Viewsonic Pro8200 Home Theater Projector

November 12, 2011 by

It seems like home theatre projector manufacturers have found the perfect formula to give us great specs at relatively affordable prices. After being given a sneak peak of its specs a few months ago, we got excited when we finally got one of the Viewsonic Pro8200 in our very own hands. Some may argue that there are cheaper 1080p projectors like the Optoma HD200x out there to trump this one, but believe us when we say with 1920 x 1080 pixels resolution at a brightness of 2000 lumens, this projector will blow your mind away

Design
The Viewsonic Pro8200 is the usual weight for a home theater projector tipping the scales at about 8.5 pounds and with body measurements of 333 x 264 x 122 mm it is both lightweight and small making it ideal to be carried around. It also sports its own dual 10W speakers so you don’t have to rely on your laptop speakers when you hook it to this baby. On the back you are given an array of connectivity options like the two HDMI inputs, one component input, S-video and also phono inputs.  There are also twin VGA inputs although we feel you won’t be using that given the HDMI inputs. There is also the 12V trigger to get the projector to work with an electric screen. You also find a serial port for your monitor too. Don’t get too excited about the USB port however as it’s meant for firmware upgrades only instead of letting it connect to your gadgets. It also comes with a well laid out remote control that lets you meddle with very possible setting from the comfort of your sofa. The Viewsonic Pro8200 home theater projector has vented sides which drags air across it causing a ’fan heater’ aesthetic. Nevertheless this is one good looking and solidly made projector.

Features
The Viewsonice Pro8200 produces 2000 lumens of brightness which is definitely some serious light output.  The brightest mode makes highlights prominent but sometimes to the extent of blowing them out, but it still keeps a cool tint due to its default color temperature of about 7500K.  When used in a living room with ambient light present, you will see that with the brightness this monster home theater projector emits it is able to overcome that light. Adding to that, the slight blue push that it gives is well capable of countering the effects of yellow tint due to your lighting fixtures at home.

This home theater projector has a color wheel that has seven segments namely red, green and blue plus secondary colors like yellow, cyan and blue. It rotates at 7200 revolutions per minute and updates both red and blue four times per frame which effectively means it is a modified 4x configuration. Viewsonic has thrown in a 10W stereo speaker into the Viewsonic Pro8200 thus giving it an edge over its competitors in the same price range. It makes the projector more portable as you can plug in your gaming device and get some good audio and large video at the same time.

Did we mention the projector uses DLP’s filter free design? That’s good news in terms of cost which means you are just left with lamp maintenance. You might have little to do in this section as well as you get 4000 hours of lamp life in the brightest mode and up to 6000 hours in eco-mode.

Setting up the Optoma PT100 Personal Entertainment Projector
As most other home theater projectors in this price range, the Viewsonice Pro8200 also does not come with lens shift. However, it has a zoom range of 1.5:1 so you get more flexibility as to the distance you are allowed to go before the picture starts going bad. However, even with that zoom range we still have to be careful to not end up relying on the keystone correction. If you are familiar with projectors then you would know that’s the last thing you want as it degrades your picture quality. As we mentioned earlier this beast is rated to go up to 2000 lumens in terms of brightness, but that might be a little too much for some applications. Don’t worry, you can set it up in such a way that you can bring down the net brightness by about 20 percent. That results in the bringing the brightest mode down to about 1500 lumens. Another way to get this done, perhaps the simpler way would be to set up the Viewsonic Pro8200 to one of the other operating modes it comes with. We suggest the Dark Room mode as it had the perfect balance between highlights and shadows.

Video Quality
The Viewsonice Pro8200 provides tremendous amounts of sharpness and clarity. You get amazing looking fine details from Blu-ray films that are more importantly accurate too. It also has open mid-tones and a decent dynamic range translating into picture that give you a three dimensional feel. So even without 3D, you still can get life-like video quality from this home theater projector.

When it comes to contrast, this projector performs at its best when it is given high-contrast material which means highlights and shadows are there in the same frame simultaneously. The projector’s high points, namely its high brightness and good shadow detail work in sync to come together to give amazing image output. However with the absence of auto-iris and dynamic gamma, the black level is not as deep as you get on higher end models. Nevertheless, the contrast is still very much to our liking.

Pros and Cons
First of all the Viewsonic Pro8200 Home Theater Projector impresses with its high lumen output that is rated at 2000 lumens. It is great as you can use it in ambient lighting without having to worry about glare. The interesting color wheel is also a great feature to have. This home theater projector also has added placement flexibility than other projectors that do not have lens shift thanks to the better zoom lens. 10W stereo speakers onboard add to its likeability factor and making it friendly for portable use as well. The long lamp life of about 4000 hours means low maintenance costs to worry about and the long three year warranty adds to the joy. Tremendous picture quality to top things off as it has amazing clarity and solid contrast levels.

The color and grayscale on the Viewsonic Pro8200 could have been better. The projector also reverts to the full lamp power every time you restart the projector even if you had left it on another mode when you turned it off. There is some noticeable noise and heat coming from this home theater projector too.

Conclusion
The Viewsonic Pro8200 Home Theater Projector turns out to be a very decent 1080p projector for a very reasonable price. If you are out there for a home theater projector, this is one to definitely look into.

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