Optoma HD72

A

AVdavid

Guest
Has anyone seen a demo of the new optoma HD72 projector I was hoping to see it at the Bristol show alongwith the Infocus playbig projectors but optoma were not there and the in focus projector arrived at the show damaged. All in all a rather disappionting show
Dave
 
David, disappointing the HD72 was no show in Bristol. I was hoping Optoma would use the opportunity for the official UK launch. Fingers crossed Optoma will still deliver into retailers here within the next week or two, though...

In the meantime, it's been available for a month or so in the US and there's plenty of discussion beginning here and here. Also a very thorough and positive review can be found here. Hope those links help.

My preorders been in awhile as I've no doubt this Projector is the one I've holding out for the past year or so. Due to personal preference, even got my N2 filter ready based on reports of previously unseen levels of lumens levels from a buget HT projector...

Damian.
 
I also was dissappointed this projector was not available at the show. I went specifically to see this projector and may be pick up a bargen Rotel RSP1068 and again no Rotel stand.

Is it just me or was the show not up to the usual standard? For me it was big let down.

BTW, I have also preordered this projector with a Beamax screen and celling mount (offer).
 
GreenEagle said:
BTW, I have also preordered this projector with a Beamax screen and celling mount (offer).
Too good to miss, isn't it ;) All indications are pointing towards the HD72 being a revolution for the price. Regarding its brightness output, it's said to be amazingly capable with even ambient light aplenty. Which will perfect for those with lack of completely blacked out viewing rooms or extra large screens. The only reason I'm looking to pair my HD72 with a filter is because I can completely light control and can only accommodate an 80" diagonal screen. Plus, have always liked cinema levels of brightness as a preference. The uber high levels of brightness will no doubt be highly beneficial and preferable to many as it is, though...

Damian.
 
I saw the H72 at the Manchester show, and was very impressed, no rainbows at all for me.:smashin:

Be wary when checking out the US reviews though, as the UK model is the H72i not H72 and has Faroudja processing.

I still want a H79 though.:devil:
 
You are right about been wary about the US review but I think the Faroudja deinterlacer is a more recent one, failing that buy a DVD player with a better deinterlacer or use HTPC.

It seems to me that people on forums want something for nothing, if you note alot of people on AVS are complaining about offsets, lens shift etc.. but are not willing to pay more for it.

In the end you get what you pay for.

I do think for the price, I can't see anything beating it for at least the first half of this year
 
omenII,

I am considering going for the M series Beamax Electric Screen at 83" diagonal for a 17' by 15' after seen at Bristol yesterday.
 
GreenEagle said:
You are right about been wary about the US review but I think the Faroudja deinterlacer is a more recent one, failing that buy a DVD player with a better deinterlacer or use HTPC.

Didn't mean to say it was any better or worse, just that ours isn't the same model. Hopefully the H72i will be the better model.

GreenEagle said:
It seems to me that people on forums want something for nothing, if you note alot of people on AVS are complaining about offsets, lens shift etc.. but are not willing to pay more for it.

True, wouldn't it be great if we could have the H72, but with the lens shift of the Z4, now that would be a bargain at £1500, although I'd much rather have it for under £1k.:lease:

GreenEagle said:
I do think for the price, I can't see anything beating it for at least the first half of this year

Absolutely, unless you need the flexibility of lens shift, or suffer from RBE of course.
 
Miniholic,

Last statement, very true.
 
BTW, anyone know if this unit has sealed optics to prevent dust build up or will they provide kit for cleaning like the Sanyo Z4?
 
Miniholic said:
I saw the H72 at the Manchester show, and was very impressed, no rainbows at all for me.:smashin:

Be wary when checking out the US reviews though, as the UK model is the H72i not H72 and has Faroudja processing.

I still want a H79 though.:devil:
The US model also has DCDi, it's just not advertised for some reason. There's no newer Faroudja than the FLi-2310, so it'll likely be that doing both the scaling and deinterlacing honours. Unless they use the older 2200 chip, and let the TI DMD board take on scaling duties. The Mitsubishi HC3000 uses the TI chip for both scaling and deinterlacing.

Yeah, I'd toyed with the idea too :) Especially as they'll likely be going be for under £2k in a month or two, to finally close them out. But the early dimming/failing lamps reports put me off, and the HD72 does actually have the odd advantage over the H79 believe it or not. Direct HDMI input for 10bit processing and reduced false contouring/banding for instance. The H79 and all previous Optoma models have featured 8bit DVI only panel drivers.
 
GreenEagle said:
BTW, anyone know if this unit has sealed optics to prevent dust build up or will they provide kit for cleaning like the Sanyo Z4?
GreenEagle, definitely sealed optics on the HD72. You can even download the user manual somewhere for confirmation of a lack of any removable dust filters.

Lack of lens shift doesn't bother me too much. I've a 9ft high ceiling, so it's just line up, mount and it's done with. It's an initial hassle, but it's the old school method so am used to it by now ;) The high offset the folks over in the States seem to be moaning about suits me to a tee. Lens shift seems to have spoiled too many users these days. To put it before image quality is just daft IMO.

Re. the screen, if you're ordering from where I think you are, you might want to ask if they'll knock you off the equivalent amount of a R-Black 92" Beamax towards an M-Series 83". I'd considered swapping the R-Black 92" for an R-Black High Power (lower gain grey) 77", but will stick with a filter until about half the lamps life if the HD72's as bright as reported.
 
I too was disappointed with lack of optoma at Bristol. Been reading the reviews (mostly stateside) and a lot of the moaning is regarding the offset - which is you believe the hype - is at anywhere between 32-37%.
Now - math not being my strong point...I wondered if someone could help me out. I have 8 foot ceilings. My throw distance will be a relatively short 2.5 (ish) metres to the screen. Screen size will be viewable 148cm by 83cm on an electric Beamax M-Series 1.0 gain screen. The one thing that puzzles me,,,is whether I can mount the PJ flush to the ceiling (but inverted of course) or whether I need to get an extension for the mount. My the bottom of my screen is 98cm off the floor - and 83wide. Anyone know enough math to help me - or will the buil in image offset do the job at this short distance?

Thanks all!
 
I too saw this pj at the Manchester show as was very impressed (nearly as good as my Sharp xv-z200 :D ).

It was very good and in fact was thinking of buying one until I stumbled across the sharp.

The pic was superb on the H72 and only saw rainbows when I looked for them - it was the best pj I had seen for the money.

I bought the Sharp after reading the comments in the thread on this forum and have to say that the pics are very similar - same brightness, contrast, colours a, excellent blacks and depth of pic. I have watched the same Dancing with Wolves scene on the sharp as was demoed on the H72 and theres not a lot in it.(Pleasantly surprised).

The H72's extra resolution may bring improvements when going high def and I highly recommend it and it is also quiter than the sharp.

However it may be worth considering the sharp for only £580, it comes very, very, very close in picture terms but I dont think you will regret buying a H72 either.

Andy
 
Vinwolf said:
I too was disappointed with lack of optoma at Bristol. Been reading the reviews (mostly stateside) and a lot of the moaning is regarding the offset - which is you believe the hype - is at anywhere between 32-37%.
Now - math not being my strong point...I wondered if someone could help me out. I have 8 foot ceilings. My throw distance will be a relatively short 2.5 (ish) metres to the screen. Screen size will be viewable 148cm by 83cm on an electric Beamax M-Series 1.0 gain screen. The one thing that puzzles me,,,is whether I can mount the PJ flush to the ceiling (but inverted of course) or whether I need to get an extension for the mount. My the bottom of my screen is 98cm off the floor - and 83wide. Anyone know enough math to help me - or will the buil in image offset do the job at this short distance?

Thanks all!
Vinwolf, you should fine based on those measurements. My ceiling was not much over 8ft the last time I measured to be exact, too. And, erm, if it's changed I have a problem in more ways than one :rolleyes: I did all the calculations and measurements as soon as I found out the HD72's throw specs and it worked out perfectly for me. The HD72 should just sit a few inches down from my ceiling, about 3 metres away from a 80" diagonal (roughly 175x95cm) screen. The (viewing area) top of which can be anywhere between 60-90cm's from the ceiling. Which is where you want your PJ, really. Couldn't do with the PJ been level with the top of my screen as I'd be ducking all the time, not to mention the fan would be more audible. Now, my measurements were based on using none of the HD72's zoom lens. I believe it should easily be able to throw a 148x83cm image from 2.5m away when utilising its manual zoom a little. I take it you'll be using a proper ceiling mount? You'll have plenty of adjustment up or down with that anyway, plus the HD72 can image shift it's 720 vertical pixels up or down by 24 pixels for the extra bit of placement flexibility.
 
ukroadster said:
I too saw this pj at the Manchester show as was very impressed (nearly as good as my Sharp xv-z200 :D ).

It was very good and in fact was thinking of buying one until I stumbled across the sharp.

The pic was superb on the H72 and only saw rainbows when I looked for them - it was the best pj I had seen for the money.

I bought the Sharp after reading the comments in the thread on this forum and have to say that the pics are very similar - same brightness, contrast, colours a, excellent blacks and depth of pic. I have watched the same Dancing with Wolves scene on the sharp as was demoed on the H72 and theres not a lot in it.(Pleasantly surprised).

The H72's extra resolution may bring improvements when going high def and I highly recommend it and it is also quiter than the sharp.

However it may be worth considering the sharp for only £580, it comes very, very, very close in picture terms but I dont think you will regret buying a H72 either.

Andy
Yeah, the Sharp looks to be easily the projector bargain of the moment. Great to see it bringing so many to DLP, and making them realise rainbows are really not the evil they're often made out to be ;)
 
ukroadster said:
I bought the Sharp after reading the comments in the thread on this forum and have to say that the pics are very similar - same brightness, contrast, colours a, excellent blacks and depth of pic.

I hope that contrast statement isn't true. I sent my Sharp z200 back as I thought the contrast level was quite poor. In my light controlled cinema room the grey areas above a 2.35 film proved very distracting. The H72i was going to be my next attempt at getting something close (contrast wise) to my Barco Data 800 CRT without spending a small fortune. Just shows how good CRT really is I guess.
 
Orbital said:
IThe H72i was going to be my next attempt at getting something close (contrast wise) to my Barco Data 800 CRT without spending a small fortune. Just shows how good CRT really is I guess.
If it's absolute black level you're solely after, I don't think you will for at least a good couple of years yet to be honest. The 3-chip DLP's, H79's and Ruby's of this world still have 'grey' blacks to some degree. I'm sure a properly calibrated HD72 in the right enviroment will give you a marginal improvement over the Sharp in the black department (the new TI chipset in the HD72 is superior to the Sharp's Matterhorn in all respects), but not nearly enough if you're a CRT vetran unfortunately. Now, when you factor sharpness, detail resolve, colour saturation, brightness, noise, 'warm up' times, lack of drifting convergence and general maintenence requirements into the equation, the HD72 might still look a viable proposition against the trusted Barco ;)
 
omenII said:
Now, when you factor sharpness, detail resolve, colour saturation, brightness, noise, 'warm up' times, lack of drifting convergence and general maintenence requirements into the equation, the HD72 might still look a viable proposition against the trusted Barco ;)


The main thing I want from DLP/LCD or whatever it may be in the end is convenience more than anything. My Barco is like, a metre long and weighs in at around 65kg, so it kind of dominates the whole room (as well as having to duck under it :D ). I might be moving my cinema room into a converted garage at some point in the future and the thought of re-installing the Barco (or upgrading to another CRT and installing that) is something that fills me with dread :).

From the list you've given above the Barco only falls behind in sharpness and warm up times really. Brightness has never been an issue as the room is totally light proof, colour is lovely and I've never had a noisy picture in the 5 years of owning it. Convergence can niggle sometime, but if it does need a tweak it's only a 5 min job. I think I'm just stuck in limbo at the moment. I love the picture that a CRT can produce (if you want to see detail by the way go see a Barco Cine 9 :D ) but I'm loathed to go through all the install hassle again. Tis a difficult life LoL :)
 
Orbital said:
Tis a difficult life LoL :)
But that's only because we're spoilt sods these days :) I was actually referring to fan noise when I quoted noise btw, Dave. Picture noise is still one stumbling point of DLP's, sadly. I'm no expert on CRT's, but I do reckon you'd see an improvement in sharpness and detail resolve over your Barco, though...

Going off on one a bit, I personally think the only way we'll see CRT matching blacks in the digital projector realm is via. another yet to be launched technology. DLP's, SXRD's, LCD's, LCos's et al will no doubt continue to make strides forward. But I can only see those strides slowing up in the next few years. Higher resolutions, more tricks to pretend better blacks are achievable and even more convenient setup features will likely be the focus of the near horizon. LCD's will become the sole occupier of the ultra low end price scale unless there's some miraculous technological leap in progress for it, and Sony will probably ditch it altogether in favour of SXRD. 3-chip DLP with a double-figure colour wheel is probably our best hope amongst current techonology...Actually, maybe there is still plenty of striding to be made with what we've got, then :)
 
omenII said:
But that's only because we're spoilt sods these days :) I was actually referring to fan noise when I quoted noise btw

Gotcha! Yes it can be a little noisy sometimes, but then again no worse than the wine of that infernal colour wheel :D

Your spot on though mate with your observations concerning the latest projection devices out there. People got very hot under the collar about the Ruby (most hadn't even seen it but it was the Messiah in projector form if you listened to them). Now the heat has died down posts on here and on the AVS forum make it clear that it too has its issues. At the end of the day it's all still about compromise I suppose. For me it's the "can I get along with greyish blacks in return for not having something the size of Wales on my ceiling, which if it ever fell would mame most of my family":rotfl:
 
Orbital said:
At the end of the day it's all still about compromise I suppose. For me it's the "can I get along with greyish blacks in return for not having something the size of Wales on my ceiling, which if it ever fell would mame most of my family":rotfl:
Well, it's a toughie Dave. Depends on what you value most - those inky blacks or your family? ;) I reckon a HD72 with an ND2 filter might just let you have both with only a tinsy bit of compromise. Been told they'll finally start shipping over here next week anyway, so just sit tight and see if the early adopters can temp you again. Probably best not to sit waiting underneath that Barco, though :)
 
omenII said:
Well, it's a toughie Dave. Depends on what you value most - those inky blacks or your family? ;) I reckon a HD72 with an ND2 filter might just let you have both with only a tinsy bit of compromise. Been told they'll finally start shipping over here next week anyway, so just sit tight and see if the early adopters can temp you again. Probably best not to sit waiting underneath that Barco, though :)

Yep I reckon the H72 could be a goer. Bit of a blow it wasn't at the show. That was why I didn't bothered going as it was the one thing I wanted to see.

You know what the funniest thing is? Over all those five years of owning the Barco my wife has never sussed why I gave up the "best" seat for her (might be that 65kg of glass and metal over your head love :rotfl: :rotfl: )
 
Orbital said:
You know what the funniest thing is? Over all those five years of owning the Barco my wife has never sussed why I gave up the "best" seat for her (might be that 65kg of glass and metal over your head love :rotfl: :rotfl: )

And they say chivalry is dead. :rotfl: :rotfl:
 
Orbital said:
You know what the funniest thing is? Over all those five years of owning the Barco my wife has never sussed why I gave up the "best" seat for her (might be that 65kg of glass and metal over your head love :rotfl: :rotfl: )
Dave...you need to sacrifice those inky blacks mate :D I'm on the HD72 preorder list anyway, so will do me very best to encourage you when mine arrives ;)
 

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