AVS › AVS Forum › Display Devices › Digital Projectors - Under $3,000 USD MSRP › Benq W1200 only thread with calibration and settings
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Benq W1200 only thread with calibration and settings

post #1 of 11
9/18/11 at 8:22pm
Thread Starter 
OK - since the other thread seems to be mostly W1100 users I wanted to start a new thread for the W1200 only. I will be posting up my calibration settings once mine comes in and I get it set up later this week. I had been using an HC4000, but it was having several issues within the first month so I returned it for a full refund. To replace it I bought the W1200 at Electronics Expo for $1145 with code BIGGAME last week and am looking forward to seeing how it performs. What encouraged me in large part to try this projector (besides looking for the best pj under $1500) was the following review:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/home...80p_review.htm

While I do have near complete light control in my media room, I am running a 140" 16x9 screen - so the extra lumens of the W1200 were appealing to me. Stay tuned for an update on my newest toy by next weekend
Reply
Reply

AVS Top Picks

post #2 of 11
9/24/11 at 8:16am
Hi OBSSSD waiting to see your calibration results. Are you doing the ISF as well?
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 11
10/23/11 at 9:46pm
Thread Starter 
** UPDATE **

Ok I set this up in the media room a month ago, but since then I have been out of town a lot. With that said my general impressions are:

Very bright I can watch on my 140" 1.3 gain screen with the lights on and still get a nice bright picture (I have light control)
Very sharp (just about as good as it gets IMO) - even compared to the HC4000 that I recently returned due to defects in the unit
Color accuracy out of the box was terrible, but with some basic tweaking by eye without a meter I was able to get it reasonably decent
Frame interpolation system is complete garbage do yourself a favor and turn it off all the time
Black levels are not very good, but the picture still has a really nice pop to it because of the lumens - in particular it is great for watching HD sports of any kind

My basic impression is that there are definitely better projectors for watching movies in a dark room like the HC4000 or the W6000 if you don't mind spending another $400 more. I'm not sure what I think about it yet because it still needs a better calibration, but I find myself drawn to the nice bright and very sharp picture that it produces. In the darkness, however, it seems quite lacking at times depending on what type of movie you are watching.

For rooms with less light control and sporting events I'm not sure anything else in this price range is going to beat it. Will keep you all posted as I have time to tweak everything more precisely.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 11
10/24/11 at 5:41am

I got my W1200 calibrated by a friend, using ChromaPure. Do not know whether this would help. I am using a white screen with a gain of about 1.2. Calibrated settings on my W1200 (firmware version: 1.04) as follows:-

Picture: Basic
Picture Mode: User 1
Reference Mode: Cinema
Brightness: 45
Contrast: 0
Color: 9
Tint: -1
Sharpness: 13 (at default)
Fleshtone: 1 (at default)

Picture: Advanced
Color temperature: Normal
gamma: 2.2
Brilliant Color: off

Color Temp Fine Tuning
Color Temp Control
C.T. Control
Red Color: 116
Green Color: 100
Blue Color: 89

White Balance
R gain: 0
G gain: 0
B gain: 0
R bias: -5
G bias: -4
B bias: -4

3D Color Management 
 

Color--------- R--------G--------B--------C--------M----------Y

Hue---------- 14-----[-20]------0---------23-------41------[-54]
saturation---99------96------121-------76------100--------98
Gain-----------97------75-------67-------77-------91-------122

The picture now has alot of depth and is very sharp with very accurate colors and skintone. Blacks are unbelieveably good with excellent shadow details. My friend who did the calibration was stunned. He said the picture quality was as good as that from a projector costing many times more than the W1200

 

*Corrected the order of 3D colors from Y, C, M  to C, M, Y.


Edited by Haw - 6/23/12 at 8:20am
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 11
12/7/11 at 7:17pm
I came across these settings... looks really good to me:

RECOMMENDED SETTINGS

The best way to optimize the picture is to activate the ISF calibration function. To do that, enter Up, Down, Up, Down, Left then Right on the remote. Once there, adjustments can be made and saved to either of the two available ISF modesDay or Night.
â—¦Color: -15
â—¦Tint: 0
â—¦Sharpness: 0
â—¦ Picture Mode: ISF Day or Night
â—¦Color Temperature: Warm
â—¦Gamma: 2.2
â—¦Brilliant Color: Off
â—¦ White Peaking: 1
â—¦Frame Interpolation: Low or Off
â—¦Clarity Control: NR Off; Detail Enhance 0
â—¦1:1 (pixel-for-pixel) Mode: Real
â—¦Color Wheel Sequence: 1
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 11
12/7/11 at 9:18pm
Thanks for sharing
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 11
12/8/11 at 3:15am
Remember the w1200 is a light canon and the gamma is off OTB, so in now comparing it to the Mits hc4000 which has near perfect gamma OTB and is NOT a light canon, I can see why people make the mistake thinking the Benq has far worse black levels than the Mits.

In reality, the two projectors' native contrast is really close, with the Mits only edging the w1200 out by a small margin.

Once that lamp wears in and you get down to a proper fL, get the gamma calibrated better, you should be good to go with black levels, and by eye they should look almost the same as they did on the Mits.
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 11
12/8/11 at 8:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by chumpchange21 View Post

Thanks for sharing

No problem. I came across those settings when I was researching the W1200. Definately much better than the OTB settings.


Quote:
Originally Posted by coderguy View Post

Remember the w1200 is a light canon and the gamma is off OTB, so in now comparing it to the Mits hc4000 which has near perfect gamma OTB and is NOT a light canon, I can see why people make the mistake thinking the Benq has far worse black levels than the Mits.

In reality, the two projectors' native contrast is really close, with the Mits only edging the w1200 out by a small margin.

Once that lamp wears in and you get down to a proper fL, get the gamma calibrated better, you should be good to go with black levels, and by eye they should look almost the same as they did on the Mits.

Would you recommend a gamma of 2.2 in a light controlled room? I set mine to 2.2 since the website had calibrated their W1200 to that level. 2.8 gamma is the max for this unit.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 11
2/12/12 at 1:58pm
Thread Starter 
On sale now for $899:

http://www.audiogeneral.com/proj_app/ht_dlp.php
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 11
3/4/12 at 9:04am
Thanks for the calibration settings. They made a big difference. I haven't pulled the trigger on the new screen yet, but pretty impressed for hitting a tanned wall. My firmware is version 1.4, I understand this is not the newest version. Has anybody been able to update the firmware?
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 11
6/18/12 at 12:47pm
I'm fairly certain that Haw made a typo in the 3D Color Management settings of post #4 above.

They should go in order of the actual W1200 settings menu: R-G-B-C-M-Y and not Y-C-M. If you do it the way he originally posted you can see it's way off; the yellows have a greenish tint to them among other things.

I sent Haw a PM in case he can confirm and edit his original post.
Edited by bozekitty - 6/18/12 at 12:53pm
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home

AVS Top Picks

AVS › AVS Forum › Display Devices › Digital Projectors - Under $3,000 USD MSRP › Benq W1200 only thread with calibration and settings