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Optoma H31 by BC - Jun 22, 2007
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| WVGA (854x480), 850 ANSI Lumens, 5.0 lbs, $1,099 (MSRP) |
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| Personal Experience |
| First a disclaimer: This is the only home theater projector I've ever owned, and furthermore, it's the only one I've even ever seen. The only other projectors I've seen were computer projectors in bright rooms. So with that in mind.... You can read all the good stuff about this projector by going and finding a descriptive review. They're all positive, because this is a great projector. Let me just tell you the things that weren't perfect about it. First, its ability to sense a signal on the component video input is slow. In fact, it never found a signal until I told it to switch specifically to component input. At first I thought I had a dud. I switched to composite, just to check, and it found a signal almost immediately. Switched back, and after about 10 seconds, it finally found it. Phew! But once found, it works fine, just gave me a bit of a heart attack when I first set it up. The blacks aren't terribly black. I have an enclosed room with no windows, and with no lights on, the black is still visible. In particular, when watching a 2.35:1 movie, the black bars on the top and bottom are visible. I know, I know, I'm asking way too much to expect those to be so black you can't see them. No biggie. Another weakness it has is that the image is fixed in place. Yes, it has an image shift feature, but what I'm talking about is shelf-mounting vs. ceiling mounting. I wanted to make things easy on myself by placing a shelf very close to the ceiling at the back of my theater, but since the image is fixed in place, at a upward angle, the only way to make it shine down is to flip the projector upside-down. Luckily I just happened to have an M3-type screw on hand and built myself a quickie upside-down mount that lets me sit the projector upside-down on the shelf. The projection angle is rather extreme. I project onto a wall at the front of the room where the ceiling is 10 feet high. With the projector about 9 1/2 feet up in the air in the back, the image is about a foot off the ground. Not good. Luckily, though, a slight adjustment of the projector's angle doesn't seem to make any noticeable change in the image that would require a keystone adjustment, so I can raise it up and it still looks perfectly square. I was kind of bummed about its zoom features. To explain, there are actually two different features when describing zoom. First, there's a manual zoom that you adjust by rotating a knob next to the lens. This adjusts the image to be larger or smaller overall. The other zoom feature is a remote-controlled one, which zooms in within the display area. So, for example, if you zoom a 2.35:1 movie in a couple notches, it fills the 16:9 display area, cutting off the far right and left sides of the image (along with the black bars above and below). Now, let me tell you what I don't like about that. I want a 2.35:1 fixed screen. When I watch a 2.35:1 movie, I want it to fill the screen completely. When I watch a 16:9 movie, I want it to fill the height of the screen, but leave a bit of blank area on the sides. And of course, I want it even more pronounced for a 4:3 movie. But there's no automatic way to accomplish this with this projector. The only way to do it is set up the screen so that the black bars are above and below the screen, with the manual zoom set at a somewhat high level. Then, to watch a 16:9 or 4:3 movie, you have to manually unzoom, until the image fits within the height of the screen again. Major pain for something that I've been dying for. Of course, none of the entry-level projectors have a feature that makes this easier, as far as I know. It's a great projector, though. I have it projecting quite large. It's 17 feet back and fills a screen about 10 feet wide (that's about 140"), and it still looks good. Sure, you can see the screen door if you're looking for it, but I've actually always kind of liked that--it makes the picture look clean. And it's quite minor still--it's not like the lines take up have the image or anything. And yes, I can tell that it's not super-high resolution, like a 1080p projector would be. But that's not what it is, and I don't expect it to be. For the money, I couldn't be happier. I had a hard time getting a projector. At first, I was sold on the Infocus IN72, which has just been discontinued (like this one, I believe). I'd thought about buying a refurbished one from Infocus (via EBay) for $390. But I decided to shop around first. By the time I decided it was a good deal, it was gone. Rats! So then I bought one new from a camera site (found one for $370 after rebate). I had to call to confirm the order, and when I did, I found out I had to buy the lamp separately. Rats again! So I canceled the order and started shopping on EBay. I found a reasonable buy-it-now one that was still new (with the UPC and everything) and therefore still offered the rebate. So I bought it. A couple days later the guy emailed and said he mistakenly put that auction up without realizing that he couldn't get the IN72 from his supplier. Rats again! (Idiot!) So I decided I just wasn't meant to have the IN72. I started reading some comparisons and was impressed with the Optoma H27, which toasts the IN72 in several areas. Then when I found this one, the H31, I was sold. I made an offer of $413 to a guy selling refurbished ones straight from the factory, and he accepted. Sweet. |
| Problems |
| Technically, I haven't had any problems. My complaints above are more about features that aren't included. And what can you expect from a $400 projector? This thing rocks! |
