I thought that the 4550i could be a good substitute for my amortized Pana PT-AE700E, but after seeing the possible projection distance for my 100" screen with his low zoom range (throw ratio), I gave up and I will have to continue searching. The ventilation system is also not suitable to install it in my bookcase, it should exhaust the air through the front and not as it does.

(Review from BenQ.com)

I spent a couple of months researching lower end (around $1000) and mid-range projectors (under $5000), including UST and I kept coming back to BenQ. I initially started on the less expensive but still impressive BenQ models and compared them all against Epson and Sony and every other projector maker under the sun. As I compared the features and watched all the YouTube comparison and unboxing videos multiple times, I decided I must have all the features the 4k HT4550i had to offer.

Setup was a breeze, easy to use manual horizontal and vertical lens shift, zoom and focus, it even figured out itself that it was upside down on the ceiling. I purchased a cheaper mount and then ended up buying the BenQ mount designed for their projectors which was well worth the investment, better in every way: fit, sturdiness and looks, highly recommend. The projector is also black, which is better suited for a home theater setup and is very quiet (mounted about 5 feet above my head), I haven't noticed any noise so far.

It is great at everything desired in a projector, bright and perfect colors, calibrated by the factory, set better than every other projector available out of the box. The immersiveness and details are incredible on my 142 inch 16:9 Silver Ticket screen and the blacks are great. The HDR 10 and HDR 10+ have settings to make the picture brighter or darker depending on what you prefer. So far, I prefer the Filmmaker Cinema mode, which is "as the director intended". I also like that it doesn't use blubs and will last seemingly forever. It has an insane amount of customization in colors that I don't intend to ever touch. I'm sure my attached pictures won't do it justice.

BenQ are known for their low input lag for gaming and as I have a PS5, this was another great feature. It also comes with the Android TV dongle which works well. The remote is backlit, which is perfect for a dark home theater. So many features, I feel like I could go on all day. Through all my research, there there was no other comparable choice, the BenQ HT4550i is just light years ahead of the competition in every way.

     

My favorite thing about this projector is the color accuracy it came with out of the box. I don't have a means of measuring the color myself, but reading other reviews, and my own eye testing with youtube color testing, it looks great. I don't have to worry about professional calibration with this projector as it seems it gets it to a very good state right as you open it. That is awesome, and provides me peace of mind that I am indeed getting a good color accurate image.



John Wick 4 was fantastic on this thing. The blacks were pretty good especially in such a dark lit movie. I could still make out good details on black suits with minimal lighting. The contrast though is what really stands out. Seeing the color changes next to images that have black right next to them is really sharp and clean. I switched over to Avengers Endgame and played around with the motion settings for the last battle. The motion handling is awesome, and the clarity it provides during sports or really heavy action scenes is amazing (if you are into that). The motion handling still looks great even with that extra feature turned off, i cannot decide which i like better, but both styles look fantastic.



The only other projector I have personal experience with (besides seeing a 5050ub in person for a few minutes) is just a cheap amazon projector I had to get the theater started. Needless to say my frame of judgement is going to widely favor the 4550i due to them not even being comparable.



Overall I am very happy with this projector. It seems to have a very good image, and low input lag for gaming, which is exactly what i wanted, a good all arounder projector for all of my uses!

(Review from BenQ.com)

 

I replaced my old BenQ W1070 projector with the HT4550i. I knew it was time to upgrade when I found myself watching more movies and shows on my Sony 83" OLED because the picture was so much more realistic. So was the replacement worth it?



Well...for the price, probably? The short version is that this is a great projector for the price. There are definitely some shortcomings though.



Pros:



1. Easy to set up with V/H Keystone and lens shift.



2. 4K resolution has no detectable convergence issues so the image is sharp!



3. Very bright



Cons:



1. Black levels are just OK. Maybe I'm spoiled by OLED.



2. ARC does not seem to work no matter what settings I've tried on my projector and receiver. This makes the "built in" (actually an embedded dongle) useless because I'm not watching movies using the projector's speakers.



3. Auto color calibration is broken. After having the projector on for about 20 or so minutes, the picture just has a severely yellow tint as if it is boosting the yellow LED and dimming the others. Once I turn this feature off, the colors are back to normal



4. Some minor spelling mistakes in the menus



Overall, probably worth the money. I have not tried 3D so I can't comment if this works well or not. If it was $2500, it would definitely be worth the cons. As it is now, I'd recommend with caveats.

(Review From BenQ.com)

 

I had to replace my aging Sony projector. It put in many years but one of the panels is degrading and I just don't think it would be worth it even if I could find replacement parts.



Looking around I found the Benq HT4550 that seemed to tick all the boxes that I was looking for.



Replacement bulb free [led / or laser]



Brightness



Color accuracy



Decent Black levels.



4k



HDR



3D Capable



So, I took the plunge. WOW! The HDR / color out of the box is just eye popping. I don't have a meter to measure everything and do a serious calibration, but this is so much brighter and better that what I am used to. The lack of a "bulb" means it should maintain this brightness and color accuracy for years! One of the problems on my bulb projectors was as the bulb dimmed it would slowly throw the picture off.



The first thing I did was use the QS02 streamer to run some YouTube 4k+ and HDR footage. As one would expect this looked amazing. I also found some live streaming stations running Classic "Dr.Who" episode from the 70's. I was very impressed with how good it looked!



I decided to run one of my favorite movies "Akira" on the projector. Now I have seen this on every format from vhs tape on a crt tv to film in a theater. Projecting the UHD 4k version at home was incredible! This is an animated film and the colors really popped! The detail rivaled and was maybe better than even seeing it in the theater.



Overall, I am incredibly happy with this purchase. I still have some things to try out and learn but this out of box experience has been great!



Included are some photos. Please excuse the mess of my theater room. Unfortunately, my old mount won't work so I have had to work around a few things. At some point I may paint the room and do some more work on running cables but that will wait until I get a new projector mount going. For now, I have it sitting on a bookshelf behind the couch.



Pics were taken with my cell phone and of course don't really do the image justice.

(Review from BenQ.com)