Viewsonic Pro8200 Projector - Performance 2

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Art Feierman

Viewsonic Pro8200 Sharpness

he Pro8200 comes across as nice and sharp. This is typical of single chip DLP projectors in general, and this Viewsonic projector is no exception. It appears, for example, to be just slightly sharper than the Epson Home Cinema 8350 - a top performing under $1500 3LCD projector.

For your consideration, our usual close up images:

Top left: Pro8200, Top Left Center - LG CF181D, Top Right Center - JVC RS25, Top right - Mitsubishi HC4000.

2nd row left: Panasonic PT-AE4000, left center: Epson Home Cinema 8500UB, right center:Optoma HD8200, right: BenQ W6000.

Please note, we are slowly switching to using the Playstation video logo as our sharpness example, instead of the old dts-hd logo. The original sample test disc from dts died, and they can't find me another.

Pro8200

LG CF181D

JVC RS25

Mitsubishi HC4000

Panasonic PT-AE4000

Epson Home Cinema 8500UB

Optoma HD8200

BenQ W6000

Close up of a computer monitor, from Space Cowboys (Blu-ray), left to right: Pro8200, Optoma HD20, BenQ W6000, and Sharp XV-Z15000.

Viewsonic Pro8200: Bottom Line Sharpness

When you consider that the Viewsonic's image is everybit as sharp, overall, as most 3LCD and LCoS projectors selling for several times the price, my suggestion is simply not to give the Viewsonic's sharpness any additional thought (except to catalogue sharpness as a strength.)

Pro8200

Optoma HD20

BenQ W6000

Sharp XV-Z15000

Light Leakage

The Viewsonic Pro8200 does leak light out through the lens. In fact, there is a reasonable amount of it. Not as much, as say the Mitsubishi HC4000, but enough that you are able to notice some leakage, mostly above the projected image (if you are table based - below, if ceiling mounted), if you have a light colored wall around the screen, and the scene is very dark. For a home entertainment projector - family rooms, etc., this is another minor issue that you don't need to be concerned with.

Image Noise

I see no issues with Viewsonic's image processing. which is provided primarily by Pixelworks, a well respected image processing provider to a lot of projector and LCDTV manufacturers. In fact, considering the entry level nature of the Pro8200 projector, we can completely dismiss the Viewsonic's image noise abilities as something we don't need to be concerned with.

Audible Noise

OK, now you can be concerned. The Viewsonic Pro8200 isn't exactly quiet. It's a single chip DLP projector, and as a class, they tend to be a bit noisey. Viewsonic claims 31 db at full power, and 27 in eco-mode. My take is that their eco-mode estimate might be a bit high, it seems quieter than that, but, in full power, the 31 db is probably accurate or a touch optomistic. This projector does make some noise - though nothing unusual for a single chip DLP, especially in the low price ranges. In the somewhat noiseyr family environment, no one is likely to notice.