Well, I'll be using this for my computer screen for games with small text as well as for videogames, and normal stuff like browsing the web if I can get used to such a low res, so I definitely need the full 800x600 resolution for 4:3 material.

That's what I do as well. I don't care if it's 80" diagonal 800x600- running around chasing and gunning down almost life sized enemies in FPS games is a kick. I think you'd be happier with a 4:3 screen to be honest given that. Try showing it on a semi white wall first so you can play with all the aspect ratios.

Wait to see how it looks since you got a 16.9 screen. Try 16.9 and 4.3 scaled. The scaler is more than excellent on the H30.

I was doing some readin earlier in this humongous post about using zoom and mounting the projector somewhere in the middle of zoom. I just recently mounted my H30 and ceiling mounted it at the minimal zoom thinking the less zoom the better picutre. But now I got to thinking that maybe the closer with a little bit of zoom might be a brighter punchier picture? I dont have everything setup yet so I havent got to sit down and really see. But I was just wondering did I make a mistake by mounting the projector at the max distance and using 0 zoom?

Thanks,

Nope you're good, you wouldn't notice any difference either way.

Tomorrow my H30 FINALLY arrives, after a frickin month of waiting. Any tips/tricks that'd be useful to know? I've got my Avia disk ready (I've been using Avia since I got my old 36" CRT HDTV). Oh, and anyone know of a good cheap switcher to switch between two VGA outputs? I've already got a component switcher, but I need to be able to switch between my PC and my component devices (my PC is an HTPC).

Originally posted by Dreamwriter
Oh, and anyone know of a good cheap switcher to switch between two VGA outputs? I've already got a component switcher, but I need to be able to switch between my PC and my component devices (my PC is an HTPC).

I use the one that was under $10 from Fry's. I use it to switch between my HTPC and Xbox. Works well. The only thing is sometimes when I switch to the HTPC there is a slight red tone to it. But all I do to fix it is just his the re-synch and the colors are corrected. Pretty happy for $10 and suits my need.

Originally posted by Dreamwriter
Tomorrow my H30 FINALLY arrives, after a frickin month of waiting. Any tips/tricks that'd be useful to know? I've got my Avia disk ready (I've been using Avia since I got my old 36" CRT HDTV). Oh, and anyone know of a good cheap switcher to switch between two VGA outputs? I've already got a component switcher, but I need to be able to switch between my PC and my component devices (my PC is an HTPC).

Choose Cinema in the Picture menu and Film in the Image menu, gamma 2, definitely low lamp mode. Mine is still super bright in low power after many hours. As far as color temp use the Needle pulse and steps pattern and toggle the color temp which makes the box steps a better gray. Then do the basics with Avia using in Video Test Patterns, Grayscales & Levels. Use the top two options for the blacks and whites, these are all black bar patterns and all white patterns for whites/contrast.

Don't try to blast out the whites pattern have it where the right moving bar is half the brightness of the left bar. Then do the blacks but do the blacks to a point where the left black moving bar is barely visible, delete the on screen menu when setting the blacks also.
Good luck let us know how the picture ends up?

Hi all,

First the good news. What I thought was a premature lamp failure turned out to be something else. I was told that the engine failed. However, because Optoma didn't have that part in stock at the time (waiting for a shipment to come in) they sent me a brand new projector/lamp. Woo-hoo! I'm very happy. That's more then I could hope for. Great customer service!

However, when I received my projector, I noticed that the new firmware doesn't allow to tweak ADC settings in the advanced mode of service menue. When I hit up+left+down every feature on the menue opens for editing but ADC stays grayed out.

Is there a new procedure to enable editing ADC settings?

Got my H30. Everything I had hoped it would be, and more! No more $1600, 300 pound TV's for me :) It's just amazing how good HDTV looks on the thing - sure, it's not quite as good, my eyes were trained with two years of direct-view 36" 1080i, but I'm still flabbergasted at what a 480p TV can put out. I think my friends will be happy with the Superbowl tomorrow.

I just wish I had a huge, wall-filling 4:3 screen. All the first night I went without a screen, and I got used to having a huge 800x600 4:3 picture *and* a large 92" 16:9 picture. But with my 92" screen, all I get is the 16:9 picture - if I want 4:3, I gotta either window it at low resolution or move the projector a lot closer to the screen. Maybe next month I'll make me a nice DIY screen.

sxxg, now why would you want to mess with the ADC, ADC will automatically change the Service pictures settings, similar to the auto-cal items. You have more than you need with just the picture service setting RGB's and the User RGB's, but both these do the same thing anyway.
Anyway ADC is only un-whited out with a progressive signal

Deamrwriter,

" I just wish I had a huge, wall-filling 4:3 screen. All the first night I went without a screen, and I got used to having a huge 800x600 4:3 picture *and* a large 92" 16:9 picture. But with my 92" screen, all I get is the 16:9 picture - if I want 4:3, I gotta either window it at low resolution or move the projector a lot closer to the screen. Maybe next month I'll make me a nice DIY screen."

Ah ha, now you see why I miss full 4.3. You may grow out of it but just like you when I first saw a 120" full image of some of my favorite music video's I was awed.

I don't even play the video's anymore. sniff

[QUOTE]Originally posted by guitarman
[B]sxxg, now why would you want to mess with the ADC, ADC will automatically change the Service pictures settings, similar to the auto-cal items. You have more than you need with just the picture service setting RGB's and the User RGB's, but both these do the same thing anyway.
Anyway ADC is only un-whited out with a progressive signal

Guitarman, the reason I wanted to mess with ADC settings is because with my last projector I had great results using the settings posted by someone approx 6-7 month ago in this thread. The person that posted had calibrated using colorfacts if I remember correctly.

These settings took care of the green push that I initially had with old and now with the new pj.

I did try to calibrate pj myself using DVE disk but couldn't fix the greens.


Can you please post your settings so I can try them out?

Thanks.

My H30 is docked in the moth ball fleet :)

I put a how to eyeball a good grayscale up in the first post. You should be able to get ADC open with a progressive signal. Then you could re-apply those old numbers. If it doesn't look good use the technique in the first post, just using the user advanced RGB.

Originally posted by guitarman
My H30 is docked in the moth ball fleet :)

I put a how to eyeball a good grayscale up in the first post. You should be able to get ADC open with a progressive signal. Then you could re-apply those old numbers. If it doesn't look good use the technique in the first post, just using the user advanced RGB.

Thanks Guitarman. I'll play with it...it's been a while since I calibrated my pj.

Am I doing something drastically wrong or is it normal for the color setting to be between the -40 and -50 range after visual calibration.

Ive used Digital Video Essential, THX Optomizer, and Sound & Visions Video Calibration disc (can't remember what its call) and on all the various color calibration tests I seem to end up with my color turned all the way down or else I get oversaturation in the reds. By doing this I can get the blue channel to match, the red channel pretty close but the gren channel is usually pretty far off (using Digital Video Essentials blue / gree/ red filters).

Ive also used the information in the first post to attempt to adjust the grey (too much red in my case).. I'm no pro at this, obviously. Any help would be appreciated.

If you are in Houston and have calibration equipment or you are really good at calibrating by eye let me now in a PM. Depending on the fee I might be able to afford professional or semi-professional calibration.

-GK

Why not order Avia also, it's color saturation check is pretty simple.

Best thing you can do now find the way to make grays gray, no blue , no red, no green. After that re-do the blacks and whites and check the grays again.

I'll bet color temp 1 gave you a better starting point at first.

Hi all,

One thing I noticed after I received my PJ back from service. When I switch the pic to 16x9 native I get three horizontal thin white bars at the top edge of the picture. I can't seem to find the setting to get rid of this. It seems to me that I should have a edge mask somewhere. I tried the zoom, but the picture doesn't stay zoomed after I exit the menu. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Don

Hey guys anyone know where I can get a similar Component to VGA converter like the one that comes with the Optoma? I gone ahead and moved away from my HTPC and have gone over to my Toshiba SD6200 DVD and I used the One I had. I'm going into a Manual VGA switchbox and I want to Input my Motorola Hi Def Cable box into the other side of it. I need another converter to convert the Component cables (The cable company did not turn on the box's DVI Outout). I'm dying to see the Opening Night Red Sox Game on my Projector.

BTW I'm impressed by my 4 year old Tosh that think was really ahead of it's time and is providing a heck of an image.

Hey Scarpad, i know you can get them off ebay for a cheap price, but otherwise optoma, but you'll end up paying more going through them... but whichever way you go, the image will probably look the same... hope this helps

Arty

Originally posted by Dillinger
Hi all,

One thing I noticed after I received my PJ back from service. When I switch the pic to 16x9 native I get three horizontal thin white bars at the top edge of the picture. I can't seem to find the setting to get rid of this. It seems to me that I should have a edge mask somewhere. I tried the zoom, but the picture doesn't stay zoomed after I exit the menu. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Don
I get this same thing with HD from the cable box, nowhere else though. I go to the Image menu, choose signal, then vertical. Moving this about 6-8 clicks to the right clears up the lines for me. Unfortunately I have not found a way to make this setting stay after power down so I have to do it most of the time I watch HD. If I had to do it every time I turn the projector on it would get a little old...

Cheers!

Originally posted by Scarpad
Hey guys anyone know where I can get a similar Component to VGA converter like the one that comes with the Optoma? I gone ahead and moved away from my HTPC and have gone over to my Toshiba SD6200 DVD and I used the One I had. I'm going into a Manual VGA switchbox and I want to Input my Motorola Hi Def Cable box into the other side of it. I need another converter to convert the Component cables.
If I recall some H30 owners were picking up the Infocus one from them for under $20. It is a cable/dongle type arrangement rather than the Optoma adapter but I guess works OK.

Cheers!

I just got a great deal on a refurbed Dell a couple of weeks ago and am going to set it up as a kind of starter MCE 2005 HTPC. I'm off down that road to see if HTPC's are really that stellar at driving them there H30's. From the first time I saw Jason's screenshots I was intrigued as hell. :)

Wish me luck!! :)

Good luck. :D

Post back and let us know how it works out.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
I get this same thing with HD from the cable box, nowhere else though. I go to the Image menu, choose signal, then vertical. Moving this about 6-8 clicks to the right clears up the lines for me. Unfortunately I have not found a way to make this setting stay after power down so I have to do it most of the time I watch HD. If I had to do it every time I turn the projector on it would get a little old...

Cheers!

Thank you, I didn't look in the menu while I viewed a component signal. Now I see the menu option. I knew it had to be something stupid....on my part that is...haha

Don

Originally posted by gottahavapj
I just got a great deal on a refurbed Dell a couple of weeks ago and am going to set it up as a kind of starter MCE 2005 HTPC. I'm off down that road to see if HTPC's are really that stellar at driving them there H30's. From the first time I saw Jason's screenshots I was intrigued as hell. :)

Wish me luck!! :)

They Definately are. I have moved onto my Toshiba Standalone. It was a high end player in it's day and the picture from it to the H30 is darn good, but the HTPC was still better running Theatertek. I fond thou that I never used my front ends. I'd click on the Video_TS file and launched the movie. When it was over I shut off the PJ. I'm not big on Pomp and circumstance. If I want to listen to music or view Pictures I go to my Mac or PC. I get my DVR from Comcast and My Hi def from them too. So I've gone that media center route I just never used it to it's fullest. I pretty much slap in a DVD when i want to view it.

Well I got MCE2005 loaded after some SATA controller issues. Pretty cool front end I would say but I only have a couple of hours on it. I'm sure I'll find the shortcomings soon enough :D I popped in Gladiator last night at about 2AM (yawn) and just played it through Media Center with PowerDVD 6. The picture looked a little softer than my Onkyo DVD player but I have done no tweaking of any kind yet. Media Center does not support post processing with ffdshow either so I'll have to try playing around with those goodies outside of MCE. I have never used any kind of TIVO/DVR device before so the My TV application was already a big hit for me. The VCR gets mothballed tonight. God I'm behind. :)

Hey Mike- I'll let you know if I can get the Harmony 659 to emulate the MCE remote, that would be cool.

Cheers!

I need help.

I set up my projector using DVE disk. Everything looks great. However, I noticed that in transitions from bright/colorful scenes to black screen, the black is not uniform. It seems like there are some dark violet/blue spots all over.

It's weird because you cannot see these spots in any other conditions. Also, if I increase brightness, the spots go away, but it makes my DVE patterns way too bright. BTW, my red and blue colors come out correct. Green does not but I don't think it's possible to make it correct on this PJ in DVE color calibration test.

I'm didn't tweak the service menu. Only working in user settings.

My settings look like this

Contrast 6
Brightness -10
color -10
tint -18
sharpness 17
gamma 2

White peaking =default.

Anybody got any ideas?

sxxb-

That's weird with your dark violet/blue spots. It would be easier to figure if it was an overall color tint to the blacks.

Nobody has ever had the green filter work in DVE and several have tried. I wish someone could come up with a good explanation as to why.

I assume you made changes in the advanced adjustment submenu of the image menu when you were viewing the color filters? These are the RG&B brightness and contrast adjustments in that menu. Did you have to slide them much off of default?

I wonder if it would make a difference if you switched your DVD player to interlaced?

Hmmm...

Nobody has ever had the green filter work in DVE and several have tried. I wish someone could come up with a good explanation as to why.

DVE says that pj manufacturers screw up greens on purpose to please the sports fans..make grass look greener..etc.


I assume you made changes in the advanced adjustment submenu of the image menu when you were viewing the color filters? These are the RG&B brightness and contrast adjustments in that menu. Did you have to slide them much off of default?

I didn't have to tweak advanced as colors were already calibrated well from factory....except for green.

I wonder if it would make a difference if you switched your DVD player to interlaced?

I'll try that.

Help- got the orange light and shutdown today, i think ive got about 600 hours (guess) on the bulb, last week it overheated after 6 hours of use, first time, so i let cool down for a few hours and checked , it was fine, used all week, today after an hour and a half it went orange, any advice? should i turn it back on or start searching for a bulb and eat another $$$ after only 5 months, any advice would rock, oh by the way i use my h30 pj for movies and htpc and it is sweet, but now im a bit worried!

That kinda stinks...

You can see the bulb hours in your system menu. I hope this is your first bulb?

How is the temp in that room when you're watching? Do you have adequate ventilation around the projector? I kind of worry about mine sometimes as I have a wood burning fireplace in the room about 12' away from the ceiling mounted projector. When it's below zero around this place I like to stoke up a good fire while watching movies. I should hang a thermometer up by the projector sometime after a few hours of this and see what the temp is up at the ceiling. I bet its 85 or better. No temp issues with my projector yet knock on wood.

Try unplugging it overnight sometime and see if that helps. I know that can help with issues of the remote not working. Seems like it does a big old reset.

Good luck!

Keep up on maintenance, vacuum the vents every one or two months. I you ever have a bulb problem, re-seat it a couples times when it's cold. Do the unplug, Make sure there's good ventilation. If you table mount don't move the projector around after shutdown, wait a half hour.

Does anyone know if there is a way to connect Stewart's STI (Screen Trigger Interface)? It need a 12v. output like a remote wire that senses when the projector is turned on and that starts the electriscreen to roll down, and rolls up when you turn the projector off.

A tech at Stewart also suggested checking if my receiver has a 12v output and that would work. I have the Pioneer 1014TX but Im not sure what Im looking for and don't think I have seen one. I also wouldnt want the screen rolling down everything I listened to music either.

He also mentioned if neither of the above worked I would have to purchase a PSO (projector switch outlet) Not sure how this works, but I was wondering if there is something out there that I could plug into an outlet that would allow this to work for me wirelessly? Perhaps an outlet that works off a remote or 2 units one the screen plugs into and the one the projector turns into and possibly work that way?

Im not sure if this was the right forum for this but I do have the H30 and I know there's alot of smart folks on this thread and used this as a starting point.

Thanks in advance.

Wow, no posts in almost 2 weeks!

Did everyone sell their H30 and buy a H31?

Well, I just got my H30 back from service @ Optoma. I sent it in for the chronic buzzing problem that I've had from day one and Optoma still claims they haven’t been able to duplicate on their test bench. Note that this is my 2nd H30 that buzzed.

Well, fired it up last night and guess what? NO more BUZZING! They apparently fixed the problem they couldn't duplicate....Hmmm. Well, I shouldn't complain....don't ask, don't tell!!

Also, I noticed on the service sheet that they fixed the 'VGA no image' problem? I didn't complain of this, but a few times on start up over the last few months, no image will display...eventually a white screen with black bars (like a huge bar code) would light up. I would have to shut down and pwr up and it would be ok. Maybe this happened to them on the bench, hence the repair?

They also reset my lamp hrs. Do you think they put a new lamp in? Or just reset the hrs? I know that I had to recalibrate all over again....was terrible OTB again (as always). This time my calibration #'s were way different than before I sent the H30 in.

All for now, just making sure the H30 thread doesn't fall into a black hole!

Fleaman

<<All for now, just making sure the H30 thread doesn't fall into a black hole!>>

I've been watching a lot of DVDs lately, saw a great one last night - LA Confidential. Lots of dark scenes to show off the great black levels I've got on the H30.

No problems to report, but still questioning if I want to upgrade from CO5 to the newest, what, CO7? I'd sure like less offset if possible. Watching 90% 16x9 DVDs if that helps. Thanks for advice on this...

John Friederich

What do you guys make of the fact that the 4805 thread doesn't seem to be dying like this one?

I guess if Infocus came out with a successor to the 4805, that thread would struggle as well.

Wayne

Originally posted by mystery
What do you guys make of the fact that the 4805 thread doesn't seem to be dying like this one?

I guess if Infocus came out with a successor to the 4805, that thread would struggle as well.

Wayne

Well, the 4805 thread is slowing down. I remember when I first joined, if I didn't pop in for a couple days, I would ten pages behind.

But now I would just be a page or so behind - most talk now centers on calibration: WTW, BTB, sRGB, etc.

Still very active - I wonder if the H31 and 4805 are the last of the 480p pjs??

Good observation Geno!

It has been a suspiciously long time since Infocus came out with a budget projector.

Someone's gonna knock our socks off in the not too distant future with a $2000.00 1280 x 720 DLP that'll take the market by storm and start a huge marketing war.

This is my fearless intrepid prediction! :D

Seriously though. It seems kind of quiet doesn't it?

Wayne

Hey, I think we've resurrected this thread. :) :) :D :D

Wayne

Originally posted by jfried
<<All for now, just making sure the H30 thread doesn't fall into a black hole!>>

I've been watching a lot of DVDs lately, saw a great one last night - LA Confidential. Lots of dark scenes to show off the great black levels I've got on the H30.

No problems to report, but still questioning if I want to upgrade from CO5 to the newest, what, CO7? I'd sure like less offset if possible. Watching 90% 16x9 DVDs if that helps. Thanks for advice on this...

John Friederich

I have the C05 firmware and I specifically asked Optoma to not upgrade the firmware because I like the large offset of the C05. FWIR, the C07 will lessen the offset and in my case, I will have to lower my projector from my ceiling even more (my ceiling on the taller side). I guess if I was in a basement, I would go for the C07.

I don't know what other advantages the C07 offers over the C05?

Guitarman??

Fleaman

Originally posted by mystery
Good observation Geno!
It has been a suspiciously long time since Infocus came out with a budget projector.
Someone's gonna knock our socks off in the not too distant future with a $2000.00 1280 x 720 DLP that'll take the market by storm and start a huge marketing war.
This is my fearless intrepid prediction! :D
Seriously though. It seems kind of quiet doesn't it?
Wayne

A rumor was started not too long ago about the release of the 4810 - turned out to be the release of the 7210. Infocus seems to be content for now with its sales of the 4805. Perhaps that means they are gearing up for the release of a budget 720p.

You know, the first owners of the 4805 are just now clearing 1000hrs - still a good 2-3 thousand before the bulb needs replacement. I wouldn't be too surprised if another pj is released about the time these guys are looking to buy a new bulb.

And of course, all my tweaking, calibration, set-up, etc. will just be getting perfected as the next one is released:rolleyes:

Time to start saving up:D

BTW, I'm not upgrading till a 720p DLP is released below $2000.

Originally posted by fleaman
I have the C05 firmware and I specifically asked Optoma to not upgrade the firmware because I like the large offset of the C05. FWIR, the C07 will lessen the offset and in my case, I will have to lower my projector from my ceiling even more (my ceiling on the taller side). I guess if I was in a basement, I would go for the C07.

I don't know what other advantages the C07 offers over the C05?

Guitarman??

Fleaman
Hey Flea-

Glad your service call came out OK. To make sure I understand- you specifically requested that they leave it with C05 and they did? When I do get around to sending mine in for the cracked window between the lamp and color wheel I experienced a few months ago- I want to make absolutely sure they leave me with C05 also. I don't recall major changes between 05 and 07 other than 07 displays the 16:9 image at the top of the 4:3 screen as opposed to the bottom where it is now with 05 (ceiling mounted). If I recall there were things like green bar and some PAL or SCART fixes in 07 which I don't need either.

I will be sure to write down all my settings before I send mine in and will hopefully be able to set them back to that and have it come out right. I love my image right now. I occasionally pull out DVE and test and I'm always right there, as good as DVE can get it.

Still lovin this machine after 10 months :)

Cheers!

gottahavapj,

Yeah, they left the C05 on it as requested.

Settings: I wrote them down too, but it didn't help. OTB was awful again and with my old settings back in, it was still way off. Spent more hrs calibrating last night and things starting to come together now. Numbers are quite a bit different than before. I think they might of put a new lamp in? My old lamp only had 250hrs on it! But the lamp hrs were reset. I'm gonna call them tomorrow and ask.

New problem: I noticed last night that when the screen is black, there is a 6" round halo right in the middle of the screen. It's very faint, but I can see it from my seating position when the screen is all black. When I hit the 'Hide' button on the remote, it's still there. So I think it might be a dust spot in the optics? I can't see anything on the surface of the lens, so it might be internal. I cannot see it on anything other than a total black screen.

Do you think this is a big enough a problem to call Optoma about? I didn't have it before. Maybe blowing some air into the unit might dislodge it??
I feel like a big whiner with Optoma.

Argh.

Fleaman

This is exactly why I fear sending my pj in for service because they might fix one problem (MIGHT) and then introduce a new one.

I'd mention this when you call about your lamp. Hopefully it's just something as simple as needing your eyeglasses cleaned. :)

Wayne

fleaman,
Sounds just like a dust blob. I call ASAP and have them fix it ASAP.

That is disconcerting. I am hoping that when I send mine in it is possible for them to just replace a broken window and leave everything else alone!!!! Sorry for your troubles and I for one do not think "whiner" when I think Fleaman :)

Cheers!

Yeah, I thinks I gotta have that fixed.

Even after all this, I'm thinking of getting an H31! My friend is interested in buying my H30, but I want to make sure it's perfect before I sell it to him.

I'd probably get a 4805 if it was just as quite as the H31 seems to be, but alas, not.

So, I guess I might stay with Optoma a little while longer. Oh well.

Fleaman

With the burst of discussion here today, I guess I'll be staying with CO5 a while longer. Hell, I don't even feel like adjusting focus anymore, I feel like the less anyone touches it, the better it looks...

John F

Originally posted by fleaman
Even after all this, I'm thinking of getting an H31! My friend is interested in buying my H30, but I want to make sure it's perfect before I sell it to him.
That sounds pretty cool. I was stunned the other day when I pricegrabbered the H31 at what you could get it for. Wow... So the resale value of our H30's is not going to hold to well? :D

That's a good one John....

Originally posted by gottahavapj
That sounds pretty cool. I was stunned the other day when I pricegrabbered the H31 at what you could get it for. Wow... So the resale value of our H30's is not going to hold to well? :D

That's a good one John....

Well, don't forget that the H30 beats the H31 in resolution for 4:3 movies. My friend has quite a bit of oldies in 4:3 so he might be better off. I myself have basically nothing good in 4:3...at least nothing I really need to watch on the projector (hey, I still use my tv for 4:3 dvd's!).

The H30's resale value might bump up a little when they sell out. There will be those that want a 4:3 native version. Strangely there seems to not be many used H30's ending up on ebay?

But for now, if I do it, I will take a pretty big hit as I will want to give my friend a deal, meaning cheaper than ebay.

Fleaman

Originally posted by gottahavapj
That sounds pretty cool. I was stunned the other day when I pricegrabbered the H31 at what you could get it for.

Wow. I wish I wouldn't have even looked. MUST RESIST! It was only a year ago that I got my first projector (Z1) - 2 upgrades in 12 months would be excessive. Of course, the H31 looks like the H30....hmmm...wife would never need to know:)

She'll know intuitively. Women are like that. How are you going to hide the big grin on your face every time you turn the H31 on. She'll think you've been watching porn or you're having an affair. "No, really, honey, I just changed projectors!" Then try explaining how you're just so excited that the 'H30' has been rejuvenated and 'seems' to be acting like a new projector.

You could tell her that you sent your H30 to one of those weekend retreats and it came back refreshed and better than ever....literally!

You know, come to think of it I could do the same thing with my X1 and upgrade to a 4805 and since they look the same, well... :D :D

Okay, back to reality, slap some cold water on my face and just remember that I'm upgrading from the X1 to the H31 in about a week or so. Yup, she'd notice that change for sure!

Wayne

I suspect she will Wayne... :)

Mike- are you using a 16:9 screen now? If so it would be pretty easy to put over on her. :) My wife would ask me why the 4:3 screen is never filled anymore when watching TV.

Cheers!

Wayne - your right, she'd probably just "know" that money was spent on electronic gizmos. It's like an extra sense that women seem to have.

Gotta - I've always used a 16:9 screen so my wife may actually notice the lack of light spill. I could just say that I masked the lens and she'd buy that, not caring to really hear the specifics:)

Yes, isn't is funny how our wives' eyes just sort of glaze over when we wax eloquent about aspect ratios and resolution and calibration parameters?

You want to clear a room fast, just start on about this stuff with the 'unenlightened' and it will seem as if you'd just had a big bowl of baked beans! :D

I've gone back to my HTPC and added 700 GB of Space. I've Setup Meedio and I've decided to begin Populatin my Drives with Divx conversions, notablt with Xvid. I'm really impressed by the quality you get Either encoding at 80% quality or by using the max quality setting retaining AC3. Now these rips are'nt small they average usually between 2GB-2.5GB but that's a heck of a lot better than 5-6gb with the DVD ripped to the drive.

I'm playing thru the H30 onto a 92" Wide screen. And these encodes compare favorably with the original. Now to begin the encoding process. I've been encoding 3 movies a night across 3 machines so I'l get there eventually. I'm wondering how may others are feeding their Optoma Divx/xvid Encodes? I really helps when you're trying to get a large collection on your HTPC.

I've also updated my Nvidea Drivers to the Latest I was running a few revisions back, I have a Ti4200 which has served my well. One of the New Custom resolutions available is 720x480. This is also the progressive resolution I was serving the Optoma via my Toshiba Standalone Player and it looked fine once the PJ Scaled it back down. I found sending a Progressive signal from the player looked better than sending an Interlaced. Notably in the details from the black darker areas. Is there a better resolution to shhot for on my HTPC?

Originally posted by fleaman
Wow, no posts in almost 2 weeks!

Did everyone sell their H30 and buy a H31?

Well, I just got my H30 back from service @ Optoma. I sent it in for the chronic buzzing problem that I've had from day one and Optoma still claims they haven’t been able to duplicate on their test bench. Note that this is my 2nd H30 that buzzed.

Well, fired it up last night and guess what? NO more BUZZING! They apparently fixed the problem they couldn't duplicate....Hmmm. Well, I shouldn't complain....don't ask, don't tell!!

Also, I noticed on the service sheet that they fixed the 'VGA no image' problem? I didn't complain of this, but a few times on start up over the last few months, no image will display...eventually a white screen with black bars (like a huge bar code) would light up. I would have to shut down and pwr up and it would be ok. Maybe this happened to them on the bench, hence the repair?

They also reset my lamp hrs. Do you think they put a new lamp in? Or just reset the hrs? I know that I had to recalibrate all over again....was terrible OTB again (as always). This time my calibration #'s were way different than before I sent the H30 in.

All for now, just making sure the H30 thread doesn't fall into a black hole!

Fleaman

Well the last two weeks I have'nt watched much on the Optoma I've been trying to get thru the multitude of TV On DVD releases I've had, also alot of old shows are ending and new ones are beginning (Shield, Deadwood) so I have'nt done much. Also Movie releases have been slow. I think Ladder 49 is the First title I'm interested in for quite some time and Next week "The Incredibles" comes out So I'll back to it. Also I Pulled my HTPC out temporarily to Tweek Meedio and go over to XVID Encodes, and add 700 more GB of space.

Originally posted by mystery
She'll know intuitively. Women are like that. How are you going to hide the big grin on your face every time you turn the H31 on. She'll think you've been watching porn or you're having an affair. "No, really, honey, I just changed projectors!" Then try explaining how you're just so excited that the 'H30' has been rejuvenated and 'seems' to be acting like a new projector.

You could tell her that you sent your H30 to one of those weekend retreats and it came back refreshed and better than ever....literally!

You know, come to think of it I could do the same thing with my X1 and upgrade to a 4805 and since they look the same, well... :D :D

Okay, back to reality, slap some cold water on my face and just remember that I'm upgrading from the X1 to the H31 in about a week or so. Yup, she'd notice that change for sure!

Wayne


Yeah I need to buy a car so no more impulsive buys for me the H30 is it for awhile and really that makes sense I'm going to wait until the HD-DVD market shakes out and then get a Projector that takes the best advantage of that.

Originally posted by Scarpad
I've also updated my Nvidea Drivers to the Latest I was running a few revisions back, I have a Ti4200 which has served my well. One of the New Custom resolutions available is 720x480. This is also the progressive resolution I was serving the Optoma via my Toshiba Standalone Player and it looked fine once the PJ Scaled it back down. I found sending a Progressive signal from the player looked better than sending an Interlaced. Notably in the details from the black darker areas. Is there a better resolution to shhot for on my HTPC?

YMMV, but I've found that the H30 likes it's native res, 800x600, best - let the H30 scale it to 16:9. The windows desktop looks like crap, but DVD's look great.

Yeah i previously ran 800x600 to the PJ and will Probably do so again

Scarpad,

You'll be alright using the H30 until HD-DVD comes out. It's an awesome projector and I know what you mean about buying a new vehicle.

My wife and I bought a 2004 Sienna in December '03 and I'm upgrading from the X1 to the H31 this month and it's not easy. I don't think that my X1 is even in your H30's league so I feel the need to make the move now while I can still get something for the pj with only 800 hours on it.

What kind of car are you looking for by the way if you don't mind me asking?

Wayne

I've been thouroughly enjoying my H30 since I got it the Friday before the Superbowl. I've logged 275 hours on it and climbing :) I use it for everthing - computer monitor, normal TV, HDTV, movies, video games, you name it. Video and computer games in particular make it worth getting the H30 over the H31 - they look so much better at 800x600 than 640x480. And it's *soo* nice having a TV that weighs less than 5 pounds rather than 300 pounds - I loathed moving that 300 pound TV even a few inches, while my H30 I even took to work every day for a week.

H30 FOREVER!!!!!

This is my first home theater attempt and I have the H30 the video cable is a 25ft python breakout cable. Im not good at taking screenshots as you can tell in this photo but I think it shows the video noise. I wanted to share this with the experts to see what I could do to clean it up? It's not this noticeable while actually sitting there viewing it thank God but it is noticeable to me.

Screenshot (http://thepeelers.com/pix/Homes/Home%20Theater/HomeTheater%20(7)%20(Small).jpg)

Originally posted by Dreamwriter
make it worth getting the H30 over the H31 - they look so much better at 800x600 than 640x480.

Isn't the H31 854x480?

Originally posted by nimda
This is my first home theater attempt and I have the H30 the video cable is a 25ft python breakout cable. Im not good at taking screenshots as you can tell in this photo but I think it shows the video noise. I wanted to share this with the experts to see what I could do to clean it up? It's not this noticeable while actually sitting there viewing it thank God but it is noticeable to me.

Screenshot (http://thepeelers.com/pix/Homes/Home%20Theater/HomeTheater%20(7)%20(Small).jpg)

Looks like the brightness isn't set as low as it s/b. If it's HDTV find someone with a black suit and lower the blacks till the lapel detail disappears then lighten it back up till detail just re-appears. After that move the contrast to make white more pure. Usually contrast is some number up over the brightness, like contrast plus 5 brightness -5, in general you'll get a more contrasty image having contrast and brightness go in this general direction.

Thanks for the quick reply Tom,

That is a dvd freeze frame. Any recommendations on taking better screenshots? I'll try to take a better picture because I believe that shot was taken prior to me using the Avia DVD. but even after tuning it I notice the nosie but usually only on black backgrounds or completely black screens. When video is present it isnt noticeable.

Originally posted by fleaman
Wow, no posts in almost 2 weeks!

Did everyone sell their H30 and buy a H31?

Well, I just got my H30 back from service @ Optoma. I sent it in for the chronic buzzing problem that I've had from day one and Optoma still claims they haven’t been able to duplicate on their test bench. Note that this is my 2nd H30 that buzzed.

Well, fired it up last night and guess what? NO more BUZZING! They apparently fixed the problem they couldn't duplicate....Hmmm. Well, I shouldn't complain....don't ask, don't tell!!

Also, I noticed on the service sheet that they fixed the 'VGA no image' problem? I didn't complain of this, but a few times on start up over the last few months, no image will display...eventually a white screen with black bars (like a huge bar code) would light up. I would have to shut down and pwr up and it would be ok. Maybe this happened to them on the bench, hence the repair?

They also reset my lamp hrs. Do you think they put a new lamp in? Or just reset the hrs? I know that I had to recalibrate all over again....was terrible OTB again (as always). This time my calibration #'s were way different than before I sent the H30 in.

All for now, just making sure the H30 thread doesn't fall into a black hole!

Fleaman

Update: Well, It started buzzing again! For about the 1st 20-30mins after start up it would buzz then fade away to nothing. Then last night the buzzing came back after about 2 hrs of being on (albeit, not as bad during the 30 min warm up).

And I do have a dust blob now (after the service)...so they gave me a new RMA # to send it back again.

This is getting tiring. This will be the 3rd time now.

Oh, and the lamp hrs were reset because they found a problem with the main board and replaced it (??), but the lamp was not replaced.

Fleaman

It was so much simpler when we just had televisions wasn't it!? :(

Isn't the H31 854x480?

That's the full widescreen resolution - for 4:3 pictures, it cuts it down to 640x480. The H30, on the other hand, starts with an 800x600 4:3 resolution, and cuts down widescreen pictures to 800x450 (or 800x480 cutting off the edges of the picture a bit).

<<That's the full widescreen resolution - for 4:3 pictures, it cuts it down to 640x480. The H30, on the other hand, starts with an 800x600 4:3 resolution, and cuts down widescreen pictures to 800x450 (or 800x480 cutting off the edges of the picture a bit).>>

I watch just enough 4x3 material to make the H30 a better choice for me. I bought the A&E produced Nero Wolfe series from A&E's web site recently, my wife and I have always been huge Nero Wolfe fans, we own every paperback published (forty-some, can't remember exactly) and have every one in 'books on tape' ever put out (they are in MP3 format on CD, now.)

This DVDs series looks absolutely stunning on the H30 in 4x3. The colors are so highly saturated, and the camera work so crisp and imaginative, they are the best visually I've seen of all the DVD's I've watched on the H30. For any Wolfe fans, or fans of detective stories, I highly recommend it. It is great for demo-ing 4x3 operation of the H30.

By the way, if you never see rainbows with your H30, you might occasionally with these DVDs. It must have someting to do with how they were produced, with their highly saturated colors and very high contrast ratios.

One more observation about rainbows - I think I've hit upon a non-intrusive method of measureing relative blood suger levels for diabetics. I am Type 1, and the only time I see rainbows are when my blood suger drops below 60 or so, with rainbow frequency and severity increasing the lower my blood suger gets. Have any other diabetics noticed this?

John F
LV, NV

jfried,

It's very interesting that you would discover this. I am not diabetic but I have found that when I am overtired and/or exhausted, I see rainbows when usually I very rarely notice them.

Your blood sugar level observation correlating with the RBE phenomenon is a curious thing indeed. I hope that others may be able to test this theory out.

Wayne

What am I going to notice as the bulb reaches replacement age? Twice I have started the pj and the Optoma startup screen has looked funny. After letting it cool down and starting again it looked OK. I've only got 425hrs on it so far.

Originally posted by drhutch
What am I going to notice as the bulb reaches replacement age? Twice I have started the pj and the Optoma startup screen has looked funny. After letting it cool down and starting again it looked OK. I've only got 425hrs on it so far.

I have almost identical number of hours and exactly twice my PJ has done the same thing. It has started up and the Optoma logo was green or pink, and when the video came on it was all wrong colors like the color wheel was off one color or something. Powering it down and starting it back up fixed it both times.

I doubht it has to do with the bulb but perhaps the color wheel got off synch?!?

-GK

I've liked my H30 quite a bit for the last year now, but now I'm getting the "replace lamp soon" message... I've been looking around and they seem to be scarce! Is Optoma basically leaving us H30 owners out in the cold by not providing parts needed?? I sent Optoma an email about a month ago and they haven't even gotten back to me!

Originally posted by fallenturtle
I've liked my H30 quite a bit for the last year now, but now I'm getting the "replace lamp soon" message... I've been looking around and they seem to be scarce! Is Optoma basically leaving us H30 owners out in the cold by not providing parts needed?? I sent Optoma an email about a month ago and they haven't even gotten back to me!

email?

Optoma is actually known for it's excellent customer service, but I and I think everyone else just calls them. Maybe they just don't man the email line like they man the telephone support line.

Just give 'em a ring.

Fleaman

Anybody else notice the horrendous resale value on the H30? I was seriously considering ebaying mine to upgrade to an H31. Then I saw a brand new H30 go for <$600 yesterday. Ouch. Guess I'll just wait for the 720p wave and enjoy the H30 until then.

I paid about $1250 for mine but that was the first one anybody ever bought. :)
I figure used $600 is pretty good. For me when I buy used I expect to get half off. But would I sell it for $600 no way. That cheap I'll keep it around for a rainy day. :)

I have 550hrs on my H30 never had problems on start up. Are you guys making sure there's no signals on while the projectors warming up? Plus I always power down and leave it in standby (green light flashing). Only unplug when you plan not to use the PJ for a few weeks.

Originally posted by guitarman
Are you guys making sure there's no signals on while the projectors warming up?

I must have missed that one. I have my remote set to startup everything at once. Is there a problem in having a signal present during warmup?

Originally posted by guitarman
I have 550hrs on my H30 never had problems on start up. Are you guys making sure there's no signals on while the projectors warming up?

I thought to remember that they recommend that you have a signal on before projector pwr up, not the other way around?

I think it might even be recommended in the mnl, but I can't find the mnl at the moment...

Fleaman

fleaman,

I'm not sure exactly why but it seems to be safer for projectors to start up without the components connected to it on as well. I wait until my pj is searching for a signal and then plug in the cable or turn on the device.

Wayne

Originally posted by fallenturtle
I've liked my H30 quite a bit for the last year now, but now I'm getting the "replace lamp soon" message... I've been looking around and they seem to be scarce! Is Optoma basically leaving us H30 owners out in the cold by not providing parts needed?? I sent Optoma an email about a month ago and they haven't even gotten back to me!

I had this message also and emailed Optoma about it. They told me it came on when the lamp had about half of it usage. Mine had over 1500 hours and I reset the lamp hours and the message went away. It has been working fine and I have over 2000 hours on it now.

My Optoma is about 6 months old and I only have about 120 hrs on it. You can see I don't use it alot, I only hope that if I do hit a high bulb amount I can still get the bulb. I'd hate for it not to be available I'd also hate to have it sitting on a shelf somewhere too

Hey Scarpad,

That is like 20 hours a month of usage! :) I got that much over Masters weekend.

I just pricegrabbered H30 bulbs out of curiousity since I haven't done it in a few months. OUCH! They are at retail price or higher. Sure hope Optoma will still give deals on them.

Cheers!

Originally posted by Burntfingers
I had this message also and emailed Optoma about it. They told me it came on when the lamp had about half of it usage. Mine had over 1500 hours and I reset the lamp hours and the message went away. It has been working fine and I have over 2000 hours on it now.

How's the brightness at 2,000hrs?


In the manual it states not to have signals on when starting up the PJ.

Originally posted by guitarman


In the manual it states not to have signals on when starting up the PJ.

Ok, I must have got my memories crossed on this. Been doing it backwards:eek:

Now I know.

But I still don't know where I put that manual:(

Fleaman

Squirreled away heh? These stay in the cardboard accessories boxes that come with all the Optoma projectors. I have a few of them around ;)

It is a sweet little package you get with the H30 & H31. All the do-dads and a nifty carry bag.

Has anyone ever attempted to clean the internals of the H30? Mine has a little "hair" that is fluttering around on the lower right part of my screen. Nothing on the lens or in the light path, so it must be internal. Really annoying! Any suggestions??

You should use vacuum the intakes every couple of months. I guess you could have the factory clean it for you. I known after warranty we'll probably be taking a look inside. You could probably fix your problem with some keyboard spray, plus give it a good cleaning.

I'm glad this thread re-surfaced in case members haven't heard. -

In the Image menu make use of the Film/video/PC options. We got a tip from GregR of WSR that these are actually gamma changes to be used.

Each one will add 5 new gamma levels. Naturally we thought Film was to be used but it has no relation to Film/or picking up the 3.2 pulldown. Use the options to tune a better contrast level. Try PC and boost up the gamma to 3, toggle thru the choices and see what's happening. I think you'll like what you see. Try your own recipe also, there's allot of room in there. :)

Originally posted by guitarman

Try PC and boost up the gamma to 3, toggle thru the choices and see what's happening. I think you'll like what you see. Try your own recipe also, there's allot of room in there. :)

Holy hot whites Batman! I had to drop the contrast all the way down to
-50 to get that under control. Even so, there appears to be a loss of detail in the whites - I'm assuming that's just the different gamma. Definately a different look though - I'll have to fiddle around some more to see if I like it or not. Thanks for the tip.

Originally posted by guitarman
You should use vacuum the intakes every couple of months. I guess you could have the factory clean it for you. I known after warranty we'll probably be taking a look inside. You could probably fix your problem with some keyboard spray, plus give it a good cleaning.


Thanks - I ended up taking the unit apart (I know that's a no-no, but I can't resist) and using a can of compressed air. There was a ton of dust in there - including dust under the window seperating the bulb and the color wheel. I removed that and cleaned very carefully. Now she's good as new - I threw up a white image and all signs of dust are history.

Originally posted by mjolson
Holy hot whites Batman! I had to drop the contrast all the way down to
-50 to get that under control. Even so, there appears to be a loss of detail in the whites - I'm assuming that's just the different gamma. Definately a different look though - I'll have to fiddle around some more to see if I like it or not. Thanks for the tip.

There's lots of variables now using these other gamma's, keep looking. The super cleaning idea is a good one.

You know, I still love my H30. It's got the RGB/RGB wheel and DDR chip, it's 4.3 but that's ok by me, it can go dedicated 16.9 and not show a serious light spill problem. Best of all this SVGA chip hides the screen door very well. Now we got some more gamma changes to add to the contrast. Keep going H30 :)

Originally posted by guitarman

You know, I still love my H30. It's got the RGB/RGB wheel and DDR chip, it's 4.3 but that's ok by me, it can go dedicated 16.9 and not show a serious light spill problem. Best of all this SVGA chip hides the screen door very well. Now we got some more gamma changes to add to the contrast. Keep going H30 :)

Even though I don't ever use 4:3 material, the light spill in 16:9 mode is barely noticeable. The 800x600 native res works effortlessly with an HTPC as well. Keeping the fingers crossed - 10 months and no buzz or bulb issues.

Guitarman, how do you use all of the picture controls that come with the H30? I've had mine for a year and I still can't figure what they all do!

Originally posted by En Sabur Nur
Guitarman, how do you use all of the picture controls that come with the H30? I've had mine for a year and I still can't figure what they all do!
This page helped me out a lot in that respect. http://www.optomahometheater.com/howto/guide_d.htm

Cheers!

Hey Mike- did you ever upgrade to SmartIII 2.0?

Thank you very much, gottahavapj.

Originally posted by gottahavapj
Hey Mike- did you ever upgrade to SmartIII 2.0?

I emailed Steve about it and his reply led to believe that the upgrade wouldn't offer much in my case (DLP generic version). I still have to re-run the calibration since switching to TT2/VMR9 Renderless on my HTPC. I've been playing around with Guitarman's PC/Gamma3 recommendation and am really curious what that'll come out as quantitatively.

Try different settings in the Image area first, like video, graphics, PC. We don't have to conform to just using Film. According to Gregr he was getting a flatter gamma curve with PC. But you should try video also.

Then go to the Picture menu and tune the gamma up to a point you like. Probably higher than we use to, maybe gamma 3. Tune the other Picture items with the THX-optimizer or Avia, DVE.

Looks like we can get a more 3D image by testing some of the Image area gamma changes.

I have to find time in pitch dark, but I'll run somes tests with colorfacts to see better what's happening. Probably some higher contrast ratios, lets see.

I got my MCE 2005 PC set up to the H30 about a month ago. I have a Hauppauge 150 card in it for TV tuner/capture function. The primary gripe I have with it is that the SDTV picture through it is considerably softer than my cable box going direct to the H30. I did notice that the "video" image mode did sharpen things up a bit for that SD signal.

Cheers!

Haven't been around for awhile, too busy watching movies. :)

I'm up to 720 hours on the PJ, and I have some questions. I recently got HDTV through Time Warner and thought the that picture looked incredibly dark. Upped all my settings to brighten the image, but man, nowhere near the black details of yesterday did I have. Then I moved from a VGA connection setup to a Component setup with the PJ. Honestly, the picture looks much darker with everything now. The cables are good quality so there shouldn't be a problem with those. Setting my brightness to 50+ doesn't make it bright, it makes it somewhat watchable.

Any ideas? Do you think my bulb just had a midlife crisis? I miss the details...

g

You mean just using the Time Warner box the image was changed to darker blacks/crushing black. Try turning the contrast higher then adjust the blacks. Adjust blacks till you can see detail in the lapel of a black sport coat etc. I'm at 600 hrs on my machine and it still looks nice and bright bulb power wise. I use econo still.

No, sorry I wasn't clear. Shortly after getting the TW box I changed over to an all-component cable setup, where I was once using VGA. Now everything is darker, no matter how i futz with settings. Like an idiot I was recently troubleshooting and switched cables hooked up to the h30 while it was still on. I hope that didn't do anything. Maybe it's dust?

haven't cleaned it ever and we're coming on a year now.

thanks

g

Pulling cables while on doesn't matter, I do it all the time. Since you noticed a complete change in just switching the cable hook up. It's the change over that's done it. You could re-test the VGA cable run to see if it goes back to bright.

What's happening with the Avia brightness and contrast patterns, can you tune blacks & whites correctly with not crushing?

I just cross over 600 hours too, had my H30 for one year and have had no problems with it. I love this thing! Right now, I'm using it in place of my tv as well, since my 32 incher went bust. I'm going to switch over to VGA soon since it seems like an easier cable to deal with than component. I also hear that the picture is better with VGA. I never have sat down with Video Essentials or AVIA and tuned the thing. I loved the picture right out of the box! Maybe I'll do that tonight before I watch more movies! :)

It's good to get some time/practice in with Avia. I have a component to VGA 25' cable I use with the H30. But that's basically like using a component feed. They say 15' run is the limit area for the thin cables of VGA but mine looked ok.

I'm calibrating as we speak and hopefully i'll have some positive results. Side question: Is the H30 subject to burn-in?

Originally posted by guitarman
It's good to get some time/practice in with Avia. I have a component to VGA 25' cable I use with the H30. But that's basically like using a component feed. They say 15' run is the limit area for the thin cables of VGA but mine looked ok.

I'm using a 30' VGA cable with zero problems - not even a hint of ghosting from my HTPC. I often use it with the component adapter from a 480i player as well with no problems. It's a pretty cheap cable too.

Originally posted by shatten22
I'm calibrating as we speak and hopefully i'll have some positive results. Side question: Is the H30 subject to burn-in?

No.

No burn in is part of the joy of digital displays. Plasma and CRT's have this problem not us.

Originally posted by mjolson
I'm using a 30' VGA cable with zero problems - not even a hint of ghosting from my HTPC. I often use it with the component adapter from a 480i player as well with no problems. It's a pretty cheap cable too.
Ditto... 30' VGA that comes from an AB VGA switchbox that serves my HTPC and also component from the DVD player. The component is switched to DB15 at the switchbox using the included Optoma adapter. Before I put any of this in the ceiling- I connected the short component cable direct to the adapter and the H30. I watched several scenes from several movies and then put the 30' and switchbox in line and watched the same things. No diff.

Cheers!

I calibrated and I think this is what happened: VGA outputs better than component. For me at least. I got some of the old detailing back, but I really don't like my HTPC now that I have to output via ati's component adaptor. I just put in an order for a pioneer 588/s DVD player and put my HTPC up for sale. It ain't worth the timings and trouble and cost that it's going to take to get it working right. If I was still outputting VGA and getting that glorious, trouble-free 800x600 image, I'd keep the HTPC.

I report back when I get the pio and tell you how it looks. It should be that old, amazing H30 image I am used to. I can't stand the Xbox dvd player for another day.

thx
g

Have been experimenting with using my PC with my Optoma H30 projector and have had one or two problems.

I'm using Zoom Player with FFDshow and the Sonic Cinemaster codecs, when watching a PAL disc the picture doesn't seem to be very smooth. Have been trying to use Powerstrip to try and fix this but I can only find timings for NTSC playback. Anyone got timings for the H30 which are good for viewing PAL DVD's?

Also when using FFDshow is it worth resizing the image to double that of DVD resolution to upscale the image?

Any other pointers would be appreciated...

My system consists of:

ATI Radeon 9800
P4 3.06 GHz processor
1 GB Ram

Thanks.

Man- of all the Powerstrip timings I've seen posted in here over the last year- I don't recall seeing any for PAL. You might be in uncharted water. Good luck...

Cheers!

I got the pioneer 285/s instead and now everything is peachy. it outputs a good progressive signal and is much, much more user friendly (i.e., press "on") then my HTPC ever was. It really is a decision between never-ending ease of use and maximum performance-maximum care. I've learned that I like the easier route, and will deal without a post-processed image for it.

g

The following powerstrip timing is for 720x576 resolution and will give you exactly 50.000Hz:

720,32,64,48,576,5,5,39,27000,2054

Ive tried to get the H30 to sync at 50Hz for the native 800x600 and whilst I CAN get a perfectly stable picture at 50Hz, internally its clearly evident that, for whatever reason, the projector still internally runs at 60Hz due to the judder. Ive also tried creating an interlaced 800x600 50Hz timing but the projector does not de-interlace it:( However the 720x576 timing above it sweet - I had my concerns about a non 1:1 mapped display mode for dvd playback, but the pixelworks scaler just rocks as you will see when you play a PAL dvd back on this powerstrip timing... just ignore how bad the scaled desktop looks ;)

More recently Ive tried getting a 1:1 mapped 720x576 windows display but no joy as yet.

On another note, my H30 apparently died today:( I powered it on and it came to life, the colour wheel started to spin up as normal, but the lamp did not come on. After a few mins, the orange lamp LED came on :( I didnt hear any pop from the lamp, and when I took the lamp out and inspected it, all looked well and intact, and no scortch marks or other signs of failure. It was also totally cold, which leads me to believe it never got as far as being sparked up. I did detect a burning smell coming from the front vents, however I couldnt smell it from the lamp or the lamp compartment so im guessing some other component has burnt out. The LED light status of my pj doesnt match any of those listed in the table in the H30 manual - my power LED is on solid green, and the orange lamp LED is on solid orange, anyone seen this led combo before? According to the manual, a lamp failure should be represented by the power LED being off, and the orange lamp LED being on solid.

Just incase anyone was wondering, I bought the pj new on August 2004, and had only about 450hrs on the lamp :( Time to give Optoma (or Themescene as they are known here in UK) a call...

Sometimes projectors don't fire up the bulb. Try it again, if no go, lucky you got a warranty.
better luck

I dont really fancy taking the risk of powering the pj up again to be honest having smelt burning coming from the front vent, incase it makes matters worse and blows the lamp or something, as im pretty certain the lamp is not the fault :(

Hey Bam279, thank you very much for the powerstrip timing, it works perfect.

One other question, do you use ffdshow on your setup? If so do you resize the image to double the resolution of a Pal DVD (1440 x 1152) or do you use a lower resolution?
I have tried this but it seems to stutter during playback so maybe I need to lower it.

Also are the Sonic Cinemaster codecs the best out there at the moment or is there something else superseded them?

Here is my PC Specs:

P4 3.06 GHz
1 GB Ram
ATI Radeon 9800.

Hi GGB, glad the timing worked ok for you.

I dont normally use ffdshow for DVD playback. On the rare occasions I do use it, it would only be to use some of the denoising (denoise3d) or sharpening (unsharpmask) filters. I find that just using the standard 720x576 resolution and letting the H30 do its automatic internal upscale to 800x600 introduces a very, very subtle amount of sharpening in itself, which I find I quite like.

There are other ways to get good use out of the H30s internal scaler. If you wish to have a smoother DVD image, you can try feeding the pj a 1280x920 res and the downscaled results remove any aliasing you might see from the 720x576 mode. Try looking for some of Gamerpimps (correct name?) posts on this thread, as he found some nice higher resolutions to use to get varying results from internally scaled DVD images.

Re: the best dvd codecs... I believe most ppl now choose either the latest Nvidia or the Dscaler as their filter of choice for best overall quality. The bonus of the Dscaler filters is that the developer is very kindly supplying them for free so you might want to give them a go.

Update on pj: I tried to power up my H30 again but the same issue persists:( At least Optomas customer service is second to none, one quick call and they will be picking my unit up straight from my door at no charge, without any interogations or other procedures on the phone. This kind of service is probably normal for most ppl living in the US, but here in teh UK we usually dont get service close to this!

So I think I might have found out why my H30 was getting a little darker. My bulb is dead! 750+ hours on it and the thing won't start up. I'm a little pissed as this is nowhere near 2000 hours of usage.

Time to buy another bulb....

g

Is the price of a bulb replacement close to 50% of a new H30? Might not be a bad idea to look into stepping up to an H31. Just a thought.

Wayne

the price of the bulb is $275. A new H31 is $1000. That's a $700 difference that I can't really swing right now. I'd rather save up and get a 720p projector in another year.

g

Ok, so I did a little inspecting and the lamp looks fine. Perfect in fact. When I try to turn the pj on it spins up four times before giving up. There is a buzzing sound that emits from where the ac plug is attached. Then I get the lamp light on (orange-red) and the Power LED (the button to turn it on) stays lit GREEN.

Looking in the manual, there is no designation for this light-scheme. I checked it with two other people and the power button stays GREEN and doesn't turn Orange.

Optoma's getting a call tomorrow.

Ok did a little more inspecting and maybe Tom or one of the other knowledgeable H30/H31 guys can help me out. I opened up the H30 and plugged everything in to see where the buzzing sound was coming from. Here's what I found:

The two thick white wires that connect from the lamp to the mainboard? Well right where they connect on the mainboard, to the OSRAM chip, is a small cylinder with blue and white writing. It says something like EPCO- on it (I can't make out the rest, cause it's out of my view). When I power the projector on that thing flashes blue and buzzes like an electric bug trap for about two seconds and then powers down. The cycle begins again two or three more times, with the EPCO cylinder doings its blue light dance and then finally the PJ gives up and keeps the fans on for the power-down process. Again, the lamp light is ORANGE and the Power button is GREEN.

If anybody could shed light on the purpose behind the EPCO cylinder I'd be most appreciative. Optoma gets a call tomorrow morning and when I found out what's going on, you guys will be the first to know.

thanks
geoff

I just spoke to Optoma tech support, they say it's a failed bulb, but they had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned the flashing blue cylinder and buzzing noise. They then suggested I RMA it back to them. I'd rather not have to spend the money to send it back if all I need to do is buy a bulb. I asked if that buzzing sound or the cylinder thing was just a lamp-testing module and the sound and flashing was normal but the guy I spoke to couldn't answer me.

Can anybody whose had a failed bulb confirm what it is?

thx
g

Shatten22, seems like we are both in the same boat... I received a letter from Optoma telling me that it was my lamp that had failed and they included an option to have my pj returned to me with a new lamp installed - for £351!! Yes thats UK POUNDS... needless to say I wont be taking them up on the offer!

Anyone know the best place to buy H30 lamps online at a decent price?

I just sent it off to them. I am hoping that it is a mainboard issue and not a lamp one. It must be something in the pj that is causing the lamps to fail early. I don't know why I took it as normal when the lamp NEVER struck up on the first try...it always took 2-3 times for the image to finally come up.

I did a google search and two stores came up that listed the lamp was available for far less than Optoma is selling it for. I may try and ask Optoma to match it or tell them that they have helped people out on this board with $325 lamps (US).

I just hope they really look and not just pop in a new lamp and say "hey, it works!" This is my second lamp with this problem.

I'm still on my first bulb with the H30. Now that the H30 is discontinued, where can I purchase bulbs online? Is Optoma still selling them? Does the H30 use the same bulb as the H31?

It's a different bulb than the H31's. H31 has a 200watt bulb. Best thing to do is find the bulb ID number and do a google search. I'm sure Optoma would have them but maybe you can find a deal.

When you buy a spare bulb you have to make use of it right away for warranty purposes.

I just sent it off to them. I am hoping that it is a mainboard issue and not a lamp one. It must be something in the pj that is causing the lamps to fail early. I don't know why I took it as normal when the lamp NEVER struck up on the first try...it always took 2-3 times for the image to finally come up.

I did a google search and two stores came up that listed the lamp was available for far less than Optoma is selling it for. I may try and ask Optoma to match it or tell them that they have helped people out on this board with $325 lamps (US).

I just hope they really look and not just pop in a new lamp and say "hey, it works!" This is my second lamp with this problem.

Not striking all the time isn't a good thing, once in a blue moon ok. I'd imagine too many times at striking could hv worn the bulb out. Good that it's going in for repair. Hope you mentioned the 3 strikes each time?

the price of the bulb is $275. A new H31 is $1000. That's a $700 difference that I can't really swing right now. I'd rather save up and get a 720p projector in another year.

g

Wow, $275 is much better (£150 compared to the £351 Optoma quoted me). Please can you direct me to anywhere online that sells the replacement H30 lamp for this sort of price?

THANKS!

Anyone? Please?

Now Optoma is quoting me $299 plus shipping.

I got my H30 back, I sent them email asking for status and they told me it was already on its way back... They replaced the "engine", cleaned the DMD chip and said it needs a new lamp. I don't know if their customer service has gotten worse than it was before, but it feels that way. I kept asking for updates of the situation, i.e., what the problem was and I got nothing.

I called them up and told them calmly and nicely that it would have been nice to know I needed a new lamp BEFORE they shipped out my H30, cause then I could have save $30 on shipping by buying it through them. They didn't seem to get it.

Then I called their parts department and they wouldn't accept an order unless it was faxed to them. I explained calmly and nicely that I did not own a fax or Excel (which was the format they sent the order form in) and why couldn't we do it over the phone? No go. I had to email my info to them, why they couldn't just do the same thing over the phone is ridiculous, if you ask me.

Then I was told that it would ship today and after sending said email, I called and wrote them again asking if they got all the info and what the tracking number was. I got absolutely no response. I know it's only one person handling the parts department, but this is kind of ridiculous. I don't know if my next projector is going to be from Optoma. They give off too much of a "just started," vibe for me.

On top of all that, I still don't know what happened - was it a premature bulb failure straight up or did it have something to do with the engine they replaced....

-g

So the lamp showed up today, but no confirmation and no receipt. And the lamp was packed in a ziploc bag and special cardboard. I've never bought a lamp before so I don't know if this is normal. Hopefully it is.

Here's to hoping that this lamp gets it's full 2000 hours.

g

Thread's dead, eh? Oh well, I'm still reporting. The H30 now lights up on the first strike and amazingly enough, there isn't a buzzing sound anymore. I guess the Optoma guys figured out what was going on.

g

Thread's dead, eh? Oh well, I'm still reporting. The H30 now lights up on the first strike and amazingly enough, there isn't a buzzing sound anymore. I guess the Optoma guys figured out what was going on.

g

No more buzzing with the new lamp?

Ah ha!

That's interesting. Let us know in a few days if it still doesn't buzz. The last H30 I got from Optoma didn't buzz for the 1st 3 hrs, then started buzzing from then on.

Fleaman

Hey all!

I was watching Into the West last night on TNT HD and was just thinking that my second H30 lamp seems to be dimming a little. It's hard to tell though when something is a gradual decline. I have ~900 hours on my second lamp, the first one blew at 941 hours (just knocked on the wood desk :))

The part number for the lamp is SP.80A01.001 If you type that into pricegrabber or shopping.com you can still find a few matches although they seem to be harder to locate and going up in price. I would much prefer to buy it from Optoma if you could get a $299 deal. When I bought my second lamp from a reputable on-line dealer about 7 months ago- it showed up in a cardboard box with the Optoma part number tags on it and sealed with Optoma security tape. I was comfortable that this was a new- never been opened box. Had it come any other way so that there was a question in my mind of whether it had ever been used in a projector- I'd have been ticked.

I'm still enjoying this unit very much and have no intention of replacing it anytime soon, especially since I am now out of work. :(

Cheers all!

I'll keep you guys posted on the buzzing. I thought because they changed the "engine" that might have been it. I hope it doesn't come back!

This whole bulb situation stinks. I love my H30, but I hope I this bulb can at least last me a year and get me to my next purchase. Hopefully by then the 720p projectors will be around $1000.


g

Cheapest ive found a replacement lamp for here in the UK is £280, which is much better than Optomas offer of £351 direct from them, but it still hurts whenever I see the US Optoma offer you guys a new lamp for $299 which would be £165 in my money - scandalous!

gottahavapj,

That's a bummer about your employment at the moment. :(

Say, maybe you should change your username to 'gottagetajob' until you're hired again. :)

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

Hang in there and keep plugging. Any potential employer ought to see how smart you are since you own a projector. :D

Wayne

gottahavapj,

That's a bummer about your employment at the moment. :(

Say, maybe you should change your username to 'gottagetajob' until you're hired again. :)

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;)

Hang in there and keep plugging. Any potential employer ought to see how smart you are since you own a projector. :D

Wayne
Hey thanks Wayne, I think... ;) jk- I'll find something soon enough. I should be catching up on a lot of good movies while I have some spare time but there still doesn't seem to be enough of that...

Cheers!

Guitarman - Long time since I've posted. My H30, which we've enjoyed since last October, has decided to become a problem. We returned from a trip last month (6/10) turned on the PJ, lamp indicator comes on, no HT. Then I go through the whole RMA thing, pay the 60 bucks to ship to CA from KS, PJ comes back with new [I]firmware same bulb, no work. After doing the fax/visa/signature thing, I get a new bulb shipped. Meanwhile it's been 12 days with no HT, no HDTV, nothing. Bulb comes 'signature required' - have to go to the UPS terminal and wait until 8:30 when the brown truck finally comes back. This is after they ship the PJ back without any notice and it's dropped off on my front step. OK - cut to the chase- MY LAMP IS OUT, again, after what 22 days? What should I do? Go shopping for another PJ? My budget's shot after building my HT, but w/o a reliable PJ, it's just an empty room...

Hi, I understand they worked on the light engine and they always use the latest firmware, how do you like the firmware change by the way? It shifts the 16.9 up to the top. At least they did some work, probably would have needed your CC to throw in the bulb before shipping back.

At this point I'd just get the next free bulb. Maybe it will go 3,000hrs this time.
better luck

Silly question here, but how do u reset the lamp hours back to 0 on the H30? When I go into the lamp menu I cant move the selection down to reset the lamp and the user manual doesnt give any details of how to reset the lamp hours... what am I missing ?!

Thanks.

Silly question here, but how do u reset the lamp hours back to 0 on the H30? When I go into the lamp menu I cant move the selection down to reset the lamp and the user manual doesnt give any details of how to reset the lamp hours... what am I missing ?!

Thanks.
Check out this post- http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4682083&&#post4682083

You need to use the buttons on the H30 itself for some reason. Good luck!

Cheers!

Hi, I understand they worked on the light engine and they always use the latest firmware, how do you like the firmware change by the way? It shifts the 16.9 up to the top. At least they did some work, probably would have needed your CC to throw in the bulb before shipping back.

At this point I'd just get the next free bulb. Maybe it will go 3,000hrs this time.
better luck

Thanks, Guitarman. I'm guessing that I won't hear from Optoma until tomorrow (Mon). Emailed Optoma, waiting for a response now. Sure seemed they could have packed that last bulb better - just a box in a box, w/no packing. No hint of a 'Fragile' sign, either. But to Brown that may not mean anything. When I picked it up at the terminal, the guy brought it in and literally slam dunked it on the counter. But it worked - now I wonder... :confused: I'll keep you posted. What a hassle. Wish I could just go down to the appliance parts house and get a new one. :(

Yeah, that blows. I made the stupid mistake of accidently knocking my projector on the floor while I was rearranging/cleaning my apartment! (Damnit!) It was a careless mistake, on my part. I get angry at myself everytime I think of it. Now my vga connection is so loose, that it cannot detect a signal through it. My tube tv went awhile before the projector! I finally get HD cable w/ DVR and I can't even watch any! Until I purchase another tube, I have to watch everything through S-video! When I get another tv (2-3 weeks), I'll send the projector back to Optoma for repair (not under warranty, of course). I've never had any problems with my H30, and right now I'm at around 1000hrs on the bulb. Hopefully, they'll just fix the connection and everything will get back to normal.

It's nice to make a "cameo" appearance to this thread! It almost feels like a high school reunion. :)

It's nice to make a "cameo" appearance to this thread! It almost feels like a high school reunion. :)
That's funny.. :p I'm always surprised when I see the H30 thread pop back to life again. I rush in like a kid who just got a letter in the mail.

I still need to send my H30 back some day for the replacement of the window between the lamp and the color wheel. It cracked when my first lamp exploded at 941 hours about 8 months ago. I'm at 1035 hours on the second lamp and it's working great. I'm really torn as to whether I want to do that since the crack in that window really has not seemed to have any effect on the image quality or brightness. I have it tuned to my liking and am just afraid that it would come back all screwed up or with C07 firmware on it even though they assured me when I got the original RMA from them 8 months ago that they would send it back with C05 on it to better line up with my screen layout. Perhaps it's better to just leave well enough alone after hearing BoothT's experience.

Cheers!

I forget :) Did we ever establish that we could pick C05 or C07?

When I talked to Arun last fall- he guaranteed me that they would put 05 on it if I clearly stated that on my RMA form...

Cheers!

Gottahavapj: I have it tuned to my liking and am just afraid that it would come back all screwed up...

I understand that feeling. :) But I'm glad to hear that HT1100's MSRP has dropped to $1995.00! I really believe that by the time I'm ready to upgrade my projector, HD DLP's will be under $2000 too! See ya around.

[QUOTE=gottahavapj]That's funny.. :p I'm always surprised when I see the H30 thread pop back to life again. I rush in like a kid who just got a letter in the mail.

Well - Here's another post from KS: Just got a call from Optoma. My H30 went out today - overnight! :D Should be here tomorrow. Said they had to wait on a new bulb. Hope that's a good sign - fresh produce maybe? I'll let you know more when it's up and running. Didn't realize how much I miss the big screen...

Hey All,

I havn't posted in ages, just been enjoying the H30, I've had the thing for a year now with not much to complain about, and I'm still amazed at how great the image is! It's awesome.

Well, it had to happen sometime, but I turned the thing on 2 nights ago, was gonna watch a movie, but it wasn't as silent as usual, there was this buzzing sound... eep. I remember seeing it here in the forums before. My bulb hour is only at 255 as of now (if that's relevant).

Anyways, I got in touch with Optoma Canada, and I will be sending it in for a fix. I was just wondering if they can even fix the buzzing sound or not? I don't want to pay to send it in, only to have it come back and still buzz. Has anyone else had this experience?

Thanks.

Colorwheel buzz most likely but sometimes it's electrical. When my wife pointed it out to me early with my H30 I listened closely and it sounded sizzlely like, electrical. It went away as fast as it appeared and never came back.

Hmmm...

I'm not sure if the buzzing I have is electrical or not, it sounds like it's coming from the back of the unit,

The frequency changes as well, sometimes high, low, then dissapearing, but always coming back.

You're lucky yours went away guitarman!

Hmmm...

I'm not sure if the buzzing I have is electrical or not, it sounds like it's coming from the back of the unit,

The frequency changes as well, sometimes high, low, then dissapearing, but always coming back.

You're lucky yours went away guitarman!
I went through 3 H30's....all of them were buzzers (sometimes intermittent).

Optoma either didn't admit to the buzzing and/or couldn't fix them. Just kept sending different units out and crossing fingers. Some of the H30's buzz, some didn't....it's a crapshoot.

Try lifting the ground (one of those 3 to 2 pin power adapters) and try a power conditioner. It seems to maybe relate to the pwr supply or lamp. The buzzing doesn't come from the color wheel area, it comes from the rear right corner, where the pwr supply is (where the ac cord plugs in).

The buzzing sound is like a neon sign....or like the AC high voltage power lines or power lines transformer buzzings.

Fleaman

Regarding the buzz - now that my H30 is back and online (whew) :D - When I sent mine in the first time, in June, I was told it (buzzing) was the bearing on the color wheel, and that it is something they replace quite often. Hope this does it. While it's in they'll upgrade your firmware, too. Seems to be an improvement. I like the HD at the very top of my screen. Only had it since yesterday, so I gotta sign off and get back in the proper position.

thanks for the info guys, I checked the pj tonight, oddly enough there was no buzz... hmmm...
I have no idea what's going on with it, I checked it 2 nights in a row and it was there but tonight for some reason it was gone. The only thing that I can think of that I did differently is that I took the projector off from it's place on a shelf (it sit's at an angle pointing down) behind the couch and put it down level on a table to try to clean the vents. I put it back where it was suppose to go on the shelf, tried it out, and it seemed "normal" again. I hope it lasts, I'll report back with any findings.

I'm not sure what firmware I have though, the image is at the bottom of the screen which is perfect for my set up right now. Can I request that optoma NOT upgrade my firmware if I need to send it in?

I'm not sure what firmware I have though, the image is at the bottom of the screen which is perfect for my set up right now. Can I request that optoma NOT upgrade my firmware if I need to send it in?

Yes, you can request them to not upgrade the firmware. I like it at the bottom of the 4:3 frame too...

As for the buzz, one of the H30's I had the buzzing was intermittent...some days no buzz, some days buzz, sometimes buzzing for the 1st hr, no buzz after, etc.

Fleaman

Okay, this is weird, I tried the PJ again last night, and the buzzing came back. It sounded almost like a flourecent lamp's hum/ buzz. It was really annoying.

Then I tried it again today, and nothing, like normal. I'm totally lost with this one. Any ideas out there?

thanks.

Welcome back to life H30 thread! :) Sorry it has to be for a buzzing issue.

That is a weird one hsbc. Did you try some of the easy fixes Flea mentioned? Try the easiest things first but only one at a time.

If you do send it in for repair you'll have to call Optoma for your RMA. Make it real clear to them that you want to stay with C05 firmware which gives you the 16:9 image at the bottom of the 4:3 panel like you have now and then put a note in the box stating so as well. The C07 (or whatever it is now) firmware gives you the 16:9 image at the top of the 4:3 panel. This would not work for my screen position at all, a 2.35 movie would be a thin strip way up by the ceiling. Uhh- uh.

1119 hours on my second bulb, no perceivable drop in brightness. Lovin it. :)

Good luck! Cheers!

I actually got an RMA number from them already,

But I'm reluctant to send it in at this point only because I don't want it to get to Optoma, but the buzzing thing doesn't happen, and they send it back as is.... I think i'll have to do more testing for now.

Thanks for the help man!

I actually got an RMA number from them already,

But I'm reluctant to send it in at this point only because I don't want it to get to Optoma, but the buzzing thing doesn't happen, and they send it back as is.... I think I’ll have to do more testing for now.

Thanks for the help man!

Every H30 I sent back (multiple times) supposedly didn't buzz on their test bench, and every time they sent one back to me, it buzzed. And not just in my place, it buzzed at my boss’s house and he has an H30 too, but his didn't and never buzzed. In fact, all of the early H30's didn't seem to buzz (which was the one my boss got), but some of those units had pwr supply or lamp failure problems (dreaded orange light issues). Strangely enough, when the new batch of H30's came out, the pwr supply failure seemed to have been solved, but then people started complaining about buzzing on some of the units.

My lack of facts conclusion was that Optoma replace the pwr supply or lamp with a different venders unit and while it cured the early failures, it also had quite a bit of units that would buzz. No one appeared to complain of buzzing on the 1st batch of H30's (probably the batch the Guitarman got his H30 from), but when the 2nd batch that fixed the early pwr supply failures came out, that was when the 1st complaints of buzzing emerged.

The last H30 I had buzzed less the other H30's I had. It was more intermittent, sometimes buzzing, sometimes not. But now that I have an H31, it's a non-issue. The H31 has absolutely NO buzz and is even more quite than the H30 when it doesn't buzz.

So, back then Optoma had claimed they couldn't duplicate the 'Buzz' on my unit AND all the other units others had sent in for the same reason. I tend to not believe this line....and it seems like they have been giving the same line to those people who had issues with HTPC on the H31....the usual; "works fine on our test bench here" line. Only when everyone continues to complain and not give up do they eventually admit there might be a problem. It seems the after many, many months those H312 owners with HTPC's might finally be getting some admission from Optoma that there is a problem with the H31
And HTPC. To be fair, may other companies that I have dealt with Customer Service on rarely admit to any real problem with their products, I think they train their customer service dept. to be part public relations too. Sorta like the American Presidents office….when has that office ever admitted to making a mistake when it was made?

Optoma is friendly and their customer service is very good....if you don't mind that their method of fixing problems is to just send another projector out to you. It works if you get lucky, but I didn't, all 3 of my H30's buzzed.

Fleaman

Ive had my H30 for almost exactly 1 year now and it has an intermittent (albeit incredibly faint) buzz. I have the H30 right behind my head less than 2ft away on a bit of tall furniture and even then i would need to stop and "focus" on the operating sound of the pj to actually be able to clearly hear it - the overall sound this thing produces is so irrelevant to me its simply a non-issue and I almost have the thing on my head when I use it lol. The image gets my attention as soon as it is turned on - nothing else, its nearly silent!

Unfortunately many of the H57s also have this problem. Mine currently does and the loaner unit that I was evaluating prior to it had the buzzing as well.

But like Bam says, it's not a distraction once the audio starts and these Optomas are otherwise quiet pjs.

Wayne

The Buzzing loudness seems to vary between units too, but the buzzing on all 3 of the H30's I had was loud enough to be a distraction. You could hear it from across the room....no problem. I have a rather loud computer (loud hard drive) in the same room and can easily hear it above that. Even have a window A/C unit in the same room and when that is on (yes, it's loud) and the computer is on, I could still easily hear the buzzing on the H30 over both of those ambient noise makers :eek:



Fleaman

Flea,
Didn't you narrow it down to a house electrical problem? I thought when you took your H30 over to your bosses house the buzzing went away. Or when Optoma got one of your projectors backs they said it didn't buzz at the factory. Maybe that was someone else.

Flea,
Didn't you narrow it down to a house electrical problem? I thought when you took your H30 over to your bosses house the buzzing went away. Or when Optoma got one of your projectors backs they said it didn't buzz at the factory. Maybe that was someone else.

Wrong.

Read my post above, post #7913, I already explained it. (you've gots to read some of these posts before responding ;) )

As for what Optoma said: They ALWAYS said it never buzzed on their bench. But they told everyone one else here on the AVS board that had a buzzer and sent it in the same thing! So, I tend not to believe them with those comments.

Fleaman

I tested it again last night, and it was buzzing, It was pretty much like fleaman said, it sounded like a neon sign, then about half way after watching the movie, it started to get LOUD, almost sounded like snapping sounds, did that for about 15 seconds, then the buzzing stoped and it sounded normal again. I actually thought it was gonna blow up. What I can't figure out is, how my projector just started to buzz out of the blue, when I got the thing it never did it, only after a year of use?

Hello. More thread resurrection :)

Hope some H30 aficionados are still around.

My H30 projects a slight bit of red in all dark areas of a scene, including the black bars on, say a 2.35:1 aspect ratio DVD. I have had this problem ever since I bought the unit a year ago, although the first H30 I owned did not have the problem at all. I am beginning to use the projector again after barely using it for the past several months due to a death in the family. I have not yet found a combination of settings that helps. I vaguely recall reading about others who had this problem when I was following this thread long ago, but now I can't find the posts. Anyone solve this same problem?

Also, I've been thinking about upgrading the firmware. My widescreen movies are projected at the bottom of the 4:3 frame. I assume I have the C05 version, though I don’t know how to determine that. My projector is ceiling mounted at a height of 7.5 ft and I have to tilt it way up to get the image where I want it. Is it correct that the firmware upgrade is only available by shipping the unit to Optoma? Do they charge for that upgrade?

Are there any changes in the newest firmware other than where the widescreen image is shown?

Lastly, is it me or is that particular firmware change just plain silly? Why force us to choose one location for the 16.9 image rather than enabling us to toggle back and forth between the top and bottom location as best suits individual setups? If its just firmware and no physical change, then that should be easy. Oh well. Did any of you who upgraded the firmware prefer the old version?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

JB

Still loving the H30! :) I don't see the need to upgrade anytime soon.

I prefer C05 because I use a 4.3 screen with the H30.

My H30 projects a slight bit of red in all dark areas of a scene, including the black bars on, say a 2.35:1 aspect ratio DVD. I have had this problem ever since I bought the unit a year ago, although the first H30 I owned did not have the problem at all. I am beginning to use the projector again after barely using it for the past several months due to a death in the family. I have not yet found a combination of settings that helps. I vaguely recall reading about others who had this problem when I was following this thread long ago, but now I can't find the posts. Anyone solve this same problem?

Also, I've been thinking about upgrading the firmware. My widescreen movies are projected at the bottom of the 4:3 frame. I assume I have the C05 version, though I don’t know how to determine that. My projector is ceiling mounted at a height of 7.5 ft and I have to tilt it way up to get the image where I want it. Is it correct that the firmware upgrade is only available by shipping the unit to Optoma? Do they charge for that upgrade?

Are there any changes in the newest firmware other than where the widescreen image is shown?

Lastly, is it me or is that particular firmware change just plain silly? Why force us to choose one location for the 16.9 image rather than enabling us to toggle back and forth between the top and bottom location as best suits individual setups? If its just firmware and no physical change, then that should be easy. Oh well. Did any of you who upgraded the firmware prefer the old version?

Thanks for your help.

Cheers,

JB

The red push is just a calibration issue...and just another case of Optoma's wonderful OTB calibration settings :rolleyes:

The quick fix is to go into your advance adjustments (in the Image menu) and start taking out some of the Red brightness. You can take out until the red disappears from the blacks, or take out until faces in movies look natural.

Ultimately though you should do a full calibration with Avia. You might get lucky just taking the Reds out, but usually that effects other colors (blue, green, etc.) and the color balance will be off.

I think Guitarman has some easy steps to doing fast calibrations by eye in the very 1st post of this thread. You could also use the THX set up in the Incredibles disc.

As for the firmware: Yes, the C07 puts the 16:9 image at the top of the 4:3 frame, you will probably benefit from that as you're image seems to be too low anyway. Of course, if you watch 4:3 material it looks like you will still have to tilt up the projector...too bad there isn't a way to avoid this.
I don't think they charge for the firmware upgrade....maybe the shipping costs only? You should call and ask....you will have to call to get the RMA to do it anyway.

I myself prefer the C05 firmware since I have tall ceilings.

Fleaman

The firmware will be free if you want it. Actually they give us the option to choose either C05 or C07. If you didn't get the lens cap ask, that will be free also.

The red push is just a calibration issue...and just another case of Optoma's wonderful OTB calibration settings :rolleyes:

The quick fix is to go into your advance adjustments (in the Image menu) and start taking out some of the Red brightness. You can take out until the red disappears from the blacks, or take out until faces in movies look natural.

Ultimately though you should do a full calibration with Avia. You might get lucky just taking the Reds out, but usually that effects other colors (blue, green, etc.) and the color balance will be off.

I think Guitarman has some easy steps to doing fast calibrations by eye in the very 1st post of this thread. You could also use the THX set up in the Incredibles disc.

As for the firmware: Yes, the C07 puts the 16:9 image at the top of the 4:3 frame, you will probably benefit from that as you're image seems to be too low anyway. Of course, if you watch 4:3 material it looks like you will still have to tilt up the projector...too bad there isn't a way to avoid this.
I don't think they charge for the firmware upgrade....maybe the shipping costs only? You should call and ask....you will have to call to get the RMA to do it anyway.

I myself prefer the C05 firmware since I have tall ceilings.

Fleaman


Thanks a bunch. I'll get back to trying to calibrate with the red brightness. Funny that I missed Guitarman's quick calibration suggestions in the first post. Haven't read the first post in a yr and a half... :)

Not sure what I'll do about the firmware yet. Probably just keep it as it is, rather than ship it away for something I'm not certain I'd prefer anyway.

Cheers,

JB

update:

I had reported a buzzing issue a few weeks back, I have since sent my h30 in for service, got it back and have been testing it out for about 3 weeks now, so far the buzzing hasn't come back! They told me the color wheel was the problem and had replaced that.. Yay!!!

I'm wondering about something though.. boo... I watch movies in 1080i, I have an upscaling dvd player, the LG equivalent to the Zenith DVB318.

I started noticing in a few movies that when there is a camera move, or say a car moving in a scene there seem to be stuttering or artifact errors... I tested that famous gladiator scene with the rome fly over and the move stutters a bit. I was wondering, if anyone uses 1080i for watching movies and if they have had any problems with that? The gladaitor scene plays fine in 480p and 720 p, but at 1080i it's a little stuttery in motion....especially the edges of the coliseum.

Is it possible that the scaler/ deinterlacer on the h30 is busted? I never noticed this before in movies so I was wondering if anyone else out there knows of the same sort of thing?

Thanks all!

I haven't posted in a long while, good to be back!

Still loving my H30. A great investment at just the right time!

About the scaling- I have also noticed similar effects when looking at 1080i vs 720p and 480p. I spoke to an ISF calibrator and he had a good theory: When feeding the projector a 1080i signal it must take that signal (assuming it is a non-converted 1080i signal) and down-convert it back to 480p. Feeding a pure 480p signal to the H30 is a perfect transfer- no distortion. Feeding a 720p signal also downrezzes to 480p but seems to do so a little more easily- probably because there is less information to sift through. (Please don't attack me on semantics!) Anyhoo, the less conversions the signal must make on it's journey, the better the result as a general rule.

I don't think your scaler is broken- just doing it's job to the best of it's abilities.

Here's a good example. If I watch NFL Football (Go Vikes!) in HD, let's say the signal being broadcast is 1080i. Let's go on to say that I have set my HDTV receiver to output 720p. That's one conversion right there. From the tuner it goes to the projector, which then additionally scales the image from 720p to 480p. So the image is being scaled twice. I could switch the HDTV tuner to output 1080i which then matches the original signal but I must still accept the scaling to 480p through the projector. What I have taken to doing is having the tuner scale everything to 480p and then goping to the projector. This has resulted in the most satisfying image and I can be confident that my projector is showing off the best of it's abilities for every thing I watch since the 480p is calibrated optimally. Less mucking about in the settings for 1080i and 720p.

So there's my explanation. Less scaling is good!

Hello

I have a couple of questions for fellow H30 users... It's been about a year and 1000+ hrs on orignal lamp now... Was enjoying the pj all that time... apparently lamp is out now, hence question number one:

1. Projector starts up, spins something (fans and colorwheel?) up 3 times when goes idle and turns on amber "lamp" light . I assume that means lamp is bad can't find manual right now (moved since i bought the toy). Please somene confirm that it's standard behavior.

Even if lamp is recoverable i tihnk it might be a good idea to have a spare, thus:

2. I live in canada, so i went to optoma us site ISO replacement bulbs. Do not see H30 lamp listed there, i can only hope H31 is compartible but hardly doubt that. Googled for 'SP.80A01.001', found quite a few but not very excited about prices (350-400 USD, and i got the unit new for ~1300 USD). Also i am quite concerned about lamp being new and original/compatible. Can anyone suggest a decent dealer that ships to canada?

Hello

[QUOTE]I have a couple of questions for fellow H30 users... It's been about a year and 1000+ hrs on orignal lamp now... Was enjoying the pj all that time... apparently lamp is out now, hence question number one:

1. Projector starts up, spins something (fans and colorwheel?) up 3 times when goes idle and turns on amber "lamp" light . I assume that means lamp is bad can't find manual right now (moved since i bought the toy). Please somene confirm that it's standard behavior.

Hi. On my unit, if you hear the colorwheel spin up 3 times, then it fails, sometimes that just means the bulb failed to spark correctly. If you hear the spin up 4 times, I think that means the bulb is gone. Im not taking this from the manual, but from my own experience.

On my first bulb, I would occassionaly find my H30 having 3 attempts at spinning up and sparking the bulb without success and I got the solid orange light - on its own. When my first bulb did actually die, the projector tried to spin up 4 times, before finally giving up and showing the solid orange light, -as well as- the main power button led lighting up. I cant remember if the power light lit up green or orange also, but it definitely lit up along with the orange lamp light whenever the buld failure happened.

So, just look again at how your unit operates when you try to power it up - listen for the amount of spinup attempts, as well as the LED combination you end up with.

Even if lamp is recoverable i tihnk it might be a good idea to have a spare, thus:

2. I live in canada, so i went to optoma us site ISO replacement bulbs. Do not see H30 lamp listed there, i can only hope H31 is compartible but hardly doubt that. Googled for 'SP.80A01.001', found quite a few but not very excited about prices (350-400 USD, and i got the unit new for ~1300 USD). Also i am quite concerned about lamp being new and original/compatible

The H30 lamp is 180W and the H31 lamp is 200W so I wouldnt think that they would be interchangeable.

As for the prices, yes, it hurts, it hurts a LOT lol. You will find threads on the forum discussing the obscene cost of projector lamps, and you wont any places selling them for that much cheaper than the prices you have seen so far, unless you get lucky on an eBay auction or something.

Good luck, I hope that your bulb is ok and that the pj just hasnt managed to spark it up correctly. Take your lamp out and make sure there is no dirt or anything obvious on the connectors, and reseat it just to try.

The Optoma H31's bulb is NOT compatible with the H30's. Projector People (their link is at the top of this page) has the Optoma H30 bulb for sale. Just look under accessories and follow the drop menus. Cost: $300. I'll be calling soon: I just got the "change lamp" warning two days ago at just under 1500 hours. I love my H30!

Hopefully a quick question for you HTPC owners out there...

I have my Optoma H30 connected to my Pioneer 1014TX via a VGA/Component Breakout cable (25' Python Ebay) and it works fine using my stand alone DVD player (Panasonic RP62 via component). It also works with my HTPC if I use the HDTV dongle that came with my Geforce 6600GT (using component cables).

However it does not work when I connect my VGA/Component adapter that came with the H30 to my VGA port and then use component cables to go to the receiver. The H30 just never sees a signal.

Am I doing something wrong or will I have to buy a transcoder to allow my HTPC to connect using VGA through the receiver? (if so I was thinking about the 2200 from http://www.crescendo-systems.com/transcoder.html).

The reason I don't want to use the dongle is because I cant use the native resolution of 800x600 the dongle forces only HDTV formats 540p 720p and 1080i which all look horrible on the H30 except for 540p but its actually a 720x420 resolution so Im wasting alot of pixels.

I just want to make sure I've exhausted all possibilities before spending even more money after sinking into a new HTPC.

Thanks
Dave

thanks for replies...
apparently lamp is no workie here. iI does spin up 4 times now upon startup and then turns amber lamp light on top. I recall it not sparking right away before but usualy it would just retry second time and be fine. Took out and examined lamp, dunno if that' how it supposed to be but the lamp doesnt have front cover (just a cone with solid glass bar with molten in electrode in the middle, some spiral around it and fany braket at the end of the glass bar)
I dont see any traces of cover glass anywhere so i guess that's how it is meant to be (still very weird).

Went to projectoreople - they dont ship to canada right away, talking to them via email... in mean time i found this site: brandnamez (can not post urls, this is stoopid)
anyone dealt with them? price looks good ($280) but site's looking rather cheesy...

Nimda, i have pj connected as secondary monitor to PC (regular PC used as HTPC for video content and ocasional gaming) on Radeon 9600. 800x600 works very well... I use soft playtime resize within players (for example media player classic with DirectShow renderer using bicubic resize filter) for scaling down HD content. I know it is card specific but i found that video overlay works quite decent in most cases, i try to always use no HW scaling within pj (even knowing optoma's scaler is really good) and always have content panned/scaled to cover most of 800x600. I have no complains about quality at all, being connected to computer at native matrix res and no keystoning it is extremily crisp and clear.

Phazorx,

Thanks for the reply however, I think you are going direct to the projector from your pc. That would be fine but I, on the other hand want to go through my AV receiver so I can switch between different sources. Thats where my problem is I dont think my receiver understands the VGA input from the pc.

Im pretty sure i need a transcoder I just want verification from some others

Thanks,
Dave

Well, I received the dreaded 'replace your bulb' message today, and now that I've finally figured out how to turn off the warning, I'm crossing my fingers that it'll last until a new one arrives.

~1500hrs on the bulb already -- and it's only been 10 months! The picture has seemed slightly darker lately, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. I don't mind the dimming so much, but I am worried about the bulb blowing up and damaging the PJ. It's well warrantied (over 1yr left on ext warranty - thanks amex!) should that happen, but being without the unit for a couple weeks while it's in repair could be killer (this is the only TV in the house!). Still, I want to get as much life as possible out of the bulb. Tradeoffs suck.

I posted in the H31 thread a question of if I should upgrade, but when I think about all the 4:3 TV we watch on it, I'm going to stick w/ the H30.

I've done the standard google/froogle search for the bulb. If anyone knows of a particularly good deal on one, I'd be eternally grateful if you could PM me. Thanks!

Just checking in I'm coming up to my Year anniversary with my x30 only got about 270 on the bulb I only use it for movies and I only watch maybe 2 a week although I watched a bunch this weekend. I'm still pretty happy with the unit. I hear a quick buzz every now and then but nothing that satays with the unit. Last week after not using the unit for about a month or so it took about three whirs to fire up but this week it came up pretty quick. I probably should use it more often. I've consiered upgrading but I think I'll wait until HD DVD Shakes out next year...

Well, I received the dreaded 'replace your bulb' message today, and now that I've finally figured out how to turn off the warning, I'm crossing my fingers that it'll last until a new one arrives.

How did you turn off the message Jeffspam? I believe someone mentioned it like a year ago but I couldn't find it with a search. I am at 1372 hours on my second bulb and still loving the unit. I was watching some of the Bengals-Jags game tonight on ESPN-HD. I'm still quite surprised at the quality of the image.

I did a shopping.com search a month or two ago for replacement bulbs and liked what I found A LOT better than what I found when I checked tonight. I hope they're not getting in short supply.

Cheers!

Yeah, I too want to know how to make the message never come up again. I've been using the projector 400 hours since the message first appeared (I'm on 1912 hours now), and every damn time I turn on the projector I have to go in and tell it not to remind me.

Couple of questions - I have the H30.

How do you reset the bulb hours timer? Mine is almost at 1600 (it came on at 1500) and it is REALLY annoying.

My picture seems a bit darker than it used to. I used to watch almost everything at Brightness -8 but lately stuff that is dark comes out too black to see at -8. I guess this is because the bulb is dying?

My PJ often fires the bulb 3 times before it "catches". I guess this also means that the bulb needs replacement?

Can I really replace it myself? It looks like the replacement bulb is about $300, yuck. Should I replace the bulb or just ebay the whole thing and buy myself and upgrade?

Lamp replacement is really easy....like changing a light bulb (almost).

You might want to take the lamp out and put it back in...this is called 'Re-seating' the lamp. Sometimes that helps (re-seating cleans the contacts).

As for ebaying it: A used H30 with say, 100hrs on it, might fetch $500-$600 depending on ebay's mood at the moment. An H30 needing a new bulb is gonna fetch $300 less than that, at least.

So you're really looking at getting $200-$300 for your H30 in the condition it's in now.

>>>Also, have you turned the High Lamp mode on?

Fleaman

I'm going to be away for a while at Christmas and the wife has told me that if the bulb pops while I am away I may as well not come home. :)

Hm... I could get an H31 for something like $900, less $200 from ebaying my H30 is $700. Or just replace the bulb for $300. I don't think the H31 would be $400 better so I guess replacing the bulb it is.

Any tips on cleaning it while I have it open? I think the fan is a wee bit noisier than it was when I first got the unit.

>>> I'm in economy mode, always.

>>> I'm in economy mode, always.

Turn off the Economy mode...you will get a little more lamp output! The projector will get a little louder too (the fan spins up higher).

Fleaman

Any tips on cleaning it while I have it open? I think the fan is a wee bit noisier than it was when I first got the unit.

.

There is really nothing to clean when the lamp hatch is open...you're not opening up the whole unit (it's like taking a battery cover off).

You can take a vacuum to the vents on the outside...and around the fan, on the outside of the unit.

Fleaman

Thanks for the tips fleaman. I will probably leave it in econo mode and just crank the brightness to +5 or so. I'll probably order a replacement lamp from BH today. $300 - ouch. :(

I guess blowing compressed air *into* the vents to try to clean out dust would be a bad idea, eh?

I'm still wondering how you disable the bulb warning permanently though.... anyone?

Cranking the Brightness up is not the same as higher lumens by going into high-lamp mode.

And yeah, don't blow air into the projector!

Don't know about the bulb warning thing...

Fleaman

A full reset in the service mode should clear the bulb hours and end the mesg. If you like the picture now I'd copy down all the service and user numbers first.

It is alive!!! The thread is brought back from cryogenic sleep. :)

I just went through this lamp reminder thing about 6 weeks ago. I could not figure out how to permanently turn the lamp reminder off. I decided to just reset the lamp at 1525 hours. You do not however need to go through a complete service menu reset to accomplish this. If you go into the system menu and bulb sub menu- you will see the lamp hour, reminding and reset items. As I'm sure you discovered- turning the lamp reminding indicator off only works for that session and then it's right back on the next time you power up. The lamp reset feature doesn't appear available if you try to arrow down to it with the remote. I stumbled across that if you use the arrow buttons on the projector itself rather than the remote you can move down to the lamp reset option and set the hours back to 0. I am now at a total of 1615 hours on this second lamp. I too have noticed a drop in brightness with some SD material but I don't really notice it with DVD or HD. I am also considering picking up a new lamp and storing this faded one for emergency use if a new one fails. I would hope that a new one and what's left of usable life for this one would hold me until upgrade time.

Tom just never got anywhere near the lamp warning message because everyone keeps sending him new toys to play with. :) JK Tom.

Cheers!

Hey, well well I was able to get a very decent contrast ratio out the my H30.

1600.1

I'm a little more learn-ed about how to pull the best out of a projector these days. With other Optoma projectors the limiting color is red. With the H30 the limiting color is green. What all this means is when you tune a grayscale finding the projectors limiting color, which you do on the RGB-contrast side, it enables you to max out the overall contrast while keeping in balance.

These numbers probably won't help every H30 but if you start by increasing the contrast/green in the Image advanced adjustments and use a graysteps pattern to take out color bias. Well you could end up with double the contrast ratio. Thinking back HT-mag and other tests were only producing oh 800.1 or 900.1. Well I was able to get 1600.1 for both 480p/DVD and 1080i/HDTV.

The Optoma H30 is back. :)

Picture
Cinema/gamma 1 use Avia for your blacks/whites/color

Image
Color temp 2
Film

R contrast 19
G contrast 12
B contrast 17
R brightness 2
G brightness 0
B brightness 3

That's right gotta, you can clear the bulb ours in the user system menu.

Note G contrast is at 12, this was just below clipping for green with both HDTV and 480p DVD. Start with green at 12, tune your basic blacks/whites then look over graysteps patterns, moving R-contrast and blue-contrast to make the light grays gray. On the low end of the gray scale leave green and use red and blue to make the best gray.

Re-tune your blacks & whites and go back and look over the gray patterns again.

I usually have to go back and forth between doing the grayscale to basic blacks/white about three times before they're set correctly.
good luck

I'll give those settings a try Tom. My H30 is still running, doesn't get used often, but I have had it on Stand-by since I purchased it back in March 04 without any problems. Don't know how many hours I have on it but still with the original bulb. Probably watch a 2-3 movies every 3-4 months, kinda go in spurts. Rest of time I am playing Guild Wars on my PC that is not hooked up to the PJ. Firefly was awesome to watch on it and will check out Serenity this weekend. Still buzzes, but I rarely notice it anymore.
Happy New Year everyone, good to see you guys are still around, will be back when its time to upgrade :)

I looked over some clips with my new found contrast ratio and things look excellent. Good 3D and very good intrafield contrast. It's very easy to see details in blacks/dark scenes with the H30. Time to pop on AVP.


Here's the 1080i/HD numbers. I used the Accupel HDG-3000 to tune HD, it works.

Picture
Cinema
Contrast minus 35
Brightness 10
Color 4
gamma 1

Image
color temp 2
Film

R contrast 3
G contrast 20
B contrast 0
R brightness -11
G brightness 0
B brightness 3

Hi Tom, Guys, I'm still using the H30 But also it's been sporadic, I bought a New Samsung 32" LCD two weeks ago so I've been viewing alot of upconverted DVD's on it. I still only have about 250 hours or so on the bulb, I had one instance where it took 4 attempts to fire the bulb, but ever since then it's been normal. It buzzes slightly but not noticible. I'm going to try Tom's latest Contrast setting to see how that work's out. For me the H30 is great and I don't anticipate changing until this whole HD DVD shakesout and is up and running.

I was surprised to see this thread on the first page again! I figured that by now, the whole thread was moved to the archive forum! Still loving my H30, but like Jeffspam, I have used the H30 as my sole display device since my HD Sanyo tube died on me back in February. I just passed over 2000 hrs earlier this month and need to purchase a bulb (or two)! I'm also strongly considering purchasing another tv for daily use. I'm looking at the Sony XBR960 (I love the tube CRT picture) for daily small tv watching. Do many of you use you H30 as a tv?

Guitarman, I don't understand how to use all of the adjustments on the H30. Avia and Video Essentials don't cover all of the controls that are available on it. Where did you learn, and how can a novice like me calibrate my H30 beyond the common tv contols?

Hey, hey, hey!!!! The thread is resuscitated again. :)

I'm using the H30 almost daily for some type of TV watching whether it's catching a game on ESPN-HD (don't even care who's playing :)) or watching some shows I recorded on my MCE HTPC. I am now at almost 1900 hours on the second bulb and I can tell it's getting a little dimmer. I will try some of those numbers of Toms just for s**t's & grins.

I have been getting upgrade fever lately even though I won't do anything for probably another six months. I have been reading up on the AE900U and the Z4 (I know- I'm a traitor to the DLP fraternity) which are both close to what I want but each has a limitation for my setup that I can't quite swallow. What has been entertaining is seeing all the posts from our old buddy Ryan (RSmith4321) in the Panny 900 threads. I'm not sure but I think he dumped his H30 for something else, then ended up with a 4805, now he has gone through two 900's in the last three weeks and returned both of those and is now looking at the Z4. I am quite certain he will never be happy with anything he gets and should just buy a 36" tube TV and be done with it. :) At least the abrasiveness of his posts has dropped a lot.

Last time I looked- Optoma is selling H30 lamps for $299. Should be our best alternative out there when we need replacements.

Happy New Year to all you H30 lovers!! Cheers!

Hey, hey, hey!!!! The thread is resuscitated again. :)

I'm using the H30 almost daily for some type of TV watching whether it's catching a game on ESPN-HD (don't even care who's playing :)) or watching some shows I recorded on my MCE HTPC. I am now at almost 1900 hours on the second bulb and I can tell it's getting a little dimmer. I will try some of those numbers of Toms just for s**t's & grins.

I have been getting upgrade fever lately even though I won't do anything for probably another six months. I have been reading up on the AE900U and the Z4 (I know- I'm a traitor to the DLP fraternity)

No fraternity allegiances, whatever gets the best picture for the money, is what get's the money! :)

Hey everybody -- just wanted to chime in since the thread has caught its second (or third) wind. I'll have had my H30 for 2 years in March, and I'm still loving it. I had an early bulb failure 91 days after purchase, and Optoma graciously replaced the bulb for free even though I was a day over warranty. I'm still on that second bulb with about 1000 hours, and it continues to looks great.

I am starting to get occasional "Over Temperature" warnings followed by an automatic shutdown, but they seem to be artificial. When it happens, it's usually within the first 20 minutes of operation. It never feels abnormally hot at that point. If I unplug the projector and plug it back in, I can turn it immediately back on and it will then happily run for hours. Maybe that's a sign that my bulb is starting to go?

Luckily this only happens maybe 25% of the time, but it's still annoying. I'm still very happy with my purchase though. This is my first projector and it's completely transformed my movie-watching experiences. I'll never go back to a small screen.

Does anybody use the 16:9 plastic mask when watching wide-screen movies? I haven't been able to use it. It keeps falling off the lens, so maybe I'm not attaching it correctly. Also, which way does it go?

Also, if I get the firmware upgrade, will that make the mask redundant?

Does anybody use the 16:9 plastic mask when watching wide-screen movies? I haven't been able to use it. It keeps falling off the lens, so maybe I'm not attaching it correctly. Also, which way does it go?

Also, if I get the firmware upgrade, will that make the mask redundant?

I never used the mask (don't have a H30 anymore...). I tend to focus more than most in my set up, so the mask wouldn't work anyway (as it turns with the focus ring).

The firmware update makes no difference with the mask....the mask is masking out the 4:3 aspect ratio of the 4:3 DLP panel...down to 16:9, to help eliminate the black bars. No firmware update will be changing the DLP chip from a 4:3 chip to a 16:9 chip! For that you have to buy a H31,

Fleaman

Welp, my H30 is almost 2years old now and suddenly out of the blue it has started buzzing. I first suspected the color wheel... but then i found out most of the buzzing comes from the back of the unit where the psu is. It's some kind of mixed low and high tone noise. Sometimes it gets louder, but usually it stays the same loudness. It isn't that annoying yet when i'm watching a movie, (as i usually turn my soundsystem up to a good volume :)) but it is really annoying when i want to work silently on big screen.......

I started reading back on this topic and read some messages about the buzzing... someone called it a 'neon sign'. Yes, thats exactly what the low tone noise sounds like.. the high tone sounds like some broken transistor or something... i suspect that is coming from the color wheel.

Either way, as the projector is almost out of warranty i think i want to send it back. Any experiences from other users with that? What will optoma do when i tell them it is buzzing. What if they disagree and can't find the problem?
I'm kinda affraid when i don't do anything the buzzing gets worse.. as the project will be out of warrany by then, i will definitely be f*cked.

Try lifting the ground pin with those 2 to 3 pin plug adapters.

And/or try using a really nice surge suppresser with good filters in it (not Home depot ones, but ones made for Home Theater).

I'll admit, these are long shots, but worth a try, especially if you have them laying around already.

Good luck.

Fleaman

What i have at this moment is http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=73&pcount=&Product_Id=146070 which i bought when i got the projector. Do you think a different one will work better and which one do you recommend?

I honestly would not spend any money trying to fix the buzz.

What i have at this moment is http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=73&pcount=&Product_Id=146070 which i bought when i got the projector. Do you think a different one will work better and which one do you recommend?

That one does have a filter on it, but if it didn't help, it might be unlikely a better filter will work.

Like I said, it's a long shot, but if you have them laying around, you should give them a try.

Fleaman

Send it in before your two years are up. I'm guessing you'll get it back with C07 firmware which will put the 16:9 image at the top of your 4:3 screen (if that's what you're using). Keep us informed- maybe you'll get a refurbed H31 or something if all the H30 stuff is gone. :)

Cheers!

I started reading back on this topic and read some messages about the buzzing... someone called it a 'neon sign'. Yes, thats exactly what the low tone noise sounds like.. the high tone sounds like some broken transistor or something... i suspect that is coming from the color wheel.
This started happening to me as well -- as soon as I plugged in and turned on a portable heater. It's not even on the same circuit -- and the H30 is the ONLY thing in the house that's buzzing! Any chance you recently added something like this?

We have our Optoma H30 installed upside down in a cieling shelf and it works great in every way apart from one very annoying problem - it refuses to turn on with the remote.

The remote is fine since as soon as I manually turn on the projector by climbing up to the cieling and pressing the power button (the power button light is always flashing) and have the H30 turned on, all of the other remote functions work as you would expect - I can even use the remote power button to turn it off without climbing up again.

Have tried new batteries; have tried with the remote 6 inches away from the projector. Inexplicably it worked for about a month before stopping working again.

Any ideas anyone?

If you haven't unplugged the PJ from the Pwr outlet for a while, try that.

If unplugging for an hr or so doesn't work, call Optoma and see if there is a master reset function for the unit. I'm not sure that the menu master resets would do anything...

Fleaman

Thanks. I unplugged it overnight and have just reconnected it. It now appears to turn on from the remote. Great stuff. Thanks again.

You da man Flea! :)

You da man Flea! :)

My 15 Minutes of Fame :D

Fleaman

I just picked up a H30 off ebay (hoping it shows up in good shape) just over 1k hours. $376 with shipping.Planned on picking up a new bulb in a couple months for it.Looking forward to seeing this thing in action :D

Here was my newly aquired optoma this morning

H30 (http://www.geocities.com/nightinshiningdarkness/h30.jpg)

Seemed pretty dusty in areas...I also think the color wheel may be making a bit of noise. Need to call optoma about it I guess. And I need to do something about a screen as well.So far though,I love it.

I've been getting a loud grinding/buzzing noise that gets louder at times. Sometimes so loud I can't even drown it out with more volume.

I have been trying to talk with someone at Optoma. I posted a message on their tech support site. also called their 888 # and after referring me back to the web site on the message, the phone just rings and rings.

I Printed a RMA form and am getting ready to send my projector in. Is there anything else that I need to do to get this resolved without any surprises or problems?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

I've been getting a loud grinding/buzzing noise that gets louder at times. Sometimes so loud I can't even drown it out with more volume.

I have been trying to talk with someone at Optoma. I posted a message on their tech support site. also called their 888 # and after referring me back to the web site on the message, the phone just rings and rings.

I Printed a RMA form and am getting ready to send my projector in. Is there anything else that I need to do to get this resolved without any surprises or problems?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

I don't think you can send it in w/o first getting an RMA #.

Keep calling them until you get through.

Also, if your unit is out of warranty, be prepared to junk it, the repair costs might not be worth the trouble....

Fleaman

I'm also experiencing the color wheel noise. I can verify it 100% -- I took apart the projector and spun the wheel by pointing a can of compressed air at it. The airflow caused it to spin around (not as fast as if powered on, but enough), and it gave me the same noise I'm hearing when it's powered up.

Does anyone know if Optoma sells parts to end users? Replacing the wheel would be simple (for me). I'd rather not send it in and spend $$ on labor, and more importantly, be without TV for a week or two -- this is our only source of television!

Hi Guys,

I try not to post unless there is something I really cant figure out after racking my brain. Then i admit defeat and try to consult the gurus here. I hope there is an easy answer for this...

My Optoma H30 (ceiling mount) projector has been working perfectly with my HTPC using an 800x600 native resolution sending to the projector which is throwing the image onto my Stewart Firehawk 1:78 screen using the 16x9 (not native) format on the projector.

I recently purchased a Sony DVP-CX995V 400 Disc DVD changer (now enters the problem)
for some reason the aspect ratio it sends it different than the VGA signal from the PC. All of my movies are squashed vertically even the 1:78 films which normally fill the entire screen when played through the HTPC.

After playing with the Sony's settings the correct setting was the tv typep set to 16x9. But this caused the image to go off the screen at the bottom. I realized the only way to fix the squashed image is to physically get on a ladder and move the projector angled up farther to fit on the screen. Okay so now everything looks right through the DVD changer However of course now my HTPC is too far off the screen on the top now.

Is there another way around this? I want to be able to play movies through the HTPC and the DVD changer without having to get on a ladder everytime. The HTPC does have a superior picture quality using FFDSHOW. but because i have such a large collection I need to put this DVD changer to use as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Dave

Does anyone know if Optoma sells parts to end users?
After a week and a half and two unanswered voicemails, I finally got in touch with someone at Optoma. They don't sell just the color wheel -- I'd have to buy the whole engine at... $520!!! Maybe just a couple of drops of some sort of lube would do the trick?

At this point I have to ask myself if it's worth it to keep this PJ. I'll need a new bulb any day now anyway. I wonder how much I could get for this unit on ebay. I also wonder if it's even worth sticking with a PJ. I've only had this unit for 18 months! I guess I knew the risks from the start. Still, I don't think I'd choose Optoma again, if only because I'm dissatisfied with their customer service.

After a week and a half and two unanswered voicemails, I finally got in touch with someone at Optoma. They don't sell just the color wheel -- I'd have to buy the whole engine at... $520!!! Maybe just a couple of drops of some sort of lube would do the trick?

At this point I have to ask myself if it's worth it to keep this PJ. I'll need a new bulb any day now anyway. I wonder how much I could get for this unit on ebay. I also wonder if it's even worth sticking with a PJ. I've only had this unit for 18 months! I guess I knew the risks from the start. Still, I don't think I'd choose Optoma again, if only because I'm dissatisfied with their customer service.

I hear where your coming from. I don't use my PJ as much as some here do, it's been running pretty well, I have a slight buzz but very slight, but reading about the Bulb failures and assorted problems make me anxious everytime I power up the PJ that something could go wrong. And knowing the outlay for a new bulb it's not something I'd want to revisit often. Also I'm using my PJ strictly for movies given these fears on the Bulb etc. I have pretty much written off getting another Projector and more likely would go DLP or Plasma or LCD in the future

I've only had this unit for 18 months!
The H30 has a two year warranty. I went through all your previous H30 posts and saw no indication that you bought it used, etc. Why not call them back and see if you can send it in to check the buzzing? Perhaps they would change the color wheel under warranty. What have you got to lose?

Cheers!

Hi Guys,

I try not to post unless there is something I really cant figure out after racking my brain. Then i admit defeat and try to consult the gurus here. I hope there is an easy answer for this...

My Optoma H30 (ceiling mount) projector has been working perfectly with my HTPC using an 800x600 native resolution sending to the projector which is throwing the image onto my Stewart Firehawk 1:78 screen using the 16x9 (not native) format on the projector.

I recently purchased a Sony DVP-CX995V 400 Disc DVD changer (now enters the problem)
for some reason the aspect ratio it sends it different than the VGA signal from the PC. All of my movies are squashed vertically even the 1:78 films which normally fill the entire screen when played through the HTPC.

After playing with the Sony's settings the correct setting was the tv typep set to 16x9. But this caused the image to go off the screen at the bottom. I realized the only way to fix the squashed image is to physically get on a ladder and move the projector angled up farther to fit on the screen. Okay so now everything looks right through the DVD changer However of course now my HTPC is too far off the screen on the top now.

Is there another way around this? I want to be able to play movies through the HTPC and the DVD changer without having to get on a ladder everytime. The HTPC does have a superior picture quality using FFDSHOW. but because i have such a large collection I need to put this DVD changer to use as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Dave

No one has any suggestions for my problem?

Someone from another forum posted that its because my DVD player is not outputting 800x600 and I need to try and match my PC to the DVD players output so they will be centered the same with both sources.

I did try changing the HTPC to 720x480 but still no go.

Hi Guys,

I try not to post unless there is something I really cant figure out after racking my brain. Then i admit defeat and try to consult the gurus here. I hope there is an easy answer for this...

My Optoma H30 (ceiling mount) projector has been working perfectly with my HTPC using an 800x600 native resolution sending to the projector which is throwing the image onto my Stewart Firehawk 1:78 screen using the 16x9 (not native) format on the projector.

I recently purchased a Sony DVP-CX995V 400 Disc DVD changer (now enters the problem)
for some reason the aspect ratio it sends it different than the VGA signal from the PC. All of my movies are squashed vertically even the 1:78 films which normally fill the entire screen when played through the HTPC.

After playing with the Sony's settings the correct setting was the tv typep set to 16x9. But this caused the image to go off the screen at the bottom. I realized the only way to fix the squashed image is to physically get on a ladder and move the projector angled up farther to fit on the screen. Okay so now everything looks right through the DVD changer However of course now my HTPC is too far off the screen on the top now.

Is there another way around this? I want to be able to play movies through the HTPC and the DVD changer without having to get on a ladder everytime. The HTPC does have a superior picture quality using FFDSHOW. but because i have such a large collection I need to put this DVD changer to use as well.

Thanks in advance!

-Dave

No one has any suggestions for my problem?

Someone from another forum posted that its because my DVD player is not outputting 800x600 and I need to try and match my PC to the DVD players output so they will be centered the same with both sources.

I did try changing the HTPC to 720x480 but still no go.

I was going to play around with some things on this Nimda and I just haven't had time. I use a 4:3 screen so I don't have the same issues with DVD changer and HTPC. They each land in a different area on my 4:3 screen but they do land somewhere on the screen. I know that doesn't help you much with a 16:9 screen. My 16:9 image from the changer or HDTV is always at the bottom of my 4:3 screen (C05 firmware on the H30) and my HTPC puts the 16:9 image in the middle of it. This sounds like the same thing that is happening to you- thus the changer puts your image off the bottom of your screen. I was going to go back and read some of Jason's (Dagamepimp) posts from a long time ago when he had an H30. If I recall- he said he could move the HTPC image anywhere in the 4:3 panel, I think using FFDshow settings for this but I can't recall. If you could get something (FFDshow, Dscaler, etc.) to move the HTPC image to the bottom of the panel- I think you'd have it.

Hope that helps at least some and doesn't muddy the waters further.

I was going to play around with some things on this Nimda and I just haven't had time. I use a 4:3 screen so I don't have the same issues with DVD changer and HTPC. They each land in a different area on my 4:3 screen but they do land somewhere on the screen. I know that doesn't help you much with a 16:9 screen. My 16:9 image from the changer or HDTV is always at the bottom of my 4:3 screen (C05 firmware on the H30) and my HTPC puts the 16:9 image in the middle of it. This sounds like the same thing that is happening to you- thus the changer puts your image off the bottom of your screen. I was going to go back and read some of Jason's (Dagamepimp) posts from a long time ago when he had an H30. If I recall- he said he could move the HTPC image anywhere in the 4:3 panel, I think using FFDshow settings for this but I can't recall. If you could get something (FFDshow, Dscaler, etc.) to move the HTPC image to the bottom of the panel- I think you'd have it.

Hope that helps at least some and doesn't muddy the waters further.

Thanks for the post...

But wouldnt FFDSHOW only change DVD resolution? I need the entire Windows desktop to be moved as well. Possibly powerstrip?

I just wanted to add a simple drawing to show what is going on.

Once I move the projectors position to fill the entire 1:78 screen and have it looking correct then when I power on my PC to check how it looks it is up higher off the screen. I have tried using the screen shift settings within the Nvidia driver I see the screen trying to move down but its like it has reached the farthest bottom setting. I can move up more or left or right. I have not installed powerstrip yet.

What is the native resolution of the Sony via Component? 720x480? Maybe I should set the PC to whatever that is but i know I shouldnt have to do this the HTCP has a much sharper image when sending the projectors 800x600 native resolution.

This would be so much simpler if my Optoma H30 could accept a VGA and Component at the same time. I am using a Viewsonic N5 video processor to handle the 2 sources to the monitor via VGA cable.

But wouldnt FFDSHOW only change DVD resolution? I need the entire Windows desktop to be moved as well. Possibly powerstrip?
Bingo- I think Powerstrip was the ticket, just couldn't remember. Not ever having used Powerstrip- I hardly qualify for giving advise on it but I do recall Jason saying you could move the image anywhere in the 4:3 panel. This screenshot (http://www.ramelectronics.net/html/powerstrip.html) of Powerstrip would seem to bear that out. Perhaps someone with Powerstrip experience could chime in or maybe you could PM DaGamePimp and ask for assistance, he was always really good about helping. I would think you could move the HTPC image down in the 4:3 panel to coincide with the position of the DVD changers position. But then again- I'm probably wrong :D

Good luck!

Just wanted to update i found the problem...

The Viewsonic N5 was the culprit apparently evertime I change the input on the N5 it resets the resolution to 1024x768 and I have to manually change it back to 800x600 on the component input.

what a pain in the butt.

thanks for all the suggestions.

Just wanted to update i found the problem...

The Viewsonic N5 was the culprit apparently evertime I change the input on the N5 it resets the resolution to 1024x768 and I have to manually change it back to 800x600 on the component input.

what a pain in the butt.

thanks for all the suggestions.

I have the N5 on my computer desktop LCD screen noticed that in this application it slightly blurred the screen...even when just running an unaltered signal through it (bypass). I think the product is sub-par and its deinterlacing performance was just horrid on my LCD monitor.

I would'nt dare use it inline with my PJ, but maybe in that application it's not so bad.

BTW, the 1st N5 I had seemed defective....the 2nd performed noticeably better. I don't think my 1st one was truly defective, just that they have very bad quality control issues.

EDIT: I actually took the N5 out of service and it's now boxed up with nothing to do. At least on my computer LCD screen, it introduced less than prestine pictures.

Fleaman

Thanks for the feedback fleaman,

Yea, being on a tight budget at the moment and not having to buy my N5 I was left with little other options. I wish the H30 had more inputs or that I could afford an expensive DVDO processor.

THanks,

This started happening to me as well -- as soon as I plugged in and turned on a portable heater. It's not even on the same circuit -- and the H30 is the ONLY thing in the house that's buzzing! Any chance you recently added something like this?


Hell of a slow reply. But in the meantime i have sent my projector back to Optoma.
It cost me 50 euro's to send it to the UK, but i thought it was worth it. Got it back after 1 week and the form stated it was 'repaired'.

Well i don't know what happened, but it's still buzzing and it seems even louder than before.

I am going to try to connect it to a 'clean' circuit ( i already have it connected to a belkin surgemaster atm, but there is also loads of other electronic devices here) and see if it makes any difference.

I have also contact Optoma to ask what they have done. I really dig the machine, it's damn nice. But i hope i get rid of this buzzing, it is very annoying..... i have watched a few movies the past week and the buzzing is distracting me quite much.

Well, here's where I stand. Note that I have two different buzzing issues (!).

The projector buzzes when I turn on a portable heater. This is annoying, but since turning off the heater fixes the problem, I'm not terribly concerned.

More irritatingly, the projector has the sound of something... scraping. Or something. It's soooo hard to define. But this is definitely coming from the color wheel. I verified this by opening up the projector and manually spinning the wheel. I'm guessing this is the problem you're having (perhaps verify this by unplugging everything else you own?). It's been a while since I read this (loooong) thread, but I remember there many other complaints about the same problem. IIRC, folks would send their unit out for repair, and it'd be random luck if it came back fixed, same, or worse.

The color wheel appears to be a surprisingly simple part. I expected it to be housed in some sort of protective casing, but it was just hanging out there... which makes me wonder if it is becoming exposed to dust, causing the problem. I'm very tempted to drop a bit of some kind of lubricating oil in there... but it's a rather pricey gamble -- if the wheel failed because of this, the price of a new part would be so expensive that I'd basically throw away the whole projector.

I talked with Optoma UK. They are going to collect the unit again.
They verified the buzzing problem during the first repair and therefore swapped the engine module, which includes the colour wheel. However it is still buzzing, so i suspect the real problem in my case is the power supply.

I have connected the projector to a clean circuit yesterday, with no cables connected and i also unplugged every single electronic device available in this house.. even the fridge and boiler :p But it didn't work out.. the buzzing stayed the same.

However, i made a strange discovery today... i wanted to play a game (didn't do that for a loooong time) and hooked up my xbox. As soon as i turned it on, the projector's power supply was making weird noises. I don't know how to explain it, but it sounded like something was spinning down (as if it is a harddisk) :confused: and yes, the buzzing also got a little bit less. Very, very strange... as soon as i unplugged the xbox there was this strange noise again and the buzzing went back to it's 'original' loudness. I repeated this 5 times and it happened everytime.

Also, the projector is buzzing a little when it's on stand-by mode (green light, flashing)
And when i turn it off (orange light) there's some strange low buzzing sound coming from the power supply area.

Anyway, i hope Optoma will be able to fix it. :) I am very happy they will pay the UPS pickup this time, so it won't cost me 50 euro's again. Very good service. So far they have not disappoint me with their customer service. Makes my next projector be a Optoma for sure. :)

I knew this day was coming, my bulb failed on me right before I was playing a movie for my family, 670 hours I ordered a new one. I have read a lot of conflicting info to get the most life from your bulbs. Economy mode or not-i've read the higher fan speed helps extend the bulb life in regular mode. Unplug the unit when not in use or not? I don't know if there is a right or wrong answer to these questions. For my first bulb, I ran in economy mode and left the unit plugged in. I also have the projector in the basement and I keep it pretty cool down there. I assume this should help the bulb life. None of this probably matters, I think we are all at the mercy of the manufacturing quality of the bulb :mad:

I think the fewer start-ups/shut downs with longer On times are suppose to be easier on the lamp.

I only use my H31 for DVD movies and the average On time is about 2 1/2 hrs. Maybe one that uses the PJ more like a TV would be harder on the lamp, but I don't know if anyone has actually done a scientific test or not.

Fleaman

I got 941 hours out of my first lamp and the second one is at ~2400 hours and doing fine. I think I am rather abusive to the little critter. It is turned on every day for as little as 20 minutes to as much as 7 hours on football Sundays. It's located in the basement family room where the temps are lower. There are times in the winter when I get a roaring fire going in the fireplace in that room and I'll bet (never measured it) that the temp by the ceiling may approach 85-90 degrees. I have had power blips shut down the unit before I got a UPS but I ALWAYS wait 30 minutes to turn it back on after it has been shut down. I have always run the unit in eco mode.

In the end I truly believe it is a flip of the coin as to what you get out of a particular lamp.

Bring on LED's!!!! :)

Have a great weekend all!

Update: My scraping/buzzing sound went away once I sprayed some Radio Shack cleaner/degreaser into the color wheel's motor. This, of course, falls into the "don't try this at home" and "don't blame me if you DO try this at home and your PJ dies a horrible death, taking you along with it" categories. It's now running around the same noise level as when it was new, but I'm a little worried -- if there was supposed to be some lubrication in the color wheel, I'm wondering if the cleaner/degreaser removed it. Maybe next time I take it apart I'll add a couple drops of lube.

Also, this was probably brought up AGES ago in this thread, but did you folks know that there's a USB connector hidden behind the rear connector panel? I have no idea if it's active or not... but it's there. Strange.

Also, my original bulb from Nov '04 is still running at over *4600* hours (I'm waiting to hear a loud pop any second now...). That's not a typo. I'm blown away that I've managed to make it last so long. I'm doubly blown away that we've watched that many hours of TV. I won a "new, sealed, in box" bulb from ebay for ~$150 recently, so I'm thinking of sticking that in the PJ in the next day or two, so if THAT one blows, I'll still have some hours left in the original to give me time to order a replacement.

Unfortuantely Optoma has not been able to fix my buzzing issue. They have swapped the color wheel, ballast and the DC/DC convertor but it didn't help.

Right now i have two other problems:
The projector returned from repair with a loose screw inside the projector and a dust blob in the lower corner of the screen.

So i think it has to go back again (4rd time) to fix this. I have proposed a trade in for HD72 and are waiting for their response on price, because this annoying buzzing issue is killing me.

I think we already spent about 300-400 euro's on shipping costs. But Optoma has paid most of it. But the repair service isn't that efficient... luckily they take everything seriously and don't stop responding or taking care of problems.

Just a little update for what it is worth anyway.
The projector has gone back 5! times and still the problems aren't fixed. I give up.

What is left at this moment:
- Buzzing issue still present.
- Loose screw is removed/gone.
- Dust blob/blur at the lower part of the lens is not entirely removed.

The worst part is that even Optoma's service manager mixed himself into the issue and told me in a phone conversation that he was going to make sure problems would get fixed. I had high hopes and was very positive. But well, then the projector came back and besides that they never succeeded to solve the buzzing issue, the dust blob/blur wasn't entirely removed... I can't believe this. Why :( I could have better done nothing 5months ago and decide to live with the buzzing.

Either way, i am about to sell the projector and go for something else. However, i would like to know if it is easy to remove the case of the projector without damaging anything? Would like to try to remove the dust blob myself and see what i can do with the buzzing issue.

We got over 4200 hours on our lamp before it blew earlier this week. We purchased the H30 in January of 04 and never had any buzzing issues or anything else with it. We do have it plugged into a back up power supply which has helped with any sudden power outages, otherwise we simply turned it on and off at the remote and never unplugged it at night or disconnected power to it at any time. We used it 4 or 5 hours a night almost every night, regular television viewing as well as movies. Very happy to get the 4200 hours out of the lamp and very impatient to get my new lamp in.

However, i would like to know if it is easy to remove the case of the projector without damaging anything? Would like to try to remove the dust blob myself and see what i can do with the buzzing issue.

It's not that bad to open up, though it helps to have some past experience opening things. I don't remember needing any tricks to open it. You'll have a few wires and ribbon cables you'll need to disconnect to get the cover off. The color wheel was easy to remove, with just a couple of screws, but since I last opened it, I've read that the wheels are fragile. Sounds like I was lucky, 'cause I wasn't all THAT gentle with it. I was certain that my buzzing was coming from the color wheel, and that's when I sprayed the motor with some cleaner/degreaser.

I've heard too many stories like yours coming from Optoma, and not just their European service center(s?). I've hear the same thing about US; people send in their PJ because of a buzzing issue, a firmware issue, etc., and it comes back STILL broken, and in most cases worse off. This is why I refused to send mine in for repair (for the buzzing/scraping), even though it was still covered by the automatic extended warrany on my amex.

Good luck with poking around inside. Don't forget to stay clear of the power supply.

hello

We got over 4200 hours on our lamp before it blew earlier this week.

:-/ LOL. I checked mine last month when we were cleaning (since I found the remote tucked away in a box), I have 40 hours on my original lamp. I got mine as soon as they were available on the street back in April '04. That must be some sort of record. I put about 2 more hours on since then. So I'm exactly at 1/100th of your usage!

I guess I need to use the HT more. At this rate I'll need new tubes in my preamp before I'll need a new lamp.

I had returned my H30 for the buzzing issue 4 times and received 3 different H30's, all of them buzzed....but intermittently. The last H30 didn't buzz as loudly and it was intermittent also. I finally solved the problem by selling it.

Then I actually took a chance on the H31 since reports were it was whisper quite and no one reported any buzzing units.

I've had it for 10 months now and have had no problems....but more importantly it doesn't buzz and is whisper quite. Even more quite than the H30 when it didn't buzz.

Anyway, my experience with the H30 and many who have had problems with the H79/H78DC3, etc., have steered me away from Optoma for future purchases.

I myself am looking at the Mitsubishi H3000 or H3100 (successor to be released). These models seem to really be quality units with top-notch picture quality too.

good luck.

Fleaman

Our lamp blew on the H30 about 2 weeks ago. We ordered a replacement lamp, inserted it properly in the projector and the projector wouldn't turn on. We returned the lamp thinking that the lamp was defective. We received the second lamp today and inserted it, and same thing happened. The projector won't even turn on. Any idea what the issue is? It's out of warranty, having been purchased in January of 04.