Customer Reviews

ViewSonic PJD5122 SVGA DLP Projector

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Folks, I have never written a review on Amazon before, but felt I really owed it to you all for this particular item. In a word, the ViewSonic PJD5122 is awesome! I've always been a fan of ViewSonic, since the early days when they made what were considered to be the best value CRT monitors for the price. This unit is no different.

Most importantly, the thing that had me waffling about buying this projector, over a truly HD model for twice the price, was whether or not it would project the Xbox 360 output in 16:9. This is important as we are also using the Xbox as a DVD movie player. Well, the projector DOES output in 16:9! This is the way we watch movies at my sisters house and I barely miss going to the theater. That was my sticking point and I wasn't sure about this until we got it and powered it up. Now, because I am a nice guy, all of you know this. Special Note: YOU WILL NEED THE XBOX 360 (S)VGA OUTPUT CABLES... they run about $40 and I would spring for the official Microsoft ones as people were having trouble with off brands, according to my research.

Now, a caveat: Some of you want 1080p. If you have a blue-ray player, or you expect to see the texture in Halo Master Chief's gloves, well, this isn't for you. I didn't care about 1080p. I am not going to start buying Blue-Ray just yet, so I am not really unhappy using anything more than 720p HD. This is not only good enough for me, it is BETTER than good enough. If you want a big screen gaming experience on a tight budget... then HOLY COW does this thing deliver. It is bright, crisp and the colors are gorgeous, even in a well lit room! I game during the day sometimes and it is nice not to have to blacken out the windows with spray paint. :)

I bought one of these about six months ago as a gift that I also would use when staying at a relatives house. They use it for movies, I use it to game when everyone goes to sleep. We even built our own screen using "Parkland Plastics Polywall". We love that set up. Anyway, I am SO HAPPY with the output of the Xbox 360 on this projector that I am going to now purchase ANOTHER ONE for my own home theater / gaming room.

Buy with confidence, people. This is among the best purchases I have ever made for home entertainment and I saved a TON.

I bought this projector for my classroom and it has been great! It is quiet and doesn't overheat easily. I use this on and off for 6 hours a day and I haven't had any problems!

Initially, I was a little worried that the 800 x 600 SVGA resolution was going to be sub-par. After setting it up, the picture was terrific; probably as good as my Epson 1024 x 768 XGA projector from about 13 feet away (fills up about a 100 inch screen). I was very surprised how bright the picture was, even in a dimly lit room. Aside from resolution, some buyers are weary of the lack of inputs on the device, especially HD. Don't let that stop you from buying this, as it is an easy and cheap fix. Buy these three items VGA to RCA Component RGB Cable - 1.8M - M/M, RiteAV - 3.5mm to RCA Stereo Female Cable - 6 inch, and Component Video 3 RCA Female to Female Coupler all for a total of under $15 and you will be able to display any component HD input (it will only display in 480i thru the projector of course, but in 16:9). If you're looking for an HDMI input, a VGA to HDMI adapter will do fine. Don't be fooled by the bad reviews on these items. Most negative feedback on them is from people trying to hook up their PC to their HDMI TV (needs a converter box) but as in input, it won't be a problem. This is ideal for an Xbox, PS3, DVD player, cable box, etc. I can't think of anything bad about this product.

For 379-this projector delivers a great picture and has been a lot of fun. I have used my HD 50 inch screen and also put it outside with just a white sheet for a "drive-in" night. The 30,000 hr bulb is an added plus-if you are looking for a projector with a fantastic picture at a low price-this is the one. Very light and easy to hook-up to any dvd player and speaker system.

I bought this projector, since I wanted to have a movie theatre experience. It is a damn good choice. Brightness is good, picture quality is good. But only thing is it supports only 800 x 600 resolution. Rest, we have watched 3 movies in a single day, but the lamp has not got heated up, it was just warm, not hot.
It is a good value for money.

Good:
Good quality picture even in bright lit room
2500 Lumens - brighter bulbs
Easy to use
No noise

Need to improve:
Supports just 800 x 600 resolution
power cable length is shorter

Overall, I can say, for a home, this is a very good choice.

The picture on this unit was pretty good especially considering the price. The reason I give it a bad review is because the unit kept searching for a signal when I was in the middle of watching a movie or playing a game. At one point it would stop, go to the start screen and search, then resume every minute or 2. I called Viewsonic support and they were no help. I have already returned the item and am going to be ordering a different model.

I'm a youth leader with a large group of kids and it's just impossible to get them all in front of a TV screen anymore. This unit is not only inexpensive and easy to use, it also projects a very large, crisp image on the wall of the gymnasium we meet in. Connecting it to my sound system was a breeze and it connects easily with my laptop and a stand-alone DVD player. The projector is light, and does not have the heft and feel of quality, but for $369 I know that I will get what I pay for. We will take the extra measures to handle it with care. I have no idea how long it will last, but I trust the ViewSonic name and so far I am a very happy customer.

I recently compared the Viewsonic 5122 to the NEC NP115. Both are SVGA and DLP at nearly the same price.

NEC NP115 is a top performer in the SVGA level projectors. It is amazing how accurate the colors are out of the box. I compared it head-to-head for my budget living room home theater to the Viewsonic PJD5122 DLP SVGA, which is strongly rated as well here on Amazon. I had 2 other higher end Epson LCD projectors, one of which was HD, for additional comparison. I spent some time in the home theater business, so I'm particular on my analysis.

The Viewsonic has great controls for all 6 color adjustment, Red, Green, Blue, Magenta, Yellow, Cyan, including saturation and gain (color contrast) for each color, but even with hours of fine tuning, the Viewsonic could not match the NEC NP115 out of box color accuracy. Although shy on blue depth and needs the ability to reduce yellow somewhat, the NP115 was more acurate on color and produced a slightly crisper picture with less color distortion from over saturation than the 5122. E.g. To get accurate color and saturation, especially green, on the Viewsonic, the saturation and contrast settings also produced excessive green cast or green ghosting on white images. (A common problem in projectors, but too exaggerated in the Viewsonic.) The 5122 also could not produce a reasonable blue sky, coming out mostly white (with the green ghosting mentioned above), and while the NEC did not produce as accurate blues as my calibration standard, it at least was a blue sky. Even though the 5122 has a 3000:1 contrast ratio, the NEC's 2000:1 seemed to match blacks and whites with less distortion. Blacks on both were not deep, but acceptble, and whites were a bit warm (yellow). The 5122 seems just a bit better when more ambient light was present, but not overwhelmingly so. NEC does not auto source from what I tested, where the Viewsonic does, but other reviewers complained that it also goes into search mode while already connected to a source. I did not see that in my testing.

The Epson LCD's (2000:1 contrast ratios, one was the HD 705) simply did not come close to the contrast capabilities of either DLP, and the color was not as vibrant as the DLPs, so they were ruled out. I can see some intermitten rainbow effect in both the Viewsonic and NEC, but not to the point that it bothered my viewing. NEC's ECO mode was only a slight dip in image brightness, so very easy to use it in that mode. Viewsonic seemed to dip a bit more, but it was very usable in ECO mode.

Both proved to be good projectors, and I ultimately prefer the NEC, even if it does not have as many features as the 5122. The NEC NP115 got my vote for overall viewing pleasure for my budget, non HD, living room home theater.

This projector does everything it said it would, and does it well! Its main use is at church, projecting missionaries' power point/video presentations from their laptops to our front-wall slide screen. We did have trouble with a buzz from our sound system until we switched to external speakers instead. Excellent quality in a sanctuary that seats 150.

The Viewsonic PJD5122 is a great projector for the money. Picture quality is good, and the projector throws a very bright image. It's 800 x 600, but you can't complain at under $400! So why 2 stars you might ask?

Unfortunately, when hooked up to my MSI GX660 laptop, the projector will periodically jump to the white Viewsonic splash screen and say that it's looking for a signal. It only seems to do this with my MSI laptop (I've hooked up other video sources and laptops to the projector and it does not have any problems). Thinking it might be the VGA cable, I swapped the cable it came with for a high quality one. No dice. It's not something "Wrong" with the laptop, either. I've hooked the MSI up to 5 other projectors and none of them have this problem.

Looking at the other reviews, it appears I'm not the only one with this particular problem. Ultimately, I decided to keep the PJD5122 as I'm going to be using it for very limited purposes and the video source I'll be running through it doesn't produce the "Searching for signal" problem. If I had purchased this as my primary home projector, I would certainly be returning it.