ViewSonic PRO8530HDL 5200 Lumens 1080p HDMI Lens Shift Projector

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Bought this for my restaurant for showing movies and sports during the day. We had a different one that just wasnt bright enough during the day. Our spot has LOTS of windows, so its super bright during the day, and so I was worried that this one might also not be bright enough. But its awesome.

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It is huge! But it is bright. Great picture from 20 ft away. The fan is not to loud at all. Like the other review says, it does point up more. I can have the lights on in the room and have no problem seeing the screen.

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After installing and using this projector for the last couple weeks, Id like to share my findings with you in a Pro-Con fashion to help you decide if this projector is for you. In summary, this is a bulky, professional-grade projector not designed in the least to be mobile, but rather designed to be set up and remain in place: PROS: -Bright, clear picture -Very easy to focus and adjust size of image using lens -Bright light (5200 lumens) is visible even with lights on in my room -Easy set up with very accessible back panel for multiple methods of connectivity -Once in place, cord management cover on back is easy to install, and very effectively hides a tangle of cords in the back -Switching between inputs is very easy using remote control -Two options for quality (XGA and Full HD) give buyer ability to purchase the model that is appropriate -Price point is competitive CONS -Speaker quality is poor -No ability to adjust up-down location of the image. I had to prop up the back of the projector by about 4 inches in order to get the image in proper location on the wall. IF you will be installing this up high on the wall (as I expect most to do), your image will be too high unless your projector mount is tilted downward. I am quite happy with the projector and, as I am using separate external speakers, the only negative aspect of this projector that is truly annoying and might affect your decision to choose this is the need to prop the back of the projector up to tilt the image down if installed high in the room. Nevertheless, if this is competitively priced with other options you are considering for a permanently mounted projector, I highly recommend this one by Viewsonic.

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First thought was, its big. I have a tiny little 3COM LED projector, about 3 inches square and an less than 2 inches tall. It doesnt do 1080, but still its little. This ones LENS opening is about big enough for me to insert my little projector right there, like a small shuttle returning to the mothership to dock. Ports along the back are easy to identify and access. The unit also comes with a smooth shell cover for cable management in the back for permanent installations, once youve got it wired up how you want it, four screws will hold this over the back, hiding all the plugs from sight, giving it a smooth appearance. I had picked up a 100 inch screen to test this with. The screen was absolute rubbish and Ive set it up for a return, but it gave me a bit of a chance to play on a real screen before I started using my huge ceiling (cathedral ceilings at an angle, so things actually project well up there). First thing I hate - this does NOT do well projecting "straight out" - it actually projects UPWARD from the direction the projector is pointing. So picture it pointing straight level, the picture is HIGHER UP than where it physically points... Unless youre going to get something under the back end to prop it up, to point this UNDER the screen, the picture will be too high. I really wish this wasnt the case, since i makes it more of a pain for me to mount where I wanted it mounted. Oddly enough, the front feet for adjusting it UPWARDS are great - lots of travel, quick and easy, no twisting or anything. Its so insanely easy to tilt this upwards, but since it already makes the picture HIGHER than youre aiming, unless youre going to shoot on your ceiling, they wouldve been better off with feet on the back too so you could point it DOWN to get the picture more at the level youd expect. Now, other than that caveat, so far this actually has been visually impressive. The picture is crisp and bright. I had this set up next to my 65" 4K Sony LED TV, during the late afternoon, so sun was still up, and all my blinds are just sheer white, wont block light. And while at the brightest point of my playing after work some of the edges were washed out due to the brightness, as evening wore on, it became very visible FAR earlier than I had expected. And next to my TV, the brightness was amazing. Of course, with the 4K TV upscaling everything, I couldnt get a picture AS crisp as on the TV, but watching some of the test materials, such as Zootopia, Inside Out, Star Trek, Avatar, and Wall-E, I was very amazed at how clear the picture was on the projectors screen. Even my computers desktop, and windows explorer, everything looked very good. Heat - this beast pushes out a TON of heat. Be prepared for that - it was another day in the 90s today, and this really kept the area around it uncomfortable after a while despite the air conditioning being on. Wintertime, this will be a handy portable heater. The controls are simple. And theres a TON of adjustment for keystoning - making it easy to adjust it for the angle of the screen. Sound - I was never able to get sound to work on it as youd expect. Now granted, most people spending this much money will have surround sound systems in their HT rooms for audio playback, and wont need this devices playback feature. But if youre planning on using this as your playback device, dont anticipate simply using it via HDMI for audio. I have several laptops and a convertible tablet here, and each one I tried, failed. I could connect the HDMI cable, and if Id touch the volume slider, Id get the very beginning of a sound, then nothing, as if the first bit of sound to come through totally horked up the processor and it couldnt deal with sound at all again, until the next time it was disconnected and reconnected, then Id get a split second of sound out of it again, then absolute silence. So out of curiosity I grabbed a 1/8" stereo cable, plugged it in the headphones out on my computers, and into the audio in for this, and still nothing. While playing around with the remote and the menu options, I found a "reset" and tried that, even though I had made no changes other than keystoning, and then sound worked. But again, still only through the 1/8" cable. Even though my computer showed the audio device as the projector via HDMI, sound only worked if I used the 1/8" cable. As soon as I disconnected it, sound stopped. Reconnect, and youd expect sound to work again, right? I never stopped the movie playback, so that shouldve been all it needed. Nope. Had to do the reset again and then sound worked again. Sad behavior from a device at this price point, and hopefully itll be addressed in a firmware update. Since this has a LAN port, and is IP addressable, hopefully itll get firmware updates to fix issues like this. But again, most people will have this hooked up to a surround sound system, so hardly a showstopper for most buyers. Within the remote menu, theres a ton of options that you can do, including a nice one for individual corner adjustment. So you can get granular control over each corner one at a time, rather than keystoning. But it states that keystone adjustments will wipe these adjustments out, so beware that keystone adjustments will win in that battle and wipe out any individual corner settings. The replacement lamp is RLC-103 and the cost Ive found is about 525 USD on the Viewsonic website. There is no manual, just a pictograph quick start thing (at least that shows how to get the cover off for the storage compartment / 4th HDMI input / wireless dongle attachment spot). Theres a CD that I assume has a detailed owners manual on it, but since my laptops dont have on-board optical drives, I didnt check since I prefer usually to download a manual from online in PDF format. Of course, this one has no online manual yet, so Ill have to take the disc into work to see if it has a PDF file that I can just copy to my HP Spectre convertible. Ill update this more as I come across more things, and especially if I ever figure out why the sound is so screwed up and wont work most of the time. If it werent for the sound issues, Id give this 5 stars, visual quality is just stunning. The brightness is amazing compared to other projectors Ive seen (although as I stated, Ive only OWNED the one small one for meetings, but I have a few friends with projectors so Im comparing this to those, albeit not directly side by side). Its more visible in brighter environments than I expected from a projector, is crisp and vivid even just on my white painted drywall ceiling, and even more so on an actual screen. But for this price, I would expect everything to work and the flakiness of the sound input functions just shouldnt be an issue for this kind of cost. I ended up permanently mounting it off a floating wall that separates my kitchen and great room, so its about 9 feet up in the air, and I put in a nice motorized 125" screen over the bay window of my great room. I find were using this a LOT more than I had anticipated simply because its amazing to see the movies, or my video games like Destiny, on the huge screen. And for people who complain that I dropped a star because of my "ignorance" about projectors and how it wouldnt project straight, you need to read more carefully, I clearly stated the sound issue is why it lost a star.

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This projector puts out a very clear image from a relatively small chassis. I found that one of the best features of the design is the vertical lens shift which allows you the flexibility to place the projector in various locations in the space that you are using. Also, you can hook up almost anything to this projector. Here is a list of the connectors with quantity: 1 x USB 2.0 TYPE A 1 x ETHERNET LAN (RJ45) 1 x 3.5MM AUDIO OUT 2 x 3.5MM AUDIO IN 3 x HDMI 1.4 1 x HDMI MHL 2 x VGA IN 1 x VGA OUT 1 x COMPOSITE RCA VIDEO IN 1 x S-VIDEO IN 1 x MINI USB 1 x MICRO USB Here are some specifications: Weight: 13.89 lbs Width: 19.6 in. Height: 12.5 in. Depth: 5.6 in. Heres the legend for the attached images: 1 - Cable Management 2 - Vertical Lens Shift 3 - IR Remote Sensor 4 - Projection Lens 5 - PortAll™ (HDMI/MHL) 6 - Zoom ring 7 - Focus ring 8 - Monitor Out 9 - Power Switch 10 - HDMI (x3) 11 - LAN 12 - Menu Controls 13 - Kensington® Lock Slot 14 - AC In 15 - VGA (x2) 16 - Audio/Video In 17 - Audio In/Out 18 - IR Passthrough 19 - USB 20 - 12V DC Trigger 21 - RS232 22 - 3D VESA 23 - USB type Mini B It also has 2 internal (10W) speakers that provide some decent sound, although you will most likely be hooking up external speakers. The only thumbs down that I give it is that It does heat up quite a bit after watching a normal length movie. Otherwise, this really works well in so many different sized spaces as well as lighting variations.

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