BenQ HT3050 Projector Review - Hardware Tour 2

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Art Feierman

BENQ HT3050 PROJECTOR - HARDWARE TOUR - page 2: Remote Control, Menus, Venting and Light Leakage

BenQ HT3050 Remote Control

The BenQ remote control for the HT4050 and HT3050 projectors

The HT3050 comes with the same remote as the HT4050, so forgive me for using the HT4050 photo here. Range is very good. BenQ claims 30 feet range, and the projector has front and rear remote control sensors. There's no place in my 450+ square foot home theater where I have any problem with the remote, and if I open the doors, I can get about 20 feet away, at a less than ideal angle, and still no problem.

Let's look at the buttons, starting from the top.

There's the largish green power button for On, and a smaller red one for powering down. Despite having a separate power down button, you do have to press it twice for shut down. The only other button on the top row - on the right - is the Light button, which lights up all the buttons with a fairly bright orange. Please note, that pressing any button on the remote also engages the backlight.

The backlight is on the bright side of things, but not overwhelmingly bright as found on some projectors - notably Optoma's bright blue LEDs which are almost blinding in a dark room. I'd say BenQ got it right. Also, the letters on the buttons are fairly easy to read with the backlight on, and no problem in a lit up room without the backlight.

No Picture in Picture. The next six buttons - two rows, are direct links to various menus, but not all the buttons are used. There's a working 3D button, Auto, for the auto sync for computer signals, Invert (for the 3D glasses), Eco Blank which blanks the screen, and two more. If you looked at the image on the right, before reading this, you might have gotten excited about having PIP. Sorry, the remote may have the buttons, but, just like the HT4050, the HT3050 doesn't support the feature, so the PIP and Swap buttons are not active.

Next comes navigation. Four arrow keys in a round formation with the Enter button (labeled "OK") in the middle. They are nice sized. Right below are three buttons. The two on the left work with the navigation - Back (takes you up a menu level) and Menu. To the right of those is the Source button, which brings up a list of all the sources.

Three small buttons across come next: Audio Mute, and Volume Down, and Up.

The next section is primarily for HDMI-Link, which is supported. As such, you'll find the necessary buttons for controlling a Blu-ray player, etc., such as play, chapter forward/back, fast forward/back, stop, pause,

That brings up the last nine buttons - found in three rows of three. Each provides quick access to features: Keystone, Mode, for color mode selection (Vivid, Rec 709, User 1, etc.), Bright for the brightness slider, Contrast, Color Temp (toggles through the pre-defined color temp settings, Fine Tune (which is a strange name for the usual grayscale color adjustment of RGB gain and offset), Gamma, Color Manage - which is the CMS - where you can calibrate each of the individual primary and secondary colors, and finally, Sharp, which brings up the Sharpness slider. Interestingly, BenQ did not provide buttons for their advanced features, such as Smart Eco mode, or Motion Enhancer, Color Enhancer, etc. Remember, they have two buttons they aren't using that could have picked up two of those just mentioned.

Bottom Line: An excellent remote control. I personally do like having direct access to the different sources, it's nice when you can just press one button to go from, say, HDMI 1, to HDM2. After all, for most folks that's about all the inputs used. But, I'll stick with excellent, just not "perfect." Good job!

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BenQ HT3050 Menus

Most controls affecting the picture are on the Picture menu, which is the first one. That menu has an sub-menu labeled Advanced menu where you'll find the color calibration, and other additional image controls hiding.

All of the main and most submenus will be added below.

HT3050 Venting and Light Leakage

Air intakes to cool the HT3050 are located on the sides while the hot air exhaust exits the projector out of the front vents and front left side (if you are facing the projector). If shelf mounting be sure to leave some clearance on both sides for airflow.

The HT3050 leaks a modest amount of light out of the front vent. You aren't likely to notice unless you've got a very dark scene playing, or you are sitting at about a 45 degree angle from the projector, 3-4 feet in front. and in a mostly darkened room and your front wall is light colored. If your setup is more home entertainment - living room, bonus room, etc. where you do have ambient light present, few will notice.

Light leakage through the lens is minor, unlike the older short throw W1080ST, which leaked an awful amount of light. The HT3050 as mentioned on the previous page also leaks tons light around it's zoom and focus controls on the top, but there's a sliding door to cover it. There's no place for light to leak up there on the more expensive HT4050.