BenQ TK800M 3000 Lumens 4K UHD Home Theater Projector with HDR and HLG Expired

I bought the TK800 which is very similar to the TK800M. I bought a refurbished unit from Benq through their ebay store for $700.

This was my first projector and it was between the TK800 and the Viewsonic PX747-4K. My plan was to set this up in my living room in addition to my really old 42" Samsung. I had the Samsung mounted on the wall and I bought a manual pulldown screen (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product...UTF8&psc=1 [amazon.com]) and hung it from the ceiling so that it pulls down in front of the TV when we use the projector. I have the projector on an Ikea cabinet behind the couches.

The setup is not ideal as I would like to have the projector mounted on the ceiling and a fixed frame screen on the wall. I can probably get the projector mounted at some point but it currently works.

My goal for the projector was to buy a high lumen one because I wanted this set up in the living room which has an open concept into the kitchen so there was a fair amount of ambient light. I actually wanted to buy the Viewsonic as there was a deal at the time (I think it was on sale for either $800 or $900) but i procrastinated and the sale ended. I researched and found that people had good results with a refurb unit from the manufacturer through their eBay store. I ended up with the Benq because their warranty on refurbs were a little better than Viewsonics.

Overall, I'm very please with the Benq but it is my first projector and I'm sure that there are things that could be tweaked to improve the experience. It is indeed very bright and I would say that 3,000 lumens is enough for low to moderate ambient light.

Color-wise, I had to tweak the settings around (I'm not an expert at all. There are services out there that you can pay somebody to come set up your projector color settings) and I think I've done a decent job. There are times where I feel like the color is a little off and it's usually when there is a gradient and I feel like the gradient is very obvious to me when it shouldn't be (if that made any sense). Depending on your lamp setting, it can make it look washed out if you're on bright. You may want the bright setting if you have ambient light, but I believe there are ways around the washed out look by using ambient-light rejecting screen material.

Sound - I can't comment much since I have the projector hooked up through my receiver, but there have been times where my receiver is acting up and I have to use the projector's speakers. It's a tiny speaker. Don't expect anything amazing.

Video - Again, this is my first projector and I was coming from a 10+ 42" Samsung TV (I think it's a 1080i??), so anything would look better. I think the video is amazing. I didn't own any UHD/4K movies (blu-ray or digital), so I purposefully went out and spent a silly amount of money on 4K movies because I had to experience this. Depending on how far you're sitting, you can definitely tell the difference between 720p, 1080p and 4K. Having said that, I think you have to have a plan or already own a lot of 4K content to make this worth it and you also have to have the room set up to appreciate the difference. To be honest, you probably would be fine with a 1080p projector in my setting but I wanted the 4k (or fake-4k). Either way, I think the video was pretty good (the movie that I went out and bought was Captain America: The Winter Soldier because it's such a great movie. I thought it looked fantastic but I didn't have any other 4k screens to compare).

Setup - It was pretty easy to set up. Plug it in, plug in HDMI and fiddle around with the source, color settings, etc. One thing to point out is that it only has vertical keystone adjustment. I honestly don't know if it is common or uncommon to have horizontal keystone adjustment but I did not need it. Additionally, in my research, it seemed that the overall consensus was to avoid keystoning if possible as it does decrease the brightness.

Again, overall, I'm very happy with this projector. For the cost of a very nice 65"+ 4K TV, I was able to get a 4K projector and a 135" screen. It just took some research and legwork to get it done.
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I use Roku 4k to soundbar on one hdmi port. The other hdmi port from the soundbar goes to the projector. That way you get dolby atmos too.

Thank you so much. How do you think it would perform as an outdoor projector??

Thanks for your detailed post, this is very helpful. I currently own a BenQ HT 2050 and was wondering whether it would be worth upgrading to this if I don't really have any 4K content to watch. The specs between the 2 certainly indicate an appreciable difference in resolution, brightness and the screen size (although I'm limited to how large I can project due to space limitations). I just don't know if I'll notice an appreciable difference when watching 1080i or 1080p content.

Great review, I also bought the TK800 (No M). I bought new at $1049 on Amazon. I have 110" fixed frame screen. The projector is ceiling mounted and approximately 13' away from the screen. I am very happy with the picture. My room is sealed so no light but you definitely don't want to turn on the lights in the room while watching. I don't know why you would though. I use it almost every night to play Call of Duty on my PS4 (Not Pro). The picture is great and the refresh rates keep up just fine. I can't wait to see how the PS5 looks on there. Movies look great in 4k. 3D works quite well.

There is only one issue I don't like and that is the light bleed that occurs around the edges of my screen. There is a very obvious amount of light that projects all the way around my screen. I have been unable to adjust it out. Maybe because of the distance of my projector but I know others have reported this. I am not sure if they fixed that in the M version.

Sometimes the issue is that 4k60 won't work on an hdmi cable over 12 feet. 4k30 will. That's why u build a projector with hdmi arc out.

I think 4K over HDMI should be good upto 25 feet, over 25 feet you will need to using optical fibre HDMI cable.

Question for slickdealers. If it isn't "true" 4k does that mean the video quality is no better with a 4k roku than a regular 1080p one? I mean, if it's just doubled pixels, then it's just upscaling a 1080 source anyway right? And so no need to rent 4k content either?

Thank you - that was very helpful!