Optoma H27. Bought One Here's my review - 1

[anibap]

Hi

Finally, I bought an Optoma H27 after going through a long study of reviews and posts in few forums including this one and demo of machines in the similar bracket. The other contenders for my pick were Nec 410/510, 4805, H30,H30a, Benq 5120, Z3, PJTX100, AE700. I went through some European websites and they had detail reviews and opined that H27 is the best PJ of its kind. It's a new machine and has overcome the issues and technology changes from 4805 and H30s.

I was looking for PJ and my preference was for DVD watching mostly and not much of Hidef. An upgrade in next 1-2 years in mind so a low budget but a performance machine was something I was looking for. I guess many will have similar ideas in mind who are limited to a budget at this point of time.

I got the H27 from KrishAV with a good deal. Nice people £600 with 1.m Profigold Component cable. 3 yr Hot swap warranty. What else do you want?

My HT is quite basic to HT pros and Average for HT enthusiasts with
PJ:H27
DVD Player : Philips 3005 Prog Scan. Will get a a better DVD player soon.
Cable: Component Profigold 1.5M
Scaling : By PJ and not DVD Player.
Screen : Wall

Result: Amazing and that also on a wall and not a screen. I am not talking about Hidef stuff or expensive new models (z4,AE900 etc) hence nothing to compare with those models. I have seen the other PJs mentioned. To me, H27 beats them all in overall PQ and thts why i took it.

Colour:
H27 Out box requires colour calibration though some may like the paunchiness (my wife does but i like natural colours).
4805 definitely has the best colour and that’s why i used my friend’s 4805(new, he took 4805) side by side to calibrate my H27 colour to his D65 standard. After doing that my friend said "Wow" it looks better than my 4805. Why? H27 has got the best contrast I have seen out of all the models mentioned above. You can clearly see the difference side by side.

[anibap]

Contrast: The Holy Grail for PJs
Fantastic. I can see scenes clearly which were not that clear with a 4805. My friends eyeball popped out who owns the 4805. It matches the CR of H30a but the appeal is better as H30a is not colour perfect. Dark scenes are a dream to watch on this PJ. At 2500:1 if this is the case I imagine what people get at 5000:1 and above in better machines.

Scaling:
Excellent . It produces a smooth clean image. But 4805 and H30a has a better scalar no doubt.

Rainbows:
Fortunately me and my wife are not susceptible to rainbows and we have not seen any even after trying to look for one. Headache? Yes a bit but this is normal as it’s a change in watching a tv to a big screen. I get headache even after watching a theatre.

Brightness:
More than enough for a light controlled room and that also in economy mode. I still reduce the brightness by 3-5 points from preset. Simple theory is Projector On - Lights off, curtain down and popcorn in. The projector is really bright. Do not go by initial Projector centrals review as it was faulty product.

Screen door:
Now I know why a DC2 chip is so good than a normal wide DMD. Frankly speaking i can only see screen door at around 1-2 feet and pixellation at around 1x-1.2x screen size. That’s impressive. From my sitting position at 10 feet the image is smooth and clean and I know it will look better if I go back 2 feet further.

Connectivity:
A whole range - Composite, SVideo, Component, DVI-D, VGA. Optoma provides cables for all connectors(1.8 m each) except DVI and VGA. They also provide a SCART to VGA adapter which is great for Freeview or DVD player with scart and no component out.

I tried all sources other the DVI-D and i was surprised to find that in this model Composite and S-Video looked much better than the competition. Component looks fantastic with the Profigold cable. Will try the DVI-D once I get a HTPC having a DVI-D output. DVI-D should produce the sharpest picture. I even tried my laptop. Though I was not able to match the widescreen resolution , the image via Svideo TV out surprised me as it was clean and clear. One side was missing

[anibap]

Fan Noise:
One of the quietest one . Nec models are quieter. Only in Pin drop silence scenes you can hear a faint whine. I sit 2 feet from the PJ now.

Others:
Excellent user friendly remote, Light Weight, Looks like a Storm trooper equipment. Throw distance is a negative but suits my wall currently. I am getting an image of around 76" diagonal from 11 feet.


The H27 had a very bad opening in the market because of a Faulty product being tested at Projector central. In the world of PJ, people do listen to what the guys say there and i also believe that they are experts and they did their job. But i have not seen any owner of H27 having a problems or not happy with their purchase in all forums I am a member.

So if anybody wants to invest now into a 480p machine without investing into Hidef (I prefer this as you can reduce the expenses of upgrades. Upgrade from 480p to 720p or higher is less costly than a upgrading from Hidef to Hidef. However it all depends on content you mostly watch. For all who will be watching mostly DVDs I can recommend the machine H27 without any doubt.

One point to Add. I had a word with Optoma Europe and Infocus. All 480p models will be stopped after March 2006. However a full support will be provided for 5-10 years as most of the assembly uses similar parts. This is a move to embrace the new Hidef machines coming out of the DLP PJ giants in 2nd quarter of 2006. It will be a battle upfront with LCD and fortunately it’s the consumers (us) who will get benefited. The guys in Optoma and Infocus both mentioned in different ways that the new machines will be bringing in the true theatre appeal with images like CRT and Imax movies at the reach of public. Contrast ration will become standard at least at 4000:1 to upto 20000:1. Wow…… And all new machines will come with a min lamp guarantee of 6 months. That’s a good thing.

But initial prices will be high for the high end ones. This was one of the reasons for me to go for the H27 as I would definitely make a move to Hidef in the next 1-2 year till technologies like Blu-ray and HDDVD, etc stabilises and the video media is available to public easily. Till then enjoy DVD and HD broadcasts (scaled down at 480p. It looks quite good.)

Will get my camera and put some pictures for your visual treat. Love this machine.

[Dirk_Diggler]

Don't understand how the H27 model can be better than the H30a myself. It's cheaper and it's an older model???????????????????

[PJTX100]

Originally Posted by Dirk_Diggler

Don't understand how the H27 model can be better than the H30a myself. It's cheaper and it's an older model???????????????????

Some people like the old Mini vs the new one.

At the end of the day it's all opinions. It's difficult not to be pleased with any modern PJ. The H27 I'm sure is a nice PJ, as is the H30a which I've seen, and the 4805. I'd go for HD machines (even the previous gen) every time because of the detail, and less SD (among other things). But that's my opinion.

[anibap]

Originally Posted by Dirk_Diggler

Don't understand how the H27 model can be better than the H30a myself. It's cheaper and it's an older model???????????????????

The H27 is cheaper but not older. H27 came out after H30a this year only. H30a production is stopped. H27 is still in the production line., However it will stop in Mar/April next year.

Optoma has remodelled H27 from the H30a. The H27 has a chepaer scaler and some other components replaced with some cheaper and some better parts (some parts goes for better tech and design in time but eventually comes down in price)

The good thing is that they have replaced or upgraded many components of H30a which had issues like the support for lamps. H30a had lamp issues. So specwise H30a is superior to H27 by a bit but you actually get very good value for the H27. As far as picture is concerned I liked H27 than the H30a hence i went for it.

H27 and Movie 10 has the same configuration other than the DVD and Audio.
And H27 and Movie10 are the last engineered model in 480p for Optoma as per the tech support guy whom i spoke to. They may only release firmware upgrades. but like infocus to keep the existing DVD market rolliing and where the major bulk of consumers reside they might come up with a new 480p budget model to grab a market whihc is still untouched - A PJ at every home affordable and reliable.

[MikeD]

Anibap I'm of the same opinion as you regarding waiting a while before going Hi Def as it looks like a real battle is about to commence between LCD and DLP which can only be good for us the user.
I shall be more than happy to stick with my H30 for another year by which time Hi Def sources should be well established and projector technology will have advanced further while prices fall further.
Glad to hear your happy with the H27, let us all know how you get on once you've fine tuned your setup.

MikeD

[Dirk_Diggler]

"H30a had lamp issues"

What lamp issues?????????

Like Dirk Diggler, I too am confused about these "lamp issues" with the H30A.
Having done approx. 600 hours with my H30A, do I now have to start worrying about "lamp issues"?

[MikeD]

Originally Posted by Dirk_Diggler

"H30a had lamp issues"

What lamp issues?????????

I concur

[anibap]

If you go through most threads on various forums you can see that ethere were lamp reliability issues with Optoma models. H30 shipped with a wrong ballast and it continued with H30a.

If you are not facing any trouble that means you guys have got the ones where the problem is rectified.

I was hesitant to go with Optoma on this but was convinced by technicians and others as the issues are sorted. The new machines should not have the problem. I tried to get a pice of mind taking H27 as it was new design and better tested.

So if you have no issues with your H30a then no worries. Enjoy the H30a. 4805 and H30a are still considered the benchmark machines.

I have added photographs of my h27 in a separate thread. Would like to get the views of H30a owners.

Cheers