BenQ SH910 4000L Cinema Class HD DLP Projector

First off for under $1500 at 4000 lumens this is unbeatable value. I will not bore you with the details but give you 'my' experience with my setup. My projector is mounted 40' away (this is pretty far for a typical residential installation) onto a 250' screen outdoor. The picture is absolutely great using the PS3 with Blue-Ray movie but getting there takes a lot of patience. I am a fully and continuously employed Electronic Engineer for the past 20 years so I am not unfamiliar with electronics equipment to say the least. The setup menu and GUI seem to bring back to the early 90's interface when processing power and memory were expensive. In 2013, why do I need to refer to the manual to know how to move from one 'setting' to the next or if I select 'button x' what would happen? You have the screen, the network connected device, it's not difficult to display the 'help'/'prompt on the screen for the user.After playing around for about 30 minutes just to figure out how to move around the menu/setting tabs, sub menu and controls, I am so proud and ready to make some adjustments to get the best pictures for your 'profile' (mostly movie all the time). BenQ has preset profiles such a 'Presentation', "Cinema', etc....Great, right? even though it may not fit your exact liking, but you figure it was closed so you started here and fine tune the setting such as Brightness, Contrast, Colors then save it as your own profile, right? NOT...a chance...you can't make adjustment in preset profiles so there is no chance for you to use it save it as ANYTHING else. Fine, you figure you can go to one of the 2 custom USER 1 or USER 2 setting to change the setting: Yes you can and NO you can't...Color adjustments are not adjustable and I still haven't figure out why but the pictures are great but I wouldn't know if I can better. Finally, I was able to watch 'Red Dawn' on the projector everything seem to works great. Pop in the second movie and notice the screen occasionally would 'flash' like a flash on the camera. My project is ceiling mounted so I know it hasn't been moved, plus at 40' from the screen any movements would have cause the image to shake on the 250" screen. I unplug and re-plug the HDMI cable to the the projector and the problem seem to go away but it comes back the next I use the projector. At this point I figure it was the HDMI cable so I test and retest using different HDMI cables and the problem seem random. I bought the HDMI lock cable holder to hold to cable in 'better' and so far (1 week) I have not experience the flashing syndrome, hopefully it works because I don't want to return and really love this projector. In addition, there is no lens shift so make sure you measure and double check you mounting option before drilling and permanently mount it. I knew this before hand so it wasn't a problem for me08/08/2013:Follow up to my HDMI 'flickering/flashing/flaky' problem:As it turns out, it's NOT the projector problem nor the HDMI cable. It's the problem between my PS3 and the Yamaha Receiver. If you use the PS3 as your source, make sure your disable or turn off 'Deep Color' option on the PS3. Apparently, the deep color option on the PS3 tends to confuse some of the AV receivers including Yamaha receivers. Everything still works great, can't wait for 'real' NFL season to start. Still take 1 star off for poor menu. I am so wish for a quick way to get to a custom setting so I can quickly switch between 'movie' or 'game' settings.Overall, this is a great projector at an unbeatable price but be prepare to be a little frustrated with the menu and setup. I was prepare for this thru my research before I purchase and still I found myself screaming quite a few 4-letter word at the projector. I still would have purchased it with all its flaws because once this projector works, it's a beautiful thing. It's a great value at this price if you are willing to spend some initial time with it. BenQ can and should design a better GUI and menu. For some reason, the AV industry user setting interface seem to stuck in the 1990s....

Due to the fact that all projector performance gets better with each generation (even as the cost goes down), I always expect to be pleasantly surprised by each new projector's performance and cost.Having said that, I'm "surprisingly surprised". This projector is amazingly good, and perfect for its intended application, which is for use within rooms that have perfectly normal amounts of ambient light. The trade-off for this much brightness is this: IF you're using it in a room that IS darkened, I believe you will find the dark picture elements to be brighter than you might like, EVEN THOUGH the contrast ratio between the light and the dark are as good as on any projector. In other words, this projector is a gift from the gods in the well-lit conference room (or un-darkened living room) because it can create beautiful, bright 100+ inch 1920x1080 projections without making the room less usable (by dimming the lights or drawing the shades). By extension, if you are buying a projector for a darkened home theater, there are projectors optimized for THOSE design priorities. In other words, not all top-of-the-line projectors are good at the same things. Cars are cars, trucks are trucks. Cars are not BAD trucks, they're just NOT trucks. I expect that at some point in the near future, a misinformed or ignorant buyer will review this projector and complain that it's "too bright" for their darkened room.Within two weeks of receiving this, we purchased two more units.Noteworthy Attributes:-Unusually bright: Perfectly adequate in a well lit-room-Unsusally quiet: Fan is less noisy than comperable models-Unusually loud: Built-in speakers enable 'real' presentation audio w/o external speakers.-Network attached: Allows you to attach to a host computer without any video cables.-Lots of Inputs and Outputs: For "tweaking" to your needs (i.e. 12V signal to lower a screen).-Good optical zoom range: Better than its peers (as of 11/6/2012) means you have more flexibility with placement.

I own an epson 5010 in my theatre room. I bought it when it first came out and until this day I have not had any problems with it. I bought that for I think it was like 2grand. Anyways I was looking for another projector to setup outside by the pool for a similar price. So I was looking for an hd projector with a lot of lumens and built in speakers for under 2grand. I thought I found a good deal with this projector compared to other 4000 lumen ones. I plugged it in and the first thing I noticed was the screen was not aligned at all not even close. I know its hard to setup a projector outside with out a lense shift but with good enough keystone setting you should be alright. So needless to say after a few hours of messing around with all the crappy settings (Oh did I mention the menu options and settings are crappy) I could not get it adjusted right. So I had it set on a table pointing at the screen kind of an offset angle so I had to prop up the corners to align a little better, problem was any time I moved the projector ever so slightly it would shut off and I would have to wait 10 minutes before it turned back on. Next problem, I thought with 4000 lumen the screen would be screaming bright, not the case I could barely see the screen until after 8pm and really dark out. This projector also boast a 20w speaker that is supposed to be so loud. no no I could barely heat it. So needless to say I returned this projector went to sams club and picked up an Epson MegaPlex 50 for 300bucks. Surprisingly it outperformed this bencrappy projector. The picture was just as bright at the same time of night the speaker was twice as loud and the keystone setting were amazingly easy to setup so at an angle the picture was almost perfect on a 120inch screen. Do yourself a favor and stay away from this garbage projector!!!

i ordered new and got a definitely used one.... very troubling