ViewSonicPA503HD 4000 Lumens High Brightness Projector with 1.1x Optical Zoom, USB, and HDMI inputs for Home and Office

If you’ve ever bought one of those cheap temp-brand projectors here, you’ll know that they do not last and they’re not very bright.This projector, on the other hand, is high quality. It’s a known brand, and it shows with this projector. The brightness is top-tier. The image quality is great.I spent too much time researching, and if you’re reading this and wondering why you might spend more money, it’s for the quality, quiet fan (especially on Eco mode), and a nice remote that works well. Get this one if you want a projector that is bright and will last.

Wanted a projector bright enough to be visible in a south facing room with lots of windows before sunset. We had an older projector that wasn't usable until it was dark out and the lights were off.This one is so much brighter - visible even in late afternoon with the sun blazing into the giant wall of windows.Setup was easy, and the dial for sizing and the focus ring are super easy to use. Picture is sharp and clear.Unit is silent.Recommended for a reasonably priced projector.

If you want to watch blu ray 3D movies, you'll need compatible DLP shutter glasses after connecting an HDMI cable from your blu ray 3D Player (PS3 with update for blu ray 3D). On the projector, there is not a mode to switch off the 3D effect to go into 2D, so that will depend on each disc. If it's a 3D only disc, it's only going to project with a double image that will require the DLP 3D glasses. The cinema Real D 3D glasses don't work at all, I tried it.For the image, I have it set at 100" or so, and the image quality is solid. The image is sharp, though there is a screen door effect when you look at the projected image closer and if you hold your hand into the beam of light, you'll see it. But it still looks great. This is like having a movie theater in your home!While this has a speaker built into it, the sound has no bass and distorts at higher volume, with quiet volume even at the loudest setting. There is a 3.5 mm audio Jack OUTPUT that you can plug into the Viewsonic Projector that will allow you to connect any Computer based speakers that use a headphone jack to project the audible sound. Once it's plugged in, it happens automatically. I listed with headphones on, and the quality is much better than the built in speaker. Will be trying a more powerful bass speaker set up soon.My biggest complaint is the Menu and remote controller menu. I want SUPER ECO MODE so I can get 15,000 hours instead of 5000 hours in Normal mode. That would be 7250 two hour movies that you can watch before the bulb dies out. That's incredible. But the ONLY way I can get it to stay in Super Eco Mode for the slightly dimmer bulb setting (which by the way still looks great with bright whites and nice darkness), is to go into the settings, switch to that mode and then press EXIT on the remote. If you press Menu, adjust the volume, or any other input, it will automatically switch back to NORMAL 5000 hour mode due to terrible programming. And if the input blu ray film is switched, it also switches back to normal mode without you even doing anything. It's ridiculous and 2/5 stars because of it for something so critical to making the projector bulb last 15000 hours as advertised.The box packaging this arrives in is strong and sturdy and well protected. The instructions however, are just pictures, so they are pretty much useless and I figured out the buttons and set up on my own. So in other words, just a "quick start up guide" instructions that are very lacking.Overall though, I'm very happy and thrilled with this new movie projector. You can also play PS4, PS5, PS3 games on it if you want, as well as regular blu rays, DVDs, and blu ray 3Ds. I haven't tried a UHD disc yet, but the resolution may be affected since this outputs 1280 x 800 aspect ratio depending. Test out the best angle and set up for where you'll project your image. I project it right onto my light cream colored wall and it's perfect. I love it!With TV Manufacturers opting for 4K and 8K these days, they completely abandoned the 3D feature even though there are still studios releasing new 3D blu rays. So this ViewSonic is a very affordable alternative for your blu ray 3D player to display 3D films (compared to the $1000 to 2000+ models).

The clarity and brightness of this projector is just excellent, even when using in a room with the lights on. Fan noise is minimal compared to my previous $100 projector.The reason for the 4 stars is that the speaker is crackling and seems to be broken right of this box, which is strange for a new unit. However, I use a soundbar connected via aux cord so I was able to solve for that issue.

I use the projector for exclusively outdoor movie nights. My previous set up (an ageing NEC projector) has been the source of many happy family memories. With COVID limiting social gatherings, I wanted to create a better experience ... and hopefully one that was easier to set up. Achieving this turned out to be an interesting journey so thought I would share in case it helps anyone. The short version – the View Sonic PA 503S was the winner, but whether this makes sense for you does depend on what you need from a projector. Read on for the details...Initially I went back and forth on whether it was worth upgrading at all. My existing set up was a 10 yr old NEC projector, a bed sheet, and UE Boom speaker. It had the huge advantage of being available & free! However, there were some things I was looking for in an upgrade. Highest on my list was the ability to use a cell phone as an input source (the NEC projector could only use an input from a portable DVD player), plus it needed to be almost fully dark before I started the movie. In addition, it was fiddly to set up and the sound was not great.The screen was the first issue to solve. After significant research, I went with a Yard Master 135” screen. It was expensive, but it works great and I am very happy with it. I can relocate movie watching from where I used to hang the bedsheet to the more convenient location of my back patio – much more comfortable. I addressed the audio by using a Vizio sound bar I had lying around, which gave a huge leap in performance.Now for the projector... and here is where it gets interesting. I attempted to research projectors, but there were only a few sites I could find that did a decent comparison test. In fact, many sites comparing projectors seemed to simply re-cycle the marketing blurb from each product. One can spend $100 or $1000 on a projector, and its not easy to figure out whether spending more gets you a better experience. So I bought 3 projectors and ran a back to back test.The units I tested were the ViewSonic PA503S ($300), the Vankyo Leisure 3 ($127) and the QKK Mini Projector (2020 version, claiming 4200 Lux, cost $100). I also found a cable which promised to turn HDMI signal into an S-Video input, which I could then plug into the NEC projector. Findings below.4th place. NEC projector plus cable. Failed to get out of the starting blocks. The cable did not do as promised, and ended up mangling the Netflix formatting.3rd place. Vankyo Leisure 3. Did a great job with video display. It was a little brighter (but not by much) vs the NEC. The focus ring and keystone adjustment feel like the weak spot for this unit.. and likely all similarly priced mini projectors. On this particular unit, the keystone adjustment was so loose it shifted when you adjusted the focus. And the focus had to be cranked right to end extreme in order to get a sharp image ... to be honest it wasn’t really in focus even then. My guess is that this was just the unit I had... but it did not inspire confidence As with many reviewers, I could not get Netflix to produce sound thru the projector, but that was not a show stopper as I am using a sound bar with ARC-HDMI input as my audio.2nd place. QKK. Like the Vankyo, it did a great job of video, and had the same audio issues. Video was sharp, and a little brighter vs the NEC. It was relatively short throw... I filled the 135” screen at a projection distance of around 12 feet, which worked well for my set up. A word on quality control. Like the Vankyo, focus / keystone adjustment is a weak spot. It’s a very plasticky and crude mechanism. Incredibly I had to buy 3 of these units before I got one that worked. The first one was a lemon – it never focused properly. You could get focus in the center of the screen but not the edges, which really killed us when we had a movie with sub titles. The 2nd unit was lost in delivery. Amazon refunded it. The 3rd one I reviewed here. Its focus ring / keystone adjustment mechanism worked well, and it was easy to get good focus.1st place. View Sonic PA503S. The View Sonic is at a completely different level of quality, plus it offers one huge advantage – it is literally twice as bright as the QKK & Vankyo. Firstly the image – its clear, and the focus is easy to adjust to perfection. No softness at the edge of the screen, it was ‘movie theater’ quality. One slight difference vs the QKK... the throw is a little longer. I needed 19 feet projection distance to fill the screen, thankfully not a problem for my set up. Secondly audio – Netflix works on this unit. Again, I had a work around so this wasn’t essential, but in case that matters for your set up. Most importantly of all, the brightness. The View Sonic claims 3600 lumens. It was (by eyeball estimation) twice as bright as the others. This means I can start watching a movie just as the sun goes down, fully 1 hour before the QKK / Vankyo were viable options. This turns out to be a huge deal. The QKK and Vankyo both needed it to be fully dark to watch the movie. Around here that means starting to watch a movie at 9:20pm in the summer... and therefore finishing well after 11pm. With the View Sonic I can start watching at 8:15pm. For comparison the QKK claims 4200 lux, and after some digging I found a claim of 2200 lumens. So for me, a combination of brightness plus a generally much improved build quality convinced me to keep the $300 View Sonic and return the others.