Torgny Nilsson
Second Unit
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2003
- Messages
- 255
I learned a lot from this forum when researching projectors. So I thought I'd share my views on my new BenQ PB8220 FP in case anyone is interested in this projector. While reading this review, please keep in mind that I have only got it up and running this past weekend, so I may have more to add later.
First some background. My home theater is 10' wide and about 24 feet long. Because of my speaker placement, I wanted the seats to be about 11-12' from the screen. And because of the location of a ceiling fan, I had to find a projector that I could mount no more than 12 feet from the screen. I thus needed a short-throw projector that was quiet enough to sit under. I also wanted a DLP projector as I did not want to deal with the risk of burned out pixels with an LCD projector. And I wanted a 4x3 projector as I felt it gives you the largest possible 4X3 image for old movies, and not much loss in image size when viewing modern movies in their correct aspect ratio. I was about to order the BenQ 7200 when two retailers I spoke with recommended that I consider the 8220 instead. It had about the same specs as the 7220, but they both claimed that it had much better quality components and that I would be much happier with it than with the 7200. I did not get the impression that they were upselling me and the 8220 was only $200 more than the 7200.
Set up. I had a heck of a time setting up the 8220. Whatever I did, I could not get the focus just right. Very close, but not perfect. I eventually concluded that you have to mount the projector closer to the screen than where your seats are. For example, when I mounted the projector 12' from my screen (giving me up to a 109" picture), the picture was just a little blurry at 12' and not totally sharp until about 14-15'. I finally decided to mount the projector at about 11' and to keep the seats at 12', which gives me a good 16x9 image and a good 4x3 image for old movies, TV, etc.
Other than the focus/distance issue, set up was a breeze. The menu is clear and easy to access. I ran the AVIA DVD, but did not have to make many changes at all. The projector's default settings were generally good and it has all the options people want these days: keystone correction, etc. I did not have to make any keystone corrections at all; the default was fine when mounting the projector on my 8' ceiling.
Picture. Once you get it mounted the right distance from your screen, the picture is quite good. The colors are vibrant, the blacks are very black, and it is very hard to discern where the top and bottom bars are when viewing a 16x9 image. There are, of course, no bars at all on 4x3 material and old movies look great (with an image size of over 33 square feet using a 100" screen). It is easy to switch between image sizes: the remote has a ratio button right on it that allows you to switch between the 2 with a single click. While the picture is not as sharp as you would get with a plasma screen, it is a good, solid image and my wife believes it is as good as you can get in the theaters. But neither of us has seen many FPs up close, so someone else may feel differently.
I hooked our digital satellite receiver up to the projector yesterday evening and it looks good. Not as good as the picture on our 27" Sony WEGA TV, but very acceptable. My satellite company offers HD, and I may try that at some point in the future for the extra oomph. But the digital signal is fine.
Rainbows. Yes, both my wife and I see them quite easily. When I turned up the contrast and brightness on the projector, I saw them a lot (but only on made for TV movies such as From the Earth to the Moon and on old black and white movies; neither my wife nor I have seen any rainbows on any newer releases such as Gladiator, Shreck, SWII, Sleeping Beauty, Grosspoint Blank, etc.). But the rainbows we saw were VERY disturbing. But when I returned the projector's settings to the factory defaults, I immediately saw very, very few rainbows. So few that while we both still see them sometimes on old movies, they are not at all bothersome and we see them less and less with each viewing. I can't see any rainbows when watching digital cable.
While I have some more tweaks to try, we decided that the projector was a great buy for the money. And even one of our friends who values image quality much more than image size was impressed enough to urge us to keep it.
So there you have it. If you will be sitting 15' or more from the screen, the BenQ will give you a great 100" image. If you will sit closer than that, you may want to go with a slightly smaller screen if you want the sharpest image. We chose to keep our 100" screen even though we are sitting 12' away because old movies look fine in that size, and it gives us a good looking 16x9 image as well (which is naturally smaller anyway).
First some background. My home theater is 10' wide and about 24 feet long. Because of my speaker placement, I wanted the seats to be about 11-12' from the screen. And because of the location of a ceiling fan, I had to find a projector that I could mount no more than 12 feet from the screen. I thus needed a short-throw projector that was quiet enough to sit under. I also wanted a DLP projector as I did not want to deal with the risk of burned out pixels with an LCD projector. And I wanted a 4x3 projector as I felt it gives you the largest possible 4X3 image for old movies, and not much loss in image size when viewing modern movies in their correct aspect ratio. I was about to order the BenQ 7200 when two retailers I spoke with recommended that I consider the 8220 instead. It had about the same specs as the 7220, but they both claimed that it had much better quality components and that I would be much happier with it than with the 7200. I did not get the impression that they were upselling me and the 8220 was only $200 more than the 7200.
Set up. I had a heck of a time setting up the 8220. Whatever I did, I could not get the focus just right. Very close, but not perfect. I eventually concluded that you have to mount the projector closer to the screen than where your seats are. For example, when I mounted the projector 12' from my screen (giving me up to a 109" picture), the picture was just a little blurry at 12' and not totally sharp until about 14-15'. I finally decided to mount the projector at about 11' and to keep the seats at 12', which gives me a good 16x9 image and a good 4x3 image for old movies, TV, etc.
Other than the focus/distance issue, set up was a breeze. The menu is clear and easy to access. I ran the AVIA DVD, but did not have to make many changes at all. The projector's default settings were generally good and it has all the options people want these days: keystone correction, etc. I did not have to make any keystone corrections at all; the default was fine when mounting the projector on my 8' ceiling.
Picture. Once you get it mounted the right distance from your screen, the picture is quite good. The colors are vibrant, the blacks are very black, and it is very hard to discern where the top and bottom bars are when viewing a 16x9 image. There are, of course, no bars at all on 4x3 material and old movies look great (with an image size of over 33 square feet using a 100" screen). It is easy to switch between image sizes: the remote has a ratio button right on it that allows you to switch between the 2 with a single click. While the picture is not as sharp as you would get with a plasma screen, it is a good, solid image and my wife believes it is as good as you can get in the theaters. But neither of us has seen many FPs up close, so someone else may feel differently.
I hooked our digital satellite receiver up to the projector yesterday evening and it looks good. Not as good as the picture on our 27" Sony WEGA TV, but very acceptable. My satellite company offers HD, and I may try that at some point in the future for the extra oomph. But the digital signal is fine.
Rainbows. Yes, both my wife and I see them quite easily. When I turned up the contrast and brightness on the projector, I saw them a lot (but only on made for TV movies such as From the Earth to the Moon and on old black and white movies; neither my wife nor I have seen any rainbows on any newer releases such as Gladiator, Shreck, SWII, Sleeping Beauty, Grosspoint Blank, etc.). But the rainbows we saw were VERY disturbing. But when I returned the projector's settings to the factory defaults, I immediately saw very, very few rainbows. So few that while we both still see them sometimes on old movies, they are not at all bothersome and we see them less and less with each viewing. I can't see any rainbows when watching digital cable.
While I have some more tweaks to try, we decided that the projector was a great buy for the money. And even one of our friends who values image quality much more than image size was impressed enough to urge us to keep it.
So there you have it. If you will be sitting 15' or more from the screen, the BenQ will give you a great 100" image. If you will sit closer than that, you may want to go with a slightly smaller screen if you want the sharpest image. We chose to keep our 100" screen even though we are sitting 12' away because old movies look fine in that size, and it gives us a good looking 16x9 image as well (which is naturally smaller anyway).
