BenQ - HT2050A

The BenQ 1080p models tend to be very reliable and look quite good at the price point. They are a fair bit brighter than much of the LED 'portable' competition that is out there that may be similarly priced, like XGimi or JMGO. But, they are lamp based. I might seriously consider the JMGO N1 if available. Not as bright, but a solid state light source and good image quality. 500 lumens in a dark room can handle 110" diagonal just fine. I have been testing with the LG Cinebeam Q recently (about 500 lumens) and it works well on my 110" screen.

There is no difference between a 4:3 projector and a 16:9 projector when they are digital. The pixels are put up filling up the available space, and can maintain the proper aspect ratio. So, if you feed a 16:9 projector a 4:3 image, it will appear as 4:3. A projector like the BenQ W1070, or similar with the proper inputs on it are the way to go. DLP with decent input lag times is a plus. BenQ maintained analog inputs on their projector up to the HT2050a. Their newest HT2060 ditched composite video and is HDMI only. Retro gaming is always a passion more than anything else as those games were definitely designed to be used with analog displays, so the same impact you get using a LCD monitor or TV, will be what happens when using a digital projector.

Generally speaking, you are better projecting onto your wall than a crappy, wrinkly, and mostly transparent piece of fabric. The issue is that the light bleeds through the screen and hits the wall behind it. You are losing brightness through the screen and you may get ghosting from reflected light off the wall. Instead, just use the wall. Or, get a cheap manual pull down screen that is using decent opaque fabric that won't let light pass through it. It can be had for not a ton of money. For a projector, it is highly budget specific. You've already seen with what you have that you kind of have to place a projector where it is designed to be placed. That is often MORE the case with higher priced models. You need the lens to screen a specific distance and you need the height of the projector to be near the bottom edge of the screen. The TH575 from BenQ is a solid first projector for a lot of people. The HT2050a, when they show up as refurb units is even better. From there, things go up in price and you will want to consider location, and setup, and image size and perhaps pick a model which fits your specific needs.

You aren't getting a 4K projector for $500, simple as that. At that price you hit the absolute bottom end of what name brand models start to work at for full sized models, or you get some pretty reasonable portable models that are using DLP tech in them. Watch this video for some idea of what is out there... [https://youtu.be/jmmGQOSAReI?si=aUW1kYOJ7jLEBPPS](https://youtu.be/jmmGQOSAReI?si=aUW1kYOJ7jLEBPPS) This video is also worth a viewing... [https://youtu.be/vHmy8sobWEc?si=kb33PQKUbT4LySPk](https://youtu.be/vHmy8sobWEc?si=kb33PQKUbT4LySPk) There are some really great 1080p models from name brands on the used market which are absolutely worth consideration. A refurb/used BenQ HT2050a is going to absolutely blow away anything else that is likely to come up near that price point.

Nebula and Xgimi mogo2 are objectively worse than HT2050A. Horizon ultra gets much brighter, but the contrast is bad and black are really lifted. If horizon ultra is in your budget then I'd choose the refurbished hisense c1 over that. The improvement of HT2050A over the nebula or mogo2 is going to be much more dramatic than the improvement of c1 over HT2050A though.

I've been rocking a BenQ HT2050a for over 5 years now. It's only 1080p, and sure, I would love to upgrade to a 4k, but I still love this thing. I have changed one lamp and paid $250.00 in that 5 years. At this point I've invested approximately $1000.00 counting the initial purchase and lamp change. It plays games with next to no lag, and I play a lot of games that are vital to not have lag. No issues at all. It's awesome for retro gaming as well provided you have a good video upscaler. I hear the BenQ HT2050 is about $200-300 used on eBay right now. That's a steal. Especially if you can get one with a good lamp. I plan on keeping this thing after I upgrade to a 4K for a dedicated retro gaming room. I love it that much. Only thing I hate is that in order to tear down and clean these things, it's not very intuitive and could be much better. I wish they would put projectors in dedicated enclosures like a PC so you can do maintenance easily.

It really depends on applications. I have two Benq projectors. My HT2050A is in my light controlled dedicated theater because it has better color, but I also have a TH585 for my outdoor screen because it's brighter. If your room is dark, go with the HT3560. If it's for outside or a bright room, go with TK860i.

The first projector I ever bought was a Benq ht2050a and it was also the first time I learned I was sensitive to the rainbow effect with DLP. Had to eat the restock fee and stuck with Epson ever since. Once you see it with DLP it will drive you crazy.

This is what I have and I'd recommend it as well. I think it's discontinued now (2060 is the replacement), but I grabbed a used one on eBay a couple years ago for $500 or so and it works great.

The Picture Quality between a 500 Bucks BenQ HT2050a and these Toy-"Projectors" are not even comparable!

Bought dlp benq 2050 returned it, tried epson 3lcd didnt like motion handling. Went back to dlp benq and now i'm enjoying it. Seems like my brain/eyes are now used to it and i don't see it anymore.

The 2060 is very similar to the 2050 but doesn’t need bumbs and has hdr and will accept 4k input (I believe). Both are very good. The 3550 has 4k pixels. It’s not as bright so only good to 120” in a dim room. All three are solid options

I just bought a used BenQ 2050 and BenQ 1075ht. Both were 150. Amazing upgrade from my yaber. I got them on Facebook marketplace and remembered seeing a couple ultra short throw BenQ on there too. One of them does have an incredible amount of dust inside.. not visible on the screen but it's going to be a projector take a part in clean..maybe double check vents etc before buying used first. The pic is amazing but still worried about all the dust in the 2050.

yes I mean two hundred dollars. It's cheap but not one of the mega cheap ones. It compares favorably to the mega cheap ones but is crappier than my $700 Benq 2050 and much crappier than the epson 5050UB in the living room. You need near total darkness for the cheaper ones to look decent, some of them just don't focus at all, etc. I do video synthesis nonsense and weird installations and stuff so I am always looking for whatever the cheapest thing that's bright enough to show up in a lit space and focuses reasonably well.

I just want to share the enjoyment I get from having projector in front of my bed. It has been one of the best purchase decision I made. It looks a little bit high but it's actually perfect when you semi lie down on the bed. I also setup apple tv 4k with it. It's not a smart projector (ht2050a) but when set up correctly, turning on apple tv also turns the projector on, and it auto turns off when apple tv is off. It feels way better than normal smart tv UI, apple UI is much smoother and uncluttered. I play apple arcade, watch movies, GeForce now, switch, steam link with it. It's amazing what a good projector and good smart tv box can achieve. Thank you for this sub that recommends 2050a, it is much better than my previous purchase. Any improvement to the setup is welcome. Ideally maybe I would like to have a screen for it but I don't know how much of an improvement it's going to be.

FWIW, I upgraded from the HT2050a to a HT4550, and while picture quality is fantastic, the upgrade wasn’t really worth the price of admission. By necessity, viewers will sit far enough from the screen for a 1080p picture to be almost as good as the 4k one, and most modern media (movies as well as game consoles) have bitrates that don’t take full advantage of 4k.

I went from cheaper 70inch 4k Samsung to benq 1080p projector I purchased on eBay. Even though the resolution isn’t as good I prefer the projector by a long shot. I love it

I’ve a benq 1080p short thought and it’s solid