can someone list the pro and con of h27 versus 4805?

there is way too much info here it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
just a brief list.
thanks

can someone list the pro and con of h27 versus 4805?

there is way too much info here it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
just a brief list.
thanks

I can - a bit. They are both very similar. As I understand it - they 4805 puts out slightly more lumens and the H27 is less noisy. Those attributes aside - they are remarkably similar. The more technical and advanced people could give you better answers but those reasons would probably not be too important to the average JB.

They do have different offset angles, and range - which could be a big reason to buy one over the other. I suggest taking a close look at those...

thanks. this place can really be overwhelming. the infocus 4805 link has something like 500 pages. good lord.

I'm one of those "long time listener, first time caller," I'm about to go for the H27 and was hoping someone might check my laundry list to see if anything is missing. The only thing I've been able to demo has been the 4805 at a fixed distance. So I'm not sure if my intended setup will work.

My viewing arrangement is quite small, but I still think it's worth getting a pj instead of a 50" plasma or something at 3x price. I will be sitting approx 120" from the screen, so to eliminate the "screen door" the screen can only be 60" wide, correct? That means I need to have the pj at a distance of 9.35 feet to 11.3 feet according to Optoma's website. So I figure to table mount the pj pretty close to me. This is why I want the h27, because it is quite and the low height at which I plan to sit it (approx 15" off the ground). I think that means I might be one of the few the huge offset actually helps.

So a few questions: is the DVE setup dvd good enough or should I go with Avia? Does screen gain matter at that short of distance? I know it won't be perfect, but I thought I'd still pick up a 92" screen from Optoma. My walls are cream and I rent(painting not an option), but most viewing will be at night.

One more thing, I can't upgrade my dvd player just yet. I know I saw the Momitsu 880dx mentioned. Will there be any problems viewing usuing the componet video out.

Thanks for any advice.

(I bought a H27 two weeks ago.) Don't believe everything you read from review sites. It is too bad that none of the more savy members here have done a in depth comparison between H27 and 4805. At this point I'd have to assume that performances are very close among H31, H27, and 4805. Unless you have a dedicated (read: dark color walls and ceiling) HT room you won't be able to squeeze the last ounce of PQ. So it is down to the other 'side' benefits. If you want "854x480 @72HZ" get a 4805. If you want a quiet PQ get the H27 or H31.
Huh? My H27 runs 854x480@72Hz. Why do you recommend the 4805 for this combination?

Congrats - You are the first one who reports 72Hz success with the H27. A pj support tech couldn't verify whether the H31 and H27 could handle 72Hz.

Awesome news. So, H27 = more quiet and 72Hz? That would be quite nice.

Congrats - You are the first one who reports 72Hz success with the H27. A pj support tech couldn't verify whether the H31 and H27 could handle 72Hz.
Wow... that's a bit surprising. I can understand if you mean at that exact resolution, but, hell - throw a pc at it and try to sync at whatever refresh you want, right? Anyway, works for me (driven by Asus V9520/FX5200 dual-DVI video card):

PJ Newbie on a budget. I figured by the time I finished reading all this great info on the H27, Optoma would have come out with another PJ just a little better. I started out looking at the H31 then DV10 but no dig input got me looking back at the H31 then found out about the H27. I’m still on the fence between the two. Because I have a drop ceiling at around 7’ that dips down in the center to under 6.5’ at or in front of where the PJ would need to be mounted I’m fairly sure a table top install would be my best bet. I also need to keep the bottom of a desired 92” 16:9 screen up around 30” to allow for my center channel to match up with my L/R towers. I have a few questions that may help me go one way or the other.

If I understand correctly, the H27 with the AI feature off wouldn’t be as bright or have as much contrast as the H31. If I decided I didn’t like the AI feature or wanted to extend the bulb life, would this be a big enough issue to go with the H31?

Has anyone heard anything from the CEDIA expo on a possible H37-ish PJ in the near future?

Would the GrayWolf Panoview DS-9092PM screen be best bang for $ match-up for either the H27 or H31 with my current environment? Remember, I’m in a basement with very little light and I’m on a budget.

Which is worse, having longer video or audio cables? Because I’ll most likely have a table top install I could have my DVD player by my PJ.

Since my receiver has no DVI I/O, do they make a device to combine multi DVI inputs into one output to connect to PJ DVI in? Not an issue yet but could be in future.

Sorry for the length. :confused:

If I understand correctly, the H27 with the AI feature off wouldn’t be as bright or have as much contrast as the H31. If I decided I didn’t like the AI feature or wanted to extend the bulb life, would this be a big enough issue to go with the H31?

See - I don't get this. Why do people think the H27 gives something away? Without the AI feature enabled, I'd think the two units would spec the same (ignoring slight differences due to calibration, etc). They've got the same engine, same lamp near as I can tell. The H27 has a "burn your bulb a little brighter" mode (if in fact that's what it's doing) and they called it AI. Leave AI off, you got the same rig I'd say. If you like what AI does, fine, you'll just pay the lamp piper a bit earlier down the road... maybe. I read at least one place that spec'd the H31 at 3000:1 CR and and H27 at only 2500:1 (without AI)... that could simply be due to a different test setup, scale used, etc. I personally didn't read too much into the fact that one was spec'd at 3000:1 and the other at 2500:1. I'd be surprised if they were different. Now maybe optics play a role in these numbers? What if the H27's optics weren't as "giving" as the H31... could that be a factor? What are the chances really...

Edit: fixed a typo

No one has reported the H27 as having the orangey-reds that the H31 can have, so that made me think the "innards" were a different design.
But, like Mark Kusey, I too have been wondering if with the AI off, the H27 is comparable to the H31 and 4805...or if it is only comparable with the AI on.
Also, I have read one person say that the lens used on the H27 is not as high quality as the H31's, but I have never seen anyone else comment on or confrim that.
I guess the amount of H27 info out there is still a bit small for us "on the fence" shoppers.

No one has reported the H27 as having the orangey-reds that the H31 can have, so that made me think the "innards" were a different design.

Yeah, but if that's not due to visible differences in the numbers on the color tweaking service menus, for example, it is likely tweakable in the firmware where the "baseline" is set. This is what I referred to above as the "slight calibration differences" that may exist between the two. So OOTB, you could argue they are different. In fact, no argument required... I'm sure they are different, no matter how slight, but I'm also sure it wouldn't take much to make them all damn near identical. I'm not familar with the H31 really, but I understand it does have an extra menu item for the tweakers, "RGB greyscale" setting, or something like that. So I half-retract what I said earlier... the H27 gives this up I guess. If one is a tweak-monster this may be all the reason one needs to go H31. I was confident enough in the early H27 posts I read here, not to mention all the H31 posts and feeling that Optoma was not going to replace the H31 with an inferior model, as far a PQ goes. I was more scared of the possibility of getting an H31 that exibited the DVI problem, and I really liked that the single DVI-I input on the H31 was replaced with seperate DVI-D and VGA inputs. No expensive "Y" adapter cable/dongle required to connect two sources simultaneously. Even more importantly I liked the 1:1 "no scaling" mode that the H27 has, although it seems to be for analog input sources only, oddly enough. In the end, using the correct settings with an NVidia video card I achieved 1:1 pixel map from my computer over DVI, so I didn't need the benefit of this 1:1 mode anyway, although I can still think of how it would be useful on the DVI input as well. Maybe I'll query Optoma one more time on that point.

Has anybody tried the H27 with the Panasonic S77 dvd player?

If so, were there any macroblocking issues with it?

And how was the upscaling quality of it? Was there any noticeable improvement in picture quality on the H27 even though the PJ has only a 480 pixel resolution?

Thanks for your input.

I owned two 480p pjs including the H27. After repeated comparisons using an upscaling player (LG 7832) sending 720p signal, IMO there is no advantage over sending 480p signal. Surely the pictures look a little different, but I really can't say which picture is better.

I owned two 480p pjs including the H27. After repeated comparisons using an upscaling player (LG 7832) sending 720p signal, IMO there is no advantage over sending 480p signal. Surely the pictures look a little different, but I really can't say which picture is better.

Got any reccomendations for a good but inexpensive DVD player that doesn't upscale for use with the H27?

All I'm saying is that I don't think there is any advantage of sending a upscaled 720p DVD signal to a 480p display. The best source (without adding placebo effect) for the H27 is 480p over DVI. To get that you might as well have to buy one of the new upscaling players even though you won't be benefiting from the upscaling feature. I have been out of the DVD market for awhile, not even sure if there is affordable 480 only DVI/HDMI players out there.

So, l ended up ordering a different Panavise mount than the 826. The place I was talking to wouldn't have stock on the 826 for 5-10 days, and I am impatient (now that I finally have the PJ sitting on my coffee table), and I ordered a 'micro' mount - 845-246.

Pros- Very close mounting to the ceiling, option of either allen screw or knob tightening
Cons - I can't seem to tighten it enough to 'lock' the PJ in place enough. It holds position, but I can move it around by hand a little too easily. Also, not able to do any 'lateral adjustment', like you probably could a bit with the 826.

So I will probably end up doing a variation on a monkeyman mount sometime soon.

I have some pics here: http://www.rowlinson.ca/ht

As well, I took a couple of quick shots of my room setup (light coloured walls and ceiling due to WAF), and a couple of shots from 'Band of Brothers'.

Cheers!

p.s. Forgot to add, projecting onto a Da-lite Model B 70" wide Matte White screen. Shots taken while movie 'paused'.

I have some pics here: http://www.rowlinson.ca/ht
Cheers!

Tried to view your pics... site seems to be down at present?

Still acting goofy. On top of that I'm being prompted for a username and password!

Sorry about that.

Just fixed it. Tried to rush throwing them up, and had some permissions wrong...

Try it now and let me know??

Thanks!

Is working good now. Great pics. Thanks!

worked for me,

great pictures btw;)

Sorry about that.
Just fixed it. Tried to rush throwing them up, and had some permissions wrong...
Try it now and let me know??
Thanks!
Yip - works now. They were a bit "spurty" loading tho, and for some reason Firefox (under Mandrake) was having a problem with that... it would give me 10 or so rows of pixels then stop. Upon refresh I'd get another 10, then stop. I switched to IE under XP and they loaded up ok, one spurt at a time. Who's your ISP and what is the uplink speed? Just curious...

Can anyone tell me what size ND2 would work with the H27?

Oh boy - the projector is in. Screen is in. LG 511 is in. Bad news is I work until about 10:00 PM. :(

I installed the shelves already where the projector will live. I haven't put up the screen due to the offset - I'm not sure where I can mount it.

Anyways - I've been using a 25" TV I bought in 1992 for the last 13 years. Needless to say - I'm pumped! :D

Exciting! Can't wait to hear your impressions!

Exciting! Can't wait to hear your impressions!

My first impression is - wow I wish I knew what I was doing. After taking 5 minutes to try to figure out why the projector couldn't pick up the signal I discoved the cable wasn't plugged in all the way. :D

Second impression was - why is the screen so small. I figured out that when the DVD started playing it wasn't taking up the entire screen. It was at the DVD menu screen - but when the movie started playing it shrunk a bit. Gotta figure that one out still. Anyone want to help the total newb on this one?

Anyways - the picture was good. Then again - what do I know :)

I'll get back to you guys in a couple days.

[Edit] - Ahhh turns out this is controlled via the projector to fill the screen. Amazing how slow you can be after 16 hours at work :) Got it hooked up to the cable box via composite. YIKES! Looks like my old TV did only bigger. :eek: Time to get a new cable box with component out.

looks like this little pj is starting to slowly disappear from vendors for some odd reason!?!.......

i've been seeing "discontinued" & "no longer available" all of a sudden.......

A question...and some input would be great......

Do projectors take time to "break in"? I swear the colors are popping way more than they were a few days ago, and the wife seems to agree.

I have one day left to decide to keep the H27 or return it and order a H31 from costo with greywolf.

Do these statements ring true?

pos:
H27 Bright mode with AI has superior contrast.
neg
But at a cost of bulb life.

pos
More inputs (has vga, component, and dvi, vga doubles as second component if needed)

pos
Super quiet in low bulb mode, definately a fair bit quieter than the H31?

pos/neg:
Doesn't come with the grey wolf, hard to get in canada. (but was $250 cheaper) Would the grey wolf really make a big difference? An option may be to try and get a grey wolf for the H27. Just really scared that I won't like it (worse colors in exchange for contrast and black)

Neg:
Costco warranty is great. If I keep the H27 over the H31 I lose tha peace of mind. Bulb dies I'm out $400.

Pos/Neg
Is the H27 in low bulb mode really as good as the H31 in terms of brightness/contrast/color? I don't see myself using the bright mode much due to the increased bulb cost. (2000 instead of 3000)

Lastly....does the H31 has a high and low setting too?

Thanks for any input!

A question...and some input would be great......

Do projectors take time to "break in"? I swear the colors are popping way more than they were a few days ago, and the wife seems to agree.
Not sure. I'd find that hard to believe, but...

Do these statements ring true?

pos:
H27 Bright mode with AI has superior contrast.
neg
But at a cost of bulb life.
According to the specs it has superior contrast. I'm not sure how noticeable it will to the average AVS viewer.

pos
More inputs (has vga, component, and dvi, vga doubles as second component if needed)
Definite +!

pos
Super quiet in low bulb mode, definately a fair bit quieter than the H31?
It is for sure quiet, but having never heard the H31, I can't compare.

pos/neg:
Doesn't come with the grey wolf, hard to get in canada. (but was $250 cheaper) Would the grey wolf really make a big difference? An option may be to try and get a grey wolf for the H27. Just really scared that I won't like it (worse colors in exchange for contrast and black)
Yeah, for the money you saved getting the H27 you could easily get the same or better screen. Specs say that's a 1.8 gain screen, I don't think it'll hurt the colors at all, but I don't own a fancy screen, so what do I know...

Neg:
Costco warranty is great. If I keep the H27 over the H31 I lose tha peace of mind. Bulb dies I'm out $400.
I don't see that Costco's lamp warranty is any better... same 90 days. You probably have a longer return period for the whole projector, but are you really going to return it just because the lamp goes? I guess you could, then just buy another one and hope for better luck with the new one.

pos/neg
Is the H27 in low bulb mode really as good as the H31 in terms of brightness/contrast/color? I don't see myself using the bright mode much due to the increased bulb cost. (2000 instead of 3000)
As I said above, I doubt it will be that noticeable in practice.

Lastly....does the H31 has a high and low setting too?
Download the manual for it and see.

Good luck...

It is REALLY quiet - as quiet as my Panny 200 LCD pj, and probably the deciding factor why I chose this over other hot 480p dlps, with other things being vey close.

Contrast is excellent. I switched on AI but really couldn't see significant improvement so I switched it off. This is probably one of those things that is only significant if you like to use a meter to measure 'performance'.

Thanks for the replies. I guess it would be nice to know if coscto will take back a bad bulb. They have such a good reputation, they generally take back anything within manufacturer's warranty. But I don't know for sure about the bulb.

Generally they just take back defective product and issue a refund. So if I had a dead H31, be it the bulb or not I suspect I would get a full refund. Anyone have any direct experience with costco on bulbs?

Since I just moved and don't have any audio/video equipment yet, part of me wants to get the DV10 and start enjoying movies right away as opposed to getting the H27 which would require me to purchase a DVD player, receiver, speakers and cables to start enjoying it.

I could always get the DV10 first and then as I get settled, give that to my mother; then purchase the H27 once I have other equipment.

Also, it seems that from what I've read, the DV10 seems to be the brightest of the three Optoma projectors I'm considering: H27, H31 and DV10. I play a lot of XBox games, so maybe the DV10 is a better bet. Just wish the discounts would be on par with the H27 and H31. So far, all I've seen is MSRP for the DV10.

Jimmy

Jimmy....
Take it from me (and I now have three Movietime projectors!), you won't go wrong in getting one of these. You only have two days left to take advantage of the great CompUSA offer of having free Fedex shipping for the projector (only two days) as well as the wonderful Graywolf screen, the Optoma subwoofer, two DVD's, thirty two packs of popcorn, and assorted candy and snacks--all for the regular price of the machine! Taking this into consideration will even beat the price of a discounted H27. Optoma is probably going to keep the price of the machine at list for at least the next six months, but companies like CompUSA can throw in as many goodies as they can afford to!
I put a screen in my mother's place and take the projector over regularly to show her and my father movies, since they don't get out much these days at age 85. They don't usually comment on quality, but both said "WOW" when seeing the picture.
Sam

It is REALLY quiet - as quiet as my Panny 200 LCD pj, and probably the deciding factor why I chose this over other hot 480p dlps, with other things being vey close.

Contrast is excellent. I switched on AI but really couldn't see significant improvement so I switched it off. This is probably one of those things that is only significant if you like to use a meter to measure 'performance'.


AI might not make a difference with all movies, but i definitely saw a difference when I switched that feature on while watching Master and Commander. In fact, it seemed as though there was a "film" or fog over the video through most of the movie. Has anyone else with an H27 experienced it?

Hi All,
Well here's the final mounting solution for my H27. Total cost was around $80 and consists of the H27 sitting on top of an APC Laptop craddle (notice the projector angle can now be easily adjusted) which sits on top of an Oribital component platform. The whole unit is around 4-1/2ft off the ground. The projector is around 17ft back from the screen giving me 108" diagonal. I did have to keystone but not a heck of a lot. The picture is stunning to say the least! I hope this might give some of you ideas in handling the H27 throw angle issues. :)

Regards,
Ricky

Sam:

As I posted in another thread, I really want to go ahead and get the CompUSA deal, but not sure if I really need the Graywolf screen or the subwoofer. The DV10 seems to be very bright, so I'm not sure if the Graywolf is the best match. Also, I just don't know if I feel the need to have a subwoofer with this projector. All I'm concerned about is clear and audible sound/dialogue. (Plus, with the great discounts on the H31 and H27, hard to spring for the DV10 for MSRP).

All I know is that I have to make a decision quick. :)

Can anyone tell me what size ND2 would work with the H27?
Not sure if this just got overlooked or if no one knows. How could I figure out the correct size ND2 filter for the H27? Can I just measure the lens cap and get an ND2 of that size? The lens appears to be threaded on the inside but not on the outside. Would that affect what size ND2 to use? Sorry for the newb questions, but I've never dealt with a filter before.

Ok so here's a strange problem i just encountered with my h27,i had been using this pj with component input and have had no problems,i thought i would try to run a dvi cable from my dish 811 to the pj .I purchased a dvi-d dual link 25ft cable and installed it today.I then get this screen message from pj that says dvi out of range,could not get a picture at all,so i get into the setup menu of the 811 and change the output to 720p from 1080i and i get a picture,so i think maybe just a fluke problem so i set the output back to 1080i and get the message dvi out of range again.Any clues on what might be going on here?

Hi,
Could anybody post a few more screenshots as I am thinking of buying the h27 and would like to see a few more of the images that it can throw.
Regards,
mconnaola

Hi,
Could anybody post a few more screenshots as I am thinking of buying the h27 and would like to see a few more of the images that it can throw.
Regards,
mconnaola

I've owned this PJ for about a week - never owned a PJ before. I don't have any pictures for you to look at but I can tell you the following.

If you're looking for flaws, they're easy to see. However - if you're not looking for flaws the picture is great.

This is not a light cannon. You really need to be able to control the lighting to get a great picture.

The actually specs are off. I am 12 feet 8 inches from the lens to screen and I can't get a 92" picture. I get about a 90.5" picture. You need 13 feet to get 92"

I'll see if I can get up some pictures later

Hi,

Thanks Mucho for the reply.What kind of flaws as this would be my first projector as well.Did you check the h31 out or just the h27?.My room is 14ft x 9ft x 8ft4in ceiling.
Do you think the h27 will be ok?Thanks for any advice.
Regards,
mconnaola

Hi,

Thanks Mucho for the reply.What kind of flaws as this would be my first projector as well.Did you check the h31 out or just the h27?.My room is 14ft x 9ft x 8ft4in ceiling.
Do you think the h27 will be ok?Thanks for any advice.
Regards,
mconnaola

By flaws - I mean flaws in the color, verticle banding, pixlation ect. I think a lot of the flaws could be eliminated by having a smaller screen. I'm about 12 feet away from a 91" picture. You're in a similar sized room as myself - so it should work great - but I would suggest a smaller screen.

I would definately reccomend the H27 especially if you can control the lighting. I spent 6 hours watching movies last night - I've NEVER done that before! The first hour I was messing with the settings, finally I just started watching and enjoying. I'm looking foward to the sun going down for another round :)

I got the H27 from Costco - which has a return policy second to none. If you're not sure you could do the same.

By flaws - I mean flaws in the color, verticle banding, pixlation ect. I think a lot of the flaws could be eliminated by having a smaller screen. I'm about 12 feet away from a 91" picture. You're in a similar sized room as myself - so it should work great - but I would suggest a smaller screen.

I would definately reccomend the H27 especially if you can control the lighting. I spent 6 hours watching movies last night - I've NEVER done that before! The first hour I was messing with the settings, finally I just started watching and enjoying. I'm looking foward to the sun going down for another round :)

I got the H27 from Costco - which has a return policy second to none. If you're not sure you could do the same.

Hi,

Glad to see that the h27 is giving you a great picture.I will order the h27 soon.
Thank for the advice.
Regards,
mconnaola

Hi,

I read the Home Theater evaluation of the H27, the Athena Micra 6 speakers and the onkyo entry level receiver (503). After reading guitarman's review along with his optoma graywolf screen, I purchased all of them except that I saved a few dollars and bought the onkyo 502. I have a question on the projector: How does one activate the AI?The manual says nothing and the HT review was a bit muddled. I assume that when I activate Brite mode, AI is automatically engaged and I cannot shut it off using Brite mode; also that I cannot use AI in standard mode. Am I correct or? Thank you all for your very informed comments and I look forward to future communications within the forum.

There is a toggle specifically for ai mode. When you hit it it also enables bright mode, so you are correct that no AI in standard mode.

When you disable AI it normally doesn't shut of bright mode, so you have to toggle them both if you want both off.

So i totally changed my mind from a 4805 to this puppy after listening to you guys. I am new to this though and I have two questions. I was planning on hanging this from the ceiling, does the projector have to be dead on wit hthe screen or can I have a bit of an angle? How much give is there on that? Also, for a ceiling mount, I need something really affordable, between the H27 and the Greywolf backing I dont have much money, and I haven't even looked at the price of the cables to bring them down the wall and to the receiver.
Thanks for the help guys

So i totally changed my mind from a 4805 to this puppy after listening to you guys. I am new to this though and I have two questions. I was planning on hanging this from the ceiling, does the projector have to be dead on wit hthe screen or can I have a bit of an angle? How much give is there on that? Also, for a ceiling mount, I need something really affordable, between the H27 and the Greywolf backing I dont have much money, and I haven't even looked at the price of the cables to bring them down the wall and to the receiver.
Thanks for the help guys
I was assuming you meant dead-on left-to-right, rather than up-down. If you mean up/down, there's keystone correction which will make your sides straight again (because they will angle in at the top or bottom, depending on which way your tilt goes.) If you mean left/right, you might not notice a teeny-tiny bit of angle. It'll give you a horizontal keystone problem, which there's no correction for. You could angle your screen by an equal amount to compensate. (I can't imagine why you'd have an issue with left/right angle mouting of the projector tho, so you must mean up/down.)

For cables, check this thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=584049

Well I was thinking of hanging the screen against the wall and since the projector is on the roof it would have a little down angle tilt. I was more curious about that than anything, I could plant the screen higher and have the Projector hang a little lower, but that leads me to my other quetsion. What is a good cheap solution for a ceiling hanger?
Thanks for the link!

Chad,

This projector already has a 57% offset. For example, if you mount the projector level, with a 50" high picture, the top of the picture would already be 28.5" below the midldle of the projector lense.

Well I was thinking of hanging the screen against the wall and since the projector is on the roof it would have a little down angle tilt. I was more curious about that than anything, I could plant the screen higher and have the Projector hang a little lower, but that leads me to my other quetsion. What is a good cheap solution for a ceiling hanger?
Thanks for the link!
A properly mounted pj can be perfectly parallel with your ceiling and perpendicular to your screen/wall... there need not be any "down angle tilt", unless you want/need it for some reason. Just to state the (perhaps not so) obvious... when you ceiling mount the pj, you turn it upside down, so the image will project down, not up. You don't mount it right-side up and tilt it down to get the image where you want it. There will be a menu adjustment that you set to indicate whether you've got the pj mounted right side up or up side down (to flip the image vertically), and also whether the pj is in front of your screen or behind it (to flip the image horizontally).

I have no experience with mounts, other than to know they cost too much. I think I'm just going to make a template of the mounting holes, transfer these to my ceiling, drill holes and drop the appropriate sized bolts through from above, along with the cabling. I want it up as tight to the ceiling as possible, due to the huge projection offset this thing has.

Ahh I get it, the lens is already tilted a touch I take it. now its starting to make sense, so just keep the projector straight and make sure I have the distance right and the height from the ceiling and everything will be perfect.
Thank you
P.S. I agree with the mounts costing too much and I dont trust these Ebay ones all that much.

Just got my H27 last night. The picture is awesome against the gray wolf. Thanks to everyone in this thread.

I do have a question. Is it safe to just leave the H27 on stand by (power) all day or all the time?

Thanks again.

Ahh I get it, the lens is already tilted a touch I take it.
No there's no tilt on it by default. Again, when the unit is sitting on a table right side up, the projected image is fully above the horizontal centerline of the lens (by a wide margin no less on this particular model). When you ceiling mount it, you turn it up side down so the the full projected image will be below that lens centerline. Of course you don't want to view an upside down image, that's why there's a menu setting to flip it the other way. But ideally, if possible, your pj (more accurately lens) will be perpendicular to your screen/wall with no tilt whatsoever. If you don't like how high the image sits on your screen/wall, you can either lower the projector with a longer ceiling mount, or you could apply some tilt which will cause keystoning, but you can correct this in the menus also.

I asked this question as a main thread but got no responses. So I'll give it a whirl in here.

I was wondering what the general consesus is on the quality of the de-interlacer of the H27. Would the de-interlacer (of the H27), if using 480i output, be better than most budget DVD players (with component out)? Or are most de-interlacers of budget DVD players better?

The reason I ask is if the H27 has a good de-interlacer (or even better) then there is no point in upgrading to a budget progressive scan DVD player if I already have a good non-progressive scan player. It's about 4 years + old but I'm very happy with the picture on my CRT TV.

Just got my H27 last night. The picture is awesome against the gray wolf. Thanks to everyone in this thread.

I thought it had a good picture out of the box but then I got the Avia DVD and adjusted the contrast and sharpness. Picture got much better. I had to adjust the colors by eye because I don't have the filters.

I was wondering what the general consesus is on the quality of the de-interlacer of the H27. Would the de-interlacer (of the H27), if using 480i output, be better than most budget DVD players (with component out)? Or are most de-interlacers of budget DVD players better?

I can't answer your question exactly but I've read here that the DVI input produces a better picture than component input - let alone S video or composite. Not that I've tried anything other than DVI input myself.

Just got my H27 last night. The picture is awesome against the gray wolf. Thanks to everyone in this thread.

I do have a question. Is it safe to just leave the H27 on stand by (power) all day or all the time?

Thanks again.

Standby yes. You only need to totally unplug it if you won't be using it for several weeks.

Any recommendation for cleaning the lens from dust/finger prints?

Thanks

Any recommendation for cleaning the lens from dust/finger prints?

Thanks
No diff from cleaning a camera lens I'd say. A small bottle lens cleaning solution and a soft lintfree cloth should be al you need. For all the light going through it. it is not hot at all, so you should be able to clean it anytime. (Unlike my GU10 halogen kitchen lamps which I need to turn off for 10 minutes before cleaning, else the poly cloth I use MELTS!!!)

So i bought the H27 and the Gray Wolf 92'' With the 1.8 gain screen. My question is now, I have a DVD player that I was going to hook up via HDMI (LG-LDA531) what type of DVI adapter do i get? All the adapters I've seen either don't have pins in the main middle part, or don't have the 4 pins around the rectangle pin. Are these needed?
Thanks for the help on the choice guys!

The four analog pins are not in use. You can use a DVI/D or a DVI/I.

Hello Tom,
Just bought the H27 this afternoon, I remember you had done some copnfiguration on the H31 which may also work for the H27, can you kindly include the link for those settings. I try searching just too many items pop-up and still could find it.

Thanks for your help.

Tom,
I haven't heard about the gray wolf screen in Hong Kong, the OS screen from Japan is available for 200US (hand pull one), it there any specific OS screen I should get or any other model recommended? Should I get a low gain, medium or high gain one ?

Thanks

Slightly off topic...

I am having trouble finding a DVD player I'm happy with and for about $300 I can build a decent computer.

Do I need to do anything other than hook up via the DVI port and create a custom resolution to get a good picture out of my H27?

I own power DVD and can build a computer quite easy. If I match the native resolution - will I get a good picture similar to a good DVD player?

Slightly off topic...

I am having trouble finding a DVD player I'm happy with and for about $300 I can build a decent computer.

Do I need to do anything other than hook up via the DVI port and create a custom resolution to get a good picture out of my H27?

I own power DVD and can build a computer quite easy. If I match the native resolution - will I get a good picture similar to a good DVD player?
Oh yeah baby! You need these details:
http://robg.ca/dropbox/H31_TB0013.pdf

Actually, I noticed an occasional glitch with PowerDVD which I attribute to the odd resolution. But WinDVD works great and is much better in my opinion, now that I switched.

Just as with the H31 screenshots I have seen posted by you and others on the net, even after calibrations it seems nearly impossible to get rid of the tangerine/orange tone to skin and so fourth. This is the H31's biggest weakness appears to carry on the tradition with the H27. I spent more than 40 hours of my lamp life trying to adjust my H31 to D65k with less than admirable results. Still had to endure that dreaded orange cast to the picture. Even with simple color bars the red bar looked orange on all 4 H31's I tested. I used digital video essentials as well as avia an never could get the colors calibrated correctly even with the color filters in use it was impossible to get accurate color. Post calibration shots I have seen of the H31 compared to the 4805 clearly showed a good deal of innacurate color rendering. I finally decided to use s different method to fix the color problems. I set my computer monitor (a KDS flat screen) to D65k then ran the DVE test on it. I got it dead on. Then I took various screen shots that really pushed the limits of numerous colors and put the same image on the computer screen as I did the projector. then went into the service menus and adjusted the colors by eye. I kept all color settings in the user menus flat at "0". I then used DVE again and recalibrated with it, and geuss what?....I hit the mark dead on! Now my h31 has the best color rendering I have ever gotten on it. It was a pain in the rump, but it paid off. This is certainly a very unorthodox method of calibrating the H31 but when your dealing with obviously inept and color blind techs calibrating these units to "D60-orangegrove-herecomesthesun" specifications you have to be willing to make allowences with your self and take some rather unusual directions in order to get around problems such as this. Maybe later I'll do some screen shots and post them here in place of my current screenshots. Like they say " a picture say's a thousand words".

Update: My comments here are sure to cause some dissagreement with my choice of calibration methods, but hey- At least it worked!

Guitarman:

With respect to the previous post, can you step in here and comment about the color rendition/accuracy of the DV10 as it compares to the H31 and H27? Thanks. Jimmy

I didn't care for the de-interlacing abilities that the H31 has on it's own so I use a DVDO pro along with it and bypass any of the de-interlacing of the dvd player. With the ability of the H31 matched with those of the DVDO- it works very well.

Natja, are you saying you did all that calibrating on an H31 or an H27?
From your post, it seems like you are talking about an H31.

Just as with the H31 screenshots I have seen posted by you and others on the net, even after calibrations it seems nearly impossible to get rid of the tangerine/orange tone to skin and so fourth. This is the H31's biggest weakness appears to carry on the tradition with the H27. I spent more than 40 hours of my lamp life trying to adjust my H31 to D65k with less than admirable results. Still had to endure that dreaded orange cast to the picture. Even with simple color bars the red bar looked orange on all 4 H31's I tested. I used digital video essentials as well as avia an never could get the colors calibrated correctly even with the color filters in use it was impossible to get accurate color. Post calibration shots I have seen of the H31 compared to the 4805 clearly showed a good deal of innacurate color rendering. I finally decided to use s different method to fix the color problems. I set my computer monitor (a KDS flat screen) to D65k then ran the DVE test on it. I got it dead on. Then I took various screen shots that really pushed the limits of numerous colors and put the same image on the computer screen as I did the projector. then went into the service menus and adjusted the colors by eye. I kept all color settings in the user menus flat at "0". I then used DVE again and recalibrated with it, and geuss what?....I hit the mark dead on! Now my h31 has the best color rendering I have ever gotten on it. It was a pain in the rump, but it paid off. This is certainly a very unorthodox method of calibrating the H31 but when your dealing with obviously inept and color blind techs calibrating these units to "D60-orangegrove-herecomesthesun" specifications you have to be willing to make allowences with your self and take some rather unusual directions in order to get around problems such as this. Maybe later I'll do some screen shots and post them here in place of my current screenshots. Like they say " a picture say's a thousand words".

Update: My comments here are sure to cause some dissagreement with my choice of calibration methods, but hey- At least it worked!


There is a time when you must decide wether to please some measuring gear or your own eyes... That technique you used remaind me of what I did to my W400Q. Since the contrast was so low I had to decide if I wanted accurate D65 but washed out image or a punchier less accurate image. Thats what I love about my 4805...I dont have to make hard choices like that. I think at the end of the day, you are the one that must be happy with the image.
Regards

Natja, are you saying you did all that calibrating on an H31 or an H27?
From your post, it seems like you are talking about an H31.

Yes it was the H31 I was refering to.

There is a time when you must decide wether to please some measuring gear or your own eyes... That technique you used remaind me of what I did to my W400Q. Since the contrast was so low I had to decide if I wanted accurate D65 but washed out image or a punchier less accurate image. Thats what I love about my 4805...I dont have to make hard choices like that. I think at the end of the day, you are the one that must be happy with the image.
Regards


I agree sometimes you just need to make choices that are difficult when it comes to this issue. In my situation I saw many screenshots of presumably post calibrated h31 images, yet the images still had a certain abnormal color rendering. Now of course some of this might be attributed to mild color changes that happened when the shot was taken. however I dimissed this possibility being that after I calibrated my H31 I took some screen shots and the result was about the same. Somewhere here at AVS there are some comparison shots between the 4805 and H31 (at least I think I remember seeing them here). The author even posted the comparison shots for the very reason that he felt that the post calibration of the 4805 was much closer to reality than the post calibration of the H31. At close inspection he really didn't need to say anything, the photos spoke for themselves. I really don't understand this premise being that even service menu settings didn't resolve this. When I calibrated by eye first and then used the calibration disc to fine tune it I realized that one thing was different between calibrating by eye and calibrating by disc. By eye I found that I needed to increase the blues substantially under "picture" in the service menu. Prior to this technique and using the color filters provided with the calibration disc the reds and blues appeared to be dead on, yet the green filter showed abnormailities in the test bars that were not meant to be there. Perhaps an expert would have attempted to gratly increase the blues with a calibration disc alone. Of course I am not an expert so the intense increase in blues was something I had not considered would be normal so I never attempted it. When I was done it and the picture looked pretty good I didn't believe I did it right. Upon inspection with the color filters yet again after doing this deep blue increase I noticed that the green portion of the filter was much closer. From there I was able to get all three colors of the filter to match up almost perfectly with the test screens from the disc with some fairly subtle calibration of red, green, and blue. In my case I found there was no reason to access the service ADC settings simply due to the fact that the "picture" service settings were doing an ample job. This has lead me to believe that perhaps Optoma techs are calibrating in some way that greatly undermines blues into the color rendering. I thought that due to the exsessive orange rendering that the problem was involved in the area of over calibrating the reds or maybe the greens.T his was not to be the case as the blues clearly brought the entire color palet into a closer reality to perfection. After the final calibrations I checked out several films and got beautiful skin tones. items that once looked rather overly orange like stop lights and tail lights looked more realistic, while on the other hand grass (which usually looked a bit too yellow at times took on a very nice yellow green to natural green depending of course on whether the scene involved had shaded grass areas or direct sunlight washing out the grass into more of a yellow green which would be fairly natural as it relates to real life color. But this wasn't the fault obviously of the calibration disc, but due to the fact that red and green needed to be changed a bit up or down while blue had to be drastically changed to even things out, something I would have thought was leading my calibrations in the wrong direction. Clearly the lack of blues seems to be an issue with the H31. At least with the ones I tested and tried to calibrate being that the color was about the same on every unit I used before calibrations.

Being this is the H27 thread ( :p ), has anyone had the color calibration issue on the H27 that users seem to be having on the H31?
From what I have read, it seems like the H27 doesn't have the "orangey" problem.

I don't think I ever posted any settings of the H27, sri

I did tune it with colorfacts before taking the pictures. You can get good colors by using my how to eyeball a good grayscale thread in the new Display Calibration area at AVS.

Natja, You could hv saved yourself allot of greef by mailing me your PJ. For near $200 I could have tuned it professionally for both DVD and HDTV. 1 day job and shipping to Stockton is ground one/day also.
Sounds like you're ok now, enjoy

Yea wallnut is pretty close to me I think- What about 100 miles away? Dang I could have drove it there for gosh sakes. Well now I remember you offering to do that and I simply forgot. Yea it seems pretty good now, but if I have any trouble again I will certainly try and contact you. thnaks for the thoughtfulness.

I have TWC. I will be upgrading to HD Cable Box. Is the picture any good going into the H27?

Thanks.

Here are the screenshots I promised I would kick in. There are about 10 I did since I calibrated to get rid of the overly orangish look. It paid off pretty good. Here's the link to the shots I did last night from the Optoma H31:

http://gallery.avsforum.com/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=7476898

What’s up all? This weekend I went to Optoma's headquarters (2 miles from my house it turns out! ) to see their h27 and h79 projectors. I really wanted to see if it was worth spending 4x as much money for the 720p DC3 projector vs the 480p DC2. -Conclusion: I'm not gonna pay 4X the money for the h79, I'd rather buy the way cheaper -$900 h27-then upgrade in few years when the prices of the hd proj. drop. The picture is better on the 79 for obvious reasons but I can't see myself spending that much money on something that will probably drop in price maybe by as much as 1/2 in the next year, once 1080p comes out.

The surprising part of my visit was when the sales guy was telling me that I should definitely go with the h31, and not the h27... He said that the 31 is a better projector because it puts up a "better" image. He said that for the h27, optoma put a Ferrari engine in a vw frame--apparently the heart of the h27 is really good, but its mated with a bunch of lower quality parts. Furthermore, he said that b/c the h31 has had such good press since its arrival, Optoma will be taking the h27 off the market in efforts not to stunt the sales of the h27. --This last point raised a few eyebrows if you know what I mean...


Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but all the reviews I've seen on the h27 vs. h31 have concluded that the newer (and cheaper in $) h27 is better than the h31 (projectorreviews and projectorcentral websites, ect). Does anyone have any comments on this matter? I'd like to find out which is the better projector before spending the 1grand. The price b/w the 27 and the 31 is negligable. Thanks Peeps, Later!

...one more thing: The sales guy also said that the reason why 1 website had such a terrible review on the h27 was b/c they set the thing up wrong.... and sure enough, 1 day later... projectorcentral came out with a new review...

They're close, the H31 has better color control in that it has RGB-brightness and RGB-contrast. It has less of an offset also. The H27 came in with a little higher contrast, brightness between the two is about the same. Oh you get a carry bag with the H31, can't think of much else.

I have been to Optoma in Milpitas three times. I live 90 miles away. I went there to return 3 different H31's that all had serious issues. Was there a young asian receptionist in the lobby? Two of the times I went there I had to wait for a good twenty minutes and there was no one at the receptionis desk at all. All three times I was greeted by thomas brock, (long grey hair with glasses), was he the one that you met? So they brought you into the projection room too? They had an H79 already set up the time I went in there. I had no idea it was that big of a unit. much bigger than I thought it would be. mr. Brock told me that in his opinion the picture of the H79 wasn't any better really than the H31. Certainly this is possible but I didn't really believe it when he said that. At present I am trying to convince Visual Apex to take the H31 back and let me trade it for another model like the 4805. I am having more problems with it. The main problem is that for no apparent reason sometimes after I turn the unit on the picture fades very quickly within 20 seconds after it starts up, then the lamp goes out and the projector shuts it's self off. I put this info on a forum and it was suggested that I remove and reseat the lamp. So I did and it worked (for about 20 hours). The issue happened again a few days ago, and once again I removed and reseated the lamp once again. It happened yet again last night. All three times it happened right after I started the projector. In all three cases, once you shut the unit off, let it cool down, then restart it the picture never comes back on and the lamp must be taken out and reseated. I had the unit only all of 2 weeks and less than 30 hours on the lamp when this began. The unit before that had a problem with the menu freezing on screen. Once that happened there was no way to get the screen to go away. Also no other buttons on the remote or the unit would work and the only way to shut it off was to pull the power plug from it. The unit before that would have problems that when you adjust the brightness levels the picture would flicker and then the entire image would turn green like you only had the green of component cables plugged in or something. Then the unit had to have all settings reset to user settings. The one before that had worse issues than the other two I just mentioned. People have suggested a bad batch as the cause of my problems. No such luck, the serial numbers aren't not all that close on any of them. I am now convinced that the H31 is a lemon. Other people have come forward suggesting serious problems with their units as well. One guy said that an authorised reseller told him that they were selling the H31 and had so many complaints about it that they took it off the shelf and returned all of the units to optoma and got a refund for all of them due to so many problems and complaints. You can't go by reviews on projector central or by techs that just try it out now and then. The posts on projector central are usually done after the user has the unit for a very short period of time. Once you post an opinion on a unit once, you can't post an opinion on it again, so you can't go by that. After 4 units with major issues I am trying to return this unit to visual Apex. However I have had it for about 3 months now. When I spoke the rep that helped me she said she would contact Optoma about this but that she would go ahead and take the unit back, but she would get back to me in a day or so with an RMA number. I never heard from her after that (about 2 weeks ago). Optoma refuses to give me another replacement unit, they refuse to even switch me to another model, and they refuse to refund my money. they say I must get it repaired. But you know as well as I do that if i return the unit to them they will say they can't find any issues with it being that the problem only happens every so often with the lamp getting real dim, then the unit shutting off suddenly. So I would then get it back unrepaired. I am discusted with both the H31 and with optoma. If I can get this projector off my hands I will never go back to Optoma or it's projectors. Those of you with H31's have been advised. Don't be suprised if the unit starts giving you troubles as well. Some might dissagree with me on this and see this as an isolated incident. that's your right, but if you read this and something does happen a few months down the road, you won't be able to say you weren't properly warned. I might very well be stuck with this unit, but if Visual Apex does take it back I will never buy optoma again. I have had it with this projector! :eek:

Wow, i'm really sorry to hear all of that Natja. Your story does not put Optoma or the h31 in a good light. I want to say that your projector is lemon. They should just replace it. Period.

I didnt see the same people working at the desk as you. And I made an appointment to come in and see the projectors in action. The guy i talked with pointed out at least 10 things the 79 does better than the 31. The biggest being resolution with 720p --its stunning.

Good luck with your lemon--that really sucks! I'd try to talk to their customer service and explain to them what happend.


one more thing: the h79 was huge compared to the 31... i would say 4 times as heavy, 4 times as big, ----LOL HENCE, 4 TIMES AS MUCH $$$$ -LATES

Tubaprde:

Which projector is Optoma taking off the market? The H27 or the H31? I found out today that Buy.com doesn't carry the H27 anymore and Visual Apex won't carry it.

To me it doesn't make sense to release a product like the H27 and then remove it from the market so quickly.

Tubaprde:

Which projector is Optoma taking off the market? The H27 or the H31? I found out today that Buy.com doesn't carry the H27 anymore and Visual Apex won't carry it.

Costco no longer carries it. (At least not online - you may find some in stores still)

Tom-thanks for the great info... I like the idea of the carrying case...makes it easier to bring it to your friends house when you want to show off and compare it to their 40" plasmas.

Jimmy- yes, --> I was told the H27 is being pulled. As for the h31, Optoma hasn't been able to produce enough of these to keep up with demand. Its a very fine projector for sub-1k (in my extremly ignorant opinion about pj's).

For me though, I think i'll get the h78 dc3. The colors are soooo soooo good--even if you show it on a big 122" screen. (thats big in my opinion) I've seen the 78 advertised for less than 4x the 31. God, then again, thats a lot of money. Lets see, if I buy a 31 for around 1k, that doesn't leave much room for depr; even 50% is only $500... if on the other hand the h78 depr 50% over the next 6mo, thats $2000... so buy the 31, in 6 mo sell it for 500, then take the proceeds to buy the 78 for about 1500+500 from the sale on the h31, and wala--you got yourself a great projector to tie yourself over for 6mo until the 720p pj's start falling in price ---(fyi optoma plans on selling there 1080p in January 06' ---um only 2.5 mo away.... chi-ching!!! :p Does this seam reasonable to anyone? Perhaps more of a 1yr time-line would be more accurate?

So I just bought a H27, what does this mean for me? Will they stop selling the bulbs or anything like that?
Thanks

Natja-ss-1334

Calibrating using optical comparison is actual how things used to be done - they used to use flourescent light boxes for a known light source.. The problem is finding the right greyscale reference - computer monitors are better than TV's in that regard - especially the more expensive ones sold to graphics pros.

The only comment I have on your calibration procedure is you are trying to use the RGB color decoder bar pattern to fix color push. The problem is this test pattern is to be used to fix the color of color. The greyscale adjustments for RGB gain/bias occur in the projector well after video color decoding - and what you need to do there is adjusting the color out of the greyscale. You cannot do that with color patterns!

Now obviously if your greyscale is colored - then the colorization will be colored. Think as the color video as watercolors, and the greyscale as the paper. Both can have color push which needs to be corrected - but they are entirely different problems with different controls (and your budget projectors rarely have the video color service menus beyond color saturation and tint).

The proper way to do this is to only use greyscale patterns when in the RGB menu. Do not use the RGB filters at all. Visually match to the 6500K setting on your monitor. Guitarman has posted the quick tips on greyscale as far as dialing out any visual color in the greys - and having a computer monitor reference is a good helper.

Next you can use your RGB filters with the basic video adjustjments to try to get the color of color correct - but you are usually limited to compromising the blue filter to fix error in the red filter (the cause of orange faces). Plus the cheap filters are very leaky to begin with - so this is not even easy to do.

The problem you are seeing on the Optoma is indeed one to correct. It is oversaturated and overly bright colors that make it look more cartoony than reality. Which is great if you are watching the FlintStones! Drop by the new calibration forum for more help. (Luis too!)

Natja-ss-1334

Calibrating using optical comparison is actual how things used to be done - they used to use flourescent light boxes for a known light source.. The problem is finding the right greyscale reference - computer monitors are better than TV's in that regard - especially the more expensive ones sold to graphics pros.

The only comment I have on your calibration procedure is you are trying to use the RGB color decoder bar pattern to fix color push. The problem is this test pattern is to be used to fix the color of color. The greyscale adjustments for RGB gain/bias occur in the projector well after video color decoding - and what you need to do there is adjusting the color out of the greyscale. You cannot do that with color patterns!

Now obviously if your greyscale is colored - then the colorization will be colored. Think as the color video as watercolors, and the greyscale as the paper. Both can have color push which needs to be corrected - but they are entirely different problems with different controls (and your budget projectors rarely have the video color service menus beyond color saturation and tint).

The proper way to do this is to only use greyscale patterns when in the RGB menu. Do not use the RGB filters at all. Visually match to the 6500K setting on your monitor. Guitarman has posted the quick tips on greyscale as far as dialing out any visual color in the greys - and having a computer monitor reference is a good helper.

Next you can use your RGB filters with the basic video adjustjments to try to get the color of color correct - but you are usually limited to compromising the blue filter to fix error in the red filter (the cause of orange faces). Plus the cheap filters are very leaky to begin with - so this is not even easy to do.

The problem you are seeing on the Optoma is indeed one to correct. It is oversaturated and overly bright colors that make it look more cartoony than reality. Which is great if you are watching the FlintStones! Drop by the new calibration forum for more help. (Luis too!)

I appreciate the time you took the leave me detailed instructions on what to do, and certainly your knowledge on the subject is very informative. I had used DVE originally to adjust the greyscale and found it very difficult to do within the service menu settings being that there 12 different color levels that need to be adjusted within "settings" and "ADC" as well as the normal user settings in the user menus. Certainly one would think that in order to eliminate the need to adjust the main user settings would simply be to put all color setting to a flat "0". That I found out quickly was not going to work all that easily, probably in part to the greyscale rendering. I adjusted greyscale as the tests dictate within DVE in the proper order they are dictated. The end result after hours and hours of calibrating was that the image was still not accurate. Neither have any other post calibration shots I have seen on the internet using DVE or AVIA. Even experts who have posted comparison shots between the 4805 for instance and the H31 said with AVIA they were never able to get the color truly calibrated to D65K standards pointing out more of a flaw in the projector than anything else like their own lack of ability. When seeing the shots they posted comparing the H31 to the 4805 the H31 still rendered far too much orange and green, even after calibrations, and this was pointed out in several comparison reviews I read. Certainly I am no expert, but I have owned 7 different projectors both LCD and DLP and calibration was always a piece of cake with those units. I have yet to see correct calibration shots of any H31. Even the shots I placed here at the forum are not truly accurate, but they do seem to come closer than other shots I have seen. So the method I used was out of pure frustration and thinking on the level that everyone sees color slightly differently anyway. I had to first do simple adjustments by eye with normal color bars. Once you do that it is easier to get it closer to correct and the greyscale settings were much easier to do as well. As a matter of fact I had to do very little with the greyscale, it was pretty close according to DVE. If anyone feels they have reasonably accurate color rendering on their H31 I would love to see the shots, then would love to find out how you calibrated your unit. Beyond this discussion, I am currently trying to return my H31 in hopes of trading it for another model due to serious issues with a total of 4 H31 units in less than 4 months. All non color related problems i.e- lamp dying within two minutes of startup, then the projector shutting it's self off, and then will not start without reseating the lamp, then it works fine for 20 hours and does it again....that sort of trouble

So I just bought a H27, what does this mean for me? Will they stop selling the bulbs or anything like that?
Thanks

Don't worry. H27 uses the same bulb as their business projector EP745.

i bought an H27 about two weeks ago and couldn't be happier with it. i am a total projector noob and am certainly no videophile, but i am blown away when i watch dvds on this thing. and i'm currently only using an s-video cable. i'm actually using the H27 as my only tv (though my PC does have a tuner card too) and it works well for this single guy. i wouldn't want to do that in a family situation, but here i have complete control on how often it gets turned on. i generally won't burn bulb life unless i know it'll be on for a few hours. tivo makes this easy to do, though tivo image quality is noticeably inferior to dvd.

i usually move the PJ to my coffee table for tv watching, this makes a 32" image that is very bright... lamps in the room have little effect on the image. when its dvd time, i just move it to a shelf behind my couch and get a 72" image (the largest i can fit in my room because weird windows). the 72" image is more susceptible to ambient light, but i still find it watchable with a light on in the far corner.

i did calibrate with Avia and it helped a LOT with the orange-ish faces. i watched "I, Robot" for the first time after using Avia and I couldn't stop grinning throughout the whole movie... it really looks fantastic. oh, and i'm only projecting on my off-white wall, no screen or anything. i'm sure i could get better image with component or dvi and a screen, but honestly i'm so happy with my current setup i don't see why i'd bother. maybe the "new pj syndrome" will wear off and i'll see the need for those upgrades, but for now i am more than satisfied with this setup.

Fly,
You should see I-Robot in D-VHS 1080i. It's one of the best tapes they got.

Welcome to the club.

I'm having a little trouble getting the colors right. Using the THX optimizer I couldn't get very far not having a blue filter or whatever. Anyone know where to pick them up cheap?

Also - trying to tune it - I have the contrast, brightness and sharpness tuned - but the colors ? On the H27 is there any place I should be working on other than red blue and green colors?

I'm having a little trouble getting the colors right. Using the THX optimizer I couldn't get very far not having a blue filter or whatever. Anyone know where to pick them up cheap?

Also - trying to tune it - I have the contrast, brightness and sharpness tuned - but the colors ? On the H27 is there any place I should be working on other than red blue and green colors?

There are a good deal more color calibrations in the service menu, but it can be very confusing to say the least. With the h31 there were settings within this menu under "picture" and also under "ADC". I found that if all user settings were placed flat or 50% (at 0), then the color calibrations were done in the service menu it solved the problem. This way the settings are perfectly calibrated, or close to it in the factory settings then they can be tweaked further in user menus later. I have found though that it is very hard to equalize yellow even with the filters you mentioned. Look on ebay for 'digital video essentials' or 'avia'. There is a seller that has the first one for around 14 bucks. But make sure they mention that the color filters are included. The disc will guide you the rest of the way. it is really simple to do but confusing to navigate at times unless you are really following the instructions it can be a bit tough (at least pretty much with DVE). To access the service menu on the H31 the instructions are below. It may or may not be the same method for the H27 but you can try this:

On the H27 (not the remote):
press 'up' and 'enter' twice at the same time.
Then press 'left' and 'enter' twice at the same time
Then press 'up', 'left', and 'down' at the same time once.

You will need to write down the original color settings found within these menus. Don't mess with anything except the color settings labeled 'Bias', 'Gain', or 'Offset' and are labeled 'Red', 'Green', or 'Blue'.
EXAMPLE: GAIN RED 128
BIAS RED 128
OFFSET RED 61

Perhaps Guitarman has the D65K color settings for this model, I don't know. Also he has offered to calibrate mine before for $200, but spending $1000 on the entire unit and $200 to get the right color seems like a last resort. Though other calibrators charge between $300 to $400 which is plain stupid when if you have a good enough eye you can do it for the $14 lousy dollars you spend on a disc and color filters.

Which colors appear "off" on the H27? is it the reds just like it is on the H31? Too much orange?

Freeze the THX contrast pattern and use the How to eyeball a better grayscale Thread in the Display Calibration area. You use the RGB color control.

Check a camera store for the blue filter. Or buy DVE or Sound & Vision tunup DVD's. Amazon

There are a good deal more color calibrations in the service menu, but it can be very confusing to say the least. With the h31 there were settings within this menu under "picture" and also under "ADC". I found that if all user settings were placed flat or 50% (at 0), then the color calibrations were done in the service menu it solved the problem. This way the settings are perfectly calibrated, or close to it in the factory settings then they can be tweaked further in user menus later. I have found though that it is very hard to equalize yellow even with the filters you mentioned. Look on ebay for 'digital video essentials' or 'avia'. There is a seller that has the first one for around 14 bucks. But make sure they mention that the color filters are included. The disc will guide you the rest of the way. it is really simple to do but confusing to navigate at times unless you are really following the instructions it can be a bit tough (at least pretty much with DVE). To access the service menu on the H31 the instructions are below. It may or may not be the same method for the H27 but you can try this:

On the H27 (not the remote):
press 'up' and 'enter' twice at the same time.
Then press 'left' and 'enter' twice at the same time
Then press 'up', 'left', and 'down' at the same time once.

You will need to write down the original color settings found within these menus. Don't mess with anything except the color settings labeled 'Bias', 'Gain', or 'Offset' and are labeled 'Red', 'Green', or 'Blue'.
EXAMPLE: GAIN RED 128
BIAS RED 128
OFFSET RED 61

Perhaps Guitarman has the D65K color settings for this model, I don't know. Also he has offered to calibrate mine before for $200, but spending $1000 on the entire unit and $200 to get the right color seems like a last resort. Though other calibrators charge between $300 to $400 which is plain stupid when if you have a good enough eye you can do it for the $14 lousy dollars you spend on a disc and color filters.

Which colors appear "off" on the H27? is it the reds just like it is on the H31? Too much orange?

I'll give it a try. The main thing is red/orange. It looks good - I'm just trying to get it to be great.

Guitarman:

I've sent you a PM.

Hi all. I can't seem to get the calibrations/colors right. Right now I'm just eyeing it and it seems different from movie to movie. The RBG doesn't seem to help much or maybe I just don't know what I'm doing.

Can someone help by posting their calibrations? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

welcome to the world of the great bulls**t colors of Optoma. do you notice that the skin tones look perfect in some films yet totally off in others? How about grass? look good in some and like the color of lime jello in others? And how bout those reds! Good gosh! the worst. After 4 H31 units with serious issues and every one of them with crappy color rendering I have pretty much put my coat on and walked out the door where the h31 is concerned. From what I amhearing the same color issues exist with the H27 as well. I have already sent my H31 back to Visual Apex and had been considering the H27. If the color problems I metioned are accurate let me know so I can scratch the H27 off my list as well. I spent well over 70 hours in total trying to get the colors right on the H31 with both avia and DVE discs and filters, the same ones I had no trouble calibrating other projectors with. Once I thought I had it right, two days later it wouldn't look right again. Even with Guitarman's calibration numbers for D65K, it still was close but not right. Your not likely to ever get it perfect but maybe you should just send it to him and he can calibrate it for you for about $200 and I hear he does a darn good job. He offered to do it for me, but I I honestly figured the H31 wasn't going to last very long for me and I was right. I think you just convinced me to forget about the H27 too.

Hahahaah...You hit it right now. Yeah, sorry didn't mean to convince you about the H27.

Well, I really don't have $200+ to burn right now otherwise I probably would have sent it to GMan. Just got the H27 for about a week now and can't really seem to get the colors right. So what are the calibration numbers for D65K from Gman? Maybe I can try that to see if it'll help any. Thanks.

Hahahaah...You hit it right now. Yeah, sorry didn't mean to convince you about the H27.

Well, I really don't have $200+ to burn right now otherwise I probably would have sent it to GMan. Just got the H27 for about a week now and can't really seem to get the colors right. So what are the calibration numbers for D65K from Gman? Maybe I can try that to see if it'll help any. Thanks.

here is the link to guitaman's calibration numbers. You will need to pick the ones for the connection you are using. Scroll through the earlier stuff and you'll find the numbers all over the place:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=479946&highlight=H31

once again here are the instructions to enter the service area, if they in fact work with the H27. These are for the H31.

On the H27 (not the remote):
press 'up' and 'enter' twice at the same time.
Then press 'left' and 'enter' twice at the same time
Then press 'up', 'left', and 'down' at the same time once.

I just learned that yet another e-tailer has discontinued the H27. Tiger direct had been selling it and as of yesterday they no longer sell it. There have been numerous e-tialers discontinuing it or refusing to sell it. This makes the purchase of this unit pretty scary to me. I geuss the stories are true that Optoma Has chosen to recall it and take it off the market. I found this below quote apparently created by Optoma at projector People.com:

"The Optoma H27 produces images far superior to plasma or LCD. Displaying from any image source, the brightness, contrast and color are calibrated to exactly show the images as the movie director intended. " the only word that maybe shouldn't be there is the word "color". :) Unless of course the director intended we see our colors like stevie wonder see's the keys on a piano.

So I still don't get. Tiger Direct has shipped my projector and now I'm wondering if I should be sending it back or what? I wish there was a straight answer on this cause I hate to see my money go to waste.

I have the Optoma 27 and find the colours great. I only did a little eyeball tweaking. I'm using a Toshiba SD-2700 non-progressive (the projector does the de-interlacing) player and am enjoying what I'm seeing. The only regrets I have is not spending the extra $200 for an enhanced/extended warranty (at the time of purchase I thought it was too expensive). After reading some bad experiences by various owners of various models (Sanyo, Panny, Toshiba, Optoma etc) I think the $200 would have given me more peace of mind. Oh well next time I will.
A good enhanced/extended warranty is good to have. I recently had a computer go on the fritz (had this warranty added) that was deemed not worth fixing, I was given a newer model (new) that had more features than my older model.

Yep - I've had mine for a month or so now. I have no issues with the colors, although I can understand the point of view of the "purists" who are trying for perfection.

Saturday nite past I watched the Ottawa Senators smoke the Boston Bruins and after that watched the Calgary Flames play too. Both Sens' and Flames' jerseys were as DEAD RED as can be. I don't understand all the concern with the reds myself.

at this point I think the main plusses/minuses of the 4805 vs the H27 are:


H27:
Less fan noise
Lower priced (slightly)
Better selection of inputs on the back
Less screen door (can be as good on 4805 with slight defocus)

4805:
Better optics
Greater availibility
Larger community to get help and tweaks from
More accurate colors out of the box

Then of course you have the very different angles at which they project

I'm still trying to find a place to view one or both in action, as I still haven't seen a good screenshot comparison to show whether the H27 meets the color standards of the 4805 once properly tweaked.
Also, I am considering waiting to see what Infocus is releasing to replace the 4805 in January (so say the rumors).

at this point I think the main plusses/minuses of the 4805 vs the H27 are:


H27:
Less fan noise
Lower priced (slightly)
Better selection of inputs on the back
Less screen door (can be as good on 4805 with slight defocus)
How can there be less screen door if they use the same DLP engine?

from what I have read here, the slighlty less crisp image on the H27 from the lower quality optics makes the SDE less apparent as well
but, like I said, you can apparently imitate that effect with a slight defocus on the 4805

having never seen either one in person, I don't know how obvious the difference is
some say very and some say you can't really notice it

from what I have read here, the slighlty less crisp image on the H27 from the lower quality optics makes the SDE less apparent as well
but, like I said, you can apparently imitate that effect with a slight defocus on the 4805

having never seen either one in person, I don't know how obvious the difference is
some say very and some say you can't really notice it
Ah, ok... I see what you mean. It's funny that the aledged inferior optics can lead to the unit having an apparent advantage.

Where is Tom when we need him? Anyone has insider information regarding the H27 being pulled by Optoma?

Another question I would like to ask about H27 vs 4805 is "Does the H27 have deeper black / higher contrast when properly calibrated?"

The review on Projectorreviews is what sold me from the Infocus. The higher contrast made the blacks so much better, and they said it was just a newer better player by the sounds of it. I need to know more about pulling of it! This is too weird.

Does the H27 have deeper black / higher contrast when properly calibrated?"
No! Its just a dimmer image.

I weighed the H27 against the 4805 for a long time - ended up with the 4805. You'll be happy with either - and wondering what if you got the other. As far as price, I disagree that the H27 is less expensive - almost always seems to be more. Also, I'd rather see the SDE than have it blurred out. If it's there, it's there - don't do a 125" screen :-D I would be very surprised if someone could identify the projector they were seeing in a "blind taste test" of these 2 projectors, where they were both well-calibrated.

No! Its just a dimmer image.

Right - and hence - darker blacks. Right? Chalk one up for the H27. ;)

hehe...it aint that easy otherwise the best PJs will probably feature 100 lumens dont you think? You want to beat your supposed black level advantage then get a $30 ND2 filter for the 4805.

Does anyone know the reasoning?

I was set about buying it. The large off-set and the long throw lens is what I need in my set-up so the 31 or the 4805 will not work for me (only option is to go to 2x more expensive panasonic 700 or sanyo z4) Anyone knows about other options aling this line? :confused:

So, I am still considering the 27, but gee, is it not weid thaey are discontinuing a product 4 month-old?????

I don't think that EOL on the H27 has been confirmed yet, has it? Re: offset - you may want to try getting an extension for a mount. The offset sounded good to me - except that if you ever want to take the projector somwhere, the offset from the floor or table level will have you watching TV on or near the ceiling.

Does anyone know the reasoning?

I was set about buying it. The large off-set and the long throw lens is what I need in my set-up so the 31 or the 4805 will not work for me (only option is to go to 2x more expensive panasonic 700 or sanyo z4) Anyone knows about other options aling this line? :confused:

So, I am still considering the 27, but gee, is it not weid thaey are discontinuing a product 4 month-old?????

If you go and do a 'pricegrabber' check you see a good deal of resellers still selling it. But on the other hand there are fewer and fewer now than even 3 days ago much less-3 weeks. But if they are pulling the unit why is Optom a still sellling it at their web site? I think what has happened is that there is probably a major issue with the unit that Optoma has incountered. resellers get to many returned to them and they send them back. Optoma figures they will sell them and just fix them when there is a problem, but they won't produce anymore. Of course they don't want to just throw them away since they made hundreds of thousands of them or what ever, so they sell them, make a profit, and fix them when there is a problem. That's my theory anyway.

Thanks Natja. I kind of have the same "conspiracy theory"! Weird is that I have not seen a single posting of people thrashing this pj for some malfunction. (I followed your tale with the 31) I would expect that if the problem is that serious as to pull something out of the market, that consumers would have come forth and complained in forums like this one or projector central.


Well, wait a couple of days and see if the truth is unravelled!!!
In theory and by the reviews it seems an awesome killer product. Too bad.....

BTW, has anyone used the 27 or the 31 or the 4805 with a screen of 110-115" diagonal? Insterested to see if you get enough lumens to get a good image at that size. If so, at what screen gain?
:)

Cheers

For those people (like me) who own the H27 and want to use the DVI input but don't want to break the bank on a good DVD player I suggest you check out the Toshiba SDK850 which is available at Costco for $79.95. I'm testing it out right now, and so far its a total steal for the $$$.

from what I have read here, the slighlty less crisp image on the H27 from the lower quality optics makes the SDE less apparent as well
but, like I said, you can apparently imitate that effect with a slight defocus on the 4805

having never seen either one in person, I don't know how obvious the difference is
some say very and some say you can't really notice it

The glass lens on the Optoma is not inferior. I've mentioned this before when someone annouced on his own the 4805 has superior optics. What's happening and why you see the screen door more clearly on the 4805 is that the curve of it's lens expands the area around each pixel, magnified differently, so less fill ratio.

The key thing I liked about the old H30 was even it being a low resolution it had a very good fill ratio, the lens curve blots out the black area around each pixel better. I had the Sharp Z90 with the same chip as the H30 but it's lens showed a very bold screen door, again the magnification.

The H31 Dark chip does has more contrast so the lines around the pixel are a little more noticable compared to the H30, but still the fill is very good because of the lens curve. Same deal with the H27. That's my take on it.

So the bottum line is that the 4805 has a more defined screen door effect. 4805 owners hear about this possibility and then slam the optics in the H31 or some other points to undermine the H31 or other related projector. At present the H31 is the 4805's main adversary, so it stands to reason these comparison issues would arise. I'm not trying to be either for or against any projector per say. Some of you know that over several months now I have placed thousands of words about my troubles over the H31 within the pages of this and other forums. But even still when I read the inclusion yesterday that the Optics were of better quality in the Infocus 4805, well I thought to myself "That sounds a good deal like a great big load of crap." (no offense meant to whom ever proclaimed it.) But we also need to consider at times that just because someone writes it...well that doesn't mean it is the gospel truth. On the subject of the Optics I really wouldn't know. Perhaps we are wrong and this gentleman is correct. When I read an opinion or info by some of the heavy hitters here I always conclude that it must be correct or the best opinion simply due to that persons experience, and for the most part it is very educating to consider many of these opinions or at least look at the possibility that a comment could be true or misguided information either the fault of the party laying claim to it, or simply something that had been previously accepted as truth simply because some tech on a website said it was, so we instantly believe it, but they too can be wrong, or simply proclaiming their personal preference. On the issue of the Optics incorporated within the 4805, it has been stated that the 4805 has better optics than the H31. But could this be simply the opinion of an individual who perhaps wrote an article comparing the two optics side by side even if he were a tech who wrote it? It could be the truth, then again it could be simply his Opinion. Then again, let's argue the point that perhaps if the two were compared side by side it could be concluded that the 4805 has better optics. It really still boils down to what your taste is. In my opinion if the 4805 seems to define the depth of the pixels rendered within the image, maybe it isn't such a good thing if the Optics really are superior if it renders the picture with more negative and less positive to deal with. The H31 had a very crisp, clear and film like image without the headache of the obvious and more well defined SDE effect of the 4805 (if it does indeed have that effect). On this level my opinion is that the 4805 loses in that arena if it is true. If the SDE is caused by darker definition between the pixels it will obviously lose next to the H31 where minimalizing SDE is concerned, simply due to the fact that the H31 can also be put slightly out of focus rendering even less of it than the 4805 can achieve with the same focusing methods. This leads me to Believe that the H31 will render less SDE than the 4805. Simple mathematics involved here if indeed the 4805 shows a stronger SDE in perfect focus over the H31.

Funny how things go. I keep reading about how everyone claims the 4805 is superior to the H31, but all the tech comparisons I have read say the opposite. this leads me to feel the need to ask the question "How many of these users of the 4805 actually saw the H31 in action in the right conditions?" This has yet to be established. This is important to me because I am seriously considering the 4805 as my next unit. I believe I would like it for it's color rendering of course, but I have the feeling that the contrast of the H31 is going to be superior and that of the 4805. All the experts say that this is true. users who claim to have used both say the 4805 has the same or even better blacks and contrast. Hell I read one reviewer who cliamed that the 4805 had better blacks than the H27 by optoma rated at 4000:1 with ImagAI. Now how in the hell could a projector calibrated to 2200:1 beat one uncalibrated at 4000:1? Yet there are those who would claim this is possible. if it is then the contrast of the H27 would be the same as that of the H31 or there abouts, and I doubt that is the case.

The glass lens on the Optoma is not inferior. I've mentioned this before when someone annouced on his own the 4805 has superior optics. What's happening and why you see the screen door more clearly on the 4805 is that the curve of it's lens expands the area around each pixel, magnified differently, so less fill ratio.

The key thing I liked about the old H30 was even it being a low resolution it had a very good fill ratio, the lens curve blots out the black area around each pixel better. I had the Sharp Z90 with the same chip as the H30 but it's lens showed a very bold screen door, again the magnification.

The H31 Dark chip does has more contrast so the lines around the pixel are a little more noticable compared to the H30, but still the fill is very good because of the lens curve. Same deal with the H27. That's my take on it.

Thanks for the (re)explanation GM. Much appreciated!

Thanks Natja. I kind of have the same "conspiracy theory"! Weird is that I have not seen a single posting of people thrashing this pj for some malfunction. (I followed your tale with the 31) I would expect that if the problem is that serious as to pull something out of the market, that consumers would have come forth and complained in forums like this one or projector central.

Exactly. Although it is still fairly new I suppose. It's only showed itself around in Canada quite recently anyway. I've found no faults with mine, although I've only used the DVI and RGB inputs. An issue on the component or one of other ones I haven't yet used is all I can think of that could be wrong.

Hey all,

I just called Optoma and spoke with someone in their sales department.
He confirmed the H27 was deemed "end of life" two weeks ago due to the H31 selling better and the online reviews being in the H31's favor.
This surprised me, as he specifically focused on multiple online reviews as liking the H31 better as a deciding factor in stopping production of the H27.
He confirmed the orangey reds of the H31 are an issue and need some tweaking, and that the H27 was better in that regard, but sales and reviews killed the H27 before it was able to shine.
He said the H31 will be their entry market projector until around June of 2006, which is when they estimate it to be replaced.
When I mentioned I was diassapointed that the H31 was once again their main entry market projector, when it seemed like the H27 had better colors over all, he said I would be "really pleased" with the H31's new replacement come next year.

If you are readng this "Optoma Guy" (name withheld just in case he prefers it that way), thanks for the info. Your polite and friendly demeanor is much appreciated.

Well, there's the info we've been looking for.
Now to find out more about this June 2006 projector!

Hey all,

I just called Optoma and spoke with someone in their sales department.
He confirmed the H27 was deemed "end of life" two weeks ago due to the H31 selling better and the online reviews being in the H31's favor.
This surprised me, as he specifically focused on multiple online reviews as liking the H31 better as a deciding factor in stopping production of the H27.
He confirmed the orangey reds of the H31 are an issue and need some tweaking, and that the H27 was better in that regard, but sales and reviews killed the H27 before it was able to shine.
He said the H31 will be their entry market projector until around June of 2006, which is when they estimate it to be replaced.
When I mentioned I was diassapointed that the H31 was once again their main entry market projector, when it seemed like the H27 had better colors over all, he said I would be "really pleased" with the H31's new replacement come next year.

If you are readng this "Optoma Guy" (name withheld just in case he prefers it that way), thanks for the info. Your polite and friendly demeanor is much appreciated.

Well, there's the info we've been looking for.
Now to find out more about this June 2006 projector!

Well it's about time someone came forward at Optoma and came clean with this. I asked them similar questions before and got very little in the way of direct answers and it has been frustrating. But this response from Optoma may still suggest that they aren't very confident with the H27. It is still possible that it may have issues and they aren't saying so. I wouldn't be suprised. Of course his statment might be very well true, but it doesn't exactly preclude the other possibility. It is just that the other explanation is probably factual and much easier to tell anyone who might inquire about the status of the H27. There have been reports from sellers of the unit that they stopped selling it due to a lrage volume of returns due to problems with the unit. That is why I make this assumption. Though it may still be wrong. His reply to your inquiry doesn't explain why reputable sellers would decide to stop selling it. Optoma's response shouldn't be the only reason why outlets refuse to sell it. If Optoma can still make a profit off the unit, it certainly wouldn't be in their best interest to ask sellers to send them all back. The only obvious way to explain this is that there must be issues with it.

That's the thing....if there is an issue with it, where are all the complaining customers?

I don't want an H31, as the orangey reds just bother me too much.
And when the H27 has less noticeable SDE and is quieter than the 4805 , I was pretty much decided on the H27.
But, I can't buy my PJ until January.
So, now I wonder if their will even be any H27's left for sale by then.

One thing that should be taken into account is that a small portion of those who purchase units actually frequent this or any other forum. Who is to say how many even post feedback for the vendor they purchased it from. I noticed recently that the h31 at projector central hasn't had a new review from a customer for nearly two weeks now, yet Optoma probably sells thousands of them every month world wide. So what I am saying is that for every 200 or 300 units sold maybe one person posts their opinions on the unit- good, bad, or otherwise. Another aspect is that the majority of those who purchase a unit post an opinion withint the first few days to a month and we never find out if anything did go wrong later on down the road being that projector central allows only one feedback for each unit from the same member. This is what I did. Post opinions on the unit out of excitement initially thinking on the level of how good the image is or what not, then when the issues began it was too late and I couldn't post an opinion after that. These people who purchased the H27 and had complaints might have done the most common thing and complain directly to Optoma or the seller they purchased it from. I found a good deal of feedback on all sorts of projectors that was negative that wasn't found for the most part at the most common forums. I searched through google, msn, and yahoo with many different titles like "Optoma H27 issues" or "problems with my H31" in order to find some of these. And even then it was tough. But then if a retailer say's they returned their entire shipment of H27's due to complaints, it obviously must be true. They gain nothing by by admitting to that fact if it isn't true. It reflects on their reputation to some degree, i.e.-"They sell unreliable products." tech reviews aren't a very good gauge of the reliability of a unit simply because they haven't got the time to fiddle with a single unit for weeks, hence the reason you never read about major issues encountered in reviews. Even still the original one Posted at projector central that they did on the H27 didn't fare very well, then they did another one and sited that the first one was probably defective. So optoma sent them and H27 to review and even it was defective apparently. if you read customer reviews on numerous Optoma units there are a good amount of complaints in forums about optoma projectors at projector central. For the most part the reviews are fairly good, but there are some people that have had problems with them. After I had to return 4 h31 units for various problems, and each one was pretty much in somewhat different serial number categories was enough to convince me that there are enough issues with that one that I believe it has proven already to be a fairly unreliable unit. When I first mentioned this users of the H31 retaliated 2 months ago or so. Now some of those people are back saying they are now having trouble with the H31 and the H27. Some of these posts are not usually found under titles directly involving the projector at hand. It could be titled "Infocus 4805 question" for example. The next thing you know some guy recomends the H31 in the thread, then the ball gets rolling on problems. The point is there is plenty of complaints on both the H31 and the H27, they are simply not easy to find. I found a good deal of it through many weeks of research.

There is no problem whatsoever on my H27 after 6 weeks of usage.

Bad news travel the fastest. If there are wide spread returns of the H27 there is no way that we haven't heard it here yet. Another speculation I heard is that the introduction of the H27 was really a bad marketing move since Optoma already has a very good 480p DLP seller in the H31.

Dreamcat - just noticed your post. I think that's the more believable version of the truth.

I have had my Optoma H27 for only about a month and half. This is really too early for any major complaints to arise. But so far I'm loving the picture. Orangy reds? I don't see them with a lowly Toshiba SD-2700 DVD player through compenent. Maybe my saving grace is that I only project onto a 64" diagonal screen. The screen size is dictated by my room setup. Soft picture and dark? I don't see it. The picture is very sharp and movie like to me and quite bright in the economy mode.
I've come to the conclusion there will always be some unhappy experiences. No matter what you buy. For example I had an Outllaw 1050 receiver. Great receiver while it worked. I had to send it back for warrranty work at one point ( only costing money for shipping costs one way). After warrranty I had problems again. Too expensive to fix. I can't deny it was a great sounding receiver that I was unlucky enough to have more than usual problems. There are many out there that have only good experiences. My bad experience is not definetive on this product.
My point is. No matter what product is used, there always be some horror stories in relation to that product. Probably add to that, bad news will seem to make the headlines quicker than good news. Just watch CNN.
Bottom line for me is ..... Get a general consesus. Give the product a whirl and chances are, you will be among the majority of happy users.

Hello All,

About 2 months ago I posted to this forum and received great advice concerning 480p projectors. Given this advice, the online reviews from owners and magazines, I purchased an Optoma H27 from J&R. Once installed (tabletop) with a greywolf screen, I just wasn't satisfied with the PQ. Unless you sat directly facing the screen (I was about 10' back) the picture wasn't that brite and also appeared blurry. Unfortunately, when I sat in the optimum position, the heat from this projector was just too uncomfortable. Another issue I had was that for some reason each dvd I watched, I had to change to color on the projector as the colors were not correct even after setting them using the THX optimizer. I had it hooked up via DVI with the oppo 971.

I think one issue for me was that I had owned CRT's up until this time and I just got use to watching a much higher contrast and brighter picture (even though I toned the brightness/contrast on the TV down below 50% again using the optimizer as a test). Although the large screen size was nice, I didn't want to trade brightness/contrast/sharpness for size (especially since I sit only about 10' back). So I returned the H27 to J&R, who are great with returns - no restocking fees - and purchased a panny 42" plasma. Although a lot more $$ than the h27, I am finally satisfied with the PQ.

I think it is interesting that Optoma might be closing out the H27....and probably a good move since in my mind it likely wasn't a superior product compared with the H31. I may jump back into the projector market once I can afford a 720p or 1080i one....

I'm on the fence about the H27. There are still a few online retailers that have this in stock. What confuses me is that Home Theater Magazine gave the H27 an awesome review and that publication is a very widely read magazine and surely must have generated huge sales for the H27. Then only a 3 weeks after that review, the H27 is being discontinued. Maybe a marketing mistake due to the still popular and more widely known H31? Who Knows. I'm perplexed.

' I think it is interesting that Optoma might be closing out the H27....and probably a good move since in my mind it likely wasn't a superior product compared with the H31'

So why did you get rid of your Optoma H31?

' I think it is interesting that Optoma might be closing out the H27....and probably a good move since in my mind it likely wasn't a superior product compared with the H31'

So why did you get rid of your Optoma H31?
I'm not sure if you are attributing that quote - it looks like it. He didn't say he had an H31. He had an H27 and returned it in favor of a 42" plasma set.

Hello All,

About 2 months ago I posted to this forum and received great advice concerning 480p projectors. Given this advice, the online reviews from owners and magazines, I purchased an Optoma H27 from J&R. Once installed (tabletop) with a greywolf screen, I just wasn't satisfied with the PQ. Unless you sat directly facing the screen (I was about 10' back) the picture wasn't that brite and also appeared blurry.
Well without stating your video sources and screen size, it's hard to draw conclusions from your comment. Just like the H31 and the 4805, the H27 is no light cannon. It's designed for entry-level HT use, so of course it's not going to have the high lumens output of the larger units or any direct-view set. If you are throwing up a crappy cable tv feed to massive proportions, yeah, it's going to look pretty terrible, blurry, out-of -focus. I now can't stand watching my crappy cable tv feed, run through SageTV pvr software/Hauppauge tuner cards on my pc. I like the idea of running my own pvr and Sage is great, but I'm seriously considering switching to satellite with the HD/pvr unit that is now avaialble because of how brutal regular cable looks blown up.

If you are saying your dvd playback looks blurry, then you've got an equipment problem or a configuration problem. I can only throw an 82" screen at present but I can guarantee you dvd playback and pc desktop it is razor sharp, corner to corner. <Shrug>. Maybe I got lucky with my H27.

If you are saying your dvd playback looks blurry, then you've got an equipment problem or a configuration problem. I can only throw an 82" screen at present but I can guarantee you dvd playback and pc desktop it is razor sharp, corner to corner. <Shrug>. Maybe I got lucky with my H27.

Yeah - I'm projecting onto a 92" screen and normal TV don't look so hot especially the networks. The "cable" channels look ok. The HDTV channels look good. (Not amazing) I don't watch much TV so it doesn't make a big difference. My wife watches TV but she ain't picky. We did watch "Lost" last night in HDTV. Quite nice.

Anyways - I agree if a DVD didn't look really good then there was definately something wrong. My H27 puts up an incredible picture via DVD. Amazing really considering the price of the unit.

I'll chime in and agree with Rob and Mucho.
H27 looks pretty darn good with DVD and HDTV. Razor sharp in fact.
Regular TV looks terrible. Soft, a tad blurry and dark.
This is from a BEV 6100 sat (component in).
I tend not to watch the 'regular' channels anymore except for space and spike.
Most of my watching is on HDTV (come on CBC where's my HD hockey?!).
This is an entry level pj, defintely not a light cannon.
I'm in the process of looking for a retailer for parkland plastics here in toronto to try to find a better screen (black out cloth just doesn't have enough gain).
Consider me happy though. great investment. well for its price, you can't go wrong.
sucks about the EOL announcement though.
I'm hoping the bulbs will still be available for some time (as per a previous post that mentioned the same bulb is used in another optoma business class pj).
I'll switch up to a 720p once they plummet in price.
good for now though :)

Hey all,

I just called Optoma and spoke with someone in their sales department.
He confirmed the H27 was deemed "end of life" two weeks ago due to the H31 selling better and the online reviews being in the H31's favor.
This surprised me, as he specifically focused on multiple online reviews as liking the H31 better as a deciding factor in stopping production of the H27.
He confirmed the orangey reds of the H31 are an issue and need some tweaking, and that the H27 was better in that regard, but sales and reviews killed the H27 before it was able to shine.
He said the H31 will be their entry market projector until around June of 2006, which is when they estimate it to be replaced.
When I mentioned I was diassapointed that the H31 was once again their main entry market projector, when it seemed like the H27 had better colors over all, he said I would be "really pleased" with the H31's new replacement come next year.

If you are readng this "Optoma Guy" (name withheld just in case he prefers it that way), thanks for the info. Your polite and friendly demeanor is much appreciated.

Well, there's the info we've been looking for.
Now to find out more about this June 2006 projector!

For tweaking the orangey reds, did he imply that the average person could do the tweaking themselves or that tweaking would need to be done hardware wise and we won't see a fix until the new model is released?

Greg

i am new to pj's, anyone have any tips on settings, i have a greywolf 102" screen, and the pj sitting on a shelf about 11ft away, i placed it where the keystone issue is not a factor, but need some advice on settings, most reviews say it needs some tweaking out of the box, but being a newbie, i have no idea what to do, HELP!!!

One entry mentioned problems with calibrated color having different appearences depending on the dvd that is viewed. Some sources might show what seems to be a perfect rendering of the sky, grass, skin tones, ect. then others might render a fairly artificial look to some colors. I believe this is what the entry was talking about. I had that trouble with all 4 H31 units I had. It is for the most part fairly a subtle problem, but can be down right horrid with some source material. Here is one good example. I calibrated the H31 pretty well. I noticed that the over all color quality of numerous films looked "dead-on". However I watched a film called "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" (remastered through anchor bay), and at times the colors looked way off. So far off that it looked discusting at times. So naturally I figured it was simply the source material. This was not so. Later I checked it out on my computer monitor and it looked superb and natural. Other source material that looked good on the projector looked the same of the computer monitor. The computer monitor is set at near perfect D65K (checked with DVE). But I have discovered that the H31 appears to render some shades of color innacurately even while producing great color over all and when calibrated correctly. I checked numerous other scenes out in this film and other DVD's by freezing a shot on my projector then placing the same shot on my computer screen. Many shots between the two were nearly perfect matches, while others were way off. numerous scenes in 'Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry' showed good skin tones but at the same time background grass appeared almost blue at times and the sky was green in some shots. The same scenes looked nowhere near that way on my KDS 19" monitor. This deffinately leads me to suspect that the H31 at least might have a difficult time rendering certain colors correctly even when calibrated right. It appears the H27 might have the same problem. I had no such trouble with the BenQ unit I owned before the 4 H31 units (all of which seemed to display some colors wrong.) Any opinions on this?

For tweaking the orangey reds, did he imply that the average person could do the tweaking themselves or that tweaking would need to be done hardware wise and we won't see a fix until the new model is released?

Greg

The problem can be partially corrected via the service menu settings but not corrected completely, I spent days on it and could not completely get rid of the redish skin tones without messing other colors up, but it was better.

My experience with the H27 is that I had no trouble calibrating the colour to get a natural look that was appealing to me. I'm sure there is a difference in source material (in fact I know there is). For example with my regular CRT TV I find a variety differences in channels and even in the same channel with different commercials. I don't watch TV on my projector. Comparing PC output and a DVD source would certainly produce differences. As would using different DVD players with the same projector. Let alone the quality of the DVD itself.

I still maintain the best thing to do is settle upon some likely prospects and then get them at a place that has a good return policy. If you are not happy with the product you just return it; no harm no foul. That goes for all electronics. There is a wide variety of experiences for each product.

You can research until your eyes fall out. In the end YOU have to make a decision and it has to satisfy YOU.

I just finished setting my 90" greywolf sreen up and noticed a clear strip of plastic at the top of the screen when it is extended. It covers the top part of the screen. Do I remove this or leave it be? This is probably a stupid question but the screen came with no instructions. Help!

One entry mentioned problems with calibrated color having different appearences depending on the dvd that is viewed. Some sources might show what seems to be a perfect rendering of the sky, grass, skin tones, ect. then others might render a fairly artificial look to some colors. I believe this is what the entry was talking about. I had that trouble with all 4 H31 units I had. It is for the most part fairly a subtle problem, but can be down right horrid with some source material. Here is one good example. I calibrated the H31 pretty well. I noticed that the over all color quality of numerous films looked "dead-on". However I watched a film called "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry" (remastered through anchor bay), and at times the colors looked way off. So far off that it looked discusting at times. So naturally I figured it was simply the source material. This was not so. Later I checked it out on my computer monitor and it looked superb and natural. Other source material that looked good on the projector looked the same of the computer monitor. The computer monitor is set at near perfect D65K (checked with DVE). But I have discovered that the H31 appears to render some shades of color innacurately even while producing great color over all and when calibrated correctly. I checked numerous other scenes out in this film and other DVD's by freezing a shot on my projector then placing the same shot on my computer screen. Many shots between the two were nearly perfect matches, while others were way off. numerous scenes in 'Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry' showed good skin tones but at the same time background grass appeared almost blue at times and the sky was green in some shots. The same scenes looked nowhere near that way on my KDS 19" monitor. This deffinately leads me to suspect that the H31 at least might have a difficult time rendering certain colors correctly even when calibrated right. It appears the H27 might have the same problem. I had no such trouble with the BenQ unit I owned before the 4 H31 units (all of which seemed to display some colors wrong.) Any opinions on this?


:confused: I heard that H27 was somewhat orange when displaying red. I have a Sanyo LCD pj bought five years ago and am considering upgrading to a DLP entry-level pj. I am on a fence between H27 and Z4/AE900 (much more expensive though). My main concerns are color saturation, accuracy, & contrast. As I use it primarily for watching dvd movies (mostly action), 480p is probably enough for it at least for a few coming years before HD-DVD becoming the mainstream. In addition, there are rumours about using DVI of H27 over component input will upscale to 720p and get great picture. Your wise opinions please. Thank you!

Hello All,

......Unless you sat directly facing the screen (I was about 10' back) the picture wasn't that brite and also appeared blurry. Unfortunately, when I sat in the optimum position, the heat from this projector was just too uncomfortable. Another issue I had was that for some reason each dvd I watched, I had to change to color on the projector as the colors were not correct even after setting them using the THX optimizer. I had it hooked up via DVI with the oppo 971.....


I am considering the H27 based on the great reviews posted online. Besides the picture qualities you mentioned, I am worried about the heat dissipation and noise nuisance it produced while watching dvd movies. My sitting distance from the screen is about 3 meters with the pj on table by my side. Please tell how long does it take to cool down completely after power-off? Also, do you find the noise annoying especially during silent moments? Thanks a lot.

Hi Ino,

Concerning your question about projector placement - if you are planning on putting it near where you will sit, I think the heat issue is more critical than the noise. The H27 gets very hot and the fan blows the hot air out the front which then circulates into the room. I could feel the heat within about 3 feet of the unit. The only way I could get around this, was to mount it on a tripod about 2-3 feet above my head when sitting down. That way the heat traveled up to the ceiling and away from me. Also, when using the AI function to maximize contrast, the bulb is in the high setting meaning the fan does run at a higher speed. Fan noise wasn't too troublesome, but you could still hear it within about 2-3 feet. Also, the bulb got even hotter in this mode.

I agree with the previous comments about the fact that the H27 shoots a clear picture from dvd on closeups. People's faces looked clear in these instances; however, distant shots of skylines, people, etc. were not clear to me at all - everything seemed to sort of blend into the background. I used the oppo 971 and even tried different resolutions - being most satisfied with it sending the H27 a 720p signal through dvi. However, it just wasn't clear enough for my liking.

I am considering the H27 based on the great reviews posted online. Besides the picture qualities you mentioned, I am worried about the heat dissipation and noise nuisance it produced while watching dvd movies. My sitting distance from the screen is about 3 meters with the pj on table by my side. Please tell how long does it take to cool down completely after power-off? Also, do you find the noise annoying especially during silent moments? Thanks a lot.
I highly doubt you'll find noise a problem, especially if you run it with AI/brite mode off. As for the heat, it blows out sort of diagonally from the left front of the unit (relative to you standing behind it when it's sitting on a table). If you sit to the right of the pj, the heat won't bother you at all. If the unit is mounted between two chairs, I wouldn't want to be sitting on the left!

The fan runs perhaps 60 seconds I guess before it shuts off. I never timed it actually, but I doubt it's any longer than that. It is short enough that you can stand and wait for it, if you are putting the pj away for example when you are done. Although I see you said "cool down completely". I'm not sure how cool you really mean.

......The fan runs perhaps 60 seconds I guess before it shuts off. I never timed it actually, but I doubt it's any longer than that. It is short enough that you can stand and wait for it, if you are putting the pj away for example when you are done. Although I see you said "cool down completely". I'm not sure how cool you really mean.

Thanks for your invaluable advice. I usually unplug all cables from the pj after movies and put it into a carrying case after complete cool-down (to prevent dust, etc.). My 5-years old Sanyo pj takes almost half an hour before I can finish it. Epson claimed their pj to be the fastest and shutting down almost instantly. I acknowledg that the light bulb shall last longer if the heat generation is at a low level. And, this factor counts in my choosing a new pj.

Sorry if I overlooked previous posts in this particular thread or other threads. I just wonder if anyone has compared the picture qualities, contrast, ...between H27 and the much expensive Panasonic AE900 or Sanyo Z4???

Thanks for your invaluable advice. I usually unplug all cables from the pj after movies and put it into a carrying case after complete cool-down (to prevent dust, etc.). My 5-years old Sanyo pj takes almost half an hour before I can finish it. Epson claimed their pj to be the fastest and shutting down almost instantly. I acknowledg that the light bulb shall last longer if the heat generation is at a low level. And, this factor counts in my choosing a new pj.
<Shrug...>... I personally think people are doing more damage to their bulb by moving the unit around, period.

<Shrug...>... I personally think people are doing more damage to their bulb by moving the unit around, period.

I was thinking this too. But then if you consider the business projectors they would be bumped around alot. So there life span would be very short. From what I understand the bulb in the H27 is the same as one of Optoma's business projectors.

I agree with the previous comments about the fact that the H27 shoots a clear picture from dvd on closeups. People's faces looked clear in these instances; however, distant shots of skylines, people, etc. were not clear to me at all - everything seemed to sort of blend into the background. I used the oppo 971 and even tried different resolutions - being most satisfied with it sending the H27 a 720p signal through dvi. However, it just wasn't clear enough for my liking.

This is probably the dynamics of photography. In my photography experiences distant objects will never be as clear as closeups. Plus, depending upon your focal point any objects that are farther away from your focal point will become more and more out of focus. I don't know exactly what you are seeing or alludeing to but you have to consider the laws of photography. Add to that, you are looking at a large picture at relatively very close proximity.

that's my take

:confused: I heard that H27 was somewhat orange when displaying red. I have a Sanyo LCD pj bought five years ago and am considering upgrading to a DLP entry-level pj. I am on a fence between H27 and Z4/AE900 (much more expensive though). My main concerns are color saturation, accuracy, & contrast. As I use it primarily for watching dvd movies (mostly action), 480p is probably enough for it at least for a few coming years before HD-DVD becoming the mainstream. In addition, there are rumours about using DVI of H27 over component input will upscale to 720p and get great picture. Your wise opinions please. Thank you!

Of the 4 H31 units I went through they all had troublw with the reds looking orange. Blues were not really right either though sometimes. Lousy color over all for those units. I have heard the same for the H27. I have heard the same for other Optoma units. It is a problem that optoma has period in my opinion.

Tuning the grayscale is all that's needed. If you don't have the equipment or don't want an ISF to tune it you can try tuning the grayscale by eye. All the info you need is in this thread.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=586468

Of the 4 H31 units I went through they all had troublw with the reds looking orange. Blues were not really right either though sometimes. Lousy color over all for those units. I have heard the same for the H27. I have heard the same for other Optoma units. It is a problem that optoma has period in my opinion.
Uuum, yeah... we've heard about it before, Natja... many times in fact. If you haven't actually *seen* an H27, you should probably keep your comments to the H31 forum, although since they are from the same manufacturer and have the same "engine", I agree there's a good chance they will look similar of course.

Did you consider the thought that you (and others) just don't like Optoma's "color palette", if I may call it that? You know, you go to the big box store and see all the TV's lined up, they've got them juiced up contrast- and color-wise in order to make people "Oooo" and "Aaaahhh". They all look good (to the unsuspecting), but they all look different too. Each manufacturer tries to push "their look". People have their own ideas of what colors they like. I guarantee you there would be countless people who would look at a properly calibrated display and complain "it's not bright enough" or "it's too red" or whatever. They would complain about that product in the same way you do Optoma's H31 (and H27 by virtue of hearsay).

I haven't been here that long yet but I'm amazed at how much you complain about Optoma's colors. I also don't know if you've already dumped your H31 and moved on to another manufacturer, but if you haven't, I'd say it's time. You're wasting precious movie-time dude!!! :-)

Good luck tho with whatever you get next.

hello ;)
since one month, i've H27 and nice picture....
but with some rainbow effect...:(
is anybody has tested/installed an ND2 filter ? is really work on it for RE ?
thanks for your help

Try turning Ai off and set econo mode. That will lower the brightness down to 385lumens which should help. With Ai you're at around 585lumens because it activates the bright bulb mode.

Id have to agree with rob Natja, your moaning is getting kinda old. We get it you dont like optoma. Ok time to move on. Quit beatin the dead horse. sorry just had to say something after reading 10+ of basically the same posts. Try an infocus or maybe move up to the 3500 and over forum ( just an idea) thanks jeff

Try turning Ai off and set econo mode. That will lower the brightness down to 385lumens which should help. With Ai you're at around 585lumens because it activates the bright bulb mode.

hi....
Bright mode is off on Management control.....but where to turn off Ai ??
thanks ;)

Not sure if anyone is having this problem. When using component cables I noticed there are some horizonal lines. Switched to s video and the lines are gone. I've also tried different component cables and still the same results.

Could it be my DVD player?

Thanks.

hi....
Bright mode is off on Management control.....but where to turn off Ai ??
thanks ;)
System menu... next one down from Mgmt.
If brite-mode is off then Ai is off. When you turn on Ai it enables brite-mode automatically.

Not sure if anyone is having this problem. When using component cables I noticed there are some horizonal lines. Switched to s video and the lines are gone. I've also tried different component cables and still the same results.

Could it be my DVD player?

Thanks.

Well that's the basic frustration, is it the DVD player or the projector. The problem is in reality it could be either. Assuming you are using high quality component cables. I have read reports not only on Optoma projectors but other projectors as well that seemingly have this trouble once in awhile, but how do we know it wasn't their dvd players as well. And the problem in my opinion anyway could evenly happen in either the projector or the dvd player. One thing you could do is try and see if you can borrow another dvd player from a friend for a few hours and see if it still does it, then if it doesn't you'll know it isn't the cables or the projector but the dvd player. if it still does it then you would know it was the cables or the projector. Have you tried composite as well just to check that and see if you get it with that input as well? There is also the slight possibility of interference, especially if the component cables are fairly lengthy. But if you have interference with component and not s-video it seems unlikely that it is interference causing the issue. Do these lines move at all or roll up or down the screen? Are the lines well defined or are they faint? At this point it is hard to say what it could be that is causing it for certain.

Id have to agree with rob Natja, your moaning is getting kinda old. We get it you dont like optoma. Ok time to move on. Quit beatin the dead horse. sorry just had to say something after reading 10+ of basically the same posts. Try an infocus or maybe move up to the 3500 and over forum ( just an idea) thanks jeff

Well I think the point that should be considered here is that you and others perhaps that don't want to read my entries shouldn't read them if they bother you. I mean let's be fair- "nobody twisted your arm to read it." I only respond to people who ask questions because they may not in fact had read some of the information I had posted earlier as you obviously had. But the one thing I wouldn't do is pass judgement on you for anything you post or your opinions. I mean aren't these forums meant for that very reason "to post experiences bad, good, or otherwise?" I post these not to "moan" But to offer up important information for those who might otherwise never read it, and I would rather care enough to make sure others don't get screwed like I did, and for them it could prove to be invaluable information they need to know. I put my points in again and again simple due to the fact that later on someone may have trouble and they simply never read my earlier posts and they have a right to know so they know what to expect. These forums are for everyone to give their opinons. Not just those opinions that happen to be positive. Again, you didn't have to read them, and if it bothers you- don't read them. And yes I have moved on to greener pastures. All of my posts are in response to questions or comments someone else has posted and I offer up repeated information as I consider it wouldn't hurt (or shouldn't) hurt anything or anybody. So your criticism of my comments really seem strange. Next time don't read my entries and it can't possibly bother you.

System menu... next one down from Mgmt.
If brite-mode is off then Ai is off. When you turn on Ai it enables brite-mode automatically.

thanks for your help but don't found any reference to Ai in system menu ?

Lamp Settings
Language
Auto Power Off (min)
High Altitude
Blanking
Reset

that's all the option in System Menu of my H27.....( living in France, different Firmware ? )
for brite mode off, it's only because i'd set this OFF manually to reduce fan noise....
May be i'm wrong somewhere ?

thanks ;)

I agree that sometimes a writer may belabor an issue and appear to be A.R. about it, but if you don't want to read someone's posts, rather than flame the writer, just add him to your ignore list and go on about your business. Then, whatever's being writen won't be there to bother you. My view is that sometimes, rather than read an entire thread, many first time readers of the thread will skip the beginning or middle and review only the most current information. Some of these threads can get pretty lengthy after a period of time. If there's a point to be made by the writer, it doesn't hurt to reiterate the point of view after a month or so if the information pertains to current and ongoing conditions.

I agree that sometimes a writer may belabor an issue and appear to be A.R. about it, but if you don't want to read someone's posts, rather than flame the writer, just add him to your ignore list and go on about your business. Then, whatever's being writen won't be there to bother you. My view is that sometimes, rather than read an entire thread, many first time readers of the thread will skip the beginning or middle and review only the most current information. Some of these threads can get pretty lengthy after a period of time. If there's a point to be made by the writer, it doesn't hurt to reiterate the point of view after a month or so if the information pertains to current and ongoing conditions.

Thanks- I appreciate that input and hope that others will. I went over much of what I wrote in these threads about my troubles with Optoma and the H31, and in actuality only basic points were repeated. Most of my other input was pretty much related to the point at hand or an answer to a question, then I would add in "like I said I have had a good deal of trouble with..." or something along the lines of that. Actually over at projector central is where I do most of my posts. And there I could be accused of repeating points to some degree I geuss. But if I make myself a minor irritant :D now and then and it saves someone else from misery, then I don't mind being the victim of the occasional jab :p Thanks again.

thanks for your help but don't found any reference to Ai in system menu ?

Lamp Settings
Language
Auto Power Off (min)
High Altitude
Blanking
Reset

that's all the option in System Menu of my H27.....( living in France, different Firmware ? )
for brite mode off, it's only because i'd set this OFF manually to reduce fan noise....
May be i'm wrong somewhere ?

thanks ;)
Wow... that's interesting. "Ai" is right in between "High Altitude" and "Blanking" on mine. I'll pull up my firmware version in a bit and post it back here, assuming you know how to find yours, so you can compare.

Ok, mine indicates "C08USA 2005 04 20".

Wow... that's interesting. "Ai" is right in between "High Altitude" and "Blanking" on mine. I'll pull up my firmware version in a bit and post it back here, assuming you know how to find yours, so you can compare.

Ok, mine indicates "C08USA 2005 04 20".


AI seem to be not present in my european firmware .....
But i'm not connected to dvi port but vga comlponent....may be Ai only on dvi mode ?
My firmware is : C07 2005 ... don't remember the last number...lol...
Updating firmware is only by technical service of optoma i suppose....?

AI seem to be not present in my european firmware .....
But i'm not connected to dvi port but vga comlponent....may be Ai only on dvi mode ?
My firmware is : C07 2005 ... don't remember the last number...lol...
Updating firmware is only by technical service of optoma i suppose....?
I highly doubt it would have anything to do with the input source. There is a serial port on the unit - it would not surprise me if the firmware could be updated via that from a pc.

I think in regards to the AI mode. If you have the Brite mode 'off' the AI mode option does not appear in the menu. But if you have the Brite mode 'on', the AI option appears.
I'll have to check when I get access to my projector. I only run in the Brite mode 'off' as I'm only projecting onto a 64" screen.

I think in regards to the AI mode. If you have the Brite mode 'off' the AI mode option does not appear in the menu. But if you have the Brite mode 'on', the AI option appears.
I'll have to check when I get access to my projector. I only run in the Brite mode 'off' as I'm only projecting onto a 64" screen.

New information for all :
as you can see yourself H27 in http://www.optomausa.com/optomausa/public/products_hproj_h27.jsp
has not the same capability of
http://www.optoma.co.uk/optomav2/public/product_datasheet.asp?pro=3&sku=530506&aw=45

so Optoma H27 in USA do better than H27 in Europe !!!???
what's this sh....??
Living in France is not very good for VP user ? LOL
But in your and mine user manual, i don't found anything about AI too :(
Don't understand ......
I'll send mail to french optoma to know what's it .....
thanks for your help :)

I think in regards to the AI mode. If you have the Brite mode 'off' the AI mode option does not appear in the menu. But if you have the Brite mode 'on', the AI option appears.
I'll have to check when I get access to my projector. I only run in the Brite mode 'off' as I'm only projecting onto a 64" screen.

i've tested your tips but no Ai...:(
No answer from optoma too :(

I think in regards to the AI mode. If you have the Brite mode 'off' the AI mode option does not appear in the menu. But if you have the Brite mode 'on', the AI option appears.
I'll have to check when I get access to my projector. I only run in the Brite mode 'off' as I'm only projecting onto a 64" screen.
Nope. I don't normally enable brite mode or Ai. Both are always visible in the menu on my unit. When I turn Ai on, brite mode shows "on" as well, and is NOT selectable from the menu - it is forced on and you can't change it. Ai needs to go off first.

However, the reverse is not true. I can turn on brite mode and select Ai to be either on or off as I wish.

Nope. I don't normally enable brite mode or Ai. Both are always visible in the menu on my unit. When I turn Ai on, brite mode shows "on" as well, and is NOT selectable from the menu - it is forced on and you can't change it. Ai needs to go off first.

However, the reverse is not true. I can turn on brite mode and select Ai to be either on or off as I wish.

Ok....different firmware...that's the problem for me .....and Optoma don't answer me :(
thanks for your help ;)

:mad: Just attended a small Optoma H27 demo. The hardwares used were cheapo - Chinese-brand dvd-player (with hdmi upscalable to 720p, 1080i), 60" da-lite white screen,......A few episodes in all five movies (namely, the Incredibles, Toy Story, National Treasures,...) were played.

My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull. Red was always tended to be orange. Blue and green were indeed accurate. Contrast was good - black was very black and the shadows details were clear. Brightness was enough at least for me. In quick action shot, the screen was smooth and fast going. My sitting was about 10 feet away from the screen and I really did not notice any screen door effect nor see tiny pixel blocks. I hardly hear the fan noise from the pj, which was 1-2 feet from me. Heat dissipation was light after more than 2 hour playing. It took some 2-3 minutes for complete power-down. The deal offered a promotional price US$1,000 (converted from local currency). It seemed attractive to me at this price range. But, I was rather disappointed to realize that it was going to be discontinued in the near future probably within 6 months as told by a salesperson at the demo.

Any advice to my upgrade from a 5-year old LCD pj to the DLP side - wait a while for next-year model or buy this 480p mediorce toy? Any opinions welcomed.

:mad: Just attended a small Optoma H27 demo. The hardwares used were cheapo - Chinese-brand dvd-player (with hdmi upscalable to 720p, 1080i), 60" da-lite white screen,......A few episodes in all five movies (namely, the Incredibles, Toy Story, National Treasures,...) were played.

My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull. Red was always tended to be orange. Blue and green were indeed accurate. Contrast was good - black was very black and the shadows details were clear. Brightness was enough at least for me. In quick action shot, the screen was smooth and fast going. My sitting was about 10 feet away from the screen and I really did not notice any screen door effect nor see tiny pixel blocks. I hardly hear the fan noise from the pj, which was 1-2 feet from me. Heat dissipation was light after more than 2 hour playing. It took some 2-3 minutes for complete power-down. The deal offered a promotional price US$1,000 (converted from local currency). It seemed attractive to me at this price range. But, I was rather disappointed to realize that it was going to be discontinued in the near future probably within 6 months as told by a salesperson at the demo.

Any advice to my upgrade from a 5-year old LCD pj to the DLP side - wait a while for next-year model or buy this 480p mediorce toy? Any opinions welcomed.

Your comments about the H27 have been reported by others as well. Numerous people had problems with orangish reds, dim picture, ect. Added to that I of couse had the 4 H31 units that were all defective, numerous other people having trouble with other optoma models as well. I was scared off by Optoma months ago by my own hands on experience. But people are sick and tired of my bitching about it. So I'll end it here by saying "purchase an H31 or an H27 and your taking your chances". <-------for anyone who might read this, you can't say you weren't aptly warned.

:mad: Just attended a small Optoma H27 demo. The hardwares used were cheapo - Chinese-brand dvd-player (with hdmi upscalable to 720p, 1080i), 60" da-lite white screen,......A few episodes in all five movies (namely, the Incredibles, Toy Story, National Treasures,...) were played.

My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull. Red was always tended to be orange. Blue and green were indeed accurate. Contrast was good - black was very black and the shadows details were clear. Brightness was enough at least for me. In quick action shot, the screen was smooth and fast going. My sitting was about 10 feet away from the screen and I really did not notice any screen door effect nor see tiny pixel blocks. I hardly hear the fan noise from the pj, which was 1-2 feet from me. Heat dissipation was light after more than 2 hour playing. It took some 2-3 minutes for complete power-down. The deal offered a promotional price US$1,000 (converted from local currency). It seemed attractive to me at this price range. But, I was rather disappointed to realize that it was going to be discontinued in the near future probably within 6 months as told by a salesperson at the demo.

Any advice to my upgrade from a 5-year old LCD pj to the DLP side - wait a while for next-year model or buy this 480p mediorce toy? Any opinions welcomed.

Your comments about the H27 have been reported by others as well. Numerous people had problems with orangish reds, dim picture, ect. Added to that I of course had the 4 H31 units that were all defective, numerous other people having trouble with other optoma models as well. I was scared off by Optoma months ago by my own hands on experience. But people are sick and tired of my bitching about it. So I'll end it here by saying "purchase an H31 or an H27 and your taking your chances". <-------for anyone who might read this, you can't say you weren't aptly warned.

I'm quite happy with my h27, the only thing that is eating at me is if the h31 is a bit brighter, and would it look much better on that greywolf.......costco is teasing me.....

They both tested out with the exact same tuned lumens level. 385 in econo 585 in bright mode. Both should work good with the Graywolf shelf mounted or HP screen ceiling or shelf mounted.

It's the DV10 that tested out with high lumens. 850 tuned lumens using the AI feature, about 2300.1 tuned contrast.

I concur with Guitarman, both projectors should have near identical brightness. The H31 is the older machine, and lacks the "AI". I suspect that the H27 has a lower "native" contrast (2500:1 as opposed to 4000:1 with AI) vs the H31's 3000:1, is more marketing - to differentiate the two projectors, much as they do with the H78dc3 and the H79.

Probably the biggest difference - is on the ergonomic side - with the H31 having a much shorter throw distance than the H27. -art

:mad: Just attended a small Optoma H27 demo. The hardwares used were cheapo - Chinese-brand dvd-player (with hdmi upscalable to 720p, 1080i), 60" da-lite white screen,......A few episodes in all five movies (namely, the Incredibles, Toy Story, National Treasures,...) were played.

My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull. Red was always tended to be orange. Blue and green were indeed accurate. Contrast was good - black was very black and the shadows details were clear. Brightness was enough at least for me. In quick action shot, the screen was smooth and fast going. My sitting was about 10 feet away from the screen and I really did not notice any screen door effect nor see tiny pixel blocks. I hardly hear the fan noise from the pj, which was 1-2 feet from me. Heat dissipation was light after more than 2 hour playing. It took some 2-3 minutes for complete power-down. The deal offered a promotional price US$1,000 (converted from local currency). It seemed attractive to me at this price range. But, I was rather disappointed to realize that it was going to be discontinued in the near future probably within 6 months as told by a salesperson at the demo.

Any advice to my upgrade from a 5-year old LCD pj to the DLP side - wait a while for next-year model or buy this 480p mediorce toy? Any opinions welcomed.

Your review actually reads out very positive. Except for some very easy fine tuning. I've posted tons of times it's simple, you view a graysteps pattern and use the RGB color sliders to make gray grey with no color bias. Pop on the Fifth Element and walah! beautiful natural color. :)

I just went over the pictures I posted. They look quite good on my monitor, sorta reminds me of when the first Sony Trinitrons came out. ;)

What's wrong with this -
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/h27fifthelement5.jpg

You could wait for the more expensive H72 which sounds very good but these budget 480p machines are a great bang for the buck choice.

I've gotten my color issues sorted out. I'm very happy with my H27.

Also - I discovered two important things which improved HD TV a ton.

1) My HD cable box puts out a 480P signal for HD channels with a simple change in the service menu.

2. Higher quality component cables than the Optoma component cables (that came with the H27) make a big difference.

The combination of the above 2 make HD TV really REALLY nice. I was watching Dallas/Pheonix on TNT HD and was blown away by the picture.

I was planning on upgrading fairly soon - but at this point - I'm not sure why I would want to spend the $$$.

You might want to take a look at sRGB image mode, if it's there. sRGB looked very natural on the DV10 which is basically the same projector.

:mad: Just attended a small Optoma H27 demo. The hardwares used were cheapo - Chinese-brand dvd-player (with hdmi upscalable to 720p, 1080i), 60" da-lite white screen,......A few episodes in all five movies (namely, the Incredibles, Toy Story, National Treasures,...) were played.

My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull. Red was always tended to be orange. Blue and green were indeed accurate. Contrast was good - black was very black and the shadows details were clear. Brightness was enough at least for me. In quick action shot, the screen was smooth and fast going. My sitting was about 10 feet away from the screen and I really did not notice any screen door effect nor see tiny pixel blocks. I hardly hear the fan noise from the pj, which was 1-2 feet from me. Heat dissipation was light after more than 2 hour playing. It took some 2-3 minutes for complete power-down. The deal offered a promotional price US$1,000 (converted from local currency). It seemed attractive to me at this price range. But, I was rather disappointed to realize that it was going to be discontinued in the near future probably within 6 months as told by a salesperson at the demo.

Any advice to my upgrade from a 5-year old LCD pj to the DLP side - wait a while for next-year model or buy this 480p mediorce toy? Any opinions welcomed.
This is so ridiculous. In that whole huge paragraph up there you have one single negative statement (about orange reds). All the rest are glowing appraisals. Yet you (pre)summarize by saying the overall picture qualities are not attractive.

What a bogus post.

I recieved my 4805 yesterday- "so long my dear friend mr. H31, I shall miss you so very little"...

My impressions so far are very good on the 4805. However the blacks deffinately are not as good as those on the H31, this is a bit frustrating but the qualty of the picture on the 4805 and the excellent color make it easy to live with the less deep blacks. However I would like to see what I can do with DVE to increase the blacks. I might need the code for the service menu, and if anyone knows some good calibration numbers for greyscale and and so fourth that might help improve the contrast and blacks on this unit, I would be most greatful. But so far I'm happy enough that I feel certain I will never go back to the H31 or other Optoma prjectors.

I recieved my 4805 yesterday- "so long my dear friend mr. H31, I shall miss you so very little"...

Good luck Natja... can't go wrong with a 4805, that's for sure.

This is so ridiculous. In that whole huge paragraph up there you have one single negative statement (about orange reds). All the rest are glowing appraisals. Yet you (pre)summarize by saying the overall picture qualities are not attractive.

What a bogus post.


You said he made "one" negative statement, however he also said "My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull." That would make it 2 negative statements in his opinion of the h27. So your comment to him is no more or less bogus than his was. I have read other comments on the picture being dull as well as the initial unit projector central had to test was also giving them a bit of a dull image. So his opinion has some fact based reality as well as having more than one negative thing to say about it. The point here is that if this unit is following in the path of the H31 then there are some units with problems while others shine. I consider his statement anything but bogus. Don't understand why it is that if anyone gives a negative opinion on a projector it seems he is almost blacklisted by some folks. :rolleyes:

I think maybe it's that he didn't describe what was dull about it, but instead said what was good about it. He even said the brightness was good enough. Leaving readers to wonder what he actually didn't like.
It's not that it was bogus....just imcomplete.
;)

"Don't understand why it is that if anyone gives a negative opinion on a projector it seems he is almost blacklisted by some folks."
You mean like when anyone says something good about Optoma you post the same warrning about your experiences? :p (Just joking!)

You said he made "one" negative statement, however he also said "My impressions were the overall picture qualities were not attractive. The screen was rather dull." That would make it 2 negative statements in his opinion of the h27. So your comment to him is no more or less bogus than his was. I have read other comments on the picture being dull as well as the initial unit projector central had to test was also giving them a bit of a dull image. So his opinion has some fact based reality as well as having more than one negative thing to say about it. The point here is that if this unit is following in the path of the H31 then there are some units with problems while others shine. I consider his statement anything but bogus. Don't understand why it is that if anyone gives a negative opinion on a projector it seems he is almost blacklisted by some folks. :rolleyes:

Umm, the statement about the screen, was ABOUT THE SCREEN... not the pj. "The screen was rather dull."... I don't see anything that references the H27 in there. He didn't say the "image" was dull... said "the screen". That said, I don't really know what a "dull screen" is, so I more-or-less discounted that entire sentence anyway.

Umm, the statement about the screen, was ABOUT THE SCREEN... not the pj. "The screen was rather dull."... I don't see anything that references the H27 in there. He didn't say the "image" was dull... said "the screen". That said, I don't really know what a "dull screen" is, so I more-or-less discounted that entire sentence anyway.

I am pretty sure he was refering to the image as it appeared on the screen as in "man why does the screen look so dark and dull?" But maybe I'm wrong and he did mean the screen was dull. But the word "dull" has appeared in 3 other reviews I have read on the H27's image, so I assumed he meant that. well fizzle stix- there I go jumping to conclusions- Sorry fellas :o

Well who knows what he really meant... the screen was dull, yet the contrast was good, blacks very black, shadow details clear, and brightness was enough for him. I think there's got to be a contradiction there somewhere.

I mean, some things hold true no matter what the technology... "good contrast" and "dull" just don't mix. IMO, contrast is what makes an image vivid and realistic... the complete opposite of dull. An image lacking contrast on the other hand, I can see that being called "dull" easily.

Good luck Natja... can't go wrong with a 4805, that's for sure.



You should read all of the horror stories about the color wheel ball bearings going out on the 4805. I am having the same color wheel ball bearing problem right now with my x1. I can't even use it it is so loud and infocus charges (or should i say robbing me) over $550 to fix it under parts only (2 yrs old) warranty. Make sure if you hear any whining noise coming from the projector you send it in right away to get the whole optics engine replaced or you will be s.o.l. like me. I am now looking into an optima h27 or 31. I will never buy infocus again.

Well there ya go Natja... the 4805 is not all it's cracked up to be afterall. :)

Seriously tho, I'm sure there will be correspondingly more complaints with the 4805 given it's obvious popularity and greater infiltration into people's homes. Of course this doesn't mean it's an inferior product. There may well be fewer complaints per 'n' units sold, but we don't really have a sense of what 'n' is here - all we can see are the numbers of complaints over the course of few threads.

I have been researching to 4805 off and on for around a year or so. I found one or two complaints about the loud noise coming from the color wheel, so I am aware of it. But over all I see a great deal more comments like "1700 hrs on my 4805 and it's never failed me yet". what do people expect? I unit that cost $1000 and they complain two years later because it has trouble? No it isn't a perfect world, though I do think it is insane to charge $500 to fix the issue. My initial response to the 4805 after a 3 day trial is that in every way it is an excellent unit and out does the Optoma H31, BenQ 6100, 6200 as well as numerous other models I have seen. Crystal clear images, very bright, perfect color rendering (something that is so good and accurate it makes the H31 almost laughable in comparsion. The color is that good on the 4805.) It leaves the H31 in the dust in every respect except contrast. I have heard people say that the H31 and 4805 have equal contrast due to the fact that they both have the darkchip2, but this is simply untrue. The blacks are just ok on the 4805. They are fair enough to get darker scenes so they don't wash out, but very dark scenes suffer and look rather deep grey rather than black. I had hoped an ND filter might help but a few experts say it doesn't or does very, very little for contrast. Second choice is a high contrast screen or goo paint. if I could increase the blacks on this unit just a bit I would never want for another projector for years. as long as it keeps working reliably.

I am now looking into an optima h27 or 31. I will never buy infocus again.I just bought an H27 and couldn't be happier. Out of the box, the picture was superb and after some tweaking it's fantastic. I am blown away by how good it looks. Rich colors, deep blacks, and detail, lots of detail.

And even when the picture is HUGE it looks great. I read a ton of reviews and comments about projectors and this one got great reviews. Now I see why.

I'm new to the HT FP theatre thing, but comparing what I had to what I now have this H27 is SWEET! Being on a budget this PJ fit my needs and everyone that has seen the H27 in action just are awe struck! Luv my H27! Thanks Optoma for providing a PJ that is affordable! :)

I put up some black velvet over the top of my screen, to help suck up the light that was shinning on the ceiling. Though it might help a bit, but to my surprise it helped a lot. Everything seems better, detail, contrast, blacks.......
I had to do a double check to make sure I wasn't just dreaming up the improvements because I wanted some.....

There is still some light spill yet, makes me wonder how it would be with more black up there...

Hi,
guitarman the photos on the the first page of this tread that you had taken were then in a complete dark room.
Regards,
mconnaola

I put up some black velvet over the top of my screen, to help suck up the light that was shinning on the ceiling. Though it might help a bit, but to my surprise it helped a lot. Everything seems better, detail, contrast, blacks.......
I had to do a double check to make sure I wasn't just dreaming up the improvements because I wanted some.....

There is still some light spill yet, makes me wonder how it would be with more black up there...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Got any pictures?

Sorry no pics. The basic idea is my screen is a pull down, with a white casing on top. Also my ceiling is white as well, so both the casing and the screen are reflecting light back onto the screen. (and washing it out to some degree). So I put up some black velvet on the top casing, and it catches/diminishes some of the reflecting light.

Sorry no pics. The basic idea is my screen is a pull down, with a white casing on top. Also my ceiling is white as well, so both the casing and the screen are reflecting light back onto the screen. (and washing it out to some degree). So I put up some black velvet on the top casing, and it catches/diminishes some of the reflecting light.

Gotcha. I shall try the same...

I ended up going with the 4805 and I can almost guarantee that if someone snuck in and replaced it with an H27, I wouldn't even know. Unless you're preparing the perfect little home theater room, I really can't imagine must difference...visually. If you are doing a perfect little home theater - I'd be interested on why your skimping on a 480p projector :-)

I personally agree in every respect except one...'contrast ratio'. The Optoma H31 definately blew the 4805 away with contrast and blacks at 3000:1. So certainly the H27 could do a better job in that area. But on the other hand I challenge anyone out there to get better color accuracy from either the H31 or the H27. They simply cannot match the 4805 in that area. But on the other hand the lower contrast of the 4805 can be rather annoying at times after you have seen the deeper blacks of the H31. But I would rather have something I can feel has some degree of the reliability, which is why I chose the 4805 over the H31.

Hi,
guitarman the photos on the the first page of this tread that you had taken were then in a complete dark room.
Regards,
mconnaola

Yes taken at night in a dark room, white walls and ceiling though. CR tested out at 2220.1 after tuning down which is quite high these days.

There appears to be a number of H27 owners posting in this thread so perhaps I should have posted my question here, but I started a new thread asking for help getting redder reds out of my H27. I don't want to double-post but if anyone reading here owns an H27 or knows a bit about calibrating color can they take a look at my post? Thanks!

There appears to be a number of H27 owners posting in this thread so perhaps I should have posted my question here, but I started a new thread asking for help getting redder reds out of my H27. I don't want to double-post but if anyone reading here owns an H27 or knows a bit about calibrating color can they take a look at my post? Thanks!

I'm a newbee myself and would only say that I purchased the AVIA calibration DVD and played around for some time trying to learn the art of calibration. I was impressed with my H27 right out of the box, but decided to try tweaking it a bit and it appears I did not screw anything up. I can only suggest if you have an friend HT type surely he/she will have a AVIA to loan you to tweak your H27. I'm sure someone on this forum will get you started in the right direction. :cool:

Thanks for the reply Starman. I actually do have the Avia disc and have used it at least for the basics. I think in my last round of tweaks I found the sweet spot for me but I'm still checking just in case. Maybe I'm like the guy who keeps flipping channels because he's sure there must be something better on. :p

LOL been there and done that too! :p I'm sure I will be up tweaking it after a few more weeks,,,still have not decided if I will install ceiling or on shelf,,,,going from one location to the other trying to decide which I like better. Decisions decisions oh man :eek:

After many post about war between 4805 and H27 and others posts not very intesresting, may be it's time to post some H27 settings to help others users, isn'it ?
KillRob, Starman1 and other, if you have calibrated your H27, please, can you share your settings after calibrated ? .
Sure, it will be very usefull for H27 users... ;)
thanks

I posted a couple of different sets of config settings for mine in another thread titled "Need help getting redder reds out of H27".

I posted a couple of different sets of config settings for mine in another thread titled "Need help getting redder reds out of H27".

Ok ..i'm going to this thread now ;)
thx

Some might say I'm nuts after the troubles I had with the H31. Now I might be going for the H27 and try to have an open mind. I just returned the 4805 after one week. I loved the projector but after getting used to the deeper contrast of the H31 I feel I have lost a great deal in that area with the 4805. How are your H27 units holding up? pretty good? I figure for the money I can spend now it is really the only option I have if I want deeper contrast. Did anyone ever put calibration numbers up anywhere here? I'm sure I will need to do some calibrating on it. I want to add I loved the image of the H31 as long as it worked, if it hadn't kept breaking down I would never have sent it back.

Make sure you got the space for the offset of the H27 Natja. Its the MOST in that group of 480p projectors.

Make sure you got the space for the offset of the H27 Natja. Its the MOST in that group of 480p projectors.

Yea I have heard that a good deal and yes it has me a bit worried. The H31 was even a bit high but got it worked out with that one. The unit will sit 14' back from the screen and about one and a half feet off the floor and projecting onto a screen that is about 5 and a half feet off the ground to the center of the screen. Do you think I can pull it off? Thaks for the reply.

Try this calculator out:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-H27-projection-calculator.htm

I think it will all depend on how big of a screen you want.

Not that numbers from a different H27 would match up which I didn't save anyway. But after tuning with Avia look at a graysteps pattern and use the RGB color sliders to best make gray look gray with no color bias. First toggle the color temps to see which best match gray. Then fine tune RGB color sliders from there.

Try this calculator out:

http://www.projectorcentral.com/Optoma-H27-projection-calculator.htm

I think it will all depend on how big of a screen you want.

Thanks for the help. The nice thing is that the unit will be able to sit at exactly the same distance as the h31 and the 4805 sat in my setup. Of course I couldn't expect the calculator to answer the big question which would be "will my screen work for the unusualy high image angle?" But the worst senario is that I might need to prop the rear of it up a little but who cares. I'm not going to think anything but the most positive vibes for the H27. Sure I had massive troubles with the H31, but so far there have been a small handful of people like me that have had trouble with it. I think it's fair to say that the H31 just decided to hate me or something :D , and I realize I said I would never buy another optoma again. So give me a pat on the back for having the faith to give another Optoma unit another try. The fact is I loved the picture I got from the H31 over all, and I was pretty darn mad that it just kept kicking the bucket on me. But the H27 is going to work out fine, and I'm sure I'll be happy with it as long as it doesn't break down on me. So far I haven't seen much in the area of service menu settings for post calibrations on it. I am certain there may be this same issue with the orangish reds, so it's good to know I have seen it before so it won't be any suprise if my H27 ends up with that trouble. So far the reviews I have read by pros say it is a fantastic unit. I think the only advantage the 4805 had was the perfect colors right out of the box. the image was excellent over all, I just couldn't get used to the lower contrast after having owned the H31. Once you've seen deeper blacks it's very hard to go with far less than that. Thanks again for the info.

Did anyone ever put calibration numbers up anywhere here?

A couple of us have put up calibration numbers in another thread titled "Help getting redder reds out of my H27".

From the title of that thread you can probably guess that I thought my H27 produced reds that are a bit too orange but after a lot of fiddling I found some settings that gave me perfectly acceptable flesh tones. And to be honest I may not have even noticed the oranginess (is that a word?) except that I read someone else's post somewhere who mentioned it.


But the worst senario is that I might need to prop the rear of it up a little but who cares.

With my setup I had to angle my H27 down slightly but mostly because I have it sitting on a stand behind a high-backed couch. The H27 sits about 36" off the floor. But I still don't need to use the keystone adjustments and I don't notice that the sides of the image aren't perfectly parallel unless I go looking for it.

Let us know how it works out!! Hopefully the H27 will be a better experience for ya! :-)

Thanks for the input guys. Firstly I did find some numbers for calibrating the user menu and how to access the service menu, but no post calibration settings for the service menu. The oranish reds seem to be a problem that effects possible most newer optoma units. All 4 of the H31 units I had produced the same exact orangish reds. When the H27 reviews started coming in at PC people were saying that it didn't have this red issue, and of course we now know that appears to have been wishful thinking. So with that fact I think theonly way to really get rid of the orangish reds is through the service menu. Even then I wonder if it is possible. I used DVE on two of the H31 units in the service menu and got a good calibration. Checking color bars afterward showed the red bar had perfect pitch with no hint of being over orange. If anything the red was too deep and still the skin tones looked a bit orange but other reds were good. But who cares? I mean to have the depth of blacks the H27 offeres and the same chip as the H31 for under $1000 is a miracle. How could I complain? Anyway I'll try to find that thread you mentioned 'rob' and see what goodies I can find there on calibration. I'll put more in after I have recieved the unit. I decided to go through 'projector solution' this time. I hope they are fair to deal with being that I nevr used them. Visual Apex is where I got the H31 and they were fantastic as was tiger Direct. I geuss I'll keep my fingers crossed. Peace

With my setup I had to angle my H27 down slightly but mostly because I have it sitting on a stand behind a high-backed couch. The H27 sits about 36" off the floor. But I still don't need to use the keystone adjustments and I don't notice that the sides of the image aren't perfectly parallel unless I go looking for it.


Hmm interesting. this sounds like the H27 doesn't have a high of a throw angle as I had though if the unit is 36" off the ground and you only had to angle down slightly. Mine will only be about 20" off the floor and center of the screen about 65" off the floor, so from what you :p have it seems to be a non issues for my setup. And I remember having to raise the H31 up about two notches as well, so I should be fine. :cool:

Some might say I'm nuts after the troubles I had with the H31. Now I might be going for the H27 and try to have an open mind. I just returned the 4805 after one week.

WHAT??? :eek: Holy smokes dude!... Well, welcome back from the "dark side" ;) Hehehe!

Or perhaps that's the "not so dark side", in this case. :D

Hmm interesting. this sounds like the H27 doesn't have a high of a throw angle as I had though if the unit is 36" off the ground and you only had to angle down slightly.

I use a portable screen with mine and only bring the system out on movie nights (a requirement to please the spousal unit), but next time I have the projector set up I will take some measurements and let you know how high the image is and how far the pj is from the screen. That may not be til next weekend though.

Here are the steps to get to the service menu on the H27:
1) Start with the projector on
2) Press the "Power/Standby" button
3) The message "Power off the lamp? Picture Mute" will display
4) Press the left arrow 8 times slowly
5) The service menu will display
6) If it doesn't, repeat and wait longer between presses of the arrow

Natja - it sounds like you have some experience with the H31 service menu. I have seen other posts showing service menu settings for the H31 and the H27 has different options.

This is what is available in the H27 service menu with the default settings:
Color Wheel Index: 435
Red Gain: 137
Green Gain: 136
Blue Gain: 137
PC Red Offset: 58
PC Green Offset: 64
PC Blue Offset: 60
Video Red Offset: 58
Video Blue Offset: 57

Do you know the difference between RGB Gain settings and the Offset values?

I use a portable screen with mine and only bring the system out on movie nights (a requirement to please the spousal unit), but next time I have the projector set up I will take some measurements and let you know how high the image is and how far the pj is from the screen. That may not be til next weekend though.

That would be a great help, thank you very much.

Here are the steps to get to the service menu on the H27:
1) Start with the projector on
2) Press the "Power/Standby" button
3) The message "Power off the lamp? Picture Mute" will display
4) Press the left arrow 8 times slowly
5) The service menu will display
6) If it doesn't, repeat and wait longer between presses of the arrow

Natja - it sounds like you have some experience with the H31 service menu. I have seen other posts showing service menu settings for the H31 and the H27 has different options.

This is what is available in the H27 service menu with the default settings:
Color Wheel Index: 435
Red Gain: 137
Green Gain: 136
Blue Gain: 137
PC Red Offset: 58
PC Green Offset: 64
PC Blue Offset: 60
Video Red Offset: 58
Video Blue Offset: 57

Do you know the difference between RGB Gain settings and the Offset values?

Hi again- Yea I think I found the earlier post on how to access the menu and pinted it up. Yea the H31 has some different settings. As far as the ones you listed color wheel index was one I would be too scared to mess with. I really couldn't tell what the differences were between offset and gain when I was adjusting them, but obviously there must be a difference. I tried my own settings with DVE and didn't like the results all that much so I went with guitarman's numbers and it was much better. And I agree with the earlier post that I saw much better skin tones even though I couldn't get reds exactly right. I wonder if it has something to do with the shades of color on the color wheel it's self? Dumb question I suppose, but maybe there is some logic to it. No on second thought I was able to get the red bar of a color bar to look pretty much any shade of red I wanted, even deep red like I mentioned earlier, but still even then many shades of red just didn't look right. I am interested as to what the formula is that Optoma uses to causes their reds to come out orange when pretty much all other colors are very good.

I have just bought H27 on Saturday. It is a used unit that I bought from another online forum.

I have Pioneer DV-686A DVD Player and I hooked up the projector with component connectivity. It is a great projector. However, I have a questions. I played PAL DVDs, the image is soft as it is watching a compressed video (eg. Video CD). I was playing 2 Fast 2 Furious (R2), Seabiscuits (R4), Batman Begins (R6), they are all displayed very poorly. EDIT: I leave 0 values (or so-called neutral values) for most of the video settings on my DVD player. I have calibrated the PAL videos with THX Optimiser from Lilo & Stitch: Special Edition (R4) DVD. For NTSC video, I used Sound & Vision Home Theater Tune Up DVD and everything has been great. The values for settings of both NTSC and PAL videos are not far apart but the displayed result is really bad for PAL videos.

Is there any settings that I have not done yet? or any solutions to the problem?

Thank you in advance.

WHAT??? :eek: Holy smokes dude!... Well, welcome back from the "dark side" ;) Hehehe!

Or perhaps that's the "not so dark side", in this case. :D

Thanks for your reply. Oh I've been around but have been posting like crazy over at the Projetor central forum. I stopped coming here for awhile because a couple of members seemd irritated with me due to some comments I made on the negative side about the H31. I thought I would make them happy and go away for while. But yea I have been reading the posts here regularly. Anyway thanks for the warm welcome.

Natja from your experience with both the h31 and h27 which pj delivers the best pq...i know from your posts on the h31 thread that you've had "some" trouble with your h31's but that aside which delivers the best overall picture qualtity?

Here are the steps to get to the service menu on the H27:
1) Start with the projector on
2) Press the "Power/Standby" button
3) The message "Power off the lamp? Picture Mute" will display
4) Press the left arrow 8 times slowly
I'm pretty sure I tested on mine... you don't have to press the button 8 times. Just hold it down and the menu will pop up. I mentioned this after someone gave me the same instructions.

5) The service menu will display
6) If it doesn't, repeat and wait longer between presses of the arrow

Natja - it sounds like you have some experience with the H31 service menu. I have seen other posts showing service menu settings for the H31 and the H27 has different options.

This is what is available in the H27 service menu with the default settings:
Color Wheel Index: 435
Red Gain: 137
Green Gain: 136
Blue Gain: 137
PC Red Offset: 58
PC Green Offset: 64
PC Blue Offset: 60
Video Red Offset: 58
Video Blue Offset: 57

Do you know the difference between RGB Gain settings and the Offset values?

Thanks for your reply. Oh I've been around but have been posting like crazy over at the Projetor central forum. I stopped coming here for awhile because a couple of members seemd irritated with me due to some comments I made on the negative side about the H31. I thought I would make them happy and go away for while. But yea I have been reading the posts here regularly. Anyway thanks for the warm welcome.
You have a short memory. One of 'em was likely ME! I had no troubles with the nature of your complaints - just the frequency. :-) Anyway, welcome back all the same. I truly hope you have better luck with your H27 than you did with the H31, if you decide to get it.

Have you peeked at that thread about the NEW Infocus units tho?... pretty sexy looking! :-)

Natja from your experience with both the h31 and h27 which pj delivers the best pq...i know from your posts on the h31 thread that you've had "some" trouble with your h31's but that aside which delivers the best overall picture qualtity?

I don't have it yet but have ordered it. But if you want I can place my comparisons then. Over all I loved the H31 despite the minor trouble with the colors. so I'm certain the picture of the H27 will be more than pleasing for me. I'll let you know what I think the differences are when it arrives.

I'm pretty sure I tested on mine... you don't have to press the button 8 times. Just hold it down and the menu will pop up.

Aha, so I guess I was just eventually pressing slowly enough that it would come up. Funny.

I use a portable screen with mine and only bring the system out on movie nights (a requirement to please the spousal unit), but next time I have the projector set up I will take some measurements and let you know how high the image is and how far the pj is from the screen.

Natja - Here are the measurements for my setup rounded to the nearest inch.

From front of H27 lens to screen - 13' 10"
From viewing position (my eyes) to screen - 12'
Image width - 6'
Image diagonal - 81"
From floor to center of lens - 37"
From floor to bottom edge of image - 51"
From floor to top edge of image - 90"
Difference between width of image at the top and at the bottom - 1"

That last measurement is the amount of keystone that I am getting from having to angle the projector down. So the image is only 1/2" smaller at the top on either side, hardly noticable to me.

You may find it amusing to know that the "stand" that I use to place the projector on is my son's high-chair. I place the pj on the table part on top of two large books. Its pretty goofy looking but at least its behind where we sit. I'll find something a little more astheticaly pleasing at some point. :D

Natja - Here are the measurements for my setup rounded to the nearest inch.

From front of H27 lens to screen - 13' 10"
From viewing position (my eyes) to screen - 12'
Image width - 6'
Image diagonal - 81"
From floor to center of lens - 37"
From floor to bottom edge of image - 51"
From floor to top edge of image - 90"
Difference between width of image at the top and at the bottom - 1"

:D

Hey- thanks a great deal for giving me this much needed info. From what it sounds like, the throw isn't as high as I would expect it to be, but seems like it is a bit higher than the H31 and certainly the 4805 when I figure it in my head. Our screen size in width is nearly identicle and my H31 sat at almost exactly the same distance- just short of 14'. My seating distance is about the same as the projector and possibly another foot further back. Being that the unit would be only about 19" off the floor, and the bottum of the image is at 45" I may need to prop something about 1/2 tall inch under the rear of the unit to get it right. But I wonder if I were to use the lower setting of the image shift if that might lower the picture enough so that then it would either need the front leg raised or perhaps it could sit flat. Since I use DVI rgb due to the fact that I run component into a DVDO and then from there I use a VGA to DVI adapter cable, I also can use the PC settings to further raise or lower the image. Sounds good. So I assume you need to place your H27 up higher on the high chair due to something that is blocking or preventing lower placement like a couch or what not? I think you mentioned something about that earlier in the thread? That is a bizzare stand to use. probably nobody else in the history of home projection has ever used a high chair to mount their unit :eek: Would love to see a picture of it. Hey I have an idea! Maybe you could find a podium of some type at a thrift store or something. You know- like the type preachers use in a church? You could use the slanted top in reverse and then the unit would naturally angle downward due to the slanted top they usually have. Just an idea even if it is a bit goofy. When I get the unit I'll do screen shots and take some of my screen and short table where the projectors usually sit to maybe give anyone who might be interested an idea of the way I chose to do this and place the shots here. I had to opt for table mount because there is a huge ceiling fan in the center of the ceiling right in front of the screen about 7' back from it. Too close to utilize the area for a mount and directly in the path of where a mount could be placed. Anyway thanks again for the info and measurments. :D

"You may find it amusing to know that the "stand" that I use to place the projector on is my son's high-chair."

Ah man, that is awesome. Thanks for the early morning chuckle. Good to know others "jury rig" before the permanent mount. My 4805 is currently sitting on an up side down plastic storage tub.

Yeah, my whole setup is rather jury rigged. Not only do I have the high-chair but my portable floor-standing screen is sitting on a small folding table which in turn is propped up on four tupperware containers - one under each leg.

Good thing its dark when watching movies!

I'll have to take a few pictures and post them just to give others a chuckle. :p

Hey I have an idea! Maybe you could find a podium of some type at a thrift store or something.

That's a good idea that just might work. I hadn't thought of checking the thrift stores. They might even have a tall stool that would work as well.

Thanks for the tip.

Well, in case anyone could use a laugh here are two pictures of my "not exactly ultimate" home theater projector setup - complete with the latest in tupperware-propped folding-table screen stands and the tres chic high-chair projector mount.

Enjoy... :)

Lol!!!!!!

:eek: Well, in case anyone could use a laugh here are two pictures of my "not exactly ultimate" home theater projector setup - complete with the latest in tupperware-propped folding-table screen stands and the tres chic high-chair projector mount.

Enjoy... :)
:eek: OH MY GOD- That is state of the art!!! Thanks for sharing the high tech setup, I'm envious! ;)

Man way Cool,,,,I gotta get a set up like that! Ultra Family HT,,,,,,you go boy! :cool:

I finally have the H27. Some minor issues aside I can work out later, my experience so far is far better than I really expected, much better. First let me get the minor issues out of the way. I tried to get the projector to recognise DVI and it wouldn't. This may be because I run component into a DVDO iScan pro, then from there a VGA cable goes into a DVI adapter and into the projector. Being that the H27 must process a scaled image that is RGB analogue this may have something to do with it. I opted to remove the DVI adpater and go straight VGA from the DVDO for this preliminary testing. I got a good solid signal right off the bat on the projector in VGA(computer input). I first put on 'Raiders of the lost ark' and emmediately noticed the higher throw that I had heard all about. By choosing the lowest 'image shift' setting and then adjusting the verticle sync within 5 minutes I had the image squarely on the screen but did need to place and 1/4" tall piece of wood under the front foot to get it up high enough being that the lowest lens shift setting is way too low while the other two are way too high. Once I had the image centered I noticed that the image was absolutely stunning. Also to my amazement I saw no sign of any colors being off at all. The reds were not orangish as I had heard they are on H27 and as they were on my H31's. I was very, very happy about this. I then enabled ImageAI and saw no difference in brightness or contrast, so I assume this function will not work through VGA. On the normal picture settings I got plenty of brightness none the less, but the other ones like user 1 and user 2 seem a bit dim, something that is supposed to improve greatly with imageAI. Another thing that blew my mind is that I cannot detect any SDE even 4' from the screen or closer. This seems too good to be true, but it just isn't there unless you get about 2' from the screen then it can be seen. I then switched to the remastered 'Scarface'DVD and saw excellent color and perfectly rendered reds, and plenty of brightness in the normal modes. The image seems more film like than the same test material I used on the H31. And finally if you heard the black levels are excellent on this unit it is true, they are astounding even with imageAI not activated. In a word I am "blown away" so far. The image over all is not as bright as the 4805 but the quality of the image of the H27 is deffinately better, there is no doubt about it. Of course I mean contrast, but also the purity of the image is very good and crystal clear better then the 4805. I would say the 4805 edges the H27 in color accuracy by a very small margin (at least the H27 I have comes close), but I am very picky about color and feel no need to fiddle with color settings like I did with the H31. I haven't even gone direct into the H27 or used straight component yet and I am astounded. So far it has the best image of any projector I have ever used. Now if it will just stay reliable I could want for nothing more, this projector is a "10" as long as it keeps ticking. I'll add more later.....Natja

Sounds great! Can't wait to hear more. :)

By choosing the lowest 'image shift' setting and then adjusting the verticle sync within 5 minutes I had the image squarely on the screen but did need to place and 1/4" tall piece of wood under the front foot to get it up high enough being that the lowest lens shift setting is way too low while the other two are way too high. Once I had the image centered I noticed that the image was absolutely stunning.

I don't understand how you are using this feature. For me I center the picture in 16x9 mode to fill my desired screen size, with a small black border all around (diy moveable screen). So in the 16x9 type movies my whole screen is filled. When I watch 2:35 format movie, I use the shift control to shift the picture so the top is even with the upper edge of the screen. This way I only have one black bar at the bottom. Or you can do vice versa. Now for the people that have masking capabilities ( I don't yet) this makes a very clean look to the presentation by using lower or upper masking. In my setup I would prefer the lower mask.

So far I'm loving my picture. I'm only using an older Toshiba SD2700 (non progressive) player with component hookup. I've tried some progressive players: Pioneer 285S (similar to the 588A minus SACD/DVD-A) - the picture didn't seem to have any improvement to my eyes - plus it was quite noisy - had difficulty reading marked up DVDs (my Toshiba is much better at this). Panasonic S77- might have been a bit better with DVI-but I found the macroblocking troubling. May try the Sony 70H (even with the shifting problem); seems to be highly praised for picture quality.
But with the great picture and pure enjoyment so far, I really don't need to upgrade yet.

Natja... does your DVDO actually convert to the digital domain? ie you are feeding it analog with the component so are you sure you should be able to get digital out the DVI? Is the DVI out on the DVDO a DVI-D or DVI-I? It's possible that with component in it only sends on the anolog portion of the DVI-I, and the H27 is DVI-D only. It has a full DVI-I connector, but I think that's just to be "cable friendly" - you can use a -D or -I cable, but you've got to send it a digital signal. As you know the H31is in fact DVI-I, so you could feed analog on its DVI port, but it didn't have a seperate RBG input.

Re the Ai... it's a very subtle change. Ai function works over DVI, so it should work on RGB as well. I think maybe your viewing selections just didn't allow you to notice it, but keep trying. I don't usually bother using it, to be honest.

I'm glad to hear to are pleased with it. If there's anythign you want me to test/compare with my unit, just let me know. I've been extremely pleased with mine for two months or so now. Recall I drive mine exclusively via htpc at native res. I'm just getting ready to paint my brown wall with the Behr UPW.

No it doesn't so I geuss I won't be able to use DVI unless I purchase a dvd player with DVI.
So far I have had an excellent experience with the H27, over all it is the best projector I have used so far.

I finally have the H27. Also to my amazement I saw no sign of any colors being off at all. The reds were not orangish as I had heard they are on H27 and as they were on my H31's.
I'm glad to hear that you are so pleased with the H27. I am curious what the service menu settings are on your unit. I thought that my H27 had orangish reds but it may be that I was influenced by what others had posted. But perhaps Optoma has tweaked the factory settings to fix this issue.


Another thing that blew my mind is that I cannot detect any SDE even 4' from the screen or closer. This seems too good to be true, but it just isn't there unless you get about 2' from the screen then it can be seen.
This surprises me. Maybe I don't know what the screen-door effect actually looks like. I thought that the screen door effect was when you were close enough to the screen to see the pixel structure - that is, to make out the individual dots. Just like when you get too close to a CRT and you can see the little squares that are red, green, and blue. Is this not the SDE? I can start to see the pixel structure at about 8ft from my 6ft wide screen. If this is the SDE than do I have something set wrong somewhere? I am using 480i component.

I'm glad to hear that you are so pleased with the H27. I am curious what the service menu settings are on your unit. I thought that my H27 had orangish reds but it may be that I was influenced by what others had posted. But perhaps Optoma has tweaked the factory settings to fix this issue.



This surprises me. Maybe I don't know what the screen-door effect actually looks like. I thought that the screen door effect was when you were close enough to the screen to see the pixel structure - that is, to make out the individual dots. Just like when you get too close to a CRT and you can see the little squares that are red, green, and blue. Is this not the SDE? I can start to see the pixel structure at about 8ft from my 6ft wide screen. If this is the SDE than do I have something set wrong somewhere? I am using 480i component.

SCREENDOOR:
Yes the screen door is visible if the projector is in perfect focus and you stand about 3' from the screen. I can see it on some footage at 2' and some as much as 4', but if I put the unit slightly out of focus I can't see it unless I am about 2' from the screen. On the H31 I could see it as much as 9' away in perfect focus. But yes I am refering to the seperation between pixels (little squares/dots). By all rights this should be just as noticable on the H27 as it is on the H31, but on my unit it is not. Sure I can see it but I need to get much closer in order to see it.
SERVICE MENU:
I have the button sequence somewhere that I printed before I got the projector. I will see if I can find it and write it all down, put the settings up here. I have tweaked movie mode and get a much better picture since I mentioned that some user modes are a bit dim. But after tweaking it looks very nice. I still can find no weakness in the colors at all. But I did in the H31. I just used the 4805, so I should be able to see any weaknesses compared to that unit and so far I can't. Great picture!

Here is how to bring up the service menu on the H27:
1) Start with the projector on
2) Press the "Power/Standby" button
3) The message "Power off the lamp? Picture Mute" will display
4) Press and hold the left arrow
5) The service menu will display

These are the factory settings in my H27:
Color Wheel Index: 435
Red Gain: 137
Green Gain: 136
Blue Gain: 137
PC Red Offset: 58
PC Green Offset: 64
PC Blue Offset: 60
Video Red Offset: 58
Video Blue Offset: 57

Here is how to bring up the service menu on the H27:
1) Start with the projector on
2) Press the "Power/Standby" button
3) The message "Power off the lamp? Picture Mute" will display
4) Press and hold the left arrow
5) The service menu will display

These are the factory settings in my H27:
Color Wheel Index: 435
Red Gain: 137
Green Gain: 136
Blue Gain: 137
PC Red Offset: 58
PC Green Offset: 64
PC Blue Offset: 60
Video Red Offset: 58
Video Blue Offset: 57

____________________________________________________________ __

Here are the settings you asked for:
color wheel index:435
red gain:141
green gain:137
blue gain:141
PC red offset:69
PC green offset: 68
PC blue offset: 61
Video red: 73
Video blue: 62

Those are my factory settings. Hope this helps

Very interesting. Not a single one is the same (except the wheel index) and they are all higher, especially the Video Red Offset. From 58 to 73 that's a pretty huge jump. Maybe this is why your reds are better.

So I guess Optoma did change the factory settings.

- OR -

Is it that these settings need to be adjusted at the factory individually for each unit that is produced? Is there anyone else out there with an H27 that can post their service menu settings?

Natja - when you had your four different H31 units did you happen to notice if they all had the same factory service menu settings?

I wish I had a better answer for you, but I never thought to compare the settings, or if I did notice any comparrison I simply don't remember if I did. Have you tried those settings? they give me nearly perfect color.