The ViewSonic PX706HD is a DLP projector with 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution. I am particularly excited to be reviewing this ViewSonic, as it is a gaming projector, and I game. In fact, when I injured my hand earlier this year, my orthopedist prescribed several hours of video games each week for physical therapy. Cool doctor, if you ask me. Alright, on with the review.
I’ll start this review with an overview of the ViewSonic PX706HD gaming projector’s specs and features, expanding on those features on the second page. A tour of the hardware and menus will follow. Then we’ll take an in-depth look at picture, video and audio quality, discuss our findings, and find out if it performs as well as I expect. We’ll end our review with a summary page which will allow you to re-cap the highlights, pros and cons, and photos. Game on!
ViewSonic PX706HD Specs
Price
$785
Technology
DLP
Native Resolution
1920x1080
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)
3000
Contrast
22000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio
1.20:1
Lens Shift
No
Lamp Life
4000 hours
Weight
5.9
Warranty
3 years
Overview
The ViewSonic PX706HD is a $785.99 DLP projector that designed specifically for gaming. Gaming projectors have a reduced input latency to allow for smooth gameplay and a high framerate – I’ll get more into that on the Special Features Page. The ViewSonic’s native 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution provides a crisp, clear image. This is a short throw, meaning the projector sits just a few feet back from the screen to produce up to 100” diagonal. That’s some immersive gaming!
The ViewSonic PX706HD is designed to be a gaming projector, with one of the lowest input lag claims around.
The PX706HD claims 3,000 lumens, which is plenty bright for most ambient light conditions. That, combined with its portable nature, allows for this ViewSonic to be taken over to a friend’s house for some co-op gaming. Sadly, the days of split-screen co-op seem to be coming to a close.
The only games I still like to play that is split-screen co-op are Borderlands and Star Wars Battlefront 2 – most games that my friends and I like to play online with each other are single screen, and you need separate gaming consoles and displays to make it work. My friends and I discovered a pretty awesome workaround for that, which I will go into detail about on the Special Features Page.
Ready Player One is a vibrant, visually stunning film that looks phenomenal when projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.
The ViewSonic PX706HD does pretty well on dark scenes - more on that in our Picture Quality Pages!
The ViewSonic PX706HD has multiple picture modes that do well on skin tones.
The ViewSonic PX706HD's 1080p image is clear and sharp.
Both films and TV shows look excellent when projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.
Sports are vibrant and clear when projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.
Though primarily positioned as a gaming projector, the ViewSonic PX706HD will be just as useful as a home entertainment projector for watching movies, TV shows, and sports – I’ve included some images from such things in the slider above. The PX706HD has an impressive lamp life of up to 15,000 hours in Dynamic ECO Mode, so you have the potential to get many years of use from this projector before the lamp needs to be replaced, when using that power mode.
Next up is an overview of the highlights, followed by a close look at the projector’s special features. See you on the next page!
Highlights
$785.99 List Price
3,000 Lumens
DLP Technology
1080p HD Resolution (1920x1080)
22,000:1 Contrast Ratio
Lamp Life – Up to 15,000 Hours
16ms Low Latency
60” to 120” Diagonal Projection
Compatible with PC, Mac, and Smart Devices
Dual HDMI Ports
PC-Free Presentations via USB Type-C
5-Watt Mono Speaker
The Viewsonic PJD7828HDL is an entry level priced 1080p resolution DLP projector, one that provides a lot of value for its sub-$600 street price.
In today’s day and age, it has a number of competitors, but, as the latest projector in Viewsonic’s long running history of offering rock bottom priced 1080p home entertainment projectors, it is certainly competitive, and well priced, not to mention being seriously bright, claiming 3,200 lumens.
Yet, at the same time, consider that this Viewsonic PJD7828HDL is a capable business/education projector as well. Viewsonic’s customers for this projector span home use, schools and businesses.
The PJD7828HDL has replaced the PJD7822HD we reviewed more than two years ago. It also replaces the PJD7822HD as one of our Top 15 home theater/home entertainment projectors – the full group of top contenders at all price ranges is found on our homepage.
ViewSonic PJD7828HDL Specs
Price
$679
Technology
DLP (1)
Native Resolution
1920x1080
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)
3200
Contrast
22000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio
1.30:1
Lens Shift
No
Lamp Life
4000 hours
Weight
5.3 lbs.
Warranty
3 years
Overview
A quick history and perspective. Most of Viewsonic’s projectors are what we often call “crossovers.” That is, they are projectors designed for business and education use (a much larger market), usually with some concessions to make them more viable as home entertainment or home theater projectors. This is common, especially in the under-$1000 projector market. As a result, you’ll find biz/ed features like remote mousing on this projector. The education and business markets are drastically larger than home theater, so no surprise. Also, lower cost projectors tend to be those not going into a dedicated, fully darken-able theater or “man-cave,” and are rather being used in living rooms, bedrooms, etc, where business/education level brightness is needed.
To further demonstrate this, take a brand with a large projector line-up, like Epson. They have a handful of sub-$1,000 projectors designed for home, but about an equal number that are essentially identical to business models. Of course, what’s important is that you find the projector that’s best for your situation, no matter what its pedigree!
The first of those Viewsonic projectors to sport 1080p resolution was their PJD7820HD launched perhaps 7 years ago. I think most people in the industry recall that Viewsonic launched that 1080p projector with a list price of $999. Now, that doesn’t sound crazy now, but when they did so, they were the buzz of the trade show (I don’t receall if it was CEDIA, Infocomm, or CES. Why? Because everyone else was announcing 1080p projectors starting around $2000 and here was Viewsonic all alone with a $999 projector. Manufacturers, as I recall, were basically exclaiming – what’s their problem? Don’t they want to make any money?
This award goes to projectors that are a cut above, but may have a rough edge or two, or have less wide appeal.
The Viewsonic has a modest amount of zoom 1.3:1 in its manual zoom lens, so placement flexibility is typical for entry level, which is to say, if not minimal, less than found in many projectors a few hundred dollars more.
Of note, the PJD7822HDL is a short throw projector. It will sit closer to the screen than most projectors. For many, that’s a plus. We discuss on the next pages. Also, we publish the projector’s placement distances, etc. on this review’s Hardware pages.
I’ll also say that like it’s predecessors, it doesn’t have a really complete set of controls allowing for a perfect or near perfect calibration. And like those predecessors, it therefore doesn’t end up with “on the money” color accuracy. On the other hand, picture quality is pretty good, if not the most accurate around.
But, that is the stuff best described in more detail in our Picture Quality pages.
So, without further ado, below is a short “hightlights” list, and then its off to the Special Features page to start getting into the details about how the PJD7828HDL performs.
Well, seems they did very well with that original PJD7820HD. So, it’s time to take a close look at the PJD7828HDL, to see how far it has evolved, and how it compares to competition from the likes of BenQ, Epson, and Optoma.
The PJD7828HDL is a smallish projector. It has the same styling as a number of other Viewsonics, sporting some curves and angles on its front face, and down the sides. It is finished in a two tone case – off white and medium greys. All considered, pretty nice looking with the lights on.
With its “business/education” type of background, it is endowed with a couple of extra inputs that most home projectors no longer bother with, but that’s OK. Leaving them there, rather than removing them likely makes this projector less expensive rather than more. One interesting aspect is HDMI. The PJD7828HDL has two, but one is hidden behind a door. This is a “legacy” feature from the education side. The idea of having a hidden HDMI input makes sense if you are using streaming sticks. The space in that compartment is big enough for my Roku stick… But the reason for hiding is not for home use, but schools, where a streaming stick hanging out of an HDMI port in clear site, probably invites a quick disappearance in many schools.
But, while that makes for interesting conversation, far more important is the picture quality, overall performance, and even the warranty.
As entry level, you can expect some features to be missing. Most notable, is the lack of CFI – creative frame interpolation – a.k.a. “smooth motion.” Also lacking is lens shift, but I can’t think of any other current model home projector that offers lens shift at this price or below, so that’s definitely not a competitive issue, and CFI is downright rare on under $1000 projectors. Note: If having some lens shift is important for your setup, you can consider the more expensive PJD7836HDL which does have adjustable lens shift.
The Optoma ZW300UST is a business/education installation projector claiming 3,200 lumens, with WXGA resolution, DLP technology, and a laser light engine. This is a solid-state engine with a rated lamp life of 20,000 hours. In most cases that’ll serve you for several years of continuous use before having to get that light engine replaced, saving time and money. Who doesn’t love that? But, unless you have a digital signage type application, you'll likely be using the projector far less than that. For most applications, the projector will be obsolete long before you get near 20,000 hours. For example, if used in a conference room or classroom, figure 10 years minimum!
The ZW300UST is 12.3 pounds and can be table-top, wall or ceiling mounted. Wall mounting is most likely your best bet, as it's less expensive typically than ceiling mounting in a conference room or classroom, (and if no drop ceiling in the room, a much simpler install). I would consider this projector to be mid-sized, for a UST, and not very heavy. If necessary, the projector could potentially be passed around classrooms or conference rooms, but it wouldn’t be considered a true “portable” projector. More likely, in that case, it would be put on a cart, with other gear (as is often typical for K-12).
Optoma’s UST line consists of just two projectors – the ZW300UST (reviewing here) and the ZW300USTi. Both are WXGA resolution, with the same technology and light engine, weight and overall feature set, with the ZW300USTi having interactive capabilities. If you’re looking for an interactive projector, consider the Optoma ZW300USTi. Though there are only two projectors in this line, that's not to say that Optoma won't expand the line, with projectors of different resolution or brightness.
This projector has an MSRP of $3,399 (the ZW300USTi is $400 more). The 3,200 claim is more than enough for handling quite a lot of ambient light, and – spoiler alert – this one measured over claim. In our 2017-2018 Best Education Projectors Report(published less than two weeks ago), the Optoma ZW300UST won the 2017-2018 Best In Classroom: Ultra Short Throw or Interactive Projector Award - Best Value, and the Hot Product Award. This is one of the two projectors that I worked with before the report but couldn't finish writing up in time. As a result, I passed my results and opinions of the ZW300UST on to Art so he could make the call on awards.
As mentioned in the above paragraph, the MSRP of the Optoma ZW300UST is $3,399 – but I found it online from a number of authorized dealers for $1,799, which I’ll take as the minimum advertised price (MAP). That’s a huge difference! For this projector, $1,799 is a steal of a deal. A solid feature set, phenomenal color in best modes, and a great price all make this projector an excellent value proposition for educators and business people.
The ZW300UST has all the necessary inputs and connectors for business and education applications. Two HDMI inputs, a VGA In and Monitor Out, two types of Audio Ins and Outs, Wired LAN, and more. Its 10-watt mono speaker was better than I expected, and will be loud enough for mid-sized conference rooms and classrooms.
This projector as WXGA resolution (1280 x 800), which is essentially the 16:10 version of 720p. That is to say, it has more pixels than 720p HD – that’s 1280 x 720. I naturally prefer projectors that are the higher resolution 1080p HD or WUXGA, , but I found that I was not bothered by the WXGA resolution (the image is very crisp), and at one point I even had to double check to see if the projector was, in fact, WUXGA. It’s not, but it had me fooled for a minute. WXGA, of course, saves schools and businesses still rather significant money compared to those full HD resolutions, and that’s important to most buyers, if there isn’t an application calling for higher resolution.
That said, WXGA is great for conference rooms and classrooms, providing a good image for those in the front row to the back. Speaking of those closest to the screen, they’re likely the only ones who really would be able to differentiate between WXGA and higher resolutions.
ZW300UST HIGHLIGHTS
3,200 Lumens
DLP Technology
Laser Solid-State Light Engine
Low Maintenance
WXGA (1280 x 800) Resolution
Phenomenal Color Accuracy
10-Watt Mono Speaker
20,000 Hour Rated Lamp Life
PC-Free USB Media Player supports video and audio file playback, as well as shared images and presentations
Connectivity – computers, smartphones, tablets, 3D Bluray/DVD players, camcorders, Apple TV and streaming sticks can all be connected, though some may require additional accessories
HDMI MHL port supports HDMI dongles such as the Optoma HDCast Pro, Chromecast, FireTV and more
