BenQ W1080ST 1080p 3D Short Throw DLP Home Theater Projector (White)

BenQ W1080ST 1080p 3D Short Throw DLP Home Theater Projector (White)..

Buy BenQ W1080ST 1080p 3D Short Throw DLP Home Theater Projector (White) By BenQ

Most helpful customer reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Benq 1080st review
By Sally Ortiz
I have been searching for a projector since last black Friday. Over the past year I have had many models reach the top of my list. I did extensive research on all products, 3d glass, cables ect.... The end result was my purchase of the Benq 1080st. I can honestly say it was one of the best purchases of my life. It will truely change the way you watch TV or movies. I use it everyday for TV viewing and 3D movies. I have it about 7 feet from the wall and it displays about 140 inches. Think about that for a second....140 inches of 1080p glory.

Set up:
Very easy (took maybe 10min, most was moving calbe wires and stuff).
Anyone semi familar with an HD TV should have no problems navigating the menu on the Benq. Changing the colors, brightness and contrast will seem familar. Setting the lamp to the power setting is too easy (econo is still bright enough to use for everything). Setting the zoom and adjusting the focus is easy and fun to play around with. As with most other reviews I would highly recommend an additional sound system of some type.

Picture Quality:
The TV I replaced was a 46inch Samsung. I can honestly say this has a better picture. It is bright, crisp and clear. If you have some form of Comcast (Xfinity) most show are displayed in 720p. That is no fault of the benq but the original broadcast signal. Still looks really good. Any 3d movie rental on comcast is displayed in 1080i. That looks very close to movie theater 3D. Bluray and Bluray 3D display at 1080p. When I saw the picture for the first time in 1080p 3d, I laughed in hysteria because I could not believe my eyes! It was amazing! The nice thing about the benq is that every time you either change a channel or switch inputs, on the top left of the display it show the input source and image (720p, 1080i or 1080p). That is how I discovered Comcast was broadcasting in 720p and quick call in confrimed this. However you watch or whatever you watch the picture is going to be bright. Adjust the colors alittle and you have a great looking movie theater in your house.

The Benq 1080st projector itself:
Very good quality. The unit feels very well built. It looks nice and sleek. The fan noise to me is almost non-existant. It not nearly as loud as an Xbox 360. It does have a fan to keep everything cool and I would say it is not even as loud as a computer. Really it is a non issue. All the correct inputs are there. I even had a conversation with my friend on how the Benq must have been made so there would be no issues. The people at Benq must really looked at every customer complaint before making the 1080st. It is very impressive.

3D quality:
Very good. At first in to be very honest I was not too impressed. Then I adjusted the brightness down and contrast up, changed the gamma level and adjusted the CMYK color levels up by 12 on each.....my jaw dropped (changing these setting is very easy to do). It has good depth and is very clear. I bought the rechargable 3D glasses and would highly recommend them. The screen does have a red hue when your glasses are not on and 3D is playing, agian a non-issue. It is simply amazing lifting the glasses up on your face and then putting them back down and seeing how the 3D works. Regular boradcast 3D in 720p is not bad at all and if you do plan on gettig a 3D bluray play you will be amazed. No reason to ever to the movies again. I found myself constantly talking through the movie on how great it looked and how it doesnt seem fair to have this in my house.

Overall this is worth every penny. Every single person that has been lucky enough (lol) to see this in my house thinks I spent at least 5k on this projector. Thats what you get from Benq: big picture small price. I have read hundreds of reviews before my purchase of the 1080st. All I have to say is read this review and then buy it. You will be very happy you did. Enjoy!!

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
My First, and I Love It
By Douglas L. Engelhardt
This is my first personal projector, otherwise I've only seen other people's and the ones I buy for work presentation setups. But I have to say, in my opinion it is absolutely fantastic, clear crisp picture that even manages to ignore nearly all the light pollution that comes from the door of my split level, the only exception is when the scene is super dark/black for obvious reason, if there is any real light to the scene, you really cant tell.

Like I said, the image is sharp a vivid, great brightness, everything just looks right, I pretty much feel like I have a 100in TV on my wall. Absolutely love the short throw, I have a moderately small man cave and on top of that I wanted to be able to do motion stuff with kinect, wii, etc. so I needed to be able to keep movements from getting in the way, mission accomplished, I can stand 4ft from my screen and not be in the way of the projection, giving me plenty of space to move around.

Other Notes:
+Runs very near silent, the only time I notice the fan is when there is nothing else to hear.
+Never used the built in speaker so can't comment but others make it sound like its decent, really though, if you're doing something like this, don't cheat yourself using built in speakers, get a real setup, even if its only like 2.1 or 3.1 or even just a sound bar(they make some pretty good ones these days).
+As others will tell you, adjustments are to account for angels etc are very limited so be careful and get it right.
+I don't feel I notice any of the classic projector visual oddities, I have a pretty nice fixed frame screen from Elite Screens. Check them out, good quality/price and they really aren't that hard to get put together. Manual isn't always 100% clear so be careful but its still pretty good.
+Haven't picked up glasses yet. Looking at some after I finish this review.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Bring movie theater at your home..
By Amit
This is my first review on Amazon. Although, I keep buying many items from Amazon and I really liked few of them and were worth giving 5 star rating, none of the item impressed me so much to write a review. But I am so much impressed with this buy that I decided to write my 1st review.

I have already used Vivitek Qumi Q2 and IncrediSonic LED projectors. These are very small size portable projectors with long lasting LED lamp. Although these projectors project good quality image, they can not produce vivid colors. I use to feel like I am watching old days Eastman color movie.
LED technology in projector has still long way to get mature. For this reason, I decided to buy normal lamp projector even though such projectors are not very portable and requires costlier lamp replacements.

After about 2 months research I finalized buying either BENQ W1070 or W1080ST. Both projectors are same except throw distance. Finally I ordered W1080ST.
I got this projector on 23-Jan. It is manufactured in Nov-13 and has FirmWare ver. 1.04. It has backlit(red color) remote.

Here is my observation

1) Image quality is EXCELLENT with vivid colors and as good as what you see in movie theater. I am not using any screen and projecting image on bare wall.

2) Brightness is very good and I can watch movie with few lights on. But with all lights switched off, I feel like I am watching 120 inch LED TV.
Even in movie theater all lights are switched off for better viewing experience. So, do not set your expectations to unrealistic levels. LCD/LED TVs will always have better brightness than projector image.

I always use Smart Eco mode with brightness level 55 and than is more than enough.

3) Projector speaker produce loud enough sound and I am still using it while watching movies. But watching a 120 inch screen with inbuilt speaker is not a good idea and I plan to buy sound system to get a real movie theater feeling. If I connect projector to laptop using VGA cable then sound do not come from projector speaker(it will be from laptop speakers). If I use my chromecast then sound comes from projector speakers.

4) Projector keeps track of lamp hours used and you acn see it in menu.

Do not listen to professional reviewers who criticize this projector for light leakage, fan noise, rainbow effect. Earning bread and butter by criticizing every good product is their job.

5) My observation is that there is minute amount of light leakage but this projector produces image which is 1000 times brighter than leaked light and I won't notice leaked light even in dark scene.

6) Fan noise is very minimum. My laptop fan produces more fan noise than projector. Maybe projectors which are manufactured in Nov-13 might have lesser fan noise.

7) After watching 100 hrs of movies, I have not yet seen rainbow effect.

8) Remote works fine and it is not necessary to point remote at projector to operate it. Remote has "Light" button on right side and when I press this button entire remote gets illuminated with backlit red color light. Then I can see and press whatever button I want to use. This is nice feature till the time I get familiar with button locations.

I wish BENQ had provided USB port on this projector. They provided all kinds of input/slots but forget to provide a USB port. My Chromecast needs USB power and I have to keep laptop nearby to provide power to it. Projector has Mini USB B port and I need to check if I can power up Chromecast using mini USB B to USB female connector.

Finally, I am Very Happy with this purchase. The last time I was so happy when I was teenager and my father gifted me motor bike.
I already have recommended this projector to many of my colleagues.

See all 97 customer reviews...More...