Home Projector Comparison Report - Performance3

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Art Feierman

Viewsonic Pro8100 projector

The Viewsonic is another projector best suited for movie watching, or smaller screens, say up to 100" diagonal, maybe a bit larger. With a below average 453 lumens in "best" mode, it's still pretty respectable, as many projectors are right around 500 lumens. In brightest mode though, it's 922 lumens are on the low side as well. In other words, not a lot to spare if you want say a popular 110" diagonal screen size. You might have to supplement with a higher than normal gain screen.

The Viewsonic Pro8100 projector, when it comes to brightness characteristics, most closely resembles another LCD projector, the Panasonic PT-AE4000, whos comparable measurements are within 25 lumens of the Pro8100. Note I have always considered the popular PT-AE series from Panasonic to be definitely below average when it comes to brightness, perhaps my biggest complaint about an otherwise excellent projector.

Vivitek H1080FD projector

Like it's almost identical twin, the BenQ, the Vivitek H1080FD is a cross-over projector. It has a slow (3x) color wheel (not as slow as the 2x in the BenQ W1000), which will help with the Rainbow Effect, but cause the Vivitek H1080FD to have about 20% less lumens than the W1000. It's a straight trade-off for everyone - go with the faster color wheel, and the still very bright lumens of the Vivitek, or go all out for lumens, with the BenQ.

$2100 - $3500 1080p Home Theater Projectors


	Lumens	Lumens	Lumens
	Best Mode	Brightest Mode	Other mode
BenQ W6000	866	1750	1039
Cinetron HD700	864	961
Epson Home Cinema 8500UB	498	1309	1168
Epson Pro Cinema 9500UB	498	1309	1168
Epson Pro Cinema 9100	461	1288
LG CF181D	898	1380
Mitsubishi HC6800	578	946	687
Mitsubishi HC7000	278	536
Optoma HD8200	525	660
Sanyo PLV-Z3000	235	1046	373
Sony VPL-HW15	536	771

Lumens - Other mode: While we focus on the "best", and "brightest" modes, there are cases where it is useful to point out an additional mode. In some cases it's a somewhat less bright "brightest mode" but with a lot better color, sometimes it's an intermediate or almost "best" mode, that is noteworthy because of having a lot more lumens. We describe each of the Other modes listed, when discussing that projector.

BenQ W6000 projector

Designed from the ground up to be both bright, and have a high quality picture, the W6000 has the brightest lamp of any projector in this report. The W6000 succeeds at being bright, with a measured "best mode" performance of 866 lumens with Brilliant Color turned off. Turn it on, and things get even better (brighter) with 1039 lumens! We list Brilliant Color On best mode as the "Other" mode in our table above. It is worthy of listing because the BenQ does a very good job in terms of picture quality with BC turned on. Many DLP's with Brilliant Color engaged are a bit over the top. With the W6000 projector, having Brilliant Color off is still the more natural look but there's an extra 20% more lumens waiting, if you need them, without a major compromise in image quality.

When it comes to brightest mode, the BenQ kicks out 1750 lumens after we adjusted it. That makes it the brightest overall projector in the report, over $999. (The two bright $999 projectors are "crossover" (aka; also double as business portable) projectors, with fast color wheels. The BenQ's color wheel is much faster, minimizing the rainbow effect. In fact the W6000 is far superior overall, but those two rock bottom projectors are every bit as bright. BenQ's brightest mode does exhibit a heavy green shift, which is most unfortunately since it really can't be adjusted away. That will work fine if you need every last lumen to deal with ambient light. If not, the BenQ's Standard mode with BC on, after calibration can produce just over 1250 lumens, still very impressive, and with very good color.