what do i ask for when asking for the PVR? is it more money?
they seem to be fairly clueless when i talk to them.
does the PVR have DVI out enabled?

thanks.
-r

The HighDef comcast boxes cost about $8 bucks a month to rent where I am, to get the DVR ones its like twice that......

great.
i just found out that you can do self-install and they have them in my area.
hopefully i can make it to the office in time today to pick it up. :)
i'm too anxious!!!
-r

Hi all, wow this is a massive thread to get through. Have been reading for 2 hours now and i just scratched the surface :)

I'm very close to ordering myself a H31. I live in Denmark so prices are unfortunately a bit up compared to what you guys hand out. The H31 is here twice the price!! Anybody going to Denmark bring one please :p

I had a quick look at both H27 and H31. It was my first encounter with a projector for home theater use and I was very impressed. Maybe it was because of the excitement, maybe it was because I only watched very shortly -but i failed too see any difference between the two.. I got an offer on a H27 including an extra bulb for 200$ less than I'll have to give for the H31. Will I regret not going for the H31??

And one more thing: I have a Matrox Parhelia card - will I be able to use this with the H31? One mentions in this thread that it supposedly will?

Any feedback whatsoever will be appreciated :)

/Nik

The coloring is better with the H31, even though the H27' CIE chart measured out more accurate, especially with the Red. You'll need to do some more tweaking with the H27 but you can get an acceptable image. The offset is pretty large with the H27 also.

No testing on the HTPC with the H27 has been done yet. Not me I don't use a HTPC.

success.
i got the new comcast pvr up and going. i'm showing it through my aquos and my h31. wow. i have been waiting this for a long time. :)

i need to get a switcher so i can use the dvi for both the oppo and the hdtv box.

now i will start looking at other threads /sites to see what's enabled on this box; i notice it has firewire, usb, and ethernet... oh the potential ( most if not all must disabled).

-r

Firewire is on. I went out and bought a JVC 30k D-vhs recorder for this. I can record HD off the hard drive via firewire. You pick up Dolby Digital also on movies that have it. Plus I record on cheap S-video tapes with the player mod.

Got a great copy of The Crimson Tide in HD this week. Way better than the non-anamorphic DVD I have.

Hey Fleaman I did what you suggested to try and get rid of the problem with my H31. No luck. :( I guess it's time to call tech support. I just don't want to be out of a projector for a long time.

I was able to get some screenshots of the problem I am having. The shots don't do the problem justice as you can't see how the pixels travel up the screen.

Anyone else know what this could be? It doens't happen all the time. It seems like it only happens when there are scenes with a big contrast between darks and lights like in the ones I posted. And it only happens in that vertical row in the picture...nowhere else

Thanks,
E

The coloring is better with the H31, even though the H27' CIE chart measured out more accurate, especially with the Red. You'll need to do some more tweaking with the H27 but you can get an acceptable image. The offset is pretty large with the H27 also.

No testing on the HTPC with the H27 has been done yet. Not me I don't use a HTPC.


Thanks Tom,

the H27 is a tad more silent than the H31 which appeals to me -but It's not the thing thats gonna have the final verdict. What I really liked with both the H27 & the H31 when I saw and heard them, was that the sound they generate is at a really nice frequency. Usually I'm VERY easily irritated with noise coming from eletronical devices. My computer is in another room than where I use it - with cables going through the wall -just to give an example. But the sound that the Optomas had was really smooth -and almost kinda cozy. This was even more evident when I compared them to a 4805. The 4805 made noise. The Optomas just had a sound to them.

The offset is ok with me. I doesn't have an influence on PQ does it? (sorry I'm new in this bussines)

Tom, right now you are God to me - at least when it comes to Optoma ;) So God, please tell me: with a nicely calibrated H31 and nicely calibrated H27 up against each other - could you really tell the difference on a lazy day? Naa, I'm kiddin' - guess I just have to jump for one of them and be happy with my choise :rolleyes:

Further questions on the H27 I'll place another place -after all this is the H31-thread :) Thanks all, this is a great forum

I use my Optoma H31, about 3 feet above my head, in High Fan mode....its not so much a sound as a low "woosh" of air. I hear the air moving, not the motor. In LOW fan mode, it is literally inaudible........I dont mind the high fan mode because its not that loud to begin with, and when I do hear it its not irritating.....most of the times, I dont hear it.

Sounds like I should ask comcast for the PVR - it would only be a few more bux a month. I currently don't have any firewire devices, is there a way to feed that into my PC?

My H30 should be here on the big brown truck today. Gives me something to watch SciFi Friday on! WooHoo!

Does anyone here use an ND2 filter with their H31?

Did it make the image to dull?

with the h31, oppo, and firewire, can't we burn the div-x hi-def video format from the pvr to a hd-dvd then play on the oppo?

has anyone tried that?

thanks,
-r

The oppo plays that Divx HD format when burned onto standard DVD-r's????

Hmmmm.....now that is tempting isn't it...I'd almost consider getting the comcast PVR if I could do that.....how do you get around the whole HDCP thing? (IS this conversation going off-topic for the AVS forum!?!?!)

go here and follow:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695

that has how to burn from the pvr.
the next question is how easily the oppo can handle the div-x format. i'm 50/50 it can handle it, but haven't tried or looked to see if others have.

-r

Well, my friend is about to pull the trigger on the H31. I asked earlier in this thread on advice for maximum screen size for this projector because he is planning on projecting a 133" diagonal with the H31. I got a couple of responses to the negative, but my friend seems unfazed. So now he wants me to ask the question another way...

Is anyone here using their H31 to project a 133" diagonal??? Anyone doing at least 120"??? How does it look? Any regrets or strong recommendations? My friend wants to get a consensus since he obviously doesn't trust my single opinion (feels I'm too biased with my IF7210), so thanks in advance.

The H31 puts out 385lumens in econo and 585lumens in bright mode. He should go with a 92" wide 106diag screen. Too large of a screen and pixels will be larger plus he'll lose brightness. He might be ok if he used a Dalite High Power screen and table mounted the projector, but he'll still have the problem of the pixels unless he can view far back (2 times screen width).

Thanks Tom,

the H27 is a tad more silent than the H31 which appeals to me -but It's not the thing thats gonna have the final verdict. What I really liked with both the H27 & the H31 when I saw and heard them, was that the sound they generate is at a really nice frequency. Usually I'm VERY easily irritated with noise coming from eletronical devices. My computer is in another room than where I use it - with cables going through the wall -just to give an example. But the sound that the Optomas had was really smooth -and almost kinda cozy. This was even more evident when I compared them to a 4805. The 4805 made noise. The Optomas just had a sound to them.

The offset is ok with me. I doesn't have an influence on PQ does it? (sorry I'm new in this bussines)

Tom, right now you are God to me - at least when it comes to Optoma ;) So God, please tell me: with a nicely calibrated H31 and nicely calibrated H27 up against each other - could you really tell the difference on a lazy day? Naa, I'm kiddin' - guess I just have to jump for one of them and be happy with my choise :rolleyes:

Further questions on the H27 I'll place another place -after all this is the H31-thread :) Thanks all, this is a great forum

The throw won't effect the image. You can see from my review it does have a very nice image quality. Did eek out a little more contrast and is a little brighter.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=552946

I got an H30 today on loan from Optoma.

I set it up on my ceiling mount, the throw is close enough for a loaner.
It has a weird right side of the display, it is about an inch or two left at the top & slants down to the right at the bottom. Otherwise it looks good, looks like a brand new unit. Nice!

Two VGA connectors & a Component adapter huh? Doesn't seem like both VGA connectors are active, but then again it doesn't matter since you can't fit the component adapter and a second VGA connector in that small space.
If only I had some other adapters...

I got an H30 today on loan from Optoma.

I set it up on my ceiling mount, the throw is close enough for a loaner.
It has a weird right side of the display, it is about an inch or two left at the top & slants down to the right at the bottom. Otherwise it looks good, looks like a brand new unit. Nice!

Two VGA connectors & a Component adapter huh? Doesn't seem like both VGA connectors are active, but then again it doesn't matter since you can't fit the component adapter and a second VGA connector in that small space.
If only I had some other adapters...

there is only one vga connector really, one is for input(from PC), the other is for output(PC monitor)... When i had my H30, i used a dvi2vga adapter, thought it looked slightly better than vga straight through... but yeah... but did like component through my dvd player with it, i bought a vga switch so i could hook up both my pc(DVI-I) and dvd player(component) to a vga box and then to the H30, worked pretty well, the vga switch was like 10 dollars, straight passthough, bought an electronic one, but that messed up the component signal and then became useless for me... but yeah... I enjoyed the H30 while i had it, but am very glad i got the H31 now... well enjoy the H30, its better than nothing :D

Arty

Thanks Arty,

it's definitely better than nothing. I can't begin tell you what the past month with no 92" diag HDTV has been like... - Ok, it was only 4 days... but you get the idea.

Hey, I have a vga switch around here somewhere... time to get into experimentation mode ... :D

Hey Fleaman I did what you suggested to try and get rid of the problem with my H31. No luck. :( I guess it's time to call tech support. I just don't want to be out of a projector for a long time.

I was able to get some screenshots of the problem I am having. The shots don't do the problem justice as you can't see how the pixels travel up the screen.

Anyone else know what this could be? It doens't happen all the time. It seems like it only happens when there are scenes with a big contrast between darks and lights like in the ones I posted. And it only happens in that vertical row in the picture...nowhere else

Thanks,
E

Oh, when you said it was on the left side of your screen, I thought that meant the very left edge. Anyways, this looks like you will need to call Optoma tech, they will most likely replace your H31 with another one. If it's only been 30 days or so, they will probably 'Hot swap' it for free (no shipping charges either way).

Good luck,

Fleaman

Drat! Costco was selling the H31 from their web site, and now it's not there anymore :(

I was planning on Costco just because of their return policy is so flexible, if for some reason I just didn't like the projector I could have returned it. For a piece of electronics that costs over a grand, I want to make sure I can return it easily if for some reason I don't like it, or it arrives busted, bad pixels, etc.

Oh well.

Drat! Costco was selling the H31 from their web site, and now it's not there anymore :(

I was planning on Costco just because of their return policy is so flexible, if for some reason I just didn't like the projector I could have returned it. For a piece of electronics that costs over a grand, I want to make sure I can return it easily if for some reason I don't like it, or it arrives busted, bad pixels, etc.

Oh well.

If it's defective (busted) you can return it directly to Optoma. They won't refund you, but you will get a new unit. Optoma also has a zero dead pixel policy, so you can return it for 1 bad pixel too.

But of course, if you just don't like it, you can't return it to Optoma.

Fleaman

I got an H30 today on loan from Optoma.

I set it up on my ceiling mount, the throw is close enough for a loaner.
It has a weird right side of the display, it is about an inch or two left at the top & slants down to the right at the bottom. Otherwise it looks good, looks like a brand new unit. Nice!

Two VGA connectors & a Component adapter huh? Doesn't seem like both VGA connectors are active, but then again it doesn't matter since you can't fit the component adapter and a second VGA connector in that small space.
If only I had some other adapters...

Any angles to the boarder lines means the PJ isn't dead perpendicular to the screen.

Hey Fleaman I did what you suggested to try and get rid of the problem with my H31. No luck. :( I guess it's time to call tech support. I just don't want to be out of a projector for a long time.

I was able to get some screenshots of the problem I am having. The shots don't do the problem justice as you can't see how the pixels travel up the screen.

Anyone else know what this could be? It doens't happen all the time. It seems like it only happens when there are scenes with a big contrast between darks and lights like in the ones I posted. And it only happens in that vertical row in the picture...nowhere else

Thanks,
E

Check to see if it's a wire problem, try different wires and different connections, like S-video, composite. Is it DVI you're using? DVI is notorious for adding static lines, sparkles.

Drat! Costco was selling the H31 from their web site, and now it's not there anymore :(

I was planning on Costco just because of their return policy is so flexible, if for some reason I just didn't like the projector I could have returned it. For a piece of electronics that costs over a grand, I want to make sure I can return it easily if for some reason I don't like it, or it arrives busted, bad pixels, etc.

Oh well.

Try Amazon. You'll end up paying around $70 more than the lowest price but they have a very generous return policy.

guitarman was overheard saying...
Any angles to the boarder lines means the PJ isn't dead perpendicular to the screen.


Thanks Tom, I can see that - now that you mention it. :o

Hopefully I won't have this unit all that long, if Optoma can't get my H31 to work digital from an HTPC then I would think they will turn around with a new unit pretty quickly.

If you have a giant 4.3 screen around you can have fun with the H30. Play some native 4.3 dvd's if you have any, or SDTV. With my old H30 C05 firmware in the 4.3 setup if I hit 16.9 the widescreen image falls down near the bottom. Which is a better viewing level.

Check to see if it's a wire problem, try different wires and different connections, like S-video, composite. Is it DVI you're using? DVI is notorious for adding static lines, sparkles.

Guitarman....you gots to read his original post that I responded to. To answer your question, here is a quote from Eathan's post; I thought at first it may be my dvd player but it wasn't as the same issue comes up while watching digital cable. My dvd is hooked up through component and the cable box via s-video.

As you can see, he has the same problem with different inputs and different sources! So, it really sounds like a call to Optoma is in order here...

Fleaman

Hello all!! I'm back home in St. Louis now. Sorry Mr. E, I'm no longer in Michigan. Wow, six weeks without my H31. Funny, I really got into watching old seasons of 24 on my Sony 17" lcd computer monitor and listening on headphones while I was in the dorm room. As you might guess, after I arrived at about midnight last night, I unloaded the car, fixed a late night snack, and fired up my beloved H31. Actually, before I turned it on, I noticed that the power cord connected to the H31 as running through quite a few pieces before making contact with my dedicated power outlet(including a couple of very long extension cords, and a power strip). I decided to connect the H31 to just one very very long extension cord, which is plugged into a Transparent Power Station, which is pluged into the dedicated outlet. I know that it's been awhile since I've seen the image in my theater, but the early reports say that blacks are even darker and inkier, details are sharper, and color is improved. I'll watch it for a few more days before I make a definite determination, but I think I like this setup better. I checked out Murder 1600 on HBO HD, and it was stunning. Man, I just love this little pj. I'm so glad to be back...

Has it really been that long jedi!? Time sure flies doesn't it? You forgot to take the heat back with you. :)

Man, 6 weeks without firing up the pj! 17" monitors just don't cut it do they? But they're better than nothing. Hey, so you're a 24 fan too. My wife and I have never missed an episode dating back to it's inception. Best drama on television we think.

Well, enjoy your H31 now that you've been re-acquainted with it. :) You've got to watch something on it now that really shows well. Sort of like a homecoming celebration of sorts.

View 'Behind Enemy Lines'. It's one of the best DVD transfers I've ever seen.

Wayne

Wayne,
I also agree that 24 is the best show on tv today...period. I only started watching it this past January, due to a friend raving about it. I got so hooked, that I knew I needed to see the previous 3 seasons. I have a Netflix membership, and can have 5 discs out at a time. I went through the first 2 seasons in Michigan, and now I'm watching the season 2 bonus disc. I already have the first half of season 3 in hand, waiting to be watched on my H31 and 7.1 surround system. Wow!!!

Sorry about the heat... I knew that I'd left something, I just couldn't figure out what. HahHah. Behind Enemy Lines is one of the 300 or so dvds I've bought and haven't sat down to watch yet. I also have that on DVHS in hd. That should be cool. It's time to watch some movies....

Hi Guys

FWIW the move is going well, and the new theatre system consists of the H31 (with 6 hours on it as of tonight) with the PJ sitting on top of an unused TV/stereo stand, wedged under the back to allow the image to be below the roofline. Input is composite from a DLink DSM320, and sound is via a pair of speakers that came as part of a Creative Zen Micro package. Combined with state of the art cinema seats (Zero-G lawn chairs from Zellers) and projected onto a flat grey wall in an almost totally light controlled room, we're both pretty happy with it - although screen and PJ mount are on order :)

I tweaked the settings as per Tom's instructions to see how it would work, and it looked good (considering the current screen situation anyways), but I couldn;t get into the ADC settings - it showed as greyed out. Any idea as to how to enable this on the menu?

Cheers
Craig



ADC
red gain 177
gr gain 167
bl gain 175

red offset 70
gr offset 72
bl offset 61

i should know better than asking this, but i've been wondering...

if you have the dvd player hooked up to the h31 via dvi, is "sharpness" disabled? meaning, i don't see it on the menus to adjust it anymore. it didn't hide somewhere else did it?

-r

i should know better than asking this, but i've been wondering...

if you have the dvd player hooked up to the h31 via dvi, is "sharpness" disabled? meaning, i don't see it on the menus to adjust it anymore. it didn't hide somewhere else did it?

-r

Yes, along with color temp, color and tint (FWIR). There might be some more that are disabled w/dvi....

Fleaman

thanks!

it makes it a little more challenging to tweak colors, imo.
i'd rather not do it on my dvd player.

bummer, i feel like my reds and oranges are too hot. i guess i need to play with all the color contrasts. i don't want to use component.

thanks again.

-r

Optoma is ready to ship my H31 back to me.

They sent along an explanation, I've asked permission to put it out here so if they permit I'll quote it then.

Hey Rick,

Why do you feel the need to ask for their permission? :confused: In all of my dealings with Optoma Canada I relayed to this thread verbatim, the emails that we were sharing back and forth.

Can you at least paraphrase what they said?

Wayne

they asked me to not post it until they test a few more units to see if they had the same trouble - that way I wont be giving anyone else false hopes if they have a different problem - they just want a week to check out a few more units

From what they said I believe they did find a problem in my unit and they did make changes in my H31.

They also say with their new changes they have modified something in the resolution that makes it display 854x480 whether it gets 848x480 or 854x480 - the upshot is that it sounds like doing a 1-1 pixel map is going to be easier.

Now, with a little imagination you can guess where these changes had to take place and you can probably figure out what they "fixed". This is all kind of early of course because I haven't got the unit back here and tested it yet. However, obviously they found it not working and they made changes to the unit to make it work and gave me instructions about how to hook it up when I get it back.

rbastedo,
Did they say that they fixed the tearing as well? I guess you'll find out soon enough.

They didn't mention it. Guess I'll see what I get.

Hey Guys,

I took my H31 into the Optoma office here in the GTA and they were great. They hooked it up and could immediately see the problem I was having with the pixels.

I was given a brand new H31 and was on my way home 20 minutes later.

Talk about service! :) I could have shipped it in but I would have been out of TV for at least 3 days.

I've got my new H31 fired up and so far so good!

Thanks Optoma...

Hi Guys

FWIW the move is going well, and the new theatre system consists of the H31 (with 6 hours on it as of tonight) with the PJ sitting on top of an unused TV/stereo stand, wedged under the back to allow the image to be below the roofline. Input is composite from a DLink DSM320, and sound is via a pair of speakers that came as part of a Creative Zen Micro package. Combined with state of the art cinema seats (Zero-G lawn chairs from Zellers) and projected onto a flat grey wall in an almost totally light controlled room, we're both pretty happy with it - although screen and PJ mount are on order :)

I tweaked the settings as per Tom's instructions to see how it would work, and it looked good (considering the current screen situation anyways), but I couldn;t get into the ADC settings - it showed as greyed out. Any idea as to how to enable this on the menu?

Cheers
Craig

ADC settings are available for a progressive analog/component feed.

Hey Guys,

I took my H31 into the Optoma office here in the GTA and they were great. They hooked it up and could immediately see the problem I was having with the pixels.

I was given a brand new H31 and was on my way home 20 minutes later.

Talk about service! :) I could have shipped it in but I would have been out of TV for at least 3 days.

I've got my new H31 fired up and so far so good!

Thanks Optoma...

Told ya so :D

Fleaman

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet but there looks to be $50 mail-in rebate for the H31 from now till Sept30.

Don't know Optoma is giving this to all retailers or just VisualApex.

I got my H31 and video card back Wednesday.
I couldn't get to putting the card in my PC and mounting the PJ until around 10PM.
Once it was all connected and the PJ aligned I turned it on and selected DVI-D.
Then I turned on the PC, let it boot up and went into display properties, Advanced, Geforce 6800, Nview Display Settings and clicked the drop down for "Current Display".

I have to say, I was amazed to see it list "Optoma H31" right there! WoW!!

I selected it and switched to it (in Single Display mode) and the PJ came to life.

I can only say one thing about the difference between what I had before with Analog over a DVI cable and now Digital over DVI:

WOW!!!!!!

It's crystal clear now, before the text was all shimmery & there were waves & distortion - now the Windows Desktop is perfectly clear & all the text is perfect!

On to DVD's - I had Star Wars ep. 6 sitting there so I popped it in.

Again - WOW!!!! It's so clear and seems so well calibrated I can hardly stand it.


Back to Windows.

Went into display properties again and went to the resolutions screen and under 848x480 I went to "Advanced Timing". There I set Horizontal Active Pixels at 854 and Applied. The H31 blinked off, then the notification in the lower right corner popped up saying:

Digital RGB
854x480 @ 60hz

There you go, 1-1 pixel mapped in Windows with an Nvidia video card.
No "stretched pixels" or anything weird like that.

I watched the whole movie, I went into display properties a couple times remembering to turn off the goodies like anti aliasing & set vertical sync off etc.
While I could see some tearing - or maybe just motion artifacts, it wasn't enough to distract me from the movie like before.

With the greatly enhanced quality I have to say I'm really glad I stuck with this little H31.

wait wait. Your telling me that a nivida (aka 6600) can do 854/480 confermed with out jimmy riggin the last 4 or so pixels? And that optima has a firmware fix for 848/480 ati stuff so my pic doesnt scale and look soft every couple of inches?

I don't know about ATI, I only know that for mine they fixed it.
My display is 1 - 1 pixel mapped and looks uniformly wonderful.
Mine is a Nvidia 6800 card, but I know the magic was done in the H31.

Of course doing what they did reset my bulb hours to zero... ;)

I'm really happy for you Rick! :)

You've suffered a long time with this and deserve to relax now and just enjoy the picture show. So this is what you should do then. Do yourself a real favor and no matter whether you've seen it or not or how many times you've seen it, put in Behind Enemy Lines, kick your feet up and prepare to be amazed. I guarantee you you've never REALLY seen this movie until you've seen it through one of Optoma's projectors.

Congratulations! Aren't you glad I bugged and pestered you all this time not to give up and to keep plugging? ;)

Wayne

Remember that 720x480 is pixel mapped too.

Fleaman

Rick,
Man I feel like celebrating with you!! This is indeed good news for all of us. This means that Optoma USA is willing to fix our dvi-d connection problems. Can you now share with us what they did, whether or not we have to use the same card you are using, and if the fix can be applied without having to send the pj back to them? I'm now confident that one day I will enjoy a beautiful dvi-d image from a home pc in my theater, too. Cool.

Fleaman,
I'm not sure that I understand all this, but does this mean that 720x480 is pixel mapped for a 16:9 image, and 854x480 is pixel mapped for an anamorphic dvd?

Remember that 720x480 is pixel mapped too.

Fleaman

Huh? Please explain.

When my H31 displays 720x480, there's no pillarboxing, so the 720 pixels of the source are mapped to the full 854 native pixels across the H31 panel. How is _that_ pixel-mapped? I think "pixel-mapped" generally means 1:1 mapping of source to display pixels. Doesn't it?

Fleaman,
I'm not sure that I understand all this, but does this mean that 720x480 is pixel mapped for a 16:9 image, and 854x480 is pixel mapped for an anamorphic dvd?

DVD's only have 720x480 pixels...but they are not square. Of course, all displays with pixels are square. So, the 480 vertical is pixel mapped per say, but the horizontal is always scaled. So, when you have a 480 line display (like the H31, 4805, etc.), to make it 16:9 you have to give it 854 horizontal pixels, (854 divided by 480 = 1.77 or 16:9).

Obviously 720 divided by 480 = 1.5....there is no aspect ratio like that available, and the 720x480 pixels on the dvd are not square anyway.

So, there is no such thing as actually 1:1 pixel mapping a dvd to a pixel'd display, you can match the 480, but not to horizontal which is always scaled. If someone made a display that had rectangular pixels in the 720x480 size, then you could then have a 1:1 pixel mapped display.

As for 720x480 vs. 854x480: Either the projector is going to scale it or the player (HTPC or dvd player with dvi) is going to scale it. If the scaler is the same quality at both ends, then it shouldn't matter whether you send the projector 720x480 (let the H31 stretch it to 854x480) or let the player stretch and send an 854x480 image to the H31 (which would have to display it w/o stretching).

No dvd has 854x480...anamorphic or not.

Fleaman

And I want to add: 854x480 displays are the closest size to a 480 dvd. It only gets scaled one way (horizontally). When you go beyond 480, like 1024x576, you would have to scale it 2 ways (horizontal and vertical).

But there seems to be a lot of people thinking 854x480 is 1:1 pixel mapped, when in fact, it is only pixel mapped to the 480.

Fleaman

Sorry Fleaman,
I know that you've had to explain this more than a few times. Sooner or later, I'll wrap my head around it. Still, I'm excited that Rick claims to be getting such an excellent image with the htpc doing dvi-d at 854x480. I guess this means that his htpc can do the scaling better than the H31.

And I want to add: 854x480 displays are the closest size to a 480 dvd. It only gets scaled one way (horizontally). When you go beyond 480, like 1024x576, you would have to scale it 2 ways (horizontal and vertical).

But there seems to be a lot of people thinking 854x480 is 1:1 pixel mapped, when in fact, it is only pixel mapped to the 480.

Fleaman

Ok, so can we agree that 720x480 is NOT pixel mapped on H31? Yes, I'm aware that dvds do not have square pixels. Forget about dvds for a moment. If an HTPC video card is putting out 854x480, and the H31 displays every one of these pixels using exactly one pixel, then it IS pixel mapped. In BOTH dimensions. When people are "thinking 854x480 is 1:1 pixel mapped", THIS is what they are thinking. And they are right.

720 x 480 CANNOT be pixel-mapped in this way on the H31 unless it pillarboxes (leaves blank) 67 pixels on each side. Which it doesn't do, for obvious reasons. It will stretch the 720 pixels out to 854 (as you have also explained), so it will NOT be pixel mapped in the horizontal dimension. There will be MORE than 1 display pixel for every source pixel.

So, 720x480 absolutely CAN NOT be pixel mapped on the H31. But 854x480 CAN. Agreed?

Sorry Fleaman,
I'm excited that Rick claims to be getting such an excellent image with the htpc doing dvi-d at 854x480. I guess this means that his htpc can do the scaling better than the H31.

Yes, this is precisely why 1:1 pixel-mapping is so important in HTPC applications. You want the HTPC to do ALL the scaling. 1:1 pixel mapping means the PJ does NO scaling. Every input pixel is mapped directly to exactly one display pixel. This is what you want with HTPC. Hard-wired pixels.

So Rick, have you determined exactly what they did to fix your PJ? Firmware update?

- Frank

Ok, so can we agree that 720x480 is NOT pixel mapped on H31? Yes, I'm aware that dvds do not have square pixels. Forget about dvds for a moment. If an HTPC video card is putting out 854x480, and the H31 displays every one of these pixels using exactly one pixel, then it IS pixel mapped. In BOTH dimensions. When people are "thinking 854x480 is 1:1 pixel mapped", THIS is what they are thinking. And they are right.



When your HTPC scales your 720x480 dvd disc to 854x480, then you send that 854x480 signal to the H31 and the H31 displays it w/o scaling, then yes, the H31 has 1:1 pixel mapped your 854x480 signal. But the HTPC did the scaling in this case.

The H31 has to scale everything to be native 1:1 to its 854x480 panel before it is displayed. So sending it 720x480 from a dvd player is also 1:1 pixel mapped by this definition since the H31 scales it to 854x480 (1:1) before sending it to the 854x480 DLP chip.


720 x 480 CANNOT be pixel-mapped in this way on the H31 unless it pillarboxes (leaves blank) 67 pixels on each side. Which it doesn't do, for obvious reasons. It will stretch the 720 pixels out to 854 (as you have also explained), so it will NOT be pixel mapped in the horizontal dimension. There will be MORE than 1 display pixel for every source pixel.

So, 720x480 absolutely CAN NOT be pixel mapped on the H31. But 854x480 CAN. Agreed?


You got the 1st part correct. What your forgetting is that ALL dvd's (720x480) have to be scaled to a 854x480 display. Either the dvd player or HTPC or whatever is going to do it on the player end, or the display (i.e. H31) is gonna do it on the display end. Remember, there is no such thing as a 720x480 display.

Basically it's like this: dvd's can not be 1:1 pixel mapped to a display (with square pixels...as they are today). They can be mapped in 1 direction (480), but that's it.

When you're dvd player sends an anamorphic 16:9 720x480 signal to the H31, the projector stretches that to 854x480 (scales it), then sends that 854x480 signal to the 854x480 DLP panel. So, after the Projector scales it, the 854x480 native DLP panel displays it pixel for pixel, so 1:1 pixel mapped.

If you make the DVD player scale it first, then send a 854x480 signal to the H31, the H31 doesn't have to scale it and just displays it un-scaled. But make no mistake, it was scaled, it was just done at the dvd player (or HTPC) instead of inside the H31 projectors scaler.

I have a Momitsu V880DX dvi dvd player which I can do custom resolutions on. I can send my H31 a 720x480 signal or a custom resolution 854x480 signal. So it would be scaled at the H31 in the 1st case, or scaled at the dvd player in the 2nd case.

Another way to think of it: Play a full 16:9 anamorphic dvd (if you have one). Whether you send the projector 720x480 or 854x480 you will still be using the full panel, no pixels lost. Only difference is which device scaled it.

DVD's themselves can not be 1:1 pixel mapped.

Fleaman

Sorry Fleaman,
I know that you've had to explain this more than a few times. Sooner or later, I'll wrap my head around it. Still, I'm excited that Rick claims to be getting such an excellent image with the htpc doing dvi-d at 854x480. I guess this means that his htpc can do the scaling better than the H31.

Rick's comparison before was analog...he didn't get digital dvi to work before as he now has (going by what he said in his post).

So I would guess the improvements Rick is seeing is from finally getting digital DVI to work, and yes, it's better than analog!

But not necessarily by comparing 720x480 vs. 854x480 both with digital DVI.

Fleaman

Yes, this is precisely why 1:1 pixel-mapping is so important in HTPC applications. You want the HTPC to do ALL the scaling. 1:1 pixel mapping means the PJ does NO scaling. Every input pixel is mapped directly to exactly one display pixel. This is what you want with HTPC. Hard-wired pixels.

So Rick, have you determined exactly what they did to fix your PJ? Firmware update?

- Frank

As I mentioned above, Rick had mentioned the improvements over analog DVI, not necessarily over 720x480 vs. 854x480 using the same input (dvi digital). It seems he only finally got digital dvi to work this time around.

When using the same input (digital dvi) on my Momitsu DVI dvd dvi player, I can't notice any improvement between 720x480 or 854x480. In fact, every once in a while I see a little tearing (rarely) @ 854x480, which seems to be something up with the H31 in particular. But in any case, since I can't see any improvement @ 854x480, I just end up leaving it at 720x480 since it's more stable.

In my case it seems that the scaler in my dvd player vs. the H31 appear to be of close enough quality that I can't decern a difference.

But getting the H31 to use the digital DVI input is of great importance and most of your improvements are with that input, which also appears to be much better calibrated out of the box than any of the other inputs. Almost plug and play!.

Fleaman

Yes Wayne, thanks for your support :)

Guys, they asked me to keep a lid on it until they test a few more units.
That means to me they have other units that can't get DVI-D working there that have been sent in on RMA. If this fix takes care of everyone's problems I am sure they will contact each and every one of you and ask you to send in your H31 so they can fix it.

No, wait - just kidding. i would bet anything they will wait for you to call them! ;)

Yes guys - I am comparing what I have now to what I had since March which was DVI-A. It blows chunks of green gobs compared to what I am seeing now.

Of course what I mean by 1-1 pixel mapped is that my HTPC is outputting 854 x 480 and the PJ is displaying natively 854 x 480. Whether I happen to be sending it a DVD, some cool Doom movie Windows Media file or a cool video game doesn't really matter because it's playing them as good as it gets. Man, it really does look good now...

When your HTPC scales your 720x480 DVD disc to 854x480, then you send that 854x480 signal to the H31 and the H31 displays it w/o scaling, then yes, the H31 has 1:1 pixel mapped your 854x480 signal. But the HTPC did the scaling in this case.

The H31 has to scale everything to be native 1:1 to its 854x480 panel before it is displayed. So sending it 720x480 from a DVD player is also 1:1 pixel mapped by this definition since the H31 scales it to 854x480 (1:1) before sending it to the 854x480 DLP chip.



While I do concur that what your saying is technically accurate, the use of term pixel-mapped refers to a 1 to 1 mapping of the source SIGNAL to the display devices resolution. It does not refer to the source format's resolution. It means sending a signal that does not require the display device to scale it in any way.

When speaking of DVD, the differences between sending 720x480 or 854x480 is largely semantics, I agree. The end result will be very similar if both scaling engines are equal. This doesn't make sending 720x480 to the projector pixel-mapped however. Take a 720p HD stream for example. These have frame sizes of 1280x720. You scale to 854x480 and then send that to the projector. This is pixel-mapped even though the source format does not match the display format.

One of the best reasons to do REAL pixel mapping, i.e. sending 854x480, is to take advantage of presumably better scaling on the PC, especially with other non-DVD sources, where the material has more source resolution then the 720x480 in a DVD. HD or Windows Desktop are two examples of this. By scaling these to the 854x480 BEFORE sending to the project, you take full advantage of every display pixel and hopefully have used a better scaling engine then what is in the projector. You wouldn't want to send those as 720x480 images and then let the display scale those back up to 854x480 as this would result in a loss in information. (Not that I think you think this, just trying to be clear.)

--Eric

While I do concur that what your saying is technically accurate, the use of term pixel-mapped refers to a 1 to 1 mapping of the source SIGNAL to the display devices resolution. It does not refer to the source format's resolution. It means sending a signal that does not require the display device to scale it in any way.

When speaking of DVD, the differences between sending 720x480 or 854x480 is largely semantics, I agree. The end result will be very similar if both scaling engines are equal. This doesn't make sending 720x480 to the projector pixel-mapped however. Take a 720p HD stream for example. These have frame sizes of 1280x720. You scale to 854x480 and then send that to the projector. This is pixel-mapped even though the source format does not match the display format.

One of the best reasons to do REAL pixel mapping, i.e. sending 854x480, is to take advantage of presumably better scaling on the PC, especially with other non-DVD sources, where the material has more source resolution then the 720x480 in a DVD. HD or Windows Desktop are two examples of this. By scaling these to the 854x480 BEFORE sending to the project, you take full advantage of every display pixel and hopefully have used a better scaling engine then what is in the projector. You wouldn't want to send those as 720x480 images and then let the display scale those back up to 854x480 as this would result in a loss in information. (Not that I think you think this, just trying to be clear.)

--Eric

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Eric. You got it right.

fleaman, you got everything right EXCEPT that 720x480 displayed on H31 is pixel-mapped. It is NOT. Sorry. (I actually think you contradicted yourself on this point, at one point saying 720x480 IS pixel mapped, while also saying dvd (720x480) can NEVER be pixel mapped... )

DVD's themselves can not be 1:1 pixel mapped.

Fleaman

EXACTLY! So 720x480 is NOT pixel-mapped as you have previously claimed. That is all I am saying. I completely understand the issues of 720x480, non-square pixels, scaling, etc... I GET IT. I don't need the "Dummies"-guide explanations.

You said: "So, after the Projector scales it, the 854x480 native DLP panel displays it pixel for pixel, so 1:1 pixel mapped." This is NOT what "pixel-mapped" means when talking about projectors. If it did, then ALL signals coming into the H31 (720p, 1080i, 480i, 480p, PAL, etc..) could ALSO be considered pixel-mapped. They are NOT. Of course, ALL input signals MUST be converted to 854x480 internally in the projector in order to drive the panel. That is the only way you CAN drive the panel. But that is NOT what people mean when they say a projector is "pixel-mapped". Pixel-mapped means that you have the ability to effectively BYPASS the projector's internal scaling.

When people say a projector cannot pixel-map, they are saying that in SPITE of sending the appropriate number of pixels to the projector, it STILL does not map them 1:1. I believe this has been the problem with the H31, up until this most recent development.

No one EXPECTS a projector to pixel-map resolutions other than what is native to the projector. But in many cases, even this is hard to achieve due to subtleties of signal timing, and limitations/design contraints of the projector. Sometimes a projector may be capable of pixel-mapping on some inputs (VGA, component, DVI, etc.), but not others.

It is good to know that pixel-mapping is possible with the H31. This is good news for the HTPC folks.

- Frank

One of the best reasons to do REAL pixel mapping, i.e. sending 854x480, is to take advantage of presumably better scaling on the PC, especially with other non-DVD sources, where the material has more source resolution then the 720x480 in a DVD. HD or Windows Desktop are two examples of this. By scaling these to the 854x480 BEFORE sending to the project, you take full advantage of every display pixel and hopefully have used a better scaling engine then what is in the projector. You wouldn't want to send those as 720x480 images and then let the display scale those back up to 854x480 as this would result in a loss in information. (Not that I think you think this, just trying to be clear.)

--Eric

Of course if you have source material greater than 720x480 (i.e. 1080i) you wouldn't want to scale that to 720x480 in HTPC, then send 720x480 to the H31 which would in turn scale it up to 854x480. Yes, there would be a loss of information by doing so....but then, I wouldn't know anyone who would be willing do such a thing.

If you send the H31 1080i directly and let the H31 scale it, then there would be no loss of information over letting the HTPC scale it to 854x480. The better quality comes down to which device has the better scaler.

Fleaman

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. Eric. You got it right.

fleaman, you got everything right EXCEPT that 720x480 displayed on H31 is pixel-mapped. It is NOT. Sorry. (I actually think you contradicted yourself on this point, at one point saying 720x480 IS pixel mapped, while also saying dvd (720x480) can NEVER be pixel mapped... )

I never said 720x480 is pixel mapped. I did say that the 480 is not scaled, but the horizontal is always scaled...up to 854 in this case, done either by the H31 or by the player. The 480 is displayed line for line, that's all.

Correction: I did say 720x480 was pixel mapped in response to the poster saying 854x480 was pixel mapped and now it looked wonderful. In that context I mentioned 720x480 was pixel mapped because this was the context of dvd and it was just as pixel mapped as 854x480 in relation to the end result ("it looked wonderful"). As we have been discussing, any improvements in sending 854x480 to the H31 (with dvd as source) will be due to scaler (i.e. HTPC) being better than the scaler in the H31, not because sending 720x480 to the H31 will result in a loss of resolution, or that pixels won't be "Mapped" in some sort of way. Every single pixel is used, either way...that's all.

In any case, the person that mentioned how wonderful it looked @ 854x480 (I think it was Rick?), confirmed that probably most of the pic improvement was being able to finally get the H31 to work over digital dvi....he was watching the H31 with an analog signal before. Maybe he can try some tests to see if there is a noticeable improvement with 854x480 over sending 720x480, which will determine if one of his scalers is visually better than the other.

Fleaman

So what is the fix to do this? Firmware upgrade? I am on the 4805/H31 fence myself. People say the screen door is slightly worse with the 4805, but the H31 couldn't pixel match. This could push me off the fence.

Walt

Walt O: My only suggestion would be to get one from a place that has a no quibble return policy. Optoma is good and helpful although it might take some time to get it done if you get one that has problems. On the other hand if you get one at a Costco or somewhere like that where you can either get your cash back or get a new one easily then you pretty much can't go wrong.

I believe there is some "new code" in my unit, which is why it is so easy to set 854x480 and why it works so well. I think they intentionally didn't give me too many details because they know it would be hard for me to not come here and stir things up.
My opinion of course. ;)

fleaman & potus:

What I really meant when I stated that it looks wonderful is overall it really looks great now. The Windows desktop is clear & clean & solid (no shimmery shakey text & colors are "right") and the other stuff I play on there looks great and dvd movies are great.

Granted I am only comparing the old analog display with 848x480 to the now digital display of 854x480 pixels but I feel that's a valid comparison for me, as I have few other comparisons to make.

The only other one is that my HDTV over component with 1080i used to look way better than anything from my HTPC and now the things coming from my HTPC look a bit better than my HDTV over component. I'm thinking of getting some kind of DVI switch and connecting both the HDTV and the HTPC over DVI.

I'm thinking of getting some kind of DVI switch and connecting both the HDTV and the HTPC over DVI.

Thinking of doing the same thing at some point....was looking at this one (might interest you):

http://www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=DS-21R

Fleaman

So what is the fix to do this? Firmware upgrade? I am on the 4805/H31 fence myself. People say the screen door is slightly worse with the 4805, but the H31 couldn't pixel match. This could push me off the fence.

Walt

Do you have an HTPC? If not, then you shouldn't have much to worry about. If you do, then you might want to wait until Optoma resolves the problem with HTPC's.

BTW, I have an dvi dvd player and have no problem with digital dvi into the H31. As for pixel matching> See above. The H31 will do the same as the 4805 IF you are using an dvd player with dvi. If you have an HTPC, you might have issues. It's not really issues with pixel matching, it's issues with getting any digital signal to work over dvi when using an HTPC.

Fleaman

Guys I guess Optoma really has solved the HTPC issue. Look at my post in the HTPC thread. It works beutifully with no tearing at all. My tips on running it at 854x480 is not to create a modeline with it. Your graphics card won't be able to synchronize. But change the "actual pixel" value in 848x480 to 854x480. Now when you switch the 848x480 on PC, H31 will show "digital rgb 854x480.

My take on H31 scaler. I tried feeding it all different types of signals. Even raw 720x480 but the picture looks best when I feed it 854x480 from PC. The picture is rezor sharp and no tearing or any artifacts whatsoever.

So what is the fix to do this? Firmware upgrade? I am on the 4805/H31 fence myself. People say the screen door is slightly worse with the 4805, but the H31 couldn't pixel match. This could push me off the fence.

Walt

Jump in. I guess there is a very low probability that you'll go wrong. There is no screendoor as close as 4 feet from my 92" diagonal. At it nicely pixel matched with my HTPC. I am pushing you hard... :)

With a projector like the Optoma running 480, is it worth it to buy an upscaling dvd player like the Oppo or am I doing ok with just my regular progressive scan pioneer dvd player?

Also, does anyone else use their optoma with a Goo Screen? I got the digital grey lite and I find that I have to really bump up all the settings up to get a brilliant bright picture.

I tried the settings posted by both CMRA and Guitarman and the picture was very dim and unwatchable. This is in a competely light controlled room btw...

I'm also using my bulb in brite mode to help brighten things up. Any idea on how long it should last?

Thanks,
Darren

Sorry, here are the settings I am using.

mode cinima
contrast 15
brightness 13
color 12
tint 0
sharpness 6
Gamma 3

white peak 1
color temp 3
image mode film
advanced 8,12,15 -7,-7,-7

I also have my bulb running on bright mode.

These are my component input settings.

Right now I have my digital cable box hooked up via S-VIDEO. The picture is terrible. Hopefully I'll get my HD box soon so I can at least use component.

Any suggestions?

Darren,
There are many here who feel that although it may not logically make sense to use an upconverting dvd layer with the H31, we have seen remarkable picture improvements when going to 720p, or 1080i. I have a Zenith 318, and I absolutely love the picture at 1080i, although there are a few bugs to deal with. Running your bulb in bright mode will reduce the bulb life from 3000 hours to 2000.

Does anyone remember a post quite awhile back that showed closeup pictures of letters on the Windows desktop or something, and different resolutions were being used over dvi-d? I seem to remember that 854X480 looked the sharpest. Anybody?

Thanks Jedi,

I think I'll start saving my pennies for a decent upconverting player. Are you running your zenith through dvi or hdmi?

Also, I haven't read anywhere about cleaning instructions for the H31. Are there any housekeeping duties that I have to perform?

Just watched Alien VS Predator. Not a bad movie and it looked pretty sweet.

Have a good weekend...

Guitarman says to just vacuum the vents every few months. There's no filter to clean. :)

Wayne

Guys I guess Optoma really has solved the HTPC issue. Look at my post in the HTPC thread. It works beutifully with no tearing at all. My tips on running it at 854x480 is not to create a modeline with it. Your graphics card won't be able to synchronize. But change the "actual pixel" value in 848x480 to 854x480. Now when you switch the 848x480 on PC, H31 will show "digital rgb 854x480.

My take on H31 scaler. I tried feeding it all different types of signals. Even raw 720x480 but the picture looks best when I feed it 854x480 from PC. The picture is rezor sharp and no tearing or any artifacts whatsoever.

boolda, link us up, please.

Darren,
There are many here who feel that although it may not logically make sense to use an upconverting dvd layer with the H31, we have seen remarkable picture improvements when going to 720p, or 1080i. I have a Zenith 318, and I absolutely love the picture at 1080i, although there are a few bugs to deal with. Running your bulb in bright mode will reduce the bulb life from 3000 hours to 2000.

Does anyone remember a post quite awhile back that showed closeup pictures of letters on the Windows desktop or something, and different resolutions were being used over dvi-d? I seem to remember that 854X480 looked the sharpest. Anybody?

Hey Jedi35,

That was me who did the close up of the letters with the res at 854x480 and 848x480 with my HTPC, the pictures were in my gallery, but since avs did their change a while back, all my pictures went away... but anyway, yes the res. 854x480 did look the best because it was being displayed as 1:1 pixel mapped with the HTPC, giving it a huge boost of contrast and clarity, people that are now getting 854x480 with their HTPC now know what i have been talking about so long ago, but some advice for the new comers on the H31, get a NVidia card, because as far as i know, ATI cards are restricted on their horizontal freq. by a multiple of 8, and 854x480 is not divisible by 8, so you will either not get 854x480 or you will end up having streched pixels on the right side with 854x480(like I do), this is just a heads up, but otherwise if you already have an ATI card, it still works great, as long as you can tolerate those streched pixels. Hope this helps you out, also if i can find those pictures again, i will put them back on my gallery...

Arty

Hey Jedi35,

but some advice for the new comers on the H31, get a NVidia card, because as far as i know, ATI cards are restricted on their horizontal freq. by a multiple of 8, and 854x480 is not divisible by 8, so you will either not get 854x480 or you will end up having streched pixels on the right side with 854x480(like I do), this is just a heads up, but otherwise if you already have an ATI card, it still works great, as long as you can tolerate those streched pixels. Hope this helps you out, also if i can find those pictures again, i will put them back on my gallery...

Arty

That's somewhat incorrect. Neither NVIDIA nor ATI can acutally output 854x480. If you force the card to output that resolution the card actually outputs 856x480. You can test it by forcing the card with that resolution and then going back and check the actualy pixels. What matters most is that given 856x480 from the card, H31 interprets it as 854x480 and shows it as such. This is true atleast with the new set of projectors. Moreover, don't try to synchronize with actual mode config of 856x480, H31 actually interprets it as of higher resolution. Go to 848x480 and change the actual value of pixels to 856x480, and everything will be fine.

boolda, link us up, please.

Sorry I am very new to AVS. Link to what? Pics or the post?

That's somewhat incorrect. Neither NVIDIA nor ATI can acutally output 854x480. If you force the card to output that resolution the card actually outputs 856x480. You can test it by forcing the card with that resolution and then going back and check the actualy pixels. What matters most is that given 856x480 from the card, H31 interprets it as 854x480 and shows it as such. This is true atleast with the new set of projectors. Moreover, don't try to synchronize with actual mode config of 856x480, H31 actually interprets it as of higher resolution. Go to 848x480 and change the actual value of pixels to 856x480, and everything will be fine.

Yup, exactly right - constrained by the old legacy!! Good info!

That's somewhat incorrect. Neither NVIDIA nor ATI can acutally output 854x480. If you force the card to output that resolution the card actually outputs 856x480. You can test it by forcing the card with that resolution and then going back and check the actualy pixels. What matters most is that given 856x480 from the card, H31 interprets it as 854x480 and shows it as such. This is true atleast with the new set of projectors. Moreover, don't try to synchronize with actual mode config of 856x480, H31 actually interprets it as of higher resolution. Go to 848x480 and change the actual value of pixels to 856x480, and everything will be fine.

boolda,
i know ati can't output 854x480 because of the horizontal freq. timing, but i was told that nvidia has their quansi pixel perfect thing(think that is what it is called) that either does its horizontal freq. by 1 or 2 instead of 8 like ATI, making it able to output 854x480... from what you are trying to say, you make it sound the nvidia does their horizontal freq by 4, and if it does, then i agree with you because i got wrong information, but on a side note are you using a nvidia card or an ati card? also how many people with ATI have gotton 854x480, just as a curious note... thanks

Arty

That's somewhat incorrect. Neither NVIDIA nor ATI can acutally output 854x480. If you force the card to output that resolution the card actually outputs 856x480. You can test it by forcing the card with that resolution and then going back and check the actualy pixels. What matters most is that given 856x480 from the card, H31 interprets it as 854x480 and shows it as such. This is true atleast with the new set of projectors. Moreover, don't try to synchronize with actual mode config of 856x480, H31 actually interprets it as of higher resolution. Go to 848x480 and change the actual value of pixels to 856x480, and everything will be fine.


Boolda, how are you changing the actual pixels to 856? Are you using powerstrip to do this?

Dan

not to make everyone nuts, but...

i am one of those who has yet to get anything to show up using dvi into my h31.

are these posts just saying tweak the output to 856 and it will work or is this all predicated on returning your h31 first?

thanks,
-r

I mentioned this on the minor h31 thread.

Still looking for an AWESOME dvd player? Ever hear of a Skyworth 3050?

Those who follow my posts know I audition alot of DVD players. Last night I saw a real show stopper. The only problem is I only saw it on Tosh LCD HDTV.
But, what I saw was truly top tier. In short, for me anyway, forget the Panny, forget the Zenith, forget the Oppo, and even my ever faithful 5970.

How will it fair with the H31? I don't know for certain until my unit arrives but with my money on the line I'm predicting VERY VERY well.

How was it otherwise? Bring on those $3500 Denons. Yes, I think it's that good.

But if Oppo adds the 854X480 res, the matchup will be nice. No scaling with 1.1 pixel match. I got that with a custom res Bravo D2 but the deinterlacing isn't so great, picture was super clean though.

boolda,
i know ati can't output 854x480 because of the horizontal freq. timing, but i was told that nvidia has their quansi pixel perfect thing(think that is what it is called) that either does its horizontal freq. by 1 or 2 instead of 8 like ATI, making it able to output 854x480... from what you are trying to say, you make it sound the nvidia does their horizontal freq by 4, and if it does, then i agree with you because i got wrong information, but on a side note are you using a nvidia card or an ati card? also how many people with ATI have gotton 854x480, just as a curious note... thanks

Arty

I am using an NVIDIA card. But the problem of not getting pixel-matched output with H31 lies with H31, not the video card.

Boolda, how are you changing the actual pixels to 856? Are you using powerstrip to do this?

Dan

You don't need to use powerstrip for it, atleast for NVIDIA driver. Synchornize first with 848x480. Then while selecting it go to advanced timing option and in the text box of actual pixel change 848 to 856 and press apply. That's it.

not to make everyone nuts, but...

i am one of those who has yet to get anything to show up using dvi into my h31.

are these posts just saying tweak the output to 856 and it will work or is this all predicated on returning your h31 first?

thanks,
-r

I guess you have just two options. Either try linux or following Rick's method of contacting Optoma and getting your firmwire upgrade.

I'm currently comparing the Infocus 4805 and the Optomo H31. I'm buying from TV Authority. They are mostly an internet company, but they have recently opened a store in Santa Monica, California. Lucky for me they are willing to spend the time demoing both, afterall I'm only spending around a $1000.

First round was last evening. The projectors just arrived that day. We looked at them basically "out of the box". The Infocus IMHO is a nose ahead. Out of the box, it was the better of the two. I thought it was smoother, richer, and had better resolution....or I should say had less of a screen door effect than the Optomo. We did zero adjusting of this projector.

The Optomo looked horrible out of the box. It was washed out and green. We tweaked the image by eye and got it closer to the Infocus, but it still seemed a little washed out. We were watching Return of the King. Some of the faces seemed flat and washed out with less detail than the Infocus. On Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom you could notice the screendoor effect in the opening titles and in the reds.

Now, that was out of the box. Later this week we are going to give it another round and try to adjust and tweak them a little more. Does anyone have any suggestions for what settings to use? I want to be able to properly adjust the image without spending hours doing it. I know that it will depend on the screen and other factors, but I was just wondering if anyone had suggestions. I was surprise that I liked the Infocus more, because most of the reviews seem to favor the Optomo.

I'll be back for round two this weekend.

Its "Optoma", not "Optomo"....just a FYI.

The Infocus out of the box is brighter than the Optoma H31, so that right there could be one of the reasons you thought that one looked "Better" where the H31 would look washed-out.

There is no way to suggest a tweak to a projector since we dont know what your viewing room will be like, what the wall or ceiling reflections will be like, ambient light, angle of projector, etc...all that good stuff.

Have them bust out a copy of AVIA or Digital Video Essentials, that will at least allow you to calibrate the projectors a little bit and tailor them to the room you are in. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes.

Most of the reviews favor the Optoma because you're in an Optoma thread, plenty of others have chosen the Infocus 4805 and prefer that one. Its apples and apples, some like one, some like the other...in the end there isn't too much difference between them and you can't go wrong either way.

If its any consideration, the Optoma is quieter than the Infocus.......some have said the H31 at HIGH fan mode is quieter than the Infocus in low-fan mode. That may or may not make a difference to U.

Carter9000,

You didn't mention what inputs you were using? You should really try to compare both using only DVI inputs. The Optoma especially is much, much better OTB on the DVI than component. If you are stuck w/component, the Optoma will probably have to be carefully/thoroughly calibrated. The 4805 is much better OTB, even on the component input. But you know this already :eek:

But, with using DVI on the Optoma, it brings it much closer to the plug and play 4805. When I 1st hooked up the DVI on my H31, only the brightness and contrast needed to be adjusted (was still washed out), just used the THX set up in the Incredibles disc. After that, it was much better.

Like I said, if you’re stuck with component, you have some work cut out for you. If you can use DVI, you will be much better off. And, CMRA gave some DVI numbers that will probably translate better than #'s for component (component input #'s vary wildly on the Optomas).

Here's CMRA's DVI settings to try:

Picture menu:
Mode cinema
Cont: 4
Bright -8
Gamma 2

Image Menu:
Temp 2
Mode Film
Advanced ,
RGB cont 18,12,15
RGB bright -7,-7,-7

This setup is hooked up to an Tosh 5970 via HDMI>DVI on a 'white' screen.

These settings worked well with my set up too (b/o cloth, Momitsu DVI player).

Again, I don't think any calibration #'s for component will translate universally, the Optoma's vary wildly in this area (except for DVI, it seems).

Also, it's surprising that you thought the 4805 had less screen door. Most who have seen both seem to think the other way around...supposedly due to the 4805's sharper optics :cool: that bring out the pixel grid sharply.

Fleaman

I want to add: For CMRA's #'s, you will probably have to adjust the brightness from -8 to -11 depending on the dvd playing. Even CMRA does this.

Fleaman

Darren,
At first, I was watching my Zenith through component. Then, I started watching through dvi. This unit doesn't have hdmi. A simple firmware download onto cd and popped into the unit will allow one to switch from component to dvi(one cd for each firmware). The dvi firmware fixes the white chrush problem that was there originally, but takes away component upconversion. A lot of people went with this player since it is one of the few that does upconversion over component.

The dealer only had Component hookup. I will contact them and see if they have DVI capability, that is afterall what I will eventually be using.

The room had dark walls, a black ceiling, and a Da-Lite screen....not sure which one, it was a very light silver.

I'm sure they have a copy of Video Essentials or something similar. I'll try a cheap and quick 5 minute adjustment.

I'm not sure why, but I noticed the grid pattern more with the Optoma. Everything I have read suggest the opposite, I know. That's just my observation. Now, there may have been a setting that was off....maybe the projector wasn't set for 16:9, I'm not sure. I'll go back later this week and have another look.

I'm not sure why, but I noticed the grid pattern more with the Optoma. Everything I have read suggest the opposite, I know. That's just my observation. Now, there may have been a setting that was off....maybe the projector wasn't set for 16:9, I'm not sure. I'll go back later this week and have another look.

Or maybe the 4805 was slightly out of focus.

As for the 5 minute adjustment: You might be better off using the THX setup section on the Incredibles disc. Very basic, but very quick. Avia or DVE will take way too long.
....Even ISF certified calibrators take sometimes a few hrs to properly calibrate a projector (many variables of course).

They should have a DVI capable player....and that will save you all the time in the world.

Fleaman

I'd set the Image mode to PC/color temp 2 and gamma 1 in the Picture menu. Tune contrast/blacks and color from there. I hate to bring up an old can or worms but pretty sure when Kras did his ISF tuning and shootout, allot of people at the shootout preferred the H30 to the 4805, they just liked the way the colors looked, the blacks, less screen door etc. Or am I dreaming and remember this wrong? :)The H31 is better than the H30.

I'd set the Image mode to PC/color temp 2 and gamma 1 in the Picture menu. Tune contrast/blacks and color from there. .

Carter9000 said: "It was washed out and green"

This H31 sounds pretty far off...kinda like my H31 and the 3 H30's before that. I doubt he will be able to do the projector any justice trying to adjust the colors in the advanced menu with only 5-10 minutes to spare. Not when you have an 4805 that OTB are known to be very well calibrated from the factory.

Using the DVI input should fix the green push problem...it did on my H31.

Fleaman

I thought I was getting some green push in some scenes.....but AVIA's color bars told me that my green was actually UNDERSATURATED on my H31. You know, green was kinda pale...and yet in some flesh-tones I thought I'd see green, and not...flesh. But it wasn't a constant problem...just certain scenes and certain lighting situations.

I figured it was green that was actually in the scene...like a face being illumniated from a green light source (a CRT display in a sci-fi movie)......and so on. Kinda like "oh thats green that I never saw before".

I brought my wife down and she saw no green "push" at all....so I left it alone.

I am using an NVIDIA card. But the problem of not getting pixel-matched output with H31 lies with H31, not the video card.

Hey boolda, can you go in depth about why it lies with the H31? I just want to know why you think/know this, because little while ago i did alot of research/looking about the video card end, but never about the pj side with this situation, so please let me know, it would be much appreciated. thanks

Arty

I think that its pretty clear that between the H31 and the 4805, the infocus is the more accurate. Here is a link with comparison screens just so you judge them yourself.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=567747&page=1

591 posts....You should know by now that screenshots are absolutely worthless. They're fun to look at, but useless when it comes to judging what a projector is capable of doing......CERTAINLY comparing two projectors.....there's the way the camera captures the image, the way the colors are changed when its compressed to jpeg, the way its displayed on your monitor might be completely different from how it looks on my monitor...etc.

The projectors, when calibrated, are almost dead even in the image they produce.
The H31 has slightly better contrast due to its lower light output, the Infocus has a brighter image because..surprise..it puts out more light.

Luis, the shots you posted are with a analog player and OTB settings, still not bad. Once tuned even better and DVI pixlematched better so. People in general like the stronger color saturation. Like your leeloo shot looks better than the pimps. There's too much light in allot of the 4805 shots, it creates a elevated black wash out look

jmo

591 posts....You should know by now that screenshots are absolutely worthless. They're fun to look at, but useless when it comes to judging what a projector is capable of doing.

I think I clearly stated that before my comparison images in the link I posted.

The projectors, when calibrated, are almost dead even in the image they produce.
Thats exactly my point here. That such claims of superiority are not realistic and if anything the nod should go to the 4805 since OTB it is much better.

Guitarman, the extra light on the 4805 is the reason so many use the ND2...I dont mind it though cause it comes in handy with my 124" diag screen! :D

BTW, I havent seen any pictures from your new projector Guitarman (Movietime)...anything in the works? It seems like a fun PJ to take around.
Regards

Having too much fun lately but I'll get around to it. The Movie Time is a different deal tuning wise. I noticed Optoma already has tuned in figures in the Advanced RGB setting area. They've gone the extra yards with this one, like they did with the DLP RPTV's.

:) I would have done something last night but 20 teenagers were over watching Sin City in the main room. I was back out on the porch with the Movie Time watching 24's.

Thats exactly my point here. That such claims of superiority are not realistic and if anything the nod should go to the 4805 since OTB it is much better.



With component, I wouldn't disagree. Seems to be a given.

But, with DVI (and a dvd player that outputs DVI neutrally) the H31 seems to pretty darn good OTB. I have yet to see anyone do a OTB DVI comparison between both units (allowing for adjustment of brightness and contrast).

If Carter9000 gets to see the H31 with DVI, he might change his mind about it.

Fleaman

All things being equal (sorta) the H31 and the 4805 can both do a great image. If the H31 needs a bit more adjustment out of the box, so what? They both look great after calibration, but the point is, the H31 will ALWAYS BE less obtrusive due to fan noise! Argue all you want, but the facts are the facts. If the noise from the 4805 doesn't bother you, that's great, but the H31 IS QUIETER! (very important to HT enjoyment, IMHO!)

I'll take the quieter noise and smaller size of the H31.......no sense in throwing out lumens that I wont be using anyhow. My "tweaking" took about 15 minutes of playing.

The fan...I dont think that is the only issue of relevance between the two but I didnt expect positive points for my 4805 posting in the H31 area of course so I better stop now....but not without saying that " It's the HTPC problem, Kids!" :D
Regards

I haven't followed it closely but it looks like the recent HTPC adopters are working fine. They're even getting 854X480 60hz to work. I could be wrong though but I think something's changed.

I heard they solved this problem, but if not, so what? I, for one, use a DVD player (wow), and get a great image over progressive component, and don't need a computer! Would an HTPC look better? Maybe, but so would a 720 rez Pj, so go with the flow, dude!

The fan...I dont think that is the only issue of relevance between the two but I didnt expect positive points for my 4805 posting in the H31 area of course so I better stop now....but not without saying that " It's the HTPC problem, Kids!" :D
Regards

Only if you have an HTPC ;)

Of course fan noise is everyone’s problem...

But yeah, if you're using HTPC, and you need a projector now, 4805 would be the choice. Optoma seems to be making some headway with the HTPC problem, but it's too soon to tell if it's totally fixed.

No one has problems with DVI dvd players and the H31.

Fleaman

Of course fan noise is everyone’s problem...
Not me....(previous Sony W400Q owner)

I mentioned this on the minor h31 thread.

Still looking for an AWESOME dvd player? Ever hear of a Skyworth 3050?

Those who follow my posts know I audition alot of DVD players. Last night I saw a real show stopper. The only problem is I only saw it on Tosh LCD HDTV.
But, what I saw was truly top tier. In short, for me anyway, forget the Panny, forget the Zenith, forget the Oppo, and even my ever faithful 5970.

How will it fair with the H31? I don't know for certain until my unit arrives but with my money on the line I'm predicting VERY VERY well.

How was it otherwise? Bring on those $3500 Denons. Yes, I think it's that good.

The Skyworth is in. At 480p it excelled on the Tosh LCD HDTV. Same goes for my 36" CRT HDTV. Tonight...the H31. Stay tuned.
BTWFWIW, tonight I also audition a NeuNeo 2085. My sources say it's even better than the Skyworth.

Well, hopefully I can try the DVI connection on both projectors and do a quick calibration using the Incredibles THX calibration menus.

I don't trust screen shots, but Luis's screen shots are the perfect example of what I was seeing on the H31. The image looked washed out and the highlights were a little blown out and lacking detail. Now, I never saw anything so extreme as the orange in the old mans face in the 3rd set of shot comparisons, but the blown out look was there. Maybe not as extreme as these photos, but there none the less.

I suspect calibration will fix this and bring the units closer in quality. I will post again this weekend and let you know what I find. I will probably even buy.

Thanks everyone for all your input and advice.

Anyone with the Oppo. What do you find gives you the best picture with the H31, 720P 1080I or 480P? With my Dish HD I find 1080I to be the best, but I think that might have to do with the Dish 811 is not working right with 720....

Hey, let's end the H31 vs 4805 debate - it is like debating Toyota vs Honda. They are both excellent pjs, both have pluses and minuses, and both will perform beautifully.

It really comes down to personal preference, room layout, etc. There is no point to clog the H31 thread with meaningless debate.

Debate ended in post 3366 in case you missed it.

Hi,
I have recently ordered the H31 and eagerly await it's arrival. (1st PJ for this newbie!)
I just have one question in advance... after all this talk of the quality OTB, how do I go about tweaking setting for best results?
Ta,

Hi,
I have recently ordered the H31 and eagerly await it's arrival. (1st PJ for this newbie!)
I just have one question in advance... after all this talk of the quality OTB, how do I go about tweaking setting for best results?
Ta,


I'm sure others will jump in here with suggestions so this is just my opinion. I would stay away from trying to match other users numbers and settings until you have tweaked some for yourself. This is half the fun of owning it I think. First just realize that you are going to do this calibration for every source you route to the projector. DVD player, cable or satellite box, game sytsem, etc. Decide which of those you watch most often and start from there. Honestly, it's probably easiest to calibrate the DVD player first because there are so many setup and calibration discs out there to help you with this. The only way to really calibrate your HDTV signal is to wait for one of their test patterns or setup features to play and hopefully record it. I have high def cable with a PVR. I recorded a setup routine off of HDNET which was very helpful in getting the HD channels looking good. Most importantly, once you get a source/input looking the way you want it, SAVE it! Most projectors allow you at least 3 or 4 programmable user settings so having a setting for each source is not a problem. Again, setting up the DVD source will be the easiest but probably also the most frustrating due to the vast quality differences in both players and discs. If your calibrating a DVD player with a s-video or component connection then you will have more control over settings and picture variables. If your calibrating with a DVI connection then a lot of those settings will not be available, nor will you need them to be. In this case your most important settings will be to get brightness and contrast dialed in correctly. There are lots of discs to help you with calibrating a DVD player but probably the most widely accepted and most liked would be the "AVIA Guide to Home Theater" and DVE (Digital Video Essentials). Everyone has their preference between these two but most will tell you that AVIA is a little easier to use while DVE is kind of hard to navigate if your not familiar with it. You can also use the THX setup option that is found on all Disney movies as well as the Star Wars movies, etc. This will get you at least a good brightness and contrast setting if nothing else. One thing to remember is to leave or set all of your source (DVD, set-top box, etc.) settings at factory defaults or "0" and do your cablibration/adjustments at the display (projector) level. Also, for test material resist the urge to use only animated movies for calibration. I find that animated stuff looks good on just about anything and you really need to use some "real" non-animated material to get a good idea of what flesh tones should look like as well as bright white skies and pitch black dark scenes. It's okay to use some animation but that is only a small percentage of the films out there. So, get some calibration discs (AVIA, DVE, etc.) and a good stack of DVD movies, set the viewing room up just as you would if you were watching movies (lights down, doors closed, etc.) and get to work. It can be hard work but well worth it in the end. Oh yeah, it never stops either. Just when you think you have reached video nirvana you decide to tweak some more. Resistance is futal! :D

Anyone with the Oppo. What do you find gives you the best picture with the H31, 720P 1080I or 480P? With my Dish HD I find 1080I to be the best, but I think that might have to do with the Dish 811 is not working right with 720....

For me 720p looked the sharpest. I'll bring up the Image menu and look at the circle area to see which res makes the sharpest line cuts.

For me 720p looked the sharpest. I'll bring up the Image menu and look at the circle area to see which res makes the sharpest line cuts.

The H31's image menu? Would that really be affected by the outside incoming input resolution? I would think that menu code/font resolution is sent directly to the DLP panel? I don't see how the outside input resolution would effect the H31's menu?

(You must be talking about the Oppo's menu).

I use the H31's menu for focus though....

Fleaman

Try it, I might be talking about the HT1000 it works the same way. I'll bring up the aspect menu which has circles with pixel steps. I use that to focus and to check out a DVD players upscaling resolutions. Most of the time when you can't pixel match 720p will look the best. Works that way with the HT1000.

fwiw, i tried 720p with the h31 and oppo over dvi and i still have the 540p being the sharpest.

i called optoma yesterday about a firmware upgrade of htpc. they said they are working on it, but don't have anything official yet for us to send in our pj's for.

they said to check back in a couple of weeks, which i will do of course. :)

-r

I tried to calibrate my H31 with Avia. It seems that over DVI the blue and red channels are perfectly calibrated. But I got confused with what do the red/green/blue contrast and brightness mean. Are they same as hue and saturation?

Recently (the past two months) I have been experiencing the following scenario:

1) Go to theatre room, turn on everything... Receiver, DVD, Projector

2) The projector goes will either go through it's usual "whirling" sequence as it tries to start "something" (I'm not sure maybe the fan or the color wheel).

3) If the bulb comes on (see below), there are often times a flicker across the entire screen but more visible on frames where most of the picture is static or of the same color (e.g. Sky). This eventually goes away after 15-45 minutes of having the projector on.

With respect to the whirling, sometimes it will happen once, twice or possibly even three times. Recently, however, I have noticed that the light it has been failing to turn on and I see the glowing orange light and the Lamp never comes on. It then proceeds to go through the power down sequence of "cooling" off, yet it never even had a chance to warm up *at* all. When I am impatient, and knowing that the bulb never had a chance to light up, I pull the power from the wall and restart power-up again. This has worked 100% of the time so far.

Now to my question, could it possibly be the Lamp is already going on it? I have less than 400 hours on it since I bought this in January or Februrary 2005. I sent an email to Optoma Support and they were pretty much unhelpful. Simply saying I should send it in for service or my second option would be to buy another bulb and try to see if that makes it go away.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the Optoma?

I'm a little hesitant to spend the $450 CDN (guessing approximate cost) to buy another bulb when the one I have has been treated with the utter most care. That is, I have always let the power down sequence complete and have never restarted the projector for at least 30 minutes.

Guess I'm not looking forward to either going through the pain of shipping it off for service or for the moment spending money on a bulb that might not fix my problem immediately. Too many other projects have been eating away at my funds this past month. :D

Recently (the past two months) I have been experiencing the following scenario:

1) Go to theatre room, turn on everything... Receiver, DVD, Projector

2) The projector goes will either go through it's usual "whirling" sequence as it tries to start "something" (I'm not sure maybe the fan or the color wheel).

3) If the bulb comes on (see below), there are often times a flicker across the entire screen but more visible on frames where most of the picture is static or of the same color (e.g. Sky). This eventually goes away after 15-45 minutes of having the projector on.

With respect to the whirling, sometimes it will happen once, twice or possibly even three times. Recently, however, I have noticed that the light it has been failing to turn on and I see the glowing orange light and the Lamp never comes on. It then proceeds to go through the power down sequence of "cooling" off, yet it never even had a chance to warm up *at* all. When I am impatient, I pull the power from the wall and restart power-up again. This has worked 100% of the time so far.

Now to my question, could it possibly be the Lamp is already going on it? I have less than 400 hours on it since I bought this in January or Februrary 2005. I sent an email to Optoma Support and they were pretty much unhelpful. Simply saying I should send it in for service or my second option would be to buy another bulb and try to see if that makes it go away.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the Optoma?

I'm a little hesitant to spend the $450 CDN (guessing approximate cost) to buy another bulb when the one I have has been treated with the utter most care. That is, I have always let the power down sequence complete and have never restarted the projector for at least 30 minutes.

Guess I'm not looking forward to either going through the pain of shipping it off for service or for the moment spending money on a bulb that might not fix my problem immediately. Too many other projects have been eating away at my funds this past month. :D

Don't call me an expert, but trying re-seating the lamp, if you haven't already done so. Basically taking the lamp out and putting it back in.

If that doesn't work, then you should CALL Optoma's CS instead of emailing. They have a fairly good CS phone support here in the U.S., I would expect Canada to be similar. While they might not have an solution, you might just have to send it in to Optoma. Even if it's the lamp, there's a possibility that they might replace it for free or at a discount considering the hrs and age. If not, then you may want it shipped back w/o lamp replacement and try to find a discounted lamp on-line.

400 hrs isn't much, but sometimes this does happen with projectors, which is why they don't warranty the lamp beyond 90 days.

Fleaman

I'm trying to give my H31 some rest these days by doing most of my casual tv watching in my 2nd theater setup(Pioneer 53" hd rptv). I rack up hours so fast on the pj, and I'm already near 700. I'll save the H31 for more serious hd and dvd watching.

Tom,
So you are watching 24s? After I started watching the show this past January, I had to go back and rent the previous seasons from Netflix. I watched the first 2 this summer, and will now watch season 3. What a cool show...

I tried to calibrate my H31 with Avia. It seems that over DVI the blue and red channels are perfectly calibrated. But I got confused with what do the red/green/blue contrast and brightness mean. Are they same as hue and saturation?

They can make the shades of gray all across the spectrum from low to high be true gray. Once the shades of gray are right the colors will be correct.

In Avia go the Video Test pattern, then Grayscales & Levels, then Bars&Log steps which is the pludge pattern. Nice large boxes of gray here so you can use your eye to take color bias out of gray.


Example - you see red/pink tint in the light gray/white.
R-contrast -2
G-contrast +2
B-contrast +2

If you see green in the dark grays/black
R-brightness +2
G-brightness -2
B-brightness +2

Recently (the past two months) I have been experiencing the following scenario:

1) Go to theatre room, turn on everything... Receiver, DVD, Projector

2) The projector goes will either go through it's usual "whirling" sequence as it tries to start "something" (I'm not sure maybe the fan or the color wheel).

3) If the bulb comes on (see below), there are often times a flicker across the entire screen but more visible on frames where most of the picture is static or of the same color (e.g. Sky). This eventually goes away after 15-45 minutes of having the projector on.

With respect to the whirling, sometimes it will happen once, twice or possibly even three times. Recently, however, I have noticed that the light it has been failing to turn on and I see the glowing orange light and the Lamp never comes on. It then proceeds to go through the power down sequence of "cooling" off, yet it never even had a chance to warm up *at* all. When I am impatient, and knowing that the bulb never had a chance to light up, I pull the power from the wall and restart power-up again. This has worked 100% of the time so far.

Now to my question, could it possibly be the Lamp is already going on it? I have less than 400 hours on it since I bought this in January or Februrary 2005. I sent an email to Optoma Support and they were pretty much unhelpful. Simply saying I should send it in for service or my second option would be to buy another bulb and try to see if that makes it go away.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with the Optoma?

I'm a little hesitant to spend the $450 CDN (guessing approximate cost) to buy another bulb when the one I have has been treated with the utter most care. That is, I have always let the power down sequence complete and have never restarted the projector for at least 30 minutes.

Guess I'm not looking forward to either going through the pain of shipping it off for service or for the moment spending money on a bulb that might not fix my problem immediately. Too many other projects have been eating away at my funds this past month. :D

I had a very similar thing happen to me with the H30 when i had it... first i thought the bulb was starting to fail, but then one day the whole unit just stopped working, and then i shipped it to optoma and through my retailer i was able to upgrade to the H31 :D and couldnt be happier... maybe they will let you get the H57 :D, but anyhow... its either going to be premature lamp failure, or the H31 is going to malfunction, how long though? could be tomarrow, or weeks, or might just never happen for a long time... just dont get all mad like i did, cause you never know, you might get something better back :D
ohh yeah.. try reseating the bulb, and also let it be for like a day or so... then turn it on :D

Arty

xed,
If they asked you to send it in then do it.
Their RMA practices are great, they paid UPS 2nd day both ways for my PJ and the loaner PJ I got while mine was in the shop.
Even better, they actually fixed mine and sent it to me working better than when I sent it in. Go ahead, RMA that sucker! ;)

xed,
If they asked you to send it in then do it.
Their RMA practices are great, they paid UPS 2nd day both ways for my PJ and the loaner PJ I got while mine was in the shop.
Even better, they actually fixed mine and sent it to me working better than when I sent it in. Go ahead, RMA that sucker! ;)

Optoma paid for both ways? lucky... when i shipped my H30 in I had to pay for getting it there... and believe it had to be 3 or 2 day w/ insurance... it cost me like 60 bucks... :( ohh well... :D you gotta deal with the cards you get ;)

Arty

Optoma paid for both ways? lucky... when i shipped my H30 in I had to pay for getting it there... and believe it had to be 3 or 2 day w/ insurance... it cost me like 60 bucks... :( ohh well... :D you gotta deal with the cards you get ;)

Arty

They don't require you to ship it at that speed, that's up to you. But when you go into those independent box centers, those people try to make you ship it 2 or 3 day claiming the price is about the same or something, but it isn't. Also, what most people don't know is that UPS discounts next day air and 2nd day air at a higher percentage rate to a wholesale account than ground shipping. In fact, UPS doesn't discount ground shipping rates at all to small accounts. Maybe to big ones (like Amazon.com), but I wouldn't know for sure.

Bottom line is that those indie box/shipping corner mall shops make more $$$ by shipping at the higher air price…and the workers there are salesmen too.

It only cost me about $12 to ship my H30 to Optoma, UPS ground insured.
(Although they sent call tags for the first few times, so it was free for me in the beginning).

Fleaman

Fleaman,
I think the reason i did it 2/3day was because i think i read somewhere that whatever you ship it, optoma ships the same back to you... and i had optoma ship it to my retailer for the H30 - H31 upgrade and the retailer required 2/3 day insured... i think thats why i did that... but ohh well :D its all in the past...

Arty

Arty,

When ever I shipped my H30 to Optoma (instead of them sending a call tag), I always shipped it ground UPS, and Optoma always shipped it back next day air (maybe 2nd day air once).

Especially for me, in So. CA, ground UPS takes the exact same amount of time as 2nd day air (Optoma is in N. CA). So it would be a waste of money for me to ship it any other way than ground....but Optoma sent it back via air all the time, even though I left notes on the projector that it wasn't necessary ("Ship back UPS ground!!!").

Fleaman

Tom,
While watching a black and white movie on one of the Voom channels the other day via my Pioneer 53" hd rptv, I noticed that there was a reddish brown tint to everything. I then took your advice about trying to get the greyscale to look as grey as possible without any color in it. For me, it was quite simple...I just chose another more nuetral color temp. setting. It worked quite well, and now my colors are simply stunning. The picture looks so much more lifelike now. Thanks!!

BTW I posted details about my RMA experience in the Poll thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=549134&page=4

Thanks for the info. I'm still unclear as to whether or not my H31 will need to be sent in to Optoma if it in fact is not able to sync digitally with a pc. I don't have a dvi capable pc with an NVidia card right now, but I do plan to build one in the near future. I guess I'd better do it while I still have warranty service, huh...

Thanks for the info. I'm still unclear as to whether or not my H31 will need to be sent in to Optoma if it in fact is not able to sync digitally with a pc. I don't have a dvi capable pc with an NVidia card right now, but I do plan to build one in the near future. I guess I'd better do it while I still have warranty service, huh...

Well, that should give you 2 years time (from date of purchase). The only part of the warranty that is less, is the lamp (90 days).

Fleaman

Oh, thanks...I forgot about that.

All quiet on the western front. I guess everybody's happy...

Isn't that nice?

This question most likely has an obvious answer but I had to ask.

I own the H31 and have been thrilled by its performance when playing a DVD movie through digital inputs (DVD player to Projector). But when I feed the Direct TV signal to it via s-video cable the picture is not nearly as good.

My question is, if I upgraded to HD DirectTV and used the receivers digital output, would I see a significant picture quality difference just viewing regular non-HD programming?

My next question is how does the quality of viewing HD programming from DirectTV compare to watching a DVD when shown on the H31?

The reason I ask is because I would like to watch college football games on the projector and not very many of them are show in HD. But if the HD receiver with digital output improves the picture that would be an added bonus.

Thanks
Gary

Sure it would look allot better, even with the component feeds but digital is a step better. SD is still SD, watchable but in general a soft low resed image. HDTV will look better than DVD.

would I see a significant picture quality difference just viewing regular non-HD programming?

On mine (Comcast Cable HDTV with digital TV) I get a much better picture on the digital version of each channel than on the 'regular' version. It seems the standard channel is piped in very low res while the digital channel is sent in higher res even though it's not HDTV. When I flip back & forth I can really see the difference, the standard channel is very grainy & the digital version is smooth & more colorful & of course the sound is better too.

Of course the HDTV channels are even better. I caught the Chicago / Earth Wind & Fire concert on INHD2 again the other night - man, those old guys still got it!!

i have noticed 5 visible steps on source quality through my aquos and h31.

step 1. i have found SD is that poor quality you mention. it really killed my on my lcd tv.

step 2. the next step up is digital cable (i have comcast) with a much more robust and smooth picture.

step 3. on-demand movies (better than dig cable for some reason, but less than dvds).

step 4. dvds (upscaled through oppo using dvi).

step 5. hdtv.

i use all all of these signals using a dtrovision switcher/amp combo using a dvi 50' cable.

i was surprised to see on-demand movies with better quality than dig cable, but it its noticeable to me.

-r

There is a bit of confusion over at the Projector Central forum concerning the color control/adjustments available on the H31 when using certain inputs.

http://www.***************.com/forum_topic.cfm?which=1583&p=4

See the third entry down - it starts there.

I will summarize. Basically, it seems certain controls like Tint or Color Temperature are not supported when using certain Inputs. I called David at Optoma and he confirmed that Tint controls are not supported through the Component connection. He explained that the projector handles the tint adjustments due to the fact that impropper tint adjustments could mess-up brightness and other settings if you are using the component input. This doesn't make sense to me, but whatever.

Now some people seem to say they have Color Temperature controls when using DVI, while others say they do not. Is anyone else experiencing this?

My questions are:

1. Do you all (whoever is reading) have Color Temperature adjustments available when using DVI or Component?

2. Do you have Tint controls when you use DVI?


Why would Optoma not support tint controls with these inputs. I'm not sure I understand their explanation - that it would mess up brightness and other settings. AND why no Color Temp adjustments using DVI.

Now, maybe we have some people with defective units. Unfortunately I don't have my DVD player with a DVI out to test this. Should have it within a week.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Most displays will have tint for composite and s-video. Component and DVI tint is deleted. You can use the advanced RGB's to adjust color. With DVI I'm pretty sure both Color & Tint are deleted. All the signals have color temps available. In the Image mode color temp 1,2,3.
Color temp 2 is closest to 6500k.

Guitarman, you rock! Quick response! I should get my Oppo DVD player next week. As soon as I get it, I will connect through DVI and see what adjustments I have.

Thanks,

Carter

First thing you do is set the Oppo's brightness to 5, everybody s/b setting brightness to 5. Glen tested the output with his Accupel HD3000 and 5 sets it at the correct black level. Contrast and saturation are left at default.

hey guys,
i have an issue with my new h31.
I just got it a week ago, and love it...
tonight i connected it via a new amp, but whilsy watching a dvd, i now get a vertical wgit stripe down the right side. if i vew in4:3 it's on the far right. 16:9 it's near the right in the picture.

the thing is i've swapped cables and then discovered that it's there even with no input at all.
i've looked to see what it might be but am lost .
any ideas??

hey guys,
i have an issue with my new h31.
I just got it a week ago, and love it...
tonight i connected it via a new amp, .....

???

You connected it to an amp?

You might have to clarify this a little as you can't connect the H31 to an amp.

Maybe you meant Receiver? And the receiver does the switching of video inputs for you?

Quick guess: you might have a ground loop. disconnect ALL cables from projector except the power cable, then see if the stripe is still there. You mentioned it was there with no input, but that doesn't mean the video cable wasn't still attached. There have to be no cables (other than pwr) attached to the projector for this test.

If the stripe is still there, you're gonna have to call Optoma's customer Service.

Fleaman

All the signals have color temps available. In the Image mode color temp 1,2,3.
Color temp 2 is closest to 6500k.

Are you sure about this? I haven't heard that anyone as color temps in the image menu with dvi inputs. I don't, do you?

Fleaman

Yeah, Fleaman.
Thanks. I was somewhat asleep when i wrote the message.

Of course it's a receiver... and yes i have disconnected everything.. so on to Optoma!

Thanks again.

Are you sure about this? I haven't heard that anyone as color temps in the image menu with dvi inputs. I don't, do you?

Fleaman

I don't have the H31 but pretty sure they're on the Movie Time. Different deal though, the MT has it's own Digital player. The H79 has color temps for DVI.

question for you all.... as anyone fooled around with the white peaking? Also what is it for? i turn it to 10 and i kinda like it better, it gives more "shine" to white areas, but think it might be too white for some cloud scenes but not really sure... any input would be great.

Arty

I use it for sports. White peak will increase the contrast by a few hundred numbers, but you're really blowing out the whites. For movie watching take a look at a DVD with blue sky white clouds. You'll see the clouds break out into a white mess.

Is it normal for the power light to continually blink when powered down?

Basically, when I power down I hit the power button once and the screen asks me if I want to power the lamp off - I confirm by hitting it a second time. The power light turns orange, I think, and the fan continues to run. Then after about a minute or two the fan shuts off and the power light starts blinking green. Even after ten minutes it still blinks green. It seems like it should just shut off, no lights, no blinking, nothing, but it continues to blink.

Whats' up? Is this normal?

Is it normal for the power light to continually blink when powered down?

Basically, when I power down I hit the power button once and the screen asks me if I want to power the lamp off - I confirm by hitting it a second time. The power light turns orange, I think, and the fan continues to run. Then after about a minute or two the fan shuts off and the power light starts blinking green. Even after ten minutes it still blinks green. It seems like it should just shut off, no lights, no blinking, nothing, but it continues to blink.

Whats' up? Is this normal?

carter9000,
Yes this IS normal, after you turn the pj off, it will go in cool down mode, fan on & orange light, this is to cool down the lamp for less stress and longer lamp life in the end, and the blinking green light means it is in standby mode(has electricity flowing in, but it's not operational), which each newer electronic goes into... so if you want it to be off off, then you have to unplug it from the outlet.. but its perfectly fine and safe(unless a power surge occurs) for the pj... hope this answers your question.

Arty

I tried to use the 480p settings guitarman suggested on my h31 thru component but i found the colors to be washed out and the reds looked orange, the one good thing was that there was a lot less noticiable SDE using these settings(why is that?). The factory defaults although a bit on the birght side looked much better. I have a 16/9 1.1 gain 92"Luma screen and I am using a JVC direct digital progressive DVD player. Is the picture supposed to look that way or am I doing something wrong.


(Guitarmans Settings)480p component/analog, Film, gamma 2
Service menu

First ADC
Red Gain 170
Gr Gain 167
Bl Gain 169

Red offset 72
Gr offset 59
Bl offset 62

Picture service area,
Gain Red 122
Gain Gr 124
Gain Bl 125

Bias Red 124
Bias Gr 126
Bias Bl 124

(My Settings out of the box)

Red Gain 176
Gr Gain 155
Bl Gain 176

Red offset 68
Gr offset 62
Bl offset 68

Picture service area,
Gain Red 139
Gain Gr 130
Gain Bl 131

Bias Red 126
Bias Gr 120
Bias Bl 117

yocozuna55,

It's unlikely you will be able to use someone else’s calibration #'s on the component in's....in fact, any of the inputs with the exception of DVI.

The H31's calibrations out of the box (OTB) are rather wild, and vary between units. It's a crapshoot, I wouldn't waste your time trying to use someone else’s numbers.

You will probably have MUCH better luck with the DVI input if you can use it. Not only is the DVI less of a variance between units, but it also seems to be much more neutral, which seems to make it better calibrated. Also, since the dvi calibrations vary less, you might have some luck using someone else’s dvi numbers, I did.....I used CMRA's dvi settings on my dvi input and it worked rather well.

Fleaman

Thanx for the info...I should really get around to using DVI one of these days. Component looks really good for now though.

I tried to use the 480p settings guitarman suggested on my h31 thru component but i found the colors to be washed out and the reds looked orange, the one good thing was that there was a lot less noticiable SDE using these settings(why is that?). The factory defaults although a bit on the birght side looked much better. I have a 16/9 1.1 gain 92"Luma screen and I am using a JVC direct digital progressive DVD player. Is the picture supposed to look that way or am I doing something wrong.


(Guitarmans Settings)480p component/analog, Film, gamma 2
Service menu

First ADC
Red Gain 170
Gr Gain 167
Bl Gain 169

Red offset 72
Gr offset 59
Bl offset 62

Picture service area,
Gain Red 122
Gain Gr 124
Gain Bl 125

Bias Red 124
Bias Gr 126
Bias Bl 124

(My Settings out of the box)

Red Gain 176
Gr Gain 155
Bl Gain 176

Red offset 68
Gr offset 62
Bl offset 68

Picture service area,
Gain Red 139
Gain Gr 130
Gain Bl 131

Bias Red 126
Bias Gr 120
Bias Bl 117

Interesting though your OTB numbers balance similar to my calibrated numbers. Best thing to do is start with your stock numbers and use Avia or anything with Gray setps boxes pattern. Like Pluge, needle pulse. Then use the user advanced adjustments to take any color tint out of the grays.

This worked great for me with the H27 because HDTV at stock didn't look tuned too well. One look at the gray patterns on my saved HDTV comcast tunup - showed me red and green even a little blue tints in the shades of gray. A little magic on the advanced adjustments making them a clean gray made HDTV look extremely natural in color.

Each unit and signal can be different, so try out the gray tuning, see if you can get it to work.

There's more info in the first post of this thread.

I have placed post calibrated H31 screen shots here on AVS at this link:
Since I have been restricted from posting the link for some strange reason you can find it under:
"Optoma H31: Post calibrated"- in the photo search

I think you have to have over 5 posts to do links. I took a look at them, looks nice. Interesting choice of pictures. That Dracula guy is about to get sick again isn't he? :) I have Andy Warhols Frankenstein, Dracula is still on my list.

Natja, my old friend! :)

I love your screenshots. So glad you finally got an H31 that behaves. Nice to see you posting now.

Wayne

Thanks for the replies. I have actually been involved in the middle of that whole Dispute over missing menu trees on Projector central that carter placed a link to here with the H31. I have been so busy with all of that I hadn't had time to come here. The first link deals with this problem in detail at projector central under "infocus 4805 vs optoma H31". It is the one near the top of the list with over 2000 views. The other one deals with the hell I went through with optoma and how I ended up going to their offices in Milpitas 3 times and ending up having to get three replacement units. now I'm on my fourth one. This topic is called "Optoma H31 nightmare". Strange I ended up having so many posts at projector central. I think I logged up about 80 posts in about 2 weeks yet here I only have two or 3. :( Anyway thanks for caring enough to reply and for the warm welcome back.. Peace
Natja

Tom,
Oops... for some reason I thought I'd remembered someone saying that color temp 1 was 7500, which is the closest setting the H31 has to 6500(was it krasmuzik?). I went with it, even though I thought it made whites look too warm. I do ike color temp 2 better, since whites looks better and colors are more nuetral.

Another screwup...when I got back from Michigan, after watching for awhile I thought that the pj had lost quite a bit of shadow detailing in blacks. I chalked it up to the near 700 hours on my bulb, and the long summer with no usage. Silly me, I just thought to check my settings last night, and discovered that somehow the settings changed to my dvd player calibration. Restoring the proper setting brought my details back. Cool.

Do you know what the proper pc and video dvi level ranges are? Is pc 0-255 and video 16-235, or do I have this backwards?

Dosdemoaner,
Dude, you still might have a ground loop problem. Your new receiver is the new piece in the chain, and it might be the source of the grounding issue. Even if you unplugged all your cables going into the H31 as you did, you should make sure that you power down your receiver and unplug it. Grounding issues can spread to other components in your room via the power outlets. In other words, return everything to the same condition as what you had before connecting the new receiver. You might also try lifting the ground on the pj. Just use a 3 prong to 2 prong ac adapter. I'd hate to see your pj go to Optoma with nothing wrong. If the problem is not there this time, then you might have to use the adapter when you reconnect the receiver. Try one on the receiver as well.

This might be a dumb question but how do you access the service menus on the H31 anyway? I see all these settings for bias this or bias that. How is this accomplished? ...Thanks

On the PJ (not the remote):
up and enter twice at the same time - left and enter twice at the same time
Up, left, down at the same time once

Write down your old settings & proceed with caution.

Thank you very much. Luckily I have very good calibration on mine now but really wanted to see these menus in case I ever needed them. Thanks again- Natja

Question--why do people want to have access to the service menu on the h31? I've done several full scale calibrations on different televisions and understand the imprortance of having full control, so maybe I'm missing something. We have total grayscale control via user menu, doesn't seem to be artificial sharpening, doesn't seem to be any overscan or geometry problems, etc... What are the things that people are adjusting via service that are unavailable via user? Thanks for helping me catch up... :D

Basically the optoma H31 has problems with the Factory defaulted reds in most of their units. For the most part trying to get it right is impossible in user settings. Thus the need to use advanced menus. Certainly there are other things that might be in need of advanced adjustments on some H31's. I have gone through 4 h31's and all but one had very orange reds. the current one I have had good reds but I needed these settings in case i ever have trouble, it's good to have that edge none the less.

Okay, forgive the question if the answer is obvious. How do you go about correcting the reds with the h31? I'm actually in the middle of doing greyscale right now with it--might as well take care of everything!

Dosdemoaner,
Dude, you still might have a ground loop problem. Your new receiver is the new piece in the chain, and it might be the source of the grounding issue. Even if you unplugged all your cables going into the H31 as you did, you should make sure that you power down your receiver and unplug it. Grounding issues can spread to other components in your room via the power outlets. In other words, return everything to the same condition as what you had before connecting the new receiver. You might also try lifting the ground on the pj. Just use a 3 prong to 2 prong ac adapter. I'd hate to see your pj go to Optoma with nothing wrong. If the problem is not there this time, then you might have to use the adapter when you reconnect the receiver. Try one on the receiver as well.

Thanks for the info Jedi.
As it happens I talked to Optoma (USA) they said to send it back... but as I am in Canada i have to call a long distance (which i couldn't from work), so i've have to wait over the weekend....
Last night I re-connected and the problem has gone!!
Maybe as you say. I shall get a 3 - 2 prong adapter ready in case!

Many thanks for the i/p.

This site is great!

Dosdemoaner,
Dude, you still might have a ground loop problem. Your new receiver is the new piece in the chain, and it might be the source of the grounding issue. Even if you unplugged all your cables going into the H31 as you did, you should make sure that you power down your receiver and unplug it. Grounding issues can spread to other components in your room via the power outlets. In other words, return everything to the same condition as what you had before connecting the new receiver. You might also try lifting the ground on the pj. Just use a 3 prong to 2 prong ac adapter. I'd hate to see your pj go to Optoma with nothing wrong. If the problem is not there this time, then you might have to use the adapter when you reconnect the receiver. Try one on the receiver as well.

You can not have a ground loop through the pwr cables only. The definition of a ground loop means you are getting grounding from the pwr cable ground pin and that part of the ground is also through another connection, like video or audio connection. That ground would go through the video/audio connection, onto the equipment it was connected to, through the ground pin into the wall and then back through the ground pin of the projector...so 'Looping' full circle.

This is why lifting the ground pin on the pwr cord of the projector will stop the ground loop...if that is what you have.

If you have nothing connected to the projector and then you lift the ground, it will have no effect on ground looping since no ground loop would be possible. But, sometimes lifting the ground is also worth a try in case the pwr supply of the unit was poorly designed or your ground plain in you're house is unusually noisy for some reason.

Fleaman

Hello Everyone!


I feel a little late to the party but I just got my H31 today and wanted to add my two cents in!

I almost pulled the trigger on the H31 about a month ago, but became indecisive when I realized it wasn't a native 720P HD projector, and seriously contemplated a 720P LCD projector such as the Sanyo PLV-Z3. I ended up buying the H31 blind with just the information I've absorbed in the months I've lurked around these forums, and I'm fairly certain I made the right choice.

Having been around computers for forever, it was common sense that a bigger picture needs a higher resolution to look good so I was really paranoid about getting a 480P ED projector like the H31. I assuaged myself of these fears and decided which way to proceed by asking myself the question, "Which projector would play my Star Wars DVDs better right now." I thought lack of image quality would annoy me far more than any pixelation/screendoor effects. So far, I believe I'm right about that.

I've only played four downs in Madden05 and watched 'A New Hope' so far, but here's my initial run down. I haven't touched one iota of calibration yet, but my Avia disk is probably going in after I finish typing this up. I'll get to that later.

Right now I've only got it hooked up via the composite RCA input. The one thing I forgot to order was the video cable long enough to run to the projector. DER! I went to the hi-fi buys and picked up the cable, and, luckily, it was all they had in the that length, so I was not tempted to pick up one of the overpriced monsters. They still raped me pretty well though with the $20 labor fee for a custom length coax cable. Anyway, I'll be ordering an S-video and component or DVI cables from one of the linked places around here when I get around to it. I only have a Toshiba SD-1700 (no DVI) but I can run it from my PC. I'm curious as to whether my unit exhibits the 'tearing' issue that seems to plague this projector when coupled with PCs. I'll get around to that all in due time.

As of now, I'm projecting a 92" wide (not diag) screen from about 14' using around 3/4 of the zoom. My eyes are about 18' back and the pixelation/screendoor is about borderline. I can 'almost' see the pixelation on really bright parts like light reflected off Luke's face in the first lightsabre scene, Obi-Wan's hair and the sky behind the crawler in the 'slaughtered jawas' scene, or the sub-titles during the Han/Greedo scene. I have ten more feet to move back my seat, so I'm not worried, but I know I'm pushing the limits of the projector's resolution. It doesn't bother me one bit so far.

As for rainbows, I have seen them. There's three kinds of rainbow-ish effects I've noticed so far. There's the 'darty/blinky eyes' rainbows that I kinda sorta think I see. It's more like a feeling than actually seeing them. (I tot I taw a putty tat.. I did I did) I asked myself did I just see the RainBow Effect, and evidently I must have or I wouldn't be asking myself this. These do not bother me.

Then there's a bit more obvious rainbow effect which I felt was really pronounced in the 'chasm' scene where you're almost made to look left/right on the screen and with the bright white panels in between the dark panels, it was rainbow central. That was the first scene where I thought, 'oh yeah, those are the rainbow effects.' Also the stars in the fast-panning fight scenes got a bit rainbow-y. X-wings darting across the screen would also have a tinge of rainbow too. Evidently fast moving white objects are DLPs achille's heel, and, although it's not a killer flaw for me, I do hope before my next upgrade Texas Instruments can eradicate this. I hear the H78 and H79 are already a step up.

The other rainbow effect I've seen stays on screen even when focusing intently on the movie and not darting my eyes around. I saw it on the left edge of the star destroyer in the opening scene as it chases down the corvette, and in Jabba's wrinkled eye lids in the scene with him outside the Falcon, and also in a wrinkly tube inside the Falcon on the right edge of the screen during the 'I use these compartments for smuggling..' scene. These were persistant and bothered me a tad. At this point I'm hoping it's the other weak links in the chain (SD-1700 over composite video), but if it's not it's by no means a deal breaker.

Out of the Box, the black level for composite was lacking. Granted my room is not perfect. Actually, it's far from it. It has a white ceiling, white walls, and white carpet. I hung up some black sheets over the walls as a temporary solution, and that does help a teeny bit. Improving the environment is definitely on the agenda. I'm also basing my opinion on the fact that I'm comparing this to my calibrated CRT trinitron monitor I'm typing this on, where black is freakin' BLACK. I wasn't sure if I was, but evidently I'm one of those 'black level fiends' I've read about on here.

A perfect OTB picture has to be the exception and not the rule, so I'm anxious to see what an Avia run-thru can do for this guy. I need to whip out the sound meter and re-adjust my sound levels while I'm at it anyway. Quick note about the 'orangey' reds: Haven't noticed them yet. The red insignia on Luke's visor was red. The red glowy buttons on the various consoles were red. I'm going to throw in Snow White later and if the witch's apple is red, I'm going to say some people are being really picky, which is their prerogative. Granted it's also probably naive for me to be making that assumption this soon. I know people have proof that the reds are orangey, and I believe them. I'm just saying that the rebel pilot's flightsuits were orange, and the stripes and insignias on their helmets and X-wings were red. It's not some flaw where the H31 can't display red.

On the other hand, and obviously I'm not really a color person, but the greens really struck out at me at how beautiful they were. I could watch just the forest on the Yavin moon, and the green light panels behind the tractor-beam control column thing all day long.

As for quiet-ness, I haven't touched a single option yet, and I believe the default mode for the lamp and fan is the econo mode. Whatever mode it is, it is very quiet. Before I turned on the sound, the whirring up on my DVD player was louder from 18' away than the projector 4' away. Even putting my ear right up to the thing it's barely a whisper.


Anyway..


WOW oh WOW. Man! I have been waiting for this moment for years! I've gone from a 27" screen with a rockin' sound system to a 106" screen with a rockin' sound system. Not only that but the sound I've had for years is finally unleashed because I'm in a house now and not an apartment!

Yes. This will be a day long remembered... (sorry, couldn't help it)

You can really see the depth of field in the photography. The emoting of the actors can really come through the screen and into your living room. Things like David Prowse's body language where he's not just some guy in a suit, he also nods a lot. The death star exploding at the end was just simply magical. It really gives the theatre experience.

My entire DVD collection just became brand new again! And I can't wait to watch the Braves and Falcons on an HD feed eventually. This is so cool.

Is it perfect? No. But I've seen people complaining about 20k+ equipment in the other forums here, so I'm not going to let that get me down. I have a new toy, and I am stoked!

So now after all that, it's once again decision time. Calibrate with Avia or pop in Sin City.

Hmmm

I don't think I'm getting any sleep tonight. :D

Yes, but do you like it?! Just Kidding, I love mine, too. I marvel at the way it makes my dvd's look. HD is also so very clear and pretty. Have fun. Dennis

Try to get a DVI dvd player...for another couple hundred you can avoid lots of time calibration the other inputs. The DVI appears to be calibrated much better OTB, so good you may only need to tweak a little, if any (depending on your pickiness).

Brightness and contrast will always have to be tweaked though.

Fleaman

fleaman, it's nice to see someone who understands electrical circuits posting - thanks!

zen2k, wow you are stoked after looking at composite? Man you have some good things coming your way!! Even if you can just connect up via component you will see a fantastic increase in PQ!!! If you can get DVI digital going then you will undoubtedly enter the Nirvana realm :)

Fleaman,
I agree. Thanks for the clear explanation of ground loops. I've never had it broken down like that. It just seemed to me that some kind of new interference was introduced to the H31 in question by the addition of a new receiver. Maybe the receiver's power supply is noisy, or isn't shielded well enough? Well, it seems that the problem might have been solved without the pj going back to the factory.

Zen2k,
I sent you a PM. I also think that it's possible that some of the strange effects you are seeing when your eyes aren't moving around have to do with the low quality composite signal you are watching right now. Single chip dlp's like the H31 suffer the most from rainbow effects. These are not so noticeable in the 3 chip 720p designs. When I first got my H31, I started at the bottom of the chain with composite and svideo, and then worked up to component and finally dvi. It felt like getting a brand new pj with each upgrade. Try it.

fleaman, it's nice to see someone who understands electrical circuits posting - thanks!



I know enough to be dangerous...as they say.

But I do work alot with things like this, I'm a recording engineer by the day...or mostly by night as they tend to be.

Fleaman

Well I've put a few more movies under my H31's belt. Sin City was great. I believe I saw things more clearly than I did in the actual movie theatre. I also saw some more persistant rainbows in Jessica Alba's hair, but from what I've read Sin City is suppose to be one of the sternest rainbow tests yet released on DVD.

Those particular effects I saw in Star Wars were almost a moire like effect. 'Cept with rainbow hues. A rainbow moire, if you will. I don't know how technically accurate that description is, but it sounds good to me. It was only in those areas with really crinkly wrinkly lines like Jabba's eyelids and the hose in the falcon. I watched 'Amelie' earlier and hardly noticed any rainbows at all!

The Avia run-thru definitely helped a lot. The 'black' cropping bars on 2.35 stuff almost fade into the same color as the unprojected wall, and on 1.85 stuff, they're not even there which helps a lot. 'Million Dollar Baby' was the first thing I put in afterwards, and I remember Clint playing a lot with the shadows from seeing it before, and everything looked pretty darn good to me. Sometimes I want to crank the brightness, but, like they say to, I'm going to give it a week and see if I adjust to it. I remember going thru the same routine when I first calibrated my direct view tv.

A new DVI DVD player is definitely on the 'to get' list, but that means having to start researching all over again! :eek:

Another two cents...

I've had my H31 for a couple of weeks now - thought I would report my experience with it.

Background: This is my first brush with purchasing home theater equipment, although I'm an electrical engineer and actually worked on DLP at Texas Instruments for a couple of years back in the early days (when it was called DMD - Digital Micromirror Device). We were struggling then with rainbow and other artifacts that are unique to DLP. I can only say that the improvements in those areas since the mid '90s are very significant. I always thought the technology had potential, but I never thought that a single-chip DLP projector could perform this well.

Setup: My room is modest - 12 feet wall-to-wall. This is a somewhat temporary installation so I bought a very inexpensive gain=1.0 screen. Although some push this projector close to 100" diagonal, I chose 84" diagonal for a couple of reasons -- to keep the brightness up and to minimize screen door (I have good eyesight). It worked out very nicely. I sit ten feet from the screen and essentially never see screen door. Even closer to the screen I only see it in very large and very bright areas.

Equipment: I researched the projector pretty seriously, but just walked into Sam's Club and bought the cheapest home-theater-in-a-box they had (a single-chassis Phillips beast). Progressive component. I haven't watched any other source so far.

Rainbow: the original DLP projectors had *terrible* rainbow effects and because I worked on DLP I became very sensitive to it. I fully expected to just have to put up with it. But that was then (X1) and the H31 I believe has a X4 color wheel, which obviously reduces the effect tremendously. Here's the strange part: the more I watch the projector, the less rainbow I see. Rainbow is primarily caused by quickly jerking your view across bright objects in the scene, causing the colors to separate. I think that I'm literally learning how to watch DLP because I now rarely notice it, even in material that caused distractions two weeks ago.

Picture quality: The first thing I noticed is that there seems to be absolutely zero digital scaling going on. That makes total sense given that the DLP dimensions are perfectly suited to 16:9 DVD. The lack of any digital munging means that the imagery is very, very, *very* film-like (to my eye). I've carefully adjusted the picture and brightness settings using the Avia disc and I doubt that I'll ever mess with the service menu settings. Other modes: cinema / film / gamma '1' (usually).

Quick tip: If after careful adjustment the scenes are just too dark, I've found the simplest fix is to kick the gamma up to '2' (rarely '3') rather than monkey with brightness/contrast.

It's very clear that this is not HD resolution. But my purpose for the projector is to watch DVDs. A high def projector would have to scale the DVD source and I'm sensitive to scaling artifacts. By the time this projector dies, HD content DVDs will be available and I'll buy a HD projector to replace it. What will that get me? I'll be able to sit closer to the screen without seeing the screen door, meaning that my experience will be more 'immersive' (which is what the point of HD has always been -- to have sufficient resolution to allow the image to occupy much more of your field of view). The actual difference in image quality will be slight. If unlike me you intend to watch native HD content, then of course you have to consider going to a native HD resolution projector.

Sorry, didn't mean to ramble. Here's one odd thing that perhaps someone can address: I don't see any decrease in image quality (i.e. smoothing, peaking, ringing) when keystone correction is dialed in.

I enjoy the forum and it was a great resource when I was making my decision. Thanks to everyone who posts here!

Here's one odd thing that perhaps someone can address: I don't see any decrease in image quality (i.e. smoothing, peaking, ringing) when keystone correction is dialed in.



A lot of people mention they can hardly see any artifacts with keystoning, I'm one of them, but I avoid it anyway.

Apparently you can really see the keystoning effects with a computer desktop image. DVD movies seem to hide most of the pic quality problems with keystoning.

But from what I read, it's really obvious when you put up a computer desktop image.

Fleaman

Hi I am a newbie here and I would appreciate some help.

I know that you must have been asked this question several times but how can I calculate the vertical offset from center of lens to start of image.

My lens to screen distance will be 379cm or 12 feet 5 inches
I am aiming for a 204cm wide image. The projector will be ceiling mounted. I am worried that the vertical offset for a 204cm wide image will overshoot the bottom of the screen.

I cannot find a calculator that gives this distance and the manual gives an angle at a specific throw ratio.

I really would appreciate your help on this as it will make or break my choice of projector.

I am keeping my fingers crossed as my heart is really set on this projector form the reviews I have seen on this thread.

H13, try this:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/480p_projectors.htm

I dropped consideration of the H27 because of its offset. The H31 and InFocus 4805 would both be good for your room in terms of offset and screen size.

Thanks Jdurbin. I checked the site and by my calculations, I think I can just about make it. Hope the figures of projectorcentral are right cos I do not have much room for error.

Thanks once again.

Hmmmm,

I don't seem to have control over color temperature when using my DVI input.

I have the Color Temperature option in the menu tree when using S cable and when using component connections, but not DVI.

I don't have Color adjustments OR Tint controls using DVI either. Now, I do have the advance adjustments available - but no basic color control or tint control.

Do all of you have color temperature controls using your DVI input?

I think I've pretty much decided on this PJ because of the great reviews and the very low price tag. My question is. "Is there as easy a choice in the 720p DLP market as I feel the Optoma H31 is?"

I plan on using the screen for DVD's, HDTV, and video games, and I've heard mixed messages on skipping 480p and just starting with a 720p PJ.

carter,

Everything's normal. :) You'll have to adjust the color through your source rather than the projector. If your source doesn't have color controls then you're out of luck.

Wayne

carter,

Everything's normal. :) You'll have to adjust the color through your source rather than the projector. If your source doesn't have color controls then you're out of luck.

Wayne

Well, you have the advanced color controls to adjust color on the H31. It's just nice to have 3 different color temp presets to switch at ease for taste. With the advance controls you can't do a quick color temp shift, it's a calibrate it an leave it kinda deal.

I don't know why Optoma elected to leave out the color temp controls with DVI, as I miss being able to do full color temp shifts in one direction or another, even after calibration.

What's up with that?

Fleaman

I forgot about those RBG contrast/brightness controls and the color temperature settings. As you say, not a quick touch up really like a color/tint control would be but nonetheless, available if there's no other option.

When I was using my LG/Zenith upconverting player and the H31/H57 projectors, I had no color control on the projector or the DVD player which was really bad. :(
After following Tom's grayscale adjustment instructions, I have everything dialed in where I feel it should be and the numbers written down and safely tucked away should I ever have to do it all over again. Now that would be a catastrophe! ;)

Wayne

Mystery,

What/where are Thom's grey scale adjustments? I haven't got my screen yet, but when I do I will want to tinker. I didn't know that I could adjust grey scale...wait, I think I do remember somebody saying there was a hidden menu for that. Anyway, can you point me toward the details.

Thanks,

Carter

The info's in the first post of this thread. You can skip all the numbers I posted for my colorfacts tuning. Chances are slim they'll work for others.

Carter and Fleaman,
Didn't Tom post recently that it's pretty typical for for a dvi signal to lack color temp and tint controls, so it wouldn't be missing in just Optoma pjs? Tom, is that right?

Some have noted that the 4805 seems to have sharper images than the H31 due to the better optics(was that really proven??) and higher brightness. A few nights ago I did somemore work with the focus on the H31, and found that I was a little off. Now, the focus does seem to be sharper, and quite in line with what I remember from the 4805. It just takes patience and a careful touch with the focus ring.

Hello Everyone,
I am looking for some help and don't know who to turn to. I have tried to do my research but am getting more confused each day.

I want a DLP projector for my already installed 148" greyhawk screen in a dedicated Home theater

The room is 22x20 and the projector will be ceiling mounted.

My choices are:

BenQ PE7700
Optoma H77
SP5700
Hitachi PJTX100 LCD

All response will be carefully review. Price is also my issue My cap is 4K!
Please HELP

I really want a lot of review so I can determine what type of pj to buy

I will soon desplay my HT for public view

I will also need more information on the equipments too

My HT could be seen at

Hello Everyone,
I am looking for some help and don't know who to turn to. I have tried to do my research but am getting more confused each day.

I want a DLP projector for my already installed 148" greyhawk screen in a dedicated Home theater

The room is 22x20 and the projector will be ceiling mounted.

My choices are:

BenQ PE7700
Optoma H77
SP5700
Hitachi PJTX100 LCD

All response will be carefully review. Price is also my issue My cap is 4K!
Please HELP

You probably won't get any response here because this is the under $3500 (list price, not street) projector forum. And this thread is about the H31, which is like a $1000 projector.

Posting in the correct $3500 and over projector forum would be a better idea.

But since we're on the subject, I wouldn't recommend any of the 4 pJ's you mentioned, look into the Optoma H78dc3 projector...

Fleaman

I think you're going to need a 0% offset projector for a screen that big. Nice room by the way. :)

Wayne

Well, lets be neighborly and recommend a PJ or two to the guy.

What fits the needs & budget? What's 0% offset DLP PJ? (are there any?)

Well, lets be neighborly and recommend a PJ or two to the guy.

What fits the needs & budget? What's 0% offset DLP PJ? (are there any?)

The Optoma H78dc3 and H77 are 0% offset FWIR. Not sure about the others.

I just looked at his web site and wouldn't say he needs a 0% offset projector. His ceiling looks to be maybe 2ft above the top of his screen (at the highest point). So with a 0% offset projector, the projector will have to hang 2ft below the ceiling.

A projector with some offset will allow him to mount it up closer to the ceiling and better tucked away.

But really, this is the wrong forum. We could make recommendations and help him out, but he would be much better helped over in the $3500 and over PJ forum.


Fleaman

he would be much better helped over in the $3500 and over PJ forum

So true, Thanks fleaman!

koolbriiz

It's not in the budget, but I'd throw in the IF 7210. It might have the lumens for the screen - that is one hell of a big screen,

Well I watched Sin City and Constantine tonight.

WOW

No rainbows at all on Sin City - I guess either I just don't see them or my setup doesn't produce them.

Amazing contrast on that movie - lots of black & shades of gray. Then out pops some red lipstick or that red caddy!

Constantine was great - ok some pretty cornball scenes & dialog (Keanu seems to go for that stuff eh?). Nice effects. Great looking on my H31 & HTPC.

I saw a couple scan lines - but overall it wasn't enough to be distracting.

Where did everybody go? Anyone else see Sin City and Constantine on their H31?

Sorry, I haven't seen those movies yet on my H31. Lately, I've been trying my best to catch up with all the hours of US Open tennis I have waiting to be watched on my DISH 942 dvr(no spoilers please). Then throw in the full day of Smallville season 3 episodes that HDNet did on Labor Day. Yes, I am that far behind and I still have season 4 dvhs tapes to watch, along with other shows in hd I must catch up on. Yike...so little time, so many things to watch.

While watching Odyssey 5, also on HDNet early this morning, I noticed that I could get quite a bit closer to the screen without being badly bothered by rainbows, screendoor or pixels. Normally, I'm back about 14' from my 84" image. I almost cut that in half, and still enjoyed what I saw. However, once that show as over, I needed to move back. So, the question now is...what is it about certain shows that makes them more pleasant to the eye or something so that you can move up closer than normal without seeing SDE? Anybody else experience this?

koolbriiz,
I think that the Toshiba TDPMT700 is under $3500, and is a 0% offset dlp. I haven't followed the thread closely, but do a search. I think this pj got pretty good user reviews.

Sin City looked amazing on the H31, Constantine looked amazing on the H31 but the audio on the disc is definately screwed up in 5.1 DD, I had to jack up my center channel about 5 or 6 Db's (notches, whateaver) just to hear half the diologue because of the echo/noize they added.

I haven't yet seen a movie that didn't look good on the H31....

I am considering buying the H31 for $1,199.00

Is this a good price? I will be using it out on my patio under my new patio cover 13'x30'. It gets pretty dark at night out there and I was wondering how bright the 850 ANSI Lumens are. I wonder if it will be Ok enough for outdoor projection (not during the day.) any advice would be appreciated. Are you guys watching HD on this? or just DVD's?

http://www.projector.com/product.cfm?pid=1347
Advanced DarkChip2™ DLP™
Native 16:9 wide screen at 480P resolution
850 lumens / 3000:1 contrast for superior image
HDTV compatible with 720P,1080 & DVI-I w/HDCP,HDMI compatible RS232 Protocol Function
Advanced HD Scaling enhancement technology™
Digital lens shift with 2 positional memories
5 separate user adjustable memory settings per input




THX

I am considering buying the H31 for $1,199.00

Is this a good price? I will be using it out on my patio under my new patio cover 13'x30'. It gets pretty dark at night out there and I was wondering how bright the 850 ANSI Lumens are. I wonder if it will be Ok enough for outdoor projection (not during the day.) any advice would be appreciated. Are you guys watching HD on this? or just DVD's?

http://www.projector.com/product.cfm?pid=1347
Advanced DarkChip2™ DLP™
Native 16:9 wide screen at 480P resolution
850 lumens / 3000:1 contrast for superior image
HDTV compatible with 720P,1080 & DVI-I w/HDCP,HDMI compatible RS232 Protocol Function
Advanced HD Scaling enhancement technology™
Digital lens shift with 2 positional memories
5 separate user adjustable memory settings per input
THX

You should check out the Optoma Movie time PJ instead:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=570379

It's brighter and more portable than the H31...and probably more durable for the outdoors too.

Fleaman

What gain on the screen is recommended for the H31?

What gain on the screen is recommended for the H31?

1.0 gain.......if you're screen is no larger than 84" (about) wide, no ambient light.

The larger the screen and the more ambient light, the more likely a higher gain screen might be a consideration.

Fleeaman

Thanks. Same considerations for the H27?

And what is the consensus: H31 or H27?

I'm still around, just enjoying my new H31!

I've seen Sin City twice now on the H31 and I still say it looks better than it did in the theatre. I'm still on composite though. :o

But I ordered my S-Video and Component cables today from an online place that has killer prices on all their cables that I saw linked somewhere here on the forums. Wish I had only discovered them sooner. I got two cables + priority shipping for less than the price of one composite cable from the local hi-fi buys. With any luck they'll show up on Saturday and give me most of the weekend to play with them. Unfortunately, I have little faith in the USPS.

My next big decision is to go for a new DVD player (got my eye on the Toshiba 5970) and HDMI/DVI cable or a 'real' screen first.

I'm still suffering from sticker shock on a Fixed Frame Da-Lite Perm-Wall Da-Mat screen, so I'm also contemplating one of those GreyWolf PullDowns that's been discussed here and there, or maybe a DIY'er with BO cloth.

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://www.ippinkan.co.jp/pj_test/H30/page_1.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3DOptoma%2BH30%26start%3D30%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26s a%3DN

That link has an interesting comparison on inexpensive component cables. I plan to buy the Audio Quests.

Oddly the link shows up different from my bookmark, just go to the bottom of the H30 review and click the japanpink link.

Tom,
A couple of times the power has gone out in my house when the H31 was running. How bad is this for the bulb not being able to go through the cooldown procedure? Is it a good idea to get a battery backup for the power cable? Also, do you know what the number range or rating is for dvi pc vs. dvi video? I think dvi pc is 0-255 while video is 16-235, or did I get that backwards?

Tom,
A couple of times the power has gone out in my house when the H31 was running. How bad is this for the bulb not being able to go through the cooldown procedure? Is it a good idea to get a battery backup for the power cable? Also, do you know what the number range or rating is for dvi pc vs. dvi video? I think dvi pc is 0-255 while video is 16-235, or did I get that backwards?
I put my new H27 on a UPS. Yeah, I wouldn't want it to loose power in a flash like that... shudder! :eek:

Tom,
A couple of times the power has gone out in my house when the H31 was running. How bad is this for the bulb not being able to go through the cooldown procedure? Is it a good idea to get a battery backup for the power cable? Also, do you know what the number range or rating is for dvi pc vs. dvi video? I think dvi pc is 0-255 while video is 16-235, or did I get that backwards?

No problem, when you hard power off a PJ don't turn it on again until the bulb is totally cool. Wait 2 or 3hrs to be sure.

You have the range right. The H31's DVI is RGB/digital video level.

Yep, I waited a half hour atleast before turning the pj back on again. Thanks for the info.

Mr. E,
You're kind of quiet these days. My 318 has throuble playing dvd+r discs. I'll have to test some dvd-rs as well. What kind of luck are you having with your LG unit? What about the Oppo?

No one had a Saturday post at all?? Looks like everyone's happy watching stuff on their H31s.....so what am I doing?

Hey there jedi!

You're right, I am a little subdued lately, at least on this thread. :) I still monitor it though for times such as these. ;)

I don't think I've ever had any problem with DVD+R discs on the LG/Zenith player but to be honest I haven't played around very much with those discs.

I have to admit that I haven't once touched my LG/Zenith since acquiring the Oppo. Sort of says it all doesn't it? I have sorted out my DVD watching in this manner:

Film based DVDs - HTPC
Video based DVDs - Oppo

I have found that Film based DVDs are a tad inferior in quality to the experience of my HTPC but the reverse is true with regard to Video based DVDs. As a matter of fact, the Oppo completely blows my HTPC out of the water when viewing Video matter. No contest, hands down, cry uncle...the Oppo crushes my HTPC for Video viewing. Way too many artifacts like combing etc..on the HTPC.

I am a huge fan of Television shows on DVD, especially from the 1960's, and they show almost as well as Film based movies on my HTPC. I am absolutely ecstatic with the Oppo and how it handles Video. I knew from Projector Central's review that it was terrific with Analog but you have to see it in operation to appreciate it and believe it.

I can hardly wait for the next season of 24 and The Sopranos. :cool:

Hope all's well with you! :)

Wayne

That's great Wayne. Nice to see you back for a spell. Does this mean that your Oppo is great with dvd+rs? Have you tried them?

jedi,

I just checked for you. I don't have any + or - Rs but I do have DVD+RW and DVD-RW and they both work just as if they were a store bought DVD.

Wayne

I got my S-Video and Component cables today. The difference over my composite cable was huge.

The rainbow moire effects I saw over composite are all gone now. Though I can't tell much of a difference between S-Video and Component so far. Maybe something with more colors will show off the component's stuff better, as Star Wars and Sin City are pretty heavy on the black and whites. Also need to run through Avia on these new inputs as the contrast and brightness are set way too high.

It looks great though. The image is way more crisp and less fuzzy than running the H31 over composite. If the DVI input is that much of an improvement over S-Video/Component, then I can't wait to be amazed.

Thanks Wayne. I think I'm just out of luck with trying to play +Rs on my 318. I do have a couple of other players that will play them, but not with that 318 picture quality.

I have been searching this thread but cannot find the exact answer- has anyone been able to upgrade their H30 to H31 through Optoma? If so, was it expensive or what was the deal?? Feel free to PM me with anything on this as well!

You're welcome jedi! :)

Yes, you sure don't want to give up one iota of 318 quality. Still one of the very best DVD players out there in my opinion. It's sitting underneath my Oppo. I can't bring my self to remove it from the audio/video stand. :o

Wayne

I have been searching this thread but cannot find the exact answer- has anyone been able to upgrade their H30 to H31 through Optoma? If so, was it expensive or what was the deal?? Feel free to PM me with anything on this as well!


I tried about 5 months ago when my H30 was in for warranty service for like the 5th time (for buzzing). As helpful as the CS was, and accommodating, he could only give me about $300 for my H30 (which had about 100 hrs on it!). And I would have to pay practically list price for the H31.

You can guess what I did about that.

They ended up sending me a brand new H30 to replace my older H30....and it was brand new, with a new lamp too. I thought they might send it with my old lamp, but I marked my old lamp before I sent the H30 in just to see what they would do, and that lamp wasn't used.

Anyway, your best bet is ebay or sell to a friend (friends are wowed by this PJ!), then buy a new H31. If you're lucky and have low hrs on your H30, the difference might only be about $300-$400.

A good selling point for the H30 (over the H31) is increased resolution with 4:3 material….so better for Cable/satellite, classic movies, games, etc. Plus you only loose 54 horizontal pixels when in widescreen mode, so it’s more adaptable in that regard.

Fleaman

It looks great though. The image is way more crisp and less fuzzy than running the H31 over composite. If the DVI input is that much of an improvement over S-Video/Component, then I can't wait to be amazed.

Well, I think most of the improvement with DVI is the better OTB calibration on this input. Right OTB DVI is superior over all other inputs in that regard (so far all reports regarding OTB calibrations including my own experience have been this way).

If you feel like spending many hrs calibrating both your component inputs and DVI inputs to be a close as possible (calibration wise), you will probably find there is a much smaller difference.

For me DVI was a no-brainer. Right away OTB calibration was pretty darn good and also more practical to try other peoples DVI settings (the DVI baseline seems to vary little between H31's). And the DVI is not an inferior input compared to component, so it was an easy decision for me.

Fleaman

I'll be buying a receiver to connect to an H31. The receiver has two component in ports. One will be for the DVD player and one for XBox. The component out will run to the H31. Can I connect the Dish Network 811 receiver DVI out to the H31 DVI in? Depending on which source is live, the H31 will pick up the signal? Thanks.

Thanks for the input, Flea. I couldn't imagine DVI being that much of an upgrade, but, then, I thought composite looked pretty good. I'm glad the component cables got rid of the artifacts I was seeing. Also seemed the 'fuzziness' of the composite signal led to more RBE on little white spots flying around the screen. Some movies I don't notice any RBE at all, but my two favorites right now (Star Wars and Sin City) have all sorts of white darting all around the screen. I still can see RBE in those, but the cables have definitely helped.


Dog, the H31 can handle multiple inputs being used. I've got three hooked up now. When you turn it on, the H31 will 'search' each input until it finds one with a signal and stick there, and then you can use the remote to switch to whatever input you want.

Sure, the H31 should have no problem giving you a great picture through the 811's dvi output. I think that the H31 does have a mode where it just cycles through the inputs looking for a live signal. I choose to use the "source Lock" feature where it remains on one input, and I select each input with the remote.

jedi35, thanks. That was my assumption, but I didn't want to be caught making assumptions....

Dog, the H31 can handle multiple inputs being used. I've got three hooked up now. When you turn it on, the H31 will 'search' each input until it finds one with a signal and stick there, and then you can use the remote to switch to whatever input you want.


The H31 will search for an input when 1st turned on and locks to the 1st signal it sees (so it seems).

After that you can manualy switch between all inputs on the remote.

Fleaman

Quick question on the DVI cable. The Dish Network 811 receiver has a DVI-D output. The H-31 has a DVI-I with HDCP. The cables that I am finding on-line are DVI-D to DVI-D. Is this the right cable or am I not looking in the right spot? Thanks.

I found the answer - Yes. "a DVI port labeled 'DVI-I' will accept both a DVI-D and DVI-A source signal" &"If you have plugs that are DVI-I, they will accept any type of DVI cable."

Quick question on the DVI cable. The Dish Network 811 receiver has a DVI-D output. The H-31 has a DVI-I with HDCP. The cables that I am finding on-line are DVI-D to DVI-D. Is this the right cable or am I not looking in the right spot? Thanks.

Yes, DVI-D.

Actually, DVI-I cables are really hard to find in a long length. I gave up and finally just got the DVI-D cable.

Fleaman

Fleaman,
Are you sure that you tried the source lock mode? If I have been watching the dvi-d input before I shutdown, it will still be on the dvi-d input the next day when I turn it back on. That's what source lock means. I know this for sure because my Dish 942 pvr has a problem with it's hdmi output at the 1080i resolution. If I shutdown while in the dvi-d 1080i rez, the 942 will not fire up a digital signal the next day, after it has done the overnight update. I then have to either reset the receiver, or switch over to the component input which is still working, and change the rez to 720p or something. This somehow kicks the hdmi signal back on. Then I set the rez back where I had it, and switch back to the hdmi/dvi signal. This a 942 bug, and should be fixed in an upcoming software update. Strangely, if I leave the 942 at 720p, hdmi remains active at all times. If the H31 searched for the first active signal at powerup, then it would have seen my active component signal. That's why I'm sure that it only does this in source lock mode.

Actually, I was just commenting on the ability to switch between inputs on the remote, after the H31 had locked to a signal. I haven't even checked the source lock option since I only have 1 input (DVI) going to it anyway...

Fleaman

I set my source lock option to OFF and it always goes back to ON all by itself. It is the only setting that doesnt seem to stick.

Mine does the same thing by source locking automatically. This is only a problem when it doesn't detect a signal right away. I have just one set of component inputs. Dennis

Just forked over the credit card digits in exchange for a new H31! :D It should arrive by Friday...

((drools in anticipation))

I decided to post some more screen shots from my H31. The first set of pictures shows my setup. I have a 92 inch (diagonal) Optoma Panoview matte white screen (1.0 gain) that pulls down in front of my 62 inch Mitsubishi DLP TV. My Optoma H31 is ceiling mounted 12 feet from the screen. I took all the screen shots from my seating position which is also 12 feet from the screen. For the screen shots the H31 is connected to both my cable box (Comcast Motorola DVR) and my DVD player (Panasonic s97s) via a HDMI cable and a HDMI/DVI adaptor. I just swaped the HDMI cable between the cable box and the DVD player.

Setup Pictures Cont.

Here are screen shots of high definition material.