Viewsonic Pro8530HDL Projector Review - Performance

Posted on October 16, 2016 by Jarrod Buckley

Viewsonic Pro8530HDL Projector - Performance: Brightness, Color Accuracy, Noise

ViewSonic Specs
Price
Technology	0
Native Resolution	1/4 HD (960x540)
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)	0
Contrast	-
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Brightness

Viewsonic PRO8530HDL - Brightness
Color Mode	White Lumens	Color Lumens	Color Temperature
Brightest	4898	1577	5216K
Dynamic	4186	not measured	5167K
Standard	3603	not measured	5982K
ViewMatch sRGB	2417	not measured	5434K
Movie	2542	1640	5798K
DICOM Sim.	3172	not measured	5195K

Factory default settings were used with all Color Modes. Color brightness measurements were only performed for the two Color Modes indicated in the table. For more information on why color brightness is important see our short video on this subject - HERE. These measurements were made with the lamp in normal (i.e., full power) mode. Eco mode reduces the picture brightness by 26%.

[sam_pro id=1_108 codes="true"]

The measurements in the above table were made with the projector's zoom set at its mid-point. Changing this to maximum zoom increased the lumens output in brightest mode to 5285 (white) lumens, thus meeting the manufacturer's 5200 lumen rating for this projector. Changing the lens to minimum zoom setting decreased the brightness to 4192 (white) lumens.

Brightness uniformity was less than ideal with approximately a 50% falloff in brightness from the center of the image to the dimmest corner measured in Brightest Color mode.

Color Accuracy

The following diagrams show the performance in terms of color gamut accuracy with the PRO8530HDL operating in 'Movie Color Mode' with the factory default setting.

As can be seen in the above diagram the measured green primary color point (the green circle) shows the greatest error from the standard green color point (the green square) for HD video (ITU Rec. 709).

The above luminance diagram shows the all of the primary and secondary colors (with 100% saturation) were displayed 20% up to 35% too dark, as compared to white. This is probably due to the use of a clear segment in the color wheel as part of the 'Brilliant Color' function, which pumps up the white level. This characteristic is not unusual for single chip DLP projectors that use a clear segment in the color wheel along with the 'Brilliant Color' feature. I must note that in 'Movie Color Mode' the Brilliant Color level has been reduced in the factory default settings as compared to the brighter picture modes offered by this projector. Further reducing the 'Brilliant Color' setting on the projector's menu to a setting of 1, corrects much of this issue, but at the cost of reduced white lumens.

I adjusted the color temperature controls offered by the projector to improve the color temperature and grey scale. The two diagrams below show the before and after grey scale measurements. As seen in the 2nd diagram the grey scale was adjusted to track near the ideal 6500K color temperature.

Grey Scale with default settings

viewsonic-pro8530hdl-movie-calibrated-grey-scale

Greyscale after adjustments

The following adjustments were made.

Color Temp. = Neutral

Red Drive = 32

Green Drive = 43

Blue Drive = 48

Red Offset = -3

Green Offset = 0

Blue Offset = 0

Noise

Viewsonic does not include a specification for the noise level produced by the PRO8530HDL. However, this model seemed somewhat less noisy than some other business and education projectors rated at the 5000 lumen level and I would estimate the noise level with the lamp in full power mode to be in the 34 to 36 dB range and in Eco mode the projector was relatively quiet. Noise level in either mode should be acceptable for use in most business or classroom environments.