BenQ W10000 Physical Tour

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Art Feierman

BenQ W10000 Physical Tour

Starting facing the front, the W10000 home theater projector is dominated by a large center mounted zoom lens. Just outside the lens trim on the upper right is the front infrared sensor. The hot air vents out of the front. Below the front are two screw thread adjustable feet.

❮ ❯

Although this is the same zoom lens, (which, as with the PE-8720, provides an exceptionally sharp image), the zoom has less zoom range than the PE-8720. Whereas the PE-8720 offers a very impressive 1.35:1 zoom ratio (impressive for a DLP projector), the W10000 offers only 1.15:1 range. This is due to the fundamentals of DLP chips. The 1080p Darkchip3 DLP chip is larger than its 720p counterpart used in the PE-8720. As a result, to use the same lens with it, at the telephoto end, the outer edge of the image would be lost.

BenQ's solution was simply to limit the zoom ratio to 1.15:1, which does limit placement flexibility. (In my case, since my PE-8720 is shelf mounted in the rear of my room, if I finally choose the W10000 to replace my PE-8720, I'm going to have to extend the shelf another 16 inches to put the projector a bit closer to my screen, so as not to overshoot the end. Still the remaining 1.15:1 combined with a moderately long throw, will work for many in a rear shelf situation, especially if buyers are willing to be a little bit flexible with their screen size, to make it work in their room.

Moving to the top of the W10000 projector, is a large, well spaced out control panel, as shown here. Nearest to the lens are the "usual" three indicator lights - Power, Temperature, and Lamp. Not far behind them are four widely spaced arrow keys for navigating the menu system. The Up and Down arrow keys double (when not in Menu mode) to control the power zoom lens. The Left and Right arrow keys, double to control the power focus.

Further back are two rows of three large buttons. On the far left of the first row (looking from the back), is the Power switch, in the center, the Menu button, which, once the menus are open, doubles as an Exit button. On the right, is the Source select button, which when in Menu mode functions as the Enter button.

On the second row there is a Memory button which lets you toggle between the preset and user modes. The center and right buttons control the vertical, power lens shift. All in all very straightforward, and easy to navigate.

That takes us to the rear of the BenQ W10000. If there is one weakness with this projector, it is in the limited number of inputs. From the left, at the top is the single HDMI input (sure would be nice to have a second, and even a third). Next to it are three RCA jacks for the Component Video input. And to the right of them, is a composite video (RCA jack) and S-Video (DIN plug), input. The lower row is dominated by five BNC connectors which can accept either a computer signal, or be used as a second component video input. Next is a 12Volt Trigger for automatically controlling a motorized projection screen (that is equipped to handle 12Volt control - optional on many motorized screens). Last is an RS-232 port for command and control of the projector from a computer.

Separate from the control panel in the lower right is the power receptacle, and the "hard" power switch - which, of course, must be ON for the Power button on the top of the W10000, or the remote control, to power the projector on and off.

BenQ follows the most common protocol for Powering up and down. Press once for On, press twice to power down.

I'll cover the remote control in the General Performance section, along with the Menu options.

Time to cut to the chase - let's consider the BenQ W10000 home theater projector's image quality.