The BenQ W5000 is a Full HD, DLP projector, on the market since spring 2008, and currently sells from around 2,500 GBP.

• Contrast-rich picture.
• High resolution.
• High-quality video processing, including 24p.
• Electronic lens-shift.

• The user cannot completely deactivate overscan.
• Factory setup has some color errors.

The BenQ W5000 gives you a lot of projector for the price. The "Dynamic Black" mode renders an impressive contrast ratio, with visible improvements in depth and dynamism. It's easy to forgive the slight deviations in an otherwise natural-looking color reproduction, and the quality of the optics and video-processing is impressive. There's only one major downfall: The overscan crops all input signals to some extent, and cannot be switched off.

Connections:

2x

Introduction

Recently, Korean manufacturer BenQ has pursued an unusual strategy: The company introduces every new projector alongside a partner-model that has similar features, but that costs around half as much. Earlier almost-identical models such as the Full HD W9000 and W10000, are now followed by the top-spec W20000 (for around 7,000 GBP) and the W5000 (around 2,500 GBP).

The biggest difference: The W20000 uses the new "Dark Chip 3", while the W5000 has to make do with "Dark Chip 2". Nevertheless, the cheaper model lacks none of its pricier sibling's contrast.

Features

Plenty of options: The W5000 adds two HDMI inputs to the standard BenQ connectivity, and doesn't skimp on analog interfaces.

Unlike both of its Full HD predecessors, the W5000 forgoes the motorized control for focus and zoom, but adds two HDMI inputs. It hangs on to the electronic lens-shift, which can offset the projected image by 80% upwards or 60% downwards, allowing you to project the image over the heads of the viewers, even from a bookcase. Four screw-feet allow precise positioning of the ten-kilo device, and large adjustment rings make manual adjustment of the zoom and focus easy.

Zoom Optics:
The zoom optics produces excellent image quality, so it's easier here to find the best sharpness setting than it is on many other projectors. To project a two-meter-wide image, the W5000 needs to stand at least 3.7 meters from the screen - attempting to produce images much larger than this is probably a bad idea, given this projector's maximum output of 500 ANSI-lumen.

Contrast Improvement:
In the W5000, two technologies dedicate themselves to improving contrast. Besides the adjustable iris, there is a second iris that adjusts to the picture content in order to produce a purer black. This is only active in the "Dynamic Black" mode (see Background Info box).

Practical: The backlit remote control has direct-access buttons for different color presets.

Color Presets and Management:
The user can call up various presets directly from the remote control, including the two ISF-certified color calibrations "ISF Day" and "ISF Night". In the advanced picture menu, the BenQ provides complete color-management options, allowing the user to adjust the saturation of the primary colors red, green, and blue, as well as of the secondary colors yellow, cyan, and magenta. The "range" setting defines the color sector in which the adjustment is effective.

The W5000 is living proof of how useful color-management can be. Despite the excellent "Cinema" preset, which has a correct D65 color-temperature, the colors failed to convince in the factory setup - only green and turquoise showed adequate saturation. The color-management helped alleviate this, even with simple methods such as a test disc: To get the correct color-balance, we simply had to turn up red by 10% and green by 7%, but the corrected image and the original factory setup were worlds apart (see Ideal settings).

Picture Quality

We evaluate a device's scaling and de-interlacing using this scene from "Gladiator", in which the camera pans over finely-detailed, tiled rooftops. The BenQ passed with flying colors.

TV and DVD:
The BenQ W5000's "HQV" video-processing (from Silicon Optix) de-interlaces analog, interlaced signals accurately. Although the composite input does have some color registration problems, its S-Video and YUV colleagues meet with full approval: The BenQ scales up 576i-format, HDMI signals extraordinarily well. Even critical test sequences from "Gladiator" or "Six Days Seven Nights" produced no problems whatsoever.

Great: You can choose from three overscan settings, and the device stores your selection separately for each picture source. This does, however, bring up one genuine shortcoming: The BenQ crops the edges of all images (overscan) - even for HDMI or 1080p signals. Picture-purists will also grumble at the projector's inability to display ‘blacker than black' (BTB) and ‘whiter than white' (WTW) image contents.

If we look past these grievances, the W5000 turned out an absolutely masterful performance with the PAL DVD "King Kong": High among the skyscrapers of New York, we saw truly grandiose detail and outstanding sharpness, neither of which appeared even slightly over-exaggerated. The immaculate optics and Full HD resolution pay off, therefore, even with just a DVD signal.

We see the projector's unbridled potential for image-depth at the beginning of Chapter 10, when a jet-black ship rests atop a dark sea, against the glowing backdrop of New York's harbor. Closing the projector's iris provides a further improvement in black level that's sure to thrill home-theater fans. We quickly forgave the small color deviations in the otherwise highly natural-looking picture.

HDTV:
With almost every HDTV test-pattern, we couldn't help but notice unpleasant picture cropping. We also used a luminance sweep pattern, up to full horizontal resolution, which highlighted some scaling artifacts, but these weren't visible in actual HDTV movie material. Overall, therefore, HDTV made a positive impression - as did DVD - thanks to the excellent optical sharpness, rich contrast, and well-balanced colors.

The colors gave a positive, overall impression, but the color gamut was slightly extended in the factory setup and required some adjustment.

With the "Dynamic Black" mode activated, the black-and-white scene at the start of "Casino Royale" had a tiny green tint. On the other hand, the mode increased the differentiation in the nighttime sequence in the dark Montenegrin countryside - an effect we wouldn't want to sacrifice.

The BenQ's impeccable display of 24p signals dished out lashings of depth and three-dimensionality with every tracking shot. This is how things should be in a first-class home theater - there's also no fan-noise and no irritating rainbow effects from the seven-segment color wheel.

You can also control the W5000 using a control panel mounted on the top of the unit.

Ideal Settings

Picture Mode: Cinema

Brightness: 50

Contrast: 46

Color: 39

Sharpness: 0

Red Saturation: 60

Red Range: 100

Green Saturation: 57

Green Range: 100

Lamp Power: Normal

Color Temperature: Warm

Gamma Selection: 2.4

Brilliant Color: On

Dynamic Black: On

* These settings apply to realistic playback of HDTV/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations may necessitate slight adjustment.