BenQ W10000 review

The W10000 has a 250-watt lamp with a rated ANSI lumen light output of 1,200, and is capable of driving fairly large screen sizes. With our relatively small 72-inch StudioTek 130 screen, we stepped the Iris down to two clicks above the lowest setting. That setting resulted in enough light output (about 13.5 footlamberts) while still retaining deep black levels. Post-calibration performance was impressive. Gamma is well implemented, with a nice slow rise out of black, which helps the projector deliver excellent shadow detail. Grayscale tracking was reasonably good, but it could stand some improvement as it went slightly blue at the very top of the grayscale.

Colors were quite accurate overall. Primary colors from the factory are way off, but we were able to improve the primaries and get them fairly close to the HD color specification using the 3D color management feature in the Advanced Menu (see the Geek Box below). Unfortunately, we were not able to dial in the secondary colors nearly as accurately, so BenQ still has a little work to do on this utility. This means the decoder is not working properly, because if you get the primary colors correct, the derivative secondary colors should then be correct.

For color demos, our current favorite is the HD DVD transfer of Seabiscuit, which remains one of the best looking titles available. Chapters 12 and 13 depict outdoor scenery with plenty of grass, tree leaves, and other natural objects that we know well. Chapter 13 has a lot of saturated colors such as the jockey's uniforms, which really stood out on the BenQ, thanks to reasonably accurate primary colors.

Chapter 3 on the HD DVD of Batman Begins, where Bruce Wayne is thrown into solitary in a Chinese jail cell, is a challenging shadow detail and black-level test. The cell is quite dark and dingy, and we could see all the fine detail on the gray brick walls as well as being able to make out minute textures on his face and clothes. Blacks were clean and there was very little "dithering" noise just above black, indicating good video processing.

HD channels on our cable system weren't quite as riveting as the HD DVD material, because of the heavy compression. Nonetheless, Discovery HD and HDNet looked really good. Even standard definition channels such as TCM and CNN looked reasonably clean and quiet, again attesting to video processing of the BenQ W10000.