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Optoma HD80 Review

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  1. rjhiii2002 •  August 21, 2007
    Rating: 5/5

    10/6: Just got the bd-p1400 and hd-a35. With 1080p/24 remastered fifth element is *really* amazing – closeups are unreal and picture often looks genuinely 3d. On a 7 foot display (on wall) picture is *perfect* at 4 feet without any visible pixels. HD-A35 can’t send /24 (and needs firmware upgrade) but is still pretty amazing on the HD80 at 30/60Hz. SD DVDs pretty amazing with upscaling even without HQV Reon (yet).
    Original post:
    Fantastic picture with 1080p, high def cable and even regular def looks great. Color saturation is the best.

    Regular cable TV (non-HD) is great, even lowest quality non-premium channels look good, upscaled and with amazing color, a few shots even appear high def. HD cable is amazing, ‘As you like it’ just on and looks sharp and 3d – perhaps from color and contrast since not 1080p.

    Replacing 3 year old Mitsubishi XGA XD-350U, was very happy with 2500 Ansi Lumens and High Def. Have first generation Toshiba HD-A1 and BD-P1000 with firmware upgrades.

    BD-P1000 playing Underworld Evolution (UE) which is MPEG-2 is very sharp and 3D and is the best picture I’ve ever seen anywhere on anything. Good on other BR discs so far but not great. A1 playing any HD disk is Ok but 1080i is clearly not as good as UE with 1080p. Best HD movies such as Batman Returns, King Kong, T3 (VC1) need a 1080p/24 player and not current 1080i.

    Will buy 3rd Gen Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players in October for 1080p/24 and good HD-DVD playback, have read the HD80 needs 1080p/24 for best picture – if UE gets any more 3d it will be truly realistic.

    DVDs upscale nicely, Star Wars IV looks great for decades old and SW III looks even better but not close to 3D HD which is expected.

    Image AI is great for darker movies and I now leave on all the time – everything else at default seems fine.
    Can notice brightness go up or down with AI although it’s not bothersome.

    Colors are unbelieveable on all inputs – the extra color wheel colors make for order of magnitude better color,
    older TV looks more than noticably bad when displayed at same time, color on projector is that good.

    Considering HD80 is about same price as my old XGA XD-350U 3 years later with full 1080p/24 (vs XGA), HDMI 1.3 (vs component to VGA), and extra colors on wheel is a great demonstration of the exponential “Moore’s Law” like improvement in home theater electronics. I strongly recommend HD80 as a ‘buy now’ given it has all required new technologies, is bright enough and is bargain priced. Could wait until Sep/Oct to get next gen blu-ray and HD players (or combo). Also good compared to rear projection TVs which apparently won’t support 1080p/24 (full movie/TV convergence) until next year.

    I also like the full digital pipeline from movie master to projection without conversion, at least with 24fps players. And to get film quality, can’t go to movie theater which transfers 1080p/24 (new film definition) to analog ‘film’ for terrible quality or very limited digital projection showings on few movies but now must view movies on home theater/HD80!

    I will try to repost in October with 3rd gen BR/HD players.
    Pros: Sharp 3D Image, Amazing Color, HDMI 1.3a, upscaling, price. Full 1080p/24 is final convergence of film spacial and temporal resolution.
    Cons: Modern technology isn’t up to Ultra HD; 480p DVDs don’t look truly high def, no universal opulence – but has nothing to do with HD80.

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  2. terrylaw •  October 27, 2007
    Rating: 5/5

    I bought this projector based on the great reviews I read in the trade magazines. I was looking for a 1080p projector to mate up with my Toshiba XA2. My old projector was an InFocus 4805. This was an excellent projector in its day in terms of color and contrast but was limited to EDTV resolutions. Neverththeless, it had an excellent picture and so I was really not expecting a quantum leap over what I had. However, when I set up the Optoma and spun up a few HD disks I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Projected from about 15 feet from a ceiling mount onto an 8 foot wide screen the image just jumped off the screen. Blacks were intense and color realistic. We just recently purchased Transformers on HD DVD. The scene at the beginning of movie in which the special ops troops are flying back to their base is incredibly detailed. Every pore and stubble on the soldier’s unshaved faces were visible.

    Other than the positioning issue, the projector is very easy to set up with clear easy to understand menus. The remote is excellent. The projector housing itself is not done justice in magazine photos. This is a very sharp looking unit. The chromed focus ring and lens cover really jazzed up the unit’s appearance.

    I had been looking at projectors for about six months. I almost bought the excellent JVC LCOS projector for about $5000 but boy am I sure glad I waited. I paid $2699 for my projector. In my opinion the picture jumps off the screen with even more punch than the JVC which had previously been my favorite. When I think what I paid for my first projector five years ago (a Dream Vision projector) verus this Optoma at $2699, I am sorry I didn’t a wait a few years. You won’t go wrong with this one.
    Pros: With HD sources stunning color and detail.
    Cons: Limited placement options due to lack of horizontal and vertical shift. Fan noise is noticable when lamp on high.

    Rating: 10 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

  3. thebeast68 •  December 29, 2007
    Rating: 4/5

    Picture quality and image setup is amazing for a reasonable price. The biggest problem I had is the narrow window for physically mounting this projector. Please read carefully the requirement for mounting before you purchase. I could not get the keystone to completely correct for my low ceiling.
    Pros: Amazing picture quality and great features for a reasonable price.
    Cons: Mounting can be tricky with little room for error.

    Rating: 8 :: 0 out of 0 people found this user review helpful.

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