BenQ SP890???

Looks like a bright cannon. Would like to read a review.

Looks like they took the W6000, replaced the 280w lamp with a 300w lamp, probably loosened the color accuracy, added stereo mini jack and RJ45 and called it a "professional" projector.

Both have Brilliant Color, Dynamic Black (auto-iris), and HQV.

$500 higher MSRP.

It could make a killer daytime sports projector.

Me too! Why dont you buy it and let me know!!!

Possibly. It all depends on how they implement everything. Just because it is a 300 watt lamp doesn't necessarily mean it will end up brighter (though one would hope).

According to Projector Central, the W6000 is rated at 2500 ANSI lumens, while the SP890 is rated at 4000 ANSI lumens, 3200 ANSI lumens in "eco-mode":

http://www.projectorcentral.com/BenQ-SP890.htm

I can't imagine Benq can get that much more brightness just by increasing the wattage of the bulb by 1/14, which is about 7 percent.

That cannot be rating them the same or there is something else going on. As you said a 7% wattage increase will not result in that large a lumen gain without something else being affected.

I have seen and used this projector, and know a bit of its History. This projector was designed from the ground up to be a "Pro" model at the request of the industry to have a cost effective, High-Brightness projector that was native 1080P. It was based largely off modeling the image quality of the w6000, but injecting it with some of the small format power you can find in an SP870. I do not know the engineering details under the hood. All I know is what was requested to be designed, and what was delivered. It is a fantastic HD high brightness projector for the money. Colors are much better than former BenQ models in the Professional install line, (which is to be expected since it is using the 6 segment color wheel and all of the w6000 processing guts) and clarity is very good. It was designed to deliver HD in non lighting controlled environments, Ala Sports Bars, Churches, and Conference rooms, and it delivers flawlessly. Feedback is coming back and I will share as I hear back from the real world. (It just started shipping to integrators and dealers this week)

Cheers!

Though admittedly I haven't seen it...I would definitely count on some sacrifices in favor of increased light output.

There will always be trade offs with bright projectors. For those of us who crave a big screen on a budget are willing to make some trades. It will be very interesting to see what kind of lumens this can put out in calibrated best mode. Art measured 1061 lumens on the W6000 in Cinema mode, so can we get 1600 lumens out of this new SP890?......

I have an outdoor movie business. I just got sp890 for my newest backyard setup. I have only taken it out of the box for testing but will get deeper into it later today or tomorrow.

You absolutely will sacrifice picture quality somewhere for the higher lumen's but it is necessary for my business. As far as a comparison, right off the bat it is noticeably brighter than the 6000 looking at both out of the box. Keep in mind there are other ways to achieve higher brightness without increasing bulb strength. Also it is possible to increase the efficiency of a filament, basically increasing the lumen's per watt. This is probably why some of these lower watt bright projectors show a lot of green when cranked up with the iris off. We are most sensitive to yellow/green light so we view it as brighter. That may also be why an actual brightness test will give a lower rating but we may see it as brighter than the test reveals.

Anyway I will let you know when I play with it more and get it calibrated. I have a gaming party Saturday and will try and use the 890 if I have it ready.

I'd like to know also.

an update on the BenQ performance would be great. The specs for this projector fall right into an update I'll be doing for a client this summer. Would love some feedback. Thanks.

I don't have info on this particular model, but there are a variety of ways that you can make a projector brighter without increasing the bulb wattage, all of them affects color performance, contrast performance, or both. Worth mentioning is: A more transmissive color wheel (which in turn decreases color saturation), a white segment in the color wheel (again, decreases color saturation), slower color wheel speed (decreases the off time of the DLP), a more open iris and light path system (decreases contrast, however I would think that W6000 already is pretty open in this regard), skewing the color balance towards green/cyan because that's where the bulb is most efficient (this has no effect on post-cal light output, since it's basically just a different setting). My guess would be a different color wheel at 4x speed, perhaps with a white segment. That's a cheap and easy way to get a lot more light, sacrificing color accuracy along the way. The big question here is how far did they go - it might still be a reasonable color performance compared to other high-output projectors in that price range. While purists probably won't be satisfied, I'd say that you could sacrifice some of the color saturation and accuracy without throwing the average user off.

One (imho) important note: There is a big difference between measuring a calibrated projector, i.e. measuring at D65 color temp, and having accurate colors at that setting. A lot of projectors can deliver fairly high light output even at D65 with completely screwed up colors, and then when you adjust primary/secondary saturation and brightness (if possible), or even gamma, the brightness decreases massively. High light output at accurate color is NOT an easy task, and just because you measure white at D65 and high light output, doesn't mean that you will be able to get accurate color and decent light output on a big screen. I've seen a lot of cheapo LCD projectors where people have been pointing towards reviews measuring fairly high "calibrated" lumens, however if you use the settings suggested in the review, the PQ is horrible. Set the projector to actually deliver an accurate color balance, and the light output is halved.

"There is a big difference between measuring a calibrated projector, i.e. measuring at D65 color temp, and having accurate colors at that setting."

Did you mean to say 6500K instead of D65?

I thought D65 implied proper color balance.

projector and mount were ordered today. will be installing within the next few weeks. I'll post my initial thoughts and opinions after.

baggio21 did you buy the SP890? I've been intrigued by this projector for a while now... I keep reading that it's basically the big brother of the BenQ W6000, no? The W6000 already comes with 2,500 lumens (factory specs) and the SP890 is claiming for 4,000! I mean this projector is what I'm looking for since I have a scenario where surrounding lighting is not easily controlled. But it is a bit pricier than the 6000 unit.

It seems like this projector has other features that the W6000 doesn't. It has USB port, picture in picture functions, and others.

Baggio, any comments for us to learn from on your purchase? Or anyone else? I'd be grateful with any information provided about this projector

the projector people suggested this or the LG cf181d with a BD II 0.8 screen for my walk out basement . I am leaning towards the LG but it would be interesting to see some more reviews on this one.

What do you mean this one? You mean the BenQ SP890?

Well, what's your setup like? You want to give a little more detail?

I am considering this projector for a small cinema venue which belongs to the local church.
The venue does not have any problem with making darkness.
However, screen size is 490cm base and projector distance is 12mt.

Projectorcentral and Benq give two different results in their calculators.
Would this projector be suitable? Lumen wise?

Thanks

35 ft looks to be the farthest distance you can place the SP890 from the screen to get that size of an image. At its lumen output, I don't think you'll have any problems lighting up a screen that size with ease! From the couple of BenQs I've had experience with, the one thing they don't fudge on is lumen output. They do what they state...and then some!

Thanks for your reply.
How did you get to that 35ft figure?
For a 193" wide screen Projectorcentral gives me 39.1' and BenQ.com 35.33'?!

I've always used BenQs calculator for setting up the BenQs I've had experience with. It has been right on the money for me. I rounded the figure off to 35 ft since it is closer to it than 36 ft. I wouldn't use th projectorcentral figures. After all they don't make the projector.

I may save my pennies and get one of these for home use! Looks like a serious beast where lumen's and image quality are balanced fairly well.

Unfortunately I cannot advance the projector location nor the screen by 4ft

Hello,

Can you please clarify some information on 2 of the following BenQ models? I am considering a "home theater" projector for my living room - for watching tv shows, sporting events, movies etc.. I do have some windows in my home and there may be some ambient light - I have had issues with home theater projectors before - as they never looked that good unless it was COMPLETE darkness. instead of the w6000 due to the fact that the SP890 is brighter and I wouldn't have to watch it in complete darkness. When I'm watching a game in the middle of the day with my buddies I dont want to turn off all the lights and close up all the windows, but I DO want to have the BIGGEST screen in the neighborhood.

1. Simply put, what is the REAL difference between the W6000 and the SP890 - ?

2. Can the SP890 be used to watch TV with , or is it simply a "presentation projector"?

3. Will the 4000 lumen brightness on the SP890 be good for watching TV etc with some ambient light in the room?

4. is the SP890 basically the same as the W6000 - but just brighter?

Thanks for your answers - as I would like to purchase the best projector for my set-up.

Robert Bolen