**Dealer Link Deleted**
Please do not post dealer links!
Thanks,
Kyser

Del Laird ,
--- Have you tried the 'Get Bids' option at Projector Central ? Dealers will usually give better prices with this method since they know you are shopping for the best deal . I would expect you can get one for at least 10% off the msrp .
----- Best of Luck ,
------ Jason

Originally posted by Del Laird
Secondly, does anyone have an idea of what the replacement bulbs for the H30 cost? I know most of you will just end up getting a new projector when the time comes, but I thought I'd ask anway. ;)

I don't have the actual MSRP for the H30, but bulbs for their other projectors list at $460 to $480.

Okay, my geometry skills are bad. Hopefully someone can calculate this for me.

I buy an h30 (that's my current plan anyway). My screen will be 80wx45h. I plan on the screen being 3' from the floor, so the top of the screen will be 91" from the floor. The beam I will be hanging it from will be 11.9' above the floor. How low will the projector need to hang, and what sort of mount should I use?

I imagine it needs to sit about 14'2" back, right? I'll get this right someday :).

I have the same size screen. Per the Optoma calculator, you can project an 80" wide image from 11.7' to 14.2' away, which is correct. Don't know about the ceiling offset until I get my H30 back.

Hey John you might want to edit out that link even though their site shows retail price. Because AVS now sells Optoma, maybe it's worth a try to ask AVS first to see if you can get 10% off. It's worth a try and better since we hang out in their house. thx

You'll understand, I hate to play cop but Alan has been a great guy to me since I've been burning up the airwaves at his website. He even offered me a job once, reviewing :) thx again

Mark, if I remember right the offset for a 16.9 screen is near 15". You'll need a mount with an extension pole, like a cheif mount.

142 minus 105 leaves 37" for the drop. On the plus side you won't need any keystoning.

Originally posted by guitarman
Mark, if I remember right the offset for a 16.9 screen is near 15". You'll need a mount with an extension pole, like a cheif mount.

142 minus 105 leaves 37" for the drop. On the plus side you won't need any keystoning.

Thanks guitarman. I wish there was a way to avoid such a long drop... I assume this is mounting the projector upside down?

Yes you need three 3mm bolts, there's a couple of added inches for the mounts hardware also. Optoma has a mount, don't know if it has extensions though.
Just make sure the exstension pole is on the long side so you can cut it down if needed.

"the best Digital PJ out there in the sub $2K range"

Jason too bad you didn't chalk up more hours on the first one. You could hv had it going for hours. Now you get to start all over.

BTW I hv 350hrs on mine and on Super Bowl Sunday I had the PJ on for 12hrs. Never any problems. Knock on wood! or Plastic ;)

Originally posted by guitarman
BTW I hv 350hrs on mine and on Super Bowl Sunday I had the PJ on for 12hrs. Never any problems. Knock on wood! or Plastic ;)

Tom, at the rate you're going, you might be looking for a new bulb before I get mine back. :D

It will still take time to use up 3000hrs. I like how the manual says the bulb is dead when you hear a popping sound, like it doesn't matter. So why not run it till it blows, lol

I was trying to explain to someone in the 3.5up forum when he questioned what do I mean by strong colors. I said we're all looking for cartoon colors that stay natural. And that the H30 has an excellent way of staying natural and doing very nice hues in facile tones. Like this screen shot. Very nice indeed!

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30oceans11.jpg

Jason,
How many hours did you put on it before you noticed the melting? (sorry, if you already posted this, I didn't see it)

I'll answer for him. It was a measly 25hrs. Jason has to get his prioritys straight.

And I would think a gamer would hv run out of hours by now.

About filters/maintenance, I just talked with the tech area. The chip area is sealed and the many lens chambers makes that area pretty sealed up also. They could only recommend using light vacuum pressure on the exhaust area once in a while to keep dust clear from the exhaust/fan area.

If you're in a smokey area like near a kitchen. You could do what I've read in the past and use a thin sheet of foam. Rubber band it or find a way to wrap it over the intake area. It's just a cleanliness tweak I read. You probably don't really have to do this.

Originally posted by guitarman
Mark, if I remember right the offset for a 16.9 screen is near 15". You'll need a mount with an extension pole, like a cheif mount.

142 minus 105 leaves 37" for the drop. On the plus side you won't need any keystoning.

This doesn't make sense.

I would expect the offset to be a percentage of some sort. I would think the height of the projector lense would change as you move the projector closer or further from the screen because the height/size of the screen would change as you did this.

I think the offset is a percentage of the screen height relative to the top or bottom of the screen.

I don't know what the offset is, but I am interested.

A side note: the math on the original post was wrong - 3' off the floor plus a screen height of 45" = 81" to top of screen, not 91". That would make the drop pole another 10"

It's a large offset because the 16.9 image is at the bottom of the chip. From his mount at 14' it's about 15" to align to the top of the 16.9 screen. Mark s/b able to figure it out.

Hey Now , I just moved over this past weekend so cut me some slack ;) [ I will have plenty of hours in no time , I promise ] .

---- So I posted a few pics of my set-up thus far on my website - click the www link above [ be gentle , remember that I just moved here ;) ] . There is only one Screen-Shot of 'Fifth Element' in HD and I just did it during the day with some ambient light from my patio while holding the camera since my tripod is being used by the H30 [ it turned out ok but does not do the real image justice ] .

--- Oh and that is a 110" diagonal 16:9 image :)

-------- Jason

The live shot looks excellent, H30 does orange very well. Overall gives people an idea on how huge front projector viewing is. Do you have plans for the light spill? Lets hope the lens mask works.

I would hate it if somebody would open the door. Ouch!

Tom ,
-- I am going to put up black curtain material all around the screen [ covering the entire front wall ] . Thanks , I am terrible at screen-shots .

xvader ,
--- hehe , yeah I hear ya' but the door cannot be opened unless I open it from the inside ;) [ plus the ceiling mount will be on order very soon ] .

--------- Jason

110" is a nice big screen! What do you mean by The Fifth Element "in HD" ? Do you mean it was from an HD broadcast instead of a DVD?

veggie ,
-- Yeah , it was broadcast on HBO-HD .
---- Jason

I finally got an s-video cable that is long enough to hook my Tivo up to the H30. Things recorded at the highest quality setting look decent, but there is something strange going on. For some reason, I'm seeing a semi-transparent horizontal line that continually scans slowly from bottom to top and then wraps around for another pass. I thought maybe it was an artifact of the Tivo compression that I just never noticed on a smaller screen, but if I pause the Tivo, the horizonal line keeps on moving. It is even present when viewing the Tivo menu systems. Try as I might, I can't see the same bar with the Tivo hooked up to my regular TV.

I then thought maybe the s-video cable was the problem, but when I hook my DVD player up to the H30 with the same cable, the picture looks fine -- no moving bar.

Does anybody have any thoughts about what might be going on here?

Sure hope the new firmware will enable us to put the 16:9 image on top of the chip...

Using a pulldown, that would be the best set-up for switching from 16:9 to 4:3 (just pull down the screen some more...)

I will probably compromis e a little, but I most likely will be putting my 4:3 a little low to optimize the 16:9 viewing height.

well i did research on screen materials for the h30 and what i came up with was kind of surprising here are the screen of choice that i found that works the best with this pj and believe me i have very good vision and i was shocked


#1 video spectra - nice bright and no loss in color ,but the colors looked more cool and the blacks still looked black ,but the only problem with the spectra is that i heard it could have waves .

1-a - high power as said before if the pj is not to high you will get the full effect ,but with my set up wall mounted 8ft high i would say i was getting around 2gain from the screen not bad


#3- cinema vision colors where perfect a little brighter than my white wall and the uniform was great

#4- pearlesent was OK but was expecting more not worth it for this pj colors looked a little un even like not white ,it was kind of a yellowish not bad but not thanks

and i also tried the high contrast cinema vision i was impressed with it and the colors where deep but not dark (but i am not a gray screen guy

and also the carada brilliant white was very good also pretty close to the video spectra in color and detail .

so that is it so far will do more tests and see if i kind find any flaws but i did check closely and i wish i had full screens but that will not happen but i gadged things pretty good so check them out for your selves and make your decision ,but for me ,well you know my choice so far .

cheers

After watching cable via Tivo on the H30 for a bit more tonight, I've found an even bigger concern than the moving horizontal line. The picture is noticeably blurry. I've got the Tivo playing through both my 30-something inch TV and through my H30 simulaneously. The picture on the TV is fairly sharp, while the picture on the H30 is blurry enough to give me a headache after 20 minutes or so. It's this way on the Tivo menu system as well, so I don't think it has anything to do with the mpeg video compression.

Has anybody else had this problem with either Tivo or another TV signal going to the H30? Any thoughts on why it would be so blurry? I know DVDs look great on it, but I have to admit, this is quite disappointing. I expected some of the imperfections to be more obvious on a large screen, but the overall blurriness is quite a surprise.

veggieguy

The moving horizontal line you described sounds like power line induced noise.

As to the blurriness, move your Tivo closer to the projector and use a shorter cable to see if that makes a difference. Still sounds like an issue with compression but its worth a try.

Anyone know what the price of a replacement bulb is?

I went on Optoma's website, no bulb listed yet for the H30. The H56 bulb is $400 msrp. Also of interest, they already sell a lens cap mask for the H56-- it is $50 msrp. Here is what it looks like:

http://www.optomausa.com/email/images/0804Accessory/lens%20cap.jpg

Originally posted by jigrillo
Anyone know what the price of a replacement bulb is? 1. Go to Froogle.
2. Search for "h30 lamp".
3. Sort by "Price: Low to High".

1. Go to Froogle.

Ouch! Well I guess thats about the average price for a bulb on projectors nowadays.

Veg, horizontal moving lines are ground loop problems. One way to check it is use a cheat plug, those Gray adapters that turn 3 prong into 2.

Direct TV going to the PJ with component cables looks sharp with good scaling also, smooth with no snow flake artifacts.

Just when over and hooked my Replay TV up with the 50ft S-video cable I hv for the LD player. First time I've done this with the H30. Picture looks excellent and on things recorded at the slow speed. I mean it doesn't look like DVD but does competed with Laser Discs. I guess it's about 300lines of res. Not bad

Re bulbs, usually bulbs are $450 and you can get competitive prices down to $350. I'd expect the same format for the H30. I know you're hoping since the projector is low priced maybe the bulbs will be too. Maybe

Originally posted by new teq joe
well i did research on screen materials for the h30 and what i came up with was kind of surprising here are the screen of choice that i found that works the best with this pj and believe me i have very good vision and i was shocked


Joe, I'm not sure which one you liked the best. The Cinema Vision or the Brilliant White?

the masking looks like it clips on. It would be nice if there was a way to just slide the thing to the side, and just slide it back when needed.

The lens cap looks like something you could DIY with cardboard.

xvader,
I have made a DIY with cardboard before. It was ok, but it makes the edges very soft. The rough edge of the cardboard gets magnified 50x and interferes with the edge of the picture. I didn't try to do it with plastic -- maybe that would be better and more like Optoma's solution.

Jim, Tom: Thanks for the tips on the Tivo. Moving it to a different power outlet did indeed get rid of the moving horizontal line. I'm not absolutely positive, but it seems like it might have reduced the blurriness as well. Now I just need to figure out how to fix the problem with the outlet.

It is still noticeably sharper on the smaller screen, but maybe that's purely related to the size. I know when an image file is somewhat blurry, shrinking it in Photoshop will often times make it appear less so at the smaller size. Maybe this is the same thing. Part of me still doesn't think so, but I can't find any other way to explain it.

Veggieguy, Monster makes a neat little plug in Stage I line conditioner/surge protector. Its the AV-200 with an 1100 joule surge protection rating. All my wiring is 2 wire with no ground. I have a ceiling plug near my H30, (lucky me!) so I put a GFI there and plugged the AV200 in. Works great. Cleans it up totally.

Mark needed a long mount. Here's the Optoma mount, check But I'm pretty sure this 730 mount fits the H30 also.

http://www.optomausa.com/public/Product_Accessory/95-83302-001.asp

You may be able to have AVS order it for you at a slightly better price. Doesn't hurt to ask.

There are bulbs available for the H30, retail $399 part number SP80A01001

The lens mask shown on the site isn't universal, they'll have one for the H30 soon. I sure hope it works like they say taking the projector up to 2500.1 contrast.

Joe, I'm not sure which one you liked the best. The Cinema Vision or the Brilliant White?


mike either one will do but the brilliant white is more bright because of the higher gain . so the answer if i choose between these two i would go with the carada :D

This may seem like a stupid question, but do you leave your lens cap on or off when the projector is not in use? My initial inclination was to put the lens cap back on, but I've found that it's nearly impossible to take it on/off without moving the focus ring. It's quite annoying to have to refocus the projector every time I use it, but dust is annoying too. Too bad there isn't some kind of locking mechanism for the focus ring.

I never mentioned it but the lens cap is so easy to slip on and off on my H30. It's the best one so far. The HT1000 cap is a pain and the Sharp DT200 snapped in place.

I do use the cap, it's hanging up there on the string. Maybe yours doesn't fit the same. Just use an optics cloth and a small amount of lens cleaner once in a while.

Of course everything changes once we start using the Masking cap.

Hey, did I ever mention the H30 rocks! ;)

Decided to go smaller than the 110" diagonal , I just like the punch of the smaller image which leads me to my question ;) .
-- Has anybody seen a ceiling mount on a slider ?
-- This would enable a much greater range of screen sizes and since I have different seating options I could use a large image for 2-3 people at the back seat and a smaller image when I have a packed house of 7-8 that are using the side seats [ which are closer to the screen ] .
-- I might have to build something like this for myself [ use the track lighting type slides maybe .... hmmm ] .
---- Thanks ,
----- Jason

Originally posted by PJresearcher
xvader,
I have made a DIY with cardboard before. It was ok, but it makes the edges very soft. The rough edge of the cardboard gets magnified 50x and interferes with the edge of the picture. I didn't try to do it with plastic -- maybe that would be better and more like Optoma's solution.

Use plastic and cut with a x-acto (sp) knife LOL.

Tom - Looking at the pics, I hope the custom made Optoma lens cap prevents light leaking from the sides in order to bump up the contrast ratio to 2500:1.

-- Has anybody seen a ceiling mount on a slider ?"

Yes - I finished building one this week.
It is completely adjustable (height/tilt) and slides 24 inches.
Looks great (polished polycarbonate)

All up it cost less than 40 bucks to make.
I need to borrow a camera so I can show it off...

Yeah! Lets see that bad dog. I had thoughts along the same lines for the next installation I do.

nomit ,
-- Can you give us a list of the parts you used and where you purchased them from ;) ?
---- Thanks ,
------ Jason

Just hit 101 hours on the H30. Man is it looking GREAT!!! I am looking forward to trying out that lens cap mask.

As far as rainbows are going, I am glad that I kept it, because they seem to be going away. I am noticing them less and less! YEEHAAA!

Now I just need to mount some cable track to hide the cables....

Problems solved, I found out that my former mentioned probs aren't present if i use a composite wire, with the 3 component wires the deinterlacer does not work correctly. I don't know if this prob ist pal specific but if someone noticed strange lines in the pic you should give a chance to a composite wire :-)

Because if found the mounts too expensive, i just take a cheap TV mount (10 Euro), 2 new holes. turn arround the platform. If sommeone is interested i could post some pics.

Rudi

Anyone tried the factory menu, TOP TOP LEFT LEFT ?

Rudi :

Did you try watching a NTSC DVD (zone 1) when using component wire ?
Or did you try a different DVD player ?

Ariel

Ariel:
I tried my DVD Player and my SATBox, I will try to get a Zone 1 DVD, good idea, thanks
Rudi

Yes but there's nothing you really need in there that you can't do in the user menu's. You could mess things up in the service menu with one wrong move though.

guitarman:

good morning,
didn't you post a moment ago a MSG with completely different content ?
Was it deleted ?

Ariel

Yeah, you can delete posts when you hv second thoughts. ;)

GoodM,

Ariel, do you have a H30? How do you like it?

Hi im new here and have ordered my first projector - H30.

Now im a little bit worried about the rainbow effects.

Is it so dangerous that you get headache in your head.

Or did i do a good buy.

No i don't have one yet I order one but i am holding it for the firmware to come out and then two days later i will have one (shipping time).

Did you try watching a PAL DVD ?
I ask it Because a local dealer claims that the H30 is not for PAL - i wrote to OPTOMA asking about it but didn't get an answered yet. also the problems that RUDI has makes me worry... But seeing your original post made me think that the Europe version and yours are the same !!!

Ariel

Don't worry about it. The amount of people that have the problem is unbelievably small. 9.8times out of ten no one will be affected.

Yeah you did the right buy, wait till you see the picture. :)
Welcome to the club.

Originally posted by draags
Hi im new here and have ordered my first projector - H30.

Now im a little bit worried about the rainbow effects.

Is it so dangerous that you get headache in your head.

Or did i do a good buy.

I have 10 hours on mine and haven't seen any. I am rainbow sensitive and have see them constantly on lower speed color wheels like the X1. No headaches -- just pure visual pleasure.

draags,

I've been in your shoes...not sure whether having spent all this money on my first projector was a good idea without first seeing it , and I was a little worried about rainbows.

When I actually got it, whoa...I was just amazed at the picture quality. Yes, every now and then there is a rainbow here and there, but very infrequently. Heck, I think that subtitles are waaay more annoying than the few rainbows you'll see.

If you like watching movies at the cinema, I think you'll this little projector.

I know this is off topic, but I'm having a hard time finding any useful information. To keep my component video cable length to a minimum, I'm running it straight up the wall and over to the H30 on the ceiling. This bright blue cabling won't be terribly attractive, so I'm looking for cable cover options that will improve the look and can potentially be painted. So far, none of the "wiremold" type stuff I'm finding will accomodate anything as large as the three cable component run. Has anybody else solved this in a way they are happy with?

I got this flat plastic strip at the home products store. It has two pieces that slide together. Forgot what it's used for but I found it where the typical round wire cover up strips are. Here's a shot of it I just used the larger piece of the two.

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/ht1000.jpg

Hey if anyone is having trouble aligning the 1.85 16.9 image at first setup. In the menu's there's one called Signal. Use the Horizontal there to make the sides narrower so when you use the lens zoom you can square up all four sides.

Thanks for the tip Tom. Is that strip open on the top side where the cables meet the ceiling? It sounded like that might be the case since you said you only used the large piece. If so, how did you attach it to the ceiling?

Hi everyone, I joined the exclusive club of H30 owners last Friday afternoon. First I'd like to thank Bill (aka Ursa) who sold me the pj, and Tom for getting me interested in the wonderful H30 through this great thread.

So, here's my impressions after a few DVDs:
+ Gorgeous colors, both natural and vivid
+ Inky blacks (most of the time)
+ Great shadow detail
+ Bright and punchy picture with incredible contrast
+ The detail and smoothness in most scenes are nothing short of stunning! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's only SVGA and DVD.
+ Perfect for HTPC (gaming is like a dream, flexible with resolutions/refresh rates)
+ It's cheap! What were Optoma thinking, the performance for that price is just madness :D

- I'd prefer greater resolution, at least XGA (I'm OK with the 4:3 AR though)
- Tricky installation (I'm used to the lens shift on the Z1)
- Screendoor is acceptable, but could have been less
- Noise level is slightly too high, yet livable
- Risk of rainbows and DLP-related problems like eyestrain (I'm pretty sensitive and I see 'em more and more rarely, thankfully. No headaches either)
- No back light on the remote (OK, that's just nitpicking, I'll quit now...)

All in all, I'm thrilled with this little thing. I'm going to watch a whole bunch of DVDs just to see what I've been missing (the Z1 is a fine projector, but it can't touch the blacks/shadow detail/contrast/brightness/clarity of the H30). Looking forward to getting the pj more properly setup and choosing a screen, and then there's the tweaking of the HTPC!

Again, thanks all very much for helping me choose what simply has to be the best sub-20k projector there is. I just wish the nights were longer so I could put on another DVD ;)


arieldr: I've a lot of PAL-discs and I haven't experienced any problems playing them (my H30 is a US one, though I've seen the European version play PAL as well).

MrJones :

First of all congratulations for your new projector !!! I almost bought the Z1 but reading this thread ... I can't wait to get mine .
which signal do you feed your projector with?

Ariel

Thanks everyone for your anwers.

Now im waiting for the H30 - waiting - waiting - waiting - it´s a pain to wait.

Did anyone know any site that have done a review of the H30?

A question about installation:

Is it tricky to have it near the roof?

Did anyone having pictures of how you have ceiled the H30?


Sorry for my poor English.

Originally posted by MrJones
Hi everyone, I joined the exclusive club of H30 owners last Friday afternoon. First I'd like to thank Bill (aka Ursa) who sold me the pj, and Tom for getting me interested in the wonderful H30 through this great thread.

So, here's my impressions after a few DVDs:
+ Gorgeous colors, both natural and vivid
+ Inky blacks (most of the time)
+ Great shadow detail
+ Bright and punchy picture with incredible contrast
+ The detail and smoothness in most scenes are nothing short of stunning! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's only SVGA and DVD.
+ Perfect for HTPC (gaming is like a dream, flexible with resolutions/refresh rates)
+ It's cheap! What were Optoma thinking, the performance for that price is just madness :D

- I'd prefer greater resolution, at least XGA (I'm OK with the 4:3 AR though)
- Tricky installation (I'm used to the lens shift on the Z1)
- Screendoor is acceptable, but could have been less
- Noise level is slightly too high, yet livable
- Risk of rainbows and DLP-related problems like eyestrain (I'm pretty sensitive and I see 'em more and more rarely, thankfully. No headaches either)
- No back light on the remote (OK, that's just nitpicking, I'll quit now...)

All in all, I'm thrilled with this little thing. I'm going to watch a whole bunch of DVDs just to see what I've been missing (the Z1 is a fine projector, but it can't touch the blacks/shadow detail/contrast/brightness/clarity of the H30). Looking forward to getting the pj more properly setup and choosing a screen, and then there's the tweaking of the HTPC!

Again, thanks all very much for helping me choose what simply has to be the best sub-20k projector there is. I just wish the nights were longer so I could put on another DVD ;)


arieldr: I've a lot of PAL-discs and I haven't experienced any problems playing them (my H30 is a US one, though I've seen the European version play PAL as well).


Hi im also from sweden.

Do you have any picture how you ceiled your H30?

draags: Click on my gallery button above to see two pictures of my H30 ceiling mounted. I bought this mount on eBay from a guy named jayblaine. He builds the mounts himself, and so far, mine has been great.

Looks great - how much for that and how can i contact him on ebay

Hi all,

I am about to buy a H30 as well :))
I do have one remaining question though. I read in the manual about the different modes (native 16:9, window, etc..). What exactly does the window mode do? What is it good for?

Best regards.

Ronald

Window is a giant zoom with lots of overscan. I'll bet nobody will use it.
Welcome to the club, you can't go wrong with this projector.
Lets us know how you like it?

Originally posted by draags
Looks great - how much for that and how can i contact him on ebay

The mount was $65. Just search by seller on eBay for jayblaine. Click on any of his items and you should be able to contact him.

"The detail and smoothness in most scenes are nothing short of stunning! Sometimes it's hard to believe it's only SVGA and DVD"

This is the thing that sets the H30 apart. It acts very much like the high resolution HT projetors but at a fraction of the price.

Nice review,

My car, 1988 Saab convertable, still runs like when I first bought it. My compliments to your car technology.

Hehe, thanks Tom for the compliment on swedish cars (I guess :) )

arieldr: I'm running the H30 trough my PC (VGA cable), at the native 800x600 resolution. Still messing around with different refresh rates as the playback is a bit juddery, but I think it's fixable.

draags: You don't want to see my "ceiling mount", it's really messy :D (Fult och instabilt, men jag ska fixa bättre snart. Lycka till med köpet!)

Do anyone know any reviews of H30?

I like the ceiling mount that jayblaine makes. I looked at the picture and noticed that he is using a speaker wall mount. I know this because it is the mount holding my rear speakers to the wall. Then adding the plate for mounting the h30. Good idea you can buy the speaker mount for 20 bucks if you want to try to make one your self but it is allot easier to buy one already made.

Max

Couldn't hold out any longer or spend more time going through reviews of different projectors. Thanks to guitarman and mikeSRC, my wife gets to smack me around ;)

Originally posted by draags
Do anyone know any reviews of H30?

I haven't seen any but Guitarman's comments in this thread are as credible as anything you'll find elsewhere online.

Sorry Del. :D

Mike, just make sure to ship me one with a working bulb.:D :p :D

Hi

Just got a new H30 installed! I compared it to a panasonic AE500 and X1. Pretty much of a no brainer decision!

Some of you have been asking about screens. Well I got a Da-Lite model B matte white, cut it and staple gunned it to a piece of plywood, then mounted it on a black wall and nailed a frame on. Looks great. Pictures below.

Screen size was 70x70, so I made a 68x38.25 board, which is 16:9.

Going to watch Twin Towers...

Jason

Can't post photos...duh...have to make 3 posts first...hang on

...photos coming up...

coming...

Here are the photos...finally.

JasonScreen (http://sg.f1.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/jasontaycs/album?.dir=/1689)

Originally posted by draags
Do anyone know any reviews of H30?

There must be at least 10 reviews in the 40-odd pages of this thread...

Steve

I would like to see the H30 in action. I have an X1 and I am happy with it. Football playoffs in HD had everyone going WOW and OMG, look at that picture!! If the H30 is significantly better in PQ, I just gotta see that! Can it be demo'ed? If so, how and where?

Who makes the bulb for the Optoma H30?

Reason for asking is that the bulb in quite a few Sony GWIII have gone out. As this front projector wouldn't be used as much, it might take a while to discover if a bad bulb problem exist . Except for guitarman. He'll know in another month. lol

Nelman ,
--- Consider that you were probably dealing with people that have never seen any form of projection other than a movie theater [ or possibly a board-room ] . People are usually blown away when they witness front projection for the first time , especially HiDef content [ which most have never seen either ] . Then consider that most people would think the X1 and a ScreenPlay 7200 looked the same ;) .
--- As somebody that was very close to purchasing an Infocus SP4800 [basically same as X1] and had an in-home demo unit I can tell you the H30 blows it away [ now the 4805/X2 might be another story ] .
------ Jason

"Some of you have been asking about screens. Well I got a Da-Lite model B matte white, cut it and staple gunned it to a piece of plywood, then mounted it on a black wall and nailed a frame on. Looks great. Pictures below."

That screen and mask setup looks great. In that darkend room you have and the 75" screen the Two Towers should look unreal.

Originally posted by guitarman
I just got off the phone with Opto Tech. He says the throw ratio is 1.75min 2.12max

I'm looking into getting this PJ for a fraternity. We have a pretty big room, and i was thinking that a 52" by 92" screen would we good for us. Unfortuneatly, we are limited in our mounting options, having to mount overhead on one of two beams, either 9' or 21' from where the screen will be located.

Using the throw ration quoted by Tom, that gives us these options:
9' Throw: 51" - 62"
21' Throw: 119" - 144"

Our budget for a screen is about 300$ or so, and we could probably go for a draper luma2 133" screen which has a viewable area of 65" x 116"

What are people's opinions about how this might work? Can the H30 support a 133" screen?

The room has poor light control, but will be used primarily at night.

Seating is rather adjustable. We have 3 rows of couches which start 8' back, but this could easily be adjusted so that seating started at 14' or so. Is a 1.5 screen width distance OK, or will we start to run into screen door and Rainbow issues.

I know that the best way to figure these issues out is to try out the PJ and see, any assistance before going that route would be appreciated.

Cameron

Jason

Thanx for your input. I will have to try to get a look at this unit in the near future. I have owned 2 CRT machines (Sony 1270/e-home 3000) as well as an LCD Sony 400q and I really prefer the X1 to all of them. I am really looking forward to seeing the H30 in action.

Nelman

I brought my wife along and did a side by side comparison of an X1 and H30. Wife said go for the H30 even though it costs $400 more here in Singapore. And you know how wives are...

Jason

Cameron

Why do you have to mount on beams?
1) Would mounting on the ceiling result in the beam obstructing the projector?
2) Or is the ceiling made of board?

1) Get a longer mount.

2) I mounted an H30 on ceiling board in the office too. Just place a bigger piece of wood (about size of mount plate and 3/4 inch thick) above the ceiling board and screw the mount through the ceiling onto the wood. If your're afraid the screw might fall, get longer screws and use nuts on the excess to secure them. The H30 is very light, which allows this option with no fear of falling.

Jason

The beams are about 10' off the ground, the ceiling is about 16'. If we were to hang the projector, it would have to be a pretty long mount, as they would have to drop below the beams in order to avoid obstruction.

A possibility I suppose, but the beam's are taylor made to support a PJ.

The beams are 12' apart, how about a 2 by four connecting them so you can get the projector at the sweet spot 14'.

Help!

I just turned on my H30, and the colors are all off. I have the projector set to blue blanking, and the blue is all orange. Also, the the Optoma swoosh is not red. I think that it was a light green, or something. Any ideas as to what this might be?

Turn it off all the way , unplug it ... wait a few minutes for the bulb to cool if it is hot , plug it back in and then turn it back on . Sounds like your color wheel got out of sync .
----- Jason

Phew! I don't know what that was, but I just turned the projector off, waited a few minutes, and then I turned back on. Everything seems to be fine now. But that sure scared the crap out of me!

First thing I was going to say was make sure your component cables are seated tight. I've had loose cables mess up the color.

Sometimes my Optoma logo says "Themescene" ;)

Veggieguy , Tom, DaGamePimp, Markusg
or anyone else with knowledge of ceiling height restrictions.

First post.

I am thinking of getting the optoma h30 or new infocus 4805.
I am in the process of finishing my basement for hometheater use;full lighting control.
The room is L shaped.

It has a ceiling of only 80 inches . (6 feet 6 inches)
length = 24ft width = 10.6 feet height = 6.5 feet.

Could I ceiling mount the optoma h30 and still fit in a decent size 16:9 screen ?
I wanted a 92 or 96 in diagonal 16:9 screen.
Will this be possible with the ceiling being so low ?

KenW

Certainly , you will have a low image on the wall and you might need a bit of Keystone [ try not to use if possible ] but it most certainly will work [ as long as you keep the screen size reasonable ] . I like the sound of your 45"x80" 16:9 image , that should work well and offer a great image too :) .
------ Best of Luck [ keep us posted ;) ] ,
----------- Jason

kwalling: The dimensions of your room have me slightly confused. How far back from the screen would you be able to mount the projector? My ceiling is only a few inches higher than yours and I am projecting on a 92" 16:9 screen. I did have to tilt my projector up a bit (it is ceiling mounted) to get the picture positioned correctly (vertically) on my wall, but it works great. I also have to use a little bit of digital keystone correction, but it hasn't been a problem. My projector could only be 11.5 feet back from the screen.

I posted the measurements of my setup back in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=3436646#post3436646).

Originally posted by guitarman
Window is a giant zoom with lots of overscan. I'll bet nobody will use it.
Welcome to the club, you can't go wrong with this projector.
Lets us know how you like it?

Hi Guitarmen,

Ok so this might be usefull for me when playing divx movies from my philips dvd-737 on the Optoma. These movies are often in some kind of compressed aspect ratio so I do need to zoom.

Unfortunatly I have to wait buying the H30 until I sold my 14 months old 52 inch Thomson rear projection TV. It seems like I am not going to sell it easily :(

Best regards,

Ronald

I'm a bit concerned about the 800 lumen light output of the H30.

Does Optomo make a similar projector, just brighter??

How does one go about getting a demo of the H30?

JimP,

The 800 lumens of the H30 is a very bright 800 lumens. It's pretty good for home theater. How big of an image did you want to project?

Miguel

Fabbas

Between 90" and 110" wide (not diagonal).

I think that I'm mostly concerned about ambient lighting. Room has no light control(large windows with upper have rounds not covered).

Although I wouldn't mind waiting till after 7 to start a movie, I'm just wondering if in the summer months, there would still be enough light from the outside to affect the picture beyond what I would be willing to watch.

Jim, I don't think anyone can answer that question since we can't experience how much light you have. But what I can say from my own experience, is that with a Carada Brilliant White screen, I have no problems watching a film during the day, in a moderately bright room. Sure, it's not as bright as nighttime viewing, but that can be expected with any PJ.

The Carada screen really helped out in this regard.

Originally posted by Nelman
How does one go about getting a demo of the H30?

Go to Optoma.com and in their "Where to Buy" section, you can fill out a form for a local dealer to contact you.

Hey Mike, how goes it with the firmware?

Hope to find out something today. They had some problems yesterday with their network and later on I couldn't reach anyone by phone.

I want to get it back before I have to return the BenQ 6100 so I can compare the two directly. Right now, I'm just going by memory (which seems like a distant one). ;)

Johnny Bax

What size is your screen?

does anyone have a link to the type of screws that I would need to hang this baby up with a mount if my ceiling is concrete? It's a typical NYC apartment cookie cutter with a solid ceiling. I'm a complete noob when it comes to hanging stuff, just want to make sure I know what I'm buying when I go to the hardware store.

Thanks,

Look for TapCon concrete screws. You need a concrete drill for a pilot hole, then the anchors screw in. They're sold at Home Depot or almost any hardware store. I'd be concerned about doing this in an apartment though (do you know the people that live above you? ;) ).

Talked to Optoma this morning. Looks like the firmware won't be ready until the end of next week. I wasn't able to find out if that will include the lens mask yet.

My Optoma H30 straight out of the box appears to have a more vibrant clear picture using an s-video connection then using component cables with the supplied connection provided by Optoma. Is there something I am doing wrong or do I need to make adjustments to the picture and image via the menu to achieve a better overall picture using component cables?

Thanks,
Mark Courier

Jim was asking about daylight and the H30.

Here's some shots of what happens with all front PJ's when the sunshine filters in.

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30north1.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30daylight.jpg

Now the same shot with the blinds closed.

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30north2.jpg

As you can see blacks/contrast takes a big hit with daylight. You can still watch it but the lack of being the perfect environment will bother you.

While I was taking screen shots this morning I figured some new ones were in order since most are probably bored with the early ones. enjoy

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix1.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix2.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix3.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix4.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix5.jpg
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30matrix6.jpg

Check out them blacks colors and brightness, still the best pj out there at $1399.

Sri guys, better learn to get my finger on the right keys, all clear now. :)

Originally posted by JimP
Johnny Bax

What size is your screen?

96" diagonal 1.78 aspect ratio, brilliant white coating.

It mates with the H30 very well.

Hey Tom ,
-- Nice shots , I added a new shot from ROTK (on my website) . I think it came out pretty good considering I am terrible at taking pictures ;) . The ROTK shot was actually at night with no ambient light [ unlike the 5th Element shot ] . I still have not done the screen masking yet either but I do have about 20 hours on the new H30 :) .
----- Jason

"The ROTK shot was actually at night with no ambient light [ unlike the 5th Element shot ] "

Good point, these shots above are with the room lit up a little from daytime Sun.

20hrs keep going I'm up to 385 now. .

no no no no no my friend, that ROTK is absolutely perfect. No wonder you're happy with the H30. Some say screen shots don't do justice. But looking at the picture I can tell your projector is acting just like mine. Too good to be true.

Yeah , I really did not expect this nice of an image after spending years with CRT projection [ I can honestly say that I am shocked this good of an image can be had for this much of an investment ] . I am certainly still very much a CRT die-hard but this quality at this price point [ without all the tweaking/calibration of CRT ] is tough to pass up . I will probably keep the H30 even after buying another CRT projector ;) .
--- I was very upset for a while when I figured out that my previous CRT projector was not going to work well in my new place [ I cannot ceiling mount and the new room is not as large as my last dedicated HT room was so not enough throw unless I put the CRT right in the middle of the room on the floor :( ] . I bought the H30 after reading as much as I could about my Digital options [ many thanks for your review/thread Tom ;) ] and honestly still had a sick feeling upon getting the H30 unpacked . However once set-up and operating from my HTPC I was blown away by what this little 4+ lb. machine was doing :) . I just sat there thinking there is no way this projector can do this for $1400.00 , I even checked the box to be sure they didn't accidentally give me the wrong unit - lol .
--- Simply some of the best money I have ever spent on anything entertainment related . Maybe next year we will get an XGA H30 at the same price point ;) [ and maybe Optoma will offer a trade-up program ... ] .
----- Thanks ,
-------- Jason

"Optoma will offer a trade-up program"

They have something like that. Gold service I think and it has a trade up.

what are the "speckles" above the image in both Tom's and Jason's screen shots?

Steve

That would be light spill , but I don't see it as well as the Camera picks it up . This is why we are awaiting the Lens mask ;) .
------- Jason

"what are the "speckles""

Doesn't look too bad on my shots. Buts it's best to take pictures at night. When ever I take pictures in the morning like this (we hv bright sunshine 80's). The pictures will show a slight grain effect. The room is some what lit up even with blackout.

"Doesn't look too bad on my shots."
Ahh you know what your problem is. Just like any display your monitor needs some tweaking. Bring up a Matrix screen shot and lower your monitors brightness until the area around the screen and black bars turn to pure black.

Yeah , I think it is just something that the Digital camera's pick up as I really cannot see it while watching . It might be room reflections as well as the slight light spill .
------ Jason

Do you guys keep a log of your hours of viewing, so you know when it's time to think about replacing the bulb?

In general, is it a wise idea to replace the bulb before it blows, or should I just go until it blows and have a spare on hand?

I'm thinking it'll be about 4 years before I use 3000 hrs, but its never too early to plan ahead, right? ;)

The hour log is in the system menu, the bottom left one.

Manual says when you hear a popping sound and the PJ won't operate. It's usually best to change before that but who knows maybe Optoma uses a bulb that doesn't explode and break glass.

Mine just went out. Not much of a pop and the glass didn't break, but it was just a defective lamp, not an old one. Also, the "Lamp" indicator turns orange.

Plus I would wait a while to buy an extra/replacement lamp anyway as the price for the lamp should drop over time .
--- Jason

Mike do you think this firmware is getting be like the release of the H76?

Originally posted by jigrillo
Mike do you think this firmware is getting be like the release of the H76?

LOL. No, I don't think this is anything like the H76. They're just trying to make sure that there are no problems before they apply it to every new H30 and accept returns for upgrade. I've been promised by the end of next week, so we'll see where they're at in a week.

BTW, Optoma is opening an assembly plant in Tennesee later this year that should help with availability of all models. I haven't found a distributor yet (out of three I've contacted) that knows when they'll be getting H76s. Even H30s are hard to come by at the moment.

Hi all,
been all over this thread daily. finally found a pjthat all owners are happy about(more or less) . a friend of mine paid almost 10k for a runco 510 and 96 " grayhawk screen and boy did my jaw drop. but can't come up with that kind of money.maybe i'll end up with something close to the runco w/o the big bill.
anyways, i'm ready to place the order . i'm a newbie for pj . but got some questions for you experts.
1. Is there such a thing as a sweet spot for distance of pj to wall. ? i
have a room thats 17 deep by 15.5ft wide and 9.5 ft tall.
there is also a fan at the middle of the ceiling that protrudes 13" down.
i'd like at least a 96 in screen carada is on short list.
here are the questions.
A . optimal distance from pj to wall?
B. is the fan an issue. dont want to lose it.
C. ceiling mount a must. Must i look at other options?
does the mount have to hang down ward?
D. would you recom order now, w/o the firm firmware results.?
will a new one have all corrections? should i wait?
E. is a 110 screen optimal? possible? overkill?
F. can i determine screen size by table top then just figuring out how to mount it?
. G .how can I oder from avs. ? like tom said, i've been a guest in the house for so long now.
H. any buyers for a tosh 65H80 RPTV?
thanks all. everyones been great !!
jay

as for the poping noise i have poping but the bulb is still working should i replace the bulb any ways before it goes out ?

Tom & Mike....

I looked over the owners manual posted on the Optoma site and also what other information I could find there..., but there is no formula for figuring out how far or close to the ceiling I would need to put the projector.

My ceiling is 107" from the carpet....

Projector will be mounted 14.25' from the screen.

Screen will be either 96" x 72" or 96" x 54."

Height of eyes when in viewing position is 36."

Height of equipment unit (looks great by the way... if I could figure out how to post a picture of it I would).... is 19." If I put the center channel speaker on the top of the unit that would add 7."

I want to avoid using the keystone, because I do not want to lose pixels or resolution.

So do you guys have a formula for figuring out how to mount the projector?

Thanks,

Steve

It's tuff to give exact numbers, all I can say is my ceiling is 8.7' high and I have to tilt the PJ up with keystone to make the image fit my 92"X52" 16.9 screen. My eye leve is about 1/3 into the bottom of the screen. If I set the PJ straight I'd imagine the screen would be near the floor.

I think we all came to the conclusion the the offset for a 16.9 screen is near 15"

I you want I'll get out the measuring tape tonight to be exact. The key thing you need to known is the offset for a widescreen.

Seems like a few are trying to figure out this ceiling ... throw distnce
for this projector
KenW

want to put in a address for throw distance need 3 posts.
here is third post.
KenW

Thanks Veggieguy and DaGamePimp

Veggie:
My room is 24 feet long .
length = 24ft
width = 10.6 feet
height = 6.5 feet.

I have the length it’s the height that is worrying me (would like to ceiling mount)
Veggie: I read your post with your upward tilted projector etc. Throw 11.5 feet .
Using Veggieguy’s measurements :
I have the length it’s the height that is worrying me (would like to ceiling mount)


Ceiling height 70”. (using Veggieguy mesurements)
(Ceiling) – (ceiling-to-lens) - (top-of-screen) – (screen) - (floor-to-bottomscreen)
70 “ - 5” – 12” - 42 “ - 11 = 0 distance left

If I drop the projector lower with a longer mast will this increase my distance from the bottom of the screen to the floor ?

Are you happy with the image and size ? Screen Door at this distance ?.

Trying to understand throw ratio concept. I found this.
Site explaining throw ratios. (for newbies like me)

http://www.htrgroup.com/?tab=projector-docs&section=throwratio

Optoma 30 throw ratio = distance in inches from lens to screen / screen width in inches
Min 1.75 = 140” (11.6ft) / 80 “
Max 2.12 = 169(14.13ft) / 80 “

What has to be done at the projector to get the 2.12 throw ratio …. Focus lens ?
Which will be the better image wide angle or tele-position ?
I would like to place my first row of seats be around 13 -14 feet.
I would like to put a second row at 14- 16 feet.

Thanks a million …. Back to the construction site / basement (in goes the pot lighting).
Still about 2 months to go (working odd nights and weekends).
Don’t want to buy a H30 to find out it won’t fit my space !!
This sounds like a great first projector for me …
Great screen shots Tom.
KenW

How about giving the offset as a percentage?

Say for 12 foot throw, I have a X inches offset for 16:9 and a Y inches offset for 4:3.(without keystone). This will surely stop the flow of (pertinent) questions about this. (BTW, I find it very off this is not in the throw chart. Optoma, when you change your subpar manual, that would be a nice thing to add :) )



I don't think it matters if the pj is upside down or upright, does it?

How is everyone connecting the H30 to there DVD player? Mine looks fantastic via the s-video connection, however, when I attempt to use the component cables via the supplied connector the picture appears not as vibrant. Is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Mark Courier

Originally posted by markcourier
How is everyone connecting the H30 to there DVD player? Mine looks fantastic via the s-video connection, however, when I attempt to use the component cables via the supplied connector the picture appears not as vibrant. Is there something I am doing wrong?

Thanks,
Mark Courier

Mark,
I have both s-video and component using the supplied connector. Both cables are cheap generics that I got on ebay. I would say that the component is nearly 100% better than S-video with DVD. S-video looks dark and muddy in comparison. Component is much brighter, crisper, and better colors. Your component cable could be bad.

I have another set of component cables. I will try and hook them up and see if I get a better picture. The picture with s-video is outstanding, we just watched -Out Of Time- and it looked fantastic with the s-video connection. I am really looking forward to getting the component cables hooked-up properly.

Thanks for the quick response,

Mark Courier

If you don't check the settings with Avia or DVE, it's quite possible that S-video could look better right out of the box. After calibration, component should always look better.

or ... maybe you are using a Progressive Scan dvd player with poor scaling and the PixelWorks scaler in the H30 does a better job .
-- Is the player Progressive Scan (480p) ?
-- Is Progressive Scan turned on ?
-- If so then turn it off and try the Component connection again [ letting the PixelWorks scaler do the work ] .
---- Just another observation [ might be totally off base ;) ] .
------- Jason

Jason,

The DVD player I am using is the Panasonic RP-56 with progressive scan on. Last night I made some adjustments on the settings based on some recommendations from guitarman and the picture appeared much improved. This is my first front projector I have owned, I am amazed at the picture I have seen so far. This has to be the best bang for the buck FP on the market.

Here's my measurments when using a 16.9 screen.

If I set my projector perfectly level and use no keystone

Lens center is 6" down from the ceiling

Projector is 173" from the screen surface

Top of 16.9 image is 38.5" from the ceiling

My ceiling height is 94.5"

Using a 92"X52" 16.9 screen

So you can see when using a 16.9 screen there's quite an offset. I think most everybody is aligning their picture with a slight tilt and using some keystone. My keystone spot was 8.

Thanks Tom..............

Yes, I would definitely have to be tilting the projector it hang it from the ceiling.

My lens to screen distance would be about one inch less than yours, but I wanted the image about 24" from the ceiling for 16x9 and which leaves me only about 9" (72"+27"+9"=107" floor to ceiling) for a 4x3 full panel screen. I suppose this will all change when they use the full chip and you set up for 4x3... I deduce the angle is due to the part of the chip they are using for the image. My room may not work out for a full 96x72 4x3 screen...

Oh well, that is why I plan on buying a projector first... setting it up and playing with it for a while before I order (build or whatever) the screen.

Thanks again,

Steve

Originally posted by kwalling
Ceiling height 70”. (using Veggieguy mesurements)
(Ceiling) – (ceiling-to-lens) - (top-of-screen) – (screen) - (floor-to-bottomscreen)
70 “ - 5” – 12” - 42 “ - 11 = 0 distance left

If I drop the projector lower with a longer mast will this increase my distance from the bottom of the screen to the floor ?

With everything else being the same, if you drop the projector lower with a longer mast, that should lower your picture on the wall. This would decrease the distance from the bottom of the screen to floor -- not increase it.

Are you happy with the image and size ? Screen Door at this distance?

I am very happy with the image quality. I built an 80" by 45" 16:9 screen, but I ended up only being able to throw about a 78" wide image because I had to mount my projector slightly closer to the wall than I had planned in order to find a beam in the ceiling. This is still a great size for me, and the movie watching experience is fantastic. I will probably just put a black border of some kind around the screen to cover the unused area. I have no visible screen door at my viewing distance.

What has to be done at the projector to get the 2.12 throw ratio …. Focus lens ?

Adjusting the zoom is what does this I believe.

Which will be the better image wide angle or tele-position?

If you are asking whether you should get a 16:9 screen or a 4:3 screen, this appears to be a hot topic with strong advocates for both choices. It usually comes down to personal preference and what kind of material you watch the most. If you watch mostly widescreen DVDs, a 16:9 screen would probably be best. This is what I chose, and I'm glad that I did. If you watch a lot of 4:3 material, such as television, 4:3 DVDs, etc, you might consider a 4:3 screen to get the largest 4:3 picture possible.

I would like to place my first row of seats be around 13 -14 feet.
I would like to put a second row at 14- 16 feet.

I went around in circles trying to figure out my measurements too. Here is what I finally did. I started by figuring out where I wanted my seating to be. It ended up being about 12 feet back from the wall that the screen would go on. I knew that I wanted to keep about a 1.8 viewing ratio to minimize screen door and maximize viewing pleasure. :) This is the ratio of viewing distance over screen width. I used this to calculate the maximum screen width I could use:

12 feet = 144 inches
144 inches / 1.8 = 80 inches

Then I used the projection calculator (http://www.projectorcentral.com/projection-calculator.cfm) at Projector Central to figure out where I would have to mount my projector to throw an image of this size.

I hope that helps. It can be confusing at first, but it is well worth the time and effort to figure it all out.

To all the techno gurus on this site, a word of apology for this post not being of much technical value. However, being a novice, this post may interest those that are in the same position.

We began exploring the option of a front projector when we built our home theater. We discovered that Optoma was coming out with an entry level home theater projector for under $1500, after looking at the specs and comparing it to others in the same price range, we decided to order one, sight unseen, from a local Optoma rep. We placed the order 1/6/04 and the H30 arrived 1/29/04, just in time for the superbowl. Out of the box, the remote did not work. We played around with the battery connections, bent them a little and solved the problem. When we plugged it in, we were disappointed to see a green tint, this didn't happen on DVD's, it only appeared on the television. We turned the green gun all the way down, don't know if that's what needed to be done, but it worked. The picture was absolutely glorious. It wowed us, it wowed all our friends. Incredible color, HDTV felt like you were actually there. We enjoyed this bliss for exactly 30 days. On 2/29/04 we went to turn the projector on and got whir, whir, whir, then the fan turned on, the orange lamp light went on and the projector shut it self off. Talked to the Optoma people and they sent a request for RMA promptly, they said since the projector failed within 30 days that we would just receive a new projector. We shipped the projector back 2nd day air on 3/3/04, at a cost of $47.00 and waited. Yesterday, 3/9/04, we called to find out the status of the projector and were told that the projector was not in stock and would not be in stock for another month. We told them to fix the one we sent and return it to us. This morning 3/10/04, we received a brand new unit that had been overnighted by Optoma. Turns out they were able to find a unit after all. Thanks to Optoma for the prompt service.

To HiHoSteve -

Steve -

If it would help, maybe I could stop over with the pj and a 8 ft. step ladder to determine a possible mounting position. I've pretty much given up ceiling mounting mine, I don't want to relocate the ceiling fan...

John F

Optoma is planning a later firmware to add digital control allowing you to move the 16.9 to any area of the 4.3 chip. This will cut down setup hassles.
Although I see no problem when I use keystone, don't see any distortion, picture looks the same but now square.

hi guys this is a little off topic but i have all the screen brands here and set up i would like to know which side is the front side

the one with the make logo on it and the gain

or is the blank side of the samples the front :confused:


lets see what works good with this pj the h30

Optoma is planning a later firmware to add digital control allowing you to move the 16.9 to any area of the 4.3 chip. This will cut down setup hassles.

Tom-
any idea how this digital control will work with the lens cap mask? I'm already to buy the H30 but i really want the lens cap to take care of any light spill. Seems the image will have to go according to the cut out of the mask. Just thinkin' out loud.............

rudee

Optoma is planning a later firmware to add digital control allowing you to move the 16.9 to any area of the 4.3 chip.

Does this mean that this will theoretically allow me to mount my H30 on a rear wall, about 5 ft off the floor? I can't really do that now without having to tilt the pj an extreme amount.

I really need to be able to do this, because right now, I've got the pj sitting on a table top right in front of the gas fireplace. Which means that we can't use the fireplace now, since it would cook the pj, not to mention the table it's sitting on. I hope to be able to mount the H30 on the mantle above the fireplace, which would protect it from the heat. I tried it once already, but the offset was too high, placing the entire screen on the ceiling! Thought of ceiling mounting it, but we have a ceiling fan w/light fixture directly in the path.

Here's my current setup:


screen: 84"x 48" (96" diagonal)
-----------------------

sofa
-------------------
[] H30 sitting on table 36" off floor, with beam shooting over empty middle section of the sofa
______________________
Rear brick wall w/Gas fireplace



Not using the fireplace is an option, but dang it gets cold up in Minnesota!

Hi all.

Can anybody tell me how the H30 compares to the Panasonic PT AE-500?

I know these are two very different projectors as well in technique as in resolution, which one looks better on watching DVD?

(we do not have HDTV here , so I am not sure the higher resolution of the panasonic would pay off).

Regards,

Ronald

We too had a ceiling fan and solved the problem by removing the fan/light fixture, replacing it with a track lighting system and aimed the projector beam between two of the heads of the track lighting system. Worked like a charm.

"how this digital control will work with the lens cap mask?"

You'd only have the option of setting the 16.9 image fully at the top or the bottom.

John, re 5ft up on the wall,
Most likely yes because you'll have a long distance in that 4.3 chip to shift the image.

"Can anybody tell me how the H30 compares to the Panasonic PT AE-500"

Imo the H30 will be better, fill is real nice and we're headed to 2500.1 contrast with the lens mask. Contrast and blacks will be and are killer. Colors aren't too shabby either. :)

If this helps several posters way back up in the thread saw both the Z2 AE500 and the H30 together and preferred the H30. It will take forever to find the posts though, this thread seems to be going for the record. ;)

Thanx Guitarman,.

I tried to read the whole thread but halfway I really got exhausted of reading ;-)


Best regards,

Ronald

Originally posted by guitarman
Optoma is planning a later firmware to add digital control allowing you to move the 16.9 to any area of the 4.3 chip. This will cut down setup hassles.


Tom is this the same software update that has been discussed and MikeSRC is waiting for.... or a different update?

Steve

No, this is something else. I asked about making the offset better and he replied they looked into adding this digital feature but it would be 6months from now. Not everybody would need it, just another option available down the road.

Thanks for the info Tom...

I don't suppose the H30 has an RS232 port where they will post the updates on their web site and just allow users to do the upgrade... probably have to send it back in.

Steve

Tom,
What is the latest on the green push issue with progressive signal? Is that an upcoming firmware fix?

"Can anybody tell me how the H30 compares to the Panasonic PT AE-500?"

I just had the opportunity to compare the H30 head to head against the Z2. The H30 definitely held its own - especially in shadow detail and color accuracy. For example, in Finding Nemo, Nemo looked bright orange on the H30, but he looked almost crimson on the Z2. The difference in shadow detail was pretty apparent in the dark forest scenes of LOTR II. Also, we watched HD - and it looked very good on the H30 - the resolution didn't make as big a difference as I would have expected. The Z2 has some nice features like DVI and lens shift. But, if I were to purchase again I would go with the H30 and use the saved money to buy a nice screen.

Steve ,
--- No such luck , there is some sort of very small custom plug on the back however .
__________
PJ ,
--- The green push issue is supposed to be a fix in the new firmware that Mike should have soon [ from what has been stated thus far ] .
__________
---- Jason

The green push will be fixed when I get mine back. Whether that's a function of the firmware upgrade or just adjusting it in the service menu is unknown to me at the moment.

Mike ,
--- Well if it ends up being a Service Menu adjustment I sure hope they give the specifics so it can be fixed without sending in the PJ ;) .
----- Jason

Speaking of the firmware, I use a 16:9 screen, and I like the way the 4:3 source fits into the middle of the 16:9 screen. If I decided to send my H30 in to get the firmware update(mostly because of the green push issue), will I still be able to watch 4:3 source in the middle of the 16:9 screen?

I'm worried that once I get the firmware update, all the 4:3 source will use the whole 4:3 picture, with the result that most of the 4:3 image will be off the 16:9 screen!

yeah what johnny just said.................i have been wonder what it would do also. Has optoma actually said what the new frimware will do to each aspect? if so please point me to it b/c it's the only thing holding me back from ordering the h30.

rudee

Originally posted by Johnny Bax
I'm worried that once I get the firmware update, all the 4:3 source will use the whole 4:3 picture, with the result that most of the 4:3 image will be off the 16:9 screen!

The firmware change should make no difference to viewing in 16:9 mode. It will work just as it does now. It's opening up the full use of the chip with a component input in 4:3 mode.

The firmware will keep the 16.9 aspect and the 4.3 within the 16.9 frame the same way it is now. It just adds letterbox support and full 4.3 800X600 also. A component feed from yr DVD player will still display the 16.9 view at the bottom of the chip masked.

Yes, but what if a 16:9 screen owner feeds 4:3 material to it via component from a non-DVD source? It sounds like that would blow the 4:3 content beyond the bounds of the screen -- not good. For instance, I have to put the H30 in 4:3 mode to watch Tivo, which right now puts it centered on my 16:9 screen. Granted I'm connecting via s-video right now, but presumably some 4:3 devices also connect via component.

Surely they'll provide some way to tell the projector whether you want this behavior or not, maybe by letting you separately specify your screen type.

VeggieGuy & Tom ,
Thanks for all your info on project/screen offsets.
I will keep this info for future info.
Would the Momitsu 880 be a good match for the H30 ?
(I have a dvi to rgb adapter that came with my 9200radeon vidoe card).

Back to the cave .... it will be finished one day.
KenW

"It sounds like that would blow the 4:3 content beyond the bounds of the screen"

No, you'll have both options for 4.3. Windowed in the 16.9 frame or full blown 800X600.

The Momistsu is just best for DVI, It's guess work whether upscaling with the 880 would look better. The H30 has an excellent scaler. You'd be better off with a Farouja Chipped DVD player. Or a JVC right now because a JVC will support letterbox without the new firmware.

The Farouja chip doesn't allow letterbox support.

Lens center is 6" down from the ceiling Projector is 173" from the screen surface Top of 16.9 image is 38.5" from the ceiling

Thanks for taking the time to measure this with precision. It means the offset is 18.8% of the throw.

For a 10 foot throw, 22.6 inch offset.

For a 12 foot throw, 27 inch offset.


And so on... ;)

Are you guys sure that its green push, a color decoder error, or the grayscale is to the green?

How much access is there to service menu adjustments to fix grayscale and color decoder??

Jim, do you have the green also? Stay tuned we're working on it. Theres a ton of numbers in the service menu related to color gains, bias, ADC gain & offset. ADC relates to the DMD chip.
be back

No, you'll have both options for 4.3. Windowed in the 16.9 frame or full blown 800X600.


Aha! Is that what the "windowed" setting does on the aspect ratio screen? I was wondering about that.

Like Veggieguy, I too have to use 4:3 mode to get the 4:3 material to look correct within the 16:9 screen. This is true of watching an old 4:3 film like Casablanca on component DVD, or watching Directv via an S-video connection. If I use 16:9 mode on either one, the image gets stretched and looks hideous.

Originally posted by JimP
Are you guys sure that its green push, a color decoder error, or the grayscale is to the green?

How much access is there to service menu adjustments to fix grayscale and color decoder??

That's a good question. I am using an interlaced component signal from my DVD player, so I don't seem to have the severe green that some people are reporting with progressive signals. On occasion I do think skin colors look very slightly green, but it hasn't been enough to severely annoy me.

When I go through the color optimizaton on Digital Video Essentials, however, I can get the blue and red looking perfect via the normal color setting. When I look at the green test though, it's always way off. According to the DVE tutorial, this means there is a decoder error in the green spectrum. I had nearly identical results in DVE via an s-video connection.

I do wonder if there's anything that can be done to fix this, short of sending the projector in to Optoma. It doesn't bother me enough to part with it for that long. :)

Received a DOA H30. Oh the humanity!

Plugged it in. Turned it on...turned it on....turned it on. No power activation. What the heck? Tried it with the remote. No power activation. *slam head repeatedly on desktop* Try holding power button down on unit. No power activation.

Sniffle.

Boxed it back up. Emailed retailer.

Veggieguy, its the component *de*-interlaced that's exhibiting the green push. I don't get any green push when I do 480i, either. But I get it in 480p.

Del Laird,
You got no light on the PJ, green, orange. Orange means bulb failure. The manual has trouble shooting. Says to re seat the bulb.

If no avail, hope your replacment arrives quickly.

The colors can be adjusted in the service menu, stay tuned we're comparing notes on sub numbers. Mine which has perfect colors with a memeber that has the green push. Maybe we can nail this down on our own.

Zero light-up. Zero sound of the PJ turning on. No hum. No nothing. Dead dead dead.

Retailer I purchased it from has no more in stock. Optoma's warehouse is dry. :(

Originally posted by Johnny Bax
Veggieguy, its the component *de*-interlaced that's exhibiting the green push. I don't get any green push when I do 480i, either. But I get it in 480p.

Yep, I know it's the progressive inputs that are displaying the green push. I was just pointing out that according to the DVE tests, my H30 is showing some problems with green even on an interlaced input. I don't really notice it when watching movies, but it's there according to the test.

Has anybody else used DVE to calibrate their H30 with an interlaced input? The test I'm talking about is where you look though the red/green/blue filters at the color bars and attempt to get consistent intensity by adjusting the color setting. For me, blue and red are easily perfected, but green always looks way off.

I'm more curious about these results than anything, because as I said, the picture is great.

Ok , well after a bit of work and comparing Tom's Service Menu settings to mine I have removed the Green push issue from my H30 :) . I have also calibrated with AVIA from the service menu so that almost all settings are perfect at zero or with no adjustment required . I did have a strange issue with the contrast setting however . I would get everything dialed in via the service menu and then as soon as I changed sources and adjusted the contrast the settings would all bug out and my perfect color balance was lost . I am going to do some more fine tuning before I post any numbers but having Tom's numbers helped me to find the problem settings [ All credit goes to Tom here as this was his idea :) ] . What I found was very odd in that I could not use Tom's exact settings , my picture was a terrible mess with his service settings [ especially in the ADC Offset's ] . My DLP Brightness & Contrast settings were exactly the same as Tom's out of the box . Two of my ADC Gains were exactly the same and I bet you can guess which one was off ... yep , the green was very high compared to Tom's [ but this was not how I solved the green push issue on my H30 ] . All of my Picture adjustments were within 2 digits of Tom's settings but this is where I found the most benefit for getting rid of the green push issue [ The Green Gain and Green Bias adjustments ] .
--- I can say without doubt now that my image is far superior to what it was previously , I watched some HD material and noticed things that I had not seen before due to a slightly improper color balance .
--- Keep in mind too that I am using an HTPC so my findings may not work for those of you with standalone dvd players .

----- More to come ....

------ Jason

Wow guitarman I think you have managed to start a thread thats becoming the longest ever on the avsforum, good work. Optoma should be rewarding you for getting the word out to the world. I just hit 110 hours and going strong with my awesome H30. All I can say is there is nothing even close to this image in this price range. Thank you guitarman for your help... I cant thank you enough. (If your ever in Santa Cruz free dinner on the wharf my treat)
Projector central is going to review the H30 soon. I bet it will be highly recommended.

Now i have ordered my Optoma H30...

So i hope a got it in the late next week.

Thanks for all good reviews in this superlong thread that helps me to choose H30.

Jason

Sounds like you're not writing the new settings to memory. I've had TVs where you don't have to do anything extra after changing a setting, and others where you did. On my Sony, you have to press mute, enter in order for a change to stick. I'm sure other devices have their own combinations.

VeggieGuy

I've also had problems with the green color, decoder test on a Sony GWIII, a LCD rear projection set. According to the Avia, it showed between minus 10 and 15. The DVE test also showed it considerably off. Its been posted that the green filter on Avia isn't all that accurate as it leaks other colors. Unless there is someway to turn off the red and blue segments of the color wheel (some found that they can turn down cuts and drives) it may not be possible to do an accurate green test for the color decoder. I tried just looking at the relative "glow" of different colors on the Avia color decoder test to determine if the green was that far out. It seems that it was about the same as blue and red when those were properly adjusted. I'm not so sure that these color decoder test work all that well when it comes to DLPs and LCDs.

For those who don't already know, there is a difference between having your grayscale off and having your color decoder off.

Originally posted by pacogem
Wow guitarman I think you have managed to start a thread thats becoming the longest ever on the avsforum, good work. Optoma should be rewarding you for getting the word out to the world. I just hit 110 hours and going strong with my awesome H30. All I can say is there is nothing even close to this image in this price range. Thank you guitarman for your help... I cant thank you enough. (If your ever in Santa Cruz free dinner on the wharf my treat)
Projector central is going to review the H30 soon. I bet it will be highly recommended.


No doubt. I started reading this thread last night. Around page 27, I started wondering how many pages there were. 72!! Holy Mackeral! I had to skip to the end.. :)

Can someone post a summary or FAQ on where the firmware update is at these days and details about the projector? If this projector is as good as everyone says it is, I would imagine that there is going to be a need for a central source of information. If there was something like Technut's faq for the X1, that would be perfect.

j

I actually sat down one night and read everything in the thread, and now am ready to purchase. The only problem is that they are sold out everywhere. Anyways back to my point.

I see people in the L240k thread are talking about using the momitsu dvd player to connect their dvd player through vga. I take it their is some sort of DVI to VGA adaptor, since the NEC doens't have DVI. So my question is, do you think this is the way to go on the H30? I know that on my X1 it looked a hell of a lot better going through VGA, so I was wondering if this is the same case for the H30?

pacogem,
When I started this one I knew after a few more members picked up the projector and saw for themselves that the interest would sky rocket. Everybody loves a bargain, me also.

Jason,
Nice work, Ok there's quite a few that see green with a progressive signal so I'll get the service codes out. Saves everybody allot of time the company included. Plus everybody can get more control over their projector.

In the service menu, stay clear of the colorwheel menu and factory reset. I'd first start with just "Picture", Gain would be the higher end of the color and Bias would be the lower, Gain=contrast Bias=brightness. If you want less of a color start with lowering the Gain.

Service Menu,
On the projector hit
Up plus Enter at the same time 2 times

Left plus Enter at the same time 2 times

A screen will pop up, then hit

Up plus Left plus Down at the same time, just once

Now the mode becomes active, move about with the cross arrow keys on the PJ, using the enter to open each menu. When you want out of a menu hit the Menu button on the PJ. Theres an Exit box in the opening menu.

Run a progressive scan DVD with color you're familiar with and start with the "Picture" service menu. Like Jason said lower the "Green gain" see what happens to the picture. Also if you have the green push and are going to try this, I would first in the user menu clear what ever tweaking you did.

Ok here's what my sub-number look like but you'll mainly just looking at lowering your "Picture Green Gain". Jason will amplify on what he found is best. Hey I picked the right guy to confide in. :) "Former Mad 1031Q Tweaker"

My numbers:

Picture
--------
Gain Red 8
Gain Green 7
Gain Blue 4
Bias Red 13
Bias Green 15
Bias Blue 12

ADC
--------
ADC Red Gain 131
ADC Green Gain 124
ADC BLue Gain 119
ADC Red Offset 68
ADC Green Offset 92
ADC BLue Offset 55

DLP Brightness
-------------------
Brightness Red 28
Brightness Green 29
Brightness Blue 31

DLP Contrast
-----------------
Contrast Red 57
Contrast Green 55
Contrast Blue 56


That's it. Now you guys with the green problem s/b able to fix it in this service area on your own. Let us know how it goes? Oh and make sure you write down your original service numbers before you start. And pls stay out of the warning service menu's I gave, RESET & COLOR WHEEL

Hehe, enjoy and become a Mad Tweaker yourself. :)

any one try a personal video recorder (pvr like tivo or myth tv) on the h30? How do recorded shows look? What kinda resolution/bit rate do you have to use to get a decent picture. Was thinking of setting up a htpc for my projector.

Picture
--------
Gain Red 8
Gain Green 7
Gain Blue 4
Bias Red 13
Bias Green 15
Bias Blue 12

ADC
--------
ADC Red Gain 131
ADC Green Gain 124
ADC BLue Gain 119
ADC Red Offset 68
ADC Green Offset 92
ADC BLue Offset 55

DLP Brightness
-------------------
Brightness Red 28
Brightness Green 29
Brightness Blue 31

DLP Contrast
-----------------
Contrast Red 57
Contrast Green 55
Contrast Blue 56


tom is this optoma settings or is this what you came up with and thanks for the service code ;)

tom when you choose your screen material the samples they sent you which was the front of the samples the side with the info in the corner or was it the blank side ? and after the firm ware update for a 4:3 screen the lite spill we get now on the top will stay the same hight the only diff. will be the chip will be fully open and the 16:9 will also stay the same as for over all size correct .

Those are the factory calibrated numbers. Since my PJ is dead on perfect for color, it's a good start. If you hv green, just concentrate on the "Picture" Green Gain, lower it.

Sizes and light spill will stay the same. Can't help on the samples.

Sizes and light spill will stay the same


so the diff. will be that the pic. will fill the lite spill at the top of the screen after the firm ware update correct .



tom

Yes, the 800X600 4.3 picture would cover the whole chip, just really good if you want to go with a 4.3 screen.

If you plan to use a 16.9 screen and can live without the Letterbox stretch. You don't hv to bother to get the firmware. Or if you want DVD letterbox support you could get a JVC DVD player.

Or if you want DVD letterbox support you could get a JVC DVD player.

or a Panasonic :)

Yes, the 800X600 4.3 picture would cover the whole chip, just really good if you want to go with a 4.3 screen.


well then for a 4:3 image i get 55hx74.5 w max (including light spill)

16:9 44.5hx74.5w

does that sound right tom as for aspect ratios go ?

or a Panasonic


veggieguy i have an xp30 panny ;)

Originally posted by jfinke
Can someone post a summary or FAQ on where the firmware update is at these days and details about the projector?

The firmware is still in testing. It's supposed to be done sometime next week and I'm hoping I'll get mine back by next weekend. My H30 was in for another issue, so I've let it stay there to get the firmware upgrade. Once they're done with it, they will probably start accepting returns for the upgrade, as well as apply it to all new units.

Originally posted by MikeSRC
The firmware is still in testing. It's supposed to be done sometime next week and I'm hoping I'll get mine back by next weekend. My H30 was in for another issue, so I've let it stay there to get the firmware upgrade. Once they're done with it, they will probably start accepting returns for the upgrade, as well as apply it to all new units.

Thanks for the update!

The only pany I know that does letterbox support is the old RP91. The new players with Farouja like XP30 don't. I was told it's because the Farouja chip doesn't allow letterbox support.

new teq joe,
Sounds like you're trying to measure out a custom screen. And your plans are a 4.3 screen? Anyway I can't help on custom measurments I've only bought the ready made Video and HDTV sizes.

Use your math to downsize the industry norm. Like my 4.3 video screen is 92"wide and 69" high.

thanks for the tip and tom my xp30 has


16:9

4:3

and letter box in the main menue the only question will it work i got to try it out ?

well i tried to use all the settingings avaliable and the only diff. i got is when i use 4:3 letter box i got 2.35 ratio but i still only get

44h x 74.5 w max

and that is what i found out when testing

oh and the pan scan mode also gave me the 2:35 ratio :(



might get the upgrade and use the lense cap 16:9

Question?
Has anyone tried a Da-Lite High Contrast Cinema Vision screen with the H30? I have been using an off-white painters drop cloth for a screen it looks quite good. I know that a real screen will look substantially better. I just ordered the HCCV material. I will be making my own frame. I have good light control but some times choose to have some ambient light (the wife). So that’s why I went HCCV over matt white CV screen. Any thoughts. Has anyone compared a HC screen over a matt white screen?

Thanks for the input
Max

i have a sample of the hccv and it is a gray color and it is not bad with the h30 but the wife said it looked to dark but you have to under stand you have to tweak it properly and the pic should be good

If you plan to use a 16.9 screen and can live without the Letterbox stretch. You don't hv to bother to get the firmware. Or if you want DVD letterbox support you could get a JVC DVD player.


Huh? Please explain this "letterbox stretch". I have a 16:9 screen, so I'm all ears.

And what do you mean by "DVD Letterbox support"? My Pioneer DVD 563a has an option for either 4:3 letterbox, 4:3 pan & scan, or 16:9. I have mine set to 16:9. Is this incorrect?

Originally posted by guitarman
[B]The only pany I know that does letterbox support is the old RP91. The new players with Farouja like XP30 don't. I was told it's because the Farouja chip doesn't allow letterbox support.

I have a Panasonic DVD-S35 and it has letterbox expansion support. I have no idea what chip this player has in it though.

Johnny, this option tells your player to expand an older "letterbox" 4:3 DVD so that it fills your 16:9 screen instead of showing it letterboxed (black bars above and below) within a 4:3 area on your screen.

"Huh? Please explain this "letterbox stretch". I have a 16:9 screen, so I'm all ears."

If you play a widescreen DVD that's non-anamorphic and choose 16.9 aspect on the projector, the image will be squashed down and stretched with figures looking fat and short. Not many but some DVD players will play these correctly. The RP91 would do this and all JVC's do it also, now the newer Panasonic's have the feature.

Only way to know if your Pioneer will work is to view a NA-dvd. You should have your player set to 16.9. But if you encounter a Letterbox/NA movie you'll look for the aspect in the DVD player menu that will display it Right. Maybe your Letterbox aspect will work but not always. My Pany RV32 has a letterbox aspect but it doesn't fix a NA-dvd.

PS. you don't leave the player in Letterbox, always opt back for 16.9 to pick up the 33% resolution that DVD's Enchanced for widescreen TV's have.

My Panasonic must handle this differently than your JVC does, Tom. I don't have to change any settings on my player based on the DVD I'm playing. I just set it up once and leave it. It has a primary "TV Aspect Ratio" setting where you choose either:

* 4:3 Pan & Scan
* 4:3 Letterbox
* 16:9

Mine is set to 16:9. It also has a separate setting in the on screen menus called "4:3 Aspect". The manual says, "Select how to show images made for 4:3 aspect screen on a 16:9 aspect television."

* Normal: Laterally stretches images made for a 4:3 screen
* Auto: Expands suitable 4:3 letterbox images to fill more of the screen. Other images appear in full in the center of the screen.
* Shrink: Images appear in the center of the screen
* Zoom: Expands all images to fill the screen

I set this to "Auto" and the player remembers it. Now both anamorphic widescreen and non-anamorphic letterbox DVDs automatically fill my 16:9 screen while 4:3 DVDs are centered as expected.

It's great! The Panasonic S35 is a pretty affordable player as well. I picked mine up a year ago for about $100.

Tom/Veggieguy, thanks for the explanation. I'm not positive that my 563a has that feature, but I think it does. I'm pretty sure I've played some non-anamorphic DVD's on it, and it handled without distorting the image. Is there a particular name for this feature, so that I can look it up in the manual or the internet to see if it has it?

If letterbox doesn't work try your players zoom also. On the JVC's they call it 16.9 Normal. The JVC's have two 16.9 aspects 16.9auto & 16.9 Normal. If I were to play a NA-dvd with 16.9auto it would be compressed.

You may get the info you need at the DVD-forum.

Here's a link where they discussed the problem.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=376177&highlight=Players+with+letterbox+control

Hi All,

Thanks for this excellent thread! I just posted a comparison between the H30 and the Z2 in another thread (can't link to it yet, only 2 posts) and I thought I would post it here too in case people might want to see it and missed it in the other thread (is this cross-posting allowed? I'm quite new here). Anyway, here goes:

A week ago I had a demo of the two units. Saw Gladiator and Matrix Reloaded on DVD. I saw them both running at the same time projected on two separate screens next to each other so I could make a really good comparison. Of course I wasn't involved in the setup/calibration and I am purchasing my first FP so feel free to take the below with a big lump of salt.

The Z2:

nice picture color wise (no 'fake' looking colors like you often see with LCD)
resolution was very high and impressive of course
blacks reasonably good but nowhere near the H30
nice bright image (looked slightly brighter than H30, maybe calibration?)
screendoor more noticeable than H30 but not from normal viewing distance. The dealer had slightly defocused the Z2 to lessen the SD but when I remarked that the picture looked slightly soft he focused it and the screendoor became more apparent.
The scaler of the Z2 was obviously of lower quality. At least I think this was the problem since round curves in people's faces etc. took on a sort of 'blocky' look, not smooth as on the H30. This 'edgy' image is also seen on LCD televisions when they scale a normal TV signal.
Vertical Banding was quite bad. Worse than I would have expected. Because of this the whole picture took on a more muddy/dirty look. This was definitely the biggest drawback of the Z2. The dealer told me that there was a new firmware for the Z2 that significantly lowered VB compared to the demo unit.
more stable / relaxed image than the H30. I guess this was due to the DLP technology on the H30. It wasn't a huge difference but it was noticeable.


The H30:

very colorful and saturated image, even more natural than the Z2
resolution was obviously lower but for DVD this didn't make a difference and the H30 actually appeared sharper than the Z2 while still being smooth.
blacks very good, better than any projector I have seen so far (I have no experience with CRT FP)
nice bright and 'sparkly' image.
screendoor very good, less noticeable than the Z2.
noise was a bit louder than I had expected from the raving reviews everywhere. We didn't have any sound during the demo so of course the projector was all I heard. Nothing terrible though and shouldn't be a problem while watching movies with sound.
very clean image, no VB of course. With the Z2 it seemed as if you were looking through a slightly dirty window, with the H30 the image was very clean and clear. The image looked a lot like a good CRT monitor or a good plasma screen, only bigger!
rainbows: I did see some, mostly on subtitles, credits etc. I am very sensitive to CRT monitor flicker so I believe I am also more sensitive to rainbows than the average person. At my work we have a large videowall consisting of about 12 rear projection DLP's and I find the flicker on the whole wall to be quite distracting, most people don't see this flicker. So while I did see some rainbows on the H30 it didn't bother me and I never saw it in the movie itself.


I must admit that I came to the demo with a bias towards the H30 but after the demo I was even more convinced of the quality of the H30. It wasn't that the Z2 throws a bad image, it's just that for viewing DVD's I found the H30 to give a much more pleasing and vivid picture overall. The VB and the scaler on the Z2 were big drawbacks and I think they would bother me in the long run. Maybe the VB on the Z2 can be tweaked to where it's no longer a factor but I wonder if the scaler problem can be solved. I don't plan to watch any HD in the near future so the high resolution of the Z2 wasn't a deciding factor.

Needless to say I ordered the H30 and I'm waiting for the dealer to get it from Optoma. Unfortunately, he mailed me today that the shipment of all Optoma projectors to Europe has been delayed, aarggh, I hope my wait won't be too long...

Best regards,
Azrael

Hey hey, what did I say. :)

Thanks for taking the time with some very interesting info. Hope you get your projector soon.
Post up a review here when you get it tuned up in a home environment.

Hi, I've been reading through these posts and can't seem to find the answer to a question I'm having... I really like the way the H30 acts as a 16:9 projector. However, I plan to use a HTPC - I understand that opens up the resolution to 800x600. Can I set my HTPC to a 16x9 resolution and project that thru the H30? Is anyone doing this?

I see people in the L240k thread are talking about using the momitsu dvd player to connect their dvd player through vga. I take it their is some sort of DVI to VGA adaptor, since the NEC doens't have DVI. So my question is, do you think this is the way to go on the H30? I know that on my X1 it looked a hell of a lot better going through VGA, so I was wondering if this is the same case for the H30?

In the case of the Momitsu, it upscales DVDs to 720p or 1080i through its DVI output. The component video output is not very good, so converting DVI to VGA is the way to go. If you have a DVD player with a good progressive scan component output, then using the component-to-VGA adapter is the way to go. In any event, you're converting digital to analog, so if you have a DVI output on a source device, just converting it to VGA is probably best.

Mike,
I just checked the Taiwan's forum. People who get latest firmware get problem in using the window mode. Be sure to check it when u receive your machine. (This problem doesn't occur with previous firmware)

Still working on perfecting the image and thought I would share something that I had forgotten about until recently . Be sure to adjust your Phase using Mark's test pattern here [ it works wonders ;) ] : http://www.marky.com/files/hometheater/testpatterns/tracking-and-phase.gif
---- THIS IS FOR HTPC USERS ONLY - Sorry ;)


---- Jason
------------- added a couple new pics on my www link above [ check out the fireball ;) ] .

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
Still working on perfecting the image and thought I would share something that I had forgotten about until recently . Be sure to adjust your Phase using Mark's test pattern here [ it works wonders ;) ] : http://www.marky.com/files/hometheater/testpatterns/tracking-and-phase.gif



Wow, great pattern. Luckily, it confirms that my settings are correct! :)

Oh , I should have added that the Pattern should be saved as the Desktop image and set for 'Tiled' in order to test properly [ it will not work right otherwise ] .

---- Glad to hear it Fred :) .

------ Jason

yipchunyu

Right now if using a 16.9 screen the Window Box Aspect is pretty useless. It will expand the image beyond the screen with allot of overscan also.

Jason,
Give the green guys an idea on how many numbers you had to click off on Green Gain & Green Bias.
thx

Morning DVD of the Day, Right now showing Planet of the Apes, the Charleton Heston one. My H30 run morning and night. 411 hrs and counting.

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30apes1.jpg

http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h30apes2.jpg
These shots are with the filter on.

Latest toy is I'm testing Hoya FLD filters. Not bad, not great, I haven't a/b'ed yet. Using the filter I had to really cut levels down. Here's what happens -

User menu
Picture Cinema

Contrast minus 6
Brightness minus 24
Color minus 21
Tint minus 12
Sharpness 28
Gamma 1

Check out all them minuses,

Some people like the Day filters (Guy Kuo) for one. They like the added black and colors. It's a cheap option

Here is the post that Azrael was talking about.
You can see my own demo Review here too.

Infocus X1 | Optoma H30 | Sanyo Z2 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=378047)

Originally posted by DaGamePimp
------------- added a couple new pics on my www link above [ check out the fireball ;) ] .

Verrrrrrrrry Nice, Jason!

While waiting on the H30, I spent a few hours last night with the BenQ 6100. Nice picture, but it makes me glad they're not going to center the 16:9 image in the chip with the H30. I'd rather deal with light spill above rather than both above and below like it is with the 6100. Of course, the lens mask will remove that issue anyway.

Hi guys

I am a newbie to the thread and forum - but have made it through the marathon of this thread!

I am seriously considering the H30 - but have a few questions that I don't think have been covered yet - or at least I may have missed it in the 1400 of so messages...

First - I understand that you will only see a black bar above the image when projecting onto a 16:9 screen - is this correct? How does a lens mask work? Where do you buy them? Does this affect picture quality (lumen output, etc.)? And do you have to remove it when watching a non-HD satellite - or will the 4:3 picture just center in the 16:9 screen with black bars to the left and right?

Secondly - has anyone compared the picture quality between a XGA DLP projector and the H30? I am not going to be getting HD anytime soon, I am more curious if the increase in quality is worth the upgrade in price if I could afford it. If so, what projectors would you recommend I research in this regard.

Thanks to all who have participated in this forum, it has helped tons!

Michelle

Originally posted by mimi_mimi68
First - I understand that you will only see a black bar above the image when projecting onto a 16:9 screen - is this correct? How does a lens mask work? Where do you buy them? Does this affect picture quality (lumen output, etc.)? And do you have to remove it when watching a non-HD satellite - or will the 4:3 picture just center in the 16:9 screen with black bars to the left and right?

You will see a black bar above and below the image with a 2.35:1 DVD on a 16:9 screen. With anamorphic 1.85:1 DVDs, there will be no bars. Optoma will be providing their own lens mask which is said to improve contrast as well as getting rid of the light spill above the 16:9 image that is present otherwise. A 4:3 picture would center on the screen.

Secondly - has anyone compared the picture quality between a XGA DLP projector and the H30? I am not going to be getting HD anytime soon, I am more curious if the increase in quality is worth the upgrade in price if I could afford it. If so, what projectors would you recommend I research in this regard.


Tom, the originator of this thread, has compared the H30 favorably to an NEC HT1000 (which costs almost three times as much as the H30) that he also owns. He can tell you more about that.

Thanks Mike



You will see a black bar above and below the image with a 2.35:1 DVD on a 16:9 screen. With anamorphic 1.85:1 DVDs, there will be no bars. Optoma will be providing their own lens mask which is said to improve contrast as well as getting rid of the light spill above the 16:9 image that is present otherwise. A 4:3 picture would center on the screen.



Just to be clear - you mean with the lens mask? Does this come with the projector or do you have to order it from Optima?

Thanks

Michelle

It's a new accessory they're testing, but it's not available yet. It doesn't come with the projector and you'd have to order one from Optoma or a dealer that carried them. They currently sell a similar accessory for their H56 projector.

here is a picture of the H56 lens mask

http://www.optomahometheater.com/content/accessory/75-86510-001.asp

Originally posted by mimi_mimi68 .
Just to be clear - you mean with the lens mask?

The black banding Mike describes would be the same with or without the lens mask. Without the lens mask, you will have some light spill above the 16:9 picture. With the mask, this light spill will be eliminated, and reportedly the contrast will be raised to around 2500:1 (instead of 2000:1).

Sorry guys

I think I am just being dense here.

Are black bands the same as light spill??

Meaning with the lens cap - will I still see a black band above my screen? Or does this depend on the type of widescreen dvd I am viewing?

Michelle

Light spill is the light beyond the black bands. You will always have black bands to some extent with a 16:9 mask unless you are viewing a picture with exactly a 16:9 ratio (like HDTV).

Originally posted by mimi_mimi68
Are black bands the same as light spill??

No, light spill results from using a 4:3 chip (like the H30 has) to project a 16:9 image. Because only the bottom of the chip is used, there's a little bit of light that appears above the screen. If the wall behind the screen is dark-colored, you won't really see the light spill.

Meaning with the lens cap - will I still see a black band above my screen? Or does this depend on the type of widescreen dvd I am viewing?

Michelle

Yes and yes. :)

"First - I understand that you will only see a black bar above the image when projecting onto a 16:9 screen"

The area above the 16.9 screen won't be totally black so a slight light will need to be masked. With the lens mask we're hoping it will elinmate this.

For DVD the H30 holds it's own with XGA machines.

For DVD the H30 holds it's own with XGA machines



that i do agree with tom dvd looks great ;)

Thanks for the replies.

So unless I get a projector that is native 16:9 - I will always have the issue of black bands and light spill - regardless of a lens mask or not?

For some reason when I was going through the thread I got the impression that the H30 looked different on a 16:9 screen than say a X1.

How distracting is this? Does it make setting up the projector more difficult. Sorry the only projectors I have been able to see demo'd are the panasonic 300 and 500 - where it wasn't relevant.

Sorry this is REALLY newbie stuff....

Michelle

Originally posted by mimi_mimi68
So unless I get a projector that is native 16:9 - I will always have the issue of black bands and light spill - regardless of a lens mask or not?


Even with a native 16:9 projector, you will have the black bars with some DVDs. You will not have light spill with a native 16:9 projector. Light spill is really not a big deal. If you have a dark background outside the screen, you won't even notice it.

Good Day All!

First post, true newbie! As many others have done I would like to start by thanking all of you for your great efforts on these postings. It is very valuable for me when considering a large purchase to not have to just rely on salespeople and magazine reviews. To many ulterior motives!

I have been reading and reading for weeks and was about to order an X1 when I stumbled across this thread. The H30 appears to have some real merit. I believe that a 4:3 projector and screen is right for me as I suspect my usage will be about equal thirds of SDTV (sports), Computer gaming and wide-screen DVD watching. Due to room size limitations I will need to ceiling mount a projector with the lens just under 10' from the DIY BO cloth screen I will build AFTER I get the projector (another good tip from these pages). Room limitations also dictate a screen no wider than 64" (46x62)which the projection calculators indicate are within limits for either an X1 or H30. I will mask with black felt for wide-screen movies.

My real question is this: I assumed that when watching 4:3 material (SDTV or computer gaming) that the image would pretty much fill the 77" diagonal image of the above mentioned screen. I don't understand some of the dialog here about the H30's manipulation of a 4:3 image. Isn't it a 4:3 projector and thus it should fill the 77" diagonal screen I'm considering?

Thanks in advance for the help. You guys are great!!

Originally posted by mimi_mimi68
So unless I get a projector that is native 16:9 - I will always have the issue of black bands and light spill - regardless of a lens mask or not?


The black banding issue will be there even on truly native 16:9 projectors. This stems from the fact that there are a variety of different "widescreen" aspect rations, and not all of them equate to exactly 16:9. Your DVD (or other) unit will add the appropriate black banding above and below movies that are not exactly 16:9. From what I know, this would be the same for any 16:9 display device.

How distracting is this? Does it make setting up the projector more difficult.

Personally, I don't find the light spill distracting at all. Some people do, however, and go to great lenghts to paint their walls black, hang black material around their screen, etc. When I'm absorbed in a movie, which will look FANTASTIC on the H30, I never even notice that the wall is slightly lighter right above the screen. In any case, the upcoming lens mask should eliminate it entirely.

okay tom or mike or any body else here , i am about to measure for a 1:78.1 screen and the pj does not have the firmwre upate what aspect ratio will i use to measure for this size screen



16:9 native

16:9

on the pj

and say if i use the16:9 lense cap this will not change the size and if i get the firm ware updte this will not change the size also ?

Tom ,
--- For the Green Gain/Bias adjustments I only dropped a couple digits [ I did not mention specific numbers as I don't think we are going to be able to have a specific set of numbers that work for everybody - since your exact numbers made a mess of my H30 this would seem to be the case - unless you have a different firmware than the rest of us ;) ] .
_____________
Mike ,
--- Thanks :) , I just wish my camera could better capture what I am seeing here , it really does not compare but I think people can get the general idea [ screen-caps are actually pretty useless - but sure fun to look at ;) ] .
_____________
---- Jason

My real question is this: I assumed that when watching 4:3 material (SDTV or computer gaming) that the image would pretty much fill the 77" diagonal image of the above mentioned screen. I don't understand some of the dialog here about the H30's manipulation of a 4:3 image. Isn't it a 4:3 projector and thus it should fill the 77" diagonal screen I'm considering?


Gotta help a fellow Minnesotan! :)

What you are saying will be true once the new firmware is released by Optoma for the H30. As it happens right now, the H30 is in effect acting like a 16:9 pj, in that when you watch SDTV or a 4:3 film such as "Gone with the Wind", the 4:3 image does not fill up the entire 4:3 screen. Instead, it fills up the middle portion of a 16:9 screen. So, it's smaller now than it will be in the future when the new firmware allows the 4:3 image to fill the entire 4:3 screen.

The one exception to this right now is if you transmit your source via your PC, using a VGA connection. In this case, the fact that you're going from VGA-VGA allows the full use of the 4:3 screen.

An example of this is when I went over to my friend's house to have him demo the H30 for me. When he loaded "Casablanca"(a 4:3 film) into his DVD player, which is connected to his pj via an S-video cable, the film was projected onto his wall in the dimensions of the middle of a 16:9 screen.

Then, he loaded the same film using his PC, which he has connected to the H30 using a VGA cable. This projected the film on his wall in huge, 4:3 aspect ratio, taking up the entire 4:3 screen(if he had a 4:3 screen, that is).


One of the "experten" here can correct me if I'm wrong, but that is my understanding of the current situation of the H30. In short, it is acting like a native 16:9 pj now, but this will change when the firmware is available.

Thanks , I just wish my camera could better capture what I am seeing here , it really does not compare but I think people can get the general idea [ screen-caps are actually pretty useless - but sure fun to look at ] .



those shots look very nice there is nothing really wrong with them very nice setup ;)

The new firmware should open up the entire 4:3 (800x600) panel with any source [ not just VGA(rgb) sources ] , at least this is my understanding . It should also remove the green push issue with Progressive sources that some people have experienced .
---- Jason
________
-------------------- Thanks Joe :)

Thanks Johnny Bax! It is now as clear as one of our 10,000 un-mudded lakes :) I am at the other end of this good state from you, by Fargo.

I think the H30 may then be the unit for me if I can get the full 4:3 dimensions out of 2/3's of what I will use it for. I trust the H30 will be worth the extra several hundred bucks over the X1 based on the feedback here. My primary reasoning would be the possibility of seeing the rainbows on the 2X- X1 wheel. I don't know if I'm susceptible to them or not but I reason that between the 4 in my family and my buddies that would come to watch- someone will be bothered by them. If I can lessen the chances of that happening with a 4X wheel and get a little better picture- fine. My buddy has a Samsung 56" DLP TV he bought for over 4 grand and I do not see rainbows on that. I am not sure but I thought I had read that was like a 5X wheel in those TV's. Great picture but there's no way I'm spending that much on a TV. I can't wait to have him over when I'm done and show him 1/2 again as big for 1/3 the price, hehehe. He loves to rub stuff in when the situation is reversed :)

My only other concern is some of the mentions in this good thread about the difficult set-up of the H30. It's not that I'm lazy or unwilling to try- I just have an aversion to spending as much time tweaking something as enjoying the use of it.

Thanks again!!

Gotta,

Don't worry about the setup, the picture quality out of the box is outstanding. The only reason most of us have been tweaking is because of the "green push" when using 480p component cable connection, or to squeeze the last drop of beauty out of the H30. But if you're not into tweaking, you won't be unhappy with the picture straight out of the box.

One thing about using the whole 4:3 screen. Even without that ability right now, on my 96" diagonal 16:9 Carada screen, the 4:3 picture in the middle is huge, and looks to be at least 70" diagonal. When I saw the 4:3 image from my friends PC projected on his wall, it was actually too big for my tastes. Were it not for the "green push" I ran into(and easily compensated for, I might add), I wouldn't even consider the firmware update for my H30.

We're on the same page regarding the X1 vs. H30, too. I knew that I didn't see the rainbows on my friend's H30, but I didn't know if I would've seen them on the X1, and frankly I didn't want to have to box the X1 back up and bring it back to Best Buy if I did. So, easy choice: I bought the H30 and have never regretted it for a moment.

P.S. Its 41 degrees today, wooohoo, Spring can't be more than another 2 months away! :D