Projector Reviews

BenQ W20000 Home Cinema Projector Review: General Performance-2

W20000 Projector Measurements and Calibration

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White (100 IRE) 6926K
Light gray (80 IRE) 6941K
Medium gray (50 IRE) 6902K
Low gray (30 IRE) 6908K

color temp

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Gain R=52 G=48 B=45
Offset R=50 G=50 B=49
Contrast was adjusted to 49
Brightness 51
Color (saturation 46
Tint -15

Note, based on Mike’s measurements and calibration, he came up with a Tint setting of -19, using filters. After much watching, and most of the photo shoot, I came to feel that skin tones were just a tiny bit too pink for my taste. I played around and found that to my eye, the tint setting was better in the 13-16 range. I settled on a recommendation of -15. A change of 1 number is barely perceptable to the eye, and even the full range from 0 to -20 is not a major shift in the tint of the image. This is definitely a fine-tuning control.

The end result proved to be an improved set of numbers, and corresponding color accuracy for movie watching. The only real problem is that while the grays adjust easily,

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White (100 IRE) 6942K
Light gray (80 IRE) 6525K
Medium gray (50 IRE 6442K
Low gray (30 IRE) 6514K

The result is pure whites and near whites remain just a touch too cool (blue). Still a deviation of 400 odd lumens, only at the top of the range, is very minor. It is, enough though, that, for example, I’ll definitely give the InFocus IN83 a slight advantage in overall color accuracy, by comparison. In the low ranges, below 20 IRE, the opposite occurs, with a small shift to warm (red). Again, these have only slight impact on the overall color balance. Most projectors tend to shift color balance a bit in the low registers (20 IRE and under), although we are working with the extremely dark grays, and there are limits to our equipment’s accuracy down there. (That’s one reason why I cut off our measurements at 30 IRE, and don’t show numbers below that.

Gamma defaults to the normal 2.2 setting. Based on Mike’s measurements he’s recommending 2.4. I viewed content with both 2.2 and 2.4 settings. With 2.2 setting the W20000 had the best black levels I’ve seen on any recent projector, including the IN83. I did not find the 2.2 setting to be noticeably off, in any way, but no doubt, the 2.4 setting is a little closer to technical perfection, since it measured out to just over 2.2. Using the setting of 2.2, the average gamma was about 2.05. Bottom line: Not the absolute best color accuracy after calibration, and in a side by side with the IN83, you can see the slight difference, but without a side by side, let’s just say that any “error” on the part of the W20000, is notably less than the normal variation in color (based on the director’s intent, and the colorist’s implementation on the disc), from one movie to the next. In other words, it looked great. Not quite as perfect as it could be, but it should be close enough to please most of the serious enthusiasts.

W20000 Image Noise

Click to Enlarge. So close

Wow, I was concerned that the W20000 would share their lower priced W5000’s rather noisier than most, image noise problem, but, that’s not the case. The standard background noise is there, but at very normal (acceptable) levels. The BenQ passed the HQV jaggies and motion tests without any real trouble, as you can see from the US flag image below (flags waving are great ways to spot jaggie problems)

For the vast majority noise at this level is not an issue in any way. Such things can always be improved on, but compared to so many more important things, performance at this quality level should not be of concern.

Click Image to Enlarge