Benq W2700 (HT3550) - is my projector faulty? (1 Viewer)

[Rairun]

Hi!

I've been happy with my Benq W1070 for 5 years. And recently I bought a used W2700 (HT3550). It has been used for 15 months and shows 1123 hours in eco mode and 144 hours in normal mode. Firmware is 1.0.5.

Here are some info about my system:

The walls and the ceiling is painted with dark brown, matte paint.
120" Elite Screens white screen
PC with GTX1060 3GB gpu
Sony STR-DN1080 avr
Madvr+Mpc-Hc

I reset all the settings including picture mode settings as a first thing. I chose D. Cinema to start with. Lamp mode is always "Normal". From the first moment I had the feeling that the image was a bit dim on Windows compared to what I was used it. Then I tried a couple of SDR 1080p movies and still felt that the image was not bright enough. I also tried Cinema mode. I liked it more since it didn't feel so dim but still I wasn't impressed with the image from this projector. Then I checked some test patterns for black and white clipping. I could adjust the brightness and contrast to get rid of the clipping in separate black and white test patterns. But it was impossible to eliminate the clipping using a combined test pattern. I remember that W1070 did better on these tests.

I also tested HDR10 test patterns found on the forum. I had the same problem. (Madvr passes through the HDR mapping to the projector and the projector switches to HDR10 mode automatically.) Then I tried some UHD HDR movies. Colours definitely looked much more vivid and nice but still didn't see the "pop" I expected. The whites were still underwhelming. And reds were oversaturated. Brilliant colour was always on. Turning WCG on in HDR mode made it extremely dark and look weird. I turned it off immediately.

I don't know much about calibration and those technicalities but this HDR pattern looks like something is not OK:


And this is from Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark, 2nd Edition (SDR):


I tried all the different settings on Nvidia control panel: different colour formats, limited, full etc. Same with Madvr settings. I tried a lot of combinations. Nothing I did helped the clipping with those colours.

So now I wonder, can something be wrong with the projector I have? What can I do to determine the problem? Or is this simply how this model performs?

Thank for your opinions.

 

[John Dirk]

Based on what you're experiencing I do not believe there is an operational issue with the projector. I took a look at its specs. It has a claimed brightness capability of 2000 lumens, which is pretty good, however I was surprised by the steep increase in expected lamp life when you switch to any of the other lamp modes except "Normal." This likely means the other modes result in a pronounced decrease in output lumens. It also has a very low contrast ratio of 30,000:1 which probably explains the test results you are seeing with combined black and white patterns. Finally, I note you purchased the projector used. With that being the case, the lamp usage values presented are not reliable as the previous owner may have installed a different lamp before your purchase. I'm not saying this did happen, only that it is possible. When purchasing a used projector, you're better off starting with a new lamp to establish a reliable baseline.

Here is a review I found. It mentions some of the issues you are experiencing with SDR content, so I do believe that is just characteristic of this particular model.

BenQ W2700 review

A budget 4K projector for all occasions

www.whathifi.com

 

[Rairun]

Thank you for your input John.

W1070 has 10000:1 contrast ratio and I believe it looked a bit better on the combined white-black steps test.

And how about the photos I took? Blue, red and green look like one solid color instead of steps. Doesn't that mean I'm losing a lot detail when watching movies in HDR?

 

[John Dirk]

Thank you for your input John.

W1070 has 10000:1 contrast ratio and I believe it looked a bit better on the combined white-black steps test.

And how about the photos I took? Blue, red and green look like one solid color instead of steps. Doesn't that mean I'm losing a lot detail when watching movies in HDR?

I never expect decent HDR from a projector. It's just a lost cause. I would start with a new lamp and reevaluate. It's not really possible to objectively gauge the projector any other way.