My BenQ 6200 review (1 Viewer)

[Mike Wladyka]

well, i got my 6200 a week ago, and have been enjoying it ever since. so here is my review...if you have any questions after you have read the review, i will try to answer them to the best of my ability.

Review Agenda: Connectivity, Setup & Tweak Ability, Colors, Black Level, Screendoor, Brightness, Rainbows, Conclusions

Rating Scale: Worst to Best

Terrible
Very Poor
Poor
Fair
Good
Very Good
Excellent

Video Sources:
3 year old Hitachi DVD player - component, interlaced
XBOX - component, progessive


Connectivity: Fair

there isn't much in the way of connections on this pj, just a composite, s-video, and a VGA which can accept Component or RGB signals. Not a huge showstopper, as i have my component sources into my receiver for switching then to VGA through a VGA to component adapter.


Setup & Tweakability: Fair to Good

setup was a breeze, just connect it, plug it in, and begin to play. menus are easy to navigate and setup nicely. the user has some ability to tweak the picture, with controls such as brightness, contrast, color, color temp, and tint. it has four different modes for viewing which are gaming, economic, video, and cinema. i have mine set in economic, and i am projecting onto an off-white wall.

Colors: Good to Very Good

the colors on this machine are very pleasing. Fleshtones look to be accurate and natural. Blues and Greens look really good with well saturated colors. Reds look good, but not as quite as good as the blues and greens. From what i have read this seems to be common problem with DLPs. i know that some people at avsforum have been saying that the colors in economic mode don't look as good as in cinema or video mode, but i think they are very close, at least in my setup.

Black Level: Good to Very good

the blacks are good, are they as black as my paradigm center channel speaker? no, but they are respectable to me. People who have black hair in movies look like they have black hair, and people wearing black leather coats look like they are wearing black leather coats. Both hair and leather coats have detail in them.


Screendoor: Very Good

not even a hint of it from my seating position, which is 144" from a 100" 16:9 screen. i am slightly to the nearsighted side of 20:20 vision, not sure if that is 30:20 or 20:30, i don't need glasses, my vision isn't perfect, but it is pretty good.

Brightness: Very Good

this little guy was definitely a tad bright out of the box, but with a little tweaking of brightness and contrast, it doesn't look overly bright, now. it also has a very even picture, no hot spots that i can detect.

Rainbows: Fair to Good

i have seen more rainbows on this pj which supposedly has 3x wheel than on the X1 which has a 2x. I don't see lots of them, but i do see them every now and then. of course, this could be attributed to many things.


Conclusions:

i am glad that i stopped waiting and bought this pj. it throws a great picture, and while i do see the occasional rainbow, it is nowhere near enough to give up the great picture. I played Halo on it yesterday for probably about 7 or 8 hours (with a lunch break) and had no problems with a headache or eye fatigue.


If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to ask...

 

[Neil Joseph]

What is the rated contrast ratio of this projector?

BTW, thanks for the review.

 

[Mike Wladyka]

i believe it is 2000:1

 

[Ian-Fl]

I've been looking at that projector as well.
It's an DLP projector with an XGA resolution that's going for around $1700.US
The throw distance I think is the same as the PB6100. I'm curious to know how it would work with a Momitsu V880 http://www.extremephono.com/momitsu_dvd_v880.htm and how it compares to the NEC LT240?

 

[Dalton]

Thanks for the review Mike. I am ordering this pj in about another week. I wish it had more input otions but oh well. I will be building an HTPC(my first) for this pj anyway. It has everything else i want/need:

XGA resolution
short throw lens
4:3 or 16:9 selectable
Best of all if you order before 3/31 you get a free replacement bulb from BenQ! To me the free bulb is the icing on the cake. Thats like taking $400 of the cost of the pj. Tiger Direct has an excellent price on this unit also. I am still trying to decide if i should get a 4:3 screen or 16:9. I watch more movies than anything else. I know this unit will sidebar 4:3 material if you set it in 16:9 mode. The only reason i haven't decided on a screen aspect ratio is because i have read that the video on this unit really shines if you run it in Native(1024x768) mode. Don't i need to run a 4:3 screen to run it in native mode?

Mike,
What kind of screen are you using? Screen color is another choice i am looking at. Should i go with High Contrast Matte White or High Contrast Grey? Questions, questions, questions......

 

[Mike Wladyka]

Dalton,

i an using an off white wall in my apartment for my screen right now. mainly because i haven't decided on a screen size and screen color, i just started researching screens. Although, i did try a bit of Joann's Black Out cloth, when i was blacking out my windows...and there was virtually no difference between the wall and the cloth.


there are two things that i forgot to mention in my above review and they are fan noise, and light spill.

Fan noise: Good

in economode this thing is pretty quiet. i have mine probably no more than 5 feet from my head. and i can only hear faintly, if i am listening for it. it never distracts me from the movie and/or halo...

Light Spill: Fair

this is my only gripe with this unit. there is a decent amount of light spill around the picture in 16:9 mode, comparable to the light spill from the X1; not sure about any other modes such as Native or 4:3 (i keep it set to 16:9). But this should be a pretty easy fix. I am going to put a black felt border around the picture, which should take care of the light spill.