Acer PD523 User Reviews

Construction is nice and solid with the main casing made of aluminium. It is compact, very nice to handle. As with the other reviews, the image needs adjusting (specifically the white point) to get the best out of it - on its default settings whites exhibit posterizing. Comes with a good set of accessories, large range of input options. We use this regularly in nightclubs - it has been a solid performer and the image is both bright, clear and colourful, even with long runs of S-VHS cable. Excellent resolution for the price and low noise for the lumens. Despite some quirks (listed below), for the features if I needed another projector I would seriously consider this type again.

Any Problems: Light spill from lamp tunnel can be bothersome in some situations. Being a DLP, low-range colour dithering is visible close-up and with some material the rainbow effect can be noticeable - but that's DLP's for you :) As mentioned microdust gets in the lens and is visible as sparkles; it's only really noticeable on images where 90% is dark - it can be cleaned but you need to open the projector in a cleanroom environment. Only two of its three feet are able to be extended.

NZL$1000 (US$620) Got this 2nd hand with only 15 hours on the lamp - very stoked as its 1/2 the price of retail! It suffers from real bad ghosting on composite inputs but comes to life on component. Got it ceiling mounted and the kids love watching their pixar collection on it. It has great colours but its tricky to set up the whites. With careful tuning the picture can look great. I run it on economy all the time as it has plenty of lumens. Its a great value projector and I think other reviewers need to remember the price and other projectors in the same bracket.

Any Problems: Whites Ghosting on composite M2.6 ceiling mount screws are hard to find in NZL. Hint: M2.5 work fine!

Image is great with a bit of tuning. NO GHOSTING if you use good cables!!!!!! The best projector on the market for the money.

Any Problems: I know what people mean when they talk about the white, but a bit of tuning and it is fine, I use my 523 for movies, and infact I use it as my main TV all day and it is great.

It's a great projector. I just bought a second hand one and am very happy with it. About the white area problem you have to play a little bit bit the image properties and it's certainly not a problem at all. To get a better quality image you have to use different settings during the day and night cause the day light around effects the image quality a lot. But Acer PD523 is powerful enough just to use it in a day light, nop at all.

Any Problems: But it would be nice to have a power switch on the unit but i think the main idea was to prevent users to switch the unit off immediately after using it as it needs some time to cool off. Another problem is the dust problem inside the lens. Micro dusts somehow find their ways to the lenses and when the movie gets dark you can see all these dusts as white spots scattered around on the screen, even outside of the show area. Actually this is not limitted only to this product I know that some other projectors like BenQ have got the same problem. And the solution is to clean the lenses which is not an easy task as you need to open the machine to do that.

I love this projector. its very easy to use but its kind of like my ovation, while it did take me a while to calibrate the colour and image settings to my liking, once done the image is great! no complaints yet. I know what the others mean about the white areas but they must have been impatient with the settings. favorite feature: sound. (lack of) this puppy is, in a word, silent. I use it for DVDs, Gaming, presentations and party visuals.

Excellent beamer. Used component (with and without 720P) and it gave a fine picture with no ghosting. It's cheap!!: the price is about 2/3 of any other equal beamer.

Any Problems: Do not use composite. Composite = ghosting. But who wants to use composite anyway?

Others found the image bad. Have they tried to configure the Image? The PD523 is realy quiet! Easy to use.Give it a try and use it.

it has bad image quality, special with dark images, for a 2400 ansi lumens, 2000:1 ratio and XGA resolution... it remembers a 800 ansi lumens projector withe a XGA resolution!

The Acer PD523 is EXCELLENT value for money. I have bought, used, fixed and calibrated many projectors from all the major brands over the last 7 years and I presently personally own the Acer PD523. The reviewers with a ghosting problem should try better cables. I have no ghosting whatsoever on my PD523. Color, brightness and resolution are excellent. Progressive scan HDTV and DVD look brilliant. Apple Keynote and Powerpoint look vibrant. The menus are some of the easiest I have used on a projector. The remote is a logical and well laid out and I really like having a 'Blackout' AND 'Freeze' buttons. My remote was DOA, but Acer happily sent a replacement within 24 hours - awesome service. I also like the 'E' (Empower) button on the remote that let you change color modes on the fly. The case is solid and has a camera tripod mount on the base - handy when travelling. The rear feet are a little limited for horizontal levelling though. My only wish is for DVI input and a physical power switch as well as the 'On/Standby' button. I have set up and used many different projectors throughout Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe, and I am very happy with the Acer PD523 for both presentations and for my extensive home theatre.

Any Problems: - Slight rainbow effect, hence 'Good' rating - Slightly softer focus than some of my other projecters - DOA remote (although happily replaced within 24 hours)

We had done testing only in combination with PC signal. The results were comparable to more expensive models (BenQ, InFocus). Throw ratio is a bit lover than for BenQ (you must put the proejctor more far from the screen to get the same image). THe godo thing is manula setup for color and brightnes correction. We had problems to load the user defined screen to the projector.

Any Problems: Zoom value is hard to fix - it moves in any direction almost free. It is impossible to focus the image in all part of the area.

This MUST be the worst beamer I ever bought. Although the specs are excellent, the image is just sooooo bad. I bought this one for homecinema use based on specs and this b.s. on the acer website: "excellent film-like video quality" and "enhancing your home entertainment pleasure". In reality, the ghostingis so bad that anything that moves (and I don't know of any movie where nothing moves) will be out of focus. Trying to watch action scenes is impossible as you simply cannot make anything out.

Any Problems: Ghosting! Lots and lots of it. This beamer cannot be used for homecinema, only buy it for (still) presentations!

Do not expect to use this for home cinema. The picture on anything containing white - such as sky, shirts, backround light clours - is absolutely terrible. Lots & lots of poor gradients. You couldn't watch it for more than five minutes without going mad!

Don't buy this crap if you want to use it for home cinema ! It's an excellent projector if you use the vga-input (computer), but when you use the analog input (even S-vhs or component video) it's totally not watchable ! I've bought this projector because it's an affordable projector with top specs and very quiet. When I watch a movie using my DVD-player in my portable and connected by the vga-port, the image is amazing. But any other input has enormous ghosting that even my dog wouldn't watch it anymore. I selled the thing immediately. Someone I know send the same projector to Acer and he got it returned, with a note "no problems found"...

Any Problems: enormous ghosting !!

This would have been an excellent beamer if it hadn't suffered from severe ghosting. I guess it will be fine for businesses using it for presentations only. But don't expect to use it for Home Cinema.

Any Problems: Ghosting effect