Acer H6510BD - FullHD 3D DLP DC3 for under 1000$? - Page 2

I spent some time reading the manual, the German thread, and Fritz's shootout review.

It seems like a lot of people on the thread were waiting for this guy, Fritz, to do his "in-depth" review/comparison. However, it's a rather basic review. He didn't even calibrate the projectors. FYI, they say he is a big fan of the BenQ W1070.

Essentially, Fritz comes to the conclusion that the Acer & BenQ are about the same noise level with comparable modes, therefore, the Acer is quieter. Why? The Acer's low mode produces 2400 lumens which is better than the BenQ's highest mode thus, for a noise to lumen ratio the Acer wins.

The Acer is significantly brighter however, because it has an RGBCYW wheel it has a blue hue out of the box — some claim that the white segment may also decrease contrast. He didn't bother to correct for this issue before doing screen shots. . .

He also seems to get SBS 3D incorrect. He states it can do full SBS in 1080p but the manual states otherwise — it's just like the BenQ according to the manual. However, it does have 2D to 3D conversion. The BenQ 3D glasses need to be 144Hz while the Acer are 120Hz, thus 144Hz glasses are backward compatible.

The throw ratio and zoom for each are identical.

Fritz, in his comparison, states that the Acer had some "flicker" in bright fast scenes (at least that's what I gathered). However, others on the thread state they have not seen this issue at all, nor any judder. They are both using TI Dark Chip 3.

Acer claims that their new "colorboost II" technology increases saturation and gives better colors all around. Well, if you look at Fritz's screen shots it's clear that out of the box there is a blue hue to the Acer. However, the Acer does seem to have better color saturation out of the box — look at the screen shot of the bird. However, this may be due totally to the lack of calibration! HOWEVER, now that I think about it. He does own the W1070, so he may have it somewhat calibrated????

The fact that Fritz did NOT calibrate or make any adjustments to the projectors pretty much makes his review-comparison mute. About all we can gather from his comparison is that the Acer is brighter, similar fan noise level, and just as sharp as the BenQ W1070.

Thus. . .
They are pretty much the same with the following exceptions:

1. Acer has 2D to 3D conversion
2. Acer is brighter (~30%), thus noise level is technically quieter — same level with more lumens. Acer low is brighter than BenQ highest.
3. Acer claims a slightly longer lamp life.
4. BenQ has 12v trigger.
5. BenQ ISF color settings
6. BenQ has small amount of vertical lens shift — mine causes the upper part of the image to slightly blur when used.
7. BenQ 3D uses 144Hz which might produce a smoother/less flicker image.
8. Acer uses a RGBCYW wheel and Benq uses RGBRGB — lots of arguments about this all over the web.

Really can't make any other conclusions because no calibration was done, and not data testing.

However, the people who have purchased it on the German thread are generally happy with it.

Fritz's conclusion that the BenQ is the better projector for home theater use and the Acer is the better one for living room/all-around seems a bit off to me. The W1070 if a living room projector, thus if it is beat at it's own game then pushing it to a new category doesn't really work IMO. It's like saying, 'the Acer bests the BenQ but I need a way to say the BenQ is better than the Acer.'

However, since he didn't correct for the color issues we really have no way of knowing which one is truly better for living room or home theater situations.

I'm considering the Acer because the BenQ doesn't seem to be as bright as I expected. I don't see any increase in brightness when I change the lamp modes. In fact ecosmart is generally the brightest mode, and if I toss in anything near projectorreviews.com calibrated settings it is way to dark even in a completely dark room. And that's on a 84' screen. I don't think I'm getting anywhere near 1700 lumens "calibrated" like projectorreviews got. However, I'm hesitant about the RGBCYW wheel — don't know if they are more likely to produce rainbow effect or not, and if it really will remain brighter after calibration because the white is artificially bumping the lumen rating. . .

Just wanted to mention that the H6510BD is now in stock at newegg, I ordered one earlier today and I expect to have it by Tuesday.

Amazon is still saying 2-5 weeks?

You are right ... I wonder if it is 'better? It is indeed $200 cheaper then the BenQ...any other english reviews comparing the two units?
Edited by vivithemage - 3/16/13 at 5:34pm

The w1070 would be too bright for an 84" screen, I think you had a defective unit or bulb (something wrong there). It won't be possible to know which one is better until someone compares them that we know is experienced. I would think the Benq is slightly better, but they are probably pretty close.

What is the throw on the Acer @ 11 feet or so?

Can someone explain why is the Acer H6510BD is so cheap? I know Acer has on average, lower price points in general but what am I missing out on here, it just seems too good to be true to me. I found this thread because I want a budget projector that has the 2D to 3D conversion. I realize that most people think this feature is pointless and futile, but I've seen it at best buy on the new cinema series LG 55 led tvs, (LG 7600, etc) and it's pretty cool to be able to have even a slight 3D effect on 2D sports, (basketball etc) and although the LG led tv's are "passive" 3D, I assume there will be a similar 2D to 3D effect on this Acer H6510BD hopefully.

I was all ready to buy the BenQ w1070 or a similar priced optima hd for around 1k and then splurge on a 500.00 oppo blue ray player that also had the 2D to 3D conversion which would have set me back a total of around 1600.00, (1100 for the projector, 500 for the oppo), but now I can just buy this Acer H6510BD for 800 for 800!?! I've been out of the projector game for awhile, but these prices are insanely cheap! Makes me glad I didnt splurge on a 3D, "smart" tv and can instead enjoy a budget 3d projector that also has the 2D to 3D conversion. If someone has any reservations about this unit (H6510BD) please speak now, I dont know if i can wait until actual reviews get done here in the US for fear this will go on backorder!

Thanks in advance to any replies to a newbie!

Acer Projector Size/Distance Calculator (be sure to choose the H6510BD from the drop-down box) I think you have noticed what we have noticed. This looks like a tremendous value. I can't explain why the Acer is so inexpensive when compared to comparable projectors, but I would guess that the cost of materials and cost of manufacture continue to go down, and Acer is just the first to market (the BenQ W1070 actually made it to market first, but its cost is 25% higher ).

I would say no 12v trigger, and the slower color wheel and no lens shift is probably why its cheaper then the BenQ which has those mentioned features and a faster color wheel which is also RGBRGB which helps reduce from what I have read potential rainbow effect compared to the color wheel Acer uses.

RBE is killing me on H5360 even tho the color and brightness are better than my PRO8100 (RIP) So.... what is the color wheel speed for the H6510??

It's up and running.

I have a painted-on screen that's framed in, and my previous projector (Sharp XR10X) was 1024X768, so after some testing in 16X9 I have settled temporarily into 4X3 aspect ratio. Somewhat defeats the purpose of buying a 1080p projector, but I plan to reconfigure the frame in the next couple weeks--need to reconfigure the room as well, since the wider image is being cut off by the arm of my couch on one side and an old behemoth tube TV on the other.

Looks good, and it's nice to finally have HDMI inputs. It's bright, it's sharp, it's quiet, and it seems to run much cooler than my old projector, but it hasn't knocked my socks off. *sigh* I guess the thrill is gone.

I'm going to hook up the PS3 later on tonight, and I have a pair of DLP Link 3D glasses on order, so maybe I'll get my socks knocked off yet.

Upon reviewing the specs it sure seems that this Acer is a very close sibling to the Viewsonic PJD7820HD. You guys might want to check out that thread as well.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1459077/viewsonic-pjd7820hd-proj-3000-lumens-1080p-3d-using-cheap-d-link-glasses-less-than-700

The viewsonic is also DC3, RGBCYW, uses a 210 watt lamp and is 3,000 lumens. Bonus on the viewsonic - it's cheaper(about $100) than the Acer, 3 year warranty & it's black. 6,000 hour bulb life. It's also spec-ed at 15,000:1 contrast. Couldn't find a number on the Acer. Full specs can be downloaded at this link:

http://www.viewsonic.com/us/pjd7820hd.html

At these prices it sure seems that 720P is dead - unless your budget is truly small. 1080P and 3D at $700 -

As to rainbows - I assume it's the same on the Acer but the Viewsonic clearly says 7200 RPM color wheel & 6 segments. The only difference between this and the Benq W1070 is RGBRGB vs. RGBCYW. I have always lived with rainbows because I feel the image of DLP is far superior to LCD.

Just to follow up, I'm much more impressed with the projector now that I chose some better material for testing. Playing a dark, earthen-hued movie like How to Train Your Dragon in the middle of the day was not the best choice to bring out the best in this projector, but that was about the extent of my testing before my last post. That night, I hooked up the PS3 and played a little Killzone3. Looked very nice. Then, I threw my Avatar blu-ray in the PS3, and of course that looked brilliant. I used a 1920 X 1080 checkerboard image to confirm that I was getting 1:1 pixel ratio over VGA from my computer.

I also wanted to comment on the mounting pattern and the footprint of this projector. Back in 2006, I installed a nice ceiling mount that has a grill plate to which the projector is attached, and then the grill slides into the mount. Whereas my old projector dwarfed the grill plate, the grill actually sticks out a little in front and to the side of the H6510BD. This is partly because the mount pattern on this projector is off center, and partly because this projector has a much smaller footprint than my old projector.

I took down my old 4X3 frame, and am committing to 16X9. Tomorrow my 3D glasses should arrive, and I'm going to find out how well the DLP Link 3D works in this system with the PS3. I'll also be swapping out my DVI to VGA cable from my computer for a DVI to HDMI so I'm hoping that the jump from analog to digital will make it look even sharper.

I just recently got this projector and am extremely happy with it and its price. I have a couple of questions that maybe someone could answer:

1. Has anyone done a calibration? If so could you post the settings?
2. I have an interesting issue with 3D that maybe someone would have seen. (I should note that I am currently using the UltraClear HD dlp link glasses). I have a panasonic 3D player and when I feed SBS content at 60 fps everything works fine and the 3D content looks great. However if I feed at 24 fps (either frame sequential or SBS), the projector seems to overlay the images correctly but my glasses will not sync, so I have double vision 3D. (Also note that I have a second way of sending 24 fps SBS content to the projector with the exact same result so the problem is not the blu ray player). I have read elsewhere that this projector does not require the newer 144Hz glasses. Is that a known fact – has someone else been able to watch 24 fps 3D content with older glasses? I have a friend with some Sainsonic glasses that I should be able to get sometime next week. I will test and post my results unless some knows for sure that 144 hz is required for this projector. Unless this is the issue, then there must be a problem with my projector – that just seems strange given that 60 fps works fine.

Will PS3 3D glasses work with this projector?

Have not done any calibration. Looked good to me out of the box.
Received the Sainsonic 3D glasses from Amazon on Friday. They are the new version, capable of 144 hz, but are also backwards compatible, so I don't know the mode it was operating in.. I have watched some HSBS 3D material. I had to manually set the type of 3D on the projector, but never had any sync problems after manually setting the type of 3D. Looked spectacular. I finally got my socks knocked off by this projector!

PS3 gaming in 3D was kind of a letdown. It adds a little depth, but it really doesn't enhance the gaming experience.

I did have some sync issues when trying to watch HSBS material using Bino from the computer. I was letting the projector automatically choose the correct 3D type, and it woud work for 5-10 seconds, but would then suddenly divide the screen into 4 images. I think this was a projector issue rather than a glasses issue. Once I manually set the projector to HSBS, however, it worked flawlessly.

I had read some complaints about syncing with the Sainsonic 3D glasses, but I only experienced that as set forth above. I thought they worked great. Based on my experience, I went ahead and ordered 4 more.

Next up, I'm going to see what PC gaming in 3D is like.
No. You need DLP-Link 3D glasses. I assume you have the 3D PS3 monitor. The glasses that come with the PS3 monitor use RF frequency to communicate with the monitor to establish and maintain sync. The projector uses a different technology where the glasses rely on flashes interspersed between the frames of the viewed material to establish and maintain sync.

Here is what is listed on Newegg under the "features".........3X Color Wheel Rotation Speed. Looking at this or the Benq W1070 to replace my Mits HD1000 (which still works fine). Don't have a problem with rainbows on the Mits but a little concerned with a 3X speed (if in fact that is correct).

Can this Acer do 3D from a stand alone Bluray 3D player? Or does it have to run thru a PC as Projector Central says PC ready NOT full HD 3D ready. Or does this Acer need that Optoma 3D-Xl. If not where in the menus can you set it to run from like a Panny BD110?

Has anyone tried 2D-to-3D conversion feature on this PJ ? How does it look ? This feature is one of the pluses of this PJ compared to Benq W1070. I read that Epsons have warped image on the bottom left corner.

Yes. I was doing 3D from the PS3. I haven't yet actually played a 3D Blu-ray on the PS3, but if it does 3D on the games, I have no doubt it will do 3D Blu-rays as well.

I tried the 2D to 3D Friday night. I don't have a reference (I don't have another 2D to 3D device to compare it to), all I can say is I was surprised that it actually looked pretty good for simulated 3D.

I needed to adjust the contrast/brightness/sharpness but other than that it looks great. Still want to see what the correct color temp settings would be.

For the SBS material, was that being feed to the projector at 24 fps or 60 fps? Can you force the input to 24 fps and let me know if the Sainsonic glasses still work?. Hopefully, I will be able to borrow some 144 Hz glasses this week and verify all of this. FYI, as far as setting the projector for SBS 3D, I had the same issues with having the projector not auto select SBS 3D. That is one of the reasons it would be nice to run direct from the Blu ray player at full HD 3D - since 3D is automatically detected and you do not have to set this up specifically. In my case though, with the little bit of 3D that I watch, I'll probably just use my existing glasses, switch 24 fps on the Blu Ray player to off, and use SBS output (Panasonic players offer this option). Main reason I am interested is that I want to make sure I do not have a defective projector
Edited by ldavis - 3/25/13 at 12:20pm

I purchased my H6510BD from Newegg Tuesday night and received it on Friday. I'm upgrading from a Panasonic PT-AE700U that provided me with 8 years of service. I'm projecting about 120in diagonal from a ceiling mount about 12ft from white drywall. The only slightly annoying part of using this projector from a ceiling mount is the fact that it has a 14 degree upward throw. This meant that I actually needed to angle the projector slightly towards the ceiling to compensate. This caused a mild keystone but the keystone correction seems to compensate quite well with no noticeable distortion.

My media room is moderately light controlled (blackout curtains) with a small amount of daylight leaking through. The immediate difference in contrast, color reproduction, brightness was astounding when compared to my old projector. My wife and friends noticed immediately, as well. The first thing I did was put the projector in eco mode since it was actually too bright in standard mode.

I ran it for about 12 hours this weekend including a couple of XBOX 360 games (Tomb Raider, Skyrim, and Black Ops 2), two NCAA tournament games (Tar Heels), a little surfing and Youtube on my media PC, and a little bit of standard HD cable programming. I found no noticeable motion blur (not sure if that's an issue with DLP anyway). The text from my PC was incredibly sharp at 1080p. 720p didn't look nearly as good but I understand that's to be expected from a non-native resolution. TV looked great despite the lack of 1080p programming. Video games looked fantastic as I noticed new details I'd never picked up on before. The presets that looked most pleasing to my eye were "Movie" and "Dark Cinema". I didn't mess with the color settings, contrast, or brightness. I left the dynamic black turned off because it didn't really seem necessary.

I experimented a bit with the 3D but my tests were limited due to the fact that my receiver is not HDMI 1.4a compliant so it would not pass the 3D signal. I bypassed my receiver and connected the projector directly to my XBOX 360. I ran Black Ops 2 in 3D mode with a pair of white (120hz) Sainsonic 3D glasses. I found the 3D effect in Black Ops 2 to be a bit underwhelming. It added some depth but I never felt like anything was actually coming out of the screen. I also noticed that quick movements (like my gun jerking when I fired) had a noticeably reduced framerate that seemed to affect my accuracy. This is probably not a fault of the projector but more to do with the game engine and the fact that 3D effectively halves the framerate of any video source. I haven't tried the 2D-to-3D long enough to develop an opinion on the usefulness.

I hope my amateur review helps somebody who's on the fence about this projector. I obviously don't have any other "modern" projectors to compare it to but I can assure you it blows my previous 8 year old ($2500) Panasonic out of the water.
Edited by fizix - 3/25/13 at 12:45pm

Is this thing capable of driving PC games at 1080p 60hz in 3d? If so that is amazing as I haven't yet seen anything that can do 1080p true 120hz that wasn't like 8+ grand =(.......

Supported source / timings from the manual.....

Alas.... it was too good to be true, guess I'll keep dreaming .....

Hey coderguy. .. hadn't checked this thread for a while.

Yes, the unit was defective. The new unit is noticeably brighter, but I wouldn't say "too bright for 84" screen" imo. . .unless, of course, this second unit still isn't right

thx!

@current Acer H6510 owners

have any of you noticed noise and/or grain in the picture, even when fed blu ray?

Both W1070 projectors we've had are rather temperamental about brightness/gamma and that causing added noise/grain/fizz/sparkles. . .

I've heard that BenQ is pretty well known for this issue though, don't know if other DLP manufacturers are better or the same.

Watched "The Avengers" on blu ray the other night and could see areas, generally those that are not in focus, that had fizzy noise. Then watch "Outland" 1981 blu ray during the day — using higher gamma with same brightness setting — and. . . noise city! Had to decrease the brightness back to 50 and gamma to 2.4 just to make it watchable, mind you it still had a good amount of noise. This issue has been discussed on the W1070 thread. General recommendation is to decrease brightness, however, that doesn't solve all of the noise and that decreases shadow details considerably. Ours is set at 53 brightness (50 default) based on clipping. This had actually gotten a little annoying as of late — finding myself looking at the noise in the picture instead of watching the movie — it really depends on the movie but some are really bad while other just have a bit here and there, like the Avengers.

Since we are new to projectors we are rather clueless as to how much noise should be expected from a DLP projector.

Thanks!

I have a 2005 720P Mitsubishi DLP projector with over 7000 hours on it and at normal seating distance there is no noise. You have not properly calibrated the projector, have a signal problem, or a defective unit. When an HDMI connection is pushed beyond the max length or sub standard cables are used you can get the type of condition you describe. Try a short, known good cable directly from a BR player under the projector to see if your issue goes away.

I was able to borrow some Sainsonic glasses (144 hz variety) and can confirm that these work with 24 fps material. Since my old 120Hz glasses worked for 60 fps SBS 3d but did not work for 24 fps, it seems the likely conclusion is that for 24 fps 3d, glasses capable of 144hz are required.

can you give some impressions with how the 3D quality seems to be using the 144hz glasses?

neither hdmi cable is that long (12' I think is the longest and the other is 6'). never noticed an issue with them on the HDTVs.
also, if it is the HDMI cable(s) wouldn't it be more consistent? this seems very dependent on the movie and brightness+gamma settings. for example. "The Walking Dead" is very noise while "Supernatural" is generally very clear.

nonetheless, I'll hunt down another set this week and see if it does help.

thx for the suggestion/info!