Viewsonic PJD7830HDL DLP HD projector review

The Viewsonic PJD7830HDL DLP is the company’s new flagship digital light processing (DLP) projector. The PJD7830HDL features a bright lamp, boasts accurate colours, Full HD resolution and plenty of ports to connect your entertainment to and I’ve had it at home to review.

The PJD7830HDL packs full HD 1080p resolution which is blasted out through a bright 3,200 lumens lamp.

What really had me intrigued was Viewsonic’s boast that the integral 16W cube speaker would be able to deliver the audio skills well enough to negate the need for external speakers.

Viewsonic PJD7830HDL projector design

Viewsonic have gone for a curvy sleek body shape on the PJD7830HDL. The projector features a matte light grey bottom half, and a glossy white finish covers the top half.

The white finish should enable the PJD to be more-or-less camouflaged should it be ceiling mounted (the projector would be upside down so that you’d only see the white bits from below).

The PortAll, as Viewsonic calls it, is a neatly designed enclosed HDMI/MHL connection compartment, This supports wireless HDMI dongles or MHL connectors, while a cable management hood eliminates unsightly cable clutter.

The rear hood is roomy enough for me to be able to plug my Amazon Fire Stick into the PJD7830HDL’s HDMI port and close everything up nice and tidily. I would have liked perhaps one more HDMI in there so I had the option to connect a gaming console too instead of having to whip out the stick.

I have to say that this is one of the sleekest projectors I’ve come across.  Where other projectors tend to look a bit industrial or office-like, those tapered edges and side vent grills leaves the Viewsonic looking quite at home in my livingroom.

Controls for the projector are found on the top of the unit, along with a focus and zoom rings near the lens. There are vertical and horizontal keystone adjustment controls, which allows you to adjust the projected image to get a perfect rectangle. For ceiling-mounted use, an IR remote can also be used.

The 3,200-lumen lamp up front features a raised curve that extends to the top of the unit. Around the rear of the projector you’ll find ports for connecting audio and video inputs as well as a single USB port.

As well as the rear HDMI port, there’s second one located on the front under a hatch on the right as you’re looking at in the picture above. This can be used with an optional wireless dongle. The dongle allows you to stream content from a tablet or laptop on a Wi-Fi network without having to connect all those bothersome cables.

Viewsonic PJD7830HDL projector performance

The first thing I noticed about the projector is that it runs extremely quietly and doesn’t appear to get very warm either.

I’ve not really got great curtains in my livingroom, they’re not exactly black-out drapes either. This means that there’s quite a bit of light leakage when the sun decides to make an appearance but the PJD7830HDL wasn’t bothered by this. The 3,200-lumen bulb seems perfectly bright enough to watch films thrown on to the white wall of my main room.

The projected image was bright and perfectly serviceable. Naturally, moving the projector closer to the wall to get a smaller projected image increased the picture brightness and revealed more details but from approximately 6 feet I found the result engaging.

The overall picture image looks great, with accurate colour reproduction thanks to the 30-bit colour depth support and when flicking through the Amazon Fire Stick menus there didn’t feel to be any lag whatsoever.

The audio surprised me. This was the first time I’d actually used the Fire Stick so as I was busying myself with something else as I waited for everything to switch on I nearly leaped over the sofa when a loud, clear voice welcomed me.

Watching a film was very enjoyable. Action scenes were smooth and that little 16w speaker did itself proud. Granted, if this was going in to a home theatre system then, chances are, separate audio would probably be in order but I like the fact that you could take this unit out in to the garden during summer for some al-fresco movie action and not need to drag speakers with it.

The Viewsonic PJD7830HDL is a solid DLP projector offering crisp images, great colour reproduction and loud audio output.

The projector is aimed at the entertainment side of things and it does that very well. Gaming and movies are handled with equal aplomb.

Viewsonic PJD7830HDL projector conclusion

I had the PJD7830HDL in the home for a couple weeks and, thanks to my workload, would have preferred a little longer with it but, hey, c’est la vie.

I can say that the projector does present sharp and vivid images with realistic colours.

The bright 3,200-lumen lamp does really well even if your room isn’t pitch dark. Granted, it could do with one or two more HDMI ports in my opinion but I can see the PJD7830HDL  feeling at home in the main room, man cave or executive meeting room.

I can recommend this compact and very capable projector, especially at this price point.

Viewsonic PJD7830HDL projector availability and price

You can by the PJD7830HDL for £549 from Amazon.co.uk right now.

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