How fitting- Tom got post #4000. :D I was hoping he would. Congrats to you Tom and all the contributors....

gottahavapj ,

--- Actually it looks like you have post 4000 ;) .

--- I was wrong , page refreshed a few times and took care of it :D .


-------- Jason

Hot Swap period is 90 days but after 30 days the consumer pays one way shipping to Optoma [ for me this is almost $30.00 with Insurance ] .


Tom ,

--- Thanks for the lens mask info ;) .


--------- Jason

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
gottahavapj ,

--- Actually it looks like you have post 4000 ;) .

-------- Jason
Really? For me it shows Tom had 4000, I had 4001 and 4002.... anyone else?

This post shows as 4005 for me....

Tom or Mike ,

--- Can either of you post Arun's extension and the correct Lens Mask part # to make ordering a little easier - thanks again !!! :)


---------------- Jason

Nope Tom is post number 4000. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3737983#post3737983

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
gottahavapj ,
Actually it looks like you have post 4000 ;) .


BTW, have a H30a from Mike @ SurfAudioVideo. No problems yet. Mine has been working flawlessly. Thanks Mike!.

Aaron

Hmmm .... very odd it shows me different numbers - ah well .

-- I wonder who will have post 10,000 ;) !!!


**** Oh , there it is ... I guess it had to catch up or something [ showing the right numbers now :) ] ****



-------- Jason

When you call, if you choose the "Parts" option, then the 2nd option (whatever it is), that goes to Arun. The part number is: 75.80A06.001-A

Thanks Mike :)


----- Jason

Originally posted by mckinsey
More on the buzzzzzzzz. Bought an ac line filter at RS (40db). Didn't make much difference. A couple more data points, it seems that any dimmer or triac device (touch controlled lamp) in the house will cause the buzzing. The buzzing is also proportional to how low the light output is, with low light causing the loudest buzzing. This buzzing is louder that the fan.

It would be nice to verify that anyone who has returned their unit because of buzzing received a replacement that didn't have it, otherwise it's probably time to think of getting something else. Benq pb6100 or pb6200 maybe?

-Scott

Try a three prong to two prong ac adapter and see if that helps. It's a long shot, but you might as well try and see if you have a grounding issue.

Don

Originally posted by Aroc
BTW, have a H30a from Mike @ SurfAudioVideo. No problems yet. Mine has been working flawlessly. Thanks Mike!.
Aaron

Ditto.... Thanks to Mike and staff for a flawless transaction...

I haven't had any problems with mine since the firmware upgrade, but it is getting difficult to type with my fingers crossed. :D

BTW. I've had my H30 for a week now. No buzz, over all picture is great. I'm happy with it. I do however have the same issue w/ power up and getting an orange light from time to time. I usually leave the unit in standby until the next use, then power up, sometimes getting the orange light. I cycle the power and power on w/ remote and it works fine. It seems that my unit likes to power up from a complete power up, than a standby to on.

Don

Originally posted by MikeSRC
The firmware allows the full 800 X 600 image to be viewed with a component video source (previously only RGB), and provides better support for letterboxed material.

Just to clarify, does the new firmware make 800x600 available *just* on component and RGB, or also on s-video and composite video?

(I know, I should bite the bullet and get a Philips Q50. But my laptop only ouputs S-video and DVI.)

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

I have a buzz coming from the projector myself, but I don't remember the buzz coming from it a couple of days ago when I tried it at my parents house. I am going to keep it for another week and then if nothing changes, I'm going to send it back for a repair...

-g

definitely on S-video, don't know about composite but probably that as well.

Mike/Jason, I emailed you guys the fax number and order form.

To your direct email.

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
billyturf ,

--- You can activate the 480p/720p/1080i settings for the XBOX in the 'Settings / Video' menu [ but only if you have a HiDef pack ] . All that appears there without the HD pack is the 4:3/Letterbox/16:9 adjustments .


_________________________


---------- Jason

Hi Jason,

thx for the answer... I think you mean this kind of cable (http://images.google.be/imgres?imgurl=www.impactsites2000.com/gamereviews/images2/B00005TN7U.01.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.impactsites2000.com/gamereviews/HDGames_xbox.htm&h=107&w=150&sz=5&tbnid=XN4W7n9a0vIJ:&tbnh=64&tbnw=89&start=2&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dxbox%2Bhidef%26hl%3Dnl%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN) right? How do you connect these cables (all?) to the h30 from the xbox?

TIA,

BT.

One thing you could check for the buzzzzzzzzzing sound is checking if your wall socket to see if its in phase. It can cause problem on some type of sensible machine.

Just a idea :)

Thanks

Fred

I just received my H30 from UPS an hour ago and am stunned.... First impressions are WOW!

Many thanks are in order to everyone on this board. I would have ended up with a RPTV that cost twice as much, and probably would have killed me while transporting it down my basement stairs, if it hadn't been for all of the great info available here.

This being my first projector I have certainly fallen prey to the "WOW" factor that I have heard so much about. I have never seen a decent FP setup and have never seen this sized picture in someone’s house.... WOW

Unfortunately I am back at work for the rest of the day :( Talk about torture! I will have to wait until this evening to really play with it some more.

New firmware, remote, and lens mask were included.

I am running with a RP56 player and a 90" Carada screen.

I have it just in time to play with it all weekend. I may never leave my home theater again :) Can I retire yet? If you all can't tell I am just a bit excited.

I do have a few questions for some of the H30 experts that frequent this board.

1. Should I let the H30 or the RP56 handle the deinterlacing?

2. I have the AVIA disk. What would be the first basic steps that should be taken to start the picture optimization process?

Thanks again for all of your help!

Ben

Ben,
Sounds like a winner. You're first DLP projector, it is like magic that you can get such and eye popping image through thin air.

In the Picutre menu's choose -
Cinnema and Film in the second one with color temp number 2.
Calibrate from there.

With digital displays you use the full brightness and contrast patterns.

When Avia comes on hit the menu button on the dvd remote and go to advanced adjustment. When that opens go to the group on the right and the third one down. Here you find the full brightness and contrat patterns.

Brightness - bring the projector brightness till the left moving black bar dissapears.

Contrast - move the projectos contrast till the right moving bars dissapears and bring it back a click till it re-appears.

In that menu group you can find color adjusments. Use the blue filter here while moving the color saturation until the outer flashing boxes stop flashing, focus on the center area of the boxes.

Sharpness just put it at 28.

Have fun

Ben, this is my second projector (previously a LT150 owner) but I'm every bit as excited as you are. I actually just finished a basic calibration using my RP56 combined with AVIA. I'm sure I'll do some further tweaking this weekend, but at this point I've achieved my best results by doing the following:
1)Set the RP56 to progressive. I know the H30 deinterlacer is supposed to be good, but I am more impressed when the RP56 brains are doing the work.
2)Make sure the RP56 is set to 16:9
3)Set the black level on the RP56 to low
4)Use the basic video calibration patterns on Avia. Setting saturation and tint should be a cinch using the supplied color filters. When setting brightness, decrease the brightness control on the H30 until both of the moving black bars disappear. Then increase the brightness just enough that you can vaguely make out one of the bars. When setting contrast, do the same thing, except you will use the pattern with the moving white bars. You may have to bounce back and forth a little as I'm not sure if these can be calibrated completely independantly.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Jeff

Tom thanks for the reply Tom.

There is ALOT of stuff on that AVIA disk to wade through if you don't know what you are looking for.

What are your feelings about letting the H30 or RP56 do the deinterlacing?

Use the RP56 in progressive.

Thanks Jeff,

I will give your suggestions a try when I get home. So you found the RP56 to do a pretty good job of deinterlacing. I just recently picked up one of these players the other day for a song. Decent player for little $$. Great projector for little $$. Gotta love bargins!

By the way what firmware version do you have on your RP56? I have 056 as of right now. I will probably be upgrading it to the latest version this weekend. 062 I think.

Originally posted by Dillinger
Try a three prong to two prong ac adapter and see if that helps. It's a long shot, but you might as well try and see if you have a grounding issue.

Don

Yep, already tried that. No go.

Haven't tried a UPS, but my guess is that only one with true sine wave restoral would be of any value. They're expensive. I think what is happening is the power supply is having trouble with the malformed/noisy ac sine wave and is creating a pulsating magnetic field strong enough to vibrate a winding, cap or ???

In any case it would seem to be a manufacturing defect since not everyone is having the problem and most people have at least one dimmer switch in their house.

Scott

Heh heh, your real problem now will be your DVD buying habbits. I now have over 1,000 dvds, how much do you think that costs? ;)

I'm not really sure exactly why I prefer the RP56 in progressive, but it does look noticeably better. I'll check my firmware tonight. I know it's not the newest version as 4:3 only uses part of the panel and fits nicely in the center of my 16:9 screen. Since I don't want native 4:3 and my projector doesn't have the green push, I figure I'll leave well enough alone. Given some of the problems occuring with recent models, I now consider it a blessing that I have one of the originals. Ben, how can you possibly bear sending the projector away to Optoma given that you're still on the honeymoon?!

I've been reading these posts for awhile and I think I know the answer to this question but just want to make sure...

If I use a htpc running 16:9 resolution (Ibelieve this will be centered in a 4:3 frame) & xbox with component cables... is it true that the H30 will display the 16:9 htpc differently than the 16:9 xbox? Can I ceiling mount the H30, line it up for htpc and have it still fit the screen properly when I switch over to xbox? It's gonna suck if I have to adjust the projector each time...

Thanks, guys! I love this forum!!

I got the form for ordering the lens mask but I'm stunned that they will only ship that tiny thing out via UPS for $10. They should just stuff it in a padded envelope and stick in the mail. It would cost a whole lot less.

Is the lens mask really worth it?

I think the lense mask is worth $10. It blocks the light spill and does appear to improve contrast a bit.

UPS, they want to keep track of it, plus that courier is there every day. $10 is worth it. If you bought the same item for the other projectors it's $49 plus the shipping.

strangethingz ,

--- Have no fear , what you want to do will work just fine ;) . I use HTPC , XBOX , and HiDef box with no issues . You really do not need to run a 16:9 resolution on your HTPC unless of course you want to :) . The H30 looks best at the native resolution of 800x600 with an HTPC .

--- A side note for those using an HTPC :
--- Look out for the new Nvidia Forceware MultiMedia Player , this thing kills all other current dvd playback software for the HTPC ;) . The Image produced by this player is STUNNING !!!


-------- Jason

Anybody that has the lens mask & ceiling mounted :

-- So the lens mask does block the light spill that hits the ceiling [ when ceiling mounted ] , correct ?

-- If so then this is worth the $10.00 shipping alone since it will cut down on room reflections from the light bouncing off the ceiling [ which will in turn improve perceived contrast ] .

------ Thanks ,
------- Jason

Jason,
I think I'll buy a Philips 963SA for use with the H30,
but... for now I already have an HTPC and I can try the Nvidia player if output better image than ZoomPlayer...

Can you give me some tips for connect the H30 (I've a Ti4200), can I use DVI with a DVI-VGA cable (DVI provide both digital and analog signal I guess) or I must use primary VGA out and a VGA switch for monitor/H30.

Moreover, what's you impression about Faroudja chip vs HTPC ?
from HTPC thread:
...I have compared my HTPC with a Pioneer 868 (1.5k flagship model in Europe, with HDMI & Faroudja DDCDi+) using a Yamaha DPX-1000 and the HTPC won hands down any way you looked at it (even the owner of the Pioneer admitted it)

I know I'm going out of thread but can you give me at least some link to HTPC thread where to find this quick tips I need?

And thanks again to all of you for this thread!

Jason,

The lens mask does kill all the stray light and is well worth the $10 they charge for it. I would recommend it even if it cost $100 because of the distraction that light spill causes me. I have a gray wall behind the screen, so if you have a black or very dark wall it may not make as much an improvement as it did for me. Most manufacturers would not concede anything to previous buyers and would charge much more.

Robert

Well, its official, I have defected :)

Pulled the trigger on a BenQ 6200 today. Higher res and free bulb finally got to me. I will probably be building a DIY anamorphic lens for it, so I will come back and report in due time. I might also be picking your brain about the lens mask, as we BenQ owners are not lucky enough to have a factory option ;)

Soooo, its aluminum with black felt on the inside surface?

:D

Mauro_it ,

--- Zoomplayer is just a Media Player Front End , it uses other filters to perform dvd playback [ like PowerDVD , WinDVD , etc. ] . That said the new Nvidia filters are superior to anything else out there . The new Nvidia player is not yet available but should be very soon .

--- I would use an HTPC over any current model standalone dvd player [ faroudja equipped or not ] . There is no comparison between a tweaked HTPC and a standalone dvd player [ the HTPC wins on all counts other than ease of set-up/use and money invested - although some players are much more expensive than a good HTPC ] .

--- I agree totally with the comment you copy-pasted above from the HTPC forum ;) .

--- I don't want to get too carried away with all the benefits of an HTPC but I can honestly say that I don't think I will ever go back to a regular dvd player [ unless something EXTRAORDINARY comes along :p ] .

_____________________________________


Robert ,

---- Thank you for the confirmation :D !!!


_________________________________


-------- Jason

Anyone else having this orange light power up issue?
And has anyone solved this problem?

Bad news friends. I just received my replacement unit from Optoma...and the buzzing is still there. Damn. I don't understand this, it sounds much louder than any other projector I have heard before. I'm going to run to work later and pick up the Dell MP2200 we have and give that a test to see if it really is an Optoma problem, a wiring issue, or I just have too sensitive of ears.

FYI, the new one does not seem "quite" as "buzzy." I also noticed this one says "Optoma Home Theater" when it boots up, the other one said "Themescene" (the one from Dell).

Jason,

Yeah HTPC rocks. I've gotten best results with ATI DVD player (over PowerDVD). Perhaps I'm behind on technology.

In any case, when is this Nvidia Forceware MultiMedia Player due out? Does it work only with Nvidia video cards like ATI MMC only works with Radeons?

Thanks.

BTW, so that those sitting on the fence get a more complete picture, my H30 has been flawless in the past 30 hours of use. I intend to burn-in the unit for ~200 hrs before 30 days is up, just in case.

Mine is slightly over a month, 30 hours on the bulb, just watched Gothika and Disney's Snow White......flawless so far, tonight will be watching Peter Pan, live action movie and The Last Samurai.

Waiting for lens mask.:D

Okay, I brought the Dell home...and to my surprise, it was QUIETER than both my H30 units! I'm seriously thinking that Optoma has an issue here. Is there any reason that a Dell projector in non-eco mode should be quieter than the Optoma in eco mode? What are the odds I got two bad projectors? Hmmm....

benos55 ,

--- I have had the Orange light power up issue as well , no known solution at this point :( .

__________________

clamrade ,

--- The new Nvidia player works great on the Radeon , that is what I am using right now [ modded Radeon 9500 Pro 128 @ 9700 Pro specs ] .

__________________

valkyrie ,

-- Sadly I think Optoma has another hardware issue to deal with now :( .


--------------- Jason

Good news - Just got my H30 today evening. Yipeee!!!
Bad news - Did not get the vga cable :-( and dont have a dvd player (could borrow one though from a friend). The local dealer surprised me by saying he had them in stock, so I just picked it up.

Got the new firmware I guess, it has the mask and backlit remote.

Anyone have suggestions for a 12-15ft VGA M/M cable for connecting to HTPC???

Will post feedback as soon as I can get my stuff running.

I scanned and cleaned up the diagrams from pages 30 and 31 of the user manual. I noticed that these pages are not in the PDF for the manual from Optoma's site.

http://www.fallenturtledesign.com/random/h30_bottom.gif
This shows the bottom of the projector with the ceilng mount connected. It also gives measurements in what I can only assume are mm.


http://www.fallenturtledesign.com/random/h30_frontmount.gif
This shows the front of the projector with the ceiling mount installed.

http://www.fallenturtledesign.com/random/h30_throwangle.gif
This gives throw diagrams and measurements per display format.

I remember reading many posts back regarding how long a screw can be used safely without damaging the insides. According to the manual you can use up to a 6mm in length screw (crew type: M3)

As for the Buzzing.

I have my projector connected through a Power stabilizer that is consider to be very good - and the Buzzing is on - at one point last night i got 72db on my SPL from 4ft away.
When the buzzing started to show up i thought that it's connected to the projector being celling mounted But mine is on a table and i have the Buzzing.

Optoma H30a received Thursday. Very nice picture, much improved over x1. I am extremely sensitive to rainbows. 4x wheel makes a huge improvement, rainbows almost gone. The only place I am seeing them now is torches on dark backgrounds, most other rainbows are gone now. Projector is pretty quiet. Oh, UPS is on my ****list. The driver handed me the box and my jaw dropped. It look like an 800lb gorilla handled my projector, box was practically crushed. Packing seemed to protect it though, works great.

DaGamePimp,

Do you get this orange light often. Mine happens almost every time I start it up. After a few min I start it again and it works fine?

Damn i usually like a good buzz...........i'm seriously considering a complete refund, unless optoma can acknowledge the problem and and offer a better solution other than replacement- esp since replacement units are the same. i didn't think they would be different but with valkyrie's replacement unit having the buzz right outta the box- that bites. Optoma CS has yet to acknowledge that they have replaced units due to the buzz or they have heard reports of units having a buzz.
Not trying to rain on any parades here but we should be able to have some piece of mind when it comes to spending a far amount of dough on a product like this- seems like many are sitting on the edge everytime they go to enjoy their new investment. Kinda takes all the fun out of the experience.

oh well enough of my rant- i have until tuesday to decide my h30's fate.......


rudee

Hi everyone
I will finaly get my H30 next week, I am flying to New York from the UK to collect it, My question is can I use the VGA adapter suplied and then use a Scart to Component lead (Profigold Scart to Component going cheap on ebay), I have a Sony DVP-NS700V non progressive but is RGB will this work or do I need to get the UK converter from Optoma (Scart to VGA)
Thanks :D

I have had my H30 for 9 days and there is no buzzing or orange light. So far, so good.

I have had one bulb replaced (two weeks ago) and three orange light problems since I got it back...
Scared the heck out of me but it has been working good and I have no audible buzzing sound just the fan.

Hey all,

I'm new to this board, but i've been watching this thread for a few months now. I was looking for a projector with the aim of getting the Infocus 4800. However, I got a demo of the Optoma H30 and i was totally blown away. I compared it with the Sim2 Domino, whilst it was perhaps better at £3600, it wasn't worth three times the price.

I see that some of you have been having problems with the H30, so I thought I would share my problems and findings. Overall, i'm delighted with the H30 - it's fantastic. However, the first unit I had was a bit problematic.

The problems were:

1. Noisy/Buzzing colour wheel. I see from above some of you have had this problem too.

2. Orange power light coming on and the projector powering itself on for no apparent reason.

3. About 15 minutes into a DVD, the picture would disappear with "signal lost" on screen only for it to display a black picture with a green bar across the top. The only way to fix this was to power the H30 off and back on.

I was prepared to live with the buzzing colour wheel because the picture was fantastic, but the dropping signal eventually forced me to return the projector to Sevenoaks Sound and Vision where I purchased it from. They sent the unit away to Optoma and they replaced it no problem.

The new unit I have must be the updated version, as I now have the lens cover (which is worth it's weight in gold, it totally eliminates any light leakage!) and the backlit remote control. Sources also suggest that these new H30s have had a firmware update.

Well, I'm very impressed. The buzzing / colour wheel noise is totally gone, I can only hear the whisper of the fans. The power problem has also disappeared along with the signal drop problem. I'm very, very impressed with the H30, particularly in progressive scan mode. I really can't fault the picture at all. I would point out though that colour wheels do have the potential to be noisy from time to time, it's a caveat of DLP projectors. You should hear the fan noise on the Sim2 Domino: great projector, but it's a lot louder than the H30!

Cheers

G

Quote
I was prepared to live with the buzzing colour wheel because the picture was fantastic"

It was the same way for me, my wife pointed out the buzz sound and I had to go up to the projector to hear it. Not so sensitive ears :).
That sound has totally disappeared and pretty early on after I used the projector. Which I use allot (700hrs).

Maybe the dropout signal for you could hv been avoided by checking the signal lock in the menu. Maybe!

I do stumble on to the green bar problem by watching HDTV for 5 minutes and then surfing the analog channels. Or just bouncing between HDTV&SDTV could make it lock up with the green bar.

Wing is back next week and they were going to look into this problem in Taiwan when he was there the last two weeks. That's if they could re-create it. Not all the PJ's will do this. Who knows what other goodies they came up with. I'm hoping for the fine tuned Magenta auto cal and the 16.9 digital shift.

Ok, I just looked at my boss's H30 at his house for a few minutes...So I can confirm that my H30's Buzzing is definitely NOT on his machine!
(Yes, we both have H30's!).

Boss's H30: Older firmware, had it for about 1 1/2 months now

My H30: New firmware, backlight remote, lens mask, etc. Had it for 1 week now.

The Buzzing:

Mine is louder than the fan. I don't think it is a color wheel noise, it really sounds like a transformer buzz, almost the same buzz you would hear on some of those transformers on over head power lines.

My Boss's older H30 has absolutely no Buzz at all, just the very faint whoosh of the fan. Nice and quite!

Noisy dithering blacks:

As I mention before, my blacks have a lot of mosquito noise and are very blotchy-they just seem to fall apart digitally-not smooth.

My Boss's H30's blacks are pretty darn smooth. I did notice some blotchiness in the dark areas, but it wasn't really the blacks that were
blotchy, it was some very dark colors and I had to be very very close to the
screen to notice it. It's possible that it was in the source material and also his DVD player is different (he has some Sony ES model from a few years ago).

BUT, what was very interesting is that his H30's total black in the picture was exactly the same as the light spill black above the image in the non-active panel mirrors (remember, he has the older firmware, so those mirrors
are permanently off anyway). My H30 cannot do this! And his is not even calibrated and I think he is just using interlaced too!

I know now that the H30 can do smooth blacks, get them just as black as the light spill on the inactive mirrors, and can be quite!

Of course, MY H30 cannot do this!

Also, I had some observations about some of the problems everyone has been having:

It seems that all the orange light power up H30's don't seem to have the buzzing problem? And all who have Buzzing problems don't have Orange light pwr up issues?

And even though only a few people have complained about the noisy blacks (myself, rsmith and ?), I'm wondering if this 'black' noise might be from a bad pwr supply that is inducing noise into the signal? When you are talking about digital projectors, it probably would not take much dirty electrical pwr (from the pwr supply) to cause problems within the digital processor...which could explain why my blacks/darks break up so badly.

So maybe Optoma changed the pwr supply in the new units to fix the orange light pwr up issue, but some of us (or a lot?) ended up getting another problem, buzzzzzing.

Funnily enough, the BIg G post above is the 1st post that I noticed in which he has a pwr up issue and a Buzz. But maybe his buzz was different, maybe it was a color wheel buzz.

BTW, I had to lock myself in my boss’s bathroom as it was the only room I could get dark in his super bright house during the day. Even in the bathroom, with mirrors, glass and projecting on a glossy white door, I could easily see his backs are nice and smooth!

Something’s amiss :mad:

Fleaman

Interesting on what you say about this "mosquito noise".

I know what you mean by this, and I suspect it could be because your brightness level is too high, or you have 'gamma' set higher than 1. It's very easy to make the H30's picture look .. well .. terrible by having settings that are incorrect.

Additionally, i'm sure the DVD player may have something to do with it but I could still see very slight noise (only when right up at the screen) when I viewed the H30 on demo through a £600 Arcam with component connections.

My suggestion to remove this 'noise' would be to make sure your contrast and brightness levels are set correctly (try emulating your friends settings?) with gamma set to 1. My settings for brightness/contrast used to be ~25 for contrast and ~23 for brightness (I can't remember the exact values). This brought out detail in the blacks, but it stopped revealing the noise that becomes evident when the brightness is increased. Since i've moved over to a progressive scan DVD player, my brightness and contrast are set to 0 and I boost the brightness from the DVD control panel. This allows better brightness without increasing any noise: the H30 brightness control appears to bring out the noise.

I might also say that by looking at a projected image very close, you will notice artifacting and noise that will be inherent in any compressed media such as DVD (this is true if you also sit too close to a TV / Plasma). By sitting at an appropriate distance, this noise isn't noticeable (for me anyway!).

Hope this is of some help.

G

Hey Fleaman,

You should bring your PJ over to your bosses house and see how your blacks and buzzing sound right next to his. You have that nice little carrying case and everything. That would totally eliminate any outside interference causing the problem. Sounds like you have an opportunity here to get some great information concerning your problem. Not too many people can compare H30s side by side, if your boss is game then it might be worth the effort.
I have the H30 with new firmware and nothing noticeably wrong with blacks, and no buzzing. I don't think the problem is related to the firmware update. Getting to the bottom of problems like this can be extremely difficult, and its easy to start connecting dots where no connection should be made. Being able to compare 2 H30s side by side however, that is an excellent test environment, especially if they act differently under the exact same environment. Thats a lot of extra work to throw in your lap though, just a recommendation on my part. You may not want to risk moving your projector around so much, and I can totally understand that. Just an idea...

BTW
I do have some slight ghosting to the right of images. Very clear on Avia test patterns. I turned down sharpness some to minimize the visibility, but don't have a real fix. I am guessing it could be the S-Video cable, or some type of line noise. Could this effect be caused by the lense, might I need to clean it? Anyone have suggestions or know possible causes of ghosting? It isn't noticeable very often during movies, but the test patterns show it clearly. Could be my DVD player too...

Have any of you with the buzzing noise tried plugging your projector in a different house?

Yes, in fact I tried bringin my H30 to work and plugged it in there. Same noise - louder than the Dell MP2200 I had running side-by-side (then I ran each by themselves). I then brought both home and tried them there, same difference - H30 buzzing, Dell just fan noise. (Point of fact, I can hear the color wheel spinning, but this is NOT that noise).

For those of you convinced we are hearing the color wheel spinning, where in the unit is the color wheel. I moved my ear all over the unit several times, and the "buzzing" clearly eminates from the corner near the power connection. The noise is loudest of of that back vent right by the input connectors. Is this where the color wheel is located? To me, it seems very much like a power supply issue.

Originally posted by jigrillo
Have any of you with the buzzing noise tried plugging your projector in a different house?

Isn't that what I was just suggesting? :)

Originally posted by B1g G
Interesting on what you say about this "mosquito noise".

I know what you mean by this, and I suspect it could be because your brightness level is too high, or you have 'gamma' set higher than 1. It's very easy to make the H30's picture look .. well .. terrible by having settings that are incorrect.

Additionally, i'm sure the DVD player may have something to do with it but I could still see very slight noise (only when right up at the screen) when I viewed the H30 on demo through a £600 Arcam with component connections.

My suggestion to remove this 'noise' would be to make sure your contrast and brightness levels are set correctly (try emulating your friends settings?) with gamma set to 1. My settings for brightness/contrast used to be ~25 for contrast and ~23 for brightness (I can't remember the exact values). This brought out detail in the blacks, but it stopped revealing the noise that becomes evident when the brightness is increased. Since i've moved over to a progressive scan DVD player, my brightness and contrast are set to 0 and I boost the brightness from the DVD control panel. This allows better brightness without increasing any noise: the H30 brightness control appears to bring out the noise.

I might also say that by looking at a projected image very close, you will notice artifacting and noise that will be inherent in any compressed media such as DVD (this is true if you also sit too close to a TV / Plasma). By sitting at an appropriate distance, this noise isn't noticeable (for me anyway!).

Hope this is of some help.

G

Thanks for the suggestions, but if you look back many threads, you will see that I already have done all of this. Also, I can't use the same #'s as my Boss's machine 'cause he has the old firmware and is calibrated completely different from mine (my machine had such a bad red push that I had to use some serious #'s...like -10 Red brightness in advance setting...to get it balanced). Optoma has not been consistent with their baseline calibrations, so unfortunately hardly any of us can share calibration #'s to copy----unless you happen to have the same problem (red push, green push, or?).

Most of my posts about this issue have been over the last week...from Monday I think. I know it is a lot of pages, but they explain in detail my problem and some other's problems. I also share some of my calibration #'s that solved my color balance problem (but not the noisy blacks problem).

To sum it up, I've played with all the adjustments for hours except going into the service menu and by far, my Boss's H30 out of the box (old firmware) does not have ANY of my problems. Reading everything from the last week should give much more detail into the problem. My post today I think confirms that these problems are more real than imagined.

But, I still have some more tests lined up for my machine. Even though I have an excellent DVD player (Panny XP30), with top line component cables, going progressive, I'm going to try another DVD player (in the garage somewhere...) hooked up via S-video with different cables...just to eliminate any other possibilities, before I get an RMA to Optoma (for at least the buzzing).


Fleaman

Originally posted by hikarate
Hey Fleaman,

You should bring your PJ over to your bosses house and see how your blacks and buzzing sound right next to his. You have that nice little carrying case and everything. That would totally eliminate any outside interference causing the problem. Sounds like you have an opportunity here to get some great information concerning your problem. Not too many people can compare H30s side by side, if your boss is game then it might be worth the effort.
I have the H30 with new firmware and nothing noticeably wrong with blacks, and no buzzing. I don't think the problem is related to the firmware update. Getting to the bottom of problems like this can be extremely difficult, and its easy to start connecting dots where no connection should be made. Being able to compare 2 H30s side by side however, that is an excellent test environment, especially if they act differently under the exact same environment. Thats a lot of extra work to throw in your lap though, just a recommendation on my part. You may not want to risk moving your projector around so much, and I can totally understand that. Just an idea...



Oh yeah, it's the 1st thing for me to do...when our schedules line up! I've only had it for a week and now that I confirmed how much nicer his is over mine (didn't need to be side by side to notice!), I will be taking mine down from the ceiling mount to do just that...hopefully sometime next week (probably Thursday).

I knew I would be able to take a quick lookie at his during the day and I was only gonna take mine down from the ceiling mount if his was obviously better....which it was, so this comparison will happen, before I return it!

BTW, I think my buzzing wasn't on my machine in the beginning, I think it started to creep up on me and get louder. But I really can't remember at this point.

Fleaman

Originally posted by valkyrie

For those of you convinced we are hearing the color wheel spinning, where in the unit is the color wheel. I moved my ear all over the unit several times, and the "buzzing" clearly eminates from the corner near the power connection. The noise is loudest of of that back vent right by the input connectors. Is this where the color wheel is located? To me, it seems very much like a power supply issue.

Hey Val,

Narrowing down the problem to be the color wheel, Power Supply, or something else should really be left to the folks at Optoma. Until we have more information on this subject we should leave it with the vague title of "Buzzing problem". Whether its the color wheel or power supply doesn't make much difference, it needs to be fixed either way.

Could be the power cable as well. Maybe Fleaman can try his power cable and his bosses and see if that makes a difference. The good news is a lot of people are not having the problem and the fact that you experienced at 2 locations really makes it sound like it is specific to the PJ. So Optoma will eventually be able to fix this for you. Right now they are just sending new ones out that may or may not have the same problem (Sounds like they have a bad batch possibly). Once they know what the problem is, they can resolve it completely and then you can enjoy your H30.

Wish you guys the best of luck at getting to the bottom of this.

hikarate,

I'm trying to narrow it down some so that people will stop telling us that we're being "too sensitive." It's a little hard to say it's a "bad projector" when I have two H30's here in front of me, they both make the same noise with either power cable at two locations, with or without a power conditioner, with or without a UPS, and in over 6 different outlets in my house. I think there's a more serious problem here than a few projectors. I'm not trying start a panic, I'm just want Optoma to address the issue and fix it, or I need to get a new projector ASAP (my return window to Dell is about expired).

Originally posted by valkyrie
For those of you convinced we are hearing the color wheel spinning, where in the unit is the color wheel. I moved my ear all over the unit several times, and the "buzzing" clearly eminates from the corner near the power connection. The noise is loudest of of that back vent right by the input connectors. Is this where the color wheel is located? To me, it seems very much like a power supply issue.

Yup, my buzzing comes from the same back corner.

My boss's H30 has no buzzing at all on it, so I had a real difficult time locating it:rolleyes:

Fleaman

Fleaman, I found it helps a lot to go to advance settings and never have any color brightness on the + side. I other words, always tune the color brightness down, or turn them all down some, that helps the noise a lot. Did you test the DLP brightness adjustment, it's no problem to get blacks as black as the light spill using this and the advance brightness settings.

What do you guys think about the buzz going away like it did on mine which is one of the first bought here in the US? Chalk it up to a break in thing first.

I still say you should first run that puppy for a little while and loosen it up. If after some hard usage it still persists, then send it in. Looks like that hot swap deal ain't so great with the gentlemen just getting another one also with the buzz. If you want to continue to keep an H30 it might be better to have them work on it or inspect it for the problem.

Lower your black by using the advanced adjustments. Lower the RGB-brightness equally with the Avia brightness test pattern or any other calibration DVD method you use.

If those can't crush out the black, then try the picture settings for RGB-brightness in the service menu.

About the Buzz, isn't there anyone that's puts some decent hours on their H30 that had a buzz but it when away?

tom as you know i was probably the 3rd or 4th person to get the h 30 and never had a buzz :) ,but the funny thing was when i traded my 30 and he powered it on he got the orange lite then he re powered again and then all was fine , mmmmm that is strange :) , the pj had 81hrs on it

Can I add that using a DVD player with progressive scan over component cables with the H30 looks absolutely fantastic. Blacks are a lot more detailed without bleaching the whites with higher brightness levels. It also eliminates any artifacting.

I went back to interlaced, and to be honest, the picture looked quite poor in comparison to progressive scan.

G

Jason, you posted sometime back what VGA cable you have. Which one are you using. I'm looking at something in the 25ft range. Thanks!!!

How about this one here -
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=1309&sku=28014

Originally posted by rsmith4321
Fleaman, I found it helps a lot to go to advance settings and never have any color brightness on the + side. I other words, always tune the color brightness down, or turn them all down some, that helps the noise a lot. Did you test the DLP brightness adjustment, it's no problem to get blacks as black as the light spill using this and the advance brightness settings.

I'll try that out...I still hope to try out the service menu adjustments either tonight or tomorrow. It looks like my H30 might end up going back for the buzz anyway (giving it another week), so I might get a unit that is fine on all counts! But, I still want to enjoy some movie watching as I have to put some hrs on it to see if it breaks in (buzz goes away?), so I'm still going to fool around with some of those suggestions, thanks!
---Then again, if the buzz goes away I may not have a good enough reason to return it! Maybe should just return it regardless, while I can. The odds are I probably won’t get a unit that is worse than mine!

Hmmmmm.

Tom-
I don't think my boss's H30 (old firmware) ever buzzed from the very 1st start up (I was there for that!). I know he has very few hrs on it (maybe 10-15). I have about 8 hrs so far on the bulb.
Thing is, I think mine didn't buzz in the beginning, I think it started to buzz later on.

Of course, I wasn't looking for a buzz:rolleyes: at 1st, was too excited about this H30 (my boss's and then mine). Maybe the buzz on mine was always there, just didn't noticed until my excitement died down a little.

But, I have a feeling that mine didn't have the buzz at first and that my boss's never had it.

Fleaman

Originally posted by fleaman
I'll try that out...I still hope to try out the service menu adjustments either tonight or tomorrow. It looks like my H30 might end up going back for the buzz anyway (giving it another week), so I might get a unit that is fine on all counts! But, I still want to enjoy some movie watching as I have to put some hrs on it to see if it breaks in (buzz goes away?), so I'm still going to fool around with some of those suggestions, thanks!
---Then again, if the buzz goes away I may not have a good enough reason to return it! Maybe should just return it regardless, while I can. The odds are I probably won’t get a unit that is worse than mine!

Hmmmmm.

Tom-
I don't think my boss's H30 (old firmware) ever buzzed from the very 1st start up (I was there for that!). I know he has very few hrs on it (maybe 10-15). I have about 8 hrs so far on the bulb.
Thing is, I think mine didn't buzz in the beginning, I think it started to buzz later on.

Of course, I wasn't looking for a buzz:rolleyes: at 1st, was too excited about this H30 (my boss's and then mine). Maybe the buzz on mine was always there, just didn't noticed until my excitement died down a little.

But, I have a feeling that mine didn't have the buzz at first and that my boss's never had it.

Fleaman

It just seems like you are really worried about the projector, but you haven't tried any tweaking that largely eliminates the problem. Remember, any DLP projector is going to have noise in the blacks, I've never seen one that didn't. I think it's just the mirrors flipping or something. But you have to tune from a normal viewing distance. Any image is just an illusion anyway, if you get too close the illusion of a solid image is just going to fall apart. I din't think you even need to go into the service menu with further examination. Turning down the advance brightness colors all below zero seems to have the same effect of lowering the bottom end brightness limit, try it out. Don't have any settings on the positive side.

Originally posted by rsmith4321
Fleaman, I found it helps a lot to go to advance settings and never have any color brightness on the + side. I other words, always tune the color brightness down, or turn them all down some, that helps the noise a lot. Did you test the DLP brightness adjustment, it's no problem to get blacks as black as the light spill using this and the advance brightness settings.

rsmith-
I'm a little confused about where you are with your black noise mosquito issues as of today. At 1st I thought you had solved it by turning your DLP brightness down in your service menu, then a few days ago you posted this:


quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by rsmith4321

I also am still getting a lot of misquito noise in dark areas, mostly noticable just if I get close though. I found it helps my PJ to turn the red brightness down by -10, but to not turn any of the others up. Anyway, this projector does seem to have some problems. I'm wondering if I should send it back or keep trying.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And I said:

Oh, oh...I thought you got your mosquito noise to go away?!?! Did it come back for some unknown reason or was it only slightly reduced after you lowered your DLP brightness settings in the service menu??

Sorry to hear about the interlaced stuck problem...geez.

Fleaman

---------------------------------------

So, what was the final verdict on this for you? Turning down the DLP brightness helped but didn't solve the black noise? If you are getting blacks to be as black as the light spill (in the inactive mirror part of panel, not the black bars), then maybe you have solved it?

??

Fleaman

Originally posted by rsmith4321
It just seems like you are really worried about the projector, but you haven't tried any tweaking that largely eliminates the problem. Remember, any DLP projector is going to have noise in the blacks, I've never seen one that didn't. I think it's just the mirrors flipping or something. But you have to tune from a normal viewing distance. Any image is just an illusion anyway, if you get too close the illusion of a solid image is just going to fall apart. I din't think you even need to go into the service menu with further examination. Turning down the advance brightness colors all below zero seems to have the same effect of lowering the bottom end brightness limit, try it out. Don't have any settings on the positive side.

Well, I mentioned I have more tweaking to do. But I have done quite a bit I thought. Back on Wed (april 28th) I posted this that ended solving my red-push, red-blacks problem:

----------------------------------------------

Red push, Red blacks:

I finally got a pretty good overall color balance on my H30 last night. I ended up playing a bunch of material on both the H30 and my 27" TV (right below it) and just messed with all the settings until I could get the H30's colors about the same as my TV and while unscientific, I think I got the colors very close to matching my TV. This was easier for me to try to match colors to the TV in real time.

No more Red blacks for me!

Here's what I ended up with:

Brightness -11 (sometimes -15)
Contrast -12 (sometimes -38)

Picture Menu:
Cinema mode
Color 2 (sometimes 5)
Tint 0
Sharp 50
Gamma 1

Image Menu:
White peak 0
Color Temp 1
Image mode Film

Advanced adjustments:
R. Contrast +1
G. Contrast +10
B. Contrast +3
R. Brightness -10
G. Brightness +6
B. Brightness -4

Econo mode on

----------------------------------------------------------------

I think you had the red-push too? I can't remember. I'm going to try keeping everything in the minus #'s tonight as you suggested, but I'm hoping I can still keep the colors balanced (the #'s above got my colors balanced with my TV).

You posted this as I was writing my other post.....

Wondering about your black noise still....

Fleaman

8hrs isn't much usage. 100hrs is a good break in level.

Originally posted by rsmith4321
It just seems like you are really worried about the projector, but you haven't tried any tweaking that largely eliminates the problem. Remember, any DLP projector is going to have noise in the blacks, I've never seen one that didn't. I think it's just the mirrors flipping or something. But you have to tune from a normal viewing distance. Any image is just an illusion anyway, if you get too close the illusion of a solid image is just going to fall apart. I din't think you even need to go into the service menu with further examination. Turning down the advance brightness colors all below zero seems to have the same effect of lowering the bottom end brightness limit, try it out. Don't have any settings on the positive side.

BTW, my boss's H30 has none of the problems mine does (and his is not calibrated at all, was good out of the box).

I saw what a good H30 can do and w/o going into the service menu yet, my H30 couldn't do it. His H30 had a little noise in the blacks as I already mentioned, but NOTHING like mine at all. It's not my imagination or high expectations for this DLP projector 'cause my Boss's H30 is just about perfect!

Fleaman

Originally posted by guitarman
8hrs isn't much usage. 100hrs is a good break in level.

True, but not sure if I'm gonna wait that long...could be an easy 1-2 months for me to get that much use on my H30.

And my boss's needed no 'break-in".

Fleaman

Pack it up now. You're in LA and maybe you can get a return before the end of the week.

Tell them the calibration is off and it makes a buzzing sound. Also ask them to test the new one before they send it to make sure it's calibrated and has no buzz either.

ac2003 ,
--- That is probably a fine cable but I have been using another online retailer for a couple years with good results . They have a 25' offering here for less than half of what your link requires : http://www.rogerssystems.com/store/moreinfo.cfm?Product_ID=1099

--- I really don't think there is much difference in the inexpensive SVGA cables as long as you get something that uses 3 coax for the RGB lines and is triple shielded with ferrite's at each end [ at least not up to 25' , now 50'+ is a different story ;) ] .

--- I am actually using a 15' SVGA cable now , the 50' cable I was using introduced too much noise in the signal [ and it was $100 cable when new ] .

----------- Jason

fleaman ,

--- Have you tried a different dvd player ?

--- Might be the source causing the noise ... disconnect everything from the H30 other than the power cable and see if the noise is still there [ probably will still be there but it is worth a look ;) ] .

--- I get some noise in my blacks with the XBOX but None with my HTPC .


------------- Jason

Quote:
The noise is loudest of of that back vent right by the input connectors. Is this where the color wheel is "

The color wheel will be in front of the bulb. I'm starting to think that maybe it's an electrical buzz that will most likely disappear after the projectors been juiced up for a good period of time. At least that's what's happened with mine.

I'd say anyone that doesn't mind and has the time should swap out and ask that they pre-test the new one before they ship.

Well at least we're not seeing allot of dead pixels. :)

Originally posted by guitarman
Pack it up now. You're in LA and maybe you can get a return before the end of the week.

Tell them the calibration is off and it makes a buzzing sound. Also ask them to test the new one before they send it to make sure it's calibrated and has no buzz either.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Do you think I should ask any particular person in CS? I think I'm gonna call them next week (after a few more tests this weekend) to get an RMA anyway and try to do a hot swap. It probably only takes 2 days for ups to arrive in Los Angeles from Optoma Calif (or 1 day).

Oh, Going into the service menu is not going to void my warranty if I’m careful, correct?

Fleaman

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
fleaman ,

--- Have you tried a different dvd player ?

--- Might be the source causing the noise ... disconnect everything from the H30 other than the power cable and see if the noise is still there [ probably will still be there but it is worth a look ;) ] .

--- I get some noise in my blacks with the XBOX but None with my HTPC .


------------- Jason

I'm gonna try a different DVD player tonight...it's on my list of things to try (have to find the player in my garage somewhere...).

But, when I do the 'Hide' function on the remote, the black noise is still there.

Do you see any noise when the 'Hide' function is on? Or is it just plain black (like the inactive mirrors at the top of the chip)?
I forgot to check that out on my Boss's H30...next time I see his I will
check that out too.

Fleaman

Man, I'm starting to generate a lot of posts to my name! People are gonna think I'm some sort of expert or something!

Ha!

Ooops, another post to my name:D

Fleaman

fleaman ,

--- Ok but even though you hit the HIDE button the DVD player is still connected , right ?

--- In other words there is still signals bouncing around from electric to video to ...

--- I have a feeling the PJ is to blame here but trying other ideas might help Optoma narrow down the problem [ at this point we are all like Beta testers IMO ;) ] .

------ Jason

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
fleaman ,

--- Ok but even though you hit the HIDE button the DVD player is still connected , right ?

--- In other words there is still signals bouncing around from electric to video to ...

--- I have a feeling the PJ is to blame here but trying other ideas might help Optoma narrow down the problem [ at this point we are all like Beta testers IMO ;) ] .

------ Jason

Yeah, it was still connected.

It's not like I've totally given up, I just haven't had a lot of time to try out other ideas yet. I have to wait until dark (no light control) and lately I've been working into the night quite a bit.

I will eliminate just about everything before I call Optoma to send it in.

I'm still wondering what your image looks like when you hit your 'hide' button??

Fleaman

Don't bother with the service menu. Do it by source with the Advanced adjustments. Lower the RGB-brightness equally and substantially until the mirrors stop moving.

All that you have is a brighness push. The same problem all the HT1000 users had with the Bravo D1 through DVI. We all had to use the RGB-brightness adjustments to get the blacks back and mirrors to stop dithering.

Flash news -

Not only that i have the awful Buzz i now get the green bar and the lost signal msg ?
I must say that the option of a new unit doesn't calm me at all... But i guess if you do get a unit that works well you should send a lotto ticket - lol

Ariel

Originally posted by arieldr
... But i guess if you do get a unit that works well you should send a lotto ticket - lol

Ariel

Or sell it on ebay for $200 more than you paid!

"Fully QC'd by an AVS forum member"

Fleaman

"I must say that the option of a new unit doesn't calm me at all."

That's why I say you tell them to send a tested unit.

Try setting the user menu to Signal lock for now. The green bar lock up happens when swtiched off from progressive to interlaced or HDTV to SDTV. It won't do it every time, but will if I try to make it happen.

What's your plan?

Well I have 24 hrs. on mine. Definitely some red push, but Pimp said thats common for the first 100hrs so I am waiting until I get 100hrs before I mess with it. It isn't too distracting and so far I'm the only one who really notices it.

What about leaving this thing on for hours at a time? Can it handle a 13 hr LOTR marathon once ROTK comes out?

Originally posted by hikarate
What about leaving this thing on for hours at a time? Can it handle a 13 hr LOTR marathon once ROTK comes out?

I'll let you know. I'm running one all this weekend for a customer (at his request) to see if it develops any problems. I'm probably going to turn it off a few times, but it will be running for 13 hrs. or more at least once.

I guess you can tell by my hour usage 700. I run mine all day sometimes.

The only problem I hv is the dopey green bar lockup. I can avoid it by watching HDTV or 480p OTA and switching to progressive DVD. This is a tuff call for me. If I send it in i lose my free ISF calibration Wing worked so hard to do. :(

Originally posted by ac2003
Jason, you posted sometime back what VGA cable you have. Which one are you using. I'm looking at something in the 25ft range. Thanks!!!

How about this one here -
http://www.cablestogo.com/product.asp?cat%5Fid=1309&sku=28014
That is the exact cable (length and all) that I have and it works great....

Originally posted by MikeSRC
I'll let you know. I'm running one all this weekend for a customer (at his request) to see if it develops any problems. I'm probably going to turn it off a few times, but it will be running for 13 hrs. or more at least once.

Thanks Mike and Tom,
I definitely plan to give this thing a workout when the trilogy is released. I have a few different people who want to come over and spend the day watching it :)

Originally posted by B1g G
I might also say that by looking at a projected image very close, you will notice artifacting and noise that will be inherent in any compressed media such as DVD (this is true if you also sit too close to a TV / Plasma). By sitting at an appropriate distance, this noise isn't noticeable (for me anyway!).
G

Hi G,

I read elsewhere on the forum that the analog conversion is responsible for the noise off of DVDs. A DVI connection supposedly eliminates the noise. Thats one of the reasons people are so stuck on getting a DVI port on their PJs, but like you stated, at proper seating distance, I don't notice the noise unless I look for it. I don't think its a big deal unless you want to sit 1.5 screen distance or less, so more of a concern for high res PJs.

:-)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

I setup the H30 today evening, this is my first projector.

a) 80 inch diagonal, on a white wall.
b) Seating 11 feet away
c) Projector behind my couch (on my ironing board!!!) , about 4 feet away from my ears.
d) Old, non prog dvd player (Toshiba DVD-1800), connected via component.
e) Out of the box settings

Observations (Matrix Revolutions, Star Trek fullscreen versions)
1) Beautiful picture, amazing....what would adding a screen do to this!!!!
2) Dont 'remember' any fan noise, must have been watching the movie :-))
3) Only 4 hours on the pj, no hiccups yet (fingers crossed...)

I guess the initial impact will wear off in a week or two, then I might start noticing things or might want to play with the adjustments. But first, got to watch a few movies :-))).

I was torn between the H30 and the BenQ6200 (higher resolution), but I could not demo the BenQ6200 anywhere. My only worry was the resolution, but the H30 rocks (for dvd's at least).

Gottahavapj, thanks for the input on the vga cable.

Originally posted by guitarman
Don't bother with the service menu. Do it by source with the Advanced adjustments. Lower the RGB-brightness equally and substantially until the mirrors stop moving.

All that you have is a brighness push. The same problem all the HT1000 users had with the Bravo D1 through DVI. We all had to use the RGB-brightness adjustments to get the blacks back and mirrors to stop dithering.
If you notice that is the same thing I suggested to him a few post back. I've noticed the advance adjustments do just as good of job as the service menu. To get a good color balance, use the same brightness setting differences you have now that elimate red push, but lower all the settings equally until the background goes black. It will work.

By the way I did end up returning my PJ and ordering another one, not for the black problem, I'm sure that can be worked out. But my unit would not lock on to an interlaced source no matter how hard I tried. It was rediculous. I at least wanted to try another one to see if it's better, and if it's not, I will just make sure I never use anything that isn't progressive. With technology now, soon nothing will be interlaced anyway.

"Try setting the user menu to Signal lock for now. The green bar lock up happens when swtiched off from progressive to interlaced or HDTV to SDTV. It won't do it every time, but will if I try to make it happen"

Tom:
I am getting the green bar just "out of the blue", for Example :
I had DVE on the DvD player and then it happened - So i don't think that the Signal lock will help - but i will try it any way - Thanks.

Any way, I will wait for the 100hr mark and take it from there, I really think Tom is right

Ariel

Just so you guys know:

Today hit pause during Twister and heard "Buzzzz".
Not any louder than the fan, but its a higher pitch so you can hear. I don't think it is anywhere near as loud as what you guys are reporting though. I started it up and all I could hear was the fan, it was half way through the movie when I noticed this. Then just now watching Beauty and the Beast and I heard the buzz kick in about half way through the movie. Again not really loud, but different than the fan. It definitely sounds like a power supply if I had to describe it. Hopefully like Tom said it will grow out of it, even if it doesn't its tolerable for me as its not as loud.

Also, saw what you guys meant about the Black being reddish and not matching the off pixels. Turned down RGB brightness under advanced each to -4 and this got the black looking right. I also turned down Red contrast by -5 to adjust for the slight red push.
Looks good to my eye, need to run Avia again though.
This sound like a good solution or did I just screw up my grey scale and stuff?
Also should I run the Hue/Tint Blue Filter test again, or leave it as is? I know I read somewhere about making changes like this would effect the blue filter results so I shouldn't redo those. Opinions?
Thanks for your help.
P.S. I need to quit reading the forum, I thought everything looked fine and sounded fine, till I read those posts recently and started looking for trouble :)

Originally posted by guitarman
What do you guys think about the buzz going away like it did on mine which is one of the first bought here in the US? Chalk it up to a break in thing first.

I still say you should first run that puppy for a little while and loosen it up. If after some hard usage it still persists, then send it in. Looks like that hot swap deal ain't so great with the gentlemen just getting another one also with the buzz. If you want to continue to keep an H30 it might be better to have them work on it or inspect it for the problem.

...

About the Buzz, isn't there anyone that's puts some decent hours on their H30 that had a buzz but it when away?

I think it extremely unlikely that the buzz would go away on it's own. The buzz is actually something loose that is vibrating (maybe a transformer winding) in response to an oscillating magnetic field. So this "loose something" would have to magically tighten itself up.

I can either decide to return the unit to Dell for a full refund or try to exchange the unit under warranty with Optoma.

The problem is exchanging the unit for another has not eliminated the buzz for those experiencing it, and trying that would eliminate the option of returning the unit for a refund.

It would seem that quality control is a serious issue with this projector.


-Scott

Ran the H30 I'm pre-testing for a customer all day yesterday without any noise problems. I may just start doing that with all the H30s to weed out any problem ones before they're shipped, but I haven't had any yet (to my knowledge) with the buzzing problem.

Just thought I'd chime in quickly with a positive H30 experience.

Tested an H30 out at my house for 2-3 weeks in February. Put about 30 hrs on the bulb. This was the old version, old firmware etc. Beautiful image, no problems. Compared it directly to an X1 for a few days and preferred the image of the Optoma in every way. It was certainly brighter, even in Eco mode, and the reds were redder, greens greener, blacks blacker. Rainbows on X1 were common and I suffered some headaches watching a movie on it. No headaches from H30 and I see tiny flashes of rainbow effect only very very rarely. It also has a shorter throw, so can produce a larger image in the 12 foot room I have it set up in.

Bought a new H30 two weeks ago. New firmware, lens mask, illuminated remote. Love the picture just as much as before. Required little adjustment using Video Essentials to get brightness, contrast, colors just right. Haven't noticed any green or red push. No synching problems with any source I've tried (haven't tried any progressive or HD source yet but have the new Zenith DVD player on the way and will try it out with 480p and 1080i soon).

Have not had the Buzzing problem. Have not had bulb issues. I did get the orange power on problem the very first time I turned it on (bulb did not come on, power switch glowed orange). But I unplugged it, plugged it back in a few minutes later and turned it on again. Everything worked fine after that.

So I seem to have a good unit as far as I can tell so far. Like many of you, I'd like to compare it to the 4805 when that surfaces, but until then this seems to be a great projector and not everyone is having these QC issues. If things change though and I have a problem I will report it here.

Best,

JB

-- Well I am going to wait for the next batch of H30's from Taiwan before I ship back my current H30 (rma) . I am too worried that I would be worse off than I am now [ 115 hours use and never heard any Buzzing ;) ] .


------- Jason

Well I am going to wait for the next batch of H30's from Taiwan before I ship back my current H30 (rma) . I am too worried that I would be worse off than I am now [ 115 hours use and never heard any Buzzing ] .



i think that would be the right thing to do ;) , but jay just hope that the new units have the fixed power supply's .

Joe ,

--- yeah , it is a gamble I guess no matter how you look at it . I could take my chances on another unit right now but I feel better about waiting a little while to see if the Buzzing problem continues ;) .

--- I just have to hope that Optoma will honor my RMA since they have already processed it .

------------ Jason

I just have to hope that Optoma will honor my RMA since they have already processed it .


why would they not Honor it and to be honest from my back round in electronis all this buzzing problems leads me to believe that there is some sort of power leakage coming from the power supply .

Well I am sure they have a time limit on an RMA [ if you don't ship them the PJ within a certain time frame you lose the RMA status ] . They may not have a time limit or it may be long enough to where this would make no difference . I just hope they don't tell me I went beyond 90 days of ownership so I cannot get a new unit swap-out any longer even though my RMA was processed at about 60 days [ that make any sense ;) ] .

--- I certainly agree here Joe , sounds like a Power Supply issue to me as well .

---------- Jason

Hey, Wing is back in town. He just PM'ed me from this site, so maybe he's done some reading on concerns.

He did say the bulbs are being scurtinized closer. I asked him about the green bar & buzz sound. Anything else?

Since I seem to have the most hours on mine I can say again the buzz sound went away along time ago and never came back.

Joe Banks, thanks for the good report.
Ok he also had the Orange light at one startup. Wing could maybe give some info on what it means.

Ask Wing why the calibrations are all over the place? I mean, if it wasn't for this forum, I'm not sure how the average person would deal with an H30 that was calibrated like mine was from the factory.

I did what you (Guitarman) and rsmith advised regarding my noisy blacks (all minus settings in advanced adjustments) and it worked out pretty darn well! Thanks!

If you remember, I had a severe red push, red blacks, noisy blacks, etc., etc. I had to go -10 on Red bright as an example of how far off my H30 was. So last night I reduced all my advanced settings by another -10 points! And the result is my blacks are much, much smoother now.

Here are the #'s (Warning, these are some serious numbers!!):

Advanced adj:
Red contrast -11
Green contrast -1
Blue contrast -8
Red bright -21
Green bright -4
Blue bright -14

I then had to bump the Color up in the Picture Menu to 33 (I had it at 2 before).

My total Brightness is now -10 (was -15) and Contrast is -5 (was -38).

So now my blacks and dark colors seem pretty smooth...not perfect, but I might now be seeing the dithering/noise in the DVD source material at this point.

If you (or anyone) have any other suggestions regarding these adjustments, let me know. I'm wondering if it is worth it to go into the service menu to turn the DLP brightness down? Or anything else?

Buzzzinngg: After leaving my projector on for about 6 hrs, the buzzing is now very low...much lower than when I 1st turned it on. I will see tonight if it comes back.

Fleaman

Fleaman, do you have Avia yet? You can use Avia as a tool to set the RGB contrast and brightness levels more accurate.

What I would do is first set the signal to factory. Then just set the film mode and gamma to 1 or 2 and the color temp 2 and zero for white peak.

Then I'd got to the advanced adjustments and start with the RGB-brightness on Avia. Then over to the RGB-contrast with Avia. After I got the moving bars for both and the right point. Then I'd take a look at a picture and pull back the red gain if red is your problem.

If I have to pull back red to minus 10, I would change that to minus 5 and offset by increasing blue and green to plus 5.

Increasing the blue & green to plus 5 like that will effect the RGB=brightness a little. I would go back to those with Avia and lower them accordingly.

Originally posted by hikarate
P.S. I need to quit reading the forum, I thought everything looked fine and sounded fine, till I read those posts recently and started looking for trouble :)
I'm in the same boat as hikarate here... now I'm starting to look for trouble as well :)

I am realizing now that I perhaps have a little blue push, first time that's been identified to my knowledge. I also have slight blue "noise" in my blacks when I stare hard enough. I went into the service menu to DLP Brightness and backed red and green down to 29 from 32 and blue down to 27 from 32. I believe this got me almost all the way to black blacks but I haven't had an opportunity to really scrutinize it yet since I did it two days ago.

It appears now that the consensus is to leave the SM (service menu) alone and do it all under the advanced adjustment (RGB) of the image menu, is that correct??

Thanks! Cheers!

Guitarman-

Avia's in the mail, will probably have it next week.

I have DVE now, but not really liking it too much. I had much better luck adjusting the H30 to my 27" TV (below the screen) in real time, it was easier for me to get the colors balanced and check a lot of different source materials.

The settings you are advising now sounds like what I had before (or close to it) with some advance adjustments in the plus points. But you guys suggested that to smooth my blacks, I should try to get everything in the minus #'s, which seemed to work fairly well, even if those adjustments look very radical.

When I get Avia I'm probably going to write all my current #'s down, and start with the factory settings my H30 came with (Ouch!) and see if I can come up with a better balance.

But if I end up with numbers close to what I have now (which look very balanced compared to my TV), I'm wondering if there will be any benefit to lowering the DLP brightness in the service menu (and maybe other settings?), then bringing my Advanced Adj. back up in the normal menus?

Fleaman

Originally posted by gottahavapj
It appears now that the consensus is to leave the SM (service menu) alone and do it all under the advanced adjustment (RGB) of the image menu, is that correct??

Thanks! Cheers!

Yeah I think they decided that the advanced menu has the same effect, so no reason to go into the the service menu for color changes at least. Still don't know if messing with these effects the gray scale, I would think that they do, but hopefully someone who knows can answer that question for me.

If all the signal sources are off and each type menu choice like cinema vs Normal. Then I would use the service area picture adjustments for the fine tuning, since they effect all signals.

Use Avia and start with the DLP-brightnees/contrast in the svc menu. Then move on the the svc menu picture setting and use avia again here. After the blacks and whites are right stay there and do the colors.

"Still don't know if messing with these effects the gray scale, "

As long as a gray field looks good you'll be allright.
The Avia contrast pattern is good for telling how good he white/blacks/grays look. The needle pulse pattern.

Look for white to be bright and gray to have no color tint to it. Shades of gray patterns are also good.
Or if you don't hv Avia a black & white movie would work.

That's right... I forgot that the service menu changes affect all the inputs equally. Good point.. thanks!

anybody think it is worth it buying an extended warranty on the H30?

Help needed,

When i try to set the PJ using DVE or THX optimizer patterns - After few minutes with the patterns i get the Green Bar.
Can someone with the same problem (Green Bar) check it out ?
Maybe i came up with a new problem !!!

Thanks

Ariel

How does the Dell 2200 mp compare to the H30?

How does the Dell 2200 mp compare to the H30?


it doesn't

Hmmm....so the H30 is "better"? Probably because the H30 has an RGB/RGB colour wheel, right? And the 2200 MP does not?

Hmmm....so the H30 is "better"? Probably because the H30 has an RGB/RGB colour wheel, right? And the 2200 MP does not?


that is partly right and the colors better ,detail is better , i have seen both and there is no comparison at all , the dell is nice but not in the class of the h30

I have to check an H30 out some time.

Ariel, think we talked about your PJ earlier. Best you can do is set to signal lock in the menu's and check your cables are good and are not the cause of the signal dropping off.

The few other guys that have seen the green bar lock up can only get it while switching from progressive to interlaced of HDTV to SDTV.

We might have some word on the green bar lock up tomorrow.

Jason, I asked about the time limit of an RMA, it's 60days.

Thanks Tom :) !!!

--- Good to know that I can wait a little while then ;) .


--- Jason

Concerning leaving the PJ on for extensive periods of time, I checked the warranty policy:

EXCESSIVE USAGE shall mean, but is not limited to the following: uninterrupted use of the projector for over eight (8) consecutive hours.
NORMAL USAGE shall mean, but is not limited to the following: the projector will have an eight (8) hour "rest-period" or "downtime" for every eight (8) hours of consecutive use.

So watching LOTR Trilogy is not under Warranty.

I love LOTR but I don't think I could sit through all three films played back to back [ especially the EE versions ] ;) .

--------- Jason

Hey Guys,

The registration form asks for the serial and model #.
Where do I get these specifically? Do I need to take my PJ down, is it written on the bottom? Anywhere else? Thanks.

I know Pimp, its more of a challenge than anything else. Watching one 3 hour movie usually does it for me. Just wanted to post that since I mentioned earlier the possibility of people trying leaving the PJs on for the buzzing problem, based on this, probably not recommended.

On a side note, mine seems to start buzzing about 1 hour into films. I can always hear a buzz, but it is usually quieter than the fan. Then it kicks in an hour into movies and it is louder than the fan. Then it seems to wear off until it is quieter than the fan again.
Hoping it goes away like Tom's did.
Haven't run Avia yet, but Harry Potter looked very good. I noticed more noise in black areas, but that could just be the film I was watching had more dark scenes, not that I changed the color settings. I would think if anything I should have less noise right now. Either way it isn't very noticeable or distracting, I am pretty happy with the image and plan to leave it alone at least through the rest of the week.

ok, so i've got some leads on parkland plastic in my area (nyc - incredibly hard to find anyone carrying the stuff and parkland wants $70 shipped for their 4x8 stuff) and we have made the difficult decision to go for a *smaller* size of 92" diagonal. :)

playing xbox on this thing makes me want to cry.

g

Ariel, think we talked about your PJ earlier. Best you can do is set to signal lock in the menu's and check your cables are good and are not the cause of the signal dropping off.

Thanks tom :) , i did see what you wrote earlier and tried it but, the Signal lock is still there, i will try a different cable tonight,hope that works.

Ariel

You need to take the PJ down, the serial number is written on the bottom.

"The registration form asks for the serial and model #.
Where do I get these specifically? Do I need to take my PJ down, is it written on the bottom? Anywhere else? Thanks."

The serial number and model were also listed on the box from Optoma, check there as well.

Has anyone exchanged an H30 in Canada? Also, what do you use to ship it back? Just the H30 box or the huge box that the H30 box came in? (ie. 2nd box)

I spent a good 30 hours on my PJ this weekend in a new house and I have to say the buzzing never took any breaks and it seems as loud as ever. It makes me kinda sick.. that I could return it and still get back a buzzing unit.. I'll probably run it for a few more days before looking into returning or exchanging it.

I kind of want to return everything and just wait to see if things resolve themselves.. but I'm not sure if I can get a full refund through Dell.ca. Does anyone know if I'll have to pay 15% restocking cause thats sucks.

On the brighter side, I absolutely love the picture.. I threw together a DIY folding screen with blackout cloth and it looks amazing. No other problems other than the buzz.. but it really drives me nuts in quieter scenes or during pauses.

grumble.

-rep

I kind of want to return everything and just wait to see if things resolve themselves.. but I'm not sure if I can get a full refund through Dell.ca. Does anyone know if I'll have to pay 15% restocking cause thats sucks.


you see threw my guy i exchanged my unit,(81 hr's) and got be honest i did not loose "nothing " and i upgraded to the h56a ;)


so like i said a while back peace of mind hmmmm there is no price for that ;)


people like mike and my guy down here ,these are the people you have to support


and hopefully me soon :)

can't you just bring it to dell yourself ? because we have one here at sherway gardens.

Well, I put 36 hours on an H30 this weekend without a problem. Regarding the warranty policy, I'm sure that 8 hours is just the "recommended" maximum. After all, there's no way to tell how many hours a projector's been on continuously and they don't expect you to sit there with one eye on the screen and the other on a clock. ;)

From what I can tell, most people with the buzzing don't have very many hours yet. Is this right? I have about 140 hrs and have some buzzing. But, I don't think it is as bad as others. I'm not sure when it started, but I think it was after the first 30 days. I only notice it in real quiet scenes and when the sound is off. At this point, if I send it in for the firmware upgrade, I think I won't even mention the buzz for fear of getting a replacement that is worse. I measured it from 4 ft away with a sound level meter and it was 50 db.

How do they measure the factory db ratings? How many feet (inches) away and from what angle? It might useful if everyone with a sound meter measured theirs and posted.

I'm going to resize my 4:3 screen to the exact size of the 16:9 native mode by pulling it up and using some felt on top. But I don't get my new PJ until Thursday, if anyone is really bored and wants to help my out. If you have a 100" 4:3 screen, what is the exact vertical size of the 16:9 native mode picture? Then I can do the screen in the mean time. Thanks.

I have to say, if my next one buzzes and has the constant green bar, I don't know if I'm going to be able to put up with the H30. I almost wish they hadn't done the firmware update, because I don't care about the 4:3 myself anyway, and it seemed to cause lots of other problems. Well hopefully these problems will work themselves out, maybe by another update. I just can't understand why we can't do the firmware updates ourselves, like you can with the X1. I still don't undestand why with a digital device, each unit would require different calibration settings. Unless TI makes each DMD a little different, they should all work on exactly the same settings. It's all digital, it makes no sense. If we could use common settings like the X1, there we be no reason we couldn't do our own firmware updates.

80X45 for 16.9

The firmware didn't add the problems. Pre firmware users have had the green bar problem. The buzz was also before the firmware. I most likely had the green bar problem but never brought it out because I never did allot of switching between HDTV & SDTV or 480p to 480i. For me to get the green bar lock up I have to switch off between the signal several times.

It's not 80x45 since native mode is 15:9 (800x480) not 16:9 ( 854x480 ) so...

Width of 80 ( 100' diag ) height of 48 for 15:9

Nope, if he's going 16.9 he'll have to use the 16.9 and 4.3 scaled aspects, so 80x45 standard HDTV size will have to be used.

Why, because 4.3native is now 800X600 only.

Originally posted by snowmoon
It's not 80x45 since native mode is 15:9 (800x480) not 16:9 ( 854x480 ) so...

Width of 80 ( 100' diag ) height of 48 for 15:9
Yea, that was my question, because I didn't know exactly how the native mode changed the picture size. But now that you mention it, that would make sense. 800x480 would be 48 inches on a 80 inch wide screen. I don't think things through far enough. Thanks.

Oh, and I didn't mean I was actually going 16:9, I meant my question to be, how far do I have to pull up my 4:3 screen to get it the proper size for 16:9 native. In other words 15:9 or whatever it comes out to. Thanks for the help. Because the only mode I seem to use is 16:9 native. My HD cable box automatically resized the 4:3 into a window.

Yeah, if you're never going to watch 4.3 you'll be ok. It might be best to wait till you get the projector back first.

I remember lining up a 16.9 screen made for small black bars on the sides. You'll be aligning the top and bottom of the image first and this will bring the side in a couple or more inches on each side.

Originally posted by guitarman
I remember lining up a 16.9 screen made for small black bars on the sides. You'll be aligning the top and bottom of the image first and this will bring the side in a couple or more inches on each side.

Yes. I have an 80 X 45 screen and that's exactly what you need to do with the Native 16:9. I've done a lot of comparing between the two and I really can't see an improvement (at least not at a normal viewing distance) over the scaled 16:9, so I'm just going to stick with that.

Originally posted by guitarman
Yeah, if you're never going to watch 4.3 you'll be ok. It might be best to wait till you get the projector back first.

I remember lining up a 16.9 screen made for small black bars on the sides. You'll be aligning the top and bottom of the image first and this will bring the side in a couple or more inches on each side.

That is what I am saying, I'm going to adjust the size to that I don't get the black bars on the sides by making the height larger, it will zoom to fill the sides. I think what was said about 48 inches should be correct, hopefully.

I've had my h30 now for about 3 weeks.

I love the image it throws (110" diagonal on Moakes BO) using HTPC..... great color, great black/contrast, no tweaking required, no buzzing, no orange light problems.......

But guess what .... I've got a stuck mirror right in the middle of the 16x9 image.

I will wait on getting an RMA from Optoma to see if the other issues people are having are solved.

I don't recall seeing anyone else with a stuck mirror in the thread. As I recall the Optoma warranty says they will fix/replace for even 1 stuck mirror.

semi_expert, yes, according to Wing they have a "zero dead-pixel" policy. You should RMA your unit.

Its 2 years for dead pixels.

MikeSRC:

Did you ever decide or not to get the J-Box mount? I'm thinking of getting that and mounting it to the wall upside down (so the projector is upside down since I'd like the projector closer to the ceiling. Anyone else tried this mount?

It still makes me a little paranoid having the projector attached by only one screw. Perhaps too much strain for one point on the casing?

fallenturtle, I felt the same way. I use the single screw for rapid-release, in case I want to use the projector for elsewhere, but I also have a safety strap in place to keep the projector mounted. (The power and VGA cables also act as "safety straps" in some configurations).

The projector feels pretty secure with the single 1/4-20 threaded screw. I have mine with a big hand-knob and I guess if you check it every so often to make sure it's tight, you won't have a problem.

The problem with the Panavise J-box mount is that it's only 6-1/4" from the wall. That's not enough to accomodate the H30, component-to-VGA adapter and component plugs. I haven't done it yet (still working on the theater room), but I'm probably going with the TV mount I mentioned in previous posts.

I wouldn't worry about a single 1/4" screw. It's more than sufficient for the low weight of the H30.

valkyrie:

Which style of mount are you using? If its the wall mount, do you have it facing down or up?

Thanks! :D

I actually designed my own custom mount. I have a 3x5 timber sticking out of the ceiling at the far end of the theater room, so I made a plexiglass plate on a pivoting mount off the end of the timber to accomdate the projector. I have it mounted upside down at a slight upward tilt. I'll try and take some pictures this week to show it.

Regarding the green bar as mentioned a few times before, my green bar problem disappeared after i received a new PJ with firmware update.

No tweaking or "source locking" fixed it on the original PJ.

G

Originally posted by valkyrie
I actually designed my own custom mount. I have a 3x5 timber sticking out of the ceiling at the far end of the theater room, so I made a plexiglass plate on a pivoting mount off the end of the timber to accomdate the projector. I have it mounted upside down at a slight upward tilt. I'll try and take some pictures this week to show it.

Are you just using a standard tri-pod mount to attach the H30?

I actually just drilled a hole in the plexiglass, then used a 1/4-20 threaded knob with a plastic handle (like the one here: http://www.tools-for-woodworking.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=4632). Then, wrapped the whole thing with a safety strap to make sure it doesn't fall. I'll try to get pictures soon.

I had the H30 on my tripod before I mounted it. Worked great.

I mounted my projector with a very sophisticated system. I built a platform out from my wall and stuck on those things that go on the bottom of chair legs to the top of the PJ and sat it upside down on the platform. It works just fine, not the best way of doing it, but every bit of height with this PJ helps, and hanging it underneath the platform would take a few inches away. Oh and I have a notch cut away to get to the focus wheel.

I'll try to get some pictures taken of my off-center Panavise mount. After the stupid thumbscrews (my fault for buying that model) twisted off and exposed the allen screws underneath, it worked like a charm. Very flexible mounting option for total investment of about $30...

I'll try to get some pictures taken of my off-center Panavise mount. After the stupid thumbscrews (my fault for buying that model) twisted off and exposed the allen screws underneath, it worked like a charm. Very flexible mounting option for total investment of about $30...



very nice my old setup was that way ;) ,it is going to look excellent

I made use of an old wall mount for a book shelf speaker for my projector mount.

http://www.aoth56.dsl.pipex.com/desk3_small.jpg

Works very well, mounted just off the ceiling so it's far away from all viewers. You're totally unaware of it.

G

very nice B1g G ;)

Is anyone here considering a Panamorph with there H30?

I would like to try a Panamorph if they didn't cost as much as the H30. For around $600-700, I'd consider it.

Ordered my h30 April 5.... still has not arrived.
Maybe thats a good thing (give them time to fix it up).
I'm hoping I'm hearing complaints (buzzinng,orange bar etc )
from the few and not the masses.
Hopefully the new units will be bug free and all will be well with the
"rma'ed " units.


I have been trying to find the Panavise mount part # 826-06w and
a company that will ship to Montreal Canada!!
Can you buy the Panavise mount in Canada ?
I would like USA mail or FedEx. (UPS charges to much for duty).

I will be sound/weather proofing the basement this weekend.
Hopefully will have it by the weekend.

Ken W
(back to the cave)

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3750550#post3750550

Seems Kingnick built the famous Slize build DIY anamorphic lens, with impressive results. For people (like me ;) ), who have more time than money, this might be a good way to see if it would be 700$ well spent (check the power buy, you can get a panamorph for less than $680 if it goes through).

Originally posted by Marco T
(check the power buy, you can get a panamorph for less than $680 if it goes through).

Thanks Marco. Somehow I completely missed that announcement.

Goodmorning,
I got the free lens mask yesterday and did some testing.

If you use it for 4.3 800X600 the effect is the surrounding area around the screen will be clear of light or I could say the light is focused more on the screen and not the surrounding wall.

If you were to use a 16.9 screen there will be the usual faint light spill above the screen. This is where you can make good use of the electrical tape tweak. I had to position the tape leaving only a 5/16" area open to cover the light spill above the 16.9 image.

It's easy to find the sweet spot. With your 16.9 screen just shoot a 800X600 4.3 image. Keep aligning the tape until you see no info above the 16.9 screen and yet see no shadow approaching a 16.9 image when you hit the 16.9 aspect.

Overall I'd say the Lens Mask it a very useful item and even for a 4.3 setup. On both 16.9 and 4.3 setup the perceived black of the unused area on the screen is darker all around. Light reflected around the sides/top & bottom of the screen is blackened away also.

Update: I just noticed something, I put up a 100IRE grayfield pattern from Avia and realize it's difficult to not have any shadow effect if you tilt your projector. I can't eliminate the shadow at the lower part of the screen. It looked ok when viewing a movie but you can get a clearer look with the 100IRE pattern. Pause the 100IRE pattern because it moves away quickly.

I was just about to ask if you got the lens mask, Tom. :)
I should get mine today.

So, you're saying that with the lens mask and some tilt, the mask may be causing a shadow? I thought I noticed that with a 4:3 image when I tried out the mask initially.

TomUpdate: I just noticed something, I put up a 100IRE grayfield pattern from Avia and realize it's difficult to not have any shadow effect if you tilt your projector. I can't eliminate the shadow at the lower part of the screen. It looked ok when viewing a movie but you can get a clearer look with the 100IRE pattern. Pause the 100IRE pattern because it moves away quickly.

your talking about the tape mask right? i found it difficult to get the tape in the right position, keep the pj focused and keep the shadow outta the picture. It's a pain to get the lens mask on w/o messing with the focus much less get the tape into the right position. YMMV. This might be easier for mounts without much tilt but my h30 looks like it's popin' a wheelie with the mount i have now. i have a panavise mount to try when i send this one back for replacement.

rudee

Tilt, yes because the downward angle of the light beam. Slight shadow can be seen on the bottom. I'm running the Matrix Revolutions right now and with it being a 2.35 movie the shadow has no bad effect. With the mask and the tape a 2.35 shows very deep black levels. I'll bet a measured CR is increased greatly over the 1899.1 we got without the lens.

Hi Tom

I'm still trying to get an answer from Optoma UK ref the lens cap over here. The Optoma H30 marketting blurb says it should have had the backlit remotem, lens mask and still states that it's a 16:9 PJ so I'd hope they'd provide a free one - or at least reply to emails.

Question ref putting tape on the lens mask - With the high temp coming from the lamp would this be prone to warping/falling off over time?

Originally posted by guitarman
Tilt, yes because the downward angle of the light beam. Slight shadow can be seen on the bottom. I'm running the Matrix Revolutions right now and with it being a 2.35 movie the shadow has no bad effect. With the mask and the tape a 2.35 shows very deep black levels. I'll bet a measured CR is increased greatly over the 1899.1 we got without the lens.


That doesn't make sense. The angle of the light beam is always the same. Tilting the projector doesn't change the angle of the beam, it just changes the location of the picture on the wall. It can't change where the beam goes through the lens mask, that's always the same. Unless I'm missing something.

Originally posted by kwalling
Ordered my h30 April 5.... still has not arrived.
Maybe thats a good thing (give them time to fix it up).
I'm hoping I'm hearing complaints (buzzinng,orange bar etc )
from the few and not the masses.
Hopefully the new units will be bug free and all will be well with the
"rma'ed " units.


I have been trying to find the Panavise mount part # 826-06w and
a company that will ship to Montreal Canada!!
Can you buy the Panavise mount in Canada ?
I would like USA mail or FedEx. (UPS charges to much for duty).

I will be sound/weather proofing the basement this weekend.
Hopefully will have it by the weekend.

Ken W
(back to the cave)
Ken-

Buy.com shipped my 06W last week within about 2 days. Isn't there a Buy.com-Canada or can they ship to you?

Good luck!

Originally posted by rsmith4321
The angle of the light beam is always the same. Tilting the projector doesn't change the angle of the beam, it just changes the location of the picture on the wall.

You're right. It could be the keystone correction, in conjunction with the mask, that causes the shadow.

Hi
I need a Panavise 826-09 mount too
anyone know where I can get one in the Manhattan NYC area (retail)
Thanks

tom

Slight shadow can be seen on the bottom

on the bottom of what? the very bottom of the screen? all i got was a "blurred" line across the top- not crisp at all. The tape mask did block some of the light spill if you kept the blur outta the top of the image but i didn't find it worth the hassel i may play around with it some more but i want to get the buzz issue staightened out before i go tweaking anymore. The lens cap def does block stray light.

rudee

Tip on the panavise mounts.
I mounted mine at an angle to the joist. Instead of having one side in the joist in the other in drywall, I was able to get the mount squared away this way, and then use drywall anchors on the other 2 holes (1 on each side of the joist) for added stability. Its very secure and centered this way.

So, for the last 2 nights my H30 buzzed loudly when turned on, and for at least 2 hrs after that. But, after about 2-3+ hours, the buzzed just went away.

So that's 2 separate nights, same thing.

If the buzz went away and stayed away, that would be one thing, but so far it buzzes for the first 2 hrs and just about stops buzzing when the movie is over!

Blacks/dark colors: My absolute blacks are fairly smooth now....just like the inactive mirror blacks. There is still some swarming/noise in the very dark colors...transitions from 'OFF' mirror to 'ON' mirror? Either this is in the material (DVD) or? On my DVE disc the (gray/black bar patterns), the black bars do still have noise in them.
Is it possible to have no noise/swarming on all the gray bar patterns or is the noise/swarming in some of the dark shades inherent to DLP projectors?

And what would be a good reference DVD for smooth blacks? Anime? Like maybe Animatrix?

Fleaman

It's best to use the 100IRE grayfield and freeze it to see just what kind of effects you're getting with the Mask for each type of setup.

I could get the upper area not to show shadow but not the lower area of the screen. It got the shadow a little better if I angled the mask downward.

Guitarman,

J&R finally called me last night and asked me if i wanted another H30 shipped or a refund. I opted for the refund since Projector people is local to me and now has them in stock. I never want to go through that again, my waiting killed my hopes to see this pj. But heck i waited this long another week is not going to kill me. I apoke to a rep at Prjector people and will probably swing by to pick one up on monday.

Originally posted by fleaman
So, for the last 2 nights my H30 buzzed loudly when turned on, and for at least 2 hrs after that. But, after about 2-3+ hours, the buzzed just went away.

So that's 2 separate nights, same thing.

If the buzz went away and stayed away, that would be one thing, but so far it buzzes for the first 2 hrs and just about stops buzzing when the movie is over!

Blacks/dark colors: My absolute blacks are fairly smooth now....just like the inactive mirror blacks. There is still some swarming/noise in the very dark colors...transitions from 'OFF' mirror to 'ON' mirror? Either this is in the material (DVD) or? On my DVE disc the (gray/black bar patterns), the black bars do still have noise in them.
Is it possible to have no noise/swarming on all the gray bar patterns or is the noise/swarming in some of the dark shades inherent to DLP projectors?

And what would be a good reference DVD for smooth blacks? Anime? Like maybe Animatrix?

Fleaman

Hey Fleaman,

My buzzing is intermittent as well. About an hour into the movie it starts, and then by the end of the movie it isn't buzzing. Makes me wonder if it isn't somehow temperature related.

I am currently running a 50' S-video cable, so I went in expecting some line noise, but figured it wouldn't be too bad since I have a smaller screen size and longer seating distance than others. But I threw in the matrix and the beginning of that movie just looks horrible.
What kind of cables are you using and what is the length? If you are using a short component cable and still having noise problems with black then making that switch probably won't help me out.

I know there are a couple test patterns on the Avia disk that can measure line and power noise on the signal. Might want to give those a try and see if that may be partially the problem, I definitely see horizontal lines on those patters myself.
What cables you using and what length? Thanks.

Originally posted by guitarman
It's best to use the 100IRE grayfield and freeze it to see just what kind of effects you're getting with the Mask for each type of setup.

I could get the upper area not to show shadow but not the lower area of the screen. It got the shadow a little better if I angled the mask downward.
I dunno and perhaps it's just me but I have put my lens mask in the drawer for now. When I stop my input source and have a solid, bright blue background emanating from the projector- I definitely notice a shadow or dimming in the lower right hand corner of the picture extending about 1/2 way across the screen. I have tried readjusting the mask countless times and it doesn't matter it's always there to some degree. I also notice that as soon as I take the lens mask off as I'm carefully watching the screen- the entire image BRIGHTENS about 10%. I also don't get hardly any reduction in my already small light spill on the ceiling. It will just rest comfortably in the drawer for now.. :)

Originally posted by MikeSRC
You're right. It could be the keystone correction, in conjunction with the mask, that causes the shadow.

Again, keystone correction doesn't expand the image, it only collapses it, so I don't see how it could cause a shadow. The image is it's maximum size with 0 keystone so the shadow would be most visible then.

Originally posted by hikarate
Tip on the panavise mounts.
I mounted mine at an angle to the joist. Instead of having one side in the joist in the other in drywall, I was able to get the mount squared away this way, and then use drywall anchors on the other 2 holes (1 on each side of the joist) for added stability. Its very secure and centered this way.

Wall mount or ceiling mount?

i got this from our naghbours from the 4805 thread




[QUOTE]OK I just got new info from the distributor Pre-orders are open now but the MSRP is $1799 with expected delivery in a month (keep in mind the SP7205 has slipped six weeks from original expected delivery date!) Crutchfield is normally MSRP - so not sure what is going with their computers. Dealer margins are better than with the SP4800, but I am not sure if they are enough to price match Crutchfield. Distributors only charge on delivery - so nobody should get taken with money up front.



you see to much speculation ,and you never know what problems are going to come with the new 4805 .


oh and also this

bummer on that price...

I wouldn't be surprised if prospective buyers defect to Optoma H30 (which, BTW is available NOW)

Originally posted by hikarate
Tip on the panavise mounts.
I mounted mine at an angle to the joist. Instead of having one side in the joist in the other in drywall, I was able to get the mount squared away this way, and then use drywall anchors on the other 2 holes (1 on each side of the joist) for added stability. Its very secure and centered this way.
hikarate!!! You are now a "senior member" as well, welcome! :D Must have been post #200...

I took your advice and mounted the Panavise this way also, solid as a rock. So if you are looking straight up at the projector and could see the mount plate that attaches to the ceiling- you would see a diamond rather than a square by this method, correct?

Cheers!!

By the way MSRP on the 4805 is $1499 not $1799.

rsmith4321 really check the thread because i got this from there


so let me get this straight some place is selling it for 1499 and other places are selling it for 1799 , mmmmmmm this is an origanal jack up ,and jack up ,the price , this is good

Originally posted by hikarate
Hey Fleaman,

My buzzing is intermittent as well. About an hour into the movie it starts, and then by the end of the movie it isn't buzzing. Makes me wonder if it isn't somehow temperature related.

I am currently running a 50' S-video cable, so I went in expecting some line noise, but figured it wouldn't be too bad since I have a smaller screen size and longer seating distance than others. But I threw in the matrix and the beginning of that movie just looks horrible.
What kind of cables are you using and what is the length? If you are using a short component cable and still having noise problems with black then making that switch probably won't help me out.

I know there are a couple test patterns on the Avia disk that can measure line and power noise on the signal. Might want to give those a try and see if that may be partially the problem, I definitely see horizontal lines on those patters myself.
What cables you using and what length? Thanks.

I have 25' blue jeans cable made, belden 1505 component.

Same thing with me on the beginning of the 1st Matrix movie...lots of black noise/swarminess. But, since other dark scenes in other movies look better, it could just be the 1st Matrix movie that is the problem? I never thought that would be so.

Even so, with all my contrast/brightness colors turned down in the adv. adj, things are a lot better...to the point now that I'm wondering what to expect with dark noise. I don't have Avia yet, probably next week it will be in my hands (using DVE now).

I don't see any horizontal lines at all.

I hope to take my H30 to my boss's house on Thursday when our schedules line up. I can then compare my H30 (new firmware) to his old
H30 (old firmware) in real time!

My screen is only 60" wide, but for now just projecting a 50" to 55" wide image on blackout cloth. I'm only sitting about 9 to 10 feet away.

Fleaman

I did, the poster is obviously wrong. It was $1499 on the Infocus web site, and Crutchfield is already taking orders for $1499, many have ordered already. So either Crutchfield is misinformed and Infocus made a mistake on their temporary page, or that poster had old information. Either way, the 4805 can be purchased right now for $1499 from Crutchfield. I know why everyone wants it to be $1799, because it makes those of us that can't return the H30 feel better about our purchase.

The $1799 price was obtained by kras from the InFocus distributor today. The distributor could also be wrong though. The InFocus page wasn't an official one (yet), so who knows.

NEO, that's good news, only a week to go. May your new projector be bugg/buzz free. :)

Regarding the shadow with the lens mask, in the brief time I used it previously, I noticed a little shadowing on a 4:3 image (probably about 10 pages back now :) ), but adjusting the position of the mask seemed to get rid of it. There was no such effect on a 16:9 image, but then it didn't completely remove the light spill either.

krasmuzik is an Infocus ScreenPlay dealer so I would take his word on the MSRP of the 4805 as being correct .

---- Jason

rsmith4321 people that put there orders in are wondering what is going to happen with the price , i for one if it said 14$$ that is the price i would pay ? but who knows

krasmuzik is an Infocus ScreenPlay dealer so I would take his word on the MSRP of the 4805 as being correct .


jay down here from my guy this sounds like what he said price wise ?

Originally posted by fallenturtle
Wall mount or ceiling mount?
hikarate mounted his on the ceiling as did Jason and I. I don't know how much luck you are going to have with a Panavise for wall mounting. I think it was Mike that replied to one of your posts the other day indicating that the 9" reach of the Panavise would not give adequate clearance for all the stuff that hangs off the back of the projector. Panavise has the telescoping arm (9-13.5") and in the bits and pieces page they refer to screwing multiple arms together to achieve the proper length. I'd be real skeptical about those two options doing anything but hanging straight down from the ceiling based on the intial fight I had with it a week ago...

Good luck!

Thanks Gotta,

Yeah, it looks like a diamond on the ceiling when viewing along the joist. [Edited out based on MikeSRC info] Its really the only way to center this mount on a joist since the spread of the 4 screws is too wide for all of them to hit it. I actually was able to put the anchors in after I mounted it. Just used small sized anchors, not at home so can't check, that would probably be useful info for people as well. I can imagine trying to line up the anchors before mounting would be quite a pain.

Fleaman, thats a pretty long run as well. I do think the matrix opening is probably the worst case scenario, but Harry Potter with dumbledore putting out all the lights on the street looks pretty rough as well. I guess moving to component isn't going to fix this problem for me. What else can be done? I haven't went into the service menu but removed all the red from the black and matched it to the "off pixels" above the movie, so the movie blacks are the same colors. As long as there is plenty of light in scenes the projector looks great. I mean Nemo looks like its on a plasma pretty much, but having problems with these dark scenes. I enjoyed Harry Potter the other night when I watched it, but after seeing the matrix opening and then going back to the HP opening, it really looked bad as well. I guess seeing the problem clearly on one movie, made me much more sensitive to it when I viewed the other scene a second time.

Originally posted by hikarate
....
I guess seeing the problem clearly on one movie, made me much more sensitive to it when I viewed the other scene a second time.
OK- now... what did you say the other day? You needed to stop looking for problems or something like that? :D :D STOP IT NOW!! :D :D

Has anyone ran the h30 with an upscaling dvd player yet? esp going from dvi to vga? I'm trying to get my hands on the zenith 318 but it's hard to find locally. My understanding is the zenith will output 1080i through component and dvi- just wondering if anyone has been able to try it. The zenith also has the faroudja chip also so i should be a very nice mate esp. for 2 bills.

rudee

I just received the Zenith DVB318 Saturday and am in the middle of speaker wiring runs and ceiling mounting (actually a shelf near the ceiling). I did do a temporary hookup with the component to H30 adapter and tried the 1081i output and watched part of Matrix Reloaded w/o sound. The PQ was excellent on the brief trial.

rudee:

since the h30 has a resolution of 800x 480 (in 16:9native), I doubt upscaling your dvd picture from 853 x 480 to 1920 by 1080 then having the projector downscale it to 800 x 480 will help your picture quality. Can anyone confirm this? Was considering using a htpc with ffdshow to upscale if it actually does help considerably. I can say that high def does lot alot clearer than dvds on the h30.

-- For Upscaling DVD content you should find that 720p will look much better than 1080i on the H30 [ this has been my finding with an HTPC - DVI to VGA ] .
-- This also holds true for HiDef sources , 720p is just much sharper than 1080i on the H30 [ since the signal with 1080i is Interlaced and it has to be scaled as well I guess the combo is too much for the H30 chips ] .

------------ Jason

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
-- This also holds true for HiDef sources , 720p is just much sharper than 1080i on the H30

That's interesting. I'm getting an HD Tivo unit in a few days, so I'll have to see how it looks with 720p vs. 1080i on the H30.

demon4-
yeah i know 'bout the res up and down thing but what can it hurt right? if that were the case many would say don't bother watching hi-def but we all know it looks good- very good.
I'm in the market for a new dvd player and wanted some feedback. Seems many in the dvd forum are doing the same thing with the upscaling players and x1's so why not-

I was looking for feedback about the all digital path-dvi-vga and any noticable differences b/t comp. I 've gone the htpc route and i have to make this player family friendly -if only for my sanity.

Thanks maifimd - now get to work and test that bad boy out- it seems to a hot, hot player.

rudee

maifimd-
can you tell us if the zen318 outputs 720?
I had read this is the way to go vs. 1080i -thanks pimp

So pimp- do you see any diff in the all digital path- brighter, dithering/mosquito noise or any other insights that some have reported using dvi outputs and other pj's- i know some are subjective- just trying to milk the h30 any way i can.

rudee

rudee ,

--- I really don't notice a difference using DVI-I to VGA [ this is still an analog signal ] .

--- The only benefit with DVI would be if you have a Digital signal path all the way through to the PJ [ which the H30 does not have ] .

--- The DVI-D difference is more easily seen at higher resolutions so the benefit of DVI with an SVGA PJ would be minimal IMO [ although it would be better - just not night & day differences ] .

--- I think the Hype over most of the Upscaling DVD players can be attributed to the fact that they look better than your typical progressive scan dvd player [ the truth is that most of those people using the upscaling dvd players have never seen a Tweaked HTPC in action ;) ] . You notice how you see those posts all the time where people say ' I just hooked up my laptop to my PJ for the first time and WOW ... ' [ from there it only gets better :D ] .


-------------- Jason

jay or you can hook up the aSimilator :) big bucks :D

hehe , well sure Joe ... we could all just forget about owning a home and a car and just go for the HIGH-END HT gear :D .


-------- Jason

pimp-
I have TheaterTek from a previous htpc when i was a bit more motivated - now my main goal is to get the best i can -as simple as i can. I'm not sure how TT is doing these days as i haven't upgraded from an older version. When i did use it, i knew i was getting the best i could from my first pj which was a sharp lcd nv3 meant for business but three years getting a xga pj with 20 hours on the bulb for $1000 was a steal- glad we've come as far as we have with the technology and prices.

I'll prolly pick up the zenith 318 soon and give it a try- seems to be a more than decent player for the money- It would indeed be a step up from the jvc s62 i'm running now if no other reason than the faroudja chip

I guess the LG version is available up your way.


rudee

rudee ,
-- TT is still an excellent player even though it has recently been bested by both WinDVD5 and the soon to be released Nvidia ForceWare MultiMedia Player in regards to image quality [ TT uses the Sonic filters that were all the rage last year ] .

-- There is no doubt about the ease of set-up for a stand-a-lone dvd player but an HTPC can be made just as simple to use [ pop in a movie and it plays ;) ] .

-- I agree , the Zenith would be a big step up from the JVC ;) .


------- Jason

My ears are burning....

I was informed of the MSRP by distributor today - which was nice event for everyone on the thread that the speculation of the real pre-order date is here - as I have been very clear in the past that the date is not here yet - and those unauthorized dealers on the internet asking to see their credit card are taking them for a ride. But it seems there is a miscommunication with Infocus between the national distributors and Crutchfield as to MSRP. Infocus is very strigent about MSRP - nobody is allowed to advertise for less. Crutchfield is not having a sale - they never do. I will leave future MSRP communication to Infocus Press releases. But realizing that Crutchfield does not put stuff on sale and they are taking pre-orders, nor would Infocus allow them to advertise a sale....I will let you read between the lines as to where the miscommunication is. Infocus has no intention of gouging anyone with different MSRP for the same product (X1/4800 was different products). Hopefully Infocus gets a press release out to end speculation!

Lol, about halfway into the 4805 thread I threw in my guess price of $1799. Did I win!

krasmuzik i thought so because my guy down here said this is a crowk of sh^%^ and i am not trying to be a smart ass , the only reason i said this is because so our brother memebers know what is going on that is all :)


and people that pm'ed me i only helped them out as much as i could and i will still do so ;)


cheers

at $1499 i'd consider the 4805 a decent deal- i may get one myself- but not at $1799. Tom, have you been able to get any info outta wing about any future optoma releases with the new TI chip? Infocus has done a good job in the hype department and i would bet they deliver a good product if not great. If they could cash in on speculation they all could retire early.

rudee

rudee the new pj's i here is coming in late summer .


maybe

Well the MSRP doesn't really matter, because you can order one for $1499 right now if you want it, and Crutchfield says they stick to their preorder price.

i hope so :)

My h30 is suppose to be in this week .
Leaving Toronto tommorow!
Will get it by Friday.
I ordered a panavise 826-06w mount .
I paid 25 us$ for it (probably $10 too much) but they were willing to ship
us mail.
Things are looking up.
KenW
(back to the cave)

Hi Ken,

I am getting a BenQ 6200 on Friday. It would be fun to compare both units.

Originally posted by fleaman
I hope to take my H30 to my boss's house on Thursday when our schedules line up. I can then compare my H30 (new firmware) to his old
H30 (old firmware) in real time!


Hey Flea,

If possible, see if you can swap out cables and stuff too. Would be great to eliminate as many variables as possible. If you could try different power cables and video cables on each PJ, that would give more info. Probably nothing to do with the cables, but always good to actually eliminate stuff as a possibility. Otherwise you really never know whats going on with all this tech stuff.

If you get both PJs in the exact same environment and settings, and they perform differently (Buzzing and noisy blacks on one and not the other), then I would have to think there is a problem with your pj.
And that would mean there is a problem with my pj too, and anyone else reporting this behavior on the last batch that was shipped.
Someone correct me if I am missing something here.

Originally posted by hikarate
Hey Flea,

If possible, see if you can swap out cables and stuff too. Would be great to eliminate as many variables as possible. If you could try different power cables and video cables on each PJ, that would give more info. Probably nothing to do with the cables, but always good to actually eliminate stuff as a possibility. Otherwise you really never know whats going on with all this tech stuff.

If you get both PJs in the exact same environment and settings, and they perform differently (Buzzing and noisy blacks on one and not the other), then I would have to think there is a problem with your pj.
And that would mean there is a problem with my pj too, and anyone else reporting this behavior on the last batch that was shipped.
Someone correct me if I am missing something here.

It's doubtful anything is wrong with them as far as the blacks even if that is the case, likely they are just not adjusted properly. As I've said before, I haven't seen a DLP projector yet that didn't have noise in the blacks, I think that is just caused by the mirrors turning on and off. From a normal distance you can't see it, everyone would be a whole lot happier if they would quit standing an inch away from their screen and examining the picture, and would sit at a proper distance and look at it. They aren't designed for close up viewing.

Kinda forgot I had left eco mode turned off since it was a little brighter and didn't really make any more noise, just a different pitch. Last night I switched it back after several hours of viewing. I had no sound on at the time either. As the fan settled slowly back to the other speed, I noticed a slight buzz pick up. Not louder than the fan really (which is quiet also) but slightly noticable with no other sound. Have those with the buzzing issue tried both settings and did it make a difference?

I was told yesterday that the buzz sound is the color wheel bearing. Also that it would quiet down after some time.

They did say the sound level measurement is still within the spec level. Also that on the higher priced models the casing and internal parts are of higher quality and that these models will be quieter.

Still messing around with the Lens Mask. It will increase the black level and that's very noticeable, but with a slight sacrifice of brightness uniformity. I find it's best usage is with 2.35 DVD's.

Originally posted by guitarman
Still messing around with the Lens Mask. It will increase the black level and that's very noticeable, but with a slight sacrifice of brightness uniformity. I find it's best usage is with 2.35 DVD's.

Yeah, I got mine yesterday and noticed the same as well. It seems okay (brightness uniformity) for overall 16:9 use, but I don't like the effect it has on the full chip 4:3. Pretty noticeable dropoff with the 100 IRE field.

Originally posted by rsmith4321
It's doubtful anything is wrong with them as far as the blacks even if that is the case, likely they are just not adjusted properly. As I've said before, I haven't seen a DLP projector yet that didn't have noise in the blacks, I think that is just caused by the mirrors turning on and off. From a normal distance you can't see it, everyone would be a whole lot happier if they would quit standing an inch away from their screen and examining the picture, and would sit at a proper distance and look at it. They aren't designed for close up viewing.

Rsmith,
If you have 2 PJs, hooked up with the same settings in the exact same environment and one has smooth blacks and the other does not you don't think there is a problem there? You of all people, who has been repeatedly stating its all digital, and all the projectors should be the same, and you don't understand why all the settings have to be different, etc, etc..

I am over 2x screen width when viewing the pj, and the blacks look noisy. I will give you that my pj may NOT be adjusted properly, and Flea's may be the same. I have a 50' S-video cable so I'm not complaining, but it doesn't sound like Fleaman should be having these problems. Either way if he can compare the 2 side by side he should be able to see how much of a difference there is.

Gotta,
I want to run my PJ in Eco. I'll try regular, but losing 1k lamp hours to fix a noise is not a good solution in my book, but thanks for the suggestion, I'll let you know if it makes a difference.

Tom,
Hope they actually take the time to test a returned unit out and verify that the wheel is the source. Here I am defending Optoma a couple pages back when people are jumping to conclusions as to the Power supply causing the problem, and it sounds like Wing is assuming its the color wheel.

As far as the sound being in spec, it isn't, unless 60+ db is within spec. If they are testing the unit and hear a buzz thats less than 32db, then they aren't hearing the buzz that fleaman is reporting.

I am still waiting for mine to "Go away" based on your experience. Only have about 30 hrs on it so far, but it still buzzes halfway through movies, it is very consistent.

"They did say the sound level measurement is still within the spec
level. Also that on the higher priced models the casing and internal parts are of higher quality and that these models will be quieter."

When I spoke with David from Optoma about the noise he said that i
shouldn't get more then 30 - 35 db from 4ft away - so i can't understand how they can now say it's within spec ?

I also found this:
H30 noise level (http://www.themescene.tv/PDF/H30-Brochure-UK.pdf)

Hey would a dirty lense show up more or less in dark areas? Maybe we need to clean our lenses. Just a thought...

I was told yesterday that the buzz sound is the color wheel bearing.

guitarman, I find this VERY hard to believe. I compared two H30's to a brand new MP2200, which I have to believe has cheaper parts than the H30, and the difference was night and day. Also, the noise eminated from the power supply, NOT the color wheel area. This just sounds like "too convenient" of an answer and Optoma wants us to just "hang in there" and live with it while they figure out what's really going wrong.

Sorry to be raining on the parade, but I do think there's a hardware issue, and I hope they're willing to address it. While we're waiting to see what happens, we all lose the ability to return our projectors. I love the picture my H30 puts out, and I'm happy with everything EXCEPT this noise issue. Noise was one of the primary reasons I bought the H30 over the Benq6200, and now...I'm a bit disappointed.

I hope Wing shows up and gives us an explanation of what's going on, or we hear from the engineers rather than this "I heard this, or I heard that" that seems to be happening here. I'm eager to hear Flea's assessment, because we will have one great data point (if things are as he suspects) of two projectors with different sound levels. I have two H30's WITH the same sound levels, so we can at least find out we're not all crazy, and that this is NOT a wheel bearing. :)

"maifimd-
can you tell us if the zen318 outputs 720?
I had read this is the way to go vs. 1080i "

rudee,
Yes, the Zenith will output both 720p and 1081i over component and DVI. It's been reported that there is 'white crush' with DVI but not with component. I'll be attempting to compare the options when my installation is complete.
I was fairly surprized at the reasonable PQ of SD Comcast cable output via s-video from a JVC VHS tuner that I hooked-up last night.

Has anyone with the buzzing sound requested an RMA from Optoma?

When I asked for RMA I was told to wait few more days, Just to see if it's goes away.
I will wait for 100hr mark and take it from there - i now have 72hr.

yes mike i have one sitting here. I'm going to do a hot swap with optoma just trying to figure out when to do it. My buzzing is fairly intermittent now but nonetheless still present. I can here it start and i can tell when it isn't buzzin'. My first call to optoma (robert) i was told to check my connections.
so i did. Then called back-no prob-no hassels-rma faxed within minutes. I also got the gaurentee that when i did do my h/swap it would be opened and tested before shipment.

rudee

My question is the same as hikarate, Would a dirty lens show up more or less in dark areas? Only when the screen is dark I have a small, irregular shaped circle that is very faintly white. It is in the low middle, slightly left of center. I was wondering if the lens needs to be cleaned because of a finger print?

its a 90 warranty right? I mean I have no intentions of returning the projector for a refund, but to get an RMA if the buzzing doesn't go away I have 90 days right?

Also, would running the PJ with no video connections provide any info? I could run it like that and see if it buzzes. I don't think my buzzing is nearly as bad as some, I will probably stick with the PJ I got unless it gets worse.

finally , after waiting a month or more because of my cousin the electrician's ficklemindedness i finally i got to see this thing in action, complete with a dalite hp screen. dvd is marvelous !!!!!
but has any of you have a green picture on ota signals? i have a tosh dst 3000 (or something like that) and i switch it out with dvd on an anthem avm 20 processor. dvd is great but hd is GREEN!!! went dirct from tosh box to h30 but still the same. unplugged everything, waited for h30 to cycle through before turning on sources but still the same. also have that buzz that is intermittent after 2 hours being on. but the buzz is there during the 2 hours...
experts, got any pointers?

Originally posted by hikarate
its a 90 warranty right? I mean I have no intentions of returning the projector for a refund, but to get an RMA if the buzzing doesn't go away I have 90 days right?

The 90 days is just for a new replacement. Otherwise, it's still covered under the two year warranty. I asked if anyone had requested an RMA to see if how the issue was being treated by Optoma. You should certainly send it in if the situation doesn't improve with time and certainly before the 90 days are up.

Also, would running the PJ with no video connections provide any info? I could run it like that and see if it buzzes. I don't think my buzzing is nearly as bad as some, I will probably stick with the PJ I got unless it gets worse.

You can try that, but if it's the power supply or wheel it shouldn't make a difference.

Originally posted by MikeSRC
You should certainly send it in if the situation doesn't improve with time and certainly before the 90 days are up.


Thanks Mike. I'll give it 100hrs or so and if it hasn't cleared by then I'll send it back. Hopefully we will have more info concerning this on the thread here before it comes to that! Thanks again for your response.

What is the status about the Green bar issue? I can´t even watch a dvd for more than 30 minutes before the green bar appears. Bought the pj just a week ago and I´ve had nothing but trouble with it.. Returned it to my reseller but they tried it for 8 hours, no green bar issue there.. Got the projector back today, hooked it up to my xbox tried loading a game and got the green bar immediately.. Now I´ll photograph the whole event and the green bar issue so I got substantial proof..

What might the problem be? I´ve tried hooking up my dvd, d-tv receiver and xbox through the composite connection, no trouble and green bar there. Neither though the svideo connection, but as soon as I use the vga-connection it´s the green bar issue all the time.. Getting a bit dissapointed with the quality on this machine now :(

You guys that has the green bar problem, how did you solve it or showed it to your supplier/reseller? Please help..

Comparing my H30 with my boss's should happen tomorrow night. I won't have that much time to mess around, so I'm really only looking for obvious problems, not little detail differences.

So, I will probably just use my boss's cables and will try his pwr cord. His projector is used in a tabletop mode, so it will be easy to just switch his cable to my projector while side-by-side.

While it would be cool to run tandem cables and switch between the projectors using either the 'Hide' function or just a piece of cardboard in front of the lens, I don't think I will have time to run the extra set of cables correctly. Besides, I'm not really doing this to nitpick the details between the 2 projectors, just to compare blacks, noise (audio and video) and overall picture quality.

At this point I think my blacks are pretty darn smooth and black. I've had to do some serious calibration movements to get it to this point (advance adjustments ALL in the minus numbers..from -1 to -21!!), but it is a HUGE improvement to my out of the box picture which was hurting kinda bad (Huge red push, red blacks, very very noisy blacks, etc).

If this projector doesn't go back to Optoma (buzz goes away), then I'm probably gonna try the service menu and turn down the DLP brightness adj and turn my advanced adj. back up in the normal menu.

Yes, I still see some noise/swarming in the blacks/dark colors...but only up close to the screen and it is very dependent on what movie is playing, which hints to me that much of this might be in the source material. Some very dark scenes in Minority Report have very smooth blacks, hardly any noise at all. Overall I think my picture is spectacular now.

hikarate--
You should really try out my last calibration #'s that I posted a while back. Turn down all your advanced adjustments equally (if your colors are already balanced). Try turning them all down by like -10 points equally. You might have to turn the Color (picture menu) up quite a bit to bring the colors back, but at least on my H30 this was the ticket to much smoother blacks. I have to really be right up to the screen (50" that I have) to see them. Also, some movies seem to have smoother blacks than others, try to find one in your collection that is better than the rest.

In my comparison test I'm only expecting that the buzzing is going to be the issue with me now, I'm expecting the blacks and overall picture quality to be about the same...but we will see.

Oh, and last night the buzzing as usual was there for about the first 2 hrs, then went away. Same thing for 3 nights in a row now.

I still would like to know from Optoma (Wing?) why some of these H30’s are so far off
In the calibrations? A few points here and there I can understand, but man I’ve got like
-21 on the Red Brightness!

What’s up with that?

Fleaman

About the buzz, just letting you know the buzz isn't electrical. The sound didn't bother me when I first heard it and I figured it was the color wheel. It did totally disappear on mine. They're saying the wheel bearing and fan are a combined sound the projector makes and that the wheel bearing sound diminishes with time. Didn't someone return a projector already for the buzz and got a second one also with the buzz. I'm just glad it's not and electrical problem.

The green bar issue hasn't been resolved yet. Thought is it's a glitch in the way some projectors have taken a firmware update.

Hey Fleaman,

Sounds like you will get a good comparison. Just swapping the PJs out is great, at least you will see each of them in the same environment and be able to compare.
I hope you have time to use the same settings on both of them and compare. Maybe you could find out what your bosses settings are before you go, write down yours and change yours to match before you get over there?
Just an idea if you have the time... :)

I have only turned down the advanced color brightness about -5. I really think our PJs probably were configured the same out of the box. I had very red blacks as well, but didn't even notice it till you guys mentioned it. I was planning on going back in and trying to turn those advanced color settings way down and see if that made a difference, good to hear it did for you, thats promising. I think a lot of what I am seeing may be contributed to line noise. I'm going to try a 6' and 25' cable tonight when I get home and compare.
That is if my fiance doesn't have a fit. She just wants to watch movies and for me to quit messing with it :)

Originally posted by hikarate
Rsmith,
If you have 2 PJs, hooked up with the same settings in the exact same environment and one has smooth blacks and the other does not you don't think there is a problem there? You of all people, who has been repeatedly stating its all digital, and all the projectors should be the same, and you don't understand why all the settings have to be different, etc, etc..

I am over 2x screen width when viewing the pj, and the blacks look noisy. I will give you that my pj may NOT be adjusted properly, and Flea's may be the same. I have a 50' S-video cable so I'm not complaining, but it doesn't sound like Fleaman should be having these problems. Either way if he can compare the 2 side by side he should be able to see how much of a difference there is.



Gotta,
I want to run my PJ in Eco. I'll try regular, but losing 1k lamp hours to fix a noise is not a good solution in my book, but thanks for the suggestion, I'll let you know if it makes a difference.

Tom,
Hope they actually take the time to test a returned unit out and verify that the wheel is the source. Here I am defending Optoma a couple pages back when people are jumping to conclusions as to the Power supply causing the problem, and it sounds like Wing is assuming its the color wheel.

As far as the sound being in spec, it isn't, unless 60+ db is within spec. If they are testing the unit and hear a buzz thats less than 32db, then they aren't hearing the buzz that fleaman is reporting.

I am still waiting for mine to "Go away" based on your experience. Only have about 30 hrs on it so far, but it still buzzes halfway through movies, it is very consistent.

I guess you didn't read my other messages. I had noisy blacks on my unit too. I've had noisy blacks on every DLP projector I've ever used. I'm sure if he looks closely at his bosses blacks in a really dark room they will be noisy too. I agree that they really need to tune these PJ's at the factory better. But what in the world could be wrong with them that would cause noisy blacks except for improper calibration. That's my point, it can't be something physically wrong. As with the noisy black backgound, they just need better factory settings. But if you think sending it back and getting a different unit is going to eliminated noisy blacks, it's not. Basically you want a $1300 home theater, but you also want perfection. It's just not going to happen. When they rate the db of the projector, I'm pretty sure it's at a certain distance away, I don't know exactly, but I don't think the test is right at the unit, which fleaman was probably doing. I could be wrong though.

Originally posted by guitarman
About the buzz, just letting you know the buzz isn't electrical. The sound didn't bother me when I first heard it and I figured it was the color wheel. It did totally disappear on mine. They're saying the wheel bearing and fan are a combined sound the projector makes and that the wheel bearing sound diminishes with time. Didn't someone return a projector already for the buzz and got a second one also with the buzz. I'm just glad it's not and electrical problem.

The green bar issue hasn't been resolved yet. Thought is it's a glitch in the way some projectors have taken a firmware update.

Again, I just don't get this. These are digital devices. Why would some take the firmware update right and others don't. That must be some funky hardware they are putting in these things. Usually all motherboards and chips are made the same.

hikarate--

My boss's projectors settings have not been touched. His H30 (old firmware) out of the box looked pretty good and he hasn't touched ANY of the settings. So, as an example, all his Advanced adj will be 0. I already know what my H30 looks like with those settings at their default of zero...terrible! I would also conclude that putting my settings on his projector would make it look awful also (example; -21 red bright, -14 blue bright, -1 green contrast, etc.).

The problem is the base calibrations from Optoma are way off on some of these H30's and so far there is no word from Optoma why this is so. From what I can tell (Mikesrc, guitarman, etc), even going into the service menu to match #'s will not work.

Here are my last settings I ended up with:

Total bright -5
Total Contrast 0
Color 40
Tint 0
Gamma 2
White peak 0
Color temp 1

Advanced adj:
R Contrast -11
G Contrast -1
B Contrast -8
R Bright -21
G Bright -4
B Bright -14

Econo on
Cinema
Film

This is using component progressive from my Panny XP30 on a 50" to 55" wide DIY Blackout cloth screen.

Wheel brng/fan combined sound?> Not sure if I understand this correctly, but other than the buzzing and fan sound being combined when both are sounding, they are very different sounds. Like many (or all), my buzzing sound appears to emit from the rear corner of the H30, by the power cord.
I've heard pwr supply/transformer buzz before (I have lots of studio recording equip) and this sounds just like it. Not at all like a mechanical buzz. Also, if it was the wheel bearing, I would expect it to wind up in sound when powering up, and powering down, but it doesn't. It is immediate on or off when power is applied. Even if a wheel brng sound didn't change pitch when powering up/down, you still would at least hear it drop or go up in decibel level with the power cycle.

Fleaman

Is there any word on if/when firmware will be available to move the position of 16:9 image from the bottom of the screen (to help people with low ceilings)?

lobster28: Ya I am using the old firmware and have never seen the green bar so it is probably a firmware issue (or the firmware wasn't applied correctly :confused: ). I was thinking there would be some bugs in the firmware and was going to hold out a few months til the fixed them before updating. I think optoma should have been prudent and done the same, not releasing the new firmware on projectors sold in stores til they had a few people test it out and got some feedback.

so the issues with the h30 are the green bar, greenish hue to 480p signals, the buzzing , and the bulb life. I think the green bar and hue are both firmware issues (I have the old firmware and found no green hue with 480p and have never had the green bar appear).
The people with buzzing, are you guys using the projector mounted upside down?