Projector Reviews

Resolution: Better than 500 lines per picture height on DVD; full resolution from a 720p source.

Overscan (component input): 3% at left and bottom, 3.5% at right, 4% at top.

Scaling (480i input): Very good on typical program material; on test discs and the most challenging program material, the PE8700 exhibited some artifacts not visible on the most highly rated scalers, such as the Faroudja DCDi chip included in many current DVD players (e.g., the Denon DVD-5900 used in many of these tests). In particular, the BenQ uses auto-detect only for film-based sources (there is no manually selectable film mode), and it did not reliably lock on to the 3:2 pulldown sequence with unflagged, film-based material.

Contrast (at 110 lamp hours): 1712 peak (with 13.7 footlamberts full-field white, black measured 0.008fL , the latter taken from the black field produced by an open input). ANSI (16-square checkerboard): 136.

Color: The Before readings shown were taken at the "2" color-temperature setting. After calibration, the results were very close to the desired D65 from 30 to 85 IRE. The red, green, and blue color points deviate from the desired coordinates in ways typical of—and no worse than—most projectors: red is slightly orange, green slightly yellow, blue shifted slightly toward green.—TJN