Viewsonic PJD5123

Value

The Viewsonic is marginally cheaper than the Epson, but it’s also marginally dimmer. Since the Epson has similar scores across the board, we’d call the PJD5123 the better buy.

	Comparison Specifications
	ViewSonic PJD5123	Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 705HD
Price
Resolution	SVGA 800 x 600 (4:3)	WVGA 800 x 480 (5:3)
HD	No	Yes
3D Support	Yes	Yes

Blacks & Whites

The Epson Powerlite 705HD is a little brighter, but the PJD5123 is not so dim that it can’t be considered a budget alternative. Unless you’re hoping to put on a presentation in an office with light streaming through large windows, the PJD5123 should suffice for most uses. Other black and white results are similar.

Color

Neither of these projectors has any right to claim to be good at color reproduction. They’d might as well squabble over whose father would win in a fight, except that they were coldly ejected into this world by a production line, not parents. The PJD5123’s color temperature is so bad, it’s zero, while the PowerLite 705HD’s RGB curves look like they were crafted from Lego. These are projectors intended for presentations, not video.

Remember that the color temperature chart below is not helpful for the PJD5123. See the chart above for its color drift for every shade of grey, from black to white.

Motion

Because the Epson uses 3LCD technology instead of the Viewsonic’s DLP, it won’t cause that nauseating “rainbow” effect when you turn your head. It has similar motion performance, but better resolution scaling. The major drawback to the Epson PowerLite 705HD is that it doesn’t support 24fps inputs. If you planned to watch Blu-ray on this thing, you’d better settle for the Viewsonic PJD5123.

Viewing Effects

The Epson PowerLite 705HD’s throw was a little more flexible than the PJD5123, and it had fewer optical issues on the level of the pixel. With no rainbow effect, it definitely performs much better in this category. It also has a slightly better 720p resolution.

Connectivity

The Epson PowerLite 705HD has much better connectivity with its HDMI port. The PJD5123 has a VGA output, as well as an RS-232C, but neither of these are going to be used nearly as frequently as the current HDMI standard.