BenQ W1080ST 1080p 3D Short Throw DLP Home Theater Projector (White)

I've been researching projectors for the past month or so.I needed something that was bright to handle the amount of light during the day in my living room.I considered the Optoma TH1060p b/c of its 4500 lumens and online pics of the picture quality looked awesome in bright light and at night. However, it's also about $450 more than this BenQ projector and since this one is a ST allows me to mount closer which should help during bright daylight hours.I set it up on a chair right now eager to see how it looked and to make sure it would be bright enough during the day or if I'd need to exchange it for a higher lumens one.Right now I only have a white sheet up (as I'm debating which screen to get 1.1 or 1.8 gain), so take note of that in the pictures I'm including.My overall thoughts after watching football and a few tv shows during the day, along with at night Star Trek Blu-Ray.During the night, the image quality, colors and clarity are AMAZING! My attached pictures were taken with my iPhone so take note of that as the pictures do not do this justice. The pictures actually make some of the image appear brighter than they are, but the colors were phenomenal. Again, it's also projecting onto a white sheet.The daytime pic is making sure I would be able to enjoy my football games as well. Even during midday the image looks fantastic.The only time the picture isn't that great and almost terrible is if watching a dark scene when LOTS of ambient light is coming in, in a TV show, think along the lines of American Horror Story.Most of our TV/movie watching is at dusk/night so while this projector doesn't do well in high ambient light with dark scenes, it's tolerable for me being several hundred dollars less than other models and the ability to mount closer to screen.Our living room has a bay window opposite the image, along with an open concept floor plan where the next room has 2 more windows that allow a good amount of light in, and also a side window in the viewing room.Other reviewers commented on some focus issues across the screen. I've had this set up about 5 and 6 ft from the wall and have had no issues with finding focus problems.The fan noise is perfectly fine too.On normal lamp setting it's not noticeable unless it's a quite scene, and is ever so slightly quieter on smart-eco mode.As far as brightness between normal and smart-eco it's hardly noticeable even during the day and since it will prolong the lamp I will likely always run it in smart-eco mode.Once I get a proper screen up I'll update my pictures.Oh, and I also played some PS3 games at night projecting a 120" image and it was mind-blowing.

I spent at least 30 hours reading all the reviews on various projectors and researching which exact projector I should buy to work in my movie room, which has about 11.5 feet from the back wall to the free-standing movie screen of 110 inches across and I got it just right with this one and it totally fills the screen and my jaw dropped when I hit the button that enlarged the image to fully fill the entire screen from top to bottom and side to side! It was mind blowing how amazing this projector's image quality is. I have had a number of projectors an HD one from China for about $500.00 and that was a deal 4 - 5 years ago....with HDMI connections... that was OK, but don't hit the language button or two days trying to get it back to English!! Let me tell you this BenQ W1080ST projector has excellent color, stunning HD! I pat myself on the back each and every time I turn it on and watch something, be it TV, Netflix, a DVD, BlueRay is most impressive. My friends are completely taken with it and can't get over the feeling of being in the front row at a concert when watching a concert DVD/BlueRay like Adel or Talking Heads, and it really feels like you are in a real movie theater watching just about anything TV/Cable, Rouku Box or Apple TV. I LOVE it!Happy as a clam I bought it. I can't imagine what a more expensive unit could provide that would be worth spending so much more on it. It works ok in daylight with shades down and some light coming into the room, it's acceptable, and amazing in a dark room! Check your distance to the screen to determine the image size. my setup is 9'.5" from the lens to the screen. The screen is 118 inches across and 131 inches on diagenel and 5 ft high.

We have a relatively small room, so went for the short throw version. I'm not very knowledgeable about projectors, but I'd think that would be the better way to go regardless since the closer the projector is to the wall, the less light you'll lose between the projector and the screen.And wow does this thing have plenty of light! We set it up just to get a look at our new baby, and the image was sharp and clear even with the lights on in the room. Very bright picture with the lights in the room off. We don't have a screen up yet, and our wall is textured, but the image looks amazing already. I can't wait to see it with a nice screen!We have watched regular and HD TV channels, DVD, Blu-Ray, and movies streamed from my laptop to Apple TV. The image quality is outstanding. We don't have it mounted on the ceiling yet, and the sound from the fan is really fine even sitting on the coffee table between us and the screen. I'm sure by the time it's in its ceiling mount we won't hear a thing.Some reviews have complained about the rainbow effect from the DLP, but none of the people who've viewed this projector have seen it. We watched the NFL playoffs with a group of 7 of us, and all were amazed and impressed by the projector.We have tried the speaker built into the projector, and were impressed enough with the sound quality. We originally had it turned to near-max volume and had to jump quickly to turn it down because it was louder than anticipated. I think we ended up with the volume level at 3 out of 10 for comfortable viewing. However, I would think most people with a projector like this will not use these speakers on a long-term basis, so my requirements for speaker quality are very low.I haven't tried 3D, so can't comment on that. I have no desire for viewing 3D movies, so that is not one of my requirements.The price of this projector is excellent. It is small and easy to move around, so if you don't have it permanently mounted you can throw it in the included padded carrying case and take it to a friend's house. The fan sound is audible, but doesn't bother me (and I go NUTS when people whisper behind me in a move theater, so it should bother me if it's going to bother anyone). The image is outstanding. We could not be happier with this purchase, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the market for a projector.