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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful.
Lots of features, but quality control problems and poor blacks
By D. Alexander
The Pro8100 was sold at first only to professional home theater installers in mid-2008 at an MSRP of $5000. It has since become directly available for around $1200, and has become a popular forum recommendation as a result. It competes with, in ascending price order, the Optoma HD20, Mitsubishi's HC3800, and Epson's 8100.I've had three Pro8100s over the course of a month, all from Tiger Direct and manufactured in February, 2010. All of them have shown moving horizontal scanlines visible from 16' away from a 155" screen. No other projector does this, and the intensity of the banding has varied with each unit. With two of them, it was visible only with rapid onscreen movement or very bright areas. With the third, it was always visible and annoying. It's unclear if this issue will ever be resolved. Viewsonic no longer makes this model and their support does not acknowledge this problem.I ultimately replaced it with a Mitsubishi HC3800, a DLP projector with far less placement flexibility, but superior image quality. The comparison, side by side with a variety of reference HD material and computer test patterns, was illuminating.The three most important specifications of any projector are lumen output, ANSI contrast, and absolute black levels. Lumen output dictates how well the projector will handle ambient light and large screen sizes without washing out or becoming uncomfortably dim. ANSI contrast measures dynamic range, or the brightest and darkest colors the projector can display at the same time. The 'punch' of a picture with bright lights and dark shadows is heavily dependent on ANSI contrast. Lower ANSI numbers imply a flatter image with grayer blacks. Finally, low absolute black levels ensure that in completely dark scenes, black appears black and not a dark slate.Beyond image quality, certain features aid in placement flexibility. A generous zoom range allows the projector to display a range of image sizes at a particular distance, or the same image size while moving the projector. Lens shift allows the projected image to be moved without moving the projector or incurring keystone distortion. These features are more common in LCD projectors than DLP. The Pro8100 has extensive motorized shift and zoom. The motorization is helpful if the projector is placed in an inaccessible location or constantly switching aspect ratios.For the comparison with the H3800, my screen is 12' x 5', white, and with a gain of about 1.25.Brightness:The HC3800 is capable of going brighter than the Pro8100, even in low-lamp without Brilliant Color. While I found the Pro8100 wanting for my screen even with full lamp, I see no reason to ever use full lamp on the HC3800. In high-contrast scenes, the Pro8100 seems to near the HC3800's brightness, but only because it's projecting a dull gray relative to the latter's black.Color:Color gamut seems about the same. Color accuracy goes to the HC3800. I've spent probably ten hours just messing with the Pro8100 to get it closer to the calibrated LCD I use with my computer. The closest I ever got was with Art's settings from Projector Review, but they're just borderline acceptable for a very large screen in pitch-black viewing. While it's possible to use the same LCD calibrator on the projector, I really shouldn't need it to get a neutral picture. I'd go so far as to say that it's impossible to achieve with the projector controls alone. That said, before I compared the HC3800 side by side, I thought Art's settings were quite good and the best yet for the Pro8100.Noise:At equivalent brightness, the two have similar noise levels. My observations depend on where the projectors were placed.Sitting two feet from the projector on the floor: The Pro8100 has a bit of whine to complement the fan whoosh. The HC3800 has a slightly stronger whoosh and a subtle, but much higher pitched overtone. Neither are especially quiet. Even the Pro8100's low-lamp mode, which is a level again softer than the HC3800, is noticeable in quiet scenes if the movie isn't particularly involving. On full lamp, the HC3800 is objectionably loud.Sitting on the floor with the projector ceiling-mounted: The Pro8100 is essentially inaudible in low lamp and quiet at full lamp. The HC3800's overtone is audible at all lamp settings, but rarely distracting. Full lamp is acceptable for engaging movies.Sharpness:Definite edge to the Pro8100 here. I consider the Pro8100 about as sharp as a projector can be. My particular HC3800, with the 2.35:1 crop pushed to the very top of what's almost certainly an inferior lens, isn't quite as sharp. The 2 ticks of keystone correction I have to use also add a very subtle softening to text, though seem to have no effect whatever on movies. The Pro8100's keystone controls are similarly excellent, though they shouldn't ever need to be used.Menus and features:Every function in Mitsu's menus appears to work as expected. Not so much the Pro8100; most of the advanced functions harm the image. The advanced gamma controls are particularly egregious, causing posterization. The HC3800 is much better here.The HC3800 also has a useful feature that changes the aspect ratio with a button on the remote. For example, I play movies on my HTPC from within Windows, but my screen doesn't use a 16x9 aspect ratio. With the HC3800, I can set the zoom to fill the 2.35:1 width (cropping the top and bottom of Windows), and then press the Aspect button to get a downsampled 16x9 image in the center of my screen. The image quality in this mode is very good, easily enough to watch a 16x9 movie, so there's no reason ever to touch the zoom or focus controls after the initial setup.In the same circumstance, the Pro8100 would have to be slowly zoomed out with the motorized controls. The benefit to this is that 16x9 movies use the full 1920x1080 resolution, whereas I'm only getting 1450x820 with the Mitubishi's downsample mode.Black levels:Significant difference. The Pro8100 projects a slate gray. The HC3800, something very close to black. Even with the Pro8100 in low lamp in a pitch black scene that'd theoretically favor its dynamic iris, it's still not as good. I was shocked when I saw a space scene on the HC3800. For all three of my Pro8100s, I just assumed that a vaguely washed out picture was as good as it got.ANSI contrast:Huge difference. Huge. The HC3800 looks like a movie theater. The Pro8100, no. The difference isn't as evident on scenes that have few shadow tones (the blue castle fireworks intro on Disney movies) or are almost exclusively dark (the castle assault in Two Towers), but the rest of the time, it's no comparison. While I can definitely say there were particular scenes I enjoyed on the Pro8100, the HC3800 is consistently excellent everywhere.Build:The Pro8100 is large, heavy, pretty, and impressive. The HC3800 is small and light. Build quality is the same. The both have shiny black plastic, no creaking parts, and a general heft. The HC3800's zoom and focus controls are smooth. Focus has no play. Zoom, very little. The Pro8100's lens is centered on the unit. This makes setup easier. The HC3800's lens is offset 2.5" off the centerline and angled inward. This last bit is annoying, it's almost a trig problem to get the lens exactly perpendicular to the screen center unless you have a flexible mount.The Pro8100 has a heavier and more substantial remote with a rubber backing. The HC3800's remote feels cheaper by comparison, but nice enough.Summary:If the Pro8100 was once a $5000 projector, it's irrelevant. You really have to value sharpness, motorized controls, and placement flexibility to choose it over the HC3800's vastly superior picture, contrast, brightness, black levels and color accuracy. Given the quality control problems that appear to have afflicted most units recently shipped, I can't recommend the Pro8100 to anyone. Epson's 8100 offers similar zoom and lens shift (though unmotorized) for installations that would be difficult for the HC3800.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Woah...
By Sajid Ansari
Title of the review says it all...connected this with via HDMI my onkyo receiver with AppleTV, MOXI DVR, Panasonic BluRay, and Xbox360 and all I can say is that this projector is nothing short of spectacular. AMAZING picture, SUPER SUPER CLEAR when projected on a high quality, low/no-gain white projector screen and an HDMI input. No noise, no issues, just 100% awesome. I also have this projector ceiling mounted and it mounts to a universal mount with no issues. I've got about 147" picture projecting on a 150" screen (had to mount the projector a few inches more forward than I wanted to because of stud locations) and the picture is breathtaking. BluRay discs look increadible along with HDTV from the Moxi DVR box.I DID have to fight with it a little bit to get my receiver to communicate with the projector, more of a receiver issue but wish the projector's software was a little more sophisticated to be able to receive signals from a receiver a little easier with less set up from my end. Eventually got the onkyo receiver to send a picture once I reset all settings, and cut the power to all components and let it sit for a while to clear it all out. Again, if the software/firmware on the projector was a little more sophisticated, the initial setup would have been easier.Overall, just a pheneomonlly awesome projector. My guess is since the price keeps going down day by day that viewsonic plans to replace this with a newer model. My thought is to go ahead and get this one new for a steal of a price at around $1100. Nothing can beat it for the price. I believe this was originally a $5,000 projector back in 2007, and would probably still be worth it today.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
pro8100 projector
By Prof Bart
At its current $1400 price, this is a fantastic buy. It produces very sharp clear, bright images with great color, is very quiet, and has negligible light leaks compared to other projectors in its (current) price class. And a long warranty! Blacks are acceptable, but not exceptional. But, all-round, the picture is truly fantastic. For a screen, I am using a fixed 92" white accuscreen. Looks just fantastic in a light controlled room.There are a couple warnings/caveats however: Some people, including myself, have experienced dim lines in the image when it is first powered up from standby. These can be eliminated by either cutting the power to the projector once it has cooled down, or - easier - to the AVR or whatever your video source is when you are not using it, rather than leaving everything in standby. I have my AVR and PS3 on a power-strip with a switch. Turning it off when not in use completely eliminates the problem (and saves electricity...)As a second caveat: you will probably want to upgrade the firmware - many of the units shipped with a buggy auto-iris implementation. The firmware upgrade went smoothly for me, and solved the issues.Once I was able to work through these issues, I love this projector!
See all 14 customer reviews...
Good Projector if you don't live in the mountains!
