ViewSonic PX747-4K DLP Projector Review & Comments

Phil Hinton

Editor
Staff member
Joined
Jan 18, 2001
Messages
11,712
Reaction score
12,833
Points
6,438
Location
AVForums
Nice and comprehensive review as usual. (Keep them coming)

The standard for the best 0.47 chip design seems to be the Optoma UHD 51, (It pretty much always comes out on top in reviews, (Professional or user) or if you want more flexibility (Full lens adjustment etc.) then the quite a bit more expensive JVC UHP-1 is the model to go for, so will you be testing these all.

NOTE: The 4 flashes do not produce the same images offset, but 4 different images offset so that when combined by the eye give you the 8.3 million pixels. (It would not pass the 4 K standards otherwise)

As to native low price 4K well! Epson has fallen way behind in the projector stakes, (Its designs in comparison to other manufactures models are antique) but as they were ground breaking when their 4K enhancement was 1st introduced, I think they might pull another fast one in the next year or 2, (The ones released this year are just the old ones re-hashed) which will really take low cost 4K to another level.

Bill
 
Amusing advert appearing on this webpage above your review....

Cunning advert programming dudes...

benq.jpg
 
Bearing in mind that it looks unlikely that 4k will supercede HD in any serious way for many years yet, it would be interesting to see a comparison between one of these budget, 4k models and a full HD model of a similar price. It seems to me that many projector buyers on a tight budget may be better off sticking with HD for the time being rather than trying to jump on the 4k bandwagon.
 
I have tried one 7/10 is very generous would rate it around 5/10.

Picture quality is Personal (One person’s 8 is another person’s 4) however I am curious as to which 4K projector you would use on a coffee table, that could be put back in the cupboard when finished watching the footie.

Bill
 
Picture quality is Personal (One person’s 8 is another person’s 4) however I am curious as to which 4K projector you would use on a coffee table, that could be put back in the cupboard when finished watching the footie.

Bill
At around 1k price and the better throw range would be the Optoma uhd40 nice quiet projector to, but having pitched most of them against each other I would prefer an Epson 6600/6700/6800 on a coffee table with their huge lens shift options better throw range and being brighter much more pop with colour and blacks to looks much better still even though in 1080p than the 4k budget options. Really did have a problem with the weird noise this viewsonic made in the higher lamp mode, also fussy when it would do 4k with my roku 4k sticks and virgin 4k box lot of the time would only do 1080p lots of restarting to get it in the 4k.
 
Last edited:
— As an Amazon Associate, AVForums earns from qualifying purchases —
but having pitched most of them against each other I would prefer an Epson 6600/6700/6800 on a coffee table with their huge lens shift options better throw range and being brighter much more pop with colour and blacks to looks much better still even though in 1080p than the 4k budget options.
This doesn't surprise me at all. It goes to show that there is so much more to picture quality than resolution alone.
 
I have the PX-727, which is cheaper again. But has a better colour wheel I believe. From what I’ve read, the only difference is the RGBRGB color wheel on the 727 and the RGBW color wheel on the 747. The 747 is for poorly setup viewing rooms where light cannot be restricted. I replaced an old Sanyo PLZ-Z2000 due its bulb going, and rather than spending 200 on a good OEM bulb, decided to spend 800 on a new 4K PJ with 5 year warranty. It is good at motion, which is the main reason I got it. It is very noisy at 4K, but you can silence it for 1080p content. It is very slow at picking up sources, and I had an issue where Sky Q confirmation screen would not show up quick enough on Projector, and it would timeout back to the previous resolution, making me think the PJ could not support it! Just need to know the buttons to press on the remote to confirm resolution is supported, and how to change it back to 1080p. As always, you get what you pay for. I probably should have looked into a great quality full HD PJ that is quieter for now. Im still on the fence, but the noise is bad for quite, night time watching of 4k content.
 
Been put off Viewsonic since had a couple of PJ551 projectors which both failed with DMD chips and spotted pixels. On inspection the heatsink material was not applied correctly and areas that failed it wasn't touching. Maybe quality has improved since then though.
 
At around this price bracket 2grand below the Epson eh tw7300 is a no brainer and with black Friday coming it could go for near a grand amazon. I have tried almost all of them now below this price and its in a different league to them all.
 
At around this price bracket 2grand below the Epson eh tw7300 is a no brainer and with black Friday coming it could go for near a grand amazon. I have tried almost all of them now below this price and its in a different league to them all.

Isn’t it a bit large and heavy to keep taking out of the cupboard to watch the footie (Possibly on the patio) and then put it back again?

Bill
 
Isn’t it a bit large and heavy to keep taking out of the cupboard to watch the footie (Possibly on the patio) and then put it back again?

Bill
That's for you to decide what suits your needs most, mines picture quality to be used daily. They are easy enough to return on amazon so best is try one and decide then.
 
I've just had this projector which I got in the Prime Day sale for £709. I was getting it to upgrade my current Optoma HD50 which I was going to sell. However it's going back to Amazon; whilst I found the 4K picture pretty decent and brightness an improvement over the HD50 (I use it a my lounge 'TV' which has a lot of natural light coming in as I have a bay window and 2m wide patio doors) and even the noise seemed fine (didn't get the loud 4K noise referred to above) but the projector is just too temperamental in terms of resolutions, in particular 1080p seems to not work well.

I have Virgin Media's TiVo V6 box and would get no picture when set to 1080p. When I got a new 4K cable (my existing one wasn't compatible), 4K worked straight away without needing to change any settings (I'm guessing the TiVo box automatically detects settings when you plug in a new display). However, the next morning again no picture and I actually didn't manage to fix it before giving up. PS4 also didn't work 'out of the box', I had to change it to 1080i and my MacBook air (connected via Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter) wouldn't display until I changed the output to 1280 x 1028.

In short, it's very picky about the resolutions it wants to display; the HD50 doesn't have this problem so I'm sticking to it for now until my bulb goes, but will not be going with this projector due to the issues above.
 
I've just had this projector which I got in the Prime Day sale for £709. I was getting it to upgrade my current Optoma HD50 which I was going to sell. However it's going back to Amazon; whilst I found the 4K picture pretty decent and brightness an improvement over the HD50 (I use it a my lounge 'TV' which has a lot of natural light coming in as I have a bay window and 2m wide patio doors) and even the noise seemed fine (didn't get the loud 4K noise referred to above) but the projector is just too temperamental in terms of resolutions, in particular 1080p seems to not work well.

I have Virgin Media's TiVo V6 box and would get no picture when set to 1080p. When I got a new 4K cable (my existing one wasn't compatible), 4K worked straight away without needing to change any settings (I'm guessing the TiVo box automatically detects settings when you plug in a new display). However, the next morning again no picture and I actually didn't manage to fix it before giving up. PS4 also didn't work 'out of the box', I had to change it to 1080i and my MacBook air (connected via Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter) wouldn't display until I changed the output to 1280 x 1028.

In short, it's very picky about the resolutions it wants to display; the HD50 doesn't have this problem so I'm sticking to it for now until my bulb goes, but will not be going with this projector due to the issues above.


I was lucky enough to get this projector from amazon for £470 in January and I have to say I haven't had any issues with the hdmi inputs although I primarily use it with my ps4 pro.
 
Well, after a couple months trying to get a good picture quality for the PX-747, I think I have come with a decent and pleasant calibrated image for UHD/HD movies. I know we have much better options for a dedicated HT projector but considering the price, its colour wheel and offer, I think we still can get a good (and accurate) image from it. I was tempted to sell it and buy a Epson TW7100 (or BenQ W2700) but decided to get rid of this idea, so could invest in a new Dolby Atmos setup for the audio lol

I'm not sharing all of my settings because those are very specific for my unit (and also the factor I am in Australia, factory units might be different) but I've noticed some interesting things when playing with the general options (a lot!). I've used a i1 Display + CalMan, plus Ted's/S&M calibration discs. ChromaPure 3 has also been used for verification purposes.

HDR mode
Brightness - it is dependent of the HDR (EOTF setting): +2 notch, if using EOTF = Low (for Movie/"Night" mode) or +1 (EOTF = Medium, User1/"Day" mode). A HDR Brightness pattern is needed here.
Contrast/Colour/Tint - unchanged
Sharpness - 6 (default) or 7
Advanced-
a. Colour Temp: Normal or Warm (choose one and calibrate the grayscale, if an option- otherwise choose the "warmer" look and leave at the default values)
b. 3D CMS: I've found it poor to be calibrated, so left at the default values, which pushes to a "wider" colour gamut on Movie/User modes
c. Colour Enhancement: Here is the tricky. For HDR, mandatory to use it! Default is at 18. If using EOTF = Low, lower it to 9 and leave it for natural skin/flesh tones, otherwise skin tones (at 18) will look slightly pink/red/unnatural. On the other hand, leave at 18 when using EOTF = Med because this option flat and change the colours luminance.
d. Skin Tone: unchanged (=0)
e. Super Resolution: 4 (can enhance the perception without any artificial effect, in conjunction with Sharpness control)

Brilliant Colour: Also, very important to get a decent image! Default value of 10 makes things really bad (including Dynamic Tone Mapping by a Panasonic UB BD Player limited at 500 nits!). Try ON (=10) or OFF and you'll see artifacts/noise! Put Skyfall 4K UHD disc and check by yourself. To push luminance a bit (for HDR purposes), I've found 2 at the very best without any unwanted noise and tone mapping issues!

EOTF = Low (for Night mode) or Medium (Day mode), this is in conjunction with Brightness control (to help with shadow details). If using 'Medium' all the time, gamma curve is not flat and wash the picture (in brighter scenes, 40-70 IRE, midtones) for night time viewing. Otherwise, great to pop the image during the day (with natural light but not in a bright room, otherwise use Standard/Bright, even though I try to avoid these modes for image fidelity)!

SDR mode
Here Colour Enhancement & Brilliant Colour should be 0
Gamma value 2.2 (daytime) / 2.3 or higher (night time, personal preference- I prefer 2.3 to do not crush blacks and shadow details).

These settings helped me with the Colour Gamut and Shadow details ( this PJ doesn't handle it well, but it is really passable now!) which were my main concern since day one! :)
PS: To confirm and endorse the settings above, I checked the same scenes against my Panasonic GZ1500 OLED TV (which I consider my personal reference monitor, no one can't fault it, calibrated in Automated mode).

I hope it helps, feedbacks are welcome!
 

The latest video from AVForums

TV Buying Guide - Which TV Is Best For You?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom