BenQ W7000 or Epson 5020?

The w7000 has too much light for a 100" screen, unless you are running a super low gain screen or a daylight situation.

The above is not fully correct, the w7000 has a fully adjustable IRIS in the service menu that can be used like a fixed manual IRIS. The projector is not too bright for any screen size, you can run it on a 20" screen if you want. The SM settings are easy to make (a few clicks), and they generally hold between projector reboots, so it's a one-time setting thing to do. You do lose the DI functionality when doing this, but it's not that big of a deal.

I am an owner of a w7000 and I am using the IRIS in exactly the capacity mentioned above. That said the Epson will be much better in dark movies.

The DI is fine, it's only because I needed the brightness lowered. To get the brightness down, you have to disable the DI because you are closing the IRIS and the Benq no longer allows DI functionality. So if the projector is too bright for a given screen size or room, you just disable the DI and go to the Service Menu and change the IRIS settings to close down.

Great info coder....I really like the specs of the w7000, but I'm concerned about spending $1800 and getting bad unit (problems I've heard). I picked the wrong PJ for my first go at it...I just wanna get it right this time. I've got my eye on a w1070 also. My room is totally light controlled with dark walls and ceilings and I have a 150" screen. I sit about 16ft back. What have been your impressions with the w7000 thus far?

The w1070 is a great choice as well. It all depends on how much money you want to spend. From what I've seen BenQ seems to treat their customers pretty good when it comes to replacement units under warranty. I'm a fan of DLP, but at this price range I'd probably go with the 5020 over the W7000. if you're wanting a solid black level and good contrast ratios the Epson is a much better choice. Unless you're stuck on staying with DLP, and it doesn't seem you are, go with the Epson and don't look back.

I stand corrected thanks Coderguy. Some reviews I have read have not mentioned this.

bcarithers what the manual iris means is you can adjust the overall physical brightness manually. If it is too bright you just adjust the iris down. You should be able to read all about it in the Manual.

The one things I will say though is you will loose the auto Iris. This likely means you loose some black performance, the gray screen will help and in the real world it might not matter that much. The 5020ub is supposed to be a little better than the w7000 with the auto iris. Without it I would think the 5020ub has the upper hand by a step or two when it comes to ultimate black performance in the right settings.

You might also consider the 5010 if price is a concern in the debate.

Have Fun!
Edited by kmannth - 1/17/13 at 9:11pm

Epson vs. Benq is a tough choice, it depends mostly on what you value most in the image. Black levels vs. less SDE and a sharper image, the Benq is as sharp as it gets in this price range and has LESS SDE than the Epson, there is no doubt. The lesser black levels of the Benq are not too bad, just don't think about it too much, the DI is semi-useful if your lamp is at the right brightness already (but if not just wait for the lamp to FADE then you will find yourself re-enabling the DI). I haven't been able to test the DI all that much because I am using fixed mode until some further lamp wear hits. I watched quite a bit of fringe on it, and even though the black levels are not the best, I still found the punchy image to help the viewing experience. It is hard to say what is better, Epson vs. Benq, in bright scenes the Benq is definitely better than the Epson.

I am not saying the Epson or Benq are better than another, they are just different. It is going to come down to personal preference to be honest, if I were watching 3D or even 2D documentaries or scenery or anything, I am taking the Benq. If I am watching deep space scenes, I am taking the Epson.

The IRIS functionality is not likely documented thoroughly in any manual, it is a sort of hidden thing. I have documented it in the w7000 owner's thread, check that thread out.
Although the black levels are not the best on the Benq w7000, it does have a very punchy image for bright scenes, and the 3D is excellent, and the HTPC text is unmatched in this price range, only a perfectly converged non-DLP or another very sharp DLP can compete with it on text sharpness.
Edited by coderguy - 1/17/13 at 11:11pm

Yah, Fringe was a good one, too bad it is coming to an end.

You mentioned a W1070 on your shortlist. I am also struggling with the throw and the screen size but I don't think the W1070 will work for this throw and screen size unless I am mis-calculating something. Anyway, if indeed placement is an issue, I will be looking at the W7000 also and it is good to know the DI can be locked closed as I seem to recall from the previous models that it was not smooth and even made a sound.

It's hard for me to give my personal opinion completely, because it partly depends on what will WOW and AWE you...

I own a JVC and a Benq and a Viewsonic, and I used to own Epsons. I will say this though, I prefer DLP and LCOS over LCD, that is just my opinion though and some like LCD better.

The Benq w7000 is a really fun projector for HTPC with its near perfect 3D and sharpness. The Benq is the best HTPC / gaming projector in this price range unless that 50ms lag bothers you, but for me I don't play any FPS type games online so I don't care about lag (I just play single player games on a somewhat rare occasion).

The Epson would be a better match if you are still concerned about having good 3D but also having better contrast in dark movies, and not worried about near pixel perfect text sharpness, that said I cannot say that I think the pixel fill of the Epson + the Epson's random convergence is worth the better blacks for me. It would be worth it if you are watching lots of movies with very deep blacks (like the Harry Potter stuff).

I have been having a lot of fun with the Benq, it is in some ways even better than the JVC (ups and downs), but if I had to pick one only for movies, I'd probably take the JVC (but it wouldn't be a super-easy choice). Here is what might surprise most people, if I had to pick only one projector overall between a DLP and an LCOS, it would still be a DLP, I find watching TV and streaming on DLP's is more pleasing than an LCOS. LCOS really need a near-perfect source to shine their best, otherwise they lose some POP, DLP's tend to hold that POP a bit more even on imperfect sources (like what I mean is the JVC will suddenly lose a lot of sharpness traits in the image if the image gets noisy, whereas a DLP will appear "sharp still even when showing image noise")... I think LCD is similar to LCOS in the sense that it also does better with a near-perfect source.

The odd thing is, the JVC can be cleaner than the Benq due to better noise reduction, but the Benq still looks better. I was watching Merlin on Netflix as an example, and it looked better on the Benq than the JVC because Netflix kept sticking me at "SD" streaming levels. Not that it really matters. I also think bright scenes in most streaming content definitely look better on a DLP.