I hope you have good light control going that large Spence.. Let us know how it goes.

My bulb made it to a Fed Ex station 70 miles away on Friday afternoon at 3:30PM and there it still sits. :( Didn't expect it Saturday delivery anyway. It will be interesting to pop in a new bulb and see what my impression is. Often when things deteriorate very slowly over an extended period of time- you hardly notice. I look forward to a bright new bulb although I would have gladly gone on with mine as it was for another 1-2000 hours. Sent Optoma an email two days ago praising the unit but expressing a little dismay at 1/3 rated bulb life- no answer.

Cheers!

Just FYI, deepdiscountdvd is having another sale with price code PRICESEARCH (or several others, apparently.) Now through Nov 20th.

eui! Just what I need more DVD's :)

I'm approaching over 1,000

Received the new bulb today and was looking forward to firing up the H30 after 4 days of 19" TV. I wish I would have taken out the bulb assembly right away when this happened instead of waiting until the new bulb came. I took out the old assembly to find hunks of glass everywhere in the bulb section and it looks like the force of the bulb exposion may have cracked the window in front of what I believe is the colorwheel, nice. Check out the attached picture and yes my camera and/or I suck at closeup macro pictures. That was the best one. :) The line from 11:00 to 5:00 just doesn't look like it belongs.

If Mike is still around I'd love to see that similar picture he took months ago of that window and color wheel to compare. Just my luck- was taking vacation next week and planned to sit down alone to LOTR which I've only seen the first one once.

Drat! Wasn't I the one crowing about my good luck and perfect unit??

That's nasty, i'd imagine the glass protector will be covered. It would be real cool if they would just send you the protector. Looks like you could switch it yourself.

Ya except those screws are really small and the screwdriver couldn't be more than about 2" long to fit in that cavity. The picture doesn't show that.

What I'm afraid of is having to send this unit back in and ending up with them replacing mine with a C07 model that's noisier than what I had. I'll have to trust that they'll get it taken care of.

Cheers!

Just bought one. Will post some screen shots once I get it. How do I know what firmware it has when it arrives?

hi guys
Had my h30 2 weeks now ,keep playing with picture settings
what are the best basic settings to have it on.
the firmware on my one is C08 and i found that a 16x9 pic seem to come in at the centre of the screen.bit of a pain to try and get picture to fit screen
had to get projector close to ceiling as possible.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
If Mike is still around I'd love to see that similar picture he took months ago of that window and color wheel to compare.

Drat! Wasn't I the one crowing about my good luck and perfect unit??

I'm still here. Just busy with remodeling the entire house before Thanksgiving. :rolleyes:

That really sucks, gotta. It defintely looks scratched or cracked. If you send it in, I would request that they don't change the firmware. From the post above it sounds like c08 moves the 16:9 image to the center.

Here's that picture: Color Wheel (http://www.surfaudiovideo.com/graphics/colorwheel.jpg)

Thanks for that Mike.. I looked through about a month worth of your (and everyones) posts back around April looking for that picture. Your picture confirms that my window ain't right :)

I'll call today and see what my options are. It would be really nice if I could just get that window from them and install it but perhaps that breaks the nice little dust seal they have or something. Well this C08 sounds interesting although it would just work better for me to continue with 05. 07 will not work.

I'll let you know what I find out.

Is there a way to watch TV on the Optoma H30 without going through your computer? like an external TV box? and where would i find one? that is also a good price, and for analog tv would it matter if it was connected through rca or svideo or vga? let me know, cause sometimes having it through the computer just gets old :( so thanks for your time
Arty

hi guys
If this helps with the C08 firmware.
My ceiling is 8ft, projector is 12 ft from screen and image is 7ft wide.
Speakers are 32 inches high and image comes about 1 inch above speaker.
This is a 16x9 image.
Projector is about 1 inch from ceiling.
This is roughly where the C08 firmware image is if this helps anybody.
see photo...

Welcome Crumbaker!

If you're just ordering one now it will probably have C07 or perhaps the new C08 firmware. Other than going into the service menu here is the quickest way to tell-

Toss a 4:3 native image up on a wall or 4:3 screen. When you hit the 16:9 bottom if the 16:9 image fills the bottom of the previous display area with a black bar on top- you have C05. Image on top with black bar on bottom- you have C07. *edit* C08 places it the same as C07.

Arty-

You could use a cable box from your cable company if you subscribe. Cable boxes and Satellite boxes all have at least SVideo if not component video out that connects via the VGA port with the included adapter. I had my cable box connected via SVideo for while and it actually looked very good. I then upgraded to an HD cable box via SVideo and component and this one does't look as good. It's a crap shoot. Absolute worst case scenario is you could use a VCR as your TV tuner and connect it probably via composite. Keep that image small as the bigger you blow up a crappy SD TV signal the worse it looks.

Cheers!

Sarge- are you screwin with us?? :) That picture just doesn't look like a projected image from an H30 to me.

Cheers!

sorry mate
That picture is my panny pw6 plasma .
The screen pulls down in front.
The build date on me h30 is july 2004 if anybody is interested.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Thanks for that Mike.. I looked through about a month worth of your (and everyones) posts back around April looking for that picture. Your picture confirms that my window ain't right :)

I'll call today and see what my options are. It would be really nice if I could just get that window from them and install it but perhaps that breaks the nice little dust seal they have or something. Well this C08 sounds interesting although it would just work better for me to continue with 05. 07 will not work.

I'll let you know what I find out.

C08 sounds interesting. Maybe it has a digital shift feature. It would be in the Image menu.

Sarge, gamma 2, color temp 1, cinema and film also. Re the choice of color temp, it's best to look at a gray steps pattern and flip to the color temp which best displays gray as gray. The THX optimizer has gray shade boxes in the brightness adjustment if you don't have DVE or Avia.

Originally posted by Arty13
Is there a way to watch TV on the Optoma H30 without going through your computer? like an external TV box? and where would i find one? that is also a good price, and for analog tv would it matter if it was connected through rca or svideo or vga? let me know, cause sometimes having it through the computer just gets old :( so thanks for your time
Arty

For TV I use a Direct TV sat box for OTA and a Comcast digital comcast box also. These both go by way of component to a Radio Shack analog switch box, then a 35' component to VGA cable, or I could us a 50' component cable I have and use the supplier Optoma adapter.l

If you don't have too many devices you could have your receiver do the switching.

I have a replay TV and DVD recorder going by S-video.
Not that you really wanted to know my insanity setup. :)

If you pick up basic antenna TV you could get a Viewsonic TV box/tuner. It up converts s-video, composite etc to a VGA out. But I doubt it's scaling will be better than the H30's which is stellar.
http://www.viewsonic.com/products/tventertainment/tvvideoprocessors/vb50hrtv/

Originally posted by sargetheboss
hi guys
If this helps with the C08 firmware.
My ceiling is 8ft, projector is 12 ft from screen and image is 7ft wide.
Speakers are 32 inches high and image comes about 1 inch above speaker.
This is a 16x9 image.
Projector is about 1 inch from ceiling.
This is roughly where the C08 firmware image is if this helps anybody.
see photo...

Wing didn't think C08 would put the image in the middle. Are you sure you see light spill above and below a 16.9 image? Use a 1.85 DVD to test. He said C08 mainly add a feature to better sync up will foreign markets.

And kept the same 16:9 display location as C07?

Arun says I need to send my unit in for the broken window. I assumed that would be the case and it's probably a good thing to get all those glass shards out of there. I got most of them but can still hear a few when I tip the unit.

Cheers!

Dumb question but how do I know what firmware my H30 has? Is it on a particular menu page or is there a button combo to push that will show it?

sorry guys
i might be getting confused the light spill is below the image it just seem to be that there is a lot of offset.
offset is at least 15 inches.

Originally posted by RobRoy
Dumb question but how do I know what firmware my H30 has? Is it on a particular menu page or is there a button combo to push that will show it?
This post to Crumbaker from a little higher up on this page gives you a method without having to go into the service menu.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4665713#post4665713

Tom what did you mean by digital shift on C08 firmware?
If i go into image then signal i can adjust the image up down left and right
is that what you mean?
watched the day after tomorrow today great picture but i noticed a bit of dithering in the black parts .Can this be reduced in any way?
I am using my fl-d filter with the lens mask do you think it will be better just using the lens mask as it makes the picture a lot brighter and can reduce the dithering a bit .
thanks

I thought maybe but wing said C08 didn't add a digital shift. They're not planning on adding it either. Re dither lower your brightness, use the THX optimizer to get the blacks at the best spot that should help. You'll hv to decide on whether you like the FLD or not. I've been using it and not using it since day one. Either way I like the image.

Originally posted by guitarman
Wing didn't think C08 would put the image in the middle. Are you sure you see light spill above and below a 16.9 image? Use a 1.85 DVD to test. He said C08 mainly add a feature to better sync up will foreign markets.

Hi Guitarman can you explain what C08 does with regards to "sync'ing with foreign markets" ?

So the different TV signals play better. Not sure what area's they needed to key on though. Maybe Australia again.

Quick question. Just got my projector but its all out of focus. There's no option to fix this in the menu and in the manual it just says to change the focus on the remote, yet I see no button on the remote.

Anybody know whats going on? I can't even read the menu.

Man Gotta! Sorry to see your misfortune.
Hope that gets all straightened out for you brother.

The color problem I was having with the PS2 was something with the connections. I changed a bunch of stuff and one of the following fixed it.
1. Monster Component connector for PS2 also has 2 Audio cables. I put electrical tape over them, before they were just flopping around and possibly touching each other or other metal (Switchbox is on my DVD Player)
2. Got a new A/V Switchbox with exposed connectors. The RCA connectors are actually sticking out of the box, the old one were embedded in the plastic and it was hard to get some of the cables all the way in because the plastic interferred with the cable.
3. Had my Monster Component Cable all jumbled up over the Switch Box, the cable was looping around a couple times right above it. I moved that all out. This might have expanded a bit with heat or something and slightly moved the switchbox causing the weird loss of color problem.

So anyhow, problems gone and as usual I have no idea what I did to fix it!
Yay Me!

Man that Bulb must have really blown with some power to break that glass in there. That pic was ugly Gotta!

lol nevermind I'm dumb, anyways I can't beleive this thing looks this good

crumbaker, If you don't have Avia at least tune it with the THX optimizer that's on allot of dvd's, Nemo, Star wars, many others. Yeah the H30 has nice color tones and black detail.
enjoy

Originally posted by guitarman
crumbaker, If you don't have Avia at least tune it with the THX optimizer that's on allot of dvd's, Nemo, Star wars, many others. Yeah the H30 has nice color tones and black detail.
enjoy

Was planning on using the star wars one. How does that compare to Avia.

It's ok in a pinch. You can do the brightness and contrast ok but need a filter for color. Avia's a good buy at Amazon, easy to use and has filters. Couldn't live without it. :)

Some more questions. Btw I got version 7 or 8 on the firmware since the picture is at the top right?

When I put it on 16.9 or 16.9 native I have a perfect format for anamorphic dvd's, but when I'm watching hd (and maybe non anamorphic dvd's haven't tried any) the right side of the screen is at an angle but the left is fine. Why is this and how do I fix it?

This next problem may have something to do with my hd receiver and nothing with the projector, but I'm not sure. At the top of the screen while viewing an hd channel but watching something not actually in hd (ie commercials) I get this weird staticky effect, when the hd programming commences it is gone.

Why is it that when I set the projector to mounted from the ceiling mode it switches the picture upside down? Are you supposed to actually turn the thing upside down if you have it set up that way?

Even with these problems I'm still in awe from this projector and highly reccomend it. Have seen absolutely no rainbows as well. Have it just on a plain white wall and was expecting nowhere near this kind of image quality without a screen.

Thanks in advance for everyones help.

Originally posted by crumbaker
Some more questions. Btw I got version 7 or 8 on the firmware since the picture is at the top right?
Yes- if the 16:9 image is at the top of what was your 4:3 image. To get into the read-only portion of the service menu have the projector sitting in front of you on a table and using the buttons on the H30 (not the remote) press the up and enter buttons at the same time twice. Then the left and enter buttons at the same time twice. This will get you into the first area of the service menu. Make note of the firmware rev at the top and then get out. :)

When I put it on 16.9 or 16.9 native I have a perfect format for anamorphic dvd's, but when I'm watching hd (and maybe non anamorphic dvd's haven't tried any) the right side of the screen is at an angle but the left is fine. Why is this and how do I fix it?
In all probability you don't have the light beam from the projector exactly perpendicular to the wall. Try sliding the projector side to side on the table and it will probably even out. It's amazing how being off a couple of inches can make one or two sides of the image all out of whack.

This next problem may have something to do with my hd receiver and nothing with the projector, but I'm not sure. At the top of the screen while viewing an hd channel but watching something not actually in hd (ie commercials) I get this weird staticky effect, when the hd programming commences it is gone.
Is this like a very thin line at the top of the image? I get that also on HD channels at times. Go into the Image menu and check to see if the Signal submenu is active, it is only active with some signals I believe. If so play with the Vertical position adjustment and see if that takes care of it.

Why is it that when I set the projector to mounted from the ceiling mode it switches the picture upside down? Are you supposed to actually turn the thing upside down if you have it set up that way?Yes.

Even with these problems I'm still in awe from this projector and highly reccomend it. Have seen absolutely no rainbows as well. Have it just on a plain white wall and was expecting nowhere near this kind of image quality without a screen.

Thanks in advance for everyones help.
Fun, ain't it? ;)

Cheers!

Oh- I ran across something else. When I installed the new bulb I wanted to reset the lamp hour counter in the System | Bulb menu. When I went in there I couldn't arrow down to the lamp reset option. I looked in the service menu and couldn't find anything. I then went back to the System | Bulb menu and just for giggles tried the arrow buttons on the H30 itself instead of the remote. That worked. I searched this thread for info on that and it makes no mention of it in the manual that I could find. Be careful you don't accidentally reset your counter if you check it out. :)

I messed around with the signal options last night and I could get it to dissapear but when I did that it put a green bar on the bottom. I gotta go to work now but I'll play with this some more, will take screenshots too. Have callibrated the imge just by eye so far. I'm waiting to get my screen to use something like avia.

Then you went to high on the vertical adjustment. I use that for HDTV or OTA and move it to about 12 clicks up. If you're in a hurry you can also hit the zoom feature to overscan the garbage out also. But you do lose some picture that way, although everythings allot bigger.

Did you take care of your keystone problem with DVD and if you come across a non-anamorphic dvd try the window aspect.

Originally posted by hikarate
Man that Bulb must have really blown with some power to break that glass in there. That pic was ugly Gotta!
Hey hikarate- sorry I missed your post there bud. Glad you got your pic looking better no matter how you did it. :)

Ya- no kidding on that bulb blowing. I did finally get the thing up in the light of day and took some decent pictures of that window though. It's a headscratcher that it still works. Check this out- Mikes original picture then mine. Wow.

Mikes original- http://www.surfaudiovideo.com/graphics/colorwheel.jpg

Mine-

Originally posted by guitarman
Then you went to high on the vertical adjustment. I use that for HDTV or OTA and move it to about 12 clicks up. If you're in a hurry you can also hit the zoom feature to overscan the garbage out also. But you do lose some picture that way, although everythings allot bigger.

Did you take care of your keystone problem with DVD and if you come across a non-anamorphic dvd try the window aspect.

But if I go one way I get the squiggly black and white lines at the top but if I go the other way there is a green bar at the bottom.

Not going to zoom cause I don't want to lose any of the picture

Originally posted by crumbaker
Why is it that when I set the projector to mounted from the ceiling mode it switches the picture upside down? Are you supposed to actually turn the thing upside down if you have it set up that way?


Yep. On the bottom of the machine, you'll find mounting screws for a celing mount. And you really wouldn't want the control buttons on the top of the machine where you couldn't get to them easily.

If you need to mount it "right side up" on, say, the top shelf of a bookcase, you'll need to find some little rubber feet or something to hold it off the shelf and level.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

Originally posted by crumbaker
But if I go one way I get the squiggly black and white lines at the top but if I go the other way there is a green bar at the bottom.

Not going to zoom cause I don't want to lose any of the picture

Go one step at a time on the vertical until the white interferance just dissapears. It works for me and no one else never got this to work. What STB are you using for HDTV?

While watching Dawn of the Dead this evening, I noticed vertical dark gray bands scrolling up during dark scenes. I have had this projector for about 2 months and this is the first I noticed this. Anybody experience this before? Is there any way to eliminate or minimize.

Current setting are

Cinema
Contrast 23
Brightness -7
Sharpness 28
Gamma 2
White Peak 5
Color 6
No tint or other color adjustments

Home made screen using Behr SS with WOP. 108" Diagonal. Dedicate HT in basement with no ambient light.

By the way, I love my projector. Just got HD cable last weekend and the Monday Night game looked unbelievable!!

Whats a free image uploader to use on this site?

Are you referring to attaching an image file to a post like I did above or adding pictures to your gallery?

an image to a post

Originally posted by WDHarmon01
While watching Dawn of the Dead this evening, I noticed vertical dark gray bands scrolling up during dark scenes. I have had this projector for about 2 months and this is the first I noticed this. Anybody experience this before? Is there any way to eliminate or minimize.

Current setting are

Cinema
Contrast 23
Brightness -7
Sharpness 28
Gamma 2
White Peak 5
Color 6
No tint or other color adjustments

Home made screen using Behr SS with WOP. 108" Diagonal. Dedicate HT in basement with no ambient light.

By the way, I love my projector. Just got HD cable last weekend and the Monday Night game looked unbelievable!!

Check your connections. You say vertical moving up, if you were to say horizontal moving up that would be a ground loop problem. Try a 3 to 2 cheat plug adaptor to see if it helps.

Originally posted by crumbaker
an image to a post
Instead of using the "post quick reply" window at the bottom of the page- use the "post reply" button on the right side at the top or bottom of a page. Or if you quote someone it does the same thing. This brings up what I would call the full reply window where you can add message icons, etc. At the bottom of that page is the "attach file" field where you can browse your hard drive for an image file to attach to the message.

Cheers!

Hi all, after just sitting by and learning from you guys the last 4 months, I am about ready to bite the H30 bullit, but the cost of replacement bulbs could set a guy back 3 or 4 hundred bucks a year if I read it right.?!?! (Or more if they EXPLODE!!)

I have been saving for quite a while and on the farm here another chunk of cash each year or less is a big consideration for us. My current 27 inch Mitsubishi tv is 13 years old.

( Family of 9!) My seven kids would use the projector constantly no doubt!! Me also....

I am thinking of charging all the family 50 cents or $1 an hour of use. Put it into the cookie jar for lamp replacement!:rolleyes:

What is a realistic life on a bulb? It seems like 3000 hours on low power is just hopeful thinking....

Thanks for the information for all us guys out here in the lonely empty lands of the country. The closest projector to look at out here is 120 miles away in Portland, Oregon.
I have never seen an H30 in person yet but I have researched the h30, 4805, benq 6100/6200 and others in my quest for the best value and features for my needs/wants.
Your screen shots and information have swayed the decision.

Thanks again and I will let you know when I get mine. (Soon I hope if the crops hold up)

Hi Dave-

Yep- as I have witnesssed first hand- 3000 hours is probably a wishful thinking scenario. I find it hard to believe though that any one projector manufacturer has a corner on the market for a long lasting bulb configuration. Especially since they don't make their own bulbs.

It surprised me when I calculated out that I'm averaging 36 hours a week usage for the 6 months I've owned the unit. I don't see how that's even possible given that I don't sit in front of this thing all the time. I have thought about throwing a buck or two in a cookie jar each usage as well to soften the blow. One item I know that can help me cut down is not watching the stupid news and the like on this thing. Keep your 27" around for that.

Good luck on the harvest! Cheers!

My bulb just failed tonight after about 500 hours. Does anyone know a reputable source for a replacement that is cheaper than the $399 Optoma charges?
thanks,
walt

Sorry for that zeto. I don't suppose you got those 500 hours in within 90 days did you?

You have a PM.

I have been deciding whether to buy the H30 locally (Australia) or from the USA. The savings would be about $1400.00 after taXES duties freight etc.

However I have been told by someone selling a unit on ebay for less than the $2900 that the retailers want that although they import the units and pay duties etc that the warranties are international and vbacked by Optoma. Does anyone know if this is correct?

I tried to have Optoma verify this but they passed my email on to the Aussie importers who gave me the spiel that the extra money covers warranty and that their units are optimised for the Australian market.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

I would prefer the H30 for the 4:3 mode but if i cannot get anywhere soon i will go with the pana ae700 and miss out on the 4:3

Thanks for any help/advise guys

I've heard Optoma won't deny you warranty repair not matter where you bought it from. The only thing is it has to be new. The later firmware has been optimized to cover other markets like Australia. The feature is under User 1..

Thanks Tom,
Can any Aussies or Brits or for that matter any PAL Europeans confirm what Tom says?

BTW Tom, Can you tell what is covered under User 1

Thanks again

As an update to the earlier post this is what was posted in an Aussie Forum in reply to an ad for an Optoma for sale on ebay


The unit on ebay is most likely using outdated firmware.

If so it WILL NOT play "PAL" progressive or "PAL" HDTV as it is from the USA
and suffer other issues that have recently been addressed in Australia!
Very specific development on the H30 has taken place in Australia for the
Australian market. The H30 runs very specific firmware tailored for the
market in which it resides, therefore any H30 from an external market will
not operate optimally in a foreign market.

The H30 has been available in countless different stages of refinement and
will continue to be refined. As new updates become available they are
passed onto H30 owners. Owners of H30 who have not purchased their unit
from authorised dealers will NOT be covered by the factory warranty and
therefore will have no means of obtaining the required upgrades as they are
only available through the supplied warranty.

Any H30s from external markets, "other than Australia" may be running
entirely different firmware and may not be optomized for use with
Australia's PAL system particularly if they originated from the USA where
they use the NTSC system. If they origated in the UK, they may not support
HDTV as I believe that is currently not available there?

Sure the price is good, but a bargain is only a bargain if it performs.
Buying an Optoma H30 without knowing its origins or history can be a risky
business as you never know what you will end up with.

Originally posted by Whew!
Thanks Tom,
Can any Aussies or Brits or for that matter any PAL Europeans confirm what Tom says?

BTW Tom, Can you tell what is covered under User 1

Thanks again

Yes C08 will have under the User 1 area (YUV)/(RGB). I was told these are there to better sync up with outer markets like Austrailia.

Originally posted by guitarman
Yes C08 will have under the User 1 area (YUV)/(RGB). I was told these are there to better sync up with outer markets like Austrailia.

Does that include the UK ? If so does it fix the slight smearing/synching issue that people experience with PAL DVD's ?
This problem is much better now since I got a progressive player but it still happens every so often.

Does that include the UK ? If so does it fix the slight smearing/synching issue that people experience with PAL DVD's ?

It probably would. We use the same PAL system as the UK

I meant to post this here...

I had Gregg Loewen of LionAV calibrate my H30 Saturday night. I haven't had as much time as I would like to play, but I can tell you that the calibration made vast improvements on the picture quality.

He calibrated the 480i/p, 720p and 1080i inputs.

Watching the Vikings game was extremely cool yesterday. I am running a Samsung OTA HD Tuner to the H30, and I tried all different inputs. I finally ended up preferring 480p from the OTA HD. It seems less 'noisy' than 720p or 1080i. I think it is because less scaling takes place by choosing 480p. The scaler in the HD Tuner is very good. I don't know what it is, but it's superb. It's scaling should bypass the H30's scaling if I understand this projector correctly- I think this gives it a slight advantage in clarity. If the program is native 1080i and I select 720p on the HD Tuner, by the time the signal reaches the H30 it must be scaled 1, 2, 3 times. I think less processing, as a general rule, is better. Selecting 480p on the tuner allows scaling to occur only once to the H30 where Hi-Def is concerned.

Anyhoo, the Vikings game was awesome on the H30 in Hi-Def. I didn't think the projector could look that good- but it did. Everyone was impressed. My sister (who's 13 and has watched many football games on the H30) said the picture looked "Way better." Now that's praise, man! I can't wait for CSI: Miami tonight!

I'm gonna be lookin' at DVDs tonight, too. Then I'll post more detail as to what was calibrated, some of the stupid programming errors on my H30's menus, and how different the range of values were from: factory settings, my eye-balled settings (can we say purple-push?), and the calibrated 6500k settings. There was a lot of variance from input-to-input.

The scenes of Fifth Element we did look at were spectacular. But then again, it's the Lamborghini of DVDs. It always looks good! I'm looking forward to playing tonight!

Okay! I had a lot of time to play with the newly-calibrated H30. Watched scenes from 'LOTR:FOTR', 'Monsters, Inc.', 'Love Actually', 'Spiderman Superbit', and many others.

I was switching between 480i and 480p on my Panny XP30 to look for differences/pros/cons. I was surprised by how good each input looked- there was virtually no difference. Between the two at first glance. So Kudos to the de-interlacer on the H30! You can, upon close examination, find more jaggies on the H30 when fed 480i. Especially when the color red or orange is displayed. The Farouda processor on the XP30 creates a slightly smoother image with no jaggies of any kind. This is nitpicking, though. Either deinterlacer is superb in my viewing experience last evening. But 480i seems to offer up a slightly brighter, "poppier" image IMO. Ultimately, I'll stick with the XP30's 480p, but only by a hair. The image quality is astounding to me on this projector. I truly believe, through my experience with projectors, that a properly calibrated low-end projector can kill a high-end uncalibrated projector. I've seen the proof!

Anyhoo, CSI: Miami was unbelievably clear and colorful. I know a true Hi-Def projector would show some improvement, but holy cow, man. I honestly didn't think calibration would make as much difference as it actually did. My wife was VERY pleased with the new image. WHEW. Lucky me.

So through the calibration process we noticed an interesting thing about the 480i input: the contrast and brightness controls on the projector were both switched AND backwards. So increasing contrast actually lowered brightness, and vice-versa. That was interesting. No wonder I had such trouble with 480i! Gregg (the calibrator) was also a little dissatisfied with the color and sharpness controls; he felt they didn't function normally. We also noticed that the controls interact with each other at a very sensitive level. Lots of checks and re-checks were necessary to make good calibration adjustments. But he calibrated grayscale for all inputs and the resulting grayscale results were excellent.

Anyhoo, the factory settings on my projector were pushing blue and red pretty bad in 480p. I eye-balled the grayscale to a purpleish tint accidentally- boy, equipment is helpful! The projector was pulling green already, and I made it worse with my own settings, creating the purpleish grays. The final numbers were very different. Green was increased and blue greatly diminished. Red was increased slightly from my eye-balled settings. Once complete, the difference between 480p and 480i was slight.
The only setting that really didn't change was brightness, which stayed around 6. Contrast, however, with -35 at factory and -24 at my setting was boosted to -15 when calibrated. Very nice!

Gregg was very impressed with the image the H30 put out. He said at this proce point, it's remarkable. "Pretty nice image" were his exact words. He also preferred a slight de-focus on the H30.

I couldn't be more pleased with the results of the calibration.

I got my H30 calibrated with colorfacts and I can imagine what you're seeing. Even more natural colors and nice sub-hues in face tones. The H30 is able to produce exceptional color and can do an even greater job on showing detail in the blacks.

It would be a nice Xmas present to yourself to get a colorfacts rental or have an ISF do a quick tuneup for $300 hopefully. :)

Great stuff.. thanks for the report Ryan.

So through the calibration process we noticed an interesting thing about the 480i input: the contrast and brightness controls on the projector were both switched AND backwards. So increasing contrast actually lowered brightness, and vice-versa. That was interesting.
That is interesting... Has anyone else discovered anything similar to this?

Mr. Jolson- I was curious if you're still playing with your SmartIII unit also or have you just settled in to watch movies. :)

Cheers!

I was surprised that the 480i issue hasn't come up before- maybe it's just my H30 that has this issue. Not the end of the world, but trying to calibrate the projector with Avia would be near impossible if you didn't figure out the problem!

The ISF tech (Gregg Loewen) used colorfacts to calibrate the H30. I didn't ask him if levels would drift with age- from what I understand about DLP they really shouldn't.

I wonder if changing the bulb would effect the grayscale?

Getting the grayscale correct is so important. It effects everything. Contrast, Brightness, Shadow Detail, the natural look of the image, all of these things make grayscale calibration essential, IMO.

Before calibration, my projector was running between 7500K and +8000K. It now tracks along 6500K until about 90IRE, when it jumps up a bit toward 7000K- but this is of no consequence at that IRE.

The color tracking was pretty miserable before calibration:
125% Blue, 110% Red, 95% Green.

After calibration:
Approx 100% across the board until about 90IRE where red drops off. But this is of no consequence.

My DIY screen is handling the H30 very well. No complaints from Gregg. This is good.

So there it is! The H30 is FAR better than it was when I got it- and I loved it then! Now I look at the picture and just beam with glee at Hi-Def sports and movies! We are a happy bunch of projector owners, aren't we?

And I do suggest calibration for those on the fence. It made a HUGE difference for me. Results, of course, will vary. But I'm lovin' it.

And I'm hatin' those commercials.

My brother had a home theater guide setup, but he lost the filter and now i forget the title of it, but i'm thinking about buying a new one that has filters with it, and I know Avia is good, but i also saw Digital Video Essentials and that came out 2003 and i was wondering which one i should get, or does it not really matter? or would someone like to lend me their copy for a day or two ;)

Arty

I have had my Optoma H30 for about 1 month now. These forums have been a great help to me in setting up my home theater. Since my purchase, I have bought a new receiver (Onkyo 502) new speakers (Fluance) new sub-woofer (dayton), built my own screen (SS&white w/WOP), used PowerBuy to purchase a popcorn popper-all with the help of this forum. My next ambition is to calibrate my projector. I do have the Avia DVD but find all the test pattern available overwhelming. I have the sound calibration complete (purchased a SPL meter from RS) but need some specific test patterns to use in calibrating my Projector. What patterns work best in calibrating a projector? I am finding using the small color strips very hard to work with considering the size of my screen? Any advice would be appreciated.

Originally posted by SoccerGuy
I have had my Optoma H30 for about 1 month now. These forums have been a great help to me in setting up my home theater. Since my purchase, I have bought a new receiver (Onkyo 502) new speakers (Fluance) new sub-woofer (dayton), built my own screen (SS&white w/WOP), used PowerBuy to purchase a popcorn popper-all with the help of this forum. My next ambition is to calibrate my projector. I do have the Avia DVD but find all the test pattern available overwhelming. I have the sound calibration complete (purchased a SPL meter from RS) but need some specific test patterns to use in calibrating my Projector. What patterns work best in calibrating a projector? I am finding using the small color strips very hard to work with considering the size of my screen? Any advice would be appreciated.

You might try calibrating it while your normal tv is on and try to match the projector to your tv image, by eye. Just use the advance RGB Brightness (try not to touch the RGB Contrast controls) and the other normal controls (Bright, contrast, color, etc.). You might try lowering all the RGB brightness down equally before calibration as some (both my H30's) had lots of dithering and noisy bright blacks.

I have DVE and Avia and also found that after calibrating with DVE it just didn't look right, especially next to my tv, so I started just winging it by eye with the tv on and found it quicker and easier to do...for me at least.

One of these days when I have lots of time on my hands I'm gonna give Avia a try, but my image looks really good now, so there's no rush for me.

Fleaman

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Sorry for that zeto. I don't suppose you got those 500 hours in within 90 days did you?

You have a PM.

Unfortunately, no. Got my new bulb yesterday (thanks for the pointer!) and realized that I only racked up 297 hours over 8 months on the first one. Double ouch!

How can I reset the counter, btw? It seems I cannot scroll down to the reset button in the system menu.

Originally posted by SoccerGuy
I have had my Optoma H30 for about 1 month now. These forums have been a great help to me in setting up my home theater. Since my purchase, I have bought a new receiver (Onkyo 502) new speakers (Fluance) new sub-woofer (dayton), built my own screen (SS&white w/WOP), used PowerBuy to purchase a popcorn popper-all with the help of this forum. My next ambition is to calibrate my projector. I do have the Avia DVD but find all the test pattern available overwhelming. I have the sound calibration complete (purchased a SPL meter from RS) but need some specific test patterns to use in calibrating my Projector. What patterns work best in calibrating a projector? I am finding using the small color strips very hard to work with considering the size of my screen? Any advice would be appreciated.

With Avia start with Video Test Patterns, Grayscales and Levels, now the top two upper choices are for contrast and brightness, start with these. They are an all white and a all black pattern with moving bars best suited for Digital PJ's. After that you can go back out and use the basic patterns for Sharpness and color. With color concentrate on the center of the flashing boxes you're looking at. You'll see when they cool down to a stopped look.

After this you might take a look at the how to in the first post of this thread re grayscale adjustment.
good luck

Originally posted by zeto
Unfortunately, no. Got my new bulb yesterday (thanks for the pointer!) and realized that I only racked up 297 hours over 8 months on the first one. Double ouch!

How can I reset the counter, btw? It seems I cannot scroll down to the reset button in the system menu.
297... that really stinks. I thought mine was bad enough at 941.

Here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4682083#post4682083) is a post from a page ago that details the lamp reset procedure that I stumbled across.

Cheers!

(I thought that I'd posted this today already, but it seems to have been lost. Sorry if it's a repeat.)

Don't know if anybody else gets this, but I always have a line of points of light (like this ..................., except white lights) above the image.

It looks like something that's normal with this projector, since the lights are perfectly placed and uniform. It might even have a name.

Anybody else get this? Is there a way to eliminate it? It's not very annoying, because it's easy to ignore. But, if it's easy to get rid of, why not?


thanks,
Steven

Try signal in the image menu, use the vertical. Only other way out is the digital zoom.

I use these for standard TV. Your DVD signal is clean right?

Tom- I guess that your post is a response to mine about the white lights (?)

The lights appear with DVD and with hdtv.

thanks
Steven

I get this with HD only. Shifting the vertical setting in the image menu like Tom mentions about 8-12 clicks to the right of center makes if disappear for me. It would be nice if that setting stayed like a user menu setting and didn't have to be redone each time.

Cheers!

Hi guys. I just went thru my second bulb, but this time the bulb out of warranty. I noticed that zeto had the same problem and purchased a bulb. Who has the best deal on a H30 bulb?

Thanks,
Don

I get the white line thing only with hdtv channels when there not broadcasting in true hd, not with sd,dvd, or true hd thank the jesus.

However I think it might be a cable box problem I've got a motorolla cheap dvr from insight cable (possibly the worst cable company ever)

Originally posted by Dillinger
Hi guys. I just went thru my second bulb, but this time the bulb out of warranty. I noticed that zeto had the same problem and purchased a bulb. Who has the best deal on a H30 bulb?

Thanks,
Don
Wow.. 2nd one?? How many hours did you get on each?

You have a PM...

Cheers!

Thanks I will call them today to get one ASAP.

The first bulb went in the warranty period, less than 90 days approx 200-300hrs. I've had this bulb in since early May and probably had 1500-2000 hours on it. I use my projector everyday! I'm pretty happy w/ the distance this time as I do use the crap out of it. It's just not a great time of year to blow hundreds of $$ on something that is not xmas related.

I just wish we could come up with a cheaper solution for bulbs. Too bad we can't just find a bulb to put into that lamp assembly instead of replacing the whole lamp assembly.

Don

Thanks for the suggestions, guys. Watched CSI and Without a Trace on hdtv last night. I'd played with the zoom, don't know what I did but no line. The zoom was at 1 (apparently the default), and exactly where it had been before I played with it. Anyway, no line at least for last night.


Maybe we'll watch a dvd tonight. If the line has mysteriously disappeared, great. Otherwise I'll try playing around with the image menu.

thanks,
Steven

Had the house and H30 to myself today while the family was away. Lots of gaming- Call of Duty is a PC WWII first person shooter (FPS) that is rather mind numbing when the enemy you are shooting down in your family room are almost life size. :)

Next came Van Helsing. Creepy show that will really test how well your black levels are tuned. I thought it looked great. I can about imagine that this movie (like LOTR) might look rather crappy on a machine that is not able to deliver black levels this well.

Cheers!

For those of you having the bulbs blow quick are you on eco mode or regular?

Never went out of eco mode for more than a quick test when I first got it.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Never went out of eco mode for more than a quick test when I first got it.

How many hours did you have on the bulb when it went out?

Someone out there who can give me advice about choice of dvd player to Optoma H30.

Denon 1910 or Pioneer 575a

Which one will you prefere?

Denon have the Faroudja deinterlacer chip but i heard that Pioneer have better mechanic.

Please help out

Economy mode on my bulb....

Quick question, how do you attach the H30 to the ceiling mount?

I can only see three tiny threaded holes at the bottom of the PJ and a slightly larger threaded hole in the center, which I assume is for tripod mount.

So is it safe to attach the projector to the ceiling mount plate by using the three small threaded holes? it looks awfully fragile.

What size screws should I be using?

Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by crumbaker
How many hours did you have on the bulb when it went out?
941 :(

I'm sorry for asking this but I can't find this to save myself (I searched the forum and this thread).

What is the offset of the H30?

I can't ceiling mount a projector because I'm renting the apartment, so I need a projector I can shelf mount.

Ok i ask again. What do you out there think about Denon 1910 to use with H30?

Is that a good choice or is Pioneer better?

Or do you have other choices?

I was wondering if it is possible to use something else besides the given filters that come with Avia, because a friend has the dvd and said i could use it, but he doesnt have any of the filters, so i was wondering if there is anything else i could use that would be the same as the provided filters? please let me know... thanks

Arty

draags- I don't know that anyone has experience with either of those which would probably explain no feedback. Tom and Mike had some suggestions for older Panny's etc. but I'm not sure the model numbers. I'd perhaps try the DVD forum.

xvader- The mount several of us are using can be seen in my gallery although I've re-hung it so that I don't have that side hanging thing going on anymore. Other mounts are certainly available of all different price ranges, Tom uses a Chief mount I know. The little holes are 3MM screws and some mounts have used these going through a plate of some type. The Panavise we used utilizes what you correctly identified as the tripod mounting hole. This is a 1/4"-20 threaded hole. Using either of these methods should work fine. Realize this a is 4lb. projector and doesn't need much support.

allkingz- The offset on the H30 is rather large. I don't know that there is a formula like I've seen from other manufacturers though. Suffice it to say that if you will shelf mount behind you the shelf better be pretty low and your ceilings relatively high. Sitting right side up on a shelf the bottom of a 4:3 image may be as much as 2' above lens height from a distance of maybe 12'. How do you envision your room layout?

To my post 2 above this... could i use transparent cellophane or transparent shredded film? for the use of a filter? or is that totally differnt than the Avia filters?

Arty

Hi Draags, I use a Pioneer 575 with my H30. Component progressive scan looks great.
Cant speak for the Denon myself having never seen one.

Originally posted by Arty13
To my post 2 above this... could i use transparent cellophane or transparent shredded film? for the use of a filter? or is that totally differnt than the Avia filters?
Arty
I don't know that anyone knows the answer to this Arty. A quick look at deep discount video shows that you can have your very own copy for ~$37. :)

Originally posted by GGB
Hi Draags, I use a Pioneer 575 with my H30. Component progressive scan looks great.
Cant speak for the Denon myself having never seen one.

Thanks a lot. will check it out.

I think you can get blue filters at a high end camera store, maybe they have a red and green also.

DVD players it sure was easy when the Pany RP82, XP30, XP50 and Denon 1600 were around. These were the best for the money. Seems the new faroudja chip comes with a macroblocking problem.

You have to keep up with the DVD forum to see what works, some like the Zenith with Faroudja, go see how it holds up over there.

You could get some other filters, but if they're different in any way from the Avia filters, it would skew your results. Avia is a greta disk to own anyway. You'd be surprised how much you can use it. Or, for a cheaper solution, get the Video Essentials disk.

Originally posted by MikeSRC
Or, for a cheaper solution, get the Video Essentials disk.
Just don't come round here askin how ta navigate it though. :)

It is the worst for sure, but it does have some nice patterns.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Sitting right side up on a shelf the bottom of a 4:3 image may be as much as 2' above lens height from a distance of maybe 12'. How do you envision your room layout?

Just quickly, ceiling mounted drops the picture what distance?

Thanks

The newer firmware has a much less offset, average is 12" center lens to the start of the video.

Originally posted by gottahavapj

allkingz- The offset on the H30 is rather large. I don't know that there is a formula like I've seen from other manufacturers though. Suffice it to say that if you will shelf mount behind you the shelf better be pretty low and your ceilings relatively high. Sitting right side up on a shelf the bottom of a 4:3 image may be as much as 2' above lens height from a distance of maybe 12'. How do you envision your room layout?

The room is about 15' by 15' and the ceilings are 92" high. I'd like to have the projector behind the seating area which would give a throw of about 13' (I'm guessing to give proper ventilation).

I live in an apartment so I can't ceiling mount it. I've also thought about mounting it on (or in) a coffee table in front of the seating area, but I would prefer to have the projector behind me for a larger picture.

Any suggestions, advice, or recommendations would be appreciated.

Originally posted by allkingz
The room is about 15' by 15' and the ceilings are 92" high. I'd like to have the projector behind the seating area which would give a throw of about 13' (I'm guessing to give proper ventilation).

I live in an apartment so I can't ceiling mount it. I've also thought about mounting it on (or in) a coffee table in front of the seating area, but I would prefer to have the projector behind me for a larger picture.

Any suggestions, advice, or recommendations would be appreciated.

Put some rubber bump-ons on the top of the H30 and shelf mount it upside down.

Here's a question-

If I were to upgrade the firmware, I realize the grayscale would be reset. But would it need a new calibration?

Couldn't I use the values I got through colorfacts even if the firmware is upgraded?

Good question Ryan...

I know when you update firmware in a PC it SHOULDN'T affect user adjustable settings or data. :)

Cheers!

Ryan, If they reset the machine when doing the firmware you'll be alright again transposing all the numbers you got with colorfacts. Better write down everything in the service menu also.

In the service area, you'll need to note.

Picture

DLP

ADP - which appears with a progressive signal.

In the user area write down every detail plus the advanced settings for each signal, HDTV, DVD progresive, and Interlaced, S-video, anything you use.

Why didn't they (Optoma engineers) have the foresight to allow the firmware to be end user upgradeable. Most stuff is these days. (VD's Computers, Receivers, STB's etc etc etc)

With the H30 firmware is done by connecting internally on the circuitry of the H30.

as a dvd player 480P, I would imagine Cambridge 540D would be very good for theis projector. PAL/NTSC plus factpry all-region. All metal and a excellent cd player. All this plus more for around $300

Originally posted by allkingz
The room is about 15' by 15' and the ceilings are 92" high. I'd like to have the projector behind the seating area which would give a throw of about 13' (I'm guessing to give proper ventilation).

I live in an apartment so I can't ceiling mount it. I've also thought about mounting it on (or in) a coffee table in front of the seating area, but I would prefer to have the projector behind me for a larger picture.

Any suggestions, advice, or recommendations would be appreciated.
Allkingz-

A few points-

1) At a 13' throw distance the middle of the zoom range will give you a 101" diagonal, 81"Wx61"H 4:3 image, 92" diag, 81Wx46H 16:9 image.

2) In hitting your search button I see that the majority of your posts are in the ambient light control thread where you detail the issues you may have with that. Getting up over a 100" diagonal screen without perfect light control could cost you some image quality unless you only watch at night. Your white walls, ceiling and carpet won't help you out in that regard either.

3) It is a good practice with SVGA projectors to be seated 2x screen width away from the screen to minimize screen door and some of the effects of the lower resolution. 2X 81" screen is 13.5' back or behind the projector lens and at the extreme back of your 14' long room. And that is assuming your screen is flat to the front wall. Is this feasible?

You may have some compromises to make here... My $.02 anyway.

Cheers!

Originally posted by xvader
Put some rubber bump-ons on the top of the H30 and shelf mount it upside down.

The tallest shelf I've been able to find is 72".

In a room with a 92" ceiling, would this be high enough?

Hmmm, they told me a special cable and internally. Doesn't matter anyway because Optoma won't be sending out CD's or putting up downloads for firmwares.

The other reason I got about firmware not being public is that making up a firmware is difficult work and due to licensing or value lets say, it's not made public.

Well, after sending in my H30 I was told that my bulb was not striking due to a bulb problem and not a projector issue. So its off to net to find a deal.

I bought the H30 in June and I only had ~180 hours on the bulb when it went. And yes, that was on economy mode. Let's hope my next bulb lasts a bit longer.

Thanks for letting me rant.

Robert

Interesting... and I can picture some new guy at Optoma U.K. customer service standing next to his desk as his supervisor comes by this afternoon and says "YOU SENT HIM WHAT?????" :D

robfive- that stinks, sorry guy...

I'll send you a PM on where I found the best deal at a reputable reseller.

Zeto and Dillinger have both used them in the last two weeks I believe. Gents- How did that work out? To many freekin bulbs blowing to early. Not Optoma's fault but very frustrating.

Originally posted by allkingz
The tallest shelf I've been able to find is 72".

In a room with a 92" ceiling, would this be high enough?
You would have to aim the projector up a little in this configuration or the bottom of a 4:3 image would be on the floor (~74" lens height minus ~12" offset minus 61" image height). This may bring a small amount of keystone adjustment into the equation, not ideal but not a big deal either.

Are you starting to get an idea of where an image would project to from a given mounting location? This was my biggest hangup so I understand where you're coming from.

Cheers!

Originally posted by genesabas
Hello guitarman,

I wrote a mail to Optoma U.K. and they sent the firmware upgrade fixture to me for free,to connect H30 and computer, and all the files to upgrade the firmware, I changed of the C5 to the C7 very easily,
Here the document with the fixed problems.

I believe you but if they did that here heads would roll. They're very serious about not leaking firmwares out to the public. gotta made a good point, if that were to happen here someone would lose their job.

Hello all, first post here!!! Been lurking for a while though. Hope this posts OK...
Just got my H30, and had a real quick question as this is not mentioned in the manual... I have what looks like a 16x9 windowed lens cap( that came in the box)... What is it??? And, how is it to be used correctly???
Thanks for everything,
Alter

Hey AlterEgo7-

Welcome!! :) I trust you are in for some good home entertainment this holiday season and beyond.

That disk is a lens mask for cutting down on light spill around the image. It is inserted in the lens with the cutout on the top of the lens if table mounted or bottom if ceiling mounted upside down. Come to think of it- this was with older firmware that displayed the image differently than what yours probably does. Can anyone with C07 firmware confirm this? I do not use my mask any longer as I didn't think it really helped much.

Cheers!

I ask for excuse, but here in Spain it is difficult to send the H30 to the technical service, I only asked how to upgrade it and they answered this to me.
I believed that it would be interesting that you know it.

Nothing else on the firmware subject, I am sorry but my intention was only to inform, and of course I don´t want nobody lose his work, subject is over for me, OK?

Hey Guitarman (or anyone else applicable)-

When calibrating with colorfacts did you alter any settings in the service menu?

If so, which ones and to what effect?

I experimented with DLP Contrast/Brightness in the Service menu but ended up with the default settings.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Hey AlterEgo7-

Welcome!! :) I trust you are in for some good home entertainment this holiday season and beyond.

That disk is a lens mask for cutting down on light spill around the image. It is inserted in the lens with the cutout on the top of the lens if table mounted or bottom if ceiling mounted upside down. Come to think of it- this was with older firmware that displayed the image differently than what yours probably does. Can anyone with C07 firmware confirm this? I do not use my mask any longer as I didn't think it really helped much.

Cheers!

I've got c07 or 8 and I can say it made no difference whatsoever that I could see.

Originally posted by allkingz
I live in an apartment so I can't ceiling mount it. I've also thought about mounting it on (or in) a coffee table in front of the seating area, but I would prefer to have the projector behind me for a larger picture.

I had the same problem. I originally wanted to stick it on a shelf above my bed, but quickly realized that the shelf would have to be waaay too low. I then thought about sticking it on a shelf, but you'd have to rest it upside down, and the shell of the projector isn't really meant for that.

So, yesterday I went out and bought a Panavise mount (search this thread for Panavise for more info) from a local CCTV dealer and stuck it high up on my wall, with the projector hanging off it upside-down at 90 degrees. Problem solved -- and it was CHEAP! I had to do some keystone correction, but it's nothing I wouldn't have had to do with a ceiling mount. If you don't mind drilling a few holes in your wall, this may be the way to go.

Interesting Jeffspam....

How long a "pipe" did your Panavise come with to allow you to clear all the way to the back of the H30 and leave room for cables? The two standard lengths are 6 & 9" which won't reach.

You can see a picture of a Panavise in action if you click on my gallery. I have since re-mounted it so it isn't doing that weird side hanging thing anymore.

Cheers!

Originally posted by gottahavapj
How long a "pipe" did your Panavise come with to allow you to clear all the way to the back of the H30 and leave room for cables? The two standard lengths are 6 & 9" which won't reach.
I was originally going to go for the 9", but they were out, so I ended up with the 6" plus a 6" extender, for a total of 12". Guess I'm glad they didn't have the 9" in stock! Even with the extender, total was still under $25.

I am also using the Panavise. Not a bad solution!

Hey- what sharpness are you guys going with for 480p DVD? I keep switching between -28 and +17. And sometimes -39. I can't decide.

Originally posted by RyanJNielson
Hey Guitarman (or anyone else applicable)-

When calibrating with colorfacts did you alter any settings in the service menu?

If so, which ones and to what effect?

I experimented with DLP Contrast/Brightness in the Service menu but ended up with the default settings.

I'd leave DLP at default, more effective ones are Picture & ADP, ADP becomes un-whited out with a progressive signal. We did use these when tuning up with colorfacts.

Did you get the colorfacts program? If you have the program you could go one step further and make use of the auto-cal black and auto-call whites, don't use the auto-cal Magenta.

The way you use those is to bring up with Avia an all black pattern 0 IRE or the all white pattern 100 IRE.

Start with the all black pattern and hit auto-cal blacks the projector will go into a calibrating mode and tune best to match your electronics. Same deal with the contrast or auto-cal whites. After that you can start tuning in the service menu with colorfacts. Start with the Picture area, try the ADP-progressive scan area. After all that you can fine tune each signal with the User advanced adjustments.

Man there's allot of control items on this projector. It's the most I've ever seen with any projector. The H77 is the same way.

Originally posted by RyanJNielson
I am also using the Panavise. Not a bad solution!

Hey- what sharpness are you guys going with for 480p DVD? I keep switching between -28 and +17. And sometimes -39. I can't decide.

I'm at 28 somewhere near the middle. Get the ghost out of there best you can with the Avia Sharpness pattern.

Interested in the H30 but my concern is the low lumen output. The screenshots look great, but that's in a totally dark room. We have a new FR in a daylight basement with a window and a slider in the FR. We can easily block the light from these, but don't want to elicit the Vegas effect. Never know what time of day it is.

I'm also wondering if the Pixelworks deinterlacing and scaling that is done gives a picture similar to the "maximum" listed res at SXGA from the native SVGA.

I don't which way to go. A light canon like the Dell 2300MP with poor black levels or a unit like the H30 that has excellent black levels but not as much punch. Also, before reading this thread I was thinking of XGA as a min res but now I think a good SVGA like this one MAY give the picture we're looking for. (~14ft distance for ~ 110" pic)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Originally posted by gottahavapj


Are you starting to get an idea of where an image would project to from a given mounting location? This was my biggest hangup so I understand where you're coming from.

Cheers!

Yes and it's actually been a little fun planning this out. (Except my girlfriend rolls her eyes at me each time she catches me staring at the wall planning it out.)

On one side of the coin, I'd like to mount the screen higher than eye level. For me, it feels a little more comfortable looking up slightly to view an image. A higher image would also give me room to place my center channel on a stand below the screen.

Right now I have a 43" Sony RP and the screen is roughly 12" off the ground. I feel that an image right off the floor gives the feeling of being in the nosebleed section of a stadium where you're looking down on the action. Between the two, I'd rather have the screen higher than lower.

These are my opinions, of course and may contradict what others have done.

I demoed an H30 again today and it was on a shelf roughly 3.5' off the floor. It had to be tilted down, and even with a little keystoning, it didn't bother me at all.

Originally posted by drhutch
Interested in the H30 but my concern is the low lumen output. The screenshots look great, but that's in a totally dark room. We have a new FR in a daylight basement with a window and a slider in the FR. We can easily block the light from these, but don't want to elicit the Vegas effect. Never know what time of day it is.

I'm also wondering if the Pixelworks deinterlacing and scaling that is done gives a picture similar to the "maximum" listed res at SXGA from the native SVGA.

I don't which way to go. A light canon like the Dell 2300MP with poor black levels or a unit like the H30 that has excellent black levels but not as much punch. Also, before reading this thread I was thinking of XGA as a min res but now I think a good SVGA like this one MAY give the picture we're looking for. (~14ft distance for ~ 110" pic)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

I demoed the H30 again today for about an hour. Like you I was also concerned with the low lumen output. Since I will be doing the majority of my viewing in the evening hours, I think it is plenty bright enough.

I was also very impressed with the picture from both HDTV and DVD sources.

Your best bet would be to look around and demo as many FPs as you can. The advice and knowledge on this forum is great, but I also believe this is something you really need to see for yourself to make a decision on what will work for you or not.

Good luck.

Originally posted by guitarman
I've heard Optoma won't deny you warranty repair not matter where you bought it from. The only thing is it has to be new. The later firmware has been optimized to cover other markets like Australia. The feature is under User 1..

Bump

Tom is there any way you could find out for sure next time you speak to one of your contacts? I have sent emails to Optoma in Taiwan etc complaining of lack of replys from local importer and have not heard from them either. I have sent 4 emails to local importer in last month and received nothing back. There is nowhere in 200k as far as i can find that even sells the Optoma so I could see it in a demo
Cheers

Originally posted by drhutch
Interested in the H30 but my concern is the low lumen output. The screenshots look great, but that's in a totally dark room. We have a new FR in a daylight basement with a window and a slider in the FR. We can easily block the light from these, but don't want to elicit the Vegas effect. Never know what time of day it is.

I'm also wondering if the Pixelworks deinterlacing and scaling that is done gives a picture similar to the "maximum" listed res at SXGA from the native SVGA.

I don't which way to go. A light canon like the Dell 2300MP with poor black levels or a unit like the H30 that has excellent black levels but not as much punch. Also, before reading this thread I was thinking of XGA as a min res but now I think a good SVGA like this one MAY give the picture we're looking for. (~14ft distance for ~ 110" pic)

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Brightness is one of the H30's best qualities. It's nice and bright in econo mode and after 600hrs it's stays that way. The pixels works chip is the best thing to come along since the Faroudja chip. Very clean scaling/low video noise/ excellent dienterlacing. Two times the screen width and the screen door won't be a problem.

Let us know it you get one.

(~14ft distance for ~ 110" pic)


Two times the screen width and the screen door won't be a problem.

Surely that means at 14' one could have a 200" Width pic?

I meant two times the screen width for viewing distance.

Actually you can maybe shave off 1'.

I use a 92" wide 106" diag screen and view at about 14' ok

Bleah. The fun just went out of my projector--the bulb won't strike, with probably less than 500 hours on it (I've had it since May.) For the past couple of days, it's been taking longer than normal to strike (for some reason the colorwheel seems to spin up every time it tries to strike, so you can hear it trying) and today it's just not striking. (I did try reseating the bulb, but no dice.) It has to go back to Optoma for the green bar problem anyway, but I'm really unhappy that the bulb has gone so quickly.

One advantage of the 4805 is that you can buy it from Costco, and just take it back if it fails--if enough of these things were returned for dead bulbs, manufacturers would have to demand better quality and longer warranties from their suppliers. The extra money and wait would have been worth it if I'm facing an unexpected $300 repair.

So, if I have to send it back, who do I talk to and what do I ask them to do while it's there?

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

Arun is a good guy and up on things to check out on the H30. Sheesh better make a shopping list, green bar, C08 or are we at C09?, new bulb or maybe circuitry error.

You can ask for C05 which put the 16.9 image at the bottom of the chip or if you prefer the later firmwares where the 16.9 is at the top.
better luck

This is starting to stink... I think Optoma should be starting to ask some questions of the bulb manufacturer.

Arun has been very helpful to me. He indicated that when I do send mine in to put a note in the box and mention on the RMA form that I want to stay with C05 firmware. I am waiting until after the holidays to send mine in since it's still working. Very helpful.

Kiran- I can send you the same PM I've sent 4 other people in the last two weeks on where to find the best deal on bulbs if you'd like. At this rate we should try to get permission to post where the best deal is and make it a sticky thread. :)

Cheers!

Sorry to hear the bad news Entropy, I know you were on the fence on this PJ for the longest time. Hope your luck fairs better with the next builb. Mine is still ok, but I have less than 200 hours on it, so that isn't saying much.
And I think I just jinxed myself...

I got my new bulb today. Nothing unusual there, except i didn't order it until yesterday! The bulb arraived to my house by the next morning when I paid a tiny amount for 3-5 day shipping! Needless to stay I was quite surprised to see my bulb early. Too bad I'm going out of town this weekend. Hopefully my luck will continue with this bulb and it will last longer than 180 hours, maybe all the way to its rated 2k-3k!

Thanks gottahavapj for the recomendation.

Robert

I just bought a LinXcel vs-141A VGA Switch Box off Ebay, it has 4 vga in ports and one vga out, its electric, and came with 4 svga cables, currently i have 2 input vga ports used, one with dvi with my computer(using a dvi to vga adapter) and the other input is for my dvd player through component with the vga adapter that came with the H30.
The Computer works just great with it, but when i try to use the dvd player it wont show, but when my dvd player goes into its screen saver, the H30 says Component Video YUV 60HZ, and the output has like 2 screens, put together like the pj is splitting the screen into two identical images. and when i press something to get out of the screen saver mode, ie the menu the H30 no longer displays any image ans says signal lost. Why is it doing that, the H30 worked fine before with the component outputs from the dvd player.

Any clue anyone?

Arty

Originally posted by entropy


One advantage of the 4805 is that you can buy it from Costco, and just take it back if it fails--if enough of these things were returned for dead bulbs, manufacturers would have to demand better quality and longer warranties from their suppliers.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com> [/B]


I just walked into The above store yesterday (12/1/04) and they had an instant rebate of $175.00 and a free screen on the 4805. I could not resist!! I was going for the 4/3 native with the H30 but I will take the 1 year no question warranty and the great price with the rebate on the 4805.

I guess I will no longer be welcome here on the H30 forum.....:D
I am a traitor before I get started!!! Now where do I go to get help maxing out my image on the 4805 ???? I really have learned a lot just being in the background on this forum and I thank you all for the information.

The rebate is thru 12-31-04
I hope it is all-right to say this on the forum???

Hi All,

Just to share my experience with bad bulbs. I am on my 4th H30. My first H30 (batch 0419) had loud buzzing and the bulb lasted about 3 weeks, my second H30 (batch 0416) had no buzzing at all and the bulb lasted about 6 weeks, the 3rd H30 (batch 0419 again) had medium buzzing and the bulb lasted 8 weeks. The current H30 I have has been with me for about 3 weeks, has medium buzzing only when I use a dimmer and the bulb is already taking 2 or three tries to strike. I am afraid that there is a systematic problem with these bulbs. Did I read somewhere that Optoma changed bulb manufacturers sometime this year? Does anyone know what the previous manufacturer was and who the new one is?

I live near the Optoma office here in the bay area so aside from having to drive there to pick up a new projector and spending a few days getting the colors dialed all of my returns have been waranty exchanges. None of these bulbs had more than 300hrs on them.

Guitarman, there must be more information about this bulb situation from the factory.

No ones had that many problems. Curious if PJ 2 was great and the bulb went, why did you get another projector and not just the bulb replaced? What date did you buy your first H30? and where have you been? :)

Arty13- if the only thing that changed in the scenario was putting the VGA switchbox in line I would say it would have to be something with that. I would try different input ports, every combo you can possibly find.

Dave- I'm sure you'll be happy with that unit. You will just have to get all your info from the 4805 thread and they're not near as nice as we are. :D I find it really hard to believe though that you could keep a 4805 for 9 months, blow out a $350+ bulb, take it back and say I don't want it anymore. I know I heard the same thing from a Sam's Club guy about the 1 year no questions asked on the 4800 but I'd have trouble believing that would cover bulbs.

TV9223- that's just insane. I refuse to feel fortunate that I got 941 hours out of a bulb. Something's going on here.

Cheers!

Mine's still working well, but I only have a couple hundred hours on it. These bulbs really do suck when you consider how much they cost. They should at least be warranted for a year by the bulb manufacturer.

Thanks gottahaveapj, i think the reason it might not work since its electronic, and it might be doing something to the signal as it passes through... so that could be the reason why... i am gona wait for a reply from the person i bought it from off of ebay, and if anything i'm gona go buy a manual vga switch box... 35 dollars down the drain :(

For all you still getting your stuff for your pj and setup, make sure you do your research first, cause alot of my money has gone down the drain with compatability issues between various components :(

thanks again everybody,

Arty

Originally posted by gottahavapj
robfive- that stinks, sorry guy...

I'll send you a PM on where I found the best deal at a reputable reseller.

Zeto and Dillinger have both used them in the last two weeks I believe. Gents- How did that work out? To many freekin bulbs blowing to early. Not Optoma's fault but very frustrating.

They were great. I ordered the bulb on Friday Nov. 26th and paid for 2nd day shipping. I received it on Monday! Great service, great price.

Don

Originally posted by MikeSRC
Mine's still working well, but I only have a couple hundred hours on it. These bulbs really do suck when you consider how much they cost. They should at least be warranted for a year by the bulb manufacturer.

I agree the bulb is close to 1/3 the price of the PJ these days. 90days! the bulb company must know something.

Plus it's not just the H30, all accross the board there's been disappointments.

Then again we won't know how many can get to two and three thousand hours until allot more time passes. I put about 900hrs on my first machine and I'm at 600hrs on the second, so far so good.

Quick question: which would see more signal loss a 10' run of VGA or a 10' run of component cable. I need to change my setup, and VGA cables are a lot cheaper.

Originally posted by Fabbas
Quick question: which would see more signal loss a 10' run of VGA or a 10' run of component cable. I need to change my setup, and VGA cables are a lot cheaper.

Since they both send signals down 75 ohm coax, the best/cheapest solution may be to use some RG59 or RG6 with F to RCA adapters. Otherwise, generally speaking, the component cables should see less loss.


Cheers,
Mike

For only a 10' run, it really doesn't matter much, but for longer runs, component is better unless you use a higher quality VGA cable or coax breakout cable. The VGA connector body is too small, and the pins are too closely spaced, for the connector to accommodate full-sized coax cable, so most VGA cables are using smaller diameter, less-shielded wire.

Guitarman,

For the most part I have been enjoying my projector aside from returning them. I did post my experience with the first one back some time ago. I think I bought the first one in May but each of the returns has been less than 90 days from the RMA date so they will give you a new one. Other folks have had similar problems and I get no questions from Optoma when I return the units. They seem resolved that there are issues like this out there. I use my unit quite a bit so I get about 120hrs per month. Many people do not use there projectors that much so they are stuck with a bad lamp after the 90days is up.

I returned the second unit because of the bad lamp. It also had some non-uniformity in the SDE that I have not seen on any of the other units. The middle of the screen was soft and the SDE was less pronounced. It was the quietest unit and after I returned it for a buzzer I was also asking myself why I did not just ask them for a bulb. They automatically gave me a new unit since it was less than 90 days from the last RMA.

If this lamp goes bad I will only ask them for a lamp since this seems like a nice unit. Excellent picture after adjustment, Very good focus and SDE uniformity and very little buzzing. I think this unit is from 0439 batch.

I knew I saw this sometime ago.

Guitarman, can you confirm this switch in bulb suppliers and what lot number they mad ethis switch? I'm afraid to touch my unit to see what is inside.


The warranty from virtually any projector bulb manufacturer is 90 days, which is usually through the projector manufacturer.

The bulb in my H30 was made by Osram/Sylvania, but apparently they've switched to Philips now.


__________________
Enjoy!

Mike
Surf Audio Video
SurfRemoteControl.com

Goods news on the 90days, I thought it was just 30days for a swap. Good luck and lets get some H30's up over the 2,000hrs mark. I've slowed down lately since getting other projectors. But I do pop the H30 on regularly and I'm still amazed at how good the black detail and brightness is (econo mode).

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Arun has been very helpful to me.

Kiran- I can send you the same PM I've sent 4 other people in the last two weeks on where to find the best deal on bulbs if you'd like.

Yes, please do.

Can I reach Arun by email or do I have to call?

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

Get thru to the tech area by phone, mostly he picks up.

Originally posted by entropy
Yes, please do.

Can I reach Arun by email or do I have to call?

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>
I used my home mail account to send to them so I can't check it now or remember which one he answers. I think it was services@optoma.com. I think he answers that. His direct one is arunk@optoma.com I know but I'm not sure that is the best one to use if he was on vacation or something.

You have a PM.

I only found one of the AVS sponsors above that sold H30 bulbs and they were almost 20% to high (retail) I will try to call them and see if they can make a compromise to keep things in house.

Has anyone seen the Dell 2300mp in action as compared to the H30? I'm still intrigued by the higher lumen output and XGA native of the 2300mp.

If I had to make a bet on a side by side of even Optoma's 739, most all would prefer the H30.

News update, you ever hear of an H31? :) I'm getting an H31. I'll review it on Tuesday. Pricing like the IF4805, all the goodies. 854X480p, Dark chip2, larger mirror/dimple fix, RGB/RGBcw, 3000.1, DVI, I was told to check out the multiple scaling features. Memorizing digital shift, Expect a good run down.

The digital shift memory is useful if you have an electric screen like I do. I could program 2.35 movies to be up top and raise the screen up to delete the black bars. Pretty neat

Tom, I think you have too many projectors there at once. You'd better just send that H31 down here to me. ;)

Sounds great! How about that upgrade trade-in program. :D

Sooo.... if an NEC 410 and 510 mate with an H30 and an H31, all under the careful supervision of an H77- what does the litter look like? :D

Really odd HD keystoning?

First, let me thank those that welcomed me!!!!
I'm now noticing something strange.... this happens with my STB... I ceiling mounted my H30, cal'd it up using AVIA, and DVD's (480P) look awesome with a widescreen film (on my diy flat 16x9) keystoning is perfect. Straight lines up and down the sides, parallel with the sides of the screen...
But, when I apply a 1080I signal, be it HD or ED (fox) the upper right hand corner of the image bows in by an inch or two!!! (85 inch diagonal, very noticeable). I would jump to my STB, but when I connect it to my rear projection 52 inch Hitatchi HDTV display, it works correctly, and does not exhibit any top right image bending....
So my question is, what do you think it is??? My STB is a Zenith of about two years old, and I'm switching my component (STB/DVD) with a Sony receiver... Although I tried going direct and the problem is still there. So I'm ruling out the Sony....
Again, thanks in advance, and I really look forward to your replys!!!

Alter

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Sooo.... if an NEC 410 and 510 mate with an H30 and an H31, all under the careful supervision of an H77- what does the litter look like? :D

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/pjbackup.jpg

Yeah it's a little crowded up there. Nec gets their projectors back a few days after I check them. Optoma well they're pals, I get a great accomodation deal on the big dog H77, I still like my H30 and the H31 and H57 will just be to test out. I'm like a trouber shooter to find things to make them better if I can. Like the HT510 & HT410 both need letterbox support. Guess the missed that one.

edit: you do get letterbox support with an interlaced signal with DVD.

The H31 sounds like a winner just like the H57. Ofcourse both the H31 and H57 will out perform the two NEC's but with a price difference with the H57, not so with the H31.

test

Hey cheer up it was bound to happen (H30 vs H31). Can't stand in the way of progress. At least 4.3 screen users still have an advantage with the H30.

Ok they came out with a native widescreen model with higher contrast and DVI at tha same price. Good option for new buyers.

Let see how this puppy pans out. I think it has the same case, will see on Tuesday. Just remember I've been enjoying the great picture of the H30 for almost a year. A year from now who know's what will be up. Probably auto IRIS Dlp's with 10,000.1, but a better 10,000.1 because of the starting technology/mirror angle on/off. Not light on a full panel like LCD.

Still haven't heard from services@optoma. I did spend a few hours playing with Brian Bauer's 4805 and a PowerBook G4, which was eventually persuaded to produce an 848 or 856 x 480 analog signal (we didn't have the M1-DVI adapter or a DVI cable.) It looked quite nice, though the colors do seem a bit muted compared to the H30, and the 16:9 picture was much smaller than I expected. Still, a better return policy counts for a lot. Projector manufacturers really need to rethink their 90 day lamp warranties--a typical consumer whose bulb died after 7 months would be far more annoyed than I am (since I knew the risk going in.)

Originally posted by gottahavapj
I find it really hard to believe though that you could keep a 4805 for 9 months, blow out a $350+ bulb, take it back and say I don't want it anymore. I know I heard the same thing from a Sam's Club guy about the 1 year no questions asked on the 4800 but I'd have trouble believing that would cover bulbs.

I wouldn't say I didn't want it anymore, I'd say its bulb died after 1/4 of its rated lifetime and I wanted another one. :D

At Sam's Club I'd be surprised if they'd let you take it back after 9 months. At Costco, they almost certainly would let you take it back, especially after you pointed out that the bulb was rated for 2000 hours and you'd used it only 500 or so.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

After researching the Benq PB6100, Sanyo Z1, Infocus x1 & 4805, and just about everything under $1500 (except the H30:) for the last 6 months, I FINALLY decided on the Optoma H30 after reading this thread for the last 2 days! A bit of an impluse.

For some reason, I never considered it an option. After reading alot in this thread specifically, I knew this was the projector for me. Well, we'll see...:confused:

So I found a deal I couldn't resist and whipped out the CC last night. Already purchased the Panavise mount many of you suggest and use too. I'm pumped up as this is my first projector!

Any suggestions on a good cheap DIY screen? Right now, I have a DIY screen (94" 16:9) using the Misty Evening (ME) formula which is a grey screen. If I knew that I was getting the H30, I wouldn't have painted it with ME. Maybe it will look ok?

I could paint over it with a couple of layers of Kiltz and maybe some Behr Ultra white on top? Please advise...

Thanks to all of you that have contributed to this great thread! I'll try to stop lurking and post some results later on.

You can also try using some blackout cloth. It works pretty well. You can see one by checking my gallery.

Looks good. My Dad has some cheap blackout cloth he purchased off ebay a long time ago. He never used it as it came folded and he could never get the wrinkles out. He tried hanging it but it wouldn't lay flat.

Perhaps I can get it from him and give it a go! Any other cheap solutions?

Originally posted by jwerner
After researching the Benq PB6100, Sanyo Z1, Infocus x1 & 4805, and just about everything under $1500 (except the H30:) for the last 6 months, I FINALLY decided on the Optoma H30 after reading this thread for the last 2 days! A bit of an impluse.

You did read the part about premature bulb failures, right?

From what I can tell, I'm not the only person who's had this problem. That cranks up the price of the projector by another $300+. I'm certainly going to be steering everyone I talk to about front projectors to Costco--even if they have to pay $45 for a membership, they'll still come out way ahead when the bulb fails before the end of its rated lifetime. Furthermore, as I already observed, Costco has the clout to force better bulb warranties out of their suppliers. If they have to eat a bunch of projector returns for bulb failures, they'll take their business elsewhere--and they have a lot more business to take elsewhere than the half-dozen or so of us who post to the forum.

(BTW, I'd be a bit less unhappy about this if Optoma had replied to the email I sent them on Friday afternoon. We shall see, though.)

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

Originally posted by jwerner
Looks good. My Dad has some cheap blackout cloth he purchased off ebay a long time ago. He never used it as it came folded and he could never get the wrinkles out. He tried hanging it but it wouldn't lay flat.

Perhaps I can get it from him and give it a go! Any other cheap solutions?

First off it's a great machine and don't worry about bulb failure there's thousands of users who's bulbs are still ticking. Especially since your PJ is on the way, Don't lose sleep on that one. Lots of other machines have the same delima.

That BO cloth smooths out pretty easy. I can put a wrinkle on the screen and once I hangs free a bit the wrinkles go away.
Have fun with your new toy, stop by if you hv ?'s

Originally posted by guitarman
First off it's a great machine and don't worry about bulb failure there's thousands of users who's bulbs are still ticking. Especially since your PJ is on the way, Don't lose sleep on that one. Lots of other machines have the same delima.

That's certainly true. However, one pretty good machine in particular can be gotten from a source that allows a *six month* (!?!) return limit on computers and AFAIK no return limit on anything else. (You don't even need your receipt if you don't mind a store credit, though it certainly helps to have it.) That should IMO be a big factor in making a purchase decision (and would have tipped the balance in my case had I known that Costco would be stocking the 4805.)

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

holly crap, 372 pages!! Think there should be a limit on number of pages...just way too many to even think about going through... My quesion is if this will play a HD signal, even if its only svga 800x600?

Sure, the scaler on the H30 is one of it's high points because it does a clean job.

Yes, it will play an HD signal. It will accept the following signals: 480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, and 1080i. For any signals over 480p, the image is scaled to 480p. I haven't seen HD on the projector, but by all accounts, it looks great.

Originally posted by entropy
That's certainly true. However, one pretty good machine in particular can be gotten from a source that allows a *six month* (!?!) return limit on computers and AFAIK no return limit on anything else. (You don't even need your receipt if you don't mind a store credit, though it certainly helps to have it.) That should IMO be a big factor in making a purchase decision (and would have tipped the balance in my case had I known that Costco would be stocking the 4805.)

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

I guess the projector falls into the computer category so that's only 6months or 3 additional months. What if the bulb blows at 6.5months, you're still stuck. Plus we're limited to just the projectors Costco carries. True the IF is a good one but I don't think costco discounts to heavily.

jwerner- welcome and congrats on not only your H30 purchase but actually reading this entire thread if that's what you did. The blackout cloth works great. I built a frame out of 1x3 hardwood boards and REALLY stretched the BO cloth around it. You can play it like a drum so there are obviously no wrinkles. :) Expanding your DIY paint screen to a 4:3 matte white may be an easier first option.

Kiran- Don't cry sour grapes because they didn't return your email immediately. You've obviously gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the unit just as many of the rest of us have. Your bulb blew out- have you removed the bulb assembly and inspected the unit to see if there was internal damage as there was on mine, presumably from the force of the bulb blowing? I sent them an email the day mine blew expressing my dissatisfaction with less than 1/2 the rated bulb life and didn't get an answer from them either. Four days later when I found I had damage and emailed them- I heard back within an hour. I don't know that they are going to make a practice of being a sounding board for our frustrations on an out of warranty bulb failure. I would be curious to know if any manufacturer does.

Don't mean to rant but lets be fair about this.

Cheers!

Good point, we can't twist their arm to change which is basically the bulb manufacturers warranty. Just have to hope for the best. Wait till the first Qualia owner has his bulb go early, it's $3,000 for the Sony bulb. Yeoww!

Just thought I would mention that the odd keystoning I saw was indeed my STB.... $300 smackers for a new one, and now the image is striaght!!!
Alter

Originally posted by guitarman
Wait till the first Qualia owner has his bulb go early, it's $3,000 for the Sony bulb. Yeoww!
Wow...

Originally posted by AlterEgo7
Just thought I would mention that the odd keystoning I saw was indeed my STB.... $300 smackers for a new one, and now the image is striaght!!!
Glad you got that fixed Alter.. I didn't really have an educated guess on that one. I guess we're all getting $300 to death. I still have to tell myself (and my wife) that it's cheaper than many of my other buddies hobbies. :)

Originally posted by guitarman
I guess the projector falls into the computer category so that's only 6months or 3 additional months. What if the bulb blows at 6.5months, you're still stuck. Plus we're limited to just the projectors Costco carries. True the IF is a good one but I don't think costco discounts to heavily.

AFAIK, a projector is not considered a computer. (Their Web site specifically refers to "desktop and notebook" computers, as opposed to computer equipment and parts.) Especially since this one is being marketed as a home theatre projector. (They have several business projectors as well.) As for price, Costco is competitive with everyone else selling this machine.

(I mentioned the six month return policy on computers as an example of how liberal their return policy is--a six month old computer is pretty darn old and they still let you bring it back. I didn't mean to imply that a projector fell into that category.)

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Kiran- Don't cry sour grapes because they didn't return your email immediately. You've obviously gotten a lot of enjoyment out of the unit just as many of the rest of us have. Your bulb blew out- have you removed the bulb assembly and inspected the unit to see if there was internal damage as there was on mine, presumably from the force of the bulb blowing?

The bulb hasn't blown, it just won't strike. I removed it and reseated it, and didn't see any damage at the time. As for how much enjoyment I've gotten out of this unit--well, that's easy. I've gotten less than a quarter of the enjoyment I paid for.

It really is as simple as that from my perspective. I paid for 2000 hours of enjoyment, not 500. And as long as Costco offers to back up the products they sell with better return policies than the manufacturers themselves, I can't recommend anyone buy a competing product with a lesser warranty unless it's significantly better.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
I sent them an email the day mine blew expressing my dissatisfaction with less than 1/2 the rated bulb life and didn't get an answer from them either. Four days later when I found I had damage and emailed them- I heard back within an hour.

Actually, I emailed them asking about getting the green bar problem fixed, not just getting the bulb electronics checked out.

Originally posted by guitarman
Good point, we can't twist their arm to change which is basically the bulb manufacturers warranty. Just have to hope for the best.

I disagree. I think we can and should twist the projector manufacturers' arms to insist that their suppliers back their products for their rated lifetimes. It's the bulb manufacturer's warranty, but they have *chosen* to provide a short warranty on an expensive component. Optoma could certainly TRY to get better bulbs and better warranties, but they won't do that if users quietly accept their bulb failing after 1/4 of its rated life.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

I've had my H30 since Sept and overall I've been pleased with my purchase.

I'd like to get the opinion of all who frequent this thread on an hourly bases ;)



Here's a pic of the SDE: is this similar to your output? At the given X2 viewing distance I still find it distracting.

What's your take?

Hard to tell what's up with that side shot. The SDE should look faint in color and thin.

That looks more pronounced than mine. What's that a picture of?

"I disagree. I think we can and should twist the projector manufacturers' arms to insist that their suppliers back their products for their rated lifetimes. It's the bulb manufacturer's warranty, but they have *chosen* to provide a short warranty on an expensive component. Optoma could certainly TRY to get better bulbs and better warranties, but they won't do that if users quietly accept their bulb failing after 1/4 of its rated life.

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>"

Hi,
This bulb warranty deal has been handed down since day one of the dinosaur DLP. You really think a dozen or less H30 owners are going to change the world? ;) Sharp Z9000 bulbs were popping like crazy for a while, yet still the warranty's stay the same. There's really nothing we can do here.

Sri your bulb went out.

Do you think maybe an outside warranty service would provide said 3,000hrs for projector bulbs? Sure would be nice if they would and at a fraction percentage of the value. But I think I'm dreaming here. :)

Originally posted by Fabbas
That looks more pronounced than mine. What's that a picture of?

An outdoor pic on a cold day in February. I'll post the actual pic later tonight

Obviously I can't take the pic straight on:p but you get the idea. The image is projected onto white laminate that has a slight texture.

I understand that HCCV material may reduce the SDE (or any artifacting), but I don't want to drop the stunning visual punch this projector can throw.

Hmmm...still...I wouldn't be surprised if the laminate would be partly responsible for making the SDE worse. I use a blackout cloth screen, and I don't see any lack of punch. Have a look at my gallery. In fact, with a 72" wide screen, it's a little too bright for my taste, so I'll be getting an FL-D filter.

Originally posted by Fabbas
Hmmm...still...I wouldn't be surprised if the laminate would be partly responsible for making the SDE worse.

Yes I agree that it could be partially to blame. The texture could be scattering the "lines" into a hazy mess of reflections

Originally posted by Fabbas
I use a blackout cloth screen, and I don't see any lack of punch. Have a look at my gallery. In fact, with a 72" wide screen, it's a little too bright for my taste, so I'll be getting an FL-D filter.

Now here's where we differ; my screen is 92" diag (80" wide). Have I exceeded the proj's capability of producing a clean image? I could go with a smaller image, but I really like the screen dimentions for this room...

btw, your screen shots do look very good

Originally posted by 4 rubBeR
Now here's where we differ; my screen is 92" diag (80" wide). Have I exceeded the proj's capability of producing a clean image? I could go with a smaller image, but I really like the screen dimentions for this room...


I have an H30 with a 92" diag 16:9 matte white screen (essentially the same as blackout cloth) and there's no problem with screen door or brightness of the image. There are some screen shots I posted 'way back when here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4306883#post4306883

and here's another old favorite:

Darla (http://www.surfaudiovideo.com/graphics/darla.jpg)

I've gone 80" wide before with no problem. Just make sure that you sitting at least 150" from the screen.

Ok then. I'll give the blackout cloth a go once I receive my shiny new H30. Guitarman, hopefully the hanging trick will flatten it out. :D

etropy, sorry about the premature blown bulb. If I get a blown bulb within the first 1000 hours or worse 500, there will defintley be some 'buyers remorse' on my end. There's no way I can afford more than 1 bulb change per year. My wife doesn't work and we have two young children to feed. Our budget is tight. :p I'll follow all of the turn off/turn on , cool down, filter change tips. Maybe, that will help? We'll see.

Everything else you guys have said about image quality, colors, etc sounds fantastic and I trust the verdicts. I mean look at this thread! It's freggin huge! The H30 has to be a great projector.

Can't wait to fire it up. What's with the 16:9 lens cap anyway? I'll be running mine exclusively in 16:9 mode. Does it come with the projector?

You can try the lens cap it cuts down on light scatter. First off the blacks are so good that light spill really isn't a problem. The lens cap is just some icing on the cake.

Hey I got the Optoma H31 sitting here in front of me running. Very nice machine. It's got the classic Optoma color palate & smooth low video noise picture, along with some high brightness and stronger contrast (3000.1) I think you guys are going to like this one. :) Full review tomorrow.

What!! We have to wait until tomorrow! ;)

Sounds great Tom. Looking forward to your review and the start of another massive thread. :D

Another massive thread lol,

This is getting wierd, soon the forums first page will be covered with massive threads. Sure makes things interesting around here. We needed some new blood.

For staters there's some new stuff in the menu's and on the remote.

Image shift on the remote moves the 2.35 frame. Then theres a memory area in the display area which has presets for the shifted image. Also in the display menu there's a feature called Edge Mask. I forget what Wing told me about this one. I think it clears up garbade from some TV signals.

On the PJ itself there's component, S-video, DVI, composite.

Originally posted by guitarman
On the PJ itself there's component, S-video, DVI, composite.

Does the DVI input connector also support VGA?

Is the lens shorter or longer throw than the H30? I'd love a really short throw lens, so I could have a 640x480 window be the same size as my 800x600 (since I'm feeding it crappy TV reception, the extra pixels don't help.) The longer throw lens of the 4805 is a big disadvantage for me.

And, is there a trade-in program? :D I know there's one for the business projectors; it would be nice if there were one for the HT as well. (I'm not as upset as I might seem to be about the bulb personally, though I do think it would be an unpleasant surprise for people who didn't know it might happen, that's why I think *they* should take advantage of better warranties and we should all push harder for better warranties from all manufacturers.)

~ Kiran <entropy@io.com>

Edit: has a hard type DVI/VGA, VGA female/DVI male, with a different configuration on the DVI side 3rows of 3 and 2 rows of 2, plus the four analog pins are there. The cable I mentioned is a RS232 to VGA female.

Trade up, wouldn't that be nice. They do have a trade up program for their presentation projectors.

Originally posted by entropy
And, is there a trade-in program? :D


That's what I'm wondering too. Although it would be hard to give up the 4:3 for gaming.

But DVI is nice.

Wouldn't you know it? I just purchased the H30, it still hasn't shipped, and you guys are telling me the H31 is out? :eek:

What's the MSRP? If it will cost me a $300 - $500 premium, then ok. Maybe that's why my H30 was found at such a deal. Closeout.

So basically, the H31 sounds like a 4805 hunter. 3000:1 Holy Moly! Can't wait to read your review guitarman!

It's not out yet (very soon) last I heard the price will match the 4805.

Does the H31 have a USB or other means to upgrade the firmware at home like the 4805?

Originally posted by kimocal
Does the H31 have a USB or other means to upgrade the firmware at home like the 4805?

They don't usually let us do firmwares but then there's that RS232 cable in there. maybe

Originally posted by guitarman
Another massive thread lol,

This is getting wierd, soon the forums first page will be covered with massive threads. Sure makes things interesting around here. We needed some new blood.

That what happens when you finally get decent projectors at a price the average person can afford. :D

Before ordering my H30, it was demoed to me at a local HT retailer.

During the demo, it was first connected to HD satellite via composite video. Picture quality was acceptable to me, but it lacked sharpness or clarity for lack of a better way to describe it.

Connected to component video it looks amazing. It was a night and day difference in PQ.

My understanding is the deinterlacer in the H30 is supposed to be very good, but PQ of a source using a composite video input was far less than that of the same source hooked up through component video.

Would it be make a difference if I used a separate deinterlacer or line doubler?

Will it be a noticeable difference if I upgrade my 5-year old non-progressive scan DVD player to a new progressive scan model?

Are there any other options or tricks to get the best possible PQ from the H30?

I know the H30 has it's limitations, but I want to enjoy it to it's full potential.

I think it helps to upgrade to a newer progressive scan DVD player, at least a newer DVD player with component outputs. The deinterlacer on the H30 is pretty good, but I had a 5 year old Toshiba with the chroma upsampling error so I thought it would be good to upgrade anyway.

You may consider getting a Momitsu DVD player. It has a VGA out.

I'm using component outputs from the DVD player I have now, but I would definitely like to have something better, if possible.

Try to avoid using composite cables if at all possible. It'll give you a better signal than standard coaxial cable but it's not as good as s-video and you can't get real HDTV resolution from anything less than component, RGB/VGA, or DVI/HDMI. That demonstration was flawed if you were shown HDTV through composite. SDTV is barely tolerable through composite let alone HDTV.

Originally posted by allkingz
During the demo, it was first connected to HD satellite via composite video. Picture quality was acceptable to me, but it lacked sharpness or clarity for lack of a better way to describe it.

Connected to component video it looks amazing. It was a night and day difference in PQ.

That's to be expected. I don't know why anyone would demo a projector using composite, especially from an HD satellite tuner. If you actually were watching an HD source through component after the composite hookup, the difference would be like night and day.

My understanding is the deinterlacer in the H30 is supposed to be very good, but PQ of a source using a composite video input was far less than that of the same source hooked up through component video.


That would be true for any projector. If you feed it an SD source via composite and then component, the component will always look better. To compare the H30's deinterlacing, you need either need a progressive scan DVD player that you could switch from interlaced to progressive output, or another projector connected to the same source.

Here's another pis of the SDE:

Its starting to bother me now. I've had an Infocus 5700 and an X1 on the same screen (not side-by-side) and I don't believe I ever saw this much SDE. Could there be a problem? Some kind of mis-alignment of the mirror/colour wheel?

You are gonna have to tell us how far back you are sitting when you notice the issue. So far I don't see that stated. Only that you have 80" projection. Your picture is what anyone would see that close. It is normal at that range. It dissapears for the most part if you hold to at least the 2x the screen size rule for distance you are away from the screen.

Originally posted by 4 rubBeR
Here's another pis of the SDE:

Its starting to bother me now. I've had an Infocus 5700 and an X1 on the same screen (not side-by-side) and I don't believe I ever saw this much SDE. Could there be a problem? Some kind of mis-alignment of the mirror/colour wheel?

I think you might have gotten a bum unit. I don't have anything like that on mine.

Originally posted by RobRoy
You are gonna have to tell us how far back you are sitting when you notice the issue. So far I don't see that stated. Only that you have 80" projection. Your picture is what anyone would see that close. It is normal at that range. It dissapears for the most part if you hold to at least the 2x the screen size rule for distance you are away from the screen.


I'm sitting 15' back from the screen. I'm aware that the x2 rule applies for this resolutuon of proj. If you are saying that the SDE I'm seeing is normal for the H30, then I'll go with it. I'm just surprised that no-one else is saying that the SDE is quite visible on the proj.

Here's the original pic that I was throwing for the sample of the SDE of my projector.

Originally posted by 4 rubBeR
Here's another pis of the SDE:

Its starting to bother me now. I've had an Infocus 5700 and an X1 on the same screen (not side-by-side) and I don't believe I ever saw this much SDE. Could there be a problem? Some kind of mis-alignment of the mirror/colour wheel?

Your picture looks about right. This is VGA, SD is usually more noticed in white text and can vary to each persons eyesite. You may want to change your name to Eagle Eye. :) at least if you're at 15' and can be bothered. De-focus a little if you have to, not your eyes but the lens. ;)

Originally posted by MikeSRC
That's to be expected. I don't know why anyone would demo a projector using composite, especially from an HD satellite tuner. If you actually were watching an HD source through component after the composite hookup, the difference would be like night and day.



I don't know why they had a projector hooked up to composite when component was available, other than the fact that they had several FPs on display. Since they also deal mostly in high-end equipment, I'm sure the H30 is of little significance to them.



That would be true for any projector. If you feed it an SD source via composite and then component, the component will always look better. To compare the H30's deinterlacing, you need either need a progressive scan DVD player that you could switch from interlaced to progressive output, or another projector connected to the same source.

I see. Since I have sources that only use composite, is there an simple and affordable (under a few hundred dollars) way to upconvert composite to component?

Originally posted by allkingz
I see. Since I have sources that only use composite, is there an simple and affordable (under a few hundred dollars) way to upconvert composite to component?

Nothing that would do a better job than the H30's deinterlacing. An Iscan Pro would give you a better picture, but it's more like $300.

"Since I have sources that only use composite"

Can't imagine what you're using here? Time to step up from old cable boxes and PlayStation 1 or LD players. ;)

What are you using?

Just wondering, since you all own an H30 and are thus considered of higher intelligence. Is there any noticeable difference between analog HD with component and digital HD with DVI or HDMI? Or does the projector resolution of SVGA limit the picture more than analog HD would.

I've ordered the H30 and have yet to receive it, but seeing the H31 specs I am curious as to the addition of DVI input.

would being able to get this for $850 be a no brainer?

edit:
with free screen...

Both will look great but DVI keeps the signal cleaner. Resolution won't seem much different with the two machines.

4 rubBeR,

That picture you posted is marvellous! It's kind of nice to see what the H30 can do with scenes that aren't colorful. The snowflakes falling and the detail on the branches really look good. I also liked the lack of moire on the building and the clarity of the sculpture.

Man, if your 'dull' screenshots look like this, I can't imagine what 'Spiderman' or 'Fifth Element' would look like.

Enjoy your pj if you can. Looks like a winner to me.

Wayne

Originally posted by guitarman
"Since I have sources that only use composite"

Can't imagine what you're using here? Time to step up from old cable boxes and PlayStation 1 or LD players. ;)

What are you using?

My DVD player and PS2 use component. My NES, SNES, and VCR only have a composite out. It's archaic equipment obviously, but it still gets used on occasion by my girlfriend (she loves the Super Mario Brothers series) and guests that bring over little kids.

Anyway, I bought my H30 primarily for DVD and PS2 (and with hopes of picking up an OTA HDTV STB). I still have a 43" RPTV which will still get a lot of use. I probably really don't need (or would make much use of) something to upconvert composite to component.

Still, I'm concerned with getting the best PQ I can from the H30. If it's going to be north of $500 to get something that will make a significant difference, I'll skip that idea and enjoy what I have. :)

Thanks again for everyone's input.

Originally posted by mystery
4 rubBeR,

That picture you posted is marvellous! It's kind of nice to see what the H30 can do with scenes that aren't colorful. The snowflakes falling and the detail on the branches really look good. I also liked the lack of moire on the building and the clarity of the sculpture. Wayne

I suppose like anyone here we all just want to get the best out of our purchases. I bought sight unseen and have no other reference except for the X1 and 5700 I tested through Infocus. If most H30 owners here feel that the SDE I'm "seeing"is typical of this projector then so be it. If there was a problem then I'll be giving Optoma an opportunity to demonstrate their well-known quality service.

I'm now thinking of retiring my DIY screen for some screen fabric and building a frame. I'm thinking Da Mat as ambient light is of no concern (dedicated room with black walls/burgundy ceiling). Opinions?

Oh one more thing...

I really hope I didn't mislead anyone here by implying that the ice sculpture was a screen shot; it isn't. This screen-shot pic is the complete opposite in comparison:

Anyone using a Pioneer 575 DVD player with the H30 in the UK ? If so are you using progressive scan or interlaced ?

Interlaced seems to look a little better for example when things are moving fast across screen or am I imagining things ? While progressive scan seems to be slightly brighter and sharper. Is there a test I can do to find out the best option, like a DVE disc or maybe a film on DVD ?

Got my H30 today and wanted to share some impressions:

This is my first projector. My only reference point would be my Dad’s Infocus X1 and going to the movie theater. So, my review is probably more helpful to projector newbies considering the H30.

When firing up the H30 for the first time I crossed my fingers. Murphy’s Law. I’m a living example. My ceiling mount hasn’t come in yet so it’s on the coffee table for now. First thing I noticed was that I didn’t need to stand on my head and go through the menu in order to get the image right side up. By default, it’s setup for a table mount.

As the H30 heated up for the first time, it stunk like something was burning inside. I’ve read this happens at first startup somewhere else in this forum. Like a wise redneck once said, “you’ve got to burn off the new”.

The H30 got the worst case scenario right off the bat. I hooked it up to a cheap Apex DVD player via composite out. The default settings were used on the H30 and I currently have a DIY grey screen (Misty Evening). In other words, a pretty horrible setup! I popped in LOTR and sat back. My impression? It looked pretty darn good. Already better than my Dad’s X1.

I’m one of the “lucky” few that are extremely sensitive to rainbows. It took me 30 minutes to see one! Not bad. Now, it’s time to view a more refined image. So, I hooked up the VGA connection to my PC and viewed “Step into Liquid” which is encoded into HD Windows Media 9. Perhaps I was expecting too much. The difference in quality between it and LOTR wasn’t huge which surprised me. For example, going from a movie to HDTV on my Dad’s X1 was night and day.

The DVD image over composite was a bit blurry and soft but the colors were fantastic. With the PC playing HD WM9, the image was much sharper and defined and the colors were better but I saw some video noise. Perhaps my Radeon 8500 isn’t doing the H30 justice?

My wife and I watched the movie “Identity” which is a very dark movie with lightning and rain. Using the Apex over composite she thought the image lacked brightness and the image was soft. She’s pretty much right on. I suspect the brightness issue is due to the grey screen and the soft image to the composite input and crappy dvd player. The dark scenes in the movie are fantastic with the H30! Blacks were jet black. The best I’ve ever seen. Colors were great too. Once I adjusted some settings, the colors were excellent too.

Once I get it ceiling mounted, redo my screen, and run it through digital video essentials, I’ll report back. Hopefully, running it through a decent DVD player via component.

Very good that you like the H30, here you put it through the worst conditions and it still looked ok.

Hmmm a dvd player that just has composite out. I know the Apex's were popular for deleting the Macro vision but there's a limit. ;)

You got some work/shopping to do. enjoy

Originally posted by GGB
Anyone using a Pioneer 575 DVD player with the H30 in the UK ? If so are you using progressive scan or interlaced ?

Interlaced seems to look a little better for example when things are moving fast across screen or am I imagining things ? While progressive scan seems to be slightly brighter and sharper. Is there a test I can do to find out the best option, like a DVE disc or maybe a film on DVD ?

9 times out of 10 letting the player do the deinterlacing will look smoother. Here's your test - Gladiator Chap 12 at the end, the scene pans over the city to the Colosseum, lots of angled rooftops with the motion creates a torture test for a deinterlacer. Stick with which ever signal looks smoother.

Hey jwerner-

I know the image you're seeing- I've experimented with ME.

I use a Panny XP30 progressive DVD through component. I gotta tell ya'- Tom is right on. You need to upgrade to a 480p DVD player. The difference is huge. Night and day.

Next- a little Avia touch-up.

You have a lot to look forward to! The fun has only begun!

Don't forget the image from a progressive player on the H30 is also significanty brighter and I like it bright. I love my high power screen with the H30. Lose some significant viewing angle but ooolala it's bright like a CRT.

So I went back to an InFocus dealer here in Ottawa and had them give me a demo of their 4805. I brought a sample of my screen material and was able to sample the difference against their screen (Da Mat) The SDE was just about the same on both materials. As well, the SDE was really no diffenent than what I was experiencing at home.

I conclude that the SDE is on par with the 4805 which IMHO is very similar to the H30's levels.

All is well now! :)

As well, a Sanyo Z2 was playing alongside it and I was quite surprised how poor the image was (DVD of Harry Potter III) in comparison. Black levels were terrible and that was on Da Lite HCCV material. No puch to the picture (and no "sparkelies" for that matter). SDE was minimal but heck, the H30 can throw a much superior image under the right conditions than the Z2. HD is another matter, but I've been pleased with material shown on the H30; 1080i looks superior to DVDs in most cases.

Just being able to watch "LOST" on this baby makes the purchase worth it! :p

~4rubBeR

jwerner. Will you get a chance to view it with HD programming from networks or DiscoveryHD or HDNET?

Originally posted by RobRoy
Don't forget the image from a progressive player on the H30 is also significanty brighter and I like it bright.

Why is that?? The lamp won't shine any brighter whatever signal the H30 gets.
So if contrast, brightness and gamma are set correctly I don't see why there should be an increase in light output?

Regards,

Ronald

jwerner. Will you get a chance to view it with HD programming from networks or DiscoveryHD or HDNET?

No unfortunatly. I work for a IP TV provider and we don't have HDTV yet. And I can't exactly go out and purchase the competition to get High Def.

This said, I'm considering a OTA HDTV Set top as my house is about 20 miles from several stations broadcasting in HD.

Once this happens I'll report back on the quality. For now, I only have 'Step in to Liquid' and 'T2' encoded into HDWM9 for reference.

Originally posted by tingtong5
Why is that?? The lamp won't shine any brighter whatever signal the H30 gets.
So if contrast, brightness and gamma are set correctly I don't see why there should be an increase in light output?

Regards,

Ronald
That's what projector central has been saying lately. Most likely you can tune either signal to be the same brightness. Here's another twist HDTV is always way way brighter.

I have been using my 2nd h30 since august (first one returned dead to optoma after 3months) and i start to occur problems again: Brightness fluctuates now and then (as if its flickering) and sometimes the whole screen goes black. (just a split second, like a flash) Projector has been connected to pc as it has always been and configuration and/or setup/cables havent been changed.

I don't know what to do... the projector is still working, but i have a feeling it will die in some time, just like the last one. The bulb has 174hrs (1st one had about 200 before it went completely dead)

Think i am going to mail optoma and see what they say. Getting pretty fed-up with this.. damn 1600 euro projector should be working fine without flaws.

Well Ting I'm no expert, but in general it may have to do with the way a progressive image is displayed as opposed to an interlaced signal. When an interlaced signal is displayed it is really only showing half the image at any one moment and a milisecond later it shows the other half of the image thus fooling the eye into thinking it is seeing the whole image at the same time. When a progressive image is dispayed it shows both fields (or the whole image) at the same moment so you could almost say there are two lights on at the same time as opposed to just one thus increasing the brightness. Now I'm not sure though why it is still brighter on the projector because as I understand it the internal deinterlacer in the projector converts an interlaced signal comming into progressive before displaying it. Perhaps it has to do with the quality of the the signal comming from the progressive DVD player since a progressive DVD player is getting additional decoding information through flags etc when reading the disc that the projector cant get thus resulting in a more accurate 3:2 pulldown.

Just a buch of techno bable but it's my stab at explaining why the input from a progressive DVD player is brighter.

Originally posted by Nevar
I have been using my 2nd h30 since august (first one returned dead to optoma after 3months) and i start to occur problems again: Brightness fluctuates now and then (as if its flickering) and sometimes the whole screen goes black. (just a split second, like a flash) Projector has been connected to pc as it has always been and configuration and/or setup/cables havent been changed.

I don't know what to do... the projector is still working, but i have a feeling it will die in some time, just like the last one. The bulb has 174hrs (1st one had about 200 before it went completely dead)

Think i am going to mail optoma and see what they say. Getting pretty fed-up with this.. damn 1600 euro projector should be working fine without flaws.

The light coming out of the lens wouldn't flash off and on in 1 sec. I use the Blue screen option for blanking not the black. If the signal falls out for a second the PJ will go to a blue screen. Signal problem most likely

I can't believe how good the picture is. I was expecting a dimmer picture with less resolution than this. We'll have to do some light control from two windows in certain times of the day, but it's plenty bright to have some lights on in the room and during most daylight hours. I'm projecting at 14' for a 96" wide picture and sitting between 10-15' from the wall. This is being projected right on our beige wall (oakbuff with velvet base is the exact wall paint). Calibrated with Ovations Avia as best I know how, so far, but the picture right out of the box was much better than I had expected. We were watching the I-AA semifinal game on ESPN2 in a matter of minutes and all had perma-grin.

This thing looks awesome. Have had regular satellite signal, through S-vid, and DVD 480p on it so far. The DVD looks better, but the satellite feed is great too. We are going to soon upgrade to HD satellite receiver. I wasn't going to do it before I saw the picture, but now I'm sure the resolution in HD is going to be enjoyable.

Thanks to all who answered my posts. Before I started to ask questions and learn really what to ask, I was leaning toward the Dell 2300mp based on the resolution and brightness of that unit. Now I really understand that for HT it seems to make more sense to get a unit that is more set for HT than for a board room powerpoint presentation.

Now for the cables and ceiling mount. I didn't want to get ahead of myself not knowing what to expect and wanting to play with picture size and viewing distance a little before mounting the unit.

I'm going to need about 45 to 50' of component cable. What are some suggestions about running three separate coax runs with compression RCA connectors. If this is a good idea, what coax and what connectors?

I'd like to tackle a DIY ceiling mount for this unit. Our ceiling is at 7'8" and I'd like to keep it pretty tight to the ceiling if possible.

Do get that HD tuner for satellitel. You will be amazed how could HD will look on your screen. If possible, when viewing HD programming HD sit back some further if you are able. I looked at HD content yesterday on EDTV and HDTV projectors and any different in viewable resoltion was ever so slight.

guitarman, is there a noticible difference in resolution between the h30 and the h31. Thanks

Not to answer for Tom, but the H30, in Native 16:9 mode, will give you the same resolution as the H31, it just crops the sides of the image to make it fit (ie: 800 X 480). Comparing the H30 in 16:9 mode (800 X 450), there's no noticeable difference. When I compared the H30 to the 4805 as well, the slight difference in resolution was not noticeable either, especially at a normal viewing distance.

I think we talked about it somewhere 'way back in this thread. ;)

drdutch,
Sounds great I know new buyer are getting super low priced deal on the H30 these days. To think a little more than a year ago I paid $2500 for a Seleco HT200 which is the same res but didn't have half the contrast of the H30. Plus the H30 was giving it a run in the color department also.
enjoy

Right Mike, there is no noticeable difference res wise. The dimple fix does make for a deep dark picture which makes the colors richer looking on the H31, plus it's brighter with all the light shooting thru the 16.9 frame. Res wise they're all about the same. Very good for DVD and scaling of HDTV looks good also.

Would I pay an extra $300 or so for the H31, probably. At first I didn't like the SD being more visible but I got use to it.

I just purchased the H30 for slightly under US$ 1,000. However, I just started reading all of the comments about bulb issues that people have had. (I am not sure how I missed this during all of my research). Is this a problem with all projectors? Should I return the H30 and get a 4805 for $300 more? I spent a while looking at the two projectors, everthing seemed so similar that I figured that I would save myself some $$$'s, but if I am going to have problems I would rather spend a little extra money.

Also, I have had one good experience with optoma service, I am currently studying in the UK, and I called up optoma service to find out where I could purchase a UK power cord, and they told me they would ship me one for free today. I was a bit worried that he also asked me if I had any problems with the unit (as if he was expecting some), but all in all he was very nice and helpful

Thanks for any responses.

From what I have read on here, life time of a bulb is something that can not be predicted very closely. Some last for weeks; some for months; and some for 1-2 years. A lot depends on usage (lots of on and off with projector just as with a lite bulb). Mostly, I think it depends on a thing called..luck. As long as you have your projector and enjoy it, keep it. Seems you have a good place to get future service. So, forget the life of the bulb, and enjoy!

The 4805 had bulb probs also. Percentage wise it's low with both models.

what's a good cheap? progressive scan dvd player to match it with?
will be connecting to denon 3802 receiver. i assume an upconverting
player isn't recommended?

Thanks guitarman and mangopony for your replies.

I saw some Q50 Phillps w/faroudja around a couple of weeks ago for $79. Some like the Zenith upscaling model because it will upsale with component. Better do some research on that one.

Also the Q50's can sometimes skip a beat during a movie. It will happen with the one I have maybe once in a blue moon. So that's not a big issue for me. The picture quality is excellent, sharp and smooth.

tzzoooma: .............Cambridge Audio 540D is a fine DVD/CD player. plays PAL/NTSC all region DVDs..heavy and very well built. Pm me if you want additonal info. I have one and it has performed flawlessly for 4-5 weeks now. By the way, the audio part of this player is excellent.

If I am using a projector for native 16 x 9 all the time; HD and DVD..would it be better to spend $300 more for H31? ...Bottom line, is the picture on the screen any 'better' with a h31 over a h30. If so, why? Thanks, as always.

Yes for you it's worth the extra $300. Blacks and colors are allot better, there's allot of very useful aspect features, it's brighter because it has a more powerful bulb and all the light is shooting thru a 16.9 panel. All this is worth the few hundred extra to me for sure.

They're still talking over the msrp and are thinking it might be best to match the new 4805 msrp, but it's not set yet.

But the budget minded that want to save the few hundred dollars are certainly not hurting with the image quality of the H30.