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Viewsonic Pro9000 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £1597
inc VAT

Hybrid laser technology removes the lamp and makes the Pro9000 a very appealing home cinema projector

Specifications

1,920×1,080 resolution, 1,600 ANSI lumens, 133x321x260mm, 4.3kg

http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk

Home cinema projectors usually come in two varieties – DLP and LCD. Viewsonic’s latest is neither – the Pro9000 uses a hybrid LED system that eliminates the need for a traditional lamp, which could make it the ideal compact projector for a small living room or home cinema.

Although it still uses a DLP chip to produce images, they’re coloured and projected using a combination of lasers and red, blue and green LEDs. This means the projector doesn’t require a colour wheel, the main cause of rainbow effects in entry-level and mid-range DLP models. It certainly made an impression in our testing, showing no signs of the colour banding that we normally experience with DLP projectors.

Viewsonic Pro9000

Eliminating the lamp significantly reduces the amount of heat generated by the projector, making it much more bearable to sit near when watching a film. If you don’t plan on installing a ceiling mount, the Pro9000 will sit comfortably on a coffee table without becoming a miniature radiator. It’s also quieter because the fan doesn’t have to cool the unit quite so aggressively. Viewsonic claims it produces 28dBs in normal mode and 22 in eco mode; both values are significantly less than those of traditional DLP projectors. We certainly noticed the difference in everyday use, even when sat a few feet from it. Finally, it uses less power to produce an image, and it should last longer too. It’s rated for 20,000 hours of use, which works out to be around three hours a day for over 150 years.

We were worried the hybrid projection would have an impact on brightness, but its 1,600 lumens proved more than adequate for our dark test room. It also coped well in a brightly lit room at shorter throw distances, although darker images were noticeably less defined and colours weren’t quite as vibrant. As with most projectors, you really need to turn out the lights to get the best from the Pro9000.

Image quality was impressive for a mid-range projector. The LED projection produced vibrant colours that really brought animated films such as Ice Age 2 to life. Darker, moodier films such as Casino Royale benefit from its auto iris system, which dynamically adjusts the brightness to improve black levels, but we didn’t think it was significantly better than any other mid-range DLP projector. Skin tones were mostly even, but colour accuracy still left a little to be desired.

We noticed quite a lot of judder, and with no options for image smoothing on the projector you’ll need to enable the feature on your Blu-ray player. Without it, motion was visibly jerky, particularly during action scenes. If you haven’t got a Blu-ray player capable of this, it’ll certainly limit the Pro9000’s appeal.

Viewsonic Pro9000
Viewsonic Pro9000

Although it doesn’t have the best looking onscreen interface around, the Pro9000 is at least functional. It’s simple enough to navigate between menus, changing picture and audio settings using the (helpfully backlit) remote control. Beyond the small collection of image pre-sets, there are two user modes that let you alter brightness, contrast, colour mode, gamma and saturation, as well as an option to enable noise reduction.

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Details

Price £1,597
Details www.viewsonic.com
Rating ****

Specifications

Projector technology laser/LED hybrid
Lamp brightness 1,600 ANSI lumens
Lamp life 20,000
Lamp life in economy mode 20,000
Contrast ratio 100,000:1 (dynamic)

Picture

Native resolution 1,920×1,080
Max compressed resolution 1,600×1,200
Aspect ratio 16:9
Other aspect ratios 16:10, 4:3, 5:4
Max diagonal at 7ft 118in
Throw ratio 1.5:1 to 1.8:1
Optical zoom 1.2x
Projection distance 1.5m to 5m
Mirror image yes
Invert image yes
Lens shift horizontal N/A
Lens shift vertical 15%
HD Ready yes
Special view modes Dark room, theatre, games, sports, User 1, User 2

Inputs/Outputs

VGA input yes
DVI input No
Composite input yes
S-video input yes
HDMI input yes
Component input via VGA
PAL support yes
SECAM support yes
NTSC support yes
Audio output 3.5mm
Others inputs/outputs RS232

Other

Noise (in normal use) 28dB(A)
Size 133x321x260mm
Weight 4.3kg
Internal speakers yes (2x 2W)
Extras remote, cables (power, HDMI, VGA-to-component, RS-232 adaptor), carying case
Remote special features keystone, source
Power consumption standby 1W
Power consumption on 178W

Lamp

Lamp cost (inc VAT) N/A
Lamp supplier N/A
Lamp cost per hour of use N/A
Lamp cost per hour of use (economy) N/A

Buying Information

Price £1,597
Supplier http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk
Details www.viewsonic.com

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