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BenQ PE8700 by euroboy - Jan 18, 2005
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| HD 720 (1280x720), 1000 ANSI Lumens, 16.7 lbs, $7,995 (MSRP) |
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| Personal Experience |
| I spent months doing research and talking to people before purchasing the projector. My short list was down to Z2 and 8700+ - in the end went with Benq. This was 6 months ago, and now I like to share some experiance that may help prospective purchasers in making their selection. To me the projector is about one thing - the image quality. Properly calibrated 8700+ with DVE or Avia or even better by a professional installer, can look fantastic - in my case the video source is a Momitsu v880 DX ( upscaling to 720p ) connected with a 5m DVI cable projecting on a 106" Da-lite HCCV screen ( 0.9 measured gain ) - looks very nice. In addition I use an Xbox connected over component - again looks great at 480p or 720p. Now I like to address some issues that are hard for new purchasers to quantify ( at least was hard for me ). Two areas turned out to be difficult - in order to avoid picture distortion the centre of the screen has to match the centre of the lense - I ended up using a laser pointer to find the location - took some work ( a lense shift would come in handy ). The second area that is hard to quantify is the noise level - this projector is rated at 30dB - during very quiet passages you do hear it. The noise comes from two things - the fans and the colour wheel spinning at 7200rpm producing a high pitch noise. If you are doing this for the first time, no matter what projector you select the experiance will be well worth it - here are some tips: most if not all manufactures have manuals on-line - make sure to download and read BEFORE purchasing - nothing better to find out EXACTLY what a projector can do - seriously - after all marketing is about putting positive spin - you need facts not spin !!! - read as much as possible, especially any bad comments, and understand if they could apply to you - there is more value in a bad review if the reviwer is a qualified person - visit as many sites and do google searches as possible, but remember to qualify any information you get - don't assign too much value to reviews from the owners of the projetors in question - most feel stupid to criticize something they ended up purchasing ;-)))) - screen material is very important - when comparing projectors in stores make sure to note what type of screen was used ( white, gray, etc ) In summary, if I was in the market for a projector right now, my list would include Sony HS-51, Panasonic AE700, and Benq 8700+, and I would score each projector based on: image quality ( take the same DVD to a demo, and pause on key images e.g. very dark for shadow detail, do blind demos when possible ie. multiple projectors side by side without you knowing which projector is being watched ) noise level ( LCD projectors may have an advantage in this area - lower wattage bulbs, and no colour wheel ) inputs ( nice to have as many as possible to avoid having to use external switches - Benq shines in this area ) support from manufacturer after sales ( warranty, service, etc - Benq strong point ) ease of mounting ( lense shift, zoom factor, etc ) |
