BenQ PB8220

The jury's still out on whether HDTV will ever take off, but BenQ is taking no chances with the PB8220. While other manufacturers are just getting round to supporting SCART input for their projectors, the PB8220 features dedicated YPbPr ports for high-quality HDTV-based video presentations alongside the more conventional range of inputs.

The unit is less than 10cm high but occupies a desktop footprint somewhat larger than an A4 sheet of paper. Quick-release adjustable feet are located at the front corners of the base and, usefully, there are also screw-adjustable feet at the rear corners. The front feet are designed to tilt independently within their sockets to suit irregular or inclined surfaces. A digital keystone correction feature compensates for image distortion when the projector is pointing slightly upwards: the results can be a little blurry in the details, but the geometry looks perfect. Zoom and focus are adjusted manually by turning knurled rings fitted around the lens.

Less conveniently, the video input ports - VGA in and out, S-Video, composite and HDTV - are located on the left side, while the power socket is found on the right. This means you end up with cables trailing out both sides of the box, which can make things awkward if you need to place the projector and your notebook side-by-side in limited desk space. You certainly wouldn't want to put your notebook behind the PB8220, as the fan channels all the hot air to the rear vents, and it can get very hot back there.

On a more positive note, the remote-control handset is big and responsive, complete with chunky buttons and a laser pointer. Hook up the USB port to your notebook and you can control your Windows mouse from the handset too. The handset makes it easy to call up special features such as the digital zoom and pan, video freeze, and a limited but practical picture-in-picture effect when handling two simultaneous sources. The internal speaker is better than you might expect, producing audio that's loud and punchy, if inevitably a bit tinny in quality.

In use, the PB8220 performs reasonably well, even emulating a variety of other resolutions with only minimal blurring. The fan noise is acceptable for boardroom presentations, if not exactly quiet, while the brightness is stunning. In fact, whites are so bright we found them positively painful to behold until we pulled the brightness setting right down. This sent the contrast off kilter somewhat, but we can confirm that the PB8220 maintains good, dark blacks. Further examination of the image revealed some convergence issues along the edges of pure white elements and a shimmer in certain fine dot and line patterns that we were unable to eliminate completely with the phase and clock controls.

These issues are relatively minor and certainly not unique to the PB8220. But if your final buying decision comes down to fitting a budget, you'll find other equally good projectors on the market costing well under £3,000. Things aren't helped by the lamp only being good for 2,000 hours, compared with the industry norm of around 3,000 hours: this will send your consumable costs up. Regardless, the PB8220 is comfortable in the role of portable or fixed boardroom projector alike and is versatile. It's well specified and easy to use too.

Author: Alistair Dabbs