BenQ W700 DLP Projector Review – Verdict pros and cons – Page 4
Before the Verdict, one additionnel thing that got my attention is a leak of light on the left part of the screen. It happens only in very very dark scene and I think it is related to the fabrication quality of the projector. It really doesn’t bother at all but I think this is not normal. Could some one please confirm that this is not normal? did some one else experience this?
Verdict:
One thing for sure is that the BenQ W700 has an excellent video quality: crisp sharp image, very nice colors and excellent contrast. The brightness is more than enough for home theatre use with fully darkened room. For audio quality, use your own sound system and do not count on the minijack audio output.
BenQ claims that they are using new cooling technique to increase the lamp life, but from what I have seen with this overheating issue, I dont think it will make it to the estimated value as overheating can seriously damage the lamp and decrease its life…
Pros:
- Excellent Video Quality (Brightness, Color, Sharp image)
- Contrast (Dynamically Variable iris, Contrast Ratio 10.000:1)
- Connectivity
- “Estimated” Lamp life
- Design
Cons:
- Overheating Issue (occurred twice during the first 10 days)
- Rainbow effect (for scene containing a mix of bright and dark materials)
- Useless MiniJack audio output for its quality and noise
- No HDMI 1.4 support (=no 3D with PS3)
Overall, my final rate for the BenQ W700 DLP Projector is: 15 / 20
And here is a sample with some light and surrounded by One Piece posters ;) :
Previous page: 3D and sound quality
Please leave a comment with your feedback.
Other Posts related to BenQ W700 DLP Projector:
- BenQ W700 video projector: Photo samples with PS3 Games and Blu-ray
- BenQ W700 unboxing video review and first impressions
- HD Projectors around 500€: choosing BenQ W700 over Acer, Epson and Optoma
Thanks for this good review.
I guess I will also give the w700 a try, in case I dont change my mind for a FullHD Projector. However, there’s just not that much content for 1080i available if you dont want to buy tons of BluRays…
:)
Great review! Thank you so much! Have you recorded any video (movies) to show us the power of the contract ratio?
Actually, at the beginning I thought about doing that but then I realized that taking photos samples with my camera will show better the quality of the picture. I will try to record some scene and if the quality looks good in the recorded video, I will upload did.
Is there any way to have 3d with PS3?
the BenQ W700 has HDMI 1.3, therefore it does not support 3D from PS3.
However Optoma and Viewsonic have both their own adapter for 3D from PS3, Optoma 3D-XL and Viewsonic VP3D1. They are designed to work respectively for Optoma and Viewsonic products to enable 3D.
I don’t know if they work with BenQ products or not.
It really good with optoma 3D xl I tried it! works
I really like your review. As a matter of fact the rainbow effect, light leakage at the left side and over heating issues are serious enough to consider alternative options… thanks for sharing your experience.
;)
Nice :) tnx
Hi
Thanks for sharing, are you sure about the ” use 3x color wheel speed with 6 segment” if so that is pretty good for a DLP right, many are only 2x?
Should make this projektor have less rainbow than older ones… could not find the spec anywere, so were did you get this info from?
Really wish I could se this projector in person before buying, does the black feel really black or more “greyish”?
Regards
/Fredrik
A German website mentioned this speed here http://www.projektoren-datenbank.com/pro/index.php
Look for W700 and then you will see “Farbrad RGBCYW mit 3-facher Geschwindigkeit”
I think most of the recent home theater Projector (not the expensive one) use 3x color wheel speed. For sure the more speed you have the less rainbow effect you will see. I don’t know about other projectors, but I find its black color good.
Great review! I’d like to ask that can anybody recommend something else projector? This Benq W700 seems more than good but I’m aware of overheating problems. In here when it’s winter and -0 to -30 degrees would that cooler the projector?
Very helpful review!!!
I am planning to buy w700 in the next couple of days. Have you tried playing 3d mkv sbs? Or it still needs Nvidia kit? Regards
thanks for sharing! at mine, no sign of the leakage, no overheating so far (damn’ I m lucky) still, maybe a little extra con: I use it on a vertical keystone tilt of -6 and when I am inspecting the image, but only let s say on a total commander window, I think I can see some horizontal waves of sharpness, parts of screen being sharper than the others. I m not sure about this, maybe someone can share their experience.
In DLP projectors, light leakage is generally there. Please refer http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/ProjectorLCDvsDLP.htm which talks about this leak below:
The ‘halo’ effect (or ‘light leakage’). It may bother some people using their projector for home cinema. Basically it’s a grey band around the outside of the image, caused by stray light being bounced off the edges of the tiny mirrors on the DLP chip. It can be a distraction, but can be overcome by having a black border a few inches wide around the screen, so the halo falls on to the border. However the halo effect is less evident in the newer DLP chips such as the DDR chip.
By the way, how worth is this projector for $480 ?
hi nice review, it certainly helped me choose the w700 as my next projector.
I use the native resolution of 1280×720 but the screen of the pc doesnt reach the borders of the projecting image which is quite odd. 1280×720 should mean one-for-one pixel and thats not the case. I have to digitally zoom it to 1.1 to reach the extremes of what my projector shows and Im wondering if this is a “feature” of this model, or is this something wrong with my settings
I have just bought the Optoma Ew531 from Argos Direct and after testing i thing its the best 720p i am going to get for the £400 range. how ever, after comparing my the contract of the Optoma which is 3000 and then reading that the Benq w700 has a contract of 10000, wow. i may return my Optoma. By the way, for peole that want to test it before you decide to keep it, there is a way to do that. Tesco’s and Argos will allow you to do this as long as you by it online (part of disctance selling rules) . I bought a Projector from tesco’s last week and after testing it, i found the throw distance was not enough to fill my screen and so i returned it at my nearest Tesco’s store and got a full refund.
I have only had the Optoma EW531 for about 2 days and still doing more tests but i am fiiling that i am loosing out on the 10000 contract that the Benq w700 has. Will it really make a huge deferance? i just feel that balancing the risk of over heating vs slightly better sharpness, is it worth it? please help.
Thanx for the review!
Really helpful! Just what I was looking for!
I tested the projector in a showroom yesterday and I must say the contrast blew me away!
I am now going to buy it. The only drawback so far for me is that my surround system is a bit old and doesn’t have HDMI so I was planning on using the mini jack audio out to get the sound to my system until I buy a new one. Now I know that it’s not going to work. Too bad bad but at least I know it and wont get disappointed. If anyone else would know a way to work around this please let me know.
Thank you for your comment. Actually, for the audio issue usually what I do is to separate the audio and video from the source:
-The projector receives the video signal using hdmi
-For the Audio output, I use either RCA cables or Toslink (optical) + RCA converter directly from the source (e.g., Apple TV, Xbox, PS3, Boxee…) usually those devices provide a way to separate the audio and video in two different cables.
Tnx for the review! What is the status about the heating issue know? I’d like to buy a w700 and contacted benq about the overheating. They say its gone with firmware 102. Any experience with that? And what are your second thoughts after having the beamer for a year now? Tnx in advance.
Thank you for your comment, actually I didn’t know that there is a new firmware, I will check how to do get the update and give it a try ! for the heating issues it happened from time to time after this review but it’s been a while now without problem. I have watched for instance the European soccer cup 2012 without issues. This heating problem is very random. I hope that the new firmware will fix it
im using W700 since november 2011. heating problem is regular even after year. it does not depend on outside temperature or how long you are watching. once W700 overheated twice during one movie :( but after minute projector is ready to work again :)
usually it happens once in 2-3 ‘movie evenings’.
W700 picture quality is great – sharp and colorful. after first days of use I dont see rainbow effect anymore – if not specially looking for it :)
overall, I recommend this product, notably for movie fans! :P