Optoma H30 DLP Home Theater Projector

Rating:
Summary: Great Dedicated Home Theater Projector!!
Review: I received the Optoma H30 from Amazon a couple of days ago and I have to say this thing rocks! I thought the 800 x 600 res. would be a problem, but the image is beautiful! Even Hi-Def kicks (insert word here)! I have to admit that out of the box the picture isn't that great, but with some tweaking one can get the image to spectacular. The projector its self is well-built and seems sturdy and durable. The 6 seg color wheel makes for very accurate and vivid colors, including incredible blacks. Since the color wheel is 4x rainbows are hard to come by. The remote is great because it's average size which means even I can't lose it. The menu on this projector is great, it seems like you can tweak almost everything. I would reccomend this projector to a person who's on a budget, but non the less wants a great quality product.

Rating:
Summary: Forget about big screen T.V....this is better !
Review: In a world of hype and deception, it is great to get a product that does what the ads say it will do. This projector is fantastic. I didn't have a screen when I first got my H30, so I used a wall for my screen, not even a white wall.....a pale blue one! Everyone commented how clear the picture was. My next-door neighbor has a big screen TV, and he said had he known about the quality of this projector he would have bought it instead. He has a 50 inch screen, mine is over 8 feet, and can be much larger. The color is great, so is the definition. I finaly bought 6 old film projector screens from my local thrift shop. I "pieced" them together to make one big screen. I made a silver colored frame for it. It looks great, and the picture is even better than before. My grandchildren say I have the biggest TV in the world. If you are thinking of buying a big screen TV, you should really consider this Home Theater Projector. You will be glad you did.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent projector for the price!
Review: The Optoma H30 is a compact, 4.6 lb. video projector that is a variation on the design of Optoma's EzPro 731 portable data projector. It uses the same basic chassis and connector panel as the 731. And like the 731, the H30 is limited to one VGA port for component/HDTV/data input. Meanwhile it duplicates the 731's VGA output for monitor loop through--a great feature for the education market, but not relevant for home theater. We would have preferred to see a component or DVI input instead of the VGA output. However this would no doubt have driven the price of the product up as well. Such are the trade-offs in using common design and parts for both commercial and home theater markets. The good news is that by using some of the same components, the unit cost to manufacture is lowered. Thus the consumer wins by getting a very low-priced DLP projector with a 6-segment, 4x color wheel.

By going to a 6-segment (RGB-RGB) color wheel, brightness is reduced (compared to the commercial design) since there is no white segment in the wheel. As is true with most digital video projectors, the 800 ANSI lumen rating is a best case scenario, and not relevant for optimum video use. After selecting the most advantageous settings for video, the real lumen output is closer to 450--not an unusual drop, percentagewise, from the theoretical rating.

The H30 is an SVGA, 800x600 resolution projector, which is native 4:3 aspect ratio. However you have the option to run the H30 as a native 16:9 projector in 800x450 as well, and set it up to fill a 16:9 screen. Set up this way, a 4:3 image can be centered in the middle of the 16:9 screen frame with black bars on either side. On the other hand, if you are using a 4:3 screen, you can opt to view 4:3 material in full 800x600 resolution. Accordingly, 16:9 material will be viewed with black bars at top and bottom. It should be noted that the first H30s to be shipped did not have all of this functionality. However, it is all available with the latest firmware upgrade. If you own an H30 with the early firmware release, you can get it upgraded at no charge (other than one-way shipping) by calling Optoma Customer Service at 1-888-289-6786.
Therefore you have more viewing format flexibility with this projector than you do with the so-called "cross-over" projectors in this price class that are used for both business and home entertainment. Optoma has for the most part designed this particular projector to address the needs of the home theater market exclusively.

SVGA resolution means you will have more visible pixelation than you would on a comparable XGA model. Pixelation on digital projectors, which is mostly visible in white text and subtitles, disappears as you move away from the screen. On the H30 it disappears at a viewing distance of about 1.9 times the screen width. If you are bothered by visible pixel structure in text, subtitles, and credits, and you plan to sit closer than 1.9 times the screen width, you may want to consider an XGA projector instead.

Out of the box, the color balance on our test unit was poor. Factory presets on red, green, and blue contrast and brightness, when defaulted to zero, yield an image heavily biased toward the green. However this can be corrected easily. In the advanced settings there are independent controls over brightness and contrast for red, green, and blue. On our test unit, we boosted red and blue contrast to +15, reduced green contrast to -8, raised red and blue brightness to +11 and reduced green brightness to -11. With these adjustments, the color balance on our H30 was beautiful. (These settings are quoted to give an indication of the direction and magnitude of correction required for our test unit; they are not meant to suggest that they are the optimum for every individual unit.)

Brightness uniformity is not a strong suit of the H30. We found brightness to fall off by as much as 40% from center to the corners. Viewing a 100 IRE white screen, the unevenness of the illumination is apparent without a meter. However once video subject matter is in play, the unevenness of illumination is not noticeable unless you intentionally look for it. In typical viewing one is not aware of the issue.

For DVD play, progressive scan input is preferred to interlace. Not only is a progressive scan image sharper, but it is also about 17% brighter which is an important factor on this unit.

Overall, after calibration adjustments the picture quality on the H30 is stunning, and certainly one of the best (if not THE best) you can find in this price range. Blacks are solid black, shadow detail is very good, color saturation is excellent. Furthermore, the 4x color wheel will substantially reduce or eliminate DLP rainbow artifacts for those sensitive to them (more on this below).

The Optoma H30 is a perfect solution for those who want optimum picture quality and who have a completely light controlled environment. If you go for a 90" diagonal picture (still much larger than big-screen TVs), the H30 will deliver extraordinary results. And at this size, pixelation becomes much less of an issue as well. Under these conditions, the H30 can produce outstanding picture quality. You can go larger if you wish, but we encourage users not to go too large. Overextending the image size will make pixelation more apparent and reduce contrast and color saturation.