Best in Class – $1000 – $2000 Bright Room/Home Entertainment (Tie): BenQ TK800M & ViewSonic PX747-4K

Posted on September 4, 2019 By Art Feierman and Nikki Kahl

The BenQ TK800M and ViewSonic PX747-4K are tied for the Best Bright Room/Home Entertainment Award in the $1000 – $2000 Class for our 2019-2020 Home Theater Projectors Report. These are two projectors that come from the same factory, and as they tied, it seemed reasonable to combine them into one winners page. Looking at these two projectors, other than color, they are virtually identical physically. What’s inside, however, does vary a bit. Both companies have their own firmware and that affects things like how good the out-of-the-box color is.

BenQ TK800M and ViewSonic PX747-4K Overview

In general, the BenQ TK800M and the ViewSonic PX747-4K are similarly bright, and have many parallels. I typically find that the ViewSonic sees more promotions, and therefore often sells for slightly less money. The warranties also differ.

I need to point out that we have not reviewed the TK800M – only its predecessor, the BenQ TK800. This newer model has a couple of refinements and minor improvements which we will mention here.

2019-2020-Home-Theater-Report_Best-Bright-Room-HE-$1000-$2000

This DLP projector offers 4K UHD resolution using Texas Instruments’ latest 0.47″ DMD (Digital Micromirror Device) imaging chip, which has a native resolution of 1920×1080, and pixel shifts four times to reach the 4K UHD standard. The TK800M’s HDR performance has been improved with the addition of HLG.

BenQ has also included Auto HDR Color Rendition, which tames the oversaturated reds and greens, as well as improving dark shadow detail in HDR content. The optics have also been improved on this model.

An HDTV football game, projected by the BenQ TK800 (the TK800M is so similar that we will not be providing a full review).

These projectors are tied as the best bright room home entertainment projectors, and for good reason. The BenQ offers 3,000 lumens, and the ViewSonic boasts 3,500 lumens. That makes these projectors major light cannons, both capable of cutting through some serious ambient light.

An HDTV football game, projected by the ViewSonic PX747-4K.

Paired with the proper ambient light rejecting screen (ALR), the BenQ TK800M and ViewSonic PX747-4K have the potential for being just as bright as a regular LCD TV. These projectors are designed for the common rooms of your home – living rooms, family rooms, media rooms, gaming rooms, wherever you like. Just know that, once calibrated, the lumen output on both projectors is significantly less.

Stacking up the similarities, both companies make a more “home theater version” of each projector. The BenQ TK800M’s home theater equivalent is the HT2550 (a winner last year, but a non-winner this year, thanks to the emergence of the HT3550), and the ViewSonic’s is the PX727-4K, which we reviewed last year (it also won an award last year, but is a non-winner this year).

The Bottom Line

These are two projectors that will be particularly good at projecting sports, with the BenQ having a specific picture mode for sports viewing. Both have an under 50ms input lag, making them good gaming projectors for all but the most serious, hardcore competitive gamers.

The major bottom line is that these two projectors are very, very similar. We give the BenQ a slight edge in out-of-the-box color, while we give the ViewSonic the edge in selling price, etc. If you’re looking for a good value, good-looking projector for your bright room, consider the BenQ TK800M or the ViewSonic PX747-4K.

Get the BenQ TK800M on Amazon!

Get the ViewSonic PX747-4K on Amazon!