ViewSonic PX706HD Gaming Projector Review – Picture Quality

Posted on October 22, 2018 by Nikki Zelinger

ViewSonic PX706HD Gaming Projector Review – Picture Quality: Out-of-the-Box Picture Quality, Skin Tones, HDTV and Sports, Gaming

Out-of-the-Box Picture Quality

A scene from Ready Player One of "The Stacks," projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One of the battle on Planet Doom, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One of Parzival and Art3mis' dance off, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One of Art3mis finding her first clue, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One of the villain of the film, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One of Wade in the haptics suit, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from The Hunger Games of the moments before the games begin, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from The Hunger Games of Katniss' hallucination, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Stranger Things of Will's mom trying to communicate with him, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

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The out-of-the-box picture quality on the ViewSonic PX706HD is much better than I expected. DLP projectors generally have wine reds and mustard yellows, but Movie Mode looked pretty excellent on the parade scene in The Hunger Games. I expected the red flags at the base of the president’s stadium throne to be a much darker red, but they looked as red as they’ve looked on higher priced projectors. I was pleased with that.

In general, most scenes from the films and TV shows I viewed looked pretty true to color. Standard Mode seems to be a good one as well, and is brighter, so may be the one you want to use for daytime viewing. Gaming was pretty good, too. It was a bit more desaturated than I would’ve liked, which was totally noticeable when playing Horizon: Zero Dawn. I’ve included a series of photos from The Hunger Games at the end of this slider so that you can see the different colors of each mode, projecting the same image.

Skin Tones

The ViewSonic PX706HD does quite well on skin tones in Movie Mode.

The ViewSonic PX706HD is capable of handling a variety of skin tones, all of them looking quite natural and beautiful.

A scene from The Hunger Games, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Ready Player One, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from The Blacklist, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

A scene from Stranger Things, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

ViewSonic PX706HD Picture Mode: Movie

ViewSonic PX706HD Picture Mode: Standard

ViewSonic PX706HD Picture Mode: Gaming

ViewSonic PX706HD Picture Mode: Sports

ViewSonic PX706HD Picture Mode: Brightest

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Skin tones are stellar in Movie Mode. Again, I was super impressed. Some of these lower cost home entertainment projectors do a poor job on color, specifically skin tones like lips. I didn’t have high hopes for that (but I didn’t have low hopes either). I generally really like the look of 3LCDs over DLPs, favoring the vibrancy of the color due to their having as many color lumens as they do white ones, but this DLP didn’t disappoint. So in addition to it being a great projector for gaming, you’ll find the ViewSonic PX706HD to have good color for your home entertainment needs, whether you’re watching movies, TV, or sports. Speaking of HDTV and sports…

HDTV and Sports

Sports, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

The Blacklist, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

Stranger Things, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

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I’ll start with sports. First off, I don’t sportsball, and I got rid of my clunky cable box because these home entertainment reviews were the only reason I had one, since they require HDTV and sports photos. I was using my NVIDIA Shield and the NFL app, but I lent it to my fiancé for some event at his work, and I am awaiting its return. I did try to get an app via PlayStation, but they’re all pay-to-play (which I get, but I’m not paying for it), and the free one I had for Baseball has these 480p clips from games. Gross. I eventually landed with a basketball documentary called “Nowizki: The Perfect Shot.” It had a bunch of interviews, of course, but there were also some great shots of cheerleaders and basketball games. So that’s what you get.

I shot the photos from this documentary in Movie Mode, as I favored that for color, but you could just as easily use Standard or Sports. I didn’t particularly care for Sports Mode on this ViewSonic, but it might look good on outdoor sports like football and soccer. I didn’t test this theory, so it’ll be a fun thing for you to find out if you’re into sports. If it sucks, then you definitely have Standard Mode to fall back out, and it’s pretty bright, as you’ll discover on the Performance Page.

As for HDTV, I always just use Netflix – usually scenes from The Blacklist and Gotham, maybe some others. But, this time, in honor of the month of October and fast-approaching Halloween (where did the year go?), I took shots of Stranger Things. I was so stoked to be able to capture the iconic shot of Winona Ryder standing in front of the wall with holiday lights strewn over the letters of the alphabet. I had forgotten how creepy that scene got, and admittedly had a jump scare as the Demogorgon started shoving itself out of the wall. That said, all the scenes from the two shows I took photos of look really great on the ViewSonic PX706HD.

Gaming

Horizon: Zero Dawn, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

Assassin's Creed Origins, projected by the ViewSonic PX706HD.

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I did enjoy the picture quality of the PX706HD when playing video games. I started with Horizon: Zero Dawn, as that was the game I was most invested in at the time (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey just came out earlier this month, which is set in ancient Greece so I’m all about that right now). When I hopped in, I was in the middle of future, post-apocalyptic Utah and noticed right away how the color differed from my Epson Home Cinema 5040UB – the ViewSonic produced more green in Gaming Mode than my Epson does in Bright Cinema, which is what I typically use when gaming.

I’m not comparing the color of the PX706HD to the 5040UB (that’s not fair, as the Epson is about $2K more than this ViewSonic), only noting that I was a bit shocked that the orange landscape leaned more toward they yellow-orange side of the spectrum rather than the deep orange-leaning-toward-red color that I’ve been used to. The PX706HD is also more desaturated in this mode than what I’m accustom to seeing on this game, but not so much that I would ding this projector for color. Just something I noticed.

When I switched over to Assassin’s Creed Origins, I didn’t notice the desaturation or color shift toward green/yellow as much. It’s been a while since I beat that game, so the color wasn’t totally fresh in my mind. Looks great, though! Good enough for your gaming needs. In my photos of Horizon, I was able to pause the game to take pictures that didn’t have motion blur. Origins brings up a whole different screen for the pause menu, so I couldn’t do the same for that. As a result, you’ll see some light motion blur in the photos of Assassin’s Creed, but it should give you a good idea of what to expect when gaming, in terms of color.