Optoma RD50 review

Look at the judder issue the other way round.

Say for example you are used to seeing smooth playback on a large screen. You then change the screen and the smoothness is gone and replaced with judder/jerks. It will be instantly noticeable. The difference between a £800 dvd player and a £80 isnt just multi formats (dvd-a, cd-r, divx, etc) as the cheaper players normally out do the expensive players on this department. The difference is in the refinement of playback of a dvd to give a crystal clear, smooth motion picture with true colours, sound etc....

I am sure after a few weeks of powerstrip/reclock you will intantly notice judder if you forget to put it on.

On reclock there is a option to sync the sound to the pic. You can also do interlaced or non.

I think I know where your going wrong with powerstrip. Just enter 49.83 into the vertical geometry and leave the scan rate. Ok it and exit it, when you go back in the scan rate will be adjusted automatically. Dont try and set them both yourself, they are directly linked.

Let me know if you have success :)
 
Hi All,

Finally received my RD65 yesterday :clap: , only hooked up to component output on dish receive. It is the best picture I have seen on any TV. Special thanks goes to Razor and St_ve for their inputs. I have bought this TV without looking at Optoma as they were not available on display. I have seen lots of other TVs and colors on this TV are best I have ever seen. It is US model so this is HD2 chipset still black level are superb. Watched monster garage,blue angle on discovery. MELBA and NB play off on ESPN, I just can not belive it.
SD picture too looks really good. I was worried about pixalization but no. On some channel picture does look soft but still good. I am planning to hook DVD player overweek end. Some time later I will hook my HTPC.

I have lots of windows in the room and direct sunlight is also comes in the room. No problem with this TV also screen is really nice that I don't see glare at night from the bulbs around (kitchen) which was problem on my old CRT.

FYI only setting I have changed is reduce brightness as it was really bright.

Thanks :)
 
Razor i must have something wrong with my copy of Powerstrip i will have to download it again.
I can enter numbers in so long as i don't use the number keypad but i cannot enter a decimal point & when i use the backspace key i'm taken back out of the advanced timing screen.
 
wisedesi,
wellcome to the Optoma club , does your RD65 have the HDCP DVI enabled input that's the only problem you're likely to have.
Your set is a lot like the Sagem 50 over here which is based on the Optoma RD50 HD2 chipset. I think the screen of the Optoma sets has a lot to do with it's image quality it has a wide vertical viewing angle compared to the other DLP sets i've seen.
Here's a link to an American forum thread on the US RD50 there's some very good pictures on it , also some information about factory settings some of the braver ones have been playing around with them.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=492106&perpage=20&highlight=rd50&pagenumber=1

And another link to a comparision of Plasma, LCD, CRT & DLP sets the
DLP used was the USA Optoma RD50 with HD2 chipset
http://www.displaymate.com/ShootOut_Part_1.htm
:)
 
St_ve said:
Razor i must have something wrong with my copy of Powerstrip i will have to download it again.
I can enter numbers in so long as i don't use the number keypad but i cannot enter a decimal point & when i use the backspace key i'm taken back out of the advanced timing screen.



Try downloading again mate it should work. I dont understand what you mean by using backspace, sorry. :confused:


Mine is straigt forward all I have to do is enter the value and ok it. As you say try re-installing on our pc.


Wise desi

Welcome to the RD65 owners club so far theres one member, we have now doubled our capacity. I know we have different chips but if you need any help in setting up the RD65 just drop me a line. :smashin:
 
Razor just found out that backspace is supposed to exit to a previous screen
Stuff to remember:
"backspace" key - undo, cancels last adjustment.
"ALT-R" key combination - resets display , continue.
"escape" key - reset and close display.
PowerStrip safe mode hot key - Ctrl+Alt+S

(backspace the key above enter you use to delete a typo)
Have found a work around if i select the text & right click on it i can select cut & i am now able to type in the number i want. :)
 
St_ve said:
Razor just found out that backspace is supposed to exit to a previous screen


(backspace the key above enter you use to delete a typo)
Have found a work around if i select the text & right click on it i can select cut & i am now able to type in the number i want. :)



LOL...... I know what a backspace key is :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

I just wasn't sure why you were using it. Anyway glad you have got it at the right frequency now. ;)
 
To put the amount of judder i get with r1 discs using my PC into perspective i have continued buying r1 NTSC DVD's if they have a DTS soundtrack & the PAL version does not. It's just not been an issue with me.
Powerstrip does reduce the judder even further & i notice this more on my PC freeview digital card.
Razor have you had any luck in reducing the 1% overscan with powerstrip you get using DVI, using the arrow keys to reduce the screen it keeps reverting back to overscan.
 
Sorry steve the 1% overscan doesnt bother me at all, I havent tried to fix it. :)
 
St_ve said:
wisedesi,
wellcome to the Optoma club , does your RD65 have the HDCP DVI enabled input that's the only problem you're likely to have.
Hi Steve

No I don't have HDCP enabled output. It is kind of a lottery going on for TV at Costco. According to Optoma they have send both H and non H version of RD50 and Rd65 to Costco, if you are lucky you will get H(HDCP) version, if not (Like me :mad: ) you will get non HDCP version.

Still I will be getting 300 bucks back as costco will have RD65 on sale next month and I called them and they said I will get 300 credit (I love costco :D I guess I am lucky :) ) It will get my HDCP upgrade to 100 bucks (400-300). Sale starts on 5/16/05 and I have purchased my tv on 4/16/05 and they will match price for a month (I guess :clap: )

Now I have too much work to do. finish my HTPC, install ATSC antena, install another dish so, I can have more HD...., )

Thanks again
 
They have Costco over here sound's like a really good store to do buisness with but i don't think they sell to the general public.
We have to wait untill next year before we get a high def service.
I will be buiding my HTPC as well in the next fortnight :clap:
 
Costco do sell to anyone, but you have to buy an annual membership before you can use them. Twenty quid or so IIRC.
 
Thanks Nigel i'll check them out next week from what i've heard it will be worth joining.
:)
 
This thread has certainly taken off since I was last here, but I have to agree those pictures looked stunning. Very impressive.

Gary.
 
Took some photos of bad boys 2 on Telewest Cable tonight
Camera was a Kodak 4mp digital camera.
 

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St_ve said:
Took some photos of bad boys 2 on Telewest Cable tonight
Camera was a Kodak 4mp digital camera.



Steve :hiya:

The pics look very soft and the whites are too glaring. I think you may have to much contrast on. It reminds me of a pirate copy. Try adjusting and taking a few more shots.

eg.

If you look at the girls hair in the last shot there is no detail its just dark.

The second from last picture the girl has a white glare to her face.

Also the pictures dont look natural. Skin tones the first man has a green tint to him.


Anyone else think this? Or am I alone? :)
 
The pictures were taken with a £130 digital camera without a tripod the first one is soft probably due to camera shake & they are in a indoor courtyard with lots of green plants around. If you look at your picture of Will Smith he is in a room with flurescent lights & his skin tones are not natural.
First photo of the girl is overexposed i croped about a third of the picture & the camera has exposed for the room as well. The second shot of the girl her face is in shadow which explains the lack of detail in the hair, your picture of Tobey Maguire shows the same.
I do have contrast at about 12 for Telewest if i use the same contrast as i use for the PC & DVD movies the picture is washed out.
You also have to consider the quality of the source Telewest cable not DVD & the camera is not capable of capturing a wide enough dynamic range to show the same amount of detail as i saw watching the movie.

I am not saying your photo's are bad but that i understand why they look like they do.
 
sikenny said:
Looks very good mate and FARCRY on 65" screen !!! :eek:
That game must look fantastic on it. :D

I have an optoma front projection unit and i have tried far cry projected at 100 inch and there is no quality loss at all, its the clarity of your monitor blown upto 100 inch. It blows you away teh quality you get so i know exactly what this tv must look like.
 
FlyingBig said:
I have an optoma front projection unit and i have tried far cry projected at 100 inch and there is no quality loss at all, its the clarity of your monitor blown upto 100 inch. It blows you away teh quality you get so i know exactly what this tv must look like.



Flybig

I have said this many times that these HD2+ projectors can go over 100' and look the same. They are after all designed for the big screen and sticking them in a cabinet was a after thought. 46', 50' and 65' are a easy size fo these projectors.

Steve

Could you retake the pics with different settings this time so we can all see the difference. I aint no camera specialists but I can tell a good pic. Try taking the same frame with your original settings and then with my ones just to see if it really is washed out. The fault in the pics above is due I think to to much contrast also look at the sharpness. In fact could you not list your settings for your freeview viewing. I understand what you mean about the freeview not being as good a dvd its only to be expected. Lion is right there is some blue in the shot as well. These red , gren, blue, gamma iccy we reallly do need to be shown how to uses these to improve the pic. The manual what we have of one doesnt seem to have any info. I might see if a front pro manual might have more info. Keep the pics coming steve your right it is hard to keep all the detail in the pic when you are compressing it so much. Any way keep up the good work :smashin:

Cheers :D


Lion :hiya:
 
If the white level (contrast) and black level (brightness) aren't set correctly, then you'll lose shadow detail and bright detail - to set these correctly you'll need Avia for NTSC and DVE for PAL. There's a basic calibration sticky over on the DLP forum for those who are interested.

Gary.
 
Gary Lightfoot said:
If the white level (contrast) and black level (brightness) aren't set correctly, then you'll lose shadow detail and bright detail - to set these correctly you'll need Avia for NTSC and DVE for PAL. There's a basic calibration sticky over on the DLP forum for those who are interested.

Gary.

Gary :hiya: Nice to see you in the rear dlp section again.

LOL... I was reading that last night at about 2 am, I was looking for some front pro set up tips which would work for these rear pros. I have the Avia test disc, I should really use it. Nice little sticky gary well put to togehter :clap: :clap: :clap:

Do you agree that the levels are off in these pics and might need fine tuning?
 
Hi Razor,

Thanks. :)

It's often hard to tell from a pic as the camera can sometimes do odd things with the exposure and under or over expose a picture. Sometimes a PC can crush certain aspects of detail when compressing to jpg, so the pics may not be a true representation of what the viewer is actualy seeing.

However, if they are accurate, thenas you quite rightly said, the girl's nose has no edge detail and it has been lost in the bright glare which is a pefect example of the contrast being too high. A lack of shadow detail is an example of the brightness being too low. I've improvised some examples in the sticky to try and show how incorrect dettings will look and these are similar.

Calibrating to a DVD like Digital Video essentials will help set these levels correctly, and although a test card is the best way to set a tv transmission, setting to DVD levels should get you close. It might be possible to use a DVD player via a video recorder to output a tv signal into the display so as to mimic a tv transmission and calibrate to that. I've not tried that myself but it might work.

Gary.
 
First photo of the girl is overexposed i croped about a third of the picture & the camera has exposed for the room as well.
If you look at the RD50 TV cabinet in the other pictures you will see it is very dark as the camera was on a zoom setting & the TV screen filled most of the cameras field of view so the camera has exposed for the TV picture.The opposite applies to the first photo.

I cannot retake the pictures as it was Telewest cable using the RD50's freeze button on the remote.
Taking pictures handheld with a slowish shutter speed is not ideal if you want sharp pictures. You also have to remember you are using a 7mp Canon.

The colour control on the Rd sets is for saturation & makes all the colours more saturated
The Tint control alters the balance between red & green
You also have individual sliders for each colour
The Gamma control affects the overall brightness & is best left alone all monitors have
a gamma correction applied to them see below .
Gamma Explained
ICC = International Color Consortium most printers & monitors have
ICC color management profiles i'm guessing the y represents the position on a
X, Y or X, Y ,Z representation of the colour space,best left alone.

Some Optoma owners in the US have improved the picture they get by going into the factory settings page & adjusting the contrast & brightness for each colour.
 
Gary :hiya:

I totally agree that taking a good pic is a fine art. Once you compress these pics right down alot of detail can be lost. I think th raw pic from my camera was 20meg, the final shot on the forums was 50-60K, a massive reduction. Luckly steve is no beginer when it comes to photography, as it has been a hobby of his for a while.

I do think the pics are correct as I know what picture settings he has displayed. It looks the same on mine. He definately needs to bring the contrast down to 8-9 and the brightness up 2 levels to around 16-17. The intensity might also need to be changed to a slightly higher level maybe 1 or 2 up to around 16-17. My RD65 has a higher brightness value than the RD50 but has a bigger screen area.

I also think he needs to look at the sharpness, there is no grain visable in the pics, which is good. But maybe its a bit too soft. Maybe its the transmission, i couldnt say especially on such a compressed pic.

I think before and after photos wiith different settings is the way to go. Obviously you need the same source to compare, maybe a freeview recording off your pc and a dvd.

Steve

Thanks for info on the US hacking the service menu I didnt know that.

As I have said above, could you do a few more pics with maybe 2 or 3 diffrent settings. Mine, yours, (preset optoma setting, you pick your fav).

It would be interesting to see the results.

With regards to your camers exposure info, I havent got a clue as I am not really knowledgeable in this department. I am sure though that these pics are an acurate representation of what was on the RD50.

a. Your a big camera fan with a number of camera attachments etc.
b. You wouldnt of posted them if they looked any different to what you saw on the screen.


Once again steve have some faith, after all I improved your judder which you couldnt see by over 30%. :)

It is very hard to change a picture you have been watching for many months assuming it was correct. Like I have said before you only notice the difference once you hace tried the new settings for a good amount of time. When you switch back you then realise how far off the mark you were.

Gary does have some good before and after pics on his sticky for you to get an idea.

Looking forward to seeing some more pics :)
 
You can only do before & after pictures if you record the movie or it's on a DVD & i didn't in this case.
I do not use the same settings for Telewest as i do for DVD's as they simply do not work i have to have the contrast higher.
The pictures are good considering the camera i used. To show a more accurate picture i would need to use my film camera.


Razor if you go into the Factory settings on your RD65 make sure you write down the existing settings before changing them. There is a reset but that would probably wipe out any adjustments that were made at the factory.
 

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