ViewSonic PJD7822HDL Home Entertainment Projector Review

PJD7822HDL Overview

This Viewsonic projector has an MSRP of $789, but typically sells for a good bit less.  I think it a little more than two  years ago, that Viewsonic announced the PJD7822HDL's predecessor, the PJD7820HD.

I don't recall if the announcement was at CES 2013 in January, or Infocomm 2013 in June, but we reviewed it in August 2013.  When announced the older 7820 was perhaps the most talked about projector at other manufacturer's booths.  The commentary was something like this:  What on earth are they doing introducing a 1080p projector for $899.  Everyone else is introducing their lowest cost 1080p projectors around $1999!  How are they going to make any money?

Well, I don't know if they made a lot of money, but the projector has proved very popular.  While overall, both old and new are "crossover" projectors - have much of their design in common with business portable projectors, and neither are serious home theater projectors, the older 7820HD brought 1080p resolution into people's homes for under $1000 when virtually all the alternatives were at least 50% more expensive.

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This time around, Viewsonic has introduced a newer version of that old breakthrough projector, and it's still about as inexpensive as 1080p projectors get, but this time, Viewsonic has some real competition around its price point.

Speaking of which, street price seems to be - at least for the moment, at $699 based on a quick scan of online pricing.  That's not going to set any records.  BenQ's HT1075, replacing it's end of life W1070 is perhaps a couple hundred d0llars more.  We discus in this review an Optoma with 1080p resolution, that's $100 less.   Of course they have different feature sets, and wildly different warranties, but the point is, there's more competition for this new Viewsonic.  It seems to be up to the challenge.

So, you want to know more?  The PJD7822HDL is a bit brighter than it's predecessor, now claiming 3200 lumens up from 3000.   Although it lacks MHL on its HDMI ports, thanks to a powered USB port it will work with Roku sticks, Chromecast, Amazon Fire Stick etc, to stream live from the internet.

Lamp life has been improved as well.  5000 hours at full power is about as good as it gets without buying a more expensive projector with a laser or LED light engine.  (Viewsonic makes the HD91, for example, which is a major step up and sports an LED light source.)

This Viewsonic makes a nice, compact home entertainment projector but can easily double as a portable business projector.  It's got the resolution (better than most business portables, 3200 lumens, built in speakers, zoom lens and weighs in at just slightly over 4.5 pounds. Very road warrior suitable!

As a home entertainment projector it's got the brightness to handle most non-theater type rooms like a living room or family room, especially when paired with a suitable screen.  Gamers will find this Viewsonic projector's lag times to be really good, so the PJD7822  should be popular with them.  And it is, after all, small enough and light enough to slip into a backpack to take it to a friends for an afternoon of WOW or COD, or Madden Football.

Here's a quick list of the projetor's highlights - many already mentioned, and then we can start discussing some of the "special features."

PJD7822HDL Projector Highlights