I purchased this projector earlier in January directly from Benq. Upon initial physical inspection I'd say this is a large projector, a little plasticky and funky looking with a mostly black box a dark purple shinny insert and the unneserarily oversized lense attachment for zoom/focus....ok now for the real disapointment..as previously reviewed everywhere you need to spend a bit of time 3:30 hrs in my case to dial in all the colors properly...once that is done..."WOW" what a beautiful picture, in one word "Awesome", when compared with the LCD it was replacing. At once I noticed the LOUD fan noise..this unit sits directly above the front row of seats which is "my sweet spot", not to mention the misterious BUZZ sound that I identified as the Dinamyc Iris....Yes everytime the picture fades to black or dark scenes...ZZIIIPPPP...I found out the way to get rid of this distraction was turning dinamyc black off doing this affected the black levels and the pop factor in the picture, however not in a major way....but still... I could not enjoy a quiet night movie with all that racket!..my honest opinion is that for $2500.00 even though the picture was great, it is not worth the annoyance cause by it's noisy behaviour...so back to benq it went. I would find it hard to recommend this projector based solely on it's picture quality...there is more to a good projector than that....in my opinion. BenQ W6000 1080p DLP Projector
If you are in a situation where you have ambient light, or a large screen to fill this projector fits the bill. The important part is the six segment color wheel. A lot of DLP projectors with this type of light output will cheat and use a seven segment wheel. The Seventh segment is white. That increases the brightness but washes out the colors and ruins the contrast. Those that are sensitive to DLP "Rainbows" will be very happy with the image quality.
The projector supports vertical and horizontal lens shifting (critical for properly aligning the picture to the screen), however it's a manual stick on the front of the project. Zoom and focus are also manual by moving two large rings around the lens. The build quality of the case is middle of the road, which is fine for fixed installation, but I wouldn't recommend traveling with it. Given the price point of thousands less than competing projectors those are fair compromises.
The W6000 has some of the highest ratings in a home theater projector under $5,000 and delivers a super bright, high contrast picture. It has 2500 lumens compared with most projectors in this price range with 1000 to 1600. It's big, heavy, it has a formidable lens and delivers an excellent picture in any lighting. If you are considering the Panasonic PTAE4000U or Epson 8500UB, this projector is definitely in that class but is far superior in brightness. For a screen size greater than 120" and with any level of ambient lighting, this is undoubtedly the best overall projector for the money.
We have owned an Optoma 1080p for two years before purchasing the W6000. We project on a gray wall with a screen size larger than 120 inches, ceiling mount. We use it for watching movies and playing PS3 games. The BenQ blows the Optoma away with crisp brightness yet no rainbows or loss of blacks (gotta love dlp). Also virtually no aliasing. There is considerable set-up time if you are really picky about colors and contrast - but at least you have the choice. The fan noise was unnoticeable especially compared to the Optoma...I was afraid it wasn't working correctly at first. Much cooler, much quieter, better picture = worth the price.
Additional note: We have become a house divided...I like the Benq handling of motion, but my 28 year old son does not. We both agree that it is crisper, brighter and quieter than the Optoma but we are going to begin looking for a different projector that we both can love.
Resolved! The motion problems were a result of a setting on the PS3. For games the motion was normal but for movies it was strange...not blurry, but odd. We changed a setting on the PS3 from 24 frames to 60 Hz(?)and now everyone agrees that this projector is perfect.
I've been using a front projection setup for several years now, starting with a serendipitous purchase of an NEC LT150 that was a "price mistake" find. After getting it and figuring out how to mount it, put up a screen and run cables in the ceiling with a friend's help, I've been hooked on the true theater type experience that a projector provides. It was a dim, loud, business class projector but still a thrill to have a 100" picture. I upgraded over the years to a brighter NEC business projector, then finally entered real home theater projector land with a 1080p Optoma HD80. At the time, the HD80 was one of the best bang for the buck projectors ever made, and I enjoyed the heck out of it. One of the things that bugged me with the NEC business projectors was the dreaded DLP "rainbow effect", and with the HD80 that was minimized enough that it never really bothered me. I'm fairly sensitive to it, apparently, and could force myself to see it on the HD80 but only by unnatural things like shaking my head.
Unfortunately after 2 1/2 years the HD80 died, and I decided to look around for new models since 1080p has become the standard, and less of a premium feature. The Benq W6000 was high on my radar because it's one of the very few moderate priced DLP models that includes lens shift. Its brightness is another attribute I liked since I have a "living room HT" without full light control, and the extra brightness is great for those afternoon football games. I ended up buying an Epson 8100 LCD unit locally, and the W6000 here, and compared them (eventually adding a Sony SXRD model to the mix to hit all 3 major projector technologies). The Benq lived up to its billing, producing a very bright, dynamic picture. After some tweaks to the initial base settings, I was pretty happy with the overall picture, colors, black level etc. As another reviewer noted, Dynamic Black seemed to cause a little too much iris noise so I also turned it off, and didn't notice much difference in the overall picture. But one problem came back... rainbows. The color wheel is actually only a 4x speed, as opposed to the 6x speed that the HD80 used. In addition, extra brightness seems to make ANYTHING more noticeable, rainbows included. After a couple of weeks, I just couldn't live with it and ended up returning it. If you're not sensitive to this artifact, the W6000 is a fantastic projector. I really, really wanted it to work for me but ended up paying more for the SXRD unit (Sony VPL-HW15). (I wasn't overly impressed with the Epson 8100, though it's a lower priced model so not a really fair comparison - I wish I'd been able to find an 8500 to try instead.) - Home Theater - Bright - Dlp Projectors - Hd Projector'
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