BenQ rolls out ultimate digital home cinema projector

Source: BenQ website. The W11000 digital home cinema projector at work.

BenQ, the leading digital light processing (DLP) projector brand, has unveiled its flagship W11000 digital home cinema projector. The company notes that DLP is the 2015 Academy Award of Merit Oscar-winning technology used in 90% of the world’s digital cinemas, allowing the W11000 to deliver long-lasting picture quality with precise colours and razor-sharp clarity without maintenance or degradation.

“The crowning achievement of W11000 showcases the extent of BenQ’s technology leadership,” said Conway Lee, President of BenQ Corporation. “No other projector demonstrates mastery of DLP, derived from the same technology in use at 100% of the world’s IMAX auditoriums, with 8.3-million-pixel UHD performance and THX certification.”

The W11000 is the only DLP 4K Ultra HD (UHD) projector to earn a THX certification, the company said, which ensures the projector can reproduce the experience of a commercial digital cinema. Originally developed by Lucasfilm engineers to distinguish only best-in-class audio and video systems, THX certification ensures that certified equipment can accurately deliver content as the director originally intended. THX certification ensures that the device closely reproduces the HD Color Standard (Rec. 709) used by filmmakers for Blu-ray disc mastering.

The W11000 underwent over 18 months of rigorous development and 200 THX laboratory tests covering over 500 data points to ensure strict colour accuracy, precise gamma, ideal colour temperature, enhanced uniformity, and super high native contrast ratio for THX certification. The W11000 offers THX Mode, a mode precalibrated by THX engineers for the most accurate out-of-box picture quality possible to deliver authentic cinematic content as filmmakers originally intended.

Harnessing a DLP 4K UHD digital micromirror device (DMD) with expanded pixel resolution (XPR) technology, W11000 produces 3,840 x 2,160 pixels for true 8.3-million pixel 4K UHD resolution. Single-DMD DLP technology ensures absolute image integrity and colour accuracy without artifacts that can be introduced by panel alignment issues, especially critical at 4K which has much finer pixels than 1080p.

BenQ’s 4K optical system also employs 14 high-resolution elements, a true zoom system, and special low-dispersion lens coatings to preserve visual quality for an authentic digital cinema experience. Augmenting its high native ANSI contrast ratio, the W11000’s Active Iris and Dynamic Black technology, SmartEco, and proprietary black paint sealed light engine produce a 50,000:1 dynamic contrast performance for fine detail rendition in the darkest and brightest scenes without washout.

W11000’s CinemaMaster image processing technology improves vivid color reproduction, flesh tone correction, and advanced digital color and luminance noise reduction. W11000 is also ISFccc calibration ready, enabling professional in-home custom calibration.  W11000 natively supports 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio, offering the ultra-wide cinemascope experience of commercial digital cinemas. Its UHD performance opens a wider viewing angle to allow comfortable viewing of ultra-detailed 4K images up close, maximising the useable screen size in any given space.

BenQ separately announced that its W8000 home theatre projector has achieved the THX HD Display Certification. The W8000 delivers precise Rec. 709 colour fidelity and high contrast to accurately reproduce every detail of the original content filmmakers intended for audiences.

“Achieving THX certification is the pinnacle of our hard work to advance home cinema projection technology,” said Lee. "It represents world-class endorsement of W8000’s capability to bring a true movie-going experience to the most discerning home theatre connoisseur.”

In addition to THX certified picture quality, the Full HD 1080p W8000 offers state-of-the-art image adjustment settings to finetune gamma, colour temperature, flesh tones, motion frame rates, and more can be made to suit individual requirements. The W8000 also has five interchangeable lens options including one with a 2.4:1 anamorphic aspect ratio to integrate seamlessly into a wide range of spaces. Horizontal and vertical hardware lens shift and big zoom capabilities further preserve image quality while facilitating installation flexibility.

Interested?

The BenQ W8000 home theatre projector is priced at S$3,888 after GST (pricing includes standard lens) and is available now at Home Cinemapit and KEC Sound and Vision in Singapore. The BenQ W11000 home theatre projector is priced at S$7,299 after GST and will be available from mid-December 2016 at the above companies.