BenQ W10000 1080p DLP Front Projector

[Richard]

1080p DLP front projection is slowly starting to dribble into the market but pricing has been high. BenQ is providing the W10000 for the street price of just under $6000, providing a full 1920x1080 DLP Dark Chip3 DMD far closer in price range with other recently released 1080p technology at $5k and below.

As noted, this is a full 1920x1080 chip and does not use wobulation. The advantage here is the potential for a pixel perfect response. Bear in mind this also means pixels are going to be more visible but whether or not that is a problem is a matter of viewing distance. This is a single chip display utilizing an 8 segment color wheel...

[url=http://www.hdtvmagazine.com/reviews/2007/07/benq_w10000_108.php]Read the Full Review[/url]

[Richard]

[b]HQV Benchmark Blu-ray, Tested HDMI, 1080i via the Sony PS3[/b]

HD Noise Test A&B
The BenQ does not offer a Noise Reduction feature beyond a sharpness control

Video Resolution Loss - FAIL

As noted in the review the BenQ does filter the vertical response turning the 1080 box gray, the 540 box was muted in video levels for the white and black lines and the 270 box had subtle flickering. The rotating bar showed similar aliasing errors as described for Jaggies B.

Jaggies A - PASS

Jaggies B - FAIL
Between about 5-40 degrees the bar showed aliasing errors and also a scalloped effect between center and the end of the bar at about 10-20 degrees. This is directly related to the vertical filtering.

Film Resolution Loss A Vertical - FAIL
Film Resolution Loss A Horizontal - PASS
Beyond the failures described for the prior resolution test the addition of motion caused all vertical boxes to vibrate back and forth by about two pixels.

Film Resolution Loss B - FAIL

Perspective
If you want all the detail from 1080i content you will need an external scaler. On the other hand the detail losses of vertical filtering could be considered a benefit due to the data grade detail response of the display as it helps to hide noise and errors in OTA broadcast HDTV along with satellite or cable delivery that may add other detail artifacts due to compression.


[b]HQV Benchmark DVD, Tested Analog component 480i via the Panasonic DVD-RP91[/b]

Color Bars (4:3) FAIL
Color Bars (16:9) same response
480 vertical block for luminance had large banding due to vertical filtering. 720 horizontal block was clearly rolled off.

Jaggie 1 (16:9) PASS

Jaggie 2 (16:9) FAIL

Flag (4:3) PASS

Detail (16:9) PASS
On the steps to the right of this scene there was slight feathering and a patch of no detail

Noise (4:3) NA
While the BenQ offers no noise reduction the darker scenes showed excessive contouring along color errors.

Motion Adaptive Noise (16:9) NA
Motion Adaptive Noise (4:3) NA
While the BenQ offers no noise reduction some areas of the roller coaster tracks showed subtle contouring.

Film Detail (4:3) PASS
The BenQ took twice as long to lock onto the cadence

Assorted Cadences (16:9)
2-2 30fps film - FAIL
2-2-2-4 DVCAM - FAIL
2-3-3-2 DVCAM - FAIL
3-2-3-2-2 VARI SPEED Broadcast - FAIL
5-5 Anime - FAIL
6-4 Anime - FAIL
8-7 Anime - FAIL
3-2 24fps film - PASS

Mixed 3:2 with titles (4:3) PASS
Medium contouring and discoloration

Digital Video Essentials

Frequency / Detail Response PASS and FAIL
Significant vertical banding throughout due to vertical filtering. Horizontal had significant banding yet oddly the chroma had a decent response. Significant banding for the high frequency test with a low contrast response.

Test Material FAIL
Although the BenQ passed 3 of the four jaggies tests there was intermittent aliasing. As noted for the noise tests and another, darker areas of the image suffered from various levels of contouring and discoloration and this was not a videophile issue; no viewer would accept these artifacts.

Perspective
The BenQ failed miserably due to aliasing, contouring and discoloration. 480i analog component, S-video and composite video connections should be avoided altogether. From experience, HDTV displays nearly always fair better with component 480p and higher scan rates and while not normally part of this test I checked at that scan rate. 480p did remove the contouring and discoloration artifacts but the intermittent aliasing remained. The BenQ is a performance product and over the last decade many a projector like it provided poor internal scaling predicated on the fact that most folks seeking performance would be providing their own external scaler anyway. Most commercial projectors don