BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2 Posted on October 30, 2013 By Art Feierman 1. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review - Overview - BenQ W5000 Projector Highlights:2. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour3. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality - Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones - W5000 Projector: Black Levels and Shadow Detail - W5000 Black Levels4. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-2 - W5000 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB - BenQ W5000 Shadow Details - LOTR_gondornight_large5. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-36. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-47. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-58. Projector Overall Picture Quality - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues - W5000_BC_off_daggers_snow_large - BenQ W5000 - Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV - Picture Quality - Bottom Line:9. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-610. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-7 - Projector Overall Picture Quality - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues11. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-8 - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues-2 - BenQ W5000 - Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV12. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-9 - Picture Quality - Bottom Line13. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - W5000 Menus - W5000 User Memory Settings - W5000 Projector - Remote Control - W5000 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - W5000 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - W5000 Projector Brightness14. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2 - W5000 Projector - Light Leakage - W5000 Audible Noise Levels - W5000 Projector Screen Recommendations - W5000 Projector Measurements and Calibration15. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-3 - W5000 Projector Measurements and Calibration-2 - Gain R50, G49, B45, Bias, R48, G48, B46 - W5000 Image Noise16. BenQ W5000 DLP Home Theatre Projector Warranty17. Home Theater Projectors: Review of the BenQ W5000 DLP Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons - BenQ W5000 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB - BenQ W5000 vs. Sony VW40 - BenQ W5000 Projector: Pros18. BenQ W5000 Projector: Cons - BenQ W5000 Projector: Typical Capabilities - BenQ W5000 Summary: The Bottom Line19. BenQ W5000 Projector Specifications W5000 Projector - Light Leakage No issues here. Unlike, say, the Optoma HD80 series which leaks enough light out around the lens, that you can see it on your front wall, (just barely) during dark scenes if your walls are light colored. Even when doing my photo shoot on the Carada Brilliant White screen using a relatively small 70″ diagonal image, light leakage was not an issue. W5000 Audible Noise LevelsAhh! The W5000, like many BenQ projectors before it, is rather quiet for a DLP projector. Much of this, no doubt is due to the large size of the projector. The bigger the projector, the easier to baffle the sound. Whereas most DLP projectors are very noisy with lamp on bright, the BenQ is rather tame. I’d say it’s only slightly louder than Sony’s VW40, for example, and noticeably quieter than the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB. By comparison, it is dramatically quieter than the Optoma HD803 (which should also mean the HD80, and HD8000). In low lamp, it is very quiet. I’d say overall, it’s also slightly quieter than my JVC RS1, although since I don’t bring that down from its shelf, it’s hard to say. Bottom line: The seriously noise adverse (including those mounting the projector directly overhead), may be a little unhappy when in full power mode, but the noise levels probably will deter virtually no one from buying the BenQ W5000 projector. W5000 Projector Screen RecommendationsHigh Contrast Gray! The W5000 looks great on my Firehawk. My last viewing ( last night), at first had me wishing for a touch more lumens while filling about as much of the Firehawk as I could from where the BenQ sits (about 124″ diagonal). However, after watching for about 10 minutes, I forgot completely. (Iris fully open, Brilliant Color OFF, Cinema Mode adjusted). The picture was a little dark, perhaps, but very rich, and intense. Watching Pirates, was extremely impressive. In the testing room, however, where I use my 106″ Carada, the W5000 really looks dynamic. The experience was totally different. The pop and wow factor really was present. The letter box grays, however weren’t as you would expect, that dark. Bottom line: Purists will love the high contrast gray surfaces. Among the advantages, is that I seem to notice the image noise a bit less, than on white surfaces. (That’s very subjective!) Taking into consideration, lamp dimming over time, I’d probably say that 120″ is the maximum screen size for a Firehawk grayscreen. The projector is really superb to view with a new lamp, at 110″. It’s got some firepower to spare. (Its 670 lumens in best mode, yield about 13.8 ft-lamberts on a 128″ screen (gain 1.0). You can definitely go larger with the Carada or other good screens from Da-lite, Elite, etc., if they are 1.3 to 1.5 gain screens. W5000 Projector Measurements and CalibrationOk, you’re getting tired of hearing this. Out of the box color accuracy in “best” (Cinema) mode is very good, better than the majority of competitors. As usual, I measured out of the box performance, then calibrated the grayscale (R,G,B adjustments to target the ideal 6500K color temperature. Below you will find both the before and after measurements, as well as the settings used. Remember I did this with the projector having only a few hours on it. Colors will shift slightly over time, which is why many professional calibrators recommend having a minimum of 100 – 200 hours on the lamp before calibration. 1. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080p Home Theater Projector Review - Overview - BenQ W5000 Projector Highlights:2. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour3. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality - Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones - W5000 Projector: Black Levels and Shadow Detail - W5000 Black Levels4. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-2 - W5000 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB - BenQ W5000 Shadow Details - LOTR_gondornight_large5. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-36. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-47. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-58. Projector Overall Picture Quality - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues - W5000_BC_off_daggers_snow_large - BenQ W5000 - Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV - Picture Quality - Bottom Line:9. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-610. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-7 - Projector Overall Picture Quality - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues11. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-8 - W5000 Brilliant Color Performance and Issues-2 - BenQ W5000 - Overall Picture Quality - Viewing - HDTV12. BenQ W5000 DLP 1080P Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-9 - Picture Quality - Bottom Line13. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - W5000 Menus - W5000 User Memory Settings - W5000 Projector - Remote Control - W5000 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - W5000 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - W5000 Projector Brightness14. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2 - W5000 Projector - Light Leakage - W5000 Audible Noise Levels - W5000 Projector Screen Recommendations - W5000 Projector Measurements and Calibration15. BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-3 - W5000 Projector Measurements and Calibration-2 - Gain R50, G49, B45, Bias, R48, G48, B46 - W5000 Image Noise16. BenQ W5000 DLP Home Theatre Projector Warranty17. Home Theater Projectors: Review of the BenQ W5000 DLP Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons - BenQ W5000 vs. Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB - BenQ W5000 vs. Sony VW40 - BenQ W5000 Projector: Pros18. BenQ W5000 Projector: Cons - BenQ W5000 Projector: Typical Capabilities - BenQ W5000 Summary: The Bottom Line19. BenQ W5000 Projector Specifications BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance BenQ W5000 Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-3