Viewsonic PJD7822HD Projector Review - Performance

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Art Feierman

ViewSonic Specs
Price
Technology
Native Resolution
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)
Contrast
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Viewsonic PJD7822HD L Brightness

Brightness by Mode, Color Temp of White (100 IRE)
Mode	Lumens	Color Temp
Brightest	3873	6486
ViewMatch	3035	6998
PC	2892	7309
Movie	1999	6160
Dynamic PC	2678	7269
Dynamic Movie	1999	6160
Brightest Mode (on Eco)	2945

Brightness is measured with zoom at mid-point.

As you can see from the table, PC modes are the coolest - color temp wise. Brightest mode also is very strong on greens, and bright reds come out dark red, yellows, yellowish green..

Note that Eco mode measured approximately 25% lower, which is, if anything a smaller drop than most projectors (most common range is down 30-35%).

User 1 and User 2 are created by selecting one of them, and then on the menu selecting which preset mode they should be based on, before adjusting. For our calibration purposes, we took User 1, and selected its reference mode as Movie.

Color Temp, Cinema, Pre-Calibration

Color Temp across brightness range - Movie Mode
IRE (Brightness)	Color Temp
100	6165
80	6657
50	6818
30	6865

Not much to see in this table. We don't report as many IRE points on pre-calibration data, as we do on post, but from the four points from white to medium dark gray, Movie mode starts out a bit warm - strong on reds, when doing white - so in bright scenes, but steadily cools off as brightness decreases.

Without adjustment, Movie will, for most critical viewers, be the preferred mode compared to say, ViewMatch, but both are respectable.

The thing is, ViewMatch is brighter, and it's cooler tendency likely will be preferred by many for sports viewing.

Even our calibration settings, found in the calibration pages, result in only minor adjustments compared to the default.

Only Brightest mode has color balance issues that are of significance. Figure to use Brightest only when you are fighting a lot of ambient light, because with its strong yellow-greens, Brightest, is not very pretty, but it will get the job done when every last lumen counts!

PJD7822HDL Brightness - Calibrated

Mike measured over 4000 lumens at the maximum (wide angle on the lens) which is sort of amazing considering only a 3200 lumen claim from Viewsonic. More importantly very good color starts around 3000 lumens and below, at mid-point on the zoom, our normal point of measurement. While the Viewsonic lacks a full set of controls for calibration, the end result of Mike's calibration was still rather good. Calibrated brightness ends up almost 50% below maximum brightness, indicating, for example that relative to maximum claim, the Viewsonic has a lower % color lumens than the other winners in this price range. The Epson claims the same color and white lumens, while the BenQ comes in with about 2/3 the color lumens compared to white ones.

The bottom line: After Mike's calibration, mid-point on the zoom:

Viewsonic PJD-7822HDL: 1993 Lumens

Light Canon! Also of note, Viewmatch mode - a bit cool, is still really fine for my sports viewing, and offers up an extra 1000 lumens, making it one of the brighter projectors around. Not bad for low $600s in terms of street price!

Affect of Zoom Lens on Brightness

Affect of Zoom Position on Brightness, Bright Mode
Zoom	Lumens
Wide angle (zoom out)	4023
Mid-zoom	3873
Telephoto (zoom in)	3635

With only a 1.3:1 zoom lens range, we don't expect to see a significant drop off of brightness between placing the projector at its closest possible distance to a given sized screen, and placing it at the furthest possible distance from that same screen.

The measured results confirm that.

But the real surprise - even considering that we know Mike's newer measurement gear is a bit optimistic - is that the Viewsonic beat its brightness claim, no matter what lens zoom setting is used.

Because the difference between wide angle and telephoto is relatively slight, place the projector at the distance works best for you in general, whether mounting or placing table top.

PJD7822HD Best Mode Color Temperature - Post Calibration

Color Temp across brightness range - Cinema Mode
IRE (Brightness)	Color Temp
100	6264
90	6286
80	6242
70	6162
60	6075
50	6066
40	6077
30	6038
20	5960

Overall, the projector post calibration measures slightly warm - a touch strong on reds. This tendency increases as brightness of a scene decreases, but is not a huge shift from ideal 6500K. These numbers produced the best CIE chart balance, but a different calibration could reduce the reds slightly. I've manually played with the controls, building on Mike's calibration numbers, adjusting Red down just slightly for slightly better skin tones (by -2).