ViewSonic LightStream Pro7827HD 3D DLP Projector Review Page 2

The Dynamic lamp mode didn’t exactly help to deepen black levels and punch up contrast during movie viewing. Overall, it appeared to deliver no visible benefit over the Normal or Eco setting. I was also surprised to find that there are no picture adjustments available for 3D images. I generally like to goose brightness and contrast for 3D viewing, but in this case, I didn’t get that option.

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Brooklyn is a film about a young Irish immigrant trying to make a new life for herself in 1950s New York City. While the ViewSonic wasn’t capable of delivering the deep blacks and powerful contrast that more expensive projectors readily do (particularly ones with a dynamic iris), images from this Blu-ray displayed fairly detailed shadows and good overall contrast. In the scene where Eilis and Tony go on their first date to a restaurant, her black shirt looked solid, while the candles on the tables gave off a bright, concentrated glow.

In another scene from Brooklyn, where the girls in Eilis’ boarding house teach her how to eat spaghetti properly, variations in their pale complexions were easily discernible, while details such as the texture of a blue sweater worn by one of the girls and the patterned wallpaper in the background came through clearly. Bright outdoor scenes, including one on the beach at Coney Island and another where the couple lingers in a Long Island field, looked particularly good, with the ViewSonic doing an impressive job of rendering the intense blue sky and lush, sunlit grass.

On the Blu-ray for another 1950s drama, Carol, from indie auteur Todd Haynes, the red and yellow of the taxis (historically accurate for the time) came across as vibrant in an overhead shot outside the building where Carol’s friend Therese lives. There was also good differentiation visible in the other red hues in this scene, such as the bright red of Carol’s coat as she strides toward the building’s entrance and the darker red of velvet curtains in a shop window next door. The ViewSonic mostly did a good job resolving the grainy picture: It was shot using the Super 16 film format. However, the projector lacks noise reduction adjustments, and in this case, such settings would have helped to smooth out the image a bit.

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One application where the ViewSonic really shone was in displaying video games. When I hooked up an Xbox One to the projector so my kids could play Minecraft, the blocky graphics used in the game looked crisp and detailed. Although I didn’t measure it, input lag didn’t seem to be an issue as my daughter triggered the console to spin towering stone-and-glass structures. Interestingly, the feedback I got from them was that Minecraft looked better on the ViewSonic than on the $4,000 Sony projector they had previously used for gaming, no doubt due to its potent brightness/detail combination.

3D Performance
With 3D fast disappearing from new TVs, it’s good to see it being made available as a feature of many new projectors, including affordable ones like the Pro7827HD. When I watched The Walk, in the sequence where Philippe Petit fulfills his dream of walking a wire suspended between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the ViewSonic created an excellent sense of depth between Petit, the wire, and the vast urban expanse beneath. I felt a serious sense of vertigo as I watched Petit strut across the wire. (Unlike some other films released in 3D, The Walk is one where the subject matter truly merits the treatment.)

I did see a slight bit of ghosting in some shots from The Walk—mostly a faint outline of the wire—but otherwise, the ViewSonic delivered a striking 3D image. As noted earlier, the projector has no picture adjustments for 3D, so compared with 2D, the image was a bit dim for my taste. But overall, I appreciated the projector’s mostly solid 3D performance.

Conclusion
Having never had hands-on experience with a ViewSonic projector before (the company’s models are typically found in education and business environments, not home theaters), I admit I went into this review not really knowing what to expect.

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In the end, though, I found myself surprised by how well the Pro7827HD performed. It delivered ample brightness, decent contrast, and good detail. Color for the most part was accurate, even without calibration, and the ISF Day and Night modes and other advanced adjustments provided plenty of options to improve the picture. Lastly, the ViewSonic did an impressive job displaying 3D movies—and its setup options, though basic, are made less basic through the addition of a vertical lens shift adjustment.

Ultimately, my main issue with the ViewSonic was that its contrast lacked the visual punch I’m used to seeing with other projectors—but then again, those models typically cost thousands more than the Pro7827HD. Its fan noise was also quite high, though that can be fixed to a degree by selecting the Eco lamp mode—something you should do anyway when watching in a dark room. Tally up the good and the not as good, and ViewSonic’s LightStream Pro7827HD ends up looking like a winner for its price.

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