BenQ PE7700 HD-ready projector

The first HD-ready DLP projector under £2,000.

With this, BenQ has unleashed the cheapest Hi-Def DLP projector so far. It seems like only yesterday that we were drooling over Toshiba's £2,500 MT700 - then the cheapest DLP projector to earn the HD-ready badge of honour - but that's now been blown out of the water in the value stakes.

All the key HD-ready elements are present: the HDMI digital video input, the component video analogue input, and a resolution high enough to show Hi-Def pictures without "downscaling" them.

Despite its sophistication, however, this is the archetypal no-brainer to use - we had it running in under five minutes. The well-designed onscreen menus also hide plenty of tweaks for braver souls to have a play with, such as noise reduction, image presets (of which Cinema works best), white-balance settings, and even some picture-in-picture facilities.

Despite its budget price tag, we assure you this projector's excellent picture quality wouldn't look misplaced on a model costing a grand more. Especially nice is the absence of DLP's common nasties - fizzing noise over motion and the rainbow effect, where stray bands of colour are visible in fast-moving scenes. The impact of this is especially noticeable during the huge battle scene that opens The Fellowship of the Ring. All the soldiers charge across the battlefield without a fizzing dot or unwanted rainbow in sight!

Also eminently easy to love are the projector's colour tone, brightness, contrast and sense of scale. In fact, the only negatives - some graininess in dark areas, occasional softness and a little picture juddering on camera pans - are risible in the context of all the good bits.

Overall, this is an excellent projector - bring on those HDTV broadcasts.