When it comes to inputs, the UHD51A is particularly well endowed.  That's in part due to being smart, and having Wifi, but also an extra input or two compared to some others.

From the back left side:

First up is a RJ45 jack for hard wired networking (CAT6 cable etc, "ethernet".  Just over to the right is an RS232 serial port for "old school" command and control. Below it, is the first of three USB ports, this one is for the included Wireless (wifi) module.  (The UHD50 lacks this input.)

A pair of HDMI inputs 1 & 2, come next. Both are HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 copy protection. That's what's needed for 4K Blu-ray UHD and other 4K sources using copy protection. Some competitors provide only one new HDMI, and one older, legacy 1.4 HDMI.  The reason for that is to provide backwards compatibility, as the newer port may not aways work perfectly with some very old HDMI devices that are HDMI 1.4 or earlier.  That said, I have several such devices and I haven't encountered any issues myself, with feeding my devices through an HDMI 2.0...

OK, let's get back on track. After the pair of HDMIs (a third is a great idea for those not using an AV receiver for switching, but few projectors offer 3.

Next up is a traditional analog computer input that can also accept component video (like most VGA inputs).  The connector is the standard HD15 type.

Moving right along, there's a 12 volt trigger for a motorized screen, shades, or lens sled.

The Optoma does have that pair of 5 watt speakers, so no surprise that there's a stereo audio input and a stereo audio output.  Then comes two more USB ports one labeled for Reader - for the media player, and the other with a wireless symbol.

Wait there's a fourth USB as well, but that one is a service port, so you won't be using. We didn't need to use the service port for the firmware upgrades I did.

Finally, below that USB is a optical digital audio connector as well.  Now that's a nice extra touch, that provides some versatility.   That folks is it for the inputs, although there's also the power cord receptacle, a Kensington lock slot below the left side connectors.

Bottom line:  As I said, a nice collection.  A lot of projectors are getting pretty minimalistic, with only a couple of HDMIs and 2-3 other connectors. Optoma's dropped composite video and S-video, like many others but at least still offers the VGA input, and plenty of USBs.

Panasonic PT-MZ670U Projector Review – Picture and Sound Quality: Summary, The Competition, Pros, Cons

The Panasonic PT-MZ670U is a beast of a projector, weighing just over 35 pounds. On the front, there is a center-mounted standard lens, but, as mentioned, there is the option to use one of several others. There are two air intake vents on either side of the lens. On the left side of the projector is the re-useable air filter behind a door. Two hot air exhaust vents are on either side of the inputs and connectors panel, on the back. Below the inputs and connectors panel is a row of three items – the power switch, power receptacle, and the speaker. The next side of the projector has a single air intake vent. The top of the projector has the indicator, the Luminance Sensor that works with that Daylight View Basic, the control panel, and a cover that hides the wireless module input.

The Panasonic PT-MZ670U has plenty of inputs and connectors for business and education applications. It has a USB Type-B port for PC-Free Presenting, a wired LAN connector (RJ-45), and then the DIGITAL LINK HDBaseT input. Below all that is a DC Out port, and a group of RGB 1 IN connectors. Directly to their right is the RGB 2 IN connector (VGA computer input), and surrounding all that are the Monitor Out, Remote 1 In, and Serial In connectors. There is an old-school Video In port next to a pair of HDMIs. There are two pairs of Audio In ports, an Audio Out input, and a Remote 2 connector on top, plus a Kensington Lock for added security.

Of the Panasonic PT-MZ670U’s six color modes, there are three bright and usable modes to choose from. The projector’s best mode is Standard and measured in at 4,377 lumens – quite good for a best mode! The second best mode is Natural/Cinema and came in at 4,233 lumens. Standard Mode has a cooler tone to it than Natural/Cinema, which has a warm tone, so I like Standard for presentations and Natural/Cinema for video. White Board Mode is the brightest mode at 6,529 lumens, and has a bit more yellow green than Natural/Cinema, but is overall excellent for a brightest mode.

Dynamic Mode measured in at 5,597 and, surprisingly, didn’t have as good of color as the brightest mode. It’s still pretty usable, but there are other modes with better color to choose from. Still, you may be able to get some really decent color from that mode if you take advantage of all the color management opportunities Panasonic provides. Blackboard, at 5,812 lumens, has a magenta tone to it – this is typical of Blackboard modes, as they are meant to project on a black surface rather than your standard white screen. DICOM SIM. is a color mode you only want to use when projecting high contrast films, such as X-Rays. Like I said on the Picture Quality page, I was quite impressed by the Panasonic PT-MZ670U’s color!

There are two projectors I consider to be direct competition to the Panasonic PT-MZ670U, both of which were featured in this last year’s Education Projector Report, one of which won an award in said report. Those projectors are the Casio XJ-L8300HN and the NEC NP-PA653UL. These are both laser projectors with very different price points and features. I’ll start with the Casio, as I consider it to be the MZ670U’s most direct competition. Before I do, however, I want to mention that there is a slightly lower priced sibling to this Panasonic, called the PT-MZ670UL, that may also deserve your attention before you make your buying decisions.

The Casio XJ-L8300HN is a 4K UHD commercial-grade projector claiming 5,000 lumens. It is a DLP projector, so it does not produce as many color lumens as white ones. As you know, the Panasonic is a 3LCD, and in my opinion, it has a slight advantage on the Casio in terms of color, and it is brighter by over 1,500 lumens. Since the Casio is 4K UHD, and the Panasonic is WUXGA, the L8300HN is obviously sharper than the MZ670U, but there are only a few instances where something like this matters in the business and education environments – when the sharpest image is necessary, such as in architectural CAD drawings, engineering renderings, and other such applications in the scientific (and possibly medical) fields. Some businesses may desire the crisp look of 4K, but for most, WUXGA will do.

The Casio L8300HN is also $11,999, but does not have a street price. This, plus the many extras found on the MZ670U ($5,899 street price), gives it a lot more value for a larger market of people. The Panasonic has a lot more features, while the Casio’s features are fairly limited to lens shift and advanced networking. The big selling point of the L8300HN is its 4K resolution, which is useful to around 1% of people – 4K UHD for business and education applications just isn't necessary for what these projectors are being used for. For that reason, and the obvious color benefits of the 3LCD panels in the MZ670U, my vote goes to the Panasonic PT-MZ670U as a contender on your list.

The NEC NP-PA653UL is most similar to the Panasonic PT-MZ670U. It is also a 3LCD, large venue laser projector claiming 6,500 lumens and a 20,000-hour light engine life. The PA653UL has WUXGA resolution (1920 x 1200), but can accept both 4K UHD and true 4K content (such as slides and presentations). It’s a pixel shifter, meaning it takes that 1920 x 1200 image, copies it and shifts it up diagonally to create a higher pixel count. This makes the projector inherently sharper than the MZ670U, but rest assured that the projector is still quite sharp.

The big differences lie in the feature sets of each projector. Neither is better than the other – they’re just different, and the NEC might be better for you, or the Panasonic, or better for someone else. It all comes down to those features. The NP-PA653UL has a healthy amount of vertical and horizontal lens shift and lens memory. The projector can accept 4K content, as mentioned, and it also has HDR (HDR10 standard) and BT.2020 Color Support. There’s a lot of advanced features such as Edge Blending, Projection Mapping and TileMatrix (enables 4Kx2K resolution by utilizing 4 projectors via HDBaseT Loop Out). The PA653UL can project vertically or horizontally, giving users a lot of flexibility. The projector is also 3D capable, provided that you purchase the not-included 3D emitter.

I invite you to read the reviews of the two projectors mentioned. This will give you a good idea as to which projector is most useful for your business and education applications. Or, if you’re pressed for time, you can read the projectors’ descriptions in our 2018-2019 Best Education Projectors Report. Spoiler alert – it was the NEC NP-PA653UL that won an award in the report. But, before you go, check out the pros and cons lists below for the Panasonic PT-MZ670U!

• No backlight on the remote – would have been nice, but isn’t typical (at least the remote is white)
• There is a screw to get access to the filter – would have liked to see a quick-release door, but as the filters last up to 20,000 hours, cleaning the filter is not something that will be done often

BenQ TK800 - Affordable 4K UHD Projector - Review Summary: The Big Picture, 4K HDR, Competition, The Bottom Line, Pros, Cons

This BenQ TK800 offers a whole lot of value, and at the moment, may well be the least expensive 4K content capable projector on the market.  Well, of course price wise, it is tied with its not quite identical twin, the HT2550.

What we really have here, is a very nicely done home entertainment projector, at a very affordable price, considering it is 4K UHD.  Consider it very similar to the traditional and dominant 1080p home projectors list pricing around the $800 price range, but for the $500 list price difference you are getting a healthy jump in capability.

First of course is that it is 4K capable. As explained in Special features, there are four levels of resolution/projector design that can handle 4K at this time.  Still there’s little difference in viewable (perceived) sharpness and detail between most of them in the under $10K price range.  The far more noticeable difference compared to the less expensive projectors is the HDR – high dynamic range – that comes with almost all 4K capable higher resolution projectors, regardless of true resolution. Then there is also a color improvement, which tends to be slight with most of these projectors but greater on those laser projectors that tend to cost an extra couple of thousand dollars, or more.  I am starting to review the $2999 LG HU80K, which is the lowest cost 4K capable projector with laser engine I’m aware of at this time. But, I digress.

The TK800 is built for “brighter rooms” which means not designed for a dedicated home theater. Its simple, if you have that man cave that you can keep really dark whenever you want to, then for the same money, it is logical to choose the HT2550 of the two.  It’s that simple:  Brighter room:  TK800, Theater/Cave: HT2550.   What could be easier?

Assuming your room has more than minimal ambient light, you’ll want shades to block most light from any windows, and/OR, a special kind of optical, light absorbing screen referred to usually as an ALR screen.  Go that route and you should be all set.

Since both BenQ and I envision the TK800 as a “brighter room” projector, I figure it will have a lot of appeal to sports fans.  That reminds me that one of my minor complaints is no “smooth motion” option a.k.a. CFI.   I’ve long said that belongs on home entertainment type projectors more than it does for serious movie ones.  Lacking it is pretty minor, so don’t lose sleep over it.

Placement flexibility is modest – a 1.2:1 zoom provides basic front to back flexibility over a 2-3 foot range for most screen sizes.  That’s enough in most homes. Still it’s a lot less than some.  Also it lacks any lens shift at all. This time BenQ disappointed me.  But that’s because for years (they pretty much pioneered lens shift on affordable DLP home projectors), BenQ’s equivalent 1080p home  projector – several starting with the legendary W1070, offered a modest amount of lens shift.

If you plan to mount, you will either need to use keystone correction (that’s the alternative to lens shift to keep the image rectangular, but it impacts sharpness, lens shift has no real effect), or you will have to mount at the correct height without keystone correction to keep that image rectangular.  Again, a minor thing, but, in one sense, you are spending extra for that 4K sharpness, so you really don’t want to use a control that will negate some of the difference over 1080p sharpness.

Audio: The speaker’s not bad, but this is a small box. Get a respectable sound system.  And, with a new AV receiver, it can switch all your sources, very handy if you are not just a cable/satellite box, but also plus disc, plus Netflix, plus game console, etc. Besides, who wants to listen to a music video, or an action flick on what is essentially a very small boom box?  You want big quality sound to go with your huge, immersive, projector image. Got it?

Color:  No complaints at all about color. The projector calibrates very well, but it also has a whole bunch of modes, even separate Sports and Football mode, plus Vivid TV…  Plenty to choose from.  Any of those three modes, (or our tweaked Bright mode settings), can cut through a fair amount of ambient light, and produce a football game, baseball game, the Olympics, etc., with rich vibrant colors!   Sweet!

Noise:  One thing I’m not overly happy about is the audible noise.  Like other 4K UHD projectors using the 1920x1080x4 DLP chip it has a humming sound, which seems louder, or at least is more obvious than the projector’s fan, and I think all the 4K UHD projectors using this chip are a bit too noisy for my taste, and I am not particularly “noise adverse.”  Still in a brighter room more family type room, I think noise is of less concern. No one watching a sporting event is going to complain. It’s only on a movie when things go pretty silent, that you may notice enough to not be thrilled.

As is the case with all projectors (and most LED TVs (anything that can't produce at least 1000 NITS of brightness), there has to be a compromise for HDR to be implemented effectively.   In theory, by not having enough maximum brightness, the result is mid-bright and low bright areas are lower brightness than with non HDR. To the point of potentially being dim.

The TK800's implementation (with the 0 setting for HDR) can look just a little on the dim side (not so much as say and Epson 5040UB with its default settings, but the TK800 definitely "lightens up" by changing the HDR setting to +1.  (Your call.)  I found +1 to be most enjoyable, most of the time. By comparison, the 0 setting will seem to have more punch - more of that "high" dynamic range.  That's true, but you want to focus on having the most enjoyable picture to watch, no need to suffer in order to achieve some goals that aren't really applicable to almost all projectors.

Below $1000:  Lots of projectors none of which are 4K capable. That’s a basic choice. The future is 4K. As I said, you can get a similar non-4K projector for less.  But, if you have the budget, now is a good time to spend an extra few hundred, for a healthy amount of future proofing.

Around the price: Under $1500

There are some direct competitors, notably the big brother of the Viewsonic PX727-4K which we reviewed, as that one, the PX747-4K has the equivalent brighter color wheel.  And then there’s the fact that the two projectors are almost identical, coming out of the same factory.  More on which of these in a minute.

But first I must restate the obvious:  Yes, in a really dark room, the HT2550s color, will be a little richer, although not necessarily more accurate (calibrated both are very accurate).  In brighter rooms, though, that advantage will mostly be lost, but the extra white lumens will come in very handy with more ambient light.

Optoma’s new HD50 is $1399, and is another direct competitor, we have the fancier version in house for review, the $1699 HD51A which is the same but a smart projector, with Alexa, and the same kind of features found on smart TVs.  I haven’t started on the Optoma yet, but typically, I expect a slower color wheel, (too bad for us rainbow sensitive types), but also it has CFI for smooth motion.  I’m not prepared to say much more until I start working with the Optoma, so expect my comments comparing the Optoma to the BenQ, to be found in the Optoma HD51A review.  I have one projector to review between this TK800 and the HD51A.

Vivitek’s entries so far, are using the higher resolution 4K UHD chipset, for a slight advantage in sharpness, and in audible noise, but the list price is a lot higher. Still Vivitek pricing is aggressive so we’ve seen online for more than a few dollars under $1500.

Other 4K capable competition isn’t in the price range:   Optoma reduced their higher resolution HD60, to $1799, but that’s a real step up in price, with perhaps the biggest advantage being a bit quieter.

And then there’s the 3LCD competition, which still isn’t down to the price point yet.  The Epson Home Cinema 4000 is a $1999 list price projector.  It’s a pixel shifter, 4K capable, but only pixel shifts twice.  It is not quite as sharp, but you’ll need to be sitting pretty close to notice any difference. Where it is strong though, is maximum placement flexibility and feature sets, including the option to go with a wide screen for movies.  And CFI for smooth motion and many other features too. It too looks pretty darn great, right out of the box, and is slightly better at 4K color too, but is only similar in black levels.

Not one of the under $2500 4K UHD projectors has the great black levels you want in a dedicated home theater. But.  Guess what?

Right!  This projector isn’t about that.  It’s for your brighter room where even a very small amount of ambient light destroys great black level performance!   BTW, the least expensive projector that can handle 4K content, so far, and have really impressive black levels is Epson’s 5040UB, which currently sells for almost $1000 more, so it’s definitely a step up product, not a direct competitor.

Comparison Images in the player below:

From the left (1st):  Passengers 4K HDR

TK800, HT2550, Optoma UHD60, UHD60 vs HT2550 (Optoma on bottom), UHD60 vs Vivitek HK2288 (Optoma on bottom), Epson LS100 (1080p laser), BenQ HT9050 (their high end PJ), Epson HC4000, Epson HC5040 vs Acer V7850 (thus 8 projectors in all).

Victoria Secret - 1080i (obviously no HDR)

TK800, HT2550, Vivitek HK2288, Opotma UHD60, Epson LS100, Optoma UHD65, Sony VW285ES ($5K, true 4K), BenQ HT9050, Epson PC4040, HC3700

Of all the projector images  shown, in this player, all are 4K capable projectors of varying native resolutions, with the exception of the Epson LS100 (to include a laser projector), and the Epson HC3700, (costs less than the BenQ), both of which are 1080p and do not support 4K, so are showing 1080p content.

Where we are showing stacked images, for comparison, the HT2550 is on the top as is the HK2288, both compared to the UHD60.  In the last comparison from Passengers, the Acer V7850 is on the bottom, Epson HC5040UB on the top (the Epson shows you what great black levels should look like.)   -art

• Could definitely be brighter for handling HDR (like most projectors)
• Only offers basic placement flexibility, with 1.2:1 zoom and no lens shift
• No CFI for smooth motion on sports and other HDTV
• Of course the small 5 watt speaker is no substitute for a real sound system
• And, 5 watt speaker is side facing, instead of front or back
• Gaming - Input lag of 48ms is acceptable, but most gamers prefer 33ms of less
• No support for P3/BT.2020 color space for 4K (projector claims 96% of REC709 the lower existing standard for color space
• Could be quieter in terms of fan noise at full power and has a sort of hum as part of it.  (That said, it's typical of this class of projectors.
• No onboard media player to allow PC free - plugging in a USB or card for photo shows, and more
• Has audio out, but Bluetooth audio out would be a nice addition a few projectors are now offering
• The TK800, like the H2550 and 98% of all lamp or laser based home theater/home entertainment projectors, is basically stupid, that is, not smart!  Today's projector manufacturers need to make these projectors as smart, as today's LCD TVs.  We do see smarts on some pocket projectors like LGs, but not on mainstream home projectors.  This is a shout out to the whole industry, it sure isn't just BenQ!  Our next review is the $1699 list price ($200 extra) Optoma HD51A, where you pay $300 more than the HD50, to get all those "smart TV features."

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review – Picture Quality: Out-of-the-Box Picture Quality, Skin Tones, HDTV and Sports

Hey, I’m a fan of BenQ, and have been for a long time. Back when I bought my first, BenQ was relatively premium compared to most relatively affordable projectors. At the same time, they were well known for putting in good dynamic irises in their projectors, and also fast color wheels.  Not much has changed.

Wow! Pop! Wham!!!  One thing about the BenQ TK800 is that it has a picture that has a lot of punch in several of the brighter modes, including the likes of Vivid TV, Sports, Football, and a couple of others.  Those all put up at least 2000 lumens on the screen (in a dark home theater you only need about 400 - 450 lumens to fill a 100” screen with typical non-HDR content).

As you can see, in some of these TK800 sports (and other) photos, the colors are rich looking, vibrant reds, greens, etc., even with the “home entertainment” color wheel.  In any of those modes, which I figure are going to get a lot of use, there’s a lot of wow factor, on top of a very sharp image. 

The “best” mode or two (one of them was calibrated by Eric), on the other hand, aren’t quite as good handling color as the other BenQ, the HT2550, but still really good for a home entertainment projector.  We’re talking "out of the box" performance here. By the time you get the best mode looking accurate and right (calibrated), the brightness does drop a great deal (very typical of DLPs), to not much over 1000 lumens.  That’s still a healthy amount when your room has minimal ambient lighting. That’s your turn off the lights in the room mode.  

Those same brighter modes, with all that pop and wow, aren’t perfect on skin tones, often they are oversaturated at least a little, but then that’s the goal when you have selected a mode that is geared to cut through a lot of ambient light.  You can take any of those modes and dial them back down, but remember, these are the modes for looking spectacular. Some of these modes might give you a bit too much contrast too, but even the Victoria Secret models (only HDTV) looked really good in those modes.

Photo and Caption Player

Switch to the better modes, and skin tones are more natural. But the BenQ improves with our calibration settings to be even better, and typically a little warmer.

While all our images are compromised and never look as good as the projected image (for many technical reasons), our skin tone collection gives you an excellent idea of what to expect.

All the HDTV sports images were taken in either Vivid TV, Sports or Football, with more than a little ambient light present.  The other HDTV images focused on skin tones (except 4K from Netflix), were taken off the projector using either our best mode for non-4K or the user mode labeled by Eric - 4K HDR when he calibrated the projector.

Alas, the TK800 is a “home entertainment” projector while the HT2550 is a  little bit closer to “home theater” projector.  No matter, neither of them can produce really dark blacks on very dark scenes, where that ability is most needed.

It’s not BenQ, or these models, per say. With only one exception so far, of the more than 10 4K UHD DLP projectors to come through here, all are weak. The exception is a $3999 4K UHD laser projector from Acer, which does an adequate job using their laser engine as a dynamic iris on darker scenes.

Photo and Caption Player

Call the BenQ TK800’s black level performance pretty entry level, although there are some sub $1000 3LCD projectors that are slightly worse.  Expect the $500 - $700, lower resolution 1080p DLP home projectors to be comparable to this BenQ.

In the player above you will find some comparison images from different projectors, using our Casino Royale – Bond: Night train scene, which we greyscale and overexpose for your viewing consideration.  There are a few captions to explain what to look for. In addition, more good examples of black level handling, but with normal exposure are included.

Then there are a few images for looking at dark shadow detail. Again, use the train image, look for details in the shrubs behind the tracks on the right, and in the large dark area of the forest.  Also, there’s the Hunger Games image (greyscale and overexposed) of Katniss and Rue sleeping.  Look in the lower center and to the left for details in the darkest areas.

Most importantly you bought this projector because you don’t have a fully darken-able man cave/theater.  Once there’s even a modest amount of ambient light, significant differences in black level performance become small differences.

Besides, I can’t recommend any other projector around the price that could do better in this regard. The least expensive projector that can, and is 4K capable is about $1000 more.  Next:

Shadow detail is very good.  I’ve spotted some flattening in the very dark ranges – not enough different color/brightness in an area, so what could be multiple shades has less, but I have mostly found that problem with streaming content, where there’s far more compression than say Blu-ray or Blu-ray UHD.  It is also more noticeable in the brighter modes, which may have to do with how BenQ “pumps up” the dynamic look, for modes like Vivid TV, Sports, etc.  Those are more worried about bright and average brightness content than very dark content.

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review – Picture Quality: Movie viewing – 1080p,  Movie viewing – 4K with HDR, Overall Picture quality

Feed the TK800 a 1080p movie, say off of Blu-ray disc, and for the most part, this projector will behave like straight 1080p projector without any 4K capabilities.

But, even so, the TK800 has some advantages. It is a pixel shifter, so it can take that 1080p data and do some serious image processing to review more information.  This has always been the case with projectors handling content that’s lower resolution than their native res.

Thus, expect some very sharp imagery from 1080p movies on this TK800. 

That said, they will not be as sharp as the same scene images viewed with this projector from 4K content.  No surprise there, of course.

1080p content – Hunger Games, Casino Royale, Twister, and some other scenes, were nice and bright, the low lighting was barely noticeable even on the darker scenes. Good!

Overall the BenQ does a fine job on 1080p movies.  The most recent I watched was Twister, last night, and I was impressed.  I had low lighting on, and the TK800 handled the dark scenes fine, had enough punch to make the low lighting in the back essentially unnoticeable on the screen.

That’s great, because today, there’s still far, far, more movie content in 1080p than in 4K.  

The TK800 did just fine overall.  I did very little watching in my theater, with it fully darkened, as you won’t be putting your TK in a room with black and very dark blue floors ceilings and walls.  Instead, I almost always had at least a little light on. As such, my expectations were, of course, not looking for great black levels, etc.  

Because of my decision to have ambient light most of the time, I favored using some of the brighter, uncalibrated picture modes. It’s not a typical experience that I would put on a movie like Passengers, with intentional ambient light, but was surprised at how enjoyable it was all that over the top in Sport Mode or (although very cool) Vivid TV, for example, is what you need with the ambient light there, as the light tries to partially wash out the image.

4K UHD content.  Here’s where the BenQ’s HDR control comes in. With ambient light in the room (not much), I settled for +1 for the HDR setting, and it worked fine on Passengers, and also the parts of Ghostbusters (2016) that I watched.

In the photo player above, the last two images were taken with the same exposure, the only difference is HDR set to 0 on the first of two, and to +1 on the 2nd one.  +1 fights the natural HDR tendency of dimness, rather nicely.

Eric’s calibration of User 2 mode, produced almost 2100 lumens and boy was it nice having that many lumens for HDR.  The image popped on movies, although not quite like watching sports in one of those bright modes (picture quality which would be over the top on many movies.)

I was delighted with the results of Eric’s work for 4K viewing.  Overall the color was very good, but Eric couldn’t prevent the brighter ranges 80 IRE and up, from jumping up to the 7300K range, instead of 6500K, providing a cooler image on brighter scenes. Technically that’s not great, but it sure is fun to view.

The TK800 – for 4K viewing, I might describe as a projector, not for the purist, or traditional enthusiast, but for folks that just want a huge image with some wow factor, that can handle 4K content, 3D too, bright, with eye-popping colors when called for, and basically putting up imagery that will hook them on the big screen experience.

Geez, that’s about the nicest thing I’ve ever said about a projector, that I just pointed out still doesn’t have really accurate color.  BTW, Eric’s Bright mode settings are definitely more accurate, staying pretty close to 6500K over the entire range down to 20 IRE.  Still, I stuck with his setup for 4K with HDR, and it worked out just dandy for the way I was watching. 

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review– Hardware 2: The Control Panel, The Remote Control, Using Auto Source, The Menus

The small control panel has an extra couple of buttons, beyond the basic ones. On the left side is the Power button, with the usual press once to turn on, or press twice to power down. To its right is the navigation area, with the four arrow keys in a round formation. The up and down arrows double for keystone correction, while the left/right pair double for speaker volume.

The OK/Enter button is in the center of the arrows. Below all of that are three buttons, the middle one is the Menu button, while Back (for the menus) is to its left, and Mode is to the right. Okay, we’re almost done. On the right are the last two buttons, the top one is the Source button, and below it is the Eco/Blank button.

One last thing – just above the Source button is a light sensor, allowing the projector to adjust brightness based on ambient light. That would help save a little energy.

Going way back a decade ago when I owned a succession of BenQ projectors, I remember that they had great remotes back then. Seems they still do. This remote has the three major ingredients to please most folks.

• Good layout with good choice of functions with direct access
• Very good range (30 feet no problem)
• Excellent backlight – not to bright, or dim, for dark room viewing

In addition, it offers HDMI link (CEC), allowing this remote to control other HDMI-Link compatible devices, such as many, if not most Blu-ray and Blu-ray UHD players.

Let’s take a look, button by button, from the top.

Starting top left is a large green button for powering on. Next to it is the backlight button, although pressing any button turns on the backlight for 15 seconds. On the right is a separate Power Off button, in red.

Two rows of three buttons come next, with the top left of those being 3D, then Light Mode (lamp setting choices), and an unused button labeled Dynamic Iris. When I first unboxed this HT2550, I spotted that and thought – “great, a dynamic iris, for better black levels… how did I miss that when I had my previous brief look at the pre-production version?”

Well, easy. That button may do something on some other BenQ’s, but not this one. Too bad!

The next row (back on the left) starts off with a button that provides a direct link to the Keystone adjustment menu. In the middle, one that goes to the Picture Mode menu, and on the right, HDR.

Next comes the navigation arrows in a round formation, with a OK a.k.a. “Enter” button in the center. Below that, are three buttons, two relating to the navigation. A Back button on the left, and the Menu button in the middle.

There’s a small space on the remote, then three more buttons, these relating to image processing. First (left) there’s Cinema Master, which is BenQ’s group of several image processing features. Then comes a separate button for Detail Enhancement, and finally their Lumi Expert - sorry to disappoint, but this projector also doesn’t use this button.

Sound comes next with Mute, Volume Down, and Volume Up, from left to right, no surprises there.

The next three rows you will only find on some projectors – those are for the HDMI-Link, for CEC. This, as mentioned, allows this remote to run basic features on compatible devices, such as three of my Blu-ray and Blu-ray UHD players. Basically, once that’s set up in the menus, for example, hitting the play button on this remote would start play on my player. Or one can use the player’s remote to power the HT2550 on or off…

A great aspect of this feature on this projector is that the remote has an excellent backlight. Consider, my Samsung Blu-ray UHD player has about the worst remote I’ve ever used. Even if it had a backlight, I’d probably still hate it. When I’m using projectors that have HDMI-Link, like this one, or most Epsons like the 5040UB I have here, I ignore the Samsung remote for normal FF, RW, Play, Stop, Chapter Forward, Chapter Back, and Stop, instead using a good backlit remote. Oh, I’ll still need the Samsung’s remote to go into its menus, and for some other features, but geez, it works so much better when I’ve got a good backlit projector remote like this one. Sweet!

But, I digress. Let’s finish off the layout and features. Let me correct a previous statement. Only one of the three buttons on that third row of HDMI-Link controls, is for controlling other devices. The one to the left brings up the Sound menu, while the one on the right of the Stop button, is the Eco/Blank button, which was also on the BenQ projector’s control panel.

Almost done!  Six more controls in two rows at the bottom. Again, more direct access to popular menus:

Brightness, Sharpness, Contrast

Color Temp, Color Management, and Gamma

I think this BenQ remote has pretty much, a button for just about every key menu most folks would access more than just at initial setup.

If there’s one thing they could have put on this remote in addition (they would need more buttons), that would be direct access to each of the Inputs, instead of the current Source button. That said, the Source button menu takes you to a choice of Sources. And, the BenQ supports Auto Source, so it will go hunting for an active source, if you have that turned on.

Since I mentioned Auto Source in special features, in case you missed it, this is a shorter version: During the review process I had Auto Select on almost all the time. I use an Anthem AV receiver (pretty high end), and multiple disc players, Apple TV, DirectTv, a Roku, and more. Most of the time, Auto Select works fine, but not always. Sometimes, when I’m already on the right HDMI (HDMI 1 – is all I use), the BenQ gets stuck on Auto Source, it just doesn’t find the source, or it takes a very long time.  Most of the time its quick (a few seconds). I think the problem happens mostly when I turn on the player or other device, after the receiver is on.

When it can’t find it, all I have to do is go into the source menu – which will show it’s on HDMI1, and hit Enter, and then it finds the source.  Its simple: If you have a problem with Auto Source with your setup, turn it off.  Problem solved.

The above photo player will end up with a whole series of closeups of menus. This is usually the last thing added to my reviews.  In the meantime here's a photo of the main menu, to give you an idea.  The TK800 and HT2550 menus are the same except for the color of the menu bar.  Menus even allow you to reposition the menu from the center to corners, if preferred (which you probably will prefer).  When the menus go live, there will be comments found in the captions of some of those images.

That does it for our tour of the BenQ TK800's hardware! Next up is our discussion of the projector's picture quality.

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review – Hardware: Overview, Inputs and Connectors, The Lens

As always, let’s start with a quick tour of the projector, then we’ll get into some more detail. From the front, you’ll notice that the recessed, 1.2:1 manual zoom lens, is offset to the side (to the right, if facing the projector). Further to the right is the front IR sensor for BenQ’s remote control. Venting of hot air is on the left side of the front.

This is a relatively small projector, so if you have it on a table, you probably won’t want to be sitting a foot or two forward of the projector and just to the right of it, or you will get very slowly cooked with warm air shooting from the vent.

Down below the front is a drop-down foot, with the button to release the foot directly above – not quite on the front, not quite on the bottom. That takes care of the front.

Now we’ll move to the top, right behind where the lens is. That where you’ll find two lens controls – focus and zoom – to adjust. These controls are also recessed. The control panel is also on the top, as is the door to replace a lamp. All the inputs and connectors are to be found on the back of the HT2550.

No real surprises here, the HT2550 is pretty well endowed for a lower cost projector. True, like most home projectors today, there are no more “legacy” composite video or S-Video connectors. What there is, from left to right:

A pair of stereo audio jacks – one in, one out. A PC VGA input (standard DB15 connector) comes next. It can handle analog computer, or component video.

A pair of HDMIs is next. They are different! The left one is HDMI 1, and is HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 – which meets the requirements of Blu-ray UHD and other copy protected content.

The second one is the good old HDMI 1.4 which has been around for a number of years.  In theory, the first one should handle anything HDMI, but most manufacturers include an HDMI 1.4 – just in case there’s a problem, perhaps with a 10 year old player…

As always, I must complain - a third HDMI input would be very helpful for those not doing switching through an AV receiver.  I tell all the manufacturers, but few have done so. Most recently  a Vivitek had three.  Other than high end commercial projectors, though. two is all you will normally find.

Next comes a USB Type B, for servicing, followed by an old school, RS-232 serial port, for command and control of the projector. Then comes the USB Type A port which is there to provide a 5V 1.5amp output.  (It can be used for recharging most 3D glasses).  Finally there's a 12 volt screen trigger. That's something not often found on lower cost home projectors, but, if you need it, great.  It's used for raising and lowering a motorized screen which has a 12 volt trigger.  More and more, these days, however, companies are moving to wireless control rather than 12 volt triggers.

As stated previously, the HT2550 has a very modest zoom lens – 1.2:1. Other projectors in the $1,000 to $2,000 price range may have as little as 1.1:1, or as much as 2.1:1. As there is also no lens shift, count this BenQ projector as one with little placement flexibility. Still, those of you mounting the projector should find enough zoom range to let you place the projector and mount at a workable distance to fill the screen properly.

Without lens shift, however, you really want to have the projector mounted, or on a table, at the correct height, so as not to have to use keystone correction, which degrades the image sharpness slightly. Think this way, why spend for 4K UHD, if you use a feature that probably reduces sharpness down to that of a 1080p projector not using keystone correction.

If you focus the projector looking at the dead center, edge sharpness is pretty good, no –  let’s call that very good for a projector in this price range especially one where a chunk of the price is dedicated to having 4K UHD resolution. Well, one advantage to a lens with very little zoom is that it’s a lot harder to find  “very sharp” in a zoom lens that has a lot of zoom range.

Other than the Kensington lock slot near the bottom right (for security), there's only the power receptacle. That's all folks!

Lens offset is almost 5 inches (125mm). Translated, if you put this BenQ on a table top pointing at a 100” screen, the center of the lens should be 5” below the bottom of the screen surface (or, if ceiling mounted, 5” above the top of the screen surface).

That’s a very reasonable amount of lens offset.

And, if you went with a larger screen, say a 120" diagonal (20% larger) l, then the offset would be 20% more than the 5 inches, which works out to six inches.

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review-Special Features 2: Picture Quality: HDR Controls, Color Wheel Speed/Segments, Auto Source Search, 

There are two controls found on the menus. On the Display menu is a basic choice of Auto, HDR or SDR (everything before HDR).

I imagine just about everyone will leave it on Auto unless they are fooling around with the projector.

The other control appears as the first item on the Picture menu’s usual Advanced sub-menu.  The 4K Brightness item appears on the menu when HDR content is playing.  It’s hidden, otherwise.  That menu offers five settings from +2 to -2.  I found 0, overall to be my preferred, most of the time. I also spent a lot of time with +1, perfect for a movie that otherwise comes across as a bit dim looking.  We can argue that the darker image is closer to the HDR ideal, but, while the theory is great, you have to enjoy the view, play a little, and settle on what makes you happy.   

There are two main aspects of a color wheel for any lamp based single chip DLP projector.  The color segments on the wheel, and the speed of the wheel.

The TK800 uses an RGBW color wheel, which I think of as a business education projector color wheel, or perhaps, in this case, a “home entertainment” color wheel as opposed to a “home theater” one (implying a more serious projector).

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, the main difference between this projector and its HT2550 sibling, is that wheel. The other BenQ has the “home theater” RGBRGB wheel, less white lumens, but slightly more vibrant colors.

No problem with that, BenQ offers two models, same price, pick the right one for your room setup and viewing habits.

The other aspect is the speed. For those of us who are “rainbow sensitive,” we see flecks of rainbow color when white objects pass in front of dark objects on the screen (or vice versa).  The slower the wheel, the more frequent we see them.  With a fast color wheel, which both these BenQ’s have, I rarely can spot a rainbow. Oh, sometimes if I move my head quickly while watching those high contrast motion scenes, I can spot them, but, by comparison, the rather excellent Acer VL7860 – a laser 4K UHD projector (my previous review), has a slow wheel, and I saw the artifacts more often than not.  I recommended that projector, but as I said, I could never own one because of the RBE. (RainBow Effect.)

BenQ does not publish a speed, but I figure 4X or 5X.  Many projectors are still using 2X or 3X speed wheels, and for me, those don’t cut it!

Fortunately, most folks aren’t RBE sensitive.  How many are?  There’s no good info, but I figure 5% or a bit more.  

Well, if you are one of us RBE folks, be cheered, these BenQs have nice fast color wheels, so RBE should be fairly rare.  

The bottom line on the color wheel:  Fast which is great!  Segments – the TK800s setup delivers very good color and extra (mostly white) brightness.  If you are going into a room where there’s almost always more than minor ambient light, the TK800s configuration should be the way to go.  If you have that cave/home theater, and like your movies with no significant ambient light at all, then the HT2550 is for you.  It’s that simple since this color wheel is the only real performance difference.

Problem with both BenQ’s, is sometimes they just never find the active source when auto source is on, even when the projector is already on that source, with Blu-ray UHD discs and maybe other sources.  Now my system here is more convoluted than most, so quite likely you wouldn't have a problem anyway, but some other 4K capable projectors have less or no problem at all.

When firing up a movie, your disc player, be it Blu-ray, or 4K Blu-ray UHD, changes resolutions between menus, previews, warnings, etc.  That tends to trip up displays, and often a projector just can’t get enough time to lock on, before the Auto source assumes no good signal and switches to the next source.

So, if you are using a receiver to switch your sources, definitely, I recommend turning it off.  If not, and you have two or three sources plugged into the TK800 (two HDMI's and a ?), then try it, but, especially, if handling 4K content, I suspect you’ll have some issues so turn it off.

BTW even off, I encountered a problem a few times, where it still wouldn’t put up the picture, while the sound was playing.  If that should happen, I found the cure.  Press the source button, (and assuming its on HDMI1), press HDMI 1. That seems to make it start it’s attempt fresh, and that worked for me.

BenQ TK800 4K UHD Home Entertainment Projector Review-Special Features 1: 

Silence Mode, Audible Noise from DLP Chip, 4K UHD Resolution Explained, 3D, Brilliant Color, CFI (not) 

Silence mode is important. And essential to understand what it does.  First, yes the projector is quieter, but…

…Silence mode turns off the pixel shifting, turning the TK800 into a true 1080p projector (1920x1080). The thing is, first time you engage Silence mode you discover that the rather significant hum-like sound coming from the projector, decreases dramatically (about 10db would be my guess).  You are probably mostly watching 1080p content so far, so enjoy the quieter mode for that content, to enjoy the extra quiet. 

YES! BenQ has been producing good 3D for many years now.  If there’s any noticeable ghosting its almost certainly the content, not the TK800.  I’m just glad it has 3D.  I watched some I, Robot in 3D, and some interplanetary scenes from Jupiter Rising.  Excellent, fun, and major league immersive.  I was projecting as large as 115” diagonal wide screen, sitting about 10 feet back for 3D.  

These days, for us fans of 3D, we should be happy BenQ provides us with 3D. Many of the 4K UHD projectors do not offer 3D anymore.  Too bad. Note, the non-DLP crowd – 3LCD and LCoS projectors still almost all support 3D.  Look, I get it, 3D outside the theater, died on cable/satellite because it never caught on with owners of LCD TVs because it deserved to die in that market.  

3D is about being immersed in the content, being even better able to “suspend disbelief.”  The more of your view is occupied by the content’s entire image, the more immersive.  3D is incredible on the big screen – whether downtown or upstairs.  3D just doesn’t cut it on the small screen.  It’s mostly that simple.  

It doesn’t cut it on the average home LCD TV because even 65” LCD TVs are on the “tiny” side.

Brilliant Color is a feature that most DLP projectors offer.  I understand that the basics are provided by TI, to their DLP customers. The manufacturers can make some choices. Some companies have as many as 10 steps in this “image enhancing” control, which mostly brightens and ups the dynamic look of the image.  Non-DLP projectors all have their own multi-controls too.  In the case of this (and other) BenQs, they offer a simple off and on options. That’s fine. 

There’s definitely a bit more pop to the On, but there’s always a small amount of price to pay, which I’ll cover in the Picture Quality section.  Brilliant Color you would typically want on for sports and most non-movies, but depending on the projector, it often doesn’t provide as natural looking image for serious movie viewing.  

Eric our calibrator makes the decisions based on measuring, in this case, whether to leave Brilliant Color on or off when he calibrated this TK800.

CFI is MIA - missing in action!   Smooth motion is what we’re talking about. Lacking Creative Frame Interpolation is a mild bummer for some sports fans, but I’ve always said, a nice feature for sports, not so much for other HDTV, and usually a bad idea for movies. Most sports on TV other than movies are shot at 30fps or more, so doesn't provide that much benefit, but it adds a nice touch.  As a brighter room projector, one that should appeal to sports fans, the lack of CFI is a mild disappointment to me.  That could have been another characteristic to differentiate the TK800 from its darkroom twin.

BenQ TK800 Home Theater/Home Entertainment Projector Review - Performance: Brightness, Brightness and Color Temperature, Color Temp Readings for Reference Mode, Post Calibration Color Temp Readings for Reference Mode, Gamma Measurement, ECO Mode: Affect of Brightness, Power Consumption, Lens Position: Affect on Brightness

The TK800 came very close to the 3000 lumens it claimed.

The same chart above shows the color temperature of each mode when measured. These numbers are all pre-calibration.  All of the modes are at least a bit cool.  Starting at almost 7500K, with others getting up to even 9000K.  Fortunately those can be dialed down as needed.

Many folks like a cooler temp for sports viewing - I count myself among those, so I tend to prefer something around 7000K but generally not more than 7500K.  I was perfectly happy with Sports / Football modes for my sports viewing pleasure.  Vivid TV sizzles, though, it's a very interesting, very fun mode, although in theory, the least accurate, with it's color temp in the 8000-9000+ Kelvin range.

The measurements below were taken at full power on the lamp.  The brighter ranges are cooler than the lower brightness ranges.  Not sure why Eric couldn't get the 70 IRE and up to be a bit warmer - closer to D65, but the pictures look pretty good.  I would say when you see the 4K streaming images from Blacklist, showing the building (inside or outside images) you can see that slightly stronger blue intensity to the whites.

Pre-Calibration: Average Gamma 2.4 targeting 2.2

Post-Calibration: Average Gamma 2.27

For more casual viewing than movies - I'm thinking sports, or most TV, most prefer a lower gamma which yields a brighter mid-range to the picture.