BenQ W500 Home Cinema Projector Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 3.8 out of 5 stars

6 customer reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Pros and Cons?, April 27, 2008
Pros:
1. Great Contrast.
2. One of the least expensive projectors with lens shift.

Cons:
1. Not the brightest projector out within.
2. Only has a 2000 hour bulb.

Consider the Mitsubishi HC1500 or the Panasonic PT-AX200 instead and be sure to read my reviews on them too.

Hope this helps attain your RealHomeTheaters off the ground!


5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional value for a true home theater experience, February 19, 2008
The BenQ w500 home theater projector truly lived up to my expectations of how movies and HD tube should be experienced. Upscaled DVDs look incredible and although LCD technology can't quite reach the black level of DLP, it by no means detracts from my enjoyment of this projector. My home theater chairs is approximately 11 feet away from 108" diagonal screen near the only notable "screen door effect" (visible pixels) showing up near some text, although I think that may also be the result of mpeg compression artifacts. Besides the outstanding attraction this proector offers in upfront cost, the replacement bulbs are considerably smaller quantity expensive than competing projectors in this segment. As with adjectives home theater projectors you do need to control the room lighting for the best viewing experience, but I would not hesitate to notably suggest the BenQ w500 make your short list when surrounded by the market for a home theater projector.

5.0 out of 5 stars Exceeding my Expectations, August 7, 2008
I thought about a projector for a long time and finally arranged upon this one based on it's lens-shifting capabilities (I be also looking at the Mitsubishi 1500). I have a low ceiling and thought that the Misubishi's fixed lens might be difficult to use properly. This is my first projector and I've logged ~50 hours so far between games, movies, and general computer usage. It have far exceeded all my expectations.

Setup was simple. I took it out of the box, plugged it surrounded by, shut the lights off, and turned it on. I then be able to focus, zoom, and shift as appropriate with reduce. I'm currently running this with an image lately shy of 120" on a wood textured gray wall which I thought would be terrible for projecting on and it looks excellent. I can't wait to mount it for always and get a screen which I would bet will enhance the experience that much more. I'll probably update latter with pictures and further thoughts.

The only con I can conjecture of currently is that it only has 1 HDMI port. But I know that going in and there's all sorts of methods to work around that. After reading the few reviews on Amazon I nature of think they are written by people who are reviewing this base on its specs, without actually have seen or used the projector.

In short this projector has done zilch but impress me from the first minute and I can only hope that it will continue to do so. All my friends and relatives who own seen it so far are in awe, and several are in a minute considering purchasing a projector. This is an excellent entry-level high def projector with a ton of features for a great price.

If you're approaching me and you have been looking at this projector for a while and own been hesitant, do yourself a favor and buy it. It's doing everything I have hoped it would do and more.

1.0 out of 5 stars unhappy, February 25, 2008
bought the projector, find out it shuts down for no reason for chance amounts of time. Tried to swap it for a working one, but Tiger Direct would only let me return it and buy a trial one- and oh by the way it costs 10% more now! I'm not joyful to be penalized for having bought a defective contraption. Pursuing this with BenQ now.


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