - HT6050 Brightness in Lumens - By Color Mode - Affect of Lamp Power on Brightness - Image Noise - HT6050 Audible Noise9. BenQ HT6050 Projector – Calibration & Settings - BenQ HT6050 Calibration Presets notes - Pre-Calibration Color Temp (standard) over IRE Range - BenQ HT6050 Pre- and Post-Calibration Settings, By Mode - Color Temp - THX (User 1) Mode Pre-Calibration - THX Alternate Mode Mode Pre-Calibration - Vivid Mode (User 2) Pre-Calibration - Post-Calibration Color Temperature10. Benq HT6050 Projector – Advanced Calibration Information - CMS for THX Mode (User 1) Post-Calibration - CMS for THX Alternate Mode Post-Calibration - THX Mode (User 1) Post-Calibration Charts - THX Alternate Mode Post-Calibration Charts - Vivid Mode (User 2) Post-Calibration Charts11. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary - Summary - HT6050 Pros - HT6050 Cons12. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications BenQ HT6050 Projector Review – Performance: Brightness, Affect of Lamp Power Settings, Image Noise and Audible Noise Due to the limited zoom lens, there was less than a five percent brightness difference between full wide angle, mid-zoom, and full telephoto on the standard lens, within any given mode. Since a 5% shift is barely detectible to the eye, as is the case with other projectors with zooms with below 1.3:1 zooms, we do not provide a chart showing the slight differences. HT6050 Brightness in Lumens - By Color Mode HT6050 Brightness by Color Mode: Default settings, lens at mid-zoom Mode Lumens Color Temp @100IRE (white) Bright 1858* 7933K Vivid 1215 6625K THX 935** 6625K Game 1218 6623K User 1, 2 935 7728K (in eco mode) *All the measurements in the chart above are for lens at mid-zoom, except Bright mode which is at full wide angle. All are with projector set to Full lamp power. **Engaging Brilliant Color in THX mode increases brightness to almost exactly 1200 lumens. Affect of Lamp Power on Brightness Brightness as affected by Lamp mode – Vivid Mode Full Power 1215 Eco 804 Note there is a Super-Eco which does involve lamp dimming. However, it is not practical to measure that mode, as maximum brightness in that mode can vary – i.e. it would tend to measure brighter on an all white image than say a white rectangle in the middle and the background black (as found on most calibration discs). Vivid mode is very nicely bright, even in Eco mode, with just a tad over 800 lumens, enough to nicely light up a 120″ diagonal 1.3 gain screen. Image NoiseOverall very good. As expected, being a DLP there’s a little more mosquito noise than found on projectors using other technologies, but all considered the BenQ was cleaner in this regard than I expected. I do not adjust the various image noise settings – I always stick to default settings. No obvious motion artifacts. CFI aka “Motion Enhancer” exhibits small amounts of artifacts around the area where fast objects are moving, but for the most part, you have to go looking for such minor distortions to find them. A non issue in my book. Also, I consider CFI a nice extra, but not an important performance aspect – more of an “nice to have it” feature. HT6050 Audible NoiseWell, since the auto iris doesn’t work in any mode but Bright – which most of us will never use, any iris action noise is a non-factor. Fan noise is reasonable for a home theater projector. BenQ claims 31 db at full power, and 28 db in Eco. We do not measure, but since I always have multiple projectors to compare against, let me put it this way. At full power it’s slightly quieter than Epson’s HC5040UB, and most others in the range except the Sony HW65ES. In Eco mode, it is quieter still, but even the noisier Epson is no noisier than the BenQ. Still, only the most “noise adverse” would complain about the normal fan noise in Eco mode. In Super-Eco mode, the fan noise can vary so consider about the same as running full power. Once in a while (in Super-Eco) you might notice the fan speed change. Our calibration pages, which normally follow this page in the review, were not ready at the time of publication. They will be added when done. (However, this little note will probably live on, forever). -art 1. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review - BenQ HT6050 Projector Overview - BenQ HT6050 Highlights2. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - Interchangeable Lenses - High Speed Color Wheel for minimal Rainbow Effect - Lens Shift3. BenQ HT6050 Home Projector Review – Special Features 2 - Creative Frame Interpolation - CFI - aka "smooth motion" - HT6050 THX and ISF certifications - Brilliant Color - 3D - Optional Wireless Kit – Wireless HDMI - Is the HT6050 A Projector for Gamers4. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Hardware Tour - Hardware Overview - HT6050 Control Panel and Lens Shift Controls - HT6050 Inputs and Connectors5. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - Backlit Remote control - HT6050 Menus - Lens Throw6. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out of the Box Color and Picture - HT6050 - Handling Skin Tones - HT6050 Black Levels and Dark Shadow Detail - Dark Shadow Detail7. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - HT6050 Handling HDTV and Sports Content - HT6050 Overall Picture Quality8. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Performance - HT6050 Brightness in Lumens - By Color Mode - Affect of Lamp Power on Brightness - Image Noise - HT6050 Audible Noise9. BenQ HT6050 Projector – Calibration & Settings - BenQ HT6050 Calibration Presets notes - Pre-Calibration Color Temp (standard) over IRE Range - BenQ HT6050 Pre- and Post-Calibration Settings, By Mode - Color Temp - THX (User 1) Mode Pre-Calibration - THX Alternate Mode Mode Pre-Calibration - Vivid Mode (User 2) Pre-Calibration - Post-Calibration Color Temperature10. Benq HT6050 Projector – Advanced Calibration Information - CMS for THX Mode (User 1) Post-Calibration - CMS for THX Alternate Mode Post-Calibration - THX Mode (User 1) Post-Calibration Charts - THX Alternate Mode Post-Calibration Charts - Vivid Mode (User 2) Post-Calibration Charts11. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Summary - Summary - HT6050 Pros - HT6050 Cons12. BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications BenQ HT6050 Home Theater Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 BenQ HT6050 Projector – Calibration & Settings