With a $1,499 list price, the HT2550 has two immediate things going for it: It is the first of the new single chip DLPs to ship that uses the newer, smaller, less expensive, and slightly lower “resolution” 4K UHD DLP chip. There have beem several other projectors using that chip announced, and are shipping soon (or by now, depending on when you are reading this). The W1700 seems to be the same projector sold in the EU and other places outside the US.

Skin Tones are excellent on this 1080i photo from the Victoria Secret Swimsuit Show.

Back in November, based on preliminary press information, I wrote about the HT2550, in as much detail as I could, with a bit of conjecture.

This is our top regular award for projectors. We do offer additional awards in our special reports.

BenQ was kind enough to provide me with a pre-production HT2550 before CES in January so I could take a “first look” and post in time for the official launch at the Consume Electronics Show, which provided even more info. I took a lot of pictures (although the unit wasn’t calibrated). A few weeks ago, however, I received a full production HT2550, and I have been working with it for about the past two weeks. I’ve already put a whole lot of hours on it, perhaps 70 hours – as the projector I’m reviewing is always on, when I’m writing. My viewing on the BenQ so far – about 50/50, split between sports/HDTV and movies.

A little background on this projector. To me, it is the new 4K UHD equivalent of the old BenQ W1070, a low cost 1080p projector from long ago.  That projector was around for years because of the value, known for great color and a very theater like image. Like that W1070 of old and its decedents, the HT2550 has the color and picture.

Not bad, not bad at all! (That means I'm rather pleased with it. -art)  The last BenQ HT projector we reviewed, the HT9050, with its LED light engine, and $9K price is a very different beast. But this much smaller projector sure packs a lot of good performance into a projector that sells for 1/6 of the HT9050’s list price. It can’t match the bigger model, which uses the higher resolution 4K UHD chip, or an LED light engine, but the HT2550 definitely has a much better value proposition.

The BenQ HT2550 is a smaller Home Theater/Home Entertainment projector. Oh, it’s a lot larger than those small LED pico and pocket projectors, yet, with its 9.3 pound curved body and smaller than 11” x 14” footprint, it can be portable if needed. For that matter, it can double as a portable business projector. It would be the least expensive 4K UHD projector on the market for business as well as home, at this time.

2,200 lumens is the brightness. The projector has a modest 1.2:1 zoom lens, providing modest placement – speaking of which, this projector lacks lens shift, which is a bit of disappointment, since BenQ pioneered putting at least a small amount of lens shift on some entry level HT projectors (non-4K UHD). Perhaps most important to comment on here is that with 2,200 at its brightest, and 4K HDR capabilities, this projector is best in a home theater, or at least a room you can fully, or near fully darken. Oh, sure, you can go brighter room if your thing is, perhaps, sports, rather than movies. BenQ, as always, provides a very competent remote control, with good range, and nice backlighting.

Since HDR (High Dynamic Range) is supported – a key part of the 4K suite of improvements providing a visibly better picture than 1080p – I’ll be going into detail as to BenQ’s implementation, as there are always compromises. There’s plenty to cover and discuss, and no better way to get started than to provide a list of the key features BenQ touts. Then, in Special Features and the rest of the review, we’ll see how the BenQ HT2550 actually performs, and its strengths and weaknesses.

The V7850 is one of three new 4K/UHD projectors that Acer has introduced this year.  The features and pricing of each of these models is very similar to the new 4K/UHD DLP projectors that were recently introduced by Optoma (see our review of the Optoma UHD65, the most similar Optoma model - HERE).

As compared to the previous reviewed Optoma model, the Acer V7850 is noticeably smaller.  In fact it's cabinet size is the smallest we have seen to date for a 4K/UHD DLP projector. The other 4K/UHD projectors in Acer's line-up include the model H7850, a similar home entertainment projector priced at just under $2,000, and the model VL7860, a laser light engine home theater projector priced at just under $5,000.

All of these DLP 4K UHD projectors, including the V7850 reviewed here, use a single Texas Instruments DLP (DMD) micro display chip with a native resolution of 2716 x 1528 pixels, which is 1/2 the number of pixels found in a true native 4K display (approx. 4M pixels vs. 8M pixels).  Pixel shifting is then used to create a 4K image.  This technique produces an image that is sharper, with more fine details, that what is possible with a standard 1080 HD projector, including 1080p models that also offer pixel shifting.  In any case, this model is not a native 4K resolution projector, rather is it what we like to call a "FauxK" or "4K-lite" projector.

1/8/2018 UPDATE: The V7850 received our Special Interest Award for offering lower black levels and better performance on displaying dark scenes that does the closest competitor’s projector (i.e., the Optoma UHD65) that we have reviewed.

The main competition at this price point for some sort of 4K support are the pixel shifting 1080p projectors using 3LCD technology (or LCoS for somewhat more money) and pixel shifting DLP projectors from other manufacturers (such as the previously reviewed Optoma UHD65 - HERE).  All of the DLP models are using the same micro-display chipset from Texas Instruments.

When moving to 4K/UHD there are 3 picture enhancements available from certain sources, including Ultra HD BluRays and from some of the streaming video services.   From a moving to 4K standpoint, there’s one piece of the puzzle missing with the Acer V7850 and other current DLP models, and that relates to the ability to actually display a wide color gamut (WCG) – which simply provides richer, more intense colors than the ITU Rec. 709 standard we’ve enjoyed all these years for HDTV and standard HD Blu-ray movies. Just remember, almost all Blu-ray UHD movies support not only 4K resolution, and HDR, but also WCG (extended color space) based on the ITU Rec. BT2020 standard.  However, the full color gamut allowed by the BT2020 standard it not actually being used, rather the more practical, obtainable DCI-P3 “subset”, as used in commercial cinemas, is generally what you will find on the current generation of Ultra HD BluRays.

Acer claims in in some of their literature for the V7850:

"The V7850 has a 2,200 lumens rating and boasts a RGBRGB color wheel, which helps produce a wider color gamut, and supports the Rec. 709 standard to reproduce original colors and tones true to the film director’s intentions. It also touts a contrast ratio up to a whopping 1,200,000:1 and is compatible with Rec. 2020 signals, the UHDTV standard."

Most projectors that try to support Rec. 2020 come up way short, even for the more limited DCI-P3 color space.  Later in this review we’ll discuss how well the V7850 actually performs, but it appears to be particularly challenging for lamp based DLP projectors, of which the Acer V7850 is one, to support a color gamut significantly wider that Rec. 709.

One more thought before we get into more of an overview of the projector itself:  Just keep in mind, that the Acer V7850's native resolution of 2716×1528 is still one half of true 4K (either 3840×2160, or true DCI 4K which is 4096×2160, – note that the difference is in aspect ratio, rather than any real difference resolution). Pixel shifting helps, just as it helps the 1080p pixel shifters look sharper than standard 1080p projectors.  Appreciate the Acer for the sharpness it delivers, which is most impressive.  However, don’t fall for the 4K UHD hype.  Manufacturers tend to want to let readers “assume” it’s true 4K, and regularly use terms like 4K processing, 4K Enhancement, etc.  In fact most brochures today of 4K UHD projectors proclaim 3840×2160 resolution, but typically fail to remind us that the size of their pixels is larger than true 4K pixels, and you just can’t get as sharp an image when the pixels are relatively large and are also overlapping the adjacent pixels.  Roughly speaking, if a true 4K projector’s pixels were the size of a nickel, then this projector’s would be about the size of a quarter.

That’s marketing folks, skip the hype, instead concentrate on the fact that this is a $2500 projector with sharpness we’ve never seen so good without spending $5000 list price for the lowest cost Sony true 4K model (the Sony VPL-VW285ES, reviewed HERE).  As to the rest of the feature set, picture quality and performance – we’ll get to that.

The big feature of the V7850 is the higher pixel density DLP chip that meets the 4K UHD standard by displaying 8M pixels, through the use of using pixel shifting.  After that, very important is the support for HDR – High Dynamic Range, the rest of this Acer is a pretty typical home projector.   Lens functions are manual zoom and focus.  Plus, there’s vertical lens shift as well.  It’s a modest amount, allowing only 15%, of screen height, vertical adjustment but it does provide for placement flexibility.

I mentioned the lower cost Acer model H7850 above.  Let’s take a moment to define the difference between the two, (besides the lower $1999 price of the H7850).  These are very similar projectors with basically the same feature set; the primary difference is the color filter wheel.  Whereas the V7850 uses an RGBRGB color wheel, the H7850 uses a different configuration with a large clear slice.  This is typical of single chip DLP home entertainment projectors vs. DLP home theater ones.

That clear slice provides a lot more white lumens, (but less for color ones), with the idea being that as a home entertainment projector, the H7850 needs the extra lumens, to overcome the room's ambient lighting, at the expense of providing less color saturation.  So the V7850 reviewed here is expected to offer more accurate colors while the H7850 can potentially provide a brighter image, at least for whites and lighter color shades.

I started on this HT9050 LED home theater projector review shortly after determining that it would make a better review than its slightly-less-expensive lamp version, the HT8050. The HT9050 is a $8995 MSRP, medium-large home theater projector using TI’s 4K UHD DLP chip. While not what I call true 4K, this BenQ produces an exceptionally sharp image, thanks to the native 2716 x 1528 x2 pixel shifting resolution that puts 8.3 million (partially overlapping) pixels on your screen.

But, with several far less expensive 4K UHD projectors out there now, or shipping soon, for the home market, including those from Optoma, Acer, and Vivitek, the standout feature of the HT9050 is its long-life LED solid state light engine.

I started out with the less expensive HT8050, had it calibrated, and even wrote the first page before I became aware that the HT9050 would only be a grand more. From a practical standpoint, just the savings of not needing to buy replacement lamps pretty much justifies the cost difference. But there’s more to it than that.

This BenQ HT9050 is interesting in another way. Unlike the HT8050, the HT9050 supports BT.2020 color space, or, as it is often described, since no one can do the full BT.2020 – that it does DCI-P3 – the movie theater standard - in a “BT.2020 wrapper.”  P3 is a little less challenging and within the capabilities of the HT9050, thanks to that solid state light engine. It’s the lamp based projectors – compared to LED or Laser projectors – that have the least ability to do the larger color space and their more intense colors. Most lamp based projectors are limited to only about 80% of target, so colors won’t be quite as rich or varied.

Just so you know, the BenQ HT9050, despite being a pre-production unit, was the last projector considered in our late August annual 2017 Best Home Theater Projectors Report. Despite my being so slammed after the report, between attending the CEDIA show (seeing a whole host of new HT projectors) and launching the latest version of ProjectorReviews.com, it took me a full month to write this up. Sorry about that!

Although this BenQ is a very capable projector, one capability is surprisingly missing.  The HT9050, like the HT8050, lacks support for HDR – High Dynamic Range, even though, as mentioned, it does support the wider color space normally associated with 4K capable projectors. That lack of HDR pretty much cost the HT9050 a shot at one of the awards in our report, where 4K capabilities are important.

That said, viewing the HT9050 proved to be an interesting, and overall enjoyable experience. We’ll talk later about how the lack of HDR affects the picture, and how the HT9050 differs in terms of picture from the other 4K capable projectors we’ve reviewed.

Placement flexibility, I should note here, is extremely good. A 1.5:1 manual zoom lens seems to be especially good optics. And, there’s plenty of lens shift, both vertical and horizontal, which definitely separates it from the lower cost 4K UHD DLP projectors!

And, for those of us who are rainbow sensitive (due to the spinning color wheel), here’s one thing about BenQ – it seems at any price point, they tend to put in the fastest color wheel around compared to the competition. I’ll discuss RBE (RainBow Effect) more in the Special Features section of this projector review.

Overall, the HT9050 is well endowed, with HDMIs and other inputs. Also of particular importance to note, the LED light engine has the pleasant benefit of making the HT9050 especially quiet compared to most other HT projectors. The noise specs aren’t that impressive – 31db and as low as 23 db (Silence mode), but my experience says it’s a good bit quieter, as other projectors in the low 30s db range are quoting overly optimistic noise levels. For example, at full power, it’s quite obviously a lot quieter than the Epson 5040UB at full power, yet that projector claims to be only 3 db quieter – a small difference!

We have posted our BenQ HT9050 Projector At A Glance video, which is an overview of the projector's features and some images/clips of the projector in action, with a few comments. This is not summary of this full in-depth review.

With an official list price of only $2199, and a $1999 street price, the Epson Home Cinema 4000 projector accepts 4K content, including HDR and support for BT.2020.  That makes it tie for the lowest cost 4K capable projector currently shipping. The Epson HC4000 is a native 1080p pixel shifting projector that's 4K capable. The least expensive true 4K projector is "merely" $7995, or about 4X the price!  There will be more specific talk regarding the competition later in the review.

A couple of things to note, as I start writing up the HC4000 review.  This projector has siblings, three of them.  One of them, is, to the best of my knowledge, the best selling over $2000 home theater projector, and likely by a huge margin.  That would be Epson's 5040UB (I have one of those hanging from my theater ceiling).

The HC4000 is Epson's way of reaching folks with lesser budgets, who will settle for just a little less performance. The 5040UB sells for $500 more.

Optoma's new UHD65 home theater projector is one of two new models sporting the first Texas Instruments 4K UHD chip, and targeting home users. The UHD65 has a list price of only $2499!   There's also a home entertainment version - the UHD60  at $1999. More on those differences below.

No matter where you are in the "FauxK vs 4K" debate, one thing is for sure: The UHD65 produces a visibly slightly sharper image at $2499, than any 1080p projectors we've seen. It doesn't matter if those 1080p projectors are pixel shifters or not.

Without a doubt, the sharpness of the image is the highlight feature of the UHD65. Well, one of them. The other is that it accepts 4K content - including content using HDR (high dynamic range).

What Optoma has done, as the largest seller of DLP projectors in the US, is to get people spending under $2500 to consider DLP, for the higher than 1080p (1920x1080) native resolution of 2716x1528 of the first consumer 4K UHD chip.

As we see it the competition comes in multiple flavors - there are both 1080p projectors with, and without pixel shifting, at that price point, and there should be at least one, possibly two other DLP projector manufacturers, that will offer up competition using the same TI chip set.

That's all the good news.  From a moving to 4K standpoint, there's one piece of the puzzle missing, and that relates to BT2020 color - which simply provides richer, more intense colors than the REC 709 standard we've enjoyed all these years for HDTV and Blu-ray movies. Just remember, almost all Blu-ray UHD movies support not only 4K, and HDR, but also that expanded color space of BT2020, or the more practical, obtainable P3 "subset".

Optoma claims in their brochure and in talking with their folks, to support the richer color standard widely used in 4K content and known as BT.2020 (with qualification -sometimes described as DCI - P3).  The wider color gamut makes a huge difference.  Most projectors that try to support BT2020 come up way short.  We'll discuss how well the UHD65 does, it's particularly challenging for lamp based projectors of which the Optoma is one.  Still we've seen some excellent results from Sony, JVC and Epson 4K capable lamp based projectors, this is the first of the affordable 4K capable DLP projectors.

I've talked with the DLP projector manufacturers talk about how close they are getting to achieving BT.2020, or P3 within that.  So far they aren't claiming to get as close to achieving BT.2020 as the other technologies, but that is likely in part, because can't match the color intensity, that's fair enough - after all, this is the first generation for 4K UHD projectors, and it's aggressively priced.

Keeping things straight when it comes to resolution

One more thought before we get into more of an overview of the projector itself:  Just keep in mind, that 2716x1528 is still a far cry from true 4K (either 3840x2160, or true DCI 4K which is 4096x2160, - note that the difference is in aspect ratio, rather than any real difference resolution). Pixel shifting helps, just as it helps the 1080p pixel shifters look sharper than standard 1080p projectors.  Appreciate the Optoma for the sharpness it delivers, which is most impressive.  Don't fall, however for the 4K UHD hype.  Manufacturers tend to want to let readers "assume" it's true 4K, and regularly use terms like 4K processing, 4K Enhancement, etc.  In fact most brochures today of 4K UHD projectors proclaim 3840x2160 Resolution, but typically fail to remind us that the size of their pixels is double the area of true 4K pixels, and you just can't get as sharp an image when the pixels are relatively "huge."  Roughly speaking, if a true 4K projector's pixels were the size of a nickel,then this projector's would be about the size of a quarter.

That's marketing folks, skip the hype, instead concentrate on the fact that this is a $2500 projector with sharpness we've never seen so good without spending $8000 list price for the lowest cost Sony true 4K.  As to the rest of the feature set, picture quality and performance - we'll get to that.  That's why our reviews are long, and we like to take lots of pictures of the projector in action!

UHD65

The big feature of the UHD65 is, I repeat, the higher pixel density DLP chip, that meets the 4K UHD standard (which is a half magnitude lower than the 4K standard).  After that, very important is the support for HDR - High Dynamic Range, the rest of this Optoma is a pretty typical home projector.   Lens functions are manual zoom and focus.  Plus, there's vertical lens shift as well.  It's a modest amount, allowing only about a foot maximum of placement flexibility, but still can be most helpful in determining best placement of the projector.

I mentioned the lower cost UHD60 above.  Let's take a moment to define the difference between the two, (besides the lower $1999 price of the UHD60).  These are essentially the same projector with the same feature set, the primary difference is the color filter wheel.  Whereas the UHD65 (for a DLP) uses an RGBRGB color wheel, the UHD60 uses a different configuration with a large clear slice.  This is typical of home entertainment projectors vs. home theater ones.

That clear slice provides a lot more white lumens, (but less color ones), with the idea being that as a home entertainment projector, the UHD60 needs the extra lumens, at the expense of color saturation.  (Whether there's a real benefit in there (other than a higher claimed spec, we'll discuss elsewhere in this review.

In theory, if you have a well-suited viewing room, you want to spend the extra for the UHD65.  If you are going for "bright room" use, then the 60 may make more sense and saves you more dollars at the same time.

We have posted our Optoma UHD65 Projector At A Glance video, which is an overview of the projector’s features and some images/clips of the projector in action, with a few comments. This is not summary of this full in-depth review.

The Home Cinema 2040 and 2045 are Epson's impressive, new sub-$1000 home theater - or if you prefer, home entertainment projectors.

I'm a bit late getting this published.  I received a Home Cinema 2040 - also referred to as HC2040 about five weeks ago.  It was an engineering sample, delivered shortly before Epson's official announcement.  I went through the entire review process, but had to complete our annual Best Home Theater Projectors report and launch another site - SmarterHomeAutomation.com - before getting around to writing this up.  My apologies for the delay.  Here goes!