Well I think I have made my decision, a BenQ 8700 (1 Viewer)

[Peter Keeling]

I spent a significant amount of time looking at a bunch of projectors, but the 8700 mostly. I fell in love with it really fast after hearing all these great things about it. Im alomst 100 sure that i am going to go with that, and just want to hear anybody else's final opinions on it.

thanks,
Peter Keeling

 

[Peter Keeling]

.

 

[micah bjj]

I dont know anything about that projector...but the guy at projectorcentral said that he doesnt carry that one and may drop the Benq line because he feels they are cheap. Like the equivilant of buying your dvd players and stuff at wal mart.

Dont know if it is true. take it for what it is worth.

 

[Max Leung]

Which guy at projector central? So far as I can see, it is still their number one recommended projector in the high performance category.

The Benq 8700 is not cheap - the build quality is far far better than a Sanyo PLV-Z1, for example - now THAT is a cheap projector. Ugh - those fricking dust blobs on the Z1 drive me nuts.

It's nearly as good as an NEC LT240K - the most solidly built projector I've ever owned...better built than the well-regarded NEC HT1000 IMHO even though they share the same chassis.

Perhaps that guy meant to say:

"I am thinking of dropping the Benq because too many people want it and I hardly make any profit because the margins are too low."

The margins on the Benq is very low - I'd be surprised if a dealer made even 10% profit off of it. I spoke to a local Benq dealer - he told me he doesn't make very much off of each sale. You'd have to push a lot of Benq's to put food on the table.

 

[Max Leung]

With that said, some thoughts:

- Reds are a bit orangey. But I'm being overly picky.

- fans are a bit loud for a home theater projector. With the money you save getting this versus another HD2+ projector, you can build a hushbox...but most people think it is very quiet, which confuses me. I must be spoiled by the Z1 and the NEC projectors - they have lower fan noise.

- On a 100" screen, the blacks are very nice. On a smaller screen (less than 80" diagonal), a neutral density filter might be a good thing to add.

- Service menu is easy to get into. On the remote, just press Menu, Power On, then Menu again.

- I wish it had an adjustable iris, but at this price point I'll live with it.

- Benq does not supply BNC-to-RCA adapters for progressive component video support - they are supposed to, but I heard they ran out and are quietly shipping 8700s without them.

- the regular component inputs only support 480i...you have to use the BNC connectors for true progressive support (see point above)

- the very short throw could be a problem. I wish it had a longer throw so I could stick it on the shelf at the back of my 16 foot long room. Oh well. Ceiling mount will have to do.

- I wouldn't recommend this projector if you don't have good light control in your room. Unless you use a high gain screen like the Da-Lite High Power, but you'd need to table mount. Or if you have lots of cash, a Vutec Silverstar would work well.

- Looks incredible when coupled with a DVI DVD player like a Momitsu V880. My god, DVD movies look damn near HD quality...

Some people report geometric distortion problems. Fortunately, my projector has perfect geometry, and is very good even at the limits of zoom. My benq does have a dust blob inside the optics on the right top quadrant, but I can only see it on a pitch black image - it is very subtle.

 

[Paul_Scott]

just curious Max. is there anything in particular that makes you say this;


Peter, the biggest(only?) thing that would give me cause for pause on the Benq would be the talk about the fan noise.
i see this everythime the Benq is mentioned.
that maybe testimonial to just how good the pj is, that this is the only niggling complaint most people can make, or it could be a real annoyance.
noise level is a big issue for me and it was one reason that prompted my (first) upgrade.
since this is your first pj, its most likely that you will take this aspect in stride because you will be wowed with the sheer visual novelty of a really big screen for quite a while.
other than that, from everything i read, it seems like the Benq represents the best bang for the buck right now (unlike the HT1000, which i own, love, and would not hesitate to recommend if it wasn't currently somewhat overpriced).

looking forward to hearing your first few posts after you get it and have it set up

 

[Max Leung]

Paul, I loved the LT240K. Except for the damn rainbows since it has a 2x color wheel.

The LT240K puts up an extremely sharp image...I don't know what they did with the optics, but there was no hint of chromatic aberration (color fringing) and the focus is absolutely perfect. Color uniformity was also perfect. Fan noise was extremely good too. Images look damn-near 3D on that pj. Oh and no dust specs anywhere inside the lens assembly. The HT1000 I had for a brief while was fuzzy, had dirt inside the lens, and I could not get the damn thing focused quite right. Brightness uniformity wasn't as good as the LT240K. Oh and the rainbows were no better than the LT240K...I either had a faulty HT1000 or the 4x color wheel is just not good enough for my eyes.

The benq is in between the LT240K and the HT1000. Good uniformity, focus is very good. I have some dirt inside the lens assembly, but I can't see it except on a totally black image.

IMHO, the HT1000 should be priced the same as the LT240K, and the LT240K should be priced even lower.

 

[Max Leung]

Oh...and I agree, fan noise is my only complaint with the 8700 right now. A simple hushbox should fix that though. It'd be a lot cheaper to get a Benq 8700 and a hushbox than to get a Sharp DT-300, which is only 1024x576.