Benq 7700 with HD-2 chip street price $2699.00 (1 Viewer)

[John Menoni]

I just got a price quote from projectorpoint.com on the new Benq 7700 for $2699.00. Seems like a bargain considering it Supposedly has the same HD2 chip as the 8700 and similar overall specs. I haven't got a price on the 8720. That is supposed to have a much improved lumens output and contrast ratio to the 8700.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

The 8700+ uses a HD2+ chip. The 7700 will also use the 2+ chip. You can't get anything with the HD2 chip anymore.

The 7700 is the direct replacement for the 8700+ but priced significantly less.

The 8720 is going upscale and will sell for $11000 US ... using an 8 segment wheel, lens shift, and 5500:1 contrast. It is also almost twice the size of the 8700+ unit.

(I should note that while full on/off contrast numbers sound impressive, properly calibrated unit contrast ratios are no where close to that ... typically well under 500:1)

Regards

 

[TheLongshot]

Do they have any idea when they will be getting them in?

Jason

 

[John Menoni]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Looks like I am going to be saving some $$$. I was all set to get the 8700+ but I think I will be waiting for the 7700. This is going to really make an impact on the DLP home theater projector market. There is no projector in the class of the 7700 that comes close in the price. Not as many people are going to be willing to fork over 7 to 10 grand on a projector in the same league as the 7700 that costs $2699. I hope the throw distance is going to be the same.

 

[Matthew_]

The 8700+ sounds great.

 

[Jon Oliva]

Actually, the Toshiba MT700 is essentially the same projector except it uses farjouda processing (there may be some other small differences I am not aware of yet), and its street price is smack at $2500 right now. Hopefully the BenQ 7700 will come in lower and closer to that figure. Speaking of which, I spoke with a dealer today who said they should be getting in the BenQ's next week-ish and they should be getting to customers in mid-april.

 

[John Menoni]

I just hope we get some good reviews of both products real soon. I'm just real happy the prices are becoming so much more reasonable. I remember seeing a demo of a Seleco Sim2 projector years ago. It was one of the first to have the HD2 chip. The picture was huge and amazing looking. I knew that I was going to go with a projector with an HD2 chip but the price of the sim2 at the time was almost $10,000!!! Now for $2500.00-$3000.00 you can get a similar performing projector. I know that some of the more expensive DLP projectors with the HD2 chip do out perform the BenQ 8700/7700 and the Sharp Z2000, and the new Tobisha. However the performance is very good considering the price. My wait seems almost over!

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

Remember ... you can always get better for more money, but how much better?

The BenQ 8700+ for instance, great bang for the buck at about $5000 Cdn ... compared to the infocus 7200 at $10K ... pretty similar performance ...

Then there is the MArantz 12L2 at $20K ... which is better ... but is it $15K better? Build quality has the BenQ beat, but image quality is at best 10% better when properly set up ...

Ditto for the Runco CL 710 ... it's a bit better ...

When you get those units, you are getting them for reasons beyond just on screen performance.

Now a Runco VX2 3 chip DLP at $50K really beats any of these other units I mentioned and by a whole lot too.

Regards

 

[Jon Oliva]

Michael - I agree, it's really all about bang for your buck. I like lots of bang for my buck, and $2500 is definately the bleeeeeding edge of my budget. These HD2+ boys should fit nicely.

I would also add, "you can also always get worse for more money..." hehe

 

[MikeSRC]

I've been using the Toshiba MT700 for a few weeks now and it's an excellent projector for the price. As mentioned above, it's essentially a 7700 only with Faroudja deinterlacing. The BenQ will be using some other deinterlacing solution in conjunction with their Senseye image processing.

The Toshiba has a great setup right out of the box and only required a few adjustments to get the greyscale right. User adjustments for RBG gain, offset and gamma are available. It has a short throw, with a minimum of 1.32:1 (distance/screen width). It also has zero offset, which can be good or bad depending on your ceiling height. PQ is very good, particularly with HD through the HDMI input. From what I've heard, the BenQ will have all the same attributes as menioned above.

 

[TheLongshot]

Unfortunatly, I'm probably going to have to pass on both of these.

The lack of lens shift is a deal killer for me, since there is no other way to get this in my room.

Back to the AE700, I guess...

:frowning:

Jason

 

[Jon Oliva]

Mike- in regards to the BenQ's Senseye processing do you expect the 7700 to have a higher contrast ratio vs the MT700. (Re: the 2500:1 vs 2000/2400/2500:1 confused MT700 specs) Personally I'm hoping they're the same

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

The HD2+ is rated at a CR of 2500:1 ... this won't change.

The sensieye thing is an auto contrast gimmick ... that no one in their right mind will use.

(One should note that the properly calibrated unit will not have a CR anywhere close to that number. 500:1 is more realistic if that high ...)

Regards

 

[MikeSRC]

I'd be wary of the Senseye image enhancement as well. One part of it ("Sharpness Enhancement Engine") in particular looks like excessive edge enhancement just waiting to happen. I would expect it will be defeatable. Here's some marketing info from BenQ about it: Senseye



Yes. I'm getting CR in the 500-600 range using the Avia Pro checkerboard and OpticOne.

 

[Max Leung]

One other possible difference between the 7700 and the 8700 is HDMI input - does the 7700 have HDMI? Also, what deinterlacer is used in the 7700? I know that the 8700 has the Silicon Image chip - which is actually a fantastic deinterlacer (it plays my anime discs flawlessly - hands down better than my HTPC with the NVIDIA DVD Decoders) but with a fatal flaw: Chroma Upsampling Error from hell! :frowning:

 

[MikeSRC]

According to the BenQ people I've spoken to, it's their own deinterlacing solution. Originally, I thought it was part of the Senseye system, but apparently that's not the case. It could be the Pixelworks chip used in some of their other projectors.

On a side note, CUE is a function of the MPEG deocder, not the deinterlacing chip, so if the 8700 has CUE problems, it's not due to the SI chip.

 

[John Menoni]

I am just going to wait for some reviews to come out about the 7700. I want to see how it stacks up against the 8700+. Hopefully it will iron out any major problems of the 8700+.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

I haven't had any CUE due to the projector. IT has nothing to do with the projector.

I do like the fact that the Lumagen Visionhdp processor that I use will fix this issue with DVD sources that have the error.

Regards

 

[Max Leung]

I am using a Panasonic RP-91 DVD player. As far as I know, it does not have CUE in interlaced or progressive mode.

Maybe it's the scaler on the Benq 8700 that is introducing this error - maybe it isn't CUE then, but some other artifact. Either that, or I'm too used to the near-perfect image I get from my HTPC. Two other owners have reported something similar - but yeah, it may not be CUE.

I hope the 7700 supports proper 59.94hz over DVI, unlike the 8700. My eagle eyes see the stutter everytime.

BTW Michael, are you using DVI? If so, in theory you should be getting a dropped or repeated frame every 18 seconds (easier to spot on 30 fps or 60 fps material). On the AVSForum Official Benq 8700 thread, another owner reported the same issue with a DVDO IScan.

 

[Michael TLV]

Greetings

I am using the DVI on the Benq ...

Whether or not there is a dropped frame every 18 sec. is inconsequential since I can't see it ...

REgards