Viewsonic PJD7822HDL Projector Review - Performance 2

Posted on March 19, 2015 by Art Feierman

ViewSonic Specs
Price
Technology
Native Resolution
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim)
Contrast
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift	No
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Sharpness

❮ ❯

First of all, we're looking at a 1080p resolution projector in a price range dominated by lower resolution 720p and WXGA projectors. That alone gives this Viewsonic projector a big advantage in sharpness and readability compared to most of the competition.

The first images are a close-up and full shot of one of our test images. In the close-up you get a good look at how the PJD7822HD handles small and medium sized type. And not just black on white (which is easy), but the reverse and also color on color (the hardest). Also be sure to observe the sharpness of all the small text in the tool bars. Keep in mind that in business presentations, such as powerpoint, 24, 36 and larger point type is usually used. Body text type is rarely below 18 points. As you can see 10 point type is nicely readable. That's about as small as anyone uses, and that would be more for workgroup type presentations using spreadsheets or Word type documents, with everyone sitting just a few feet from the screen. For presenting in rooms where people sit anywhere from front to back of the room 18 point should be the minimum used.

That's followed by some screen images using a browser. Again, everything small is very readable, nicely sharp. Note that the projector may be 1920x1080 resolution, but the images here are put up using my MacBook Pros' lower res 1440 wide display

Understand, that these lower cost projectors obviously do not spend the big bucks on their optics. Most projectors anywhere near the price range of this Viewsonic do not use glass lenses, or at best, perhaps a mix of glass and plastic elements. No matter, the bottom line is: Does the projector produce a sharp image? Yes.

After those images, are four taken off of HDTV. Those are 1080i broadcasts from DirecTV so we're capturing only one of the two interlaced frames, thus resolution is slightly lower at 1920x540, rather than the 1080p images below those, which are captured 1920x1080 resolution. Of course when you enlarge to look, you are only seeing 1000 wide images so true resolution of these images is reduced in all cases, compared to the reality.

The real close-ups though of the PS3 icon provide the highest resolution because they covered only a small portion of the whole screen. The Viewsonic PJD7822HD is the first of those, followed the Optoma HD161x (over 2X the price) and then the Epson HC3500. The HC3500 is also over 2X the price, but the HC3000 with the same optical system as the HC3500 but a feature set more similar to the Viewsonic is around $1200, so still a good bit more expensive. Only the Epson, of these, is not a single chip DLP. The 3 chip Epson has to worry about pixel mis-convergence, which is not an issue for the Viewsonic and the others.

The remaining examples are the BenQ HT1075 (replacement for their W1070), which is a couple hundred dollars more, and finally the Optoma HD141X, the only 1080p home entertainment projector we've reviewed that sells for a little less than the Viewsonic.

Audible Noise

As expected, the Viewsonic isn't as quiet as some more expensive home theater projectors, but it holds up even against some of those.

Viewsonic does not publish audible noise specs (nor do we measure them). That said, it seems fairly typical of the projectors around the price range. If I had to guess - based on other projectors that do quote, I would put it's full power audible noise in the 32-35 db range, and in eco mode, a noticeably lower, 28-30 db range. That's not great, but typical. Higher end home theater projectors tend to come in between 20 and 25 db in their eco modes but these days mostly closer to 25 db. Note: 2db is considered a just barely noticeable difference. 6db is a very noticeable difference. 10 db is dramatic. If you are watching sports or general TV, you probably won't be in the least bothered by even full power mode unless you are sitting right next to the projector. But for a quiet movie scene, over 30db will be noticeable to many folks. Among those hard core enthusiasts who would be considered especially audible noise adverse, they are rarely happy with anything over 25 db, on those quiet scenes. But then they have nicely padded and dark, home theaters.

BTW on average home entertainment and home theater projectors have been getting slightly noisier over recent years, as manufacturers have loaded the projectors with more and more lumens, often to meed the brightness demands of 3D. Just a few years back, many expensive home theater projectors maxed out with less than 1000 lumens. Not any more. With the more powerful lamps comes more need to cool them, and with that faster, noisier fans. Such is life!

PJD7822HD Gamma

Gamma could definitely be better, the gamma number is low up around white (100 IRE, and down to 50 IRE before falling into Movie type gamma curves. This tends to create a visually lighter image in the mid-ranges, and that can help cutting through ambient light. But, at the same time, that change creates less contrast - or pop, in the mid-ranges. Thus, the look is a bit more TV like than Movie like.

There are plenty of settings options, but Mike points out that none really provide a consistent gamma curve that holds right around the target 2.2 (or a bit higher). You can definitely choose to pick a higher gamma. It will make the near black areas seem darker, but you may like the brighter scenes better by virtue of more Pop to the image.

Mike's has some hopefully helpful comments on gamma are on the advanced calibration page, in case some of you Viewsonic owners want to fiddle around with the gamma options.

Click Image to Enlarge

Image noise

No complaints here. Using my Silicon Optic text disc, there were no obvious problems, nothing that should show up as a problem running normal content. Motion artifacts were minimal, panning good. Typical of single chip DLP projectors (maybe all DLP projectors), background "mosquito" noise is a bit more evident than with other technologies such as 3LCD or LCoS, but then consider that there is almost 0 competition from those other two technologies around this price point. The least expensive 3LCD projectors are pretty much about $200 more, and LCoS projectors start around $2000. Gradients are handled well as you can see in this cropped image of the seal of the Capitol, from The Hunger Games. There's no obvious banding in the grays, either in the seal, the pillar or the surrounding latticework. Nicely done.

All considered, the projector has no significant issues either as a business portable or a home entertainment projector when it comes to image noise.