The Official Acer H9500BD Thread - Page 151

I am currently in doubt between the Acer H9500BD and BenQ's W1070.
Its just for watching 2D and 3D movies occasionally, not for watching the news

Distance PJ and screen is about 9ft and screen-size is 80", so both PJ are possible.
In 2 different calculations the Acer is the brightest in this setup but I have my doubts if this is correct.
Cannot imagine that the W1070 which is praised for it's brightness loses this from the Acer.

One review states that the W1070's 3D mode is somewhat disappointing regarding to depth and pop-outs.
In this review the Acer's 3D is 'WOW' and awarded.

In the Acer's review on AVS there seems to be hardware issues sometimes (sudden shutdowns etc).

Some pros and cons.

H9500BD:
Pros:
- both vertical and horizontal lens-shift
- more zoom possible
- (maybe) better 3D
- compatible with more DLP link glasses
- Acer's glasses are good looking and light weighted
- Better better blacks and color

Cons:
- reported hardware / software issues
- brightness is reported as weak, especially in 3D mode (don't know if thats an issue on close range projection)
- short bulb life

W1070:
Pros:
- Great brightness
- No hardware / software issues reported
- nice and small thingy
- long bulb life

Cos:
- 'maybe' bad 3D depth/popout
- no horizontal lens-shift
- vertical lens-shift limited
- heavy, ugly 3D glasses
- glasses not compatible with most DLP link glasses

So who can give me some advice here ?
Is 3D really that bad on this projector and is the Acer really that unreliable with software and hardware ?

To Leonos:

You seem to be well informed. You have done your homework and you have analyzed the most relevant issues appropriately. Whatever your decision you can be content that you have done your due diligence.

Having said that let me add some remarks from my personal experience of having owned an Acer for several months. The big issue with both of these projectors is price. There are better projectors available from manufacturers like Sim2 or Runco but these machines cost much, much more. The Acer was the bargain 3D DLP projector of last year. The BenQ is this year's bargain at an even lower price. I'm presuming you can get the Acer for about $1,500 and the BenQ for about $1,000. For many people that's a trivial difference in which case two machines battle toe to toe. But for others the lower price of the BenQ is a vital advantage. Only you can make this judgement. If you are price sensitive just get the BenQ, everyone agrees that it is a value breakthrough. However on balance the Acer is the better machine most reviewers also agree. That shouldn't surprise anyone because it costs substantially more.

Brightness: If you are going to only use an 80" screen I don't think you will have a brightness problem with either machine. You don't say if your room is light controlled or not. You don't say what kind of screen either. I have a 110" retroflective screen and a room with a large window. That window looks onto a woods with no other lights in view. So at night my HT/den is very dark but in the day it is quite bright. The Acer works well for me. It's not bright enough if I were to watch it when the morning sun is pouring in but no projector would be.

3D: A year ago the big issue with 3D was ghosting. I went to a local Fry's and demoed some 3D sets last year. They all had very obvious ghosting. My Acer has essentially no cross talk. But this year cross talk seems to be not so much of a problem anymore. The Acer's 3D picture is a bit too dark but is very watchable. The real annoyance is in the setup. The Acer has auto setting that are supposed to detect the style of 3D and automatically adjust. That doesn't work. So if I'm going to watch pay-per-view Comcast 3D movie I have to switch to 3D on and then to top and bottom. If I go to Starz 3D I have to switch 3D off so I can read the menus, find the movie I want, switch it back on and then switch it to side by side. The same is true with Blu-ray 3D. Lot's of button pushing on several remotes. You also will have to invert the depth a couple times manually too. 3D is in it's infancy. It has a long way to go before it's really convenient.

2D to 3D: I don't use this feature on the Acer and I watch a lot of 3D. Acer's implementation of this feature is probably about as good as any but all have limitations. This feature is still several years away from being really useful.

Glasses: The Acer 3D glasses have a couple defects. The most obvious one is that they are white. Yesterday I blackened up mine with a Sharpie and the image is now better. I also had had a lot of trouble with the glasses losing sync. But that seems to have been just an artifact of a weak battery. When the battery gets weak it still works most of the time just fine. It does not simply stop working. I would prefer that they used a rechargeable battery. The Acer glasses don't fit well over my prescription lenses. There seem to be two schools of thought in 3D glasses. One type has thick side walls to block the light from the side. The other type tries to be light and thin. I don't know which is best. The market will decide in the next year or so. The reviewers prefer the plus hundred dollar glasses but the market seems to provide glasses for about $30. Count on getting some other brand of glasses no matter which machine you get.

Bugs: The Acer is a new design and it has had teething problems. My previous Mitsubishi was the last model of a line that had been sold for three or four years. It had had all of the bugs ironed out. The Acer is at that point where all of its bugs have been identified but not all yet fixed. The BenQ probably has some similar problems but they have not yet been found. No one mentioned the cutting off Acer problem last year. Since the Acer is a year or so ahead of the BenQ it may be completely clear of bugs sooner than the BenQ. But who knows?

Blacks: All the reviewers say the Acer has better blacks than the new Benq. However I turn off the Acer auto iris. It doesn't work smoothly enough for me. It just introduces an anomaly that is distracting. I wouldn't count on being able to experience much benefit from the Acer's auto iris.

Conclusions: On any HD broadcast, cable movie or Blu-ray movie in 2D the picture from my Acer is just stunning. Blu-ray especially. It's hard to imagine how the picture could possibly be better. But if I were buying this year instead of last I might very well have gotten the new BenQ and pocketed the extra money. I understand that that the standard 2D picture from the BenQ is pretty good too. If I were you I'd get a bigger screen.

Ah yeah, I idd forgot to mention some of my home setup.
The screen has a gain of 1.1 and I can only control the lighting in the room by closing the curtains.
But I will only watch movies at night, so the lighting won't be an issue (maybe in the summer a bit).

The pricing of the Acer is idd more, but you get one pair of glasses. Also the price of the glasses are much cheaper than the BenQ's one.

Money isn't really an issue when it comes to a few hundred, I just want the best device and not regret the purchase later on.

I idd read that the white glasses reflect some of the light from the screen in your eyes, but here we just can buy black ones.

Also the BenQ leaks a lot of light and seems to make a lot of noise, forgot to mention that.

My current 40" (oeps) 3D tv suffer a lot from ghosting so it's no fun to watch.
This is a reason that I want to purchase a DLP beamer (and not an LCD one).
I'm very sensitive to ghosting and I see it on almost all TV's currently available (also the new ones I saw at the CES 2013 and both active and passive, passive is somewhat less but very tilt sensitive).
It's just a flaw of LCD that will never be solved so that's one reason I won't buy a 70" 3D tv right now.

I will ask the same question in the W1070 forum and see what they say.

The main concern is that the BenQ is not performing optimal in 3D, what could be caused by the BenQ being a short-throw projector.

Keep you posted.
Edited by Leonos - 1/21/13 at 9:44am

Tolerance of the dynamic iris is somewhat subjective I think. Personally I can detect it doing its thing, but consider the benefits outweigh the cons. One major point of difference between the benq and the acer is the benq's lack of frame interpolation. I have to admit that before the acer I really didn't care for FI at all, now however I wouldn't watch a movie without it activated, and I find it especially effective with 3D content.

I do think the benq might have an advantage in terms of colour accuracy, just going by the reviews so far, and taking into account the machines superior calibration controls. Pretty difficult job choosing between these two as they both offer excellent performance for the money.

Oke, I have made the decision to go for the Acer.
It costs more, but there were enough reasons for me to go for the Acer.

The last post about the Frame Interpolation (smooth motion) was the last straw to make the decision.
Also the colors of the HD9500BD can be tweaked just as the BenQ if needed, it just has one user preset, but I can live with that.

So I just ordered it and probably have it by tomorrow.

Let you know my findings.

ps, maybe this is interesting for some of you.

I purchased this because I don't want to have a 30ft HDMI cable in my room.
Tried this on my 3D tv and it seems to work perfect.
The tv (and device) detects if I run a 3D-bluray and I can switch the TV to 3D and plays perfect

http://www.conrad.com/ce/en/product/873879/Conrad-HDMI-Wireless-Transmitter

Hi Leonos, I posted this at the W1070 thread:

If you are sensitive to RBE, I'd advise you to skip the H9500. This projector is rainbow city. I see it just about every scene. Also, while 3D is very good I found the image a bit too dim to enjoy. It is a shame because this projector has good blacks and dynamic contrast.

Rainbow problems are extremely subjective. If you haven't seen them or gone looking for them you likely won't be bothered by them. But you never now till you try. You will have a pretty bright image on a 90 inch screen so I don't think 3d brightness will be an issue.

I'm using a 80" screen because the living isn't that huge so good news for the brightness.

I tried watching a movie with an old Optoma with 2 speed colorwheel and we didn't saw rainbow, so I guess we are not very sensitive.
The 'small' screen may have to do with this also.

My Samsung 710 ("Joe Kane approved" 720p DLP pj) just finally died this weekend..long story...and my throw to my 110" Stewart 1.3 screen is about 14 feet. So rather than rip up the ceiling to try the short throw Benq W1070 I have decided to order the refurb'd Acer H9500BD from Tiger Direct (unless anyone has a better idea). What is the latest firmware I should make sure my TigerDirect pj is on? I am waiting to pull the trigger until Chief gets back to me on the model number for their adapter bracket for my ceiling mounted RPA kit. They don't have this Acer in their database. Thanks
Ted

I do see rainbow sometime but most of the time i dont see but did not distract me enough to get other projector and this projector 2d and 3d image are really good for it price also with the acer acumotion i find movie using it very enjoyable and BenQ is without the FI make it no no purchase for me.

It's on the thread. If you go into the service menu, the date will be May 2013. I always forget how to get to the menu, but it's something like power left left menu. I don't know why this eludes me. I figure it out every time I need to.

Also, I believe timduru posted some very good settings for the Acer. I used them and had to do virtually no calibration with my Disney WOW disk.

Good luck.

I don't find the 3D dim at all and have a 120" screen, but I have a "very" light controlled environment and only watch 3D in a very dark environment. If I'm watching football (not for long now....) or something, I can have a fair amount of ambient light without dramatically affecting the PQ. I'm not RBE sensitive and plan to keep my Acer for at least 2 more years.

Kraine was pretty clear that the 3D on the 1070 needed work. If you aren't interested in 3D, it might be a really good buy. The lamp lasts longer than the Acer's.

Thanks. I assume you meant May 2012. I wanted to know prior to buying, and ask the seller. My concern is that Tiger Direct and others are selling refurbs, and I do not want to get it here and find it is pre-firmware version (which would require me to pack it back up and ship to Acer!!). I assume a new one ($1599) from NewEgg, etc would alleviate my concerns.

And yes, thanks for the heads up on Timduru's settings. I made a word doc of them.
Edited by ted_b - 1/23/13 at 1:49pm

I really wanted to keep the H9500 but the RBE was too much for me. I have a 120" screen as well and 3D was watchable, just a bit on the dim side.
I bought the W1070 yesterday to try. Will report back when I get it.

That's funny.....yeah....2012. I'm signing my checks as 2012 and responding to last year's news as 2013. Pretty pathetic...

Good to hear that someone can compare both. Keep us in the loop. Thanks.

Speaking of color accuracy. I tried the Disney Blu-ray calibration disk last night. It has gotten good reviews. I tried black level, contrast and color. The black level and contrast were exactly the same as the factory presets. The color tests were more subjective. I made some color adjustments to increase the saturation. But this morning I reverted back to the factory presets. I had really screwed the color up.

So I'm gratified that the out of the box presets are so good but I litte annoyed to have spent $17.

I found timduru's settings to be very helpful. I didn't test the out of the box settings after the update, so I can't compare the before/after.

The problem with trying any real calibration with the 9500 is the horrible user save settings functionality. It almost isn't even worth the effort.

What he said. You better remember your settings or adjust nothing. Having said that the factory presets are pretty darn good for Joe everyday guy. On top of that I have seen the unit on sale recently for like 1300 bucks. A steal. As for myself, sorry I did not test out some of the things I wanted to/said I would a while back but I decided to stop seeking demons and enjoy my equipment. I am very happy with my 9500 and my Epson for general big screen tv viewing. My time to pick these units apart has passed and I simply choose to enjoy both of which I have been fortunate with in that they both are working very well. Acer for 3D and critical BD viewing and Epson for general big screen TV viewing. Hope you all find success.

I was planning on sending in my projector for the firmware update, registered it and received Case reference number 2329814U. The website said I would receive an email with shipping instructions, which never came. After a week's wait, I contacted Acer Chat Support regarding this. I was told I could do this update from my home......???? Any body care to comment on this before I try it? Here were the instructions given to me:


To flash the projector's firmware:

1.Download DLP Composer software and the appropriate projector firmware for your projector.
2.Connect a USB cable between the computer and the projector.
3.Launch the DLP Composer software.
4.Power on the projector.
5.Choose the new firmware file and update the projector firmware.

I'm concerned that just maybe my chat adviser didn't know what he was doing.....and I don't want to brick my projector
Thanks for any help!

sounds fishy, that's the first i heard of it. i did research that option but the H9500bd wasn't on the list on the DLP software.

i cheated by getting a color corrector, i leave it to default setting and use the CC's presets. i haven't adjusted settings in a while.

Yeah. That's makes us sound like a bunch of fools who could not update the simple damn firmware and had to send it in..

Well, I thought Acer had maybe gotten their sh*t together and had finally posted a firmware update somewhere on their site for download. And I have updated other products where it WAS possible to brick if done incorrectly, hence my questions.

Nothing wrong with wishful thinking, but misplaced in this instance. Too bad user updates are not a reality with this unit. Acer is not the only one though. I am still happy with mine. I just got the "is 3D dead" email link thread from AVS and could not help reading about unhappy people with their 50" displays complaining about how 3D adds nothing. Duh!!!!!!!! Might as well try that experience on my smart phone but.....................I digress.

You can't do it yourself since it involves replacement of the main board! Took me 3 months to convince Acer NL. Good luck.

Ow just to add, it was worth the hassle since my HTPC picture is now absolute stunning...

So if I understand correctly the latest firmware (may 2012) is linked with a new motherboard.
Great service of Acer if they are replacing older units motherboards for this, many companies don't do that.

I got my Acer just last week and has a production date of sept 2012 and has the latest firmware (B3 or something).

The image is just amazing and especially the 3D is Wowww. The factories colors settings are good for me, so no need to change.
I tested several extreme 3D fragements looking for ghosting, but I could'nt detect any, amazing again.
Depth end pops are very very good. I can finally enjoy 3D without being annoyed with ghosting and poor depth/pops.

The dynamic iris is worthless in my opinion.
When a bit of a dark scene is detected (threshold) you can faintly hear the iris change slowly, resulting in the whole picture getting darker.
Looks like moving a brightness slider on an old TV set back and forth, very annoying.
Maybe I'm using it wrong, but without it, the picture is also good, so for me it's off right now.

Also a pity that the 3D auto detection doesn't detect SBS or OU sizes (or I just don't wait long enough). Framepacking is recognized.
So I just put my mediaplayer in sbs/ou mode and that generates framepacking, problem solved.


3D is future, but not on regular television sets, the screen is just too small to enjoy 3D.

Now I am curious.. Does anybody know the changes from the May 2012 to the September 2012?