Over the past few years, the people over at BenQ have released quite an impressive line-up of projection solutions, including several models designed especially for the home entertainment market. And this is also the case with the device you're about to see as follows, namely the PE7700, released back in the first half of 2005, a device that provides a rather average set of features at quite an acceptable price tag.



Thus, BenQ's projector is based on DLP technology by Texas Instruments, which allows it to attain a native projection resolution of 1280 x 720 pixels, enough for displaying 720P HD video. Furthermore, the size of the images projected by the PE7700 ranges between 37 and 300 inches, with a projection distance ranging from 1.52 meters to 9 meters.



It's also interesting to note that the projector supports 16:9 aspect ratio and delivers an excellent contrast ratio, namely 2500:1. The F=2.4 - 2.8, 23.98 - 32.4 mm field of view lens sports a throw ratio of 100 inches @ 3m (very short, which makes it especially suitable for close quarters), as well as fixed zoom and manual focus. The light output, however, tends towards the lower limit for home use, namely 1100 ANSI lumens, generated by the 250W lamp module.



Despite of being an older model, the device comes packed with a rather extensive range of connectivity options, including here HDMI (with HDCP), BNC, Composite Video, S-Video and Component video, practically just about everything one might need for creating a home theater setup.



Another interesting feature worth mentioning is the fact that, in order to reduce sound levels, the projector adopts 2 L-shaped airflow tunnels to keep temperatures lower, so the fan can operate more efficiently and quietly. A sound dampening muffler in the airflow tunnel and specially designed anti-vibration material in the color wheel holder further reduces vibrations.



Moreover, the PE7700 has been equipped with Senseye Color Enhancement, which enables clear reproduction of even the subtlest colors, such as pastels and flesh tones. Senseye Color Enhancement means better color saturation than standard RGB processors, as the color tones of the entire image are automatically assessed, adjusted, then reproduced with the optimum color balance.



Furthermore, the device's advanced Golden Ratio Color Wheel provides high-grade color reproduction, whilst a Specialized Color Wheel Coating delivers better color saturation on Red and Blue than standard RGB (sRGB) without sacrificing green. To optimize the motion quality further, Senseye incorporates Intelligent Progressive Scan that makes it possible to recreate images with cinema-like quality. Senseye detects which areas have motion and which areas do not, then processes them differently to create smoother motion. Static areas are meshed and areas where motion is detected are treated with a proprietary filtering technique resulting in very high quality, progressive scan images.



The PE7700 can be purchased for around 1,300 US dollars, which is quite an OK price, given the functions and features it can provide.