Benq W1070 owners thread

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Is the W1070 as loud as the you tube videos, when its in normal mode? Or loud like people say?

It is significantly louder in Normal mode. How much the noise bothers you will depend on where the PJ is sited and how loud you can have your sound. Mine is above my head and I am quite aware of the whine of the fans.

It's not so bad in Eco mode though, just a minor annoyance in quiet scenes :)
 
So I wonder, considering this PJ is reported as being so much better with Contrast and Color, is BenQ simply setting their Normal Mode to something like my Optomad HD20 Bright mode? Because my HD20 does get quite loud when you turn that on...

Kind of a smart move on their part eh? Sell it as a better machine, but simply turn everything up to 11 at Normal mode...

Does it even have a Bright Mode?

My HD20 sits next to the couch, so I do dread the idea of a louder PJ...

Does it look as good in Eco mode?

I am going to be demo'ing one this weekend, so will find out....

Cheers!
 
Yes, "Normal" is essentially the "Bright" mode equivalent.

With the prospect of up to double the lamp life and with the added noise, the extra brightness to me is not necessary for my normal viewing environment (dark room in the evening) so I only ever use Normal mode very occasionally during the day. The brightness does drop slightly of course, but it's not significant enough to feel like you're getting a detrimental image IMO.
 
In terms of what an ND filter does to black levels - to have a rough estimate of its effect, put a pair of sunglasses on and you'll see a difference - black floor is reduced along with peak white. Everything gets reduced in light so black looks blacker, peak whites look less bright - basically, everything comes down a notch.
I used an ND filter with my previous BenQ W7000 and I found it useful for 2D. Its not a magic wand though, it doesn't effect contrast, just makes everything look darker.

I've been running this BenQ W1070 through its paces and its a very fine machine. Its on a 150" screen so at this size, the overall quality gets shown no mercy and every blemish is exaggerated!

8555130533_a041884b66_b.jpg


Sky HD at 150"
8556243596_cfe22a01bf_b.jpg


Does't look too bad for a Sky transmission, although when I move closer to the screen, you can see the drop in quality:

8555133189_90430433d4_b.jpg


Sky HD football (unlucky tonight Arsenal):

8555134105_8c455daba6_b.jpg


I also ran it through some test patterns. This is a convergence test pattern which is for 3 chip machines, but I think its useful for single chip machines like the BenQ too, as it shows up any imperfections in the lens. You can clearly see the purple and green chromatic aberration from the lens. A perfect projector should be just white lines and black background here but its a £700 projector were looking at, not a £10k one. Its not great, but its not bad either and on a normal sized screen/viewing distance, your unlikely to notice the difference.

8555134537_89700f9fa4_b.jpg


In the image below, you can see its a bit better - this is the center of the screen. The previous image is from the left hand side. As you approach top/bottom/left/right it gets a bit worse with the center being the best in my particular sample:

8556245266_55cd2c716f_b.jpg


Some blu-ray shots:

8555135909_5b057e6fde_b.jpg


8556248074_9c52dbf53c_b.jpg


8556248572_f630c3a1c3_b.jpg


8556248876_c079734bc9_b.jpg


Overall, my first impressions are very good. For £700, is probably as good as a bang for buck as your likely to find IMHO.
I took a few more screenshots to see how it compares to more expensive projectors and I also measured light output too - but more on that later time for bed now I think!
 
Thanks for this, brilliant - and nice to know that it's a decent PJ for the budget (of course, I already knew that though ;))

"Black floor" - that's the phrase I was looking for!

Would be interested to know how the W1070 performs with the filter AND a Darblet in-situ also...:lease: :D
 
Received my nd2 filter yesterday and so far it improves it a bit in my room with white ceiling and magnolia walls.

Spent all day Tuesday fitting tv and projector on the wall, projector screen on the ceiling and also rear surround on the wall and spent yesterday setting up the sound with audyssey.

Going to calibrate the projector tonight as to bright here during the day and going to watch skyfall tonight :D

Hopefully see even more improvement on the picture after calibration :)
 
I mentioned previously that I measured the light output using 100% white test pattern.

My default settings were cinema mode and brightness adjusted up to 54 to set correct black level and contrast adjusted to 46 to set correct white level using AVS test disc. Gamma was set at 2.4

At normal (highest) lamp mode, I got 162 lux or 949 lumens. On my 63sq ft 1.0 gain screen this gave me 15 foot lamberts.
12-16FL is a typical target for a projector so no problem with this BenQ driving a large screen 150" such as this. That said, its rated at 2000 lumens so I got nowhere near that with only 1 hour on the bulb. I looked at the other pre-sets and I could achieve a higher light output using dynamic mode however white didn't even look white (more like lime green!) so I never recorded the results - I can't see myself ever using dynamic mode setting. It may be possible to set it on dynamic and then calibrate back and this may be a way to get a good image with additional lumens if required....I don't know but I know of people doing this with the BenQ W7000.


At eco lamp mode, I got 108 lux or 632 lumens, 10fl, so losing about 1/3 of the output in eco mode.

At smart eco - I got 159 lux or 931 lumens, 14.8fl. Thats interesting. Smart eco on a full white screen is virtually the same brightness as high lamp mode. I'm guessing then that smart eco means that it will drift between normal lamp power and eco lamp power depending on the scene (and it may even drop lower than eco mode but I'm not sure)

So the 'useable' lumens available from this 2000 rated projector is actually only a little bit more than my 1300 rated JVC X90 - I would have hoped for more of a difference to be honest.

When I watch 3D on my large screen, my 15fl will be reduced to 75% of that through the glasses, so around 3.7fl. Its watchable in my blacked out room, but I was hoping for more. Even in 3D I find dynamic modes to be unusable as colours are just to erratic to enjoy the show IMO. I prefer to watch 3D using the same 2D settings, until such times as I actually learn how to calibrate in 3D through the glasses.

Overall, its not the light cannon I wanted it to be, but I'm in the minority when it comes to trying to light up screen this big in 3D. I would say in most set ups, there is plenty of brightness at your disposal. Thats my only real negative with this projector as it throws a nice image otherwise.

I found rainbows to be minimal which is good.

For noise, I found eco mode to be about somewhere between low lamp and high lamp on my JVC. I listen at low volumes mostly so I could hear it, but not too distracting IMO. At least the noise is consistant and doesn't change in pitch or anything so quite easy to forget about it after a while. In normal lamp mode, noise increases as you would expect and I could imagine some getting distracted as it ramps up a fair bit, but again, its consistant.
 
Anybody know how to adjust colour on this?
 
You can't via HDMI - well, you can if you use the advanced colour temp settings - but not the actual "saturation" control.
 
Got mine through today from Richer Sound's, simply closed the 'thin' curtains (sunny day....yes really a sunny day) shoved it on eco and changed the contrast to 54.

Had it on for an hour this afternoon and so far very impressed :smashin: Will try it in the dark later, but even with the sun filtered through the curtains I could still see the picture on normal eco.

The fan seems about 6 decibels less than my old (and loved) sharp xv-z3000.

The image looked sharp and had fantastic colours out of the box, all I changed was the contrast.

Well worth the £699 I paid for it, and it came with a free 5 year guarantee to boot.

Richer Sounds still has a 'handful' of these in stock when I ordered it on saturday, so if you want one grab one. I know I've only had an hour with it so far, but it has impressed me that much.

Just need to decide where to buy the sainsonic glasses now, seems like only amazon and ebay have them that I can find.

tris
 
I ordered 4 pairs from eBay and had no problems. Came through quick too. I suspect the seller is the same on Amazon anyway...

Glad to hear you're up and running. Makes a huge difference in the dark, you'll be chuffed to bits I'm sure :smashin:
 
I ordered 4 pairs from eBay and had no problems. Came through quick too. I suspect the seller is the same on Amazon anyway...

Glad to hear you're up and running. Makes a huge difference in the dark, you'll be chuffed to bits I'm sure :smashin:

How long did they take to come through from ebay mate?

I spoke to the seller and they sent a messege stating:

Thank you for contacting us!

I think it might be hard to delivered on Wednesday because of the time difference. If you place the order today, it might be possible. However, the time in China now is the end of the day, therefore, I guess it is impossible to be delivered on Wednesday.

So I presume the seller is in China and has someone in the UK handling the stock.

I'm an impatient bugger and trying to get a pair before the weekend for some real [-]play [/-]testing time ;)

Double checking when Amazon are getting them back in stock as I have prime....

tris
 
Ok, after chatting to their support I grabbed two pairs from Amazon as the wife's buying a pair and they should be here Thursday/Friday time :)

Thats the remainder of my birthday money gone and I have downloaded a couple of 3D trailers in side by side format for testing with my media player :smashin:

Now off to the 3D info again to remind myself of how they work/what the projector will do to the side by side files to display them. Not sure if they show up as two separate images sbs when displayed through a 3d video source or if they are melded together.

tris
 
Just so you know SBS format stuff looks pretty crap up to proper framepacked stuff. Hope you've not blown all your birthday money and have enough for at least one 3D blu-ray ;)

Dredd 3D is quite good and you can pick it up for around £12.
 
Just so you know SBS format stuff looks pretty crap up to proper framepacked stuff. Hope you've not blown all your birthday money and have enough for at least one 3D blu-ray ;)

Dredd 3D is quite good and you can pick it up for around £12.

Yep all gone now. Birthday money, saved up money and money from selling the old projector and also the old screen I had lying about. That's woudln't have been able to get it otherwise :)

Just played some of the 'side by side' trailers I have to see how they look without the glasses via my media player. They look as described, two of the same/slightly different image on the right, video playing at the same time.

All the one's I had looked like that, and when I went into the options on the projector the 3D button was greyed out. Apart from the avatar trailer, that had frame packing and top/bottom but had side by side greyed out (and the trailer was side by side.)

So I'm not sure if it's the source video or my media player that is not letting the projector let me choose 3D/sbs options.

Of course I'm still reading to find out how it all works as I'm not sure if the images are meant to be sbs (two videos next to eachother as described above) or showing one image at a time :confused:

Oh why do I get myself in to these things :rolleyes:

tris
 
Yep all gone now. Birthday money, saved up money and money from selling the old projector and also the old screen I had lying about. That's woudln't have been able to get it otherwise :)

Just played some of the 'side by side' trailers I have to see how they look without the glasses via my media player. They look as described, two of the same/slightly different image on the right, video playing at the same time.

All the one's I had looked like that, and when I went into the options on the projector the 3D button was greyed out. Apart from the avatar trailer, that had frame packing and top/bottom but had side by side greyed out (and the trailer was side by side.)

So I'm not sure if it's the source video or my media player that is not letting the projector let me choose 3D/sbs options.

Of course I'm still reading to find out how it all works as I'm not sure if the images are meant to be sbs (two videos next to eachother as described above) or showing one image at a time :confused:

Oh why do I get myself in to these things :rolleyes:

tris

in order for the projector to let you choose SBS in 3D menu you have to change the output of you media player to 1080i 60Hz or 50Hz
however, check if your media player can convert the SBS files. if it does then choose that option and leave the output to 1080p.

which media player do you have?
 
Indeed, check the manual for supported solutions/refresh rates for the different 3D formats as the PJ needs to receive the correct signal to do it's stuff. ANY 3D source, when fed to the PJ, will be converted to show a "single" image (albeit with the blurriness you'd normally associate with viewing 3D with no glasses).

benq_timings.png
 
in order for the projector to let you choose SBS in 3D menu you have to change the output of you media player to 1080i 60Hz or 50Hz
however, check if your media player can convert the SBS files. if it does then choose that option and leave the output to 1080p.

which media player do you have?

This is the media player I have:
Mede8er - The greatest show on earth

I was told that I should be able to use a SBS video file over hdmi 1.3 to feed into the projector with the player through my amp here on the forum somewhere in these threads.
So I downloaded some sbs trailers/samples, but there is no option on the player to convert any sbs files. I assumed that the projector would recognize the signals and then I select the 3D mode.

When I played them through it and selected sbs on the projector, it flickered like mad, then settled with a 'ghosting' type image, so obviously until I get the glasses tomorrow I don't know if it's meant to look like that.

I'll have to take some screenshots and get them up on the forum later.

Indeed, check the manual for supported solutions/refresh rates for the different 3D formats as the PJ needs to receive the correct signal to do it's stuff. ANY 3D source, when fed to the PJ, will be converted to show a "single" image (albeit with the blurriness you'd normally associate with viewing 3D with no glasses).

I can also try it in 1080i if that will help.

image

Check the manual of the projector or the media player?

I was told that my player should be ok with side by side:
http://www.avforums.com/forums/projectors/1716646-benq-w1070-1080p-3d-700-a-14.html
post number 388 to 391 (391 being the below post)

Hi, yes as you have discovered hdmi 1.3 is fine for most purposes. :). Your media player probably won't output any frame packed info but it should be just fine for SBS ( side by side ) 3D files. These files squeeze two frames into one so its not full HD, Only 720p but they still look pretty amazing.

I'm sorry but I'm not sure if those sainsonic glases sold on amazon are the 144hz variety as it doesn't seem to say. I got mine from eBay and the description states that they do both 120hz and 144hz

Cheers

Lee

So I thought it would be ok?

So new to this tech :rolleyes: Gotta start somewhere I guess :)

Cheers

tris
 
"When I played them through it and selected sbs on the projector, it flickered like mad, then settled with a 'ghosting' type image, so obviously until I get the glasses tomorrow I don't know if it's meant to look like that."

Yeah, that sounds about right.
 
"When I played them through it and selected sbs on the projector, it flickered like mad, then settled with a 'ghosting' type image, so obviously until I get the glasses tomorrow I don't know if it's meant to look like that."

Yeah, that sounds about right.

The 'ghosting' is about 4 inches apart on screen, it's quite hard to explain. I'll get some screenshots done and see what you think.

Forgot to mention that the projector's fan gets quite a bit louder too, possibly by about 5-10db.

I'll double check it all and get some shots up :)

tris
 
Screenshots incoming....
 
I used two files for this test
(the rest of the files I have about 7 trailers, but they dont have a 3d option. I do find it strange though as when I play a blu ray mkv rip through it it gives 3D option on the projector even though they are definitely 2D. I chose the 3D option and to me they look the same as the photos below albeit only one image not two next to each other).

I have tried them in both 1080p and 1080i set on the player.

Here is a promotional holiday program that is meant to be sbs, but when I play the file it greys out the 3D on the projector completely:

Plerse bare in mind this is in quite a lit up room and on eco mode so the images are a little 'washed out'

Screenshot:
IMG_0233.jpg


Setting greyed out:

IMG_0234.jpg


Here is a trailer that is meant to be sbs for Avatar 3D.
There are 3D options on this, one called frame packing and the other called top/bottom, but it's meant to be sbs according to the site I downloaded it from that I seem to have lost:

Screenshot:
IMG_0231.jpg


Settings available:
IMG_0232.jpg


Screenshot with frame packing enabled:
topbottom.jpg


Screenshot with top/bottom enabled:

IMG_0236.jpg


You might recognise some similarity when not having your glasses on, but they look pretty messy to me as I thought the video should be one blurry image not two blurry images next to eachother.

tris
 
When the movie is playing press the menu button on the remote. There will be an option to play the movie as sbs. You can also rename the file as "filename.SBS.mkv" and the media player will automatically play it as sbs.
 

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