ViewSonic PJD6683ws

The ViewSonic PJD6683ws is a close cousin to the ViewSonic PJD6553w that I recently reviewed. In particular, both are built around a DLP chip with a WXGA (1280 by 800) resolution. Where the two differ, in part, is that the PJD6683ws offers a slightly lower brightness rating, at 3000 lumens, making it suitable for a small to mid-size conference room or classroom rather than a mid to large-size room. The other key difference, and the reason it costs more, is that it includes a short-throw lens, which lets it project a large image in a tight space. The combination makes it an Editors' Choice for short-throw WXGA projectors.

Short throw projectors, a group that also includes the Editors' Choice Optoma TW610ST, cost more than otherwise identical projectors with standard lenses. What makes them worth it, assuming you need the feature, is that they let you project large images from close to the screen.

The short throw makes it easier to get a big image in a small room, and also makes it easier to avoid shadows from anything that might get between the projector and the screen with a standard throw lens. With the PJD6683ws, I measured a 92-inch diagonal (78-inch wide) image with the projector just 40 inches from the screen.

Portability, Connections, and Setup
The PJD6683ws weighs just 6.6 pounds, making it light enough to bring with you on the road, at least occasionally, but heavy enough so it's more likely to wind up permanently in one room, or on a cart going from room to room. Note that ViewSonic doesn't supply a carrying case with the projector, so if you want to use it as a portable, you'll have to buy one separately.

Setup is typical for a short throw projector, with manual focus and no zoom. Connectors on the back panel include the expected HDMI for a computer or video source, VGA for a computer or component video, and both S-Video and composite video ports.

Brightness and Image Quality
The 3000-lumen rating is in the typical range for the PJD6683ws's price and weight class. The rating for the TW610ST, for example, is 3100 lumens. In real world use, the projector is easily bright enough to stand up to typical office lighting with a reasonably large image. In my tests, it was more than bright enough to use with a 130-inch diagonal image with moderate ambient light.

The projector also scored well on data image quality on our standard suite of DisplayMate tests. Yellow was a little dull, which is common with DLP projectors, but colors were suitably eye-catching otherwise. More important for data image quality, the image was well focused across the entire screen, maintaining crisp detail. Both black on white and white on black text were easily readable even at 6.8 points in my tests. The image was also close to rock solid with an analog VGA connection, even with images that tend to cause pixel jitter.

As with most data projectors, the PJD6683ws didn't do as well with video as with data images. Overall, the video quality was a bit below par for a data projector, which makes it the wrong choice if you need to show anything more than short video clips, assuming you need video at all.

Adding to the problems with video is the issue of rainbow artifacts, with light areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows. This is always a potential problem for DLP projectors, but with the PJD6683ws, I saw the artifacts more often than with most other recent models. The good news is that the rainbows show less often with data images than with video, which is typical, and few people, if any, should find them bothersome with data images. However, anyone who sees these artifacts easily will likely find them annoying for video.

Other Issues
Very much on the plus side, the PJD6683ws's audio quality is better than average for projectors in this weight class. The 10-watt mono speaker offers enough volume for a small to mid-size conference room, and the quality is good enough so all the dialog in our video clips was understandable.

Also worth mention is the projector's 3D support with DLP-Link glasses. This could become a useful feature, particularly for educational use, as more 3D material becomes available. But as with all DLP-link 3D projectors, there's a serious question about how practical 3D can be for audiences of more than a handful of people, given that glasses still sell for $70 or more each.

In a direct comparison, the ViewSonic PJD6683ws and the Optoma TW610ST come out very close overall, with the Optoma projector ahead in data image quality, but also costing more. Both offer video quality that's good enough for the short video clips you're likely to use a data projector for, and both offer 3D to help guard against obsolescence. If you need a bright, short-throw WXGA data projector, either one is a great choice, with the TW610ST the Editors' Choice for image quality, and the ViewSonic PJD6683ws the Editors' Choice for value.

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