Viewsonic PJD5123

Throw (1.89)

The thow (distance between the projector and the screen) on the PJD5123 is relatively inflexible. The distances required for different screen sizes are outlined in the chart below. As you can see, this projector’s ability to mediate distance with its 1.1x zoom lens is relatively minor.

	ViewSonic PJD5123 Required Distance for Screen Size
	64-inch screen	80-inch screen	100-inch screen	120-inch screen	140-inch screen
Wide Angle	7ft 5in	9ft 4in	11ft 8in	14ft 0in	16ft 4in
Telephoto	8ft 2in	10ft 3in	12ft 9in	15ft 4in	17ft 11in

Screen Brightness

The PJD5123 has a reasonable brightness level, and as a result, is able to project a bright image for even a relatively large screen size. It shouldn’t look too washed out, except under the brightest circumstances.

	ViewSonic PJD5123 Projector brightness
64-inch screen	1709 lux
80-inch screen	1094 lux
100-inch screen	700 lux
120-inch screen	486 lux
140-inch screen	357 lux

Because of the brightness of the PJD5123, it can project a 140-inch screen with sufficient visibility in a dark setting. As for a bright room, you’ll be limited to a 64-inch screen if you want to be able to read it clearly.

	ViewSonic PJD5123 Screen Visibility for Screen Size and Room Brightness
	64-inch screen	80-inch screen	100-inch screen	120-inch screen	140-inch screen
Darkened Room	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Dimly Lit Room	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Moderate Lighting	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Bright Lighting	Yes	No	No	No	No

	Ambient Light Performance Comparisons
	ViewSonic PJD5123	Optoma HD20	Epson Home Cinema 705HD	ViewSonic PJD6531w
Darkened Room (10 lux)
Dimly Lit Room (15 lux)
Moderate Lighting (500 lux)
Bright Lighting (1500 lux)

Screen Materials

If you are forced to give an extemporaneous presentation, you might be at a loss for dedicated projection screens. We throw some text up on various surfaces to simulate this sudden, harrowing event. Even though the PJD5123 offers a few modes intended to give a better picture on black, white, and green boards, we preferred the Brightest setting. From beige walls to wood panels, the brightest image will give you the best legibility.

Optical Issues (4.00)

The PJD5123 has a manual focus ring made of the same cheap plastic as the rest of its casing. It doesn’t feel very effective, but maybe that’s because “in focus” to this projector is still sort of blurry due to resolution scaling. Pixels aren’t surrounded by too much of a flare, but they do stretch into 2, or 4 pixel blocks due to bad scaling and keystone settings. High-frequency patterns have an especially difficult time with keystone distortion. Also, we found purple and green dropshadows subtly highlighting objects from the top and bottom, respectively.

Image Sharpness

Video Processing (4.00)

The PJD5123 has a few video processing features that are mostly for correcting synchronization from a computer source.

Setting	Claimed Function	Our Impression
Frequency	Adjust the timing of the projector relative to the computer.	Can improve moiré interference.
Tracking	Adjust the phase of the projector relative to the computer.	Can improve moiré interference.
H Position (Horizontal Position)	Adjust the image left or right within the projection area.	As described. Can solve some problems with overscan.
V Position (Vertical Position)	Adjust the image up or down within the projection area.	As described. Can solve some problems with overscan.
Zoom	Zoom in and out the images.	As described.

Formats (4.00)

The PJD5123’s native resolution is 800 × 600, also known as SVGA. This is yet another indicator that this is a projector intended for classroom and business use, not for home theaters. It can scale to accommodate most other resolutions, but tends to do a poor job of it.

Read Reviews of Comparison Products
Optoma HD20	Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 705HD	ViewSonic PJD6531w