Jeff,

You are a man after my own heart. You got what I was saying about the level setting issues perfectly. I wish you lived closer so we could spend an afternoon impressing each other HaHa. We seem to think alike. It is indeed a pleasure talking to you. I am sitting here watching the new XA2 update off the ethernet. It has been going almost half an hour on a high speed cable line. Is this normal?

With an HDMI connection, the player decodes the DD+ or TrueHD and converts it to uncompressed PCM which is passed along the HDMI connection. The receiver doesn't have to know anything about the new codecs. Nor is HDMI 1.3 needed with the player doing the decoding and passing uncompressed PCM to the receiver.

Joe

Joe, you are right about HDMI, DD+ and TrueHD are still decoded in the player, then sent via PCM. I don't have an HDMI enabled receiver or processor, so I didn't do my due diligence on this issue. I was certain that optical and coax were inadequate, or
I wouldn't have bothered to use my 6 channel analog connections.

Jeff,

You are a man after my own heart. You got what I was saying about the level setting issues perfectly. I wish you lived closer so we could spend an afternoon impressing each other HaHa. We seem to think alike. It is indeed a pleasure talking to you. I am sitting here watching the new XA2 update off the ethernet. It has been going almost half an hour on a high speed cable line. Is this normal?

Thank you Art. I hope you like HD DVD as much as I do. It is normal for firmware
upgrade to take 30-45 minutes with the A1, so I would expect similar with the A2
and XA2.

I just got back from Optoma and met the president. A very nice man. He just happened to
come into the lobby when I was making my exchange. He asked me what was wrong with
the HD81, how long I had it. He wanted to make sure I knew about the anamorphic setup
Optoma offers.

I told him I was on my third HD81 in less than five months and why I exchanged units twice.
He thanked me for the information and told an employee to get me an Optoma t-shirt!

Instead of a T shirt they should have offered you a lifetime supply of replacement units. I'm curious whether you were given a new or refurbished unit. Warren told me in our last conversation that they were recycling returned units. Check the new one out carefully Jeff. I would hate to think that #2 wound up in someone's hands. Sure wish I had a master volume control for the XA2's analog outputs. Did you measure how far doen the LFE channel was below reference level.

HD81 #3 is installed and working well. It has C08 dated 1-2-07, same as #2, with the same
issues; Auto235 inop, programmable trigger does not respond properly. I had hoped C08
would have been further developed by now. This HD81 is a higher serial number and seems to be a new unit.

I am liking the out of the box User 1 settings better than the other settings I've used previously. The settings I had been using look unsaturated and too magenta vs. the
out of the box look I'm getting. Sharpness and CA look to be very good on a cross hatch
pattern. I am using DVI-PC settings on all HDMI inputs, DVI-Video is crushing blacks.

The president of Optoma USA told me that delivery of the HD81LV is still 2-3 months away,
for anybody interested in that model.

They should get all of the problems worked out of the HD81 before putting out the LV unit. I wonder what percentage of their HD81s they are actually getting call backs on.

Jeff et al,

I connected the XA2 last night. I am pleased to report that it worked beautifully out of the box after an hour and a half downloading the update. I was able to set the XA2 at "Up to 1080p" and have the VXD read 1080p. I assume it is running at 1080p. While the sound is magnificent, I ned to explore some rear channel imbalance inconsistencies. One thing for sure, this sucker has a lot of wires coming in and out of it.

I am glad to hear yor #3 works well. Maybe 3 is the charm. I will be curious to see if you have any temperature/blue screen issues on normal bulb. BTW, I agree with you on those out of the box, user 1 settings. Somebody set these up to some tight criteria. Wish we could find out how they do that. You would think it would be a great marketing device to say that each unit is adjusted to achieve the best picture possible..

I finally figured out why Film Mode 48Hz mode is sometimes grayed out(disabled). It does not
work when in Letterbox mode, so that means when I watch anamorphic films it is inop. Last
I checked, most anamorphic 2:35 material is shot on film, so this is unfortunate since Film Mode
48Hz seems to work better than on the previous C08 version.

My 3rd projector is working well, no blue screen or shutdowns. That's good news at least.

I got my replacement yesterday as well, it has C08 dated 1-2-07 as well.

Auto235 seems to be working...

I'm not sure if mine is a new unit or a refurb though, it doesnt seem to be as bright as my original so could be a refurb with lots of hours on it possibly...i'll go through it in more detail this weekend and see. Unless someone knows if this is something that is normal going from C06 to C08??



HD81 #3 is installed and working well. It has C08 dated 1-2-07, same as #2, with the same
issues; Auto235 inop, programmable trigger does not respond properly. I had hoped C08
would have been further developed by now. This HD81 is a higher serial number and seems to be a new unit.

I am liking the out of the box User 1 settings better than the other settings I've used previously. The settings I had been using look unsaturated and too magenta vs. the
out of the box look I'm getting. Sharpness and CA look to be very good on a cross hatch
pattern. I am using DVI-PC settings on all HDMI inputs, DVI-Video is crushing blacks.

The president of Optoma USA told me that delivery of the HD81LV is still 2-3 months away,
for anybody interested in that model.

dseliger,

The Optoma logo displayed on power up with C08 is much dimmer than previous
firmware versions, but the output of the projector should be the same. It is worth
noting that when firmware is upgraded, it resets the lamp hours.

dseliger,

The Optoma logo displayed on power up with C08 is much dimmer than previous
firmware versions, but the output of the projector should be the same. It is worth
noting that when firmware is upgraded, it resets the lamp hours.


They did send me a whole new unit though...and i had sent it in for a firmware update + an hmdi issue. They got mine friday and 2nd dayed a new one on monday.

The output of the projector in general seems to be much dimmer to me, but i havent changed anything yet since i just got it last night. I'll know more after the weekend.

I posted this in the XA2 forum but thought I would repost it here since I know you guys a lot better and trust your judgement vis a vis some of the mindless responses in the XXA2 forum. The XA2 is supposed to reprsent the state of the art in 1080p HD VDV players. Many will wind up in systems using an HD81. Using v. 1.3 of the upgraded software it takes about 5 minutes to achieve a 1080p handshake between the 81 and the AX2. Picture is outstanding bu there is a bit too much video noise in the video. The detail is amazing.

After 3 hours of HD DVD tonight, I am seriously disappointed with the audio. The audio issues are not trivial. I am using the 6 analog outputs fed to 6 amplifiers. The speaker controls that should make the center speaker silent when you select "None" does not work. The subwoofer channel is being redirected towards the center channel causing the 120 watt center channel amp to overload on any low frequency information. Frankly, the subwoofer may be redirected to all the channels but I only see the center channel overloading. That occurs regardless of the setting of fthe subwoofer. Whether you set the subwoofert on "Use" or "Dont Use" makes no diference. A very little bit of signal leaks to the sub and a lot leaks to the center channel. The subs controls do not respond like the Off/On.Small/Large center channel controls that do not respond to resetting. Is anyone else experiencing this behavior with an XA2? BTW, I could not correct the color nd tint controls on the HD81 sufficiently using the AVIA disk. Likewise the signal levels are so far out of whack on the XA2 that balancing them is barely possible. The sub does not put out enough regardless. I was ble to get the 3 front channels and the left rear to adjust sufficiently enough so that the analog feed produced the same levels in these channel as the optical bitstream path.

Because of the subwoofer redirection issues and the level setting issues, I may have to return this thing to Amazon. That will be a real pain but right now the audio is terrible (n0 bass) regardless of the path (bitstream or analog. They just do not build this stuff the way they used to in the 60's and 70's..

Guys,

I want to retract everything I said in my previous message. I made erroneous observations which led to wrong conclusions. The XA2 is a wonderful pieceof gear that works perfectly. And I mean everything works as advertised. The only thing different about the XA2 is the low gain on the LFE channel. When I tested today , I found that the center channel was responding to the Large/Smnall/Off settings correctly. The LFE channel's switch settings are also operational. I could swear they were not working yesterday but they are working perfectly now. Disregard my previous rantings please. The overload of the center channel amp I witnessed is due to the overload on one 20 amp circuit of too many amplifiers. When bass notes hit, the center channel amp is not getting enough current. Guess I need a second circuit into the equipment room. Like you, all I have to do to resolve this is raise the gain on my Velodyne and turn off the center channel, something I prefer to do anyway. In order to get a more realistic soundstage.

Update. After several hours using the VE reference tones I have the output levels matching on my six channels within .5 dB. The Pre/Pro when set at -20db of gain produces a sound that is indistinguishable from the output of the XA2's internal decoder/preamp. I am very plased dwith my XA2. It works beautifully and mated with the HD81 produces a picture that will blow you away. Even the sound is amazing whather it is delivered via the internal decoder or the decoder in my Pre/Pro. I am a happy camper. I remain curious to see what, if any, improvement will come when the firmware is updated to accomodate a 1080p/24 fps HDMI connection instead of the available 1080p/60 fps signal that is now available. My apologies for any trouble my previous message may have caused. I was wrong and way off in my analysis. Must be getting too old for this stuff.

I love this thing. Watched Babel this weekend in HD DVD. MY HD81's native is 1080p. Everything that goes into the VXD processor comes out 1080p. Is there any benefit to be realized from stting the XA2 at 1080p rather than 1080i? Setting gthe XA2 at 1080i would avoid the 5 minute handshake waiting time when the XA2 is set on "up to 1080p" The Genum chip in the VXD is supposed to be the best scaler available. Thoughts?????

They did send me a whole new unit though...and i had sent it in for a firmware update + an hmdi issue. They got mine friday and 2nd dayed a new one on monday.

The output of the projector in general seems to be much dimmer to me, but i havent changed anything yet since i just got it last night. I'll know more after the weekend.


Well after watching a few movies this weekend and tweaking some settings, there is definately a brightness difference. I dont know if its the Bulb or the C08 firmware causing it. The reason i mention bulb is, if i got a replacement unit that was in another customers hands it could have had a lot of hours on it and i wouldnt know it since the timer was reset.


Other than that, C08 is great... I mentioned the Auto235 working in my previous thread but it seems that it works on some things and not others.

I love this thing. Watched Babel this weekend in HD DVD. MY HD81's native is 1080p. Everything that goes into the VXD processor comes out 1080p. Is there any benefit to be realized from stting the XA2 at 1080p rather than 1080i? Setting gthe XA2 at 1080i would avoid the 5 minute handshake waiting time when the XA2 is set on "up to 1080p" The Genum chip in the VXD is supposed to be the best scaler available. Thoughts?????

I would think that you would not want the XA2 to do any processing. Just take the resolution of the HD-DVD and pass it along to the VXD and let it do the up converting if any is necessary. I don't even know if the XA2 can be set up that way.

Joe

Jmorris,

The XA2 has a very highly acclaimed scaler also. The XA2 can be set to output "up to 1080p". However, the way it does that is a little disconcerting. It is my understanding that it changes the HD DVD's 1080p to 1080i then rescales that to 1080p. Not a problem since there is no real loss of information but given that we have two superb scalers, which one should I use to make the 1080i to 1080p jump? And no, there is no wayto get the 1080p signal directly. Rumor has it that Toshiba's engineers are working on a 1080p/24fps firmware solution but that is not confirmed. Should that occur, it would certainly be everyone's favorite choice.

I have the A1 HD-DVD, which only outputs 1080i, but the PS3 outputs 1080p. I've "casually" experimented with both settings on the PS3 (meaning I only watched movies and not test patterns), but I could not discern any difference between 1080p and 1080i.

My Yamaha receiver will not pass a 1080p video signal, so to enjoy the uncompressed PCM sound over HDMI, I've set the output to 1080i and have been very happy.

My two cents is that you don't realize the full potential of this projector unless you use one of the high-definition DVD formats. This weekend I watched Casino Royale and X-Men Last Stand and was just continually amazed at the PQ and sound.

Thanks Kevin,

I have to agree with you about HD DVD. I watched Babel this weekend and the mountain scenery contrasted against the Tokyo lights was astounding. The color, the texture and richness and vibrancy of the colors combined with the glorious Dolby True HD soundtrack was mind blowing. My wife and I watched transfixed for over 2 hours. We were dismayed when it ended but now look forward to our next Netfix delivery. As good as these disks are and as uplifting the the whole experience is, I have to mention that the original HD feeds of Showtime, HBO and Starz via Ku satellite (4DTV) are also very good. Whatever differences there are between the HBO HD and the HD DVD may be due to the fact that the 4DTV receiver, a Motorola 922 and its HDD200 HD decoder use a YPrPb path rather than an HDMI path to move signal. Both are quite amazing though. We are fortunate to be alive at this point in history. Speaking of HBO, did anyone watch the last chapter of Rome in HD last night? It was also mind blowing in its richness. Those reds and the gold and yellows jumped off my 1.3 gain 96" wide DaLite screen. Now.....When will we see our first holograms? Is Optoma working on a projector?

Ues your translator my translated link didn't work.
http://www.ippinkan.com/XV-Z21000_VP-11S1_HD81.htm

Here's a place in Japan that does reviews that I always found interesting. Hey in the picture comparisons the HD81 looks great. Very 3D with more intense color is the way they looked to me. Excuse the musical writings, that's the way they've always talked on this site. :)
enjoy

I received a "Gold Service Certificate" in the mail today from Optoma after signing up for the
one year service contract that provides for hot swaps. There were no service contract terms included with the certificate and invoice. The one year cost is $259 plus sales tax, for a total of $280.37. I'm hoping now that I've paid for the service contract, I won't need to use it. So far, the third HD81 has been operating perfectly, other than the same C08 issues I had with the previous one.

FYI, For the first time yesterday I had the projector turn off on me with the blinking blue light. I had just happened to dim and brighten my LED rope lights and I think that caused interferance with the serial cable. The serial cable runs right next to the LED rope lights. I am pretty sure tha timing is no coincidence.

As soon as I powered it down it came right back up.

I will do more testing but it seems taht the projector might go into a shutdown state if it gets erroneous data through the serial connection.

Joe

Ues your translator my translated link didn't work.
http://www.ippinkan.com/XV-Z21000_VP-11S1_HD81.htm

Here's a place in Japan that does reviews that I always found interesting. Hey in the picture comparisons the HD81 looks great. Very 3D with more intense color is the way they looked to me. Excuse the musical writings, that's the way they've always talked on this site. :)
enjoy

Google now has a Japanese to English translator. It is Beta still but it works quite well.

Joe

Art,

I'm glad you're enjoying your HD DVD player. I'm sure your Ku HD satellite feed is vastly superior to the mini-dish or cable compression fests that most of us suffer through. One other point in HD DVD's favor is that 2:35:1 movies are normally shown properly vs. many premium cable/satellite movie networks that think nothing of cropping 25% of the frame to make it fit in a 1:78:1 aspect ratio.

This is unacceptable to me and I'm happy that at least HD Net and Stars HD doesn't butcher scope movies. To me, the practice of cropping 2:35 down to 1:78 is almost as bad as pan and scan and has no place on premium movie channels. Even the broadcast networks sometimes show 2:35 movies properly.

jmorris,

That is what happens when i switch to normal brightness and low fan. I'm talking within 30 sec. Can you coceive of a reason why it might fail? I too believe it is in the serial port circuitry but for the life of me, I can't find it. I've unplugged and replugged that serial connector so many times trying to figure this out. When you turned on your rope lights was there a substantial load change on the house wiring or was it RF as you said.

I lost track of that place, finding it again was like seeing an old friend. Man I'm bored but Optoma will be sending me the HD81LV soon which should snap me out of it. Too bad I don't take PJ's apart like the German guys, I'd love to see and take a picture of the color wheel.

Jeff,

Your point is well taken. If I had the ability to zoom my lens and adjust size (squeezing down the picture to use the full resolution) the way i did with my CRT, i would be a much happier camper. I long to fill my 4x3 screen when I watch Casablanca. I also remember gorgeous 16x9 and 2.35 screenings. Alas, I do not have a beautful anamorphic lens to compress my signal vertically after it is expanded electronically. If only I had a little more throw distance, I would give up a little of that 1080p to cover the screen. I wish I had power zoom and placement so I could maximize area. I wish.... To dream..... There is one reality that does bother me. Without an anamorphic lens like yours, the resolution and therefore PQ of the 2.35 image is greatly rduced...at least to my eyes.

jmorris,

That is what happens when i switch to normal brightness and low fan. I'm talking within 30 sec. Can you coceive of a reason why it might fail? I too believe it is in the serial port circuitry but for the life of me, I can't find it. I've unplugged and replugged that serial connector so many times trying to figure this out. When you turned on your rope lights was there a substantial load change on the house wiring or was it RF as you said.

Art,

I played with the dimming and on/off sequences quite a bit this afternoon and was not able to replicat the issue.

I don't believe there was any substantial load change but I also question the RF interferance too as my serial cable is insulated and I am guessing grounded by either the projector, processor, or both.

Could your issue be heat related on the serial circuitry? I think maybe either Kevin or Joe Linn had that theory earlier.

It sounds like you are fairly adept at electronics. Willing to take your unit apart? You could put a heat shield over the serial circuitry.

I will keep playing with mine.

Joe

FYI, For the first time yesterday I had the projector turn off on me with the blinking blue light.

Hi Joe,

There seem to be a couple variations of this. What happens to me is that the TEMP light blinks blue, then a few seconds later the lamp shuts off. Other folks end up with a blue screen first or other lights blinking. Which variation did you experience?

Joe

Jeff,

Alas, I do not have a beautful anamorphic lens to compress my signal vertically after it is expanded electronically. I wish.... To dream..... There is one reality that does bother me. Without an anamorphic lens like yours, the resolution and therefore PQ of the 2.35 image is greatly rduced...at least to my eyes.

Art,

AVS/Panamorph have a special on the U85 lens of $495. You could always
order one and see what you think--they have a 30 day return policy. The
U85 is a constant width vertical squeeze lens, so resolution should look
pretty good. The best part about the lens is that there is no firmware or
HDMI connection or thermal heat sensor! :D

Jeff,
Is this the one you use?

Hi Joe,

There seem to be a couple variations of this. What happens to me is that the TEMP light blinks blue, then a few seconds later the lamp shuts off. Other folks end up with a blue screen first or other lights blinking. Which variation did you experience?

Joe

I didn't look close enough to see which blue light was blinking but the lamp did turn off.

Joe

Jeff,
Is this the one you use?

Art,

No, I have the UH380, which is a horizontal expansion anamorphic lens
designed for constant image height, variable width setups. The UH380
is larger and has a list price of $2495. This is the lens that Optoma offers
for the HD81 and HD81LV.

Maybe it's a Galactic Disturbance thing. Last night, I was watching the bonus material on Metropolis, and halfway through, my screen went Blue. I re-selected the input using the remote, and the picture returned normally, but only for a few seconds, then back to Blue.

This is the first blue screen I've had in about four months. It was late, so I just shut everything off and went to bed.

Not wishing to get pushy here, but it seems that there are enough of us with this problem that Optoma should directly address it.

-d-

jmorris,

That is what happens when i switch to normal brightness and low fan. I'm talking within 30 sec. Can you coceive of a reason why it might fail? I too believe it is in the serial port circuitry but for the life of me, I can't find it. I've unplugged and replugged that serial connector so many times trying to figure this out. When you turned on your rope lights was there a substantial load change on the house wiring or was it RF as you said.

Joe:

My projector is behind and above me, and is not visible from the seats, so the first indication that I get is the blue screen. In other words, I don't know if the LEDs on the projector blink before it goes out.

But, my lamp NEVER shuts off, it'd stay on blue screen forever, I think.

I do know that the LED on the front of the scaler does NOT blink before the screen goes blue. I can easily see the scaler from my seat, and I'd notice if the blue LED started blinking first.

-d-

Hi Joe,

There seem to be a couple variations of this. What happens to me is that the TEMP light blinks blue, then a few seconds later the lamp shuts off. Other folks end up with a blue screen first or other lights blinking. Which variation did you experience?

Joe

Art,

No, I have the UH380, which is a horizontal expansion anamorphic lens
designed for constant image height, variable width setups. The UH380
is larger and has a list price of $2495. This is the lens that Optoma offers
for the HD81 and HD81LV.

Art, I used to have a U85 but have decided to go with the UH380, now it is not to say that the U85 isn't a good piece, but the UH380 has more going for it other then it's size. The lens material in the U85 is plastic (similar to eyeglass material), the optics in the UH380 is glass, just one of the reasons for it's higher cost. Also the larger lens accommodates projectors with larger light beams

BTW, the reason I decided to go with the UH380 was I was going to buy a HD81, but jumped ship to the BenQ W9000/W10000 camp and that particular chassis has a larger lens necessitating the larger UH380.

mrigsby has posted some pictures of his images in the W9000 thread that you might like to see...

Thanks Al and Jeff,

I hate to sound cheap specially after all of the years I've been buying this stuff but the $1,000 it would cost to implement the U85 into my system just seems too much for the net benefit that will be realized. Yes, I will get 30% improved resolution but hell, I can not see any scan lines at 14 ft. from the 96" wide screen anyway. I can't even see them at 4 ft.. Given that I can not see how this additional lens can provide any improvement in my setup, I have trouble justifying the expense or the need. Add to that the distortion which has to be present in a plastic lens. The fact that my commercial theatre owning friend tells me that in his digital theater they bought a lens to widen the picture for only $1,200.00, makes me believe that we are being overcharged. After all, plastic lenses of this size and characteristics are used in lots of applications. I would think that these plastic lenses should cost under $100.00. The track might cost another $150.00 but certainly no more than that.

I appreciate the guidance my friends but this addition would be a hard sell to my wife when I do not see any benefit. Thanks anyway!!!!!!!1

[QUOTE=guitarman] Man I'm bored but Optoma will be sending me the HD81LV soon which should snap me out of it. QUOTE]


What is the projected ship date of the HD81LV?

Is it fully suitable for 1080P HT, only brighter?

I hate to sound cheap specially after all of the years I've been buying this stuff but the $1,000 it would cost to implement the U85 into my system just seems too much for the net benefit that will be realized. Yes, I will get 30% improved resolution but hell, I can not see any scan lines at 14 ft. from the 96" wide screen anyway. I can't even see them at 4 ft.. Given that I can not see how this additional lens can provide any improvement in my setup, I have trouble justifying the expense or the need. Add to that the distortion which has to be present in a plastic lens. The fact that my commercial theatre owning friend tells me that in his digital theater they bought a lens to widen the picture for only $1,200.00, makes me believe that we are being overcharged. After all, plastic lenses of this size and characteristics are used in lots of applications. I would think that these plastic lenses should cost under $100.00. The track might cost another $150.00 but certainly no more than that.

I appreciate the guidance my friends but this addition would be a hard sell to my wife when I do not see any benefit. Thanks anyway!!!!!!!1

Even though I'll be branded a heretic, I haven't found anamorphic lenses to add more than they detract picture wise either Art.

Even though I'll be branded a heretic, I haven't found anamorphic lenses to add more than they detract picture wise either Art.

While I agree that anamorphic lenses add a level of complexity and have the potential to degrade the image in many ways, and I am not as big a fan of vertical
compression lenses, a good quality horizontal expansion lens makes for a dramatic
impact on the home theater experience. It also allowed me to go from a 78" wide
screen to a 100" wide screen, retaining the same image height. Due to the shallow depth of my HT room, this was the only way to get a 100" wide image, so costs and complexity and potential quality degradation were worthwhile to me.

I would never go back to watching a 2:35:1 movie that is smaller than a 1:85:1 movie. That is the opposite of what the filmmaker's intention is. I would also argue
that with horizontal expansion anamorphic setups, 1080p projectors are even more
important than with a non-anamorphic setup.

I understand your scepticism Art, I can't honestly speak to the image improvements you may (or may not) experience because I have yet to view a working example. For me the reports from Jeff, Alan and mrigsby to name a few were positive enough to warrant the initial expenditure.

Right now the U85 which should work with the HD81 is on sale for a much more affordable $495 and as Jeff mention you have 30 days to try it out...

For me the primary purpose is to use all (or as much) of the DMD panel as possible all the time through a Constant Height screen set up like those mentioned above. For me viewing a cinemascope movie with black bars above and below just serves to remind me that I am not getting all of the pixels I paid for and loosing brightness to boot.

The price of any of the HT gear is hard to swallow, and the only way I can justify it to myself is through denial... no just kidding! It's a hobby that although expensive, I get to share with family and friends alike.

Hey Craig, you are now officially a heretic! (damn, there I go kidding again!) :)

Seriously, I don't think those that have anamorpic lenses in their home theatre would vocally support them if they didn't feel they added to the experiance, but as usual, these are all personal decisions (or that of our wives!) ;)

Jeff and Al,

I whole heartedly agree that a horizontal expansion lens can not help but increase the impact of a movie. That is an easy decision to make. If you can widen your image 20% with no degradation, that sounds good to me. In my case, i can not go any wider. 96" is what I have. Beyond that width lies open air and a door frame. Can't happen.

I come from a DWIN Transcanner background. That is very meaningful here because Ed at DWIN was one of the original implementers of vertical compression. He would have a 2.35:1 image processed to fill all 500 lines of NTSC in the Transcanner. Then, he would shrink, not blank, the field vertically until the picture achieved the correct ratio. With a 480i picture compressed so greatly, it made 2.35 and 1.78 fields look beautiful. The Transcanner was adjusted so that one could just see the scan lines. If you had too many lines in the original field, the compressed image would begin to look blurred. It was touchy but if someone with experience was doing it, it could produce invcredibly beautiful results.

Alas, we can not do that electronically for obvious reasons with digital projectors so we use an external lens to shrink the picture by a given proprtion. Unfortunately if the original picture that is shrunk vertically has too many lines (we can create as many as we want) the picture will look blurry, soft or both. I am concerned about compressing these 1080i fields. I can hardly see the scan lines at that resolution on my 96" wide screen. I am afraid that I would be didappointed if I lost the sharp picture we have from the HD81. Remember, my #2 projector demonstrated what a not quite right projector could look light. It scares me to think of the possibility of seeing a picture like that again. I just do not believe that vertical compression of anamorphically compensated materialis appropriate at thse high resolutions when the original loks so great any way.

I would never go back to watching a 2:35:1 movie that is smaller than a 1:85:1 movie. That is the opposite of what the filmmaker's intention is.
Ah Grasshopper, but I do believe that the 2.35:1 picture should be larger than the 1.78:1. I just choose to do it with 2 screens and a projector with power zoom, power lens shift and power focus - http://gallery.avsforum.com/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/7419278

Hey Craig, you are now officially a heretic! (damn, there I go kidding again!)
I owned 2 different lenses including a Prismasonic H1000 lens. Prefered zooming when it was all said and done. With a projector lens as high quality as the one I have now, I couldn't use anything less than an ISCO III anyway. That would be heretical!!

Hey Craig, a very impressive set-up, cool the way you have the projector outside of the room!

My next question is out of curiousity (no other agenda, I promise), does your set up for 2.35:1 address the consideration that a 2.35:1 image projected from a 1.78:1 DMD is not using all of the pixels?

Because that is one of my goals by using an anamporhic lens...

Hey Craig, a very impressive set-up, cool the way you have the projector outside of the room!

I built a closet with a piece of MDF painted to match the walls where the lens pokes thru, a heavy duty shelf system to hold the projector ( or projectors - I could mount 2 or 3 at one time if they have different offsets - just use a hole saw !! ) and a exhaust fan vented into the attic. It doesn't matter how loud the projector is now - and you don't see it!!

My next question is out of curiousity (no other agenda, I promise), does your set up for 2.35:1 address the consideration that a 2.35:1 image projected from a 1.78:1 DMD is not using all of the pixels?

Because that is one of my goals by using an anamporhic lens...

Ya ya ya, I know, but when I've A / B'd using the lens or not, no lens with less pixels has more detailed and sharper a picture with my old Optoma H79 than with the lens. What do you think would happen with my dVision if I put a lens in front of it? This is the sharpest picture I've seen and I like sharp and detailed. I'll give up a few pixels. Note that the lens alone on this projector probably costs nearly as much as your HD81. It would be a shame to put any glass in front of it that would distort or compromise the picture.

Al,

At a certain point you have to evaluate the picture. More pixels queezed into a finite space does not necesarily mean more clarity. They have to fit or as I explained previously, it will get blurry. As an example, remember how CRT's never exceeded around 800 lines on a 25" set? There was a reason for that.

At a certain point you have to evaluate the picture. More pixels queezed into a finite space does not necesarily mean more clarity.

Or more precisely, more pieces of glass in front of the lens will not necessarily translate into a better picture. I hate the pincushion effect and any barrel distortion. I hated it with my NEC HT1000 ( Panamorph ), hated it with my H79 ( Prismasonic H1000 ), and I'm not going to do that to my dVision 1080p, more pixels or not! Unless you have an ISCO III or Schnieder lens you can bring over to demo. 5 - 7K for a lens is hard to swallow on a " hunch " it might produce a better picture.

Or more precisely, more pieces of glass in front of the lens will not necessarily translate into a better picture. I hate the pincushion effect and any barrel distortion. I hated it with my NEC HT1000 ( Panamorph ), hated it with my H79 ( Prismasonic H1000 ), and I'm not going to do that to my dVision 1080p, more pixels or not! Unless you have an ISCO III or Schnieder lens you can bring over to demo. 5 - 7K for a lens is hard to swallow on a " hunch " it might produce a better picture.

Craig, with that attitude, director's of photograpy would never stick a big honking
Panavision anamorphic lens on their Panaflex cameras! Of course a Panavision anamorphic lens is a bit more expensive than what we're talking about for our
home projectors--if you could buy one(they're rental only items, like all Panavision
equipment).

If we want to split hairs, we should avoid zoom lenses altogether on our projectors, too many elements compared to a prime lens.

Seriously, you might be surprised by how close a Panamorph UH380 looks compared to a Schneider and ISCO III. The UH380 is a tad softer than the Schneider, but very close and zero chromatic aberration--very impressive for the price point--I only paid $1500 on the Panamorph pre-order through AVS.

I've never seen a vertical compression anamorphic lens and agree with Art that
the difference probably isn't a big deal, if better at all. Craig, I like your solution
with two different aspect ratio screens and power zoom and focus--now if you
could just get the screen to change, zoom to move and lens to focus with one
touch of a macro button, that would be really sweet!

How many lumens does your D-Vision throw?

Joe:

My projector is behind and above me, and is not visible from the seats, so the first indication that I get is the blue screen. In other words, I don't know if the LEDs on the projector blink before it goes out.

But, my lamp NEVER shuts off, it'd stay on blue screen forever, I think.

I do know that the LED on the front of the scaler does NOT blink before the screen goes blue. I can easily see the scaler from my seat, and I'd notice if the blue LED started blinking first.

-d-

I think we are experiencing 2 distinctly different problems. I believe the blue screen is caused by a video signal that the hd81 cannot handle. I believe the lamp shutdown is caused by an interruption in the serial control. Which is often caused by overheating serial electronics or some sort of rf interferance with the cable.

Joe

jmorris,

That is what happens when i switch to normal brightness and low fan. I'm talking within 30 sec. Can you coceive of a reason why it might fail? I too believe it is in the serial port circuitry but for the life of me, I can't find it. I've unplugged and replugged that serial connector so many times trying to figure this out. When you turned on your rope lights was there a substantial load change on the house wiring or was it RF as you said.
Are you on a dedicated circuit?

Are you on a dedicated circuit?

You may have been asking Art but I thought I would answer too.

The lights are all on a Grafik-Eye which has its own dedicated circuit.

All of my electronics are split between 2 dedicated circuits. I also have the power for the projector going back to the equipment closet.

All 3 of these circuits have an isolated ground going back to the main circuit box.

Joe

You may have been asking Art but I thought I would answer too.

The lights are all on a Grafik-Eye which has its own dedicated circuit.

All of my electronics are split between 2 dedicated circuits. I also have the power for the projector going back to the equipment closet.

All 3 of these circuits have an isolated ground going back to the main circuit box.

Joe,

Yes, I was asking Art, but the more answers the better. I've had only two blue-screens from my HD81 - one, I'm almost positive, was a communication error due to the serial cable and the second was after the projector was on for nearly four hours.

So I consider my HD81 relatively stable and I'm wondering if that has anything to due having the projector on a separate dedicated circuit with no other equipment.

Your situation is similar - relatively stable and on a dedicated circuit. Assuming Art is not on a dedicated circuit if a power conditioner would allow him to use low-lamp mode.

Are you on a dedicated circuit?

No, I am not. But mine only goes blue (bulb stays on) when the fan is on low speed and the brightness is on low. Change the fan speed to high and it will run forever. Also, the ble screen and blinking blue light would remain that way forever unless I turn it off. One must always shut the projector and VXP down completely, turn them back on and immediately raise the fan speed by setting it on hi brightness or high altitude.

I believe it is a thermally induced discontinuity in the RS232 circuit. Remember, I had two previous units that did not exhibit this phenomenon. Hell, this one worked fine for several days before doing this.

How many lumens does your D-Vision throw?

It has two 250 watt UHP lamps, and new can put 2500 lumens on the screen with the iris wide open. I'm using only one bulb at a time with the iris closed down to produce around 10 foot lamberts, which looks good to me both brightness and contrast wise ( my Optoma H79 with a 350 hour bulb looked bright enough with a shocking 6 -7 foot lamberts ! ). My 1.78:1 screen is a DaLite HCCV at 1.1 gain ( optimistic rating perhaps ?? Projector Central says so ) and my 2.35:1 screen is a Firehawk G3 1.25 gain screen, which brightness wise compensates for the blanked portion of the chip. The whole system works great, and takes only seconds to adjust. Focus doesn't change enough to worry about either. And having the Cinemascope screen go up after the movie is over while the HDTV screen comes down showing HDTV music videos on the MHD channel blows peoples minds!!

Now back to the Optoma HD81..............

Al,

At a certain point you have to evaluate the picture. More pixels queezed into a finite space does not necesarily mean more clarity. They have to fit or as I explained previously, it will get blurry. As an example, remember how CRT's never exceeded around 800 lines on a 25" set? There was a reason for that.

I agree Art, for a 25" set however but expand that to area 4 times as big as in a 50" set and the scan lines are painfully obvious! Heck I can see the pixels of my 848x480 projector at 15' when projecting a 106" diagonal image.

The increased number of 'lines' or 'pixels' we use today are a result of the much larger images we watch. Where as 800 lines was more then enough for a 25" set I am sure that you don't believe that when we expand the diagonal measurement to 100" and beyond, that we can expect the old standards to apply?

This was the whole reason for HDTV and it's resolution.

The projector that Craig uses has exceptional optics and he may have a point about not placing any 'other' lens in between it and the screen, however the addition of anamorphic lenses has been used for decades, and the Panamorph lens that Jeff and I use is up to the task for home theater.

As I said before it is personal preference, but I want to use the full resolution of the DMD panel, remember these pixels are not squeezed as you suggest above, they actually get expanded by the Horizontal Expansion UH380 lens.

As I said before it is personal preference, but I want to use the full resolution of the DMD panel, remember these pixels are not squeezed as you suggest above, they actually get expanded by the Horizontal Expansion UH380 lens.

Al,

The horizontal expansion of the pixels is why I believe 1080p is more important
in an anamorphic setup. A 720p projector has larger pixels that would be more
apparent with horizontal expansion anamorphic lens applications.

Al,

The last working CRT projector i watched had the Transcanner Variable Line scaler(2x to 4x) in front of it. At a setting of 725 on the Transcanner (roughly equalling 765 lines), the scan lines were almost invisible. That is what you want...see the lines without having the informtion bleeding from one line to the other. You will have to trust me that at a distance of 5 ft from the screen, the lines were invisible.

In a previous message I agreed with the usefulness of your and Jeff's horizontal expansion lens. I can not agree that vertical compression will add any detail to the image. In fact, from what i read it often dectracts from the experience because the non linearities in the plastic lenses created geometric distortion. That, added to the fact that you are compressing lines of pixels which are already optimized for good visibility, makes me reject the idea of a vertically compressing lens. This is one of those cases where increaing gthe number of pixels/sq in does not improve the picture.

Craig's observationss appear to support my position. Please do not misunderstand, I do appreciate the information from you and Jeff, I am just choosing to not act on it.

I understand Art, just having a friendly discussion that's all. I also agree with your comments about the differences between VC and HE anamorphic lenses, including the materials that they are made from. This is one reason I decided to go with the more expensive UH380.

When I get my projector and lens together in the same room (and pointed in the right direction) perhaps I will have experiances to share.

This is an intersting hobby to be sure!

Well, I experienced another lamp power down last night. I paid a little more attention this time. Again, it ocurred when I was playing with the theater lights. I looked this time and the overheat light was blinking. I had to power cycle the scaler. Funny thing though, the power button on the scaler would not function and I had to use the remote control power button.

One thing to note, this issue is new to me after 1/2 year of owning the hd81 and I recently moved the serial cable closer to the power cables that control my lights. It was a more convenient location when I installed the ceiling star panels. Now I have to face the option of taking some of the panels down to move the serial cable. Something I definately don't want to do.

Joe

jmorris,

That serial cable is all insulated. At least mine is. The HDMI cable I purchased cost a little over $100.00 and is thick and stiif. i would bet there is a shield around it. I would bet that your cable's pedigree is at least as good as mine. Before you start moving cable, I would make sure it is not temperature related. That does not mean that anything is overheating necessarily (although the periodic burning smell might make you think otherwise). As I have mentioned several times, I believe that there is a temperature sensitive component in the serial circuit that is causing this.

I would run it on high brightness and then do whatever triggers your blue screen. Like You, my bulb stays on until I power down and start again. Pulling all that wire does not sound pleasant, specially when that may not have anything to do with it.

Just read yours again. I guess mine is not like yours. You appear to lose the bulb. I would try high blower/brightness and see anyway before pulling wire.

Just read yours again. I guess mine is not like yours. You appear to lose the bulb. I would try high blower/brightness and see anyway before pulling wire.

A couple of things lead me to believe it may be the location of the wire.

Like you stated, I am using a shielded serial cable. But I am also using the null-model cable that came with the HD81. So the two cables connect to each other. When I moved the cable(s) for the starred ceiling I moved this two-plug connection into the light tray.

Secondly this is a brand new experience for me. This has happened on 2 occasions now and both since I moved the cable.

Thirdly, both lamp shutdowns have ocurred in timing with the lights being dimmed or shut off.

My degree is in statistics and hence I do not rely much on happenstance or coincidence. I believe there is some connection between the lights and the moving of the cable and this new problem.

What you are saying makes perfect sense though. I AM getting the overheating issue where the lamp shuts off. When your HD81 fails, which blue light do you get?

I definately hope that I don't have to go into high fan mode like you have to. I ahve tried that and i would definately have to put the projector in some short of hush box.

Joe

My degre is in Physics but I must concede, yours surely has something to do with your lights. Mine is 5 ft above and 2 ft to the rear of my head position when I am prone in my easy chair. I see the blue light that is furthest away from the lens blinking after a failure. I am not sure which lamp blinks at this point but back a few months ago I must have figured out it is the blue lamp that indicates a failed serial connection. I will check again. I hate making it fail by lowering the fan speed.

Checked: Middle Blue Light Blinks when it fails

Using HD81 C06..

If I connect my PC with HDMI to the scaler and run in 1080P the HD81 will not pick up the signal.
If I connect it to the receiver return input it does work.
If I run the selection of HDMI signals through my Octava HDS32 HDMI switch and to the receiver return input it also works.

So does it somehow not take 1080P at the input?
Is the piggy back HDMI cable inferior?
Is the internal HDMI switch losing too much signal (so EDID doesn;'t work anymore?)
Is it just me.. ?

Anybody running PC on the HD81 at 1080P and have it running on HDMI switch input?

I must say that a lens mask did wonders to the image. I made it from carton to get rid of the halo from lens reflection. With lensmask, a lot les distracted by light leakage and imo a better image!

vjren,

My VXP has an awful time connecting with the XA2 HD DVD player via HDMI when I set the player to output at 1080p. I am not sure whether it is the player or the VXP. At 1080i it works immediately.

vjren,

My VXP has an awful time connecting with the XA2 HD DVD player via HDMI when I set the player to output at 1080p. I am not sure whether it is the player or the VXP.
What happens when you connect it to receiver HDMI in?

Anybody running PC on the HD81 at 1080P and have it running on HDMI switch input?

Yes. I have had no issues. I am using HDMI port 1 and have the small loop in the VXP.

As additional information I am coming out the PC with DVI and have an adapter to convert it to HDMI.

Joe

Yes. I have had no issues. I am using HDMI port 1 and have the small loop in the VXP.
As additional information I am coming out the PC with DVI and have an adapter to convert it to HDMI.
Joe
Firmware version?
NVidia or ATI what type?
How long a cable?

Firmware version?
NVidia or ATI what type?
How long a cable?

C04 :)
Nvidea 7950GT
3 meters

I got another HD81 yesterday, tried 1080P from PC to the HDMI input 1-3, no signal.
Connected to receiver in, image! Firmware C08.

I tried some other cables, only thing left to try is a real short HDMI to the projector, but outside that, no switching of 1080P 60Hz input from pc (tried 23.9 and 50Hz too to no avail) with the internal switch...?

@Jef , how does one control (force?) the ivtc to 48Hz?, also could not see the auto235 mode?

This new other HD81 seems to make a litle less noise, the humm from the dlp engine is unchanged, but the buzz from the fan is less. (Depends on firmware?, previous model was c06)

@Jef , how does one control (force?) the ivtc to 48Hz?, also could not see the auto235 mode?


The only way to go into Film Mode 48Hz is to turn the feature on. Whether it
syncs to the pulldown cadence correctly is key. The second version of C08
works better than the origiinal version. However, if you are in LBX mode for
an anamorphic lens, it does not work. When in Film Mode 48Hz, you will hear
the color wheel slow down and get quieter.

Auto235, formerly known as AutoScope does not work for me with two different
projectors with C08 dated 1-2-07. C08 dated 11-30-07 did work for me on my
first HD81.

I have C08 dated 1-2-07 as well, but I can not find the option you are mentioning in the menu, can you explain where it is or should be (or where I should look :eek: )

I guess auto 235 does vertical expansion on 21/9 films to be used with widescreen lenses?

I have C08 dated 1-2-07 as well, but I can not find the option you are mentioning in the menu, can you explain where it is or should be (or where I should look :eek: )

I guess auto 235 does vertical expansion on 21/9 films to be used with widescreen lenses?

Film Mode 48Hz is located in the menu option called Projector. When you turn the
mode on, your screen will go blue for a few seconds, as it does when it loses the
film cadence.

Yes, LBX and Auto235 are for 2:35 sources used with horizontal expansion anamorphic lenses. Auto235 just puts the projector in LBX mode automatically--
well in theory anyway.

Well, I experienced another lamp power down last night. I paid a little more attention this time. Again, it ocurred when I was playing with the theater lights. I looked this time and the overheat light was blinking. I had to power cycle the scaler. Funny thing though, the power button on the scaler would not function and I had to use the remote control power button.

One thing to note, this issue is new to me after 1/2 year of owning the hd81 and I recently moved the serial cable closer to the power cables that control my lights. It was a more convenient location when I installed the ceiling star panels. Now I have to face the option of taking some of the panels down to move the serial cable. Something I definately don't want to do.

Joe

Hi Joe,

That sounds like the exact same symptom I have experienced. In my case, the TEMP light begins to flash immediately when I begin playback through my TViX media server. If I take no action, the lamp goes out a few seconds later. At no point is their a blue screen or a warning message. There is no problem when I am viewing menus on the TViX, but the indicator light begins blinking immediately when I begin video playback. If I change to another input and back, everything is fine. From that point on, I can start and stop playback without incident. A couple things that are especially odd about this are 1) I was able to use the TViX without problems in the past and 2) the behavior is the same whether the TViX is connected with a DVI to HDMI cable or with component cables, and whether the TViX is set to 1080p or 1080i output. The power cord for the TViX is not polarized so I tried reversing it (in case there is ground loop) and I tried moving it to a different outlet strip. Neither had any effect.

The TViX is physically close to the scaler. The next thing I plan to try is moving it further away to see if that makes any difference. If it is something like a ground loop or RF interference between the TViX and the scaler, I would have expected it to fail no matter what I am displaying rather than to work fine with menus and fail with video playback.

Does anyone have other ideas for things I could try?

Thanks!

Joe

C04 :)
Nvidea 7950GT
3 meters
Do you use powerstrip (to prevent EDID selected resolution)?

Do you really hear your computer detecting your HD81 (with the new hardware found sound) when you connect it.

(It does detect my Sony LCD tv @ 720P on HDMI 1/2/3, but not my HTPC @1080 on HDMI 1/2/3, only connection on receiver return HDMI in works.)

When I get another HD81 I will try another computer.

Do you use powerstrip (to prevent EDID selected resolution)?

Do you really hear your computer detecting your HD81 (with the new hardware found sound) when you connect it.

(It does detect my Sony LCD tv @ 720P on HDMI 1/2/3, but not my HTPC @1080 on HDMI 1/2/3, only connection on receiver return HDMI in works.)

When I get another HD81 I will try another computer.

I do not use powerstrip.

I don't remember if I get the new hardware ding or not. I can tell you that the htPC does recognize the display as HD81 with 1080p resolution capability.

Joe

It sounds like the tvix is sending something at video startup that the hd81 cannot handle. Have you reported this to the tvix folks? I am sure they know what is being sent. Have you tried different video stream types? Does the same thing happen with a jpg file?

Joe

Hi Joe,

That sounds like the exact same symptom I have experienced. In my case, the TEMP light begins to flash immediately when I begin playback through my TViX media server. If I take no action, the lamp goes out a few seconds later. At no point is their a blue screen or a warning message. There is no problem when I am viewing menus on the TViX, but the indicator light begins blinking immediately when I begin video playback. If I change to another input and back, everything is fine. From that point on, I can start and stop playback without incident. A couple things that are especially odd about this are 1) I was able to use the TViX without problems in the past and 2) the behavior is the same whether the TViX is connected with a DVI to HDMI cable or with component cables, and whether the TViX is set to 1080p or 1080i output. The power cord for the TViX is not polarized so I tried reversing it (in case there is ground loop) and I tried moving it to a different outlet strip. Neither had any effect.

The TViX is physically close to the scaler. The next thing I plan to try is moving it further away to see if that makes any difference. If it is something like a ground loop or RF interference between the TViX and the scaler, I would have expected it to fail no matter what I am displaying rather than to work fine with menus and fail with video playback.

Does anyone have other ideas for things I could try?

Thanks!

Joe

Okay i read through as much of the thread as i can so i apologize if this has been discussed already (i also posted this in the XA2 forum)

I have a XA2 running 1.3 and a Optoma HD81 running C08 1-2-07.

I output my XA2 into the HD81 and im losing HDMI sync contantly...every now and then it will sync back on up and give me a picture then it will drop again. I've tried a different HDMI cable and no go...my PS3 and Satellite work fine so i know its not the port on the HD81.

I did notice that the HDMI indicator on the XA2 goes off and it switches to 1080i when i lose the picture.

Has anyone seen similar behavior or do i just have a bad XA2?

dseliger,

I have the same setup you have except my C08 is the December 30 '06 version. Mine takes a long time, maybe 4-5 minutes to switch over to 1080p. It stays locked though. I would check my HDMI connections. Also, check the serial cable betwen the VXD and projector. If that fails, try setting the XA2 at 1080i. The picture is identical because the VXD is as good as the XA2 in upscaling from 1080i to 1080p.

What happens when you connect it to receiver HDMI in?

It takes about 4 minutes to lock but once it does, everything is perfect for the rest of the time the units operate.

I use the HDMI INput #1 on the VXD.

dseliger,

I have the same setup you have except my C08 is the December 30 '06 version. Mine takes a long time, maybe 4-5 minutes to switch over to 1080p. It stays locked though. I would check my HDMI connections. Also, check the serial cable betwen the VXD and projector. If that fails, try setting the XA2 at 1080i. The picture is identical because the VXD is as good as the XA2 in upscaling from 1080i to 1080p.



I just rewired the entire rack last night and ive even tried different HDMI cables...I know its the XA2 beceause i can plug the PS3 into the same cable and no problems at all.

I'll try the 1080i thing tonight and see if it works...

The 4 - 5 minute thing doesnt seem to be the case with me...im watching a move then it switches....unless i just need to wait an additional 5 mins for it to switch back over.

I wish toshiba had an option to just force it out the HDMI port @ 1080p ... $800 for a dvd player shouldnt get you this much headache :) The XA1 was great after the firmware update, so im hopeful they'll fix this soon.

The XA1 was great after the firmware update, so im hopeful they'll fix this soon.

Speaking of firmware updates for gen. 1 HD DVD players, has anybody done the new
firmware version 2.1 for their A1 or XA1's yet? I did it yesterday and things seem to
be ok, but there are reports of some issues on the HD DVD player forum. I'm happy
that my splash screen no longer shows "RCA", it now finally shows "Toshiba", since
my player is a Toshiba. The other good news is that the new firmware works fine
with the HD81 via HDMI.

Speaking of firmware updates for gen. 1 HD DVD players, has anybody done the new
firmware version 2.1 for their A1 or XA1's yet? I did it yesterday and things seem to
be ok, but there are reports of some issues on the HD DVD player forum. I'm happy
that my splash screen no longer shows "RCA", it now finally shows "Toshiba", since
my player is a Toshiba. The other good news is that the new firmware works fine
with the HD81 via HDMI.

Hi Jeff,

I updated my XA1 to the 2.1 firmware. The only thing I've had a chance to watch since I did the upgrade was about the first 10 minutes of Children of Men. So far, everything was fine.

Joe

I've kept up with this thread and have been trying to read it again from beginning to end. I'm a few days away from pulling the trigger on a CIH setup with Jason here at AVS. The question I have to help cut through all this is....

How many of you are very happy with this projector? (now)

Take the mess of mistakes, poor service, and needed firmware updates out of the equation and now that CO8 is in and running, are you glad you have this unit or do you wonder if you should have waited for something else.

I prefer the DLP picture, brightness, and internal scaling (for CIH). I'm more than willing to spend the extra cash for a different unit but the new pricing and rebate makes this top billing in my mind.

My room is one big gathering area. The theater is on one end of the room and the bar and gaming area is on the opposite end, about 30-40 feet away. I have a number of windows but only watch movies after dark. But I do watch a lot of sports and have friends and neighbors over on the weekend and need it to hold up to having lights on in the bar/gaming area.

Thanks for any input!
Randy

Randy,

If you can live with some firmware features that don't work and the firmware download site that still hasn't materialized(assuming Optoma continues to keep developing new firmware), the questionable reliability, the poor auto iris, low lumens output at D65, installation inflexibility, light halo outside of the screen and poor full field blacks, then at $4K, the HD81 is ok. Certainly the Gennum VXP is fantastic for processing and connectivity, the anamorphic lens feature set is very good and the three year warranty is a necessity, so is the Gold service contract for hot swapping--so add $259 per year for three years to the
purchase price.

The JVC RS-1 is in another league in CR, good lumens, but no vertical expansion, not so
great SD DVD upscaling, convergence and corner shading issues varying from unit to unit.
Add a separate scaler to the price for CIH setups.

The Sharp 20K is the best DLP for the money, but not a good choice for a setup with ambient light.

You might look at the BenQ 9K and 10K models as well.

As long as I don't have to watch too many low light, dark scenes, the HD81 can produce
thrilling images and the CIH setup really takes it to the next level. Good luck, whatever
you decide.

I've kept up with this thread and have been trying to read it again from beginning to end. I'm a few days away from pulling the trigger on a CIH setup with Jason here at AVS. The question I have to help cut through all this is....

How many of you are very happy with this projector? (now)

Take the mess of mistakes, poor service, and needed firmware updates out of the equation and now that CO8 is in and running, are you glad you have this unit or do you wonder if you should have waited for something else.

I prefer the DLP picture, brightness, and internal scaling (for CIH). I'm more than willing to spend the extra cash for a different unit but the new pricing and rebate makes this top billing in my mind.

My room is one big gathering area. The theater is on one end of the room and the bar and gaming area is on the opposite end, about 30-40 feet away. I have a number of windows but only watch movies after dark. But I do watch a lot of sports and have friends and neighbors over on the weekend and need it to hold up to having lights on in the bar/gaming area.

Thanks for any input!
Randy

I did a review on this PJ -
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=715140

That lumen reading is in bright mode when the Iris fully opens.

Chiliman,

This projector has dropped in price about as precipitously as I have seen a CE device drop in my lifetime. Less than 6 months ago $6500.00 was the street price. Before that it was even higher. You know what it costs today. There's a reason for this. The units appear to have great unit to unit variability in terms of PQ and performance. Having used 3 of these, I can attest to the PQ variability. You will probably suffer through blue screens that come on without warning when you least expect it. My 3rd unit will not operate unless the blower is set on high. Of course when the blower is on high, the noise is as loud as the quietest full size PC I've seen. I run mine on bright bulb to keep the blowr noise down a litlle. This creates a noise level slightly below the level created when the projector is set to "high altitude".

On the positive side, my #1 and #3 projectors produced a picture better than I have seen from any other projector, ever. The picture is very sharp. The colors are beautifully saturated but that comes at the price of lost shadow detail and crushed blacks. You can adjust it to see shadows but then your colors will not be properly saturated and blacks will be gray. Do not try to use the AVIA or VE discs to set it up. After many hours of trying , I could not achieve the saturation levels demanded by AVIA and VE while satisfying the brightness and contrast adjustment criteria of these discs. I still have not figured that one out completely but if you crush the blacks, you can get the color test to pass.

The scaler works superbly. All in all, I wish I had selected another projector because of the hell I've been through. If I had my choice, I would buy a projector with a power zoom lens and power shift. I can not begin to describe how beneficial that can be if you watch diferent sources with varying aspect ratios. In addition I would have bought a VXD scaler. It is superb.

At $400.00, you will not go wrong with an HD81. However if you are picky about mosquito noise and moving texture that I am told is characteristic of DLP projectors, you may not be happy. This baby really shows background noise in the video.

By the time I bought the mount and the long HDMI and serial cables that are a must in most any setup, I had spent a little over $7,000.00. If you pay $4K for the projector, you are in better shape than 90% of us here. I envy you. Buy one....Oh BTW, make sure you have the full complement of Optoma service telephone numbers at hand. YOU WILL NEED THEM.

Thanks for the input. I know I'm playing with fire if I decide to go with the HD81 instead of the RS1. What I still haven't been able to settle in my own mind is the different picture if you will of the LCoS RS1 vs the DLP HD81. I'm coming from an Infocus 7200 and the only front projection I have owned is DLP. I've been disappointed to put it mildly at the Ruby and Pearl setups I have seen in both Magnolia (I know, not a good choice to view it) and my local AV dealer down the street. Frankly, the Runco 720p projector blows the skirt off the Ruby at my local dealer....just my opinion.

I'm not going to buy the HD81 if I'm going to deal with intermittent blue screens....I'll be happy to stay with my current set up thank you. Of all the problems I've read this one concerns me the most. It doesn't start...fine I'll get it fixed. But if I'm watching a movie or the game and it goes in and out, I'm blowing a gasket. I suspect that even if the HD81's fan is an issue, it is quieter than my Infocus. I'd love to have the absolute quiet of the RS1 but that is certainly lower on my list of considerations. On the blacks, if they are an improvement from my 7200 than I'd be happy with them. With that said I can't stand crushed blacks, as a lesser evil in my mind I'd rather have the picture lightened up a notch. I have to learn a bit more about any issues with the RS1 not doing as well with SD DVDs. That's would be significant given the 250 plus one's I already have!

Art: What kind of projector, if any, did you have before? What are you used to when commenting on the blacks?

Tom: I followed your reviews from the beginning. They were very helpful then and now. I don't remember you commenting much on the problems encountered by the many members here. Have you had any of the problems in your unit that have been so well documented?

Jeff: How low is that lumen issue at D65? I will be doing this as part of a CIH setup so that is definitely paramount. As far as the Sharp and BenQ models, the Sharp just won't work in my room I don't believe and the BenQ might be a good middle ground but if I spend that cash I'd probably just go the RS1 route.

Without breaking posting rules. I'm looking at a $2500-3000 difference by going with the HD81 vs an RS1 and a basic outboard processor to do the 2.35:1 setup. If I think that it's worth it, I will like the picture as much or more, and will work well for a long enough period of time so I won't be upgrading for 4-5 years then I will gladly spend the extra cash.

I was hoping that some people would be coming out of the woodwork and telling me how the lucked out, their projector is great, and they have no regrets.

Thanks
Randy

Jeff: How low is that lumen issue at D65? I will be doing this as part of a CIH setup so that is definitely paramount. As far as the Sharp and BenQ models, the Sharp just won't work in my room I don't believe and the BenQ might be a good middle ground but if I spend that cash I'd probably just go the RS1 route.

Thanks
Randy

Randy,

I recommend you read Greg Roger's review of the HD81 in Widescreen Review.
Lumens ranged from a high in brite mode, iris off, of 696 lumens to a low of 292
lumens in low bulb, iris at 16. To get anywhere close to a CR of 2000:1, you
need to set the iris at 8 or 9, which would yield no more than 500 lumens max.
at D65.

My first and third HD81's have been blue screen free, as well as no shutdowns,
although I have less than 50 hours on the third unit.

I agree with you about Ruby and Pearls, they look soft and convergence error
was really obvious on two Ruby's I saw. I also thought light output was low on
all of them. DLP looks more more three dimensional to me. The JVC is supposed to be very sharp, much more like DLP, but bright corners and convergence errors would be a big problem for me, depending on how obvious.

The HD81 and Panamorph UH380(the lens that Optoma sells with the HD81 and
HD81LV) are excellent as far as lack of chromatic aberration and offer a sharp,
yet natural looking image. Many say LCOS/SXRD has a filmlike quality, but to me,
DLP can look very filmlike as long as edge detail is turned off.

If you buy from AVS, you can always return the projector(whatever brand) within
30 days, so that's nice. I watched Babel tonight, and it never looked anything
less than natural and filmlike on HD DVD. I am rarely pulled out of the movie
experience unless the scene is all dark and looks gray. I had a Sony CRT projector for 13 years and I would never confuse the full field blacks of the HD81
with a CRT projector, but in mixed bright and dark scenes, the HD81 looks great.

I was hoping that some people would be coming out of the woodwork and telling me how the lucked out, their projector is great, and they have no regrets.

Thanks
Randy

Ok, Mr. Termite here, coming out of the woodwork as requested.

I can honesly say that I have absolutely no complaints. Not one.

The only problem I have ever had is recently since I moved my serial cable to physically run in my light tray where i have 2 sets of dimmable lights 3 times the pj has received erroneous serial data and shut down when dimming lights. Other than that I have not experienced a single issue.

The picture is perfect and we are still awed at over 800 hours. I do keep the iris at 9 for better blacks and I have a fairly light controlled room.

With the exception of the htPC (which also runs my HD-DVD) and the xbox 360 every other source runs through a denon receiver connected via component. The xbox is 1080p component and the pc is 1080p hdmi.

I believe there are a few of us lucky ones that frequent this topic. I m running version C04 of the firmware and am definately in no hurry to upgrade it.

Joe

I've been able to spend the last 2 days with the JVC. It is far superior to the Pearl and I would give it serious consideration as a replacement for the HD81. The JVC has much better blacks, but full-field uniformity is not as good as the HD81; however, I could only notice it in scenes with lots of snow like LOTR and Narnia. Convergence was easily adjusted with user menu, and while not as perfect as the HD81, from any reasonable sitting distance, the difference is not noticeable. The shadow detail of the JVC is as good as I've ever seen short of CRT, but then it does not quite have the 3D look of the HD81. The JVC is much more quiet -- even in high altitude mode.

I think Greg Rogers did not have a good HD81 because I do not have the uniformity issues as to color and luminance he mentions in his review.

I have not had any problems with my HD81 and have just enjoyed it immensely. I do not regret my purchase, but if I was buying today, I would probably go with the JVC.

Randy you should look at a Benq W9000 or W10000 if you want a better warranty. Yes the the RS1 would be great but with a processor it will be very expensive the Benq's are CIH ready. I have gone through my share of nightmares with Optoma and will never buy from them again, but that is only my opinion. All manufactures have there share of bugs. Good luck on whatever you choose.

Dale

Thanks for all the opinions and suggestions, and keep them coming.

I'm going back and forth in my mind right now. Frankly if the HD81's problems had not led to it's precipitous drop in price I wouldn't be having so much trouble with my decision. As I posted in a new thread I just started, is the RS1 giving a $3k better experience.

If I believed that I could buy the HD81 without any problems I would do it in a second. I hope Optoma has realized how they have hurt themselves here. It will haunt them for years.

Kevin & Joe: Thanks for that posts! As Jason said, there are plenty of you out there that have not had a single problem and love their unit. I just want to leave my gambling in Vegas.

I become more and more undecided the more I research.

Randy

I've been able to spend the last 2 days with the JVC. It is far superior to the Pearl and I would give it serious consideration as a replacement for the HD81. The JVC has much better blacks, but full-field uniformity is not as good as the HD81; however, I could only notice it in scenes with lots of snow like LOTR and Narnia. Convergence was easily adjusted with user menu, and while not as perfect as the HD81, from any reasonable sitting distance, the difference is not noticeable. The shadow detail of the JVC is as good as I've ever seen short of CRT, but then it does not quite have the 3D look of the HD81. The JVC is much more quiet -- even in high altitude mode.

I think Greg Rogers did not have a good HD81 because I do not have the uniformity issues as to color and luminance he mentions in his review.

I have not had any problems with my HD81 and have just enjoyed it immensely. I do not regret my purchase, but if I was buying today, I would probably go with the JVC.


Greg got one that was around the block a while, the bulb was worn. I use a light meter to check brightness, average I get is 13.00ftc to 15.00ftc, 15 is on the high side. The H77 was around 14ftc and the H79 was 17ftc. But checking the HD81 the meter read an astonishing 28ftc. That's 375 more lumens over the H79 on my 106"diag 1.0.

[QUOTE=chiliman]Thanks for all the opinions and suggestions, and keep them coming.

Chilman,

I am extremely happy with my HD81 (firing on to a 122 inch Stewart Cinecurve 2.40 screen) now that over heating issues have been overcome. This really has been my only problem, but of course it would have been better to not have that issue at all. If you are going to put the HD81 in any kind of hush box (the fan noise in bright mode is a little intrusive to me) then you better be sure to run a lot of cool air in to the box and have an extremely efficient exhaust fan to suck out the hot air.

The HD81 is a spectacular performer and I have a huge Cheshire cat smile on my face every time I fire it up. Friends and relations, seeing the theater for the first time, are just blown away by the images they see. They normally go in to watch a movie clip or two but end up staying to watch a complete movie (or two!), it's that compelling!

Perhaps I got lucky with my HD81, although, having said that, this is my second unit. The first one would not communicate with our Crestron controller, but we found that out long before we were ready for the install and were able to exchange without a hitch. For what it is worth, we were treated very well by the people at Optoma. The replacement unit was said to have been hand picked and tested thoroughly before it was shipped out to us and it certainly looked that way when we installed it.

I am sure Optoma will have learned a great deal from the HD81 and those lessons learned should bring forth an even more spectacular PJ down the road. The optics are great, the processor is great and it's nice and bright to amply fill my 122 inch wide screen. I do not have any of the issues that Greg Roger's had with the sample unit he received for his Widescreen magazine review. For my part, I see the over heating issue and fan noise to have been my biggest bug bears, both of which have been overcome ... but not without a little work.

Good luck, whatever route you take!

Art: What kind of projector, if any, did you have before? What are you used to when commenting on the blacks?

I owned 3 CRT's since 1985, a Noveabeam 1000, a DWIN HD500 and a DWIN HD700. Blacks were far superior to anything I've seen on my HD81. The real difference in PQ is the noise in the colors of the HD81. The noise is very visible. It may be that all DLp's have it.

Again, thanks.

My thoughts on the last few posts. Tom: If Gregr got "one that was around the block" just how many hours could have been on a test unit from Optoma? A few hundred? Does the lamp noticeably dim that much when hours are in the hundreds? Racer: Honestly, that's the kind of posts I am hoping for. I'm going to take each one equally but in my mind the new complaints on units seem to have slowed or stopped. Is that because no one is buying them or because Optoma finally got things, for the most part, fixed? Art: I suspect that my level of expectation would be lower. You come from a very nice lineup of CRT machines and while all we ever hear is how whatever new projector to market is as good as CRT, they are still the standard that is trying to be reached.

I think I am comfortable ordering the Optoma but am still undecided. There's no denying that the RS1 crowd is falling all over themselves about their projector and they are certainly starting to convince me. Now it's just deciding if that $3k goes to the JVC or the Optoma and a new row of Berklines!

Anyone else lurking out there....I still value all opinions.

Randy

I've been able to spend the last 2 days with the JVC. It is far superior to the Pearl and I would give it serious consideration as a replacement for the HD81.

I think Greg Rogers did not have a good HD81 because I do not have the uniformity issues as to color and luminance he mentions in his review.

I do not regret my purchase, but if I was buying today, I would probably go with the JVC.

Kevin,

That's great that you've had a chance to spend a good amount of time with the JVC.

How would you compare lumens vs. the HD81? What about sharpness? Chroma
and luma noise? Did the lower Ansi contrast of the JVC cause it to have less of a
3D image than the HD81? What about scaling of SD DVD's?

I agree with you about uniformity on the HD81, I haven't seen any chroma non-uniformity worth mentioning on all three of the HD81's I've had and the luma
fall off I've seen on the sides is slight and due to my ST130 1.3 gain screen.

What impressed you the most about the JVC, the CR?

I have not had any problems with my HD81 and have just enjoyed it immensely. I do not regret my purchase, but if I was buying today, I would probably go with the JVC.
Guitarman has done his job well here indeed:)

Update: was interrupted when posted earlier

If the lowest black level possible, low fan noise and no rainbows is worth $3,000, then I would go with the JVC. Otherwise, the HD81 can throw a very impressive picture, and DLP has some inherent advantages over 3-panel projectors.

Kevin,

You put it very well. I would add the noise which is very visible from 5 ft. away from my 96" wide 1.3 gain screen. The rainbows do bother me more and more but when you watch a live show like American Idol or Dancing with the Stars, the picture the '81 throws is "very impressive". You know what they say that quoting someone is the highest form of flattery. Like you, I will be living with this projector for many years. If it keeps providing the beautifully saturated reds, blues and greens and the pictures continue to be razor sharp, I can live without some detail in the black areas. I know what is in the fog in Master and Commander.

How would you compare lumens vs. the HD81? What about sharpness? Chroma and luma noise? Did the lower Ansi contrast of the JVC cause it to have less of a 3D image than the HD81? What about scaling of SD DVD's? What impressed you the most about the JVC, the CR?

I have not yet done any measurements with my equipment, but I've watched about 10 hours of movies on it.

I have not measured the lumens, but my subjective impression is that they are pretty much equal in brightness. Chroma may be slightly higher on the JVC but luminance noise is better on the JVC -- based on looking a few inches from the screen but not noticable from a viewing distance.

The lower ANSI does give it a slightly less 3D image but not nearly as noticeable as the Pearl. On the other hand, the increased shadow detail sometimes creates greater depth. On what I watched, the Mines of Moria scene where they run to the bridge allowed you to see more depth in the columns; also, U-571 looked more 3D because you could see more detail in the background areas of the submarine -- especially when the camera would look down the length of the sub. The opening scene of Star Wars VI also had better depth because of the better blacks of the star-field background.

This is a real toss-up to me. Some images on the HD81 look more 3D and have more dimensionality (the difference between foreground and background images), but the deep blacks of the JVC make for a very pleasing image. Where I noticed that the JVC beat the HD81 were in movies with lots of dark scenes like U-571, Star Wars, and the HD trailers for "300" and Ghost Rider (off the PS3).

I have not had a chance to test its processor as I just watched HD movies or SD DVDs upconverted by the Toshiba HD-A1.

From what I've been reading, the JVC I have has particularly good convergence, but there is a slight blue and purple tint on each side which is noticable from time to time with white images. When using the PS3, the status arrow in the lower left corner did have some red and blue fringing that is not found on my HD81. I don't know why JVC did not provide an adjustment to reign in green primary, but in actual viewing situations, it is only a minor annoyance, but I did notice that the grass on the Masters golf broadcast looked unnatural on the JVC.

Contrary to the comments of certain "fanboys," every projector comes with pros and cons. You have to factor what is most important to you, coupled with the price differentials, and then select the projector that, as a package, provides the features you want most. Something better is always only 6 months away. If you have the means and will to upgrade a $3,000 to $6,000 piece of equipment every 6 months, then good for you.

Contrary to the comments of certain "fanboys," every projector comes with pros and cons. You have to factor what is most important to you, coupled with the price differentials, and then select the projector that, as a package, provides the features you want most.

Very well put Kevin!!

Kevin,

Thanks for the detailed info about the JVC. I too intend to keep an HD81 for a long time, I
just hope the reliability with the third unit allows it. There are two issues that bother me
most about the HD81; lack of reliability and no more than 2000:1 CR. The former might be
attainable, I am hoping to get past 200 hours with my third HD81, the latter cannot be
improved upon.

The CR is just not competitive. Sharp's XV-Z20000, who's street price point is pretty close to the original HD81 price, has much better CR, more flexible installation, and does just about everything right except for lumens being a bit down, which shows, along with JVC's RS-1/HD-1, why Optoma had to lower the price of the HD81 by 40%.

The JVC came out later and is a different technology, but the Sharp uses the same DMD panel, came out around the same time as the HD81 and out performs it in most areas.
This tells me that the HD81 business projector chassis has handicapped the HD81 in more
areas than just installation ease. Low CR and high fan noise are due to the business
chassis roots as well, IMO.

Greg R found a great ANSI scene in the night time mall clip when Marty first see's the Delorean. Scenes like that show how a DLP can have the mirrors off and on at the same time covering different street lights and darkness at the same time. I'll bet if you were to compare the two projectors with this scene you would see the difference?

Who needs an excuse to throw on Back to the Future one more time. :)

There are 3 main reasons I might shift to the JVC (which is now more expensive for me because the used value of the HD81 also just dropped 40%:

1. Better full-field CR
2. Lower fan noise -- even when the JVC is set to "high altitude"
3. The slightly smoother look of a 3-panel projector

In light of the HD81 price drop, I will probably wait 6 months for the JVC to drop 60% or maybe something better will be out. I've gone through 3 projectors in less than 2 years, so its time for me to sit back and enjoy rather than being on the bleeding edge of technology all the time.

I've gone through 3 projectors in less than 2 years, so its time for me to sit back and enjoy rather than being on the bleeding edge of technology all the time.

You need to join Projector Buyers Anonymous ( like most of us here )!!

The more I read the less decided I am....DAMN

The more I read the less decided I am....DAMN

me too. I did this when buying my first HDTV in 2000. I realized, eventually, that you gotta just pull the trigger. Consequences be damned!

I'm sure you'll be thrilled with whatever option you get. All of your options are great. Just pick the one that you feel gives you the advantages you truly enjoy and ignore any "disadvantages" that really won't detract from your enjoyment.

AVSForum is great for info, but the more info you get the less desirable each option seems. Make a decision before you enter "analysis paralysis."

I personally have decided to hold off until more information is known about the RS-1 and any price drops on competing products. That JVC unit seems superb but the color issues have me worried. A large price drop in the Pearl may move my hand towards the Sony despite my initial inclinations against it...

me too. I did this when buying my first HDTV in 2000. I realized, eventually, that you gotta just pull the trigger. Consequences be damned!

I'm sure you'll be thrilled with whatever option you get. All of your options are great. Just pick the one that you feel gives you the advantages you truly enjoy and ignore any "disadvantages" that really won't detract from your enjoyment.

AVSForum is great for info, but the more info you get the less desirable each option seems. Make a decision before you enter "analysis paralysis."

I personally have decided to hold off until more information is known about the RS-1 and any price drops on competing products. That JVC unit seems superb but the color issues have me worried. A large price drop in the Pearl may move my hand towards the Sony despite my initial inclinations against it...

I'm right there with you. I want to pull the trigger now. I suspect the JVC is a better overall unit but I have my doubts it's worth and extra $3k for the CIH setup. I believe I would be thrilled going from an Infocus 7200 to the HD-81 and am leaning heavily that way...at least right now, check back this evening! If I get the JVC what I see happening is their adding the aspect processing to it and of course all electronics come down in price and presto...I've wasted a whole lot of money by not waiting 3 to 6 months.

Like you said, there's always something better around the corner. Do it now and enjoy it.

I did just find out there will be a Sim2 1080p DLP unit up for display at a local retailer here in the next 10 days or so. It will be interesting to see that unit, it will be the only chance I get at seeing a 1080p DLP prior to buying.

I'm sure you'll be thrilled with whatever option you get. All of your options are great.
Yes, we are just getting more and more spoiled. To get a 1080p projector with the quality of the HD81, JVC, Pearl, etc., would have cost $15,000 to $20,000 just two years ago. Most people who are upgrading to 1080p for the first time will be blown away with any of the available projectors in the $4,000 to $6,000 range.

I wish you were in Salt Lake City so you could compare the JVC and HD81 in person. As they say, "a picture is worth a 1,000 words."

Yes Craig, I do need therapy, but some recent "life-changes" have caused me to try and enjoy what I have today instead of always thinking about what I want from tomorrow.

The JVC is actually Dan Rapp's -- poor guy, it showed up on his door step just as he was leaving for Hawaii for a week. He asked me to check it out, put some hours on the bulb, and do a calibration. Lucky me!

it will be the only chance I get at seeing a 1080p DLP prior to buying.
Hey Chiliman. Just my 2 cents, but read Greg Rogers review of the JVC and HD81 and take some of the movies Greg used in his reviews and see if you can demo them on the SIM. I think it will give you some context as to what Greg means when he is talking about inter-scene contrast (ANSI) and full-field contrast (on/off).

If you have the means and will to upgrade a $3,000 to $6,000 piece of equipment every 6 months, then good for you.
No doubt Bob would agree with this logic. As for me I'm spending $5K, good for at least five years.:)

Sorry to spoil this great thread but I don't have time to read 3800+ post...

So in a nutshell what are the top "bugs" or issues with the HD81 and what is being done to correct them?

Again this is if any exist of course...

I'm right there with you. I want to pull the trigger now. I suspect the JVC is a better overall unit but I have my doubts it's worth and extra $3k for the CIH setup. I believe I would be thrilled going from an Infocus 7200 to the HD-81 and am leaning heavily that way...at least right now, check back this evening! If I get the JVC what I see happening is their adding the aspect processing to it and of course all electronics come down in price and presto...I've wasted a whole lot of money by not waiting 3 to 6 months.

Like you said, there's always something better around the corner. Do it now and enjoy it.

I did just find out there will be a Sim2 1080p DLP unit up for display at a local retailer here in the next 10 days or so. It will be interesting to see that unit, it will be the only chance I get at seeing a 1080p DLP prior to buying.

How about the BenQ W9000/W10000 series? Native 1080P right now... AVS even sells them! ;)

I think I feel the gun sights training on me now...!

Sorry to spoil this great thread but I don't have time to read 3800+ post...

So in a nutshell what are the top "bugs" or issues with the HD81 and what is being done to correct them?

Again this is if any exist of course...
Fan is loud, even in normal mode. They aren't doing anything about that, so I'd suggest building a hush box.

Hopefully all other problems will go away with the finalized version of C08 firmware that should be released very soon (whatever that means).

Kevin, great input and suggestions. You have been immensely helpful throughout this. There aren't many people out there that have had the ability to A/B these two side by side. I take your opinion very seriously.

I've subscribed to WSR to read over Greg Rogers reviews. I doubt I will read anything new, anything I haven't already heard, but it's worth another's professional point of view. I will definitely go check out the Sim2 unit with those DVD's when it's up and running.

As far as why not the BenQ unit. The price would come in between the JVC and the Optoma and at that point I'm certain I would do the JVC. This decision has become about the price and the value of the Optoma, how much I will truly miss by not spending the extra $3k, and not about the difference in technology and/or picture. I've become very comfortable with the idea of going with the LCoS technology.

Thanks.
Randy

Very well put Kevin!!
Kevin's quote:
"Contrary to the comments of certain "fanboys," every projector comes with pros and cons. You have to factor what is most important to you, coupled with the price differentials, and then select the projector that, as a package, provides the features you want most."

Sorry you guys have been hit with a triple witching: 1) projector snafu's, 2) huge price decrease and 3) within months the RS1 comes along with superior performance

What a great way to learn patience. Notice I accurately said performance and not features.:)

reincarnate,

What you fail to include in your left handed comment is the fact that some of us have had almost 6 months of enjoyment from a DLP 1080p projector that produces a picture that is in many ways as good or better than anything I had seen before. While I regret paying $2,500.00 more than the current price, I can say that about the majority of fthe devices that make up my $100,000.00+ system. This is a hobby for me. A hobby that keeps us searching for improved sensory and visual fulfillment. On second thought, I do not regret paying the extra money.

Projector owners can be a strange lot. I wonder why people with Kias or Saturns don't feel superior to Mercedes Benz or especially Rolls Royce owners since their cars are far less expensive and still get you to the store just as fast??

I sure don't regret paying what I did for my dVision either. It can do things the RS1 can never do. And after reading Greg Rogers review of the HD81, even with the flaws it has, it picture can look better in about 50% of scenes than the RS1 does ( perhaps anything brighter than Dark City!! ).

I concur with Mr. HiFi and Craig. I've enjoyed a nearly trouble-free (two short lived blue screens) in the last five months.

The PQ is fantastic and has more pop than the RS1, and while the RS1 has its advantages, I'd jump on the HD81 bandwagon again today if they came out with a quiet fan.

The price decrease means nothing because for the $1,250 extra I paid (original cost $6,195 versus $4,955 today ) over todays price I actually enjoyed a ton of movies. It's owners of the Sony Qualia who paid nearly $30k and saw the Ruby show up 14 months later at less than $10k who probably had a heart attack.

reincarnate,

What you fail to include in your left handed comment is the fact that some of us have had almost 6 months of enjoyment from a DLP 1080p projector that produces a picture that is in many ways as good or better than anything I had seen before. While I regret paying $2,500.00 more than the current price, I can say that about the majority of fthe devices that make up my $100,000.00+ system. This is a hobby for me. A hobby that keeps us searching for improved sensory and visual fulfillment. On second thought, I do not regret paying the extra money.

Exactly, no matter the brands or the price of entry there is surely something more expensive and something less expensive available, by virtue of just being involved in this area of the market we consciously (or perhaps sub-consciously) made the choice that we 'wanted to be a part of this fraternity'

There are few if any things in life that can be bought with the idea that they can never be improved on or possibly be replaced with something that is better and quite possibly cheaper!

For me part of the 'hobby' is the research for new ways to enjoy it! :D

Reincarnate: How about adding something constructive to the discussion? Have you had experience with both the RS1 and the HD81 in order to give us your determination that the RS1 has "superior performance"? Outside the professional reviewer, there are few who have had the opportunity that Kevin has and his opinion is one that is much more educated by this experience than most.

I for one applaud those who did not have the patience to wait. If my circumstances had permitted, I would have been one of the early buyers of the HD81. Maybe I would have had problems. Maybe I would have been one of the many who have been thrilled and beside my self with experience for the last number of months. Everyone knows that this hobby is all about the next great thing right around the corner. The RS1 is the hot projector today. It won't be in 12 months. It will still be the great projector it is today...but everyone posting on the forum won't really care. I guess those who love their RS1 and find it to be the best decision they've made will then be wrong for not having the patience to wait for the price drop and the superior performance of the next holy grail of projection?

Quote me now. In a few years the RS1 and those performing on par with it will be on the Great Deals section just like the Sharp Z12000 was just posted over there for $1999. One of the defining projectors in the $10k price range only a few years ago. Patience just means not enjoying yourself or your toys when it comes to this hobby.

I am in no way trying to say which projector is better than the other. I think the idea that the HD81 is superior is some instances and the RS1 in others is about right. I suspect I would appreciate watching the Super Bowl on the HD81 more and watching (insert your favorite dark movie here) on the RS1 more. I'm not arguing that the RS1 might not be a superior projector, by all accounts it looks that way. But on my little scratch pad of positives and negatives, for my room, my purposes, and my needs...the positives and negatives are about equal.

Randy

If anyone has a right to be angry and disappinted with the Optoma HD81, it is Jeff and I. Both of us went through 3 projectors before finding one that met our "acceptability" criteria. For me that means a picture that is there when you want it, is sharp and colorful and has good flesh tones. Hopefully, it is a better peformer than whatever I used before. To achieve these minima, I have had to compromise. I have to keep the blower on bright mode all the time to prevent a blue screen. I put up with the rainbow effect and the moving texture in solid colors (a characteristic of DLP's I am told). I also put up with a 1000 line limitation through the VGA inputs. This required a complete rewiring of my entire system which prior to this projector relied completely on VGA 5 wire connections to move HD around. Why did I put up with all these and spend nearly $8,000.00 to rewire my system? I did it because I like the picture. My wife likes it. When I watch my C Band satelite delivered HBO, Showtime and Starz movies, i sit in awe of what man has wrought. Yes, I like mine. I venture to say that Jeff likes his.

If anyone has a right to be angry and disappinted with the Optoma HD81, it is Jeff and I. Both of us went through 3 projectors before finding one that met our "acceptability" criteria.

When I watch my C Band satelite delivered HBO, Showtime and Starz movies, i sit in awe of what man has wrought. Yes, I like mine. I venture to say that Jeff likes his.

Art,

Yes, I still look forward to going into my home theater and watching the various
HD sources available to me nightly. The HD81 still thrills me. I watched the new
"Sopranos" episode the other night and it looked great. The Discovery HD series
"Planet Earth" is awesome. Even "24" in lowly 720p looks very good. I too am
happy that I have had these great images in my HT since November--no way did
I want to wait for the JVC to deliver.

As great as I think the JVC is, I don't think you can overlook the convergence problem that is inherent in all 3-panel display devices.

The Pearl I spent some time with had rather noticeable green and pink tints across the entire screen that were visible with any white background and especially in scenes with snow. I could have exchanged my HD81 for a Pearl (and saved some big bucks), but I liked the cleaner full-field look of the HD81 (which is why I was surprised the unit Greg Rogers reviewed had a problem in this area).

The JVC is very clean in the center but on the right side, running the length of the screen, is a purple tint with a slightly bluish tint on the left side (more subtle but still visible). I solved this problem somewhat by enlarging the image so that the tinted sides are on the black-velvet frame of the screen (basically, I'm overscanning the image). While not always noticeable depending on the image, it is clearly visible in certain scenes, and I’m sure it would be a major “annoyance” for some owners – especially those that view overscanning as the video equivalent of blasphemy.

As a result of the convergence issues, it is easy to see that the HD81 has better sharpness using the Accupel multi-burst signal at 1080i that puts up 1 pixel-width vertical lines in black, white, red, cyan, and yellow. While both projectors accomplish 1x1 pixel mapping, the HD81 displays cleaner, sharper lines because the JVC has some smearing and overlap on the lines from the lack of absolutely perfect convergence (and maybe some chromatic aberration from the lens).

From what I've read, the JVC I have is particularly well converged, but other users seem to have more noticeable convergence errors that cannot be solved with the pixel-shift adjustment.

With a full-field black pattern displayed, the corners of the JVC are slightly brighter than the center while the HD81 is more consistent (albeit the overall black level of the HD81 is certainly brighter).

The JVC also has an issue with an oversatured green primary and oversaturated colors in general without, at least as far as I can tell, an easy way to bring them into NTSC/ATSC standards. The approach taken by JVC produces a beautiful picture, but not a completely accurate one. This seems to be a complaint with many owners.

Finally, the JVC has very limited controls regarding gamma settings and as Greg Rogers notes, there is not an option to select a 2.5 gamma curve. With its impressive shadow detail, this may not even be necessary, but the HD81 certainly provides many more adjustment parameters.

I think the JVC throws a beautiful picture and it is the king of full-field contrast ratio, but it is not a perfect projector. I’ve said this before, but how do you argue which tastes better – steak or lobster? It all depends on the individual and even how you feel on a particular day. In a perfect world, you would always order both!

Maybe I will buy the JVC and mount it right under the HD81.

Yes, I still look forward to going into my home theater and watching the various
HD sources available to me nightly. The HD81 still thrills me. I watched the new
"Sopranos" episode the other night and it looked great. The Discovery HD series
"Planet Earth" is awesome. Even "24" in lowly 720p looks very good. I too am
happy that I have had these great images in my HT since November--no way did
I want to wait for the JVC to deliver.

The real " losers " are the ones waiting. The secret is to always have a projector to watch. And even a back up projector. I will never be without a projector - ever. I even set my H79 up in a studio apartment when I had to move into one temporarily, with a 92" wide HighPower tripod screen and speakers right around the bed on stands so as to not get noise complaints!! I salute you HD81 early adaptors - keep enjoying your great HD picture!! I'm getting ready to go buy a sports car - and I'm not waiting 2 years to see what else comes on the market!! Heck, any of us could be dead in 2 years. Enjoy home theater with the best equipment you can afford to buy now, and share it with your friends and family. When I'm sick and on my death bed some day, I want the death bed wheeled in front of my home theater screen damn it!! On with the show.............

The real " losers " are the ones waiting.

Heck, any of us could be dead in 2 years. Enjoy home theater with the best equipment you can afford to buy now, and share it with your friends and family. When I'm sick and on my death bed some day, I want the death bed wheeled in front of my home theater screen damn it!! On with the show.............

LOL! Great attitude Craig!! I would also add that those waiting on the next gen.
DVD situation should just jump in--finances permitting. It's my HD DVD player that
made me upgrade from CRT to digital projection. I look at the five hundred dollars
spent on my HD DVD player as the best five hundred bucks I spent last year--of
course it ended up costing a whole lot more than $500!! :eek:

The secret is to always have a projector to watch.

Yeah... I kept my Panny 500 w/2700 hours on the bulb while waiting. It was almost like having no projector! But I'm glad I had it. :)

Yeah... I kept my Panny 500 w/2700 hours on the bulb while waiting. It was almost like having no projector! But I'm glad I had it. :)


Hmmmm, maybe I should be keeping my old InFocus as a back-up projector? :p

Yep better off enjoying something now then waiting for what might be!

Quote me now. In a few years the RS1 and those performing on par with it will be on the Great Deals section just like the Sharp Z12000 was just posted over there for $1999. One of the defining projectors in the $10k price range only a few years ago. Patience just means not enjoying yourself or your toys when it comes to this hobby.
I used to work with a guy 15 years ago who said: "No matter how long you wait, the computer you want will always cost $4,000".

To this day, when I go to the DELL website and put in my "ultimate computer" it is always around $4,000. The same can be said of projectors, because the one you really want seems to alway be around $8,000.

funny... I was just going to post a very similar comment. there is always the "next big thing" around the corner.

I used to work with a guy 15 years ago who said: "No matter how long you wait, the computer you want will always cost $4,000".

To this day, when I go to the DELL website and put in my "ultimate computer" it is always around $4,000. The same can be said of projectors, because the one you really want seems to alway be around $8,000.

I thought Moore's law applied to projectors even more than computers until I saw a 500G firewire external drive at Fry's for $129!! Sheesh...

Reincarnate: How about adding something constructive to the discussion? rop and the superior performance of the next holy grail of projection?

Randy
Ok, it’s good to see TI dropping their prices. They have always been overpriced at the high-end. There is a first time for everything!
I've been taken to the cleaners too. So the BS filter is always on as you don't usually know the real (read ulterior motive) behind the posts.
Most new technology products have moderate to severe flaws. Go to any forum and read the misery the owners are going through. Pure hell!
For example I recently purchased a Sharp 52" panel (built in Sharps "SOTA" Japanese manufacturing facility) which had a large amount of fixed panel banding, dirt or noise. Luckily I had the experience to have purchased locally and understood the return policy. I still almost got stuck as this was a new type of distortion.
Buying a front projector is high stakes gambling as anything over four hours or so is usually considered non-returnable. I enjoyed reading the AVS return policy only after my purchase arrived. So everyone needs to be cold-hearted in their purchasing decisions. Don’t follow the heard into blindly buying a brand name or from someone here who acts technical and objective but is really a salesman. Wait for the truth to (eventually) come out. Then decide.:)

For those with C08, be careful when using Film Mode 48Hz and channel surfing. When going
from film source programs to video source programs, you will get a blue screen while the projector re-syncs and then back to the image. However, sometimes it will stay in blue screen
mode with a flashing blue lamp light and you will need to power down the projector. This has
happened with two HD81's using C08 to me. Also, as I previously posted, LBX mode cannot be used with Film Mode 48Hz, so anamorphic viewing of film source programming in 48Hz frame rate is not possible.

Well, I've decided to go with the HD81....wish me luck!

I just cannot justify the extra $2800-3300 for the RS1 and the video processor to do the 2.35:1. Especially now a little bit of reality is setting in and just like the HD81 the owners of the RS1 love their machine, but realize it has it's issue too (albeit lesser issues than the HD81 has had it seems). My risk of disappointment is reduced and my ability to go on to something else in the future is greatly enhanced by a projector of this quality at the price I'm able to get it.

SO.....With All That Said:

Tell me about the screens you are using with the HD81 and whether you're completely satisfied with them or consider another one in the back of your head.

Thanks
Randy

Tell me about the screens you are using with the HD81 and whether you're completely satisfied with them or consider another one in the back of your head.

Thanks
Randy

I have the SMX AT screen. Absolutely no regrets.

Joe

Tell me about the screens you are using with the HD81 and whether you're completely satisfied with them or consider another one in the back of your head.
I have the Carada Brilliant White at 110" diagonal. I don't think you can get a better value screen for the money (I think this will cost you around $700). Of course, the Stewart screens are top-of-the-line, but you pay more than twice the amount. Here is a great comparison review from Audioholics of Stewart, Da-Lite, and Carada screens Screen Shoot-out (http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/projectors/projector-screens/stewart-firehawk-da-lite-carada-compared?searchterm=carada)

Unlike projectors, a better screen doesn't come out every 6 months, and a quality screen will last for many years with no maintenance costs.

The Optoma is bright enough that you might want to consider a "gray" screen to increase perceived black levels. I personally don't like gray screens because I can't get past the fact that the "whites" are really not white, but I've seen a number of set ups with gray screens that worked very well if the room had some ambient light issues.

I have the Carada Brilliant White at 110" diagonal. I don't think you can get a better value screen for the money (I think this will cost you around $700). Of course, the Stewart screens are top-of-the-line, but you pay more than twice the amount. Here is a great comparison review from Audioholics of Stewart, Da-Lite, and Carada screens...
The comparison review was from early 2004 and is out-of-date. If a projector has a good black level then one does not need to worry much about how bright a projector is IF you use the new Da-Lite High Power. In fact one can project a larger image now too. The High Power retro-reflective screen has no hot spots either. Look at the whites and blacks with this pair of shoes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector

BTW, I've never seen hot spots on any street signs, just very clear text:)

The comparison review was from early 2004 and is out-of-date. If a projector has a good black level then one does not need to worry much about how bright a projector is IF you use the new Da-Lite High Power. In fact one can project a larger image now too. The High Power retro-reflective screen has no hot spots either. Look at the whites and blacks with this pair of shoes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retroreflector

BTW, I've never seen hot spots on any street signs, just very clear text:)
Be careful with the DaLite Hi-Power screens and the HD81. I know, because I sell them. There's NOTHING wrong with DaLite Hi-Power screens, but they reflect light BACK to the source. Because the HD81 is mounted above the screen (by a considerable amount depending on the size of your screen), you will probably experience a gain no better than 1.2.

I love the DaLite Hi-Power screens for projectors that mount below the top of the screen (or above the bottom of the screen). I'm not familiar with the Carada screens, but Kevin's word is gospel. My clients prefer a very clean look to their home theaters and usually go with Screen Research's acoustically transparent screens so they can hide all the speakers behind the screen.

Critical Litener,

I am not sure of what you are saying when you say that "they (DaLite Hi-Power screens) reflect light BACK to the source.". Light travels in straight lines. The angle of incidence always equals the angle of reflection. Projectors placed perpendicular to the screen within the borders of the screen will create a "hot spot" on the screen at a point where the viewers' eyes see the reflection of the concentrated light within the confines of the lens's edge. Prjectors mounted outside the edges of the screen will in fact produce less "hot spotting" because the concentrated lens light will often be outside, will be offset from the field of view. Rather than being a negative characteristic, the HD81's large offset is an advantage.

In my theater, the HD81 replaced a 3 gun CRT. The glaring concentrated light from its lenses were far more obtrusive than the HD81's light. I have a Dalite Cinemavision 1.3 gain 96" wide screen.

Higher gain screens will amplify the aforementioned effects vis a vis lower gain screens.

Critical Litener,

I am not sure of what you are saying when you say that "they (DaLite Hi-Power screens) reflect light BACK to the source.". Light travels in straight lines.
What you are describing is the behavior of an "angular reflective" screen. The HP is, indeed, a "retro reflective" screen. And, that means it does reflect back to the source. I don't know how they do it, but they do. Seems like magic to me.

I have the SMX AT screen. Absolutely no regrets.

Joe

I also just found out that Ruben is now/near shipping what looks like an amazing frame to go with his material. If anyone is interested his site is http://www.smxscreen.com

Joe

Hi Guys,

I just bought a 32" Samsung LCD TV, model 3251. For those not familiar with Samsung, they make the best LCD TV on the market, better than the Sonys. I compared them all before buying the Samsung 32". It's more pricey than the others, but the picture is much better compared to the Panasonic, Pioneer, Sony, etc.... It's rated top among reviewers.

Well, after adjusting and watching for 2 weeks, I'm very disappointed because I thought at 1/16th the size of my DaLite screen, the picture would be better. My screen size is 120" diagonal. I keep comparing the two pictures and the Optoma is clearly better in color, 3-D image, and most importantly very little motion artifacts compared to the Samsung. The response time -aka latency time- for the Samsung is 8ms. I don't know what is the response time for the Optoma -Does Any One Know? Please Post. I looked everywhere- but the Optoma picture is very smooth during fast action scenes.

Now that I have a 32" top rated LCD TV to compared, I realize how great the HD-81 is. I'm not being biased, my wife and friends see the same thing, and they all say the HD81 is better than the Samsung.

Chuong

<Seems like magic to me.>

As a physicist, I learned about optics and light wave propagation. Magic was not in the curiculum. Have you a reference so I can learn about this magical development that threatens the laws of physics.

I am not sure if this is the technology that "retro reflective" is using but I used to work at 3M and in the late 80s they took their micro-encapsulation technology, which was basically glass beads, and coated one side of these clear beads with a reflective material.

They then "painted" this material onto road signs. The first ones that I saw up in this area of the country were greenish in color. Not the typical yellow color that we were used to.

They would apply so many of these little spheres to the square inch that even though many of them ended up sideways or even totally backwards there were more than enough to reflect a light source back to its origin no matter where the light source came from. If I remember correctly there were millions or tens of millions of these beads per square inch.

I am not only familiar with this technology because of my years at 3M but the company that I currently own invented the scratch and smell sticker using this 3M micro-encapsulation technology.

Joe

"Tell me about the screens you are using with the HD81 and whether you're completely satisfied with them or consider another one in the back of your head."


Oh....I should mention I have to use a motorized screen. I have RPTV built into a false wall which the screen comes down in front of. My first thought was Carada but they do not do motorized.

Right now I'm leaning towards DaLite CinemaVision.

<Seems like magic to me.>

As a physicist, I learned about optics and light wave propagation. Magic was not in the curiculum. Have you a reference so I can learn about this magical development that threatens the laws of physics.

Read the screens forum or Da-Lite's own web site. The High-Power has very tiny glass spheres which reflect the light back the way it comes in (through the sphere, reflecting off the back). Since the reflecting surface is not planar, it doesn't have to be angular reflective.

<Seems like magic to me.>

As a physicist, I learned about optics and light wave propagation. Magic was not in the curiculum. Have you a reference so I can learn about this magical development that threatens the laws of physics.

The behavior you describe is that of a flat reflective surface. The HP is not such a surface. It's beaded. THAT's the magic. Beads are retro-reflective, not angular reflective. Use that physics education of yours to draw refraction pictures of a surface of beads. :) You'll see. This is a well known property of HP screens. I think the Da-Lite site expounds further on this.

No laws of physics are threatened.

I also just found out that Ruben is now/near shipping what looks like an amazing frame to go with his material. If anyone is interested his site is http://www.smxscreen.com

Joe

Wow, thanks for the heads up Joe, as you know I already have the SMX720 material but was waiting to get the new projector and the UH380 lens before putting together the screen. Since they are here the screen is next... maybe even a curved one!?

This news could not have come at a better time, because it just may save me a whole bunch of it!

Wow, thanks for the heads up Joe, as you know I already have the SMX720 material but was waiting to get the new projector and the UH380 lens before putting together the screen. Since they are here the screen is next... maybe even a curved one!?

This news could not have come at a better time, because it just may save me a whole bunch of it!
The last thing I want to do is make this an SMX thread, but why is it we love our HD81 because of color accuracy and the JVC may not be perfect on colors, but then save money on a screen which has gone through zero official testing. I know Ruben has changed the screen material, but the previous material that he was using he called "nearly perfect" and when that was tested by an outside source it was called unacceptable. Why hasn't he tested the new material?

More importantly why do we freak out if Greg's review shows a 20% white field uniformity problem with the HD81 and then go out and buy a screen that doesn't have any measurements to back it up?

Stick with Stewart - you may pay more, but you only have to buy a perfect screen once.

The last thing I want to do is make this an SMX thread, but why is it we love our HD81 because of color accuracy and the JVC may not be perfect on colors, but then save money on a screen which has gone through zero official testing. I know Ruben has changed the screen material, but the previous material that he was using he called "nearly perfect" and when that was tested by an outside source it was called unacceptable. Why hasn't he tested the new material?

More importantly why do we freak out if Greg's review shows a 20% white field uniformity problem with the HD81 and then go out and buy a screen that doesn't have any measurements to back it up?

Stick with Stewart - you may pay more, but you only have to buy a perfect screen once.

Doesn't your own signature line say it all? ;)

Joe

The 3M material that Joe describes is the reason street signs made with the material seem so bright at night. The light is reflected directly back at you regardless of your angle. It is also used on athletic gear and bicycle reflectors so that the light from your headlights is reflected straight back at you, making them appear illuminated.

Joe

I've got problems.

I've had the HD81 for about 7 months now (version CO3 software I believe) and haven't had a single problem. Then tonight I'm sitting there watching a recorded show on the ol' PVR and whamo, blue screen of death and the fan or colour wheel starts going nuts. I notice the power light on the projector is still blue but the lamp light is flashing blue.

So I turn the power off and check the manual for the error code. It says there is an HDMI error occurring and to power off and check the HDMI connections. I do this and after about 15 minutes of waiting and thinking back to everyone that has had errors in this particular thread I power up the projector again and voila on the left side of the screen I have about 10 thick black and white bars and the right side of the screen is still blue with the same error code flashing.

Well right away I shut it down check the connections and wait for about 25 minutes. Once again I power up the projector and still, on the left side of the screen I have about 10 thick black and white bars and the right side of the screen is still blue. But this time I wait a little bit longer and now when things start warming up, the blue side starts switching between the blue screen and a magenta colour.

Has anyone had this before? I can recall lots of blue screens being mentioned, but not a black and white bar on one side and alternating blue and magenta screen on the other.

As of now, both controller and projector are unplugged and will be plugged back in in the morning.

Man, after reading this thread for seven months and thinking you guys with problems were a bunch of babies :D karma came up and bit me big time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Garnet

I've got problems.

Man, after reading this thread for seven months and thinking you guys with problems were a bunch of babies :D karma came up and bit me big time.

Garnet

I'm sorry to hear of your problems after months of bliss. How many hours are on your HD81? I'm hoping to get past the 200 hour mark with HD81 #3. It is unsettling to hear of a projector that was working well as long as yours has, can still fail.

I have been in the broadcast video equipment rental business for over 25 years,
regularly buying very expensive equipment that is considered cutting edge(often finding problems the manufacturers didn't know about), but I have never seen a piece of equipment with a failure rate as high as the HD81 has exhibited.

I guess I should be happy that I don't try to derive income from this product--I
could never rent out gear with such poor reliability and stay in business.

I would not want to be in your situation, living in Canada, trying to deal with HD81
problems. I wish you the best of luck and I recommend all HD81 owners sign up
for the Gold Service Contract so you can have hot swaps, as I can see the potential of being without a projector for weeks at a time waiting for repairs.
Please let us know if Optoma will do a hot swap, since their policy is projectors over three months are not eligible for that.

For what its worth: I have been talking with tech support at Anthem and Optoma about my upgraded Anthem D1 (D1-HD = D2), with the Gennum scaler, not talking to my Optoma H77 via HDMI/DVI cable. Trust me we have tried everyting to no avail. I am now awaiting Anthem's next firmware upgrade as they say they found flaws (surprise, surprise) in the codes supplied with their HDMI chipset and Optoma says the H77 (actually an H79) works fine with the Gennum based scaler used with the HD81. Anyway, the point of all this is that during the discussion with Optoma I joked that I need an HD81 without the scaler. I have not been following this thread since I am very happy with my H77 that was upgraded and calibrated by Guitarman a few years ago and has been working great fo me up till now. So I was not even aware of the HD80 rumors. The tech guy said, in response to my jest that they are planning to release a 1080p projector without the scaler later this year. It will be the HD80 and the price should be around $3000! Still just a rumor at this point, but maybe a little less of one. By the way, I volunteered to beta test it :cool:. I know nothing more, I didn't think to try to pin him down as to when, etc.

Jay

I'm sorry to hear of your problems after months of bliss. How many hours are on your HD81? I'm hoping to get past the 200 hour mark with HD81 #3. It is unsettling to hear of a projector that was working well as long as yours has, can still fail.

I have been in the broadcast video equipment rental business for over 25 years,
regularly buying very expensive equipment that is considered cutting edge(often finding problems the manufacturers didn't know about), but I have never seen a piece of equipment with a failure rate as high as the HD81 has exhibited.

I guess I should be happy that I don't try to derive income from this product--I
could never rent out gear with such poor reliability and stay in business.

I would not want to be in your situation, living in Canada, trying to deal with HD81
problems. I wish you the best of luck and I recommend all HD81 owners sign up
for the Gold Service Contract so you can have hot swaps, as I can see the potential of being without a projector for weeks at a time waiting for repairs.
Please let us know if Optoma will do a hot swap, since their policy is projectors over three months are not eligible for that.

I believe I had around 900 hundred hours on the bulb.

After I tried it again this morning, the entire screen was verticle black and white bars with the colour wheel constantly speeding up and slowing down. I just sent a tech support request to Optoma and my dealer up here seems to be pretty close with the Optoma Canada guy so we will see what happens.

I wonder if it's too late to get that Gold Service Contract? :(

Garnet

I

I wonder if it's too late to get that Gold Service Contract? :(

Garnet

No, you can sign up for the Gold contract anytime within the three year factory
warranty duration. For example, you could sign up for it two months before the
factory warranty expires, but you would only get two months of coverage, as
the Gold contract will not extend the factory warranty duration.

No, you can sign up for the Gold contract anytime within the three year factory
warranty duration. For example, you could sign up for it two months before the
factory warranty expires, but you would only get two months of coverage, as
the Gold contract will not extend the factory warranty duration.

Does the gold contract include bulb replacement?

If not, anyone know where to get one? I tried the optoma web site and click on the bulb purchase option on the hd81 page it beings up an invalid part.

Thanks

Joe

I believe I had around 900 hundred hours on the bulb.

After I tried it again this morning, the entire screen was verticle black and white bars with the colour wheel constantly speeding up and slowing down. I just sent a tech support request to Optoma and my dealer up here seems to be pretty close with the Optoma Canada guy so we will see what happens.

I wonder if it's too late to get that Gold Service Contract? :(

Garnet


I've seen a different PJ go whacky like that, odd bars, different colors. Try a factory reset if there is one. I don't think we ever got the service menu on this one. I did get a scaler reset code once but it's long gone. Try the user reset.

HELP!!!!!!! My remote is locked with all the lights on. I can not turn them off unless I take the batteries out. The remote does not control the projector at all. Anybody experience this?

HELP!!!!!!! My remote is locked with all the lights on. I can not turn them off unless I take the batteries out. The remote does not control the projector at all. Anybody experience this?

For the love of god....what else can possibly happen with this projector.

A possibility that pops in my mind is there is a button stuck, either the actual button or something internally. If you can, try to pop the cover off and put it back on. Just a thought.

Hey Chiliman. Just my 2 cents, but read Greg Rogers review of the JVC and HD81 and take some of the movies Greg used in his reviews and see if you can demo them on the SIM. I think it will give you some context as to what Greg means when he is talking about inter-scene contrast (ANSI) and full-field contrast (on/off).


I subscribed to WSR to read the review but it is not listed under the review section. Any help/ideas?

Randy

Chiliman,

I am not happy about it either chiliman. Any thoughts on how to separate the two halves of the remote. I unnscrewed the screw under the batteries but that did dnot release the top.

Any thoughts on how to separate the two halves of the remote.

Use a hammer. :D Sorry... not helpful. But couldn't resist.

This group has really turned nasty. Must be the frustration from trying to keep their projector operational. Hope I can return the favor. Next time try to resist. I'm not in the mood. Last Friday, I returned the XA2 because of its eccentricities.

I subscribed to WSR to read the review but it is not listed under the review section. Any help/ideas?
When you log in, click on the link to the right that says "check out all of our back issues." Then click on issue 118 and you will see a list of articles - look for the one by Greg Rogers. This link might take you there if you are already logged in WSR (http://www.widescreenreview.com/wsr_issuedetail.php?recid=121&issuenumber=118)

Chiliman,

I am not happy about it either chiliman. Any thoughts on how to separate the two halves of the remote. I unnscrewed the screw under the batteries but that did dnot release the top.

Art,

I don't know if you have resolved your issue or not yet. I also don't have the remote with me at the moment but I have taken many remotes apart in the past.

Once the screws are removed there should be an indent around the circumference of the remote where the two halves come together. Typically there are small tabs that hold the halves together.

If this is the case you need to find a small piece of stiff plastic to wedge in that groove to separate thet wo sides and pry the tabs out of their slots. I use a cut down automobile body putty applicator. I always thought a collar stay might work too but it may be too flimsy.

You want to use plastic so that you don't mar the case itself.

Good luck.

Joe

This group has really turned nasty. Must be the frustration from trying to keep their projector operational. Hope I can return the favor. Next time try to resist. I'm not in the mood. Last Friday, I returned the XA2 because of its eccentricities.

Art, what's up with the HD-XA2? If you don't want to post you can PM me with details.

I am looking at buying one of the Toshiba HD players and as they say forwarned is forarmed!

Thanks for any feedback.

Art, what's up with the HD-XA2? If you don't want ot post you can PM me with details.

I can't say about the XA2, but my HD A2 has worked great. Regular DVD's look great too. No glitches with the player at all. Only one glitch so far with HD DVD's - Children of Men likes to freeze in one spot. I'm exchanging it.

I can't say about the XA2, but my HD A2 has worked great. Regular DVD's look great too. No glitches with the player at all. Only one glitch so far with HD DVD's - Children of Men likes to freeze in one spot. I'm exchanging it.

Thanks Craig, I'm looking at Toshiba's lastest release, the HD-A20 for it's ability to supply 1080p...

I recently borrowed a friends HD-A2 and was suitably impressed.

I am now using the HD A2 as my only dvd player via HDMI. Good dvd transfers look as good or better than with my SDI modded RP56 player. Of course HD DVD's blow them away.

This group has really turned nasty. Must be the frustration from trying to keep their projector operational. Hope I can return the favor. Next time try to resist. I'm not in the mood. Last Friday, I returned the XA2 because of its eccentricities.

Sorry.

This is my second try with this message. We keep losing power and my reply with it.

To all those who offered suggestions re. the remote, THANKYOU!!!!!. Optoma's Warren Pierce is sending me a new one today. Optoma does trat us well.

Re. XA2 and why I returned it.... With 5 guys and their wives over Wednesday, it would not connect after 27 days of successful connections.. I had the 1.3 software. I understand there is a 1.5 version that might help that.

After 27 days of waiting 5 minutes or longer for a picture at 1080p, I was getting frustrated. The picture though was OUTSTANDING. Comparing the SD performance upconverted to 1080p using the XA2's upscaler with my DV-09's 480i composite upscaled to 1080p using the VXD's Genum, looked about the same. However, unless you do a side by side comparison, any comments that say this is better than that" are pure speculation.

HD DVD is outstanding. I tried it using "the NATIVE setting of the HD81 and the XA2 set at 1080p. Superb. However, at 1080i it looked the same to me. You would have to do critical side by sides to say more.

Problem's... When using the analog outputs, the built in decoder/pre/pro works but the switches to select small or large or none for the center channel do not work. It does not redirect the center channel material. The LFE channel can not be redistributed. It just stays on and does not go the the "Large " speakers.

Otherwise it is GREAT!!!!! I will wait a few generations.

My son bought a PS3 that has worked flawlessly. If I had it to do over, I would buy BluRay. This was not pleasant. It sometimes took several replugs and a 5 minute wait to get a 1080p picture on the HD81. The new 1.5 software may fix that.
Otherwise it is superb. Mine would not provide a picture consistently. 1.5 came out 2 days after I returned it.

Maybe we just got a bad batch, our issues are pretty much identical...I'll try 1.5 tonight and see if it changes anything and report back.

I called toshiba and they wanted me to ship it off to get "repaired"...the guy didnt seem to understand what i was trying to explain so i told him i'll wait a little while. If 1.5 is not the issue i'll probably take it back and swap it at the place i bought it from, they already told me they would they just dont have any stock ATM.

I also have a PS3 that i use mostly for BlueRay and it has worked flawlessly since i got it (about a week after release).


Re. XA2 and why I returned it.... With 5 guys and their wives over Wednesday, it would not connect after 27 days of successful connections.. I had the 1.3 software. I understand there is a 1.5 version that might help that.

After 27 days of waiting 5 minutes or longer for a picture at 1080p, I was getting frustrated. The picture though was OUTSTANDING. Comparing the SD performance upconverted to 1080p using the XA2's upscaler with my DV-09's 480i composite upscaled to 1080p using the VXD's Genum, looked about the same. However, unless you do a side by side comparison, any comments that say this is better than that" are pure speculation.

HD DVD is outstanding. I tried it using "the NATIVE setting of the HD81 and the XA2 set at 1080p. Superb. However, at 1080i it looked the same to me. You would have to do critical side by sides to say more.

Problem's... When using the analog outputs, the built in decoder/pre/pro works but the switches to select small or large or none for the center channel do not work. It does not redirect the center channel material. The LFE channel can not be redistributed. It just stays on and does not go the the "Large " speakers.

Otherwise it is GREAT!!!!! I will wait a few generations.

My son bought a PS3 that has worked flawlessly. If I had it to do over, I would buy BluRay. This was not pleasant. It sometimes took several replugs and a 5 minute wait to get a 1080p picture on the HD81. The new 1.5 software may fix that.
Otherwise it is superb. Mine would not provide a picture consistently. 1.5 came out 2 days after I returned it.

Ok, well i decided to leave work early and do some testing...

I got hone and popped the 1.5 upgrade on my XA2.

After its done it powered off...

I powered it back on a few second later.

Boom......Same HDMI issues as before...no change whatsoever.

I'm going to be returning my XA2 at this point, i gave them 2 Firmware revisions to fix the dang thing.

I may try another unit just to make ceratin it isnt a hardware problem depending on the return policy...

Anybody owning a current Blu-Ray player will find out that the October '07 units will be very different. Functionality of today's BD players will be less than those meeting BD specs of October and beyond. So, the choice is spending around $300ish for a 2nd gen HD DVD player,
or $700+ for a feature impaired BD stand alone player. My A1 first gen. player works great with my HD81 and I'm happy that Toshiba is still offering firmware updates. In terms of consistent quality and interactive features, I'll take HD DVD over BD any day.

dseliger/Art,

I am using the XA2 with the HD81 and I haven't seen any HDMI problems. I was using v1.0 and have just upgraded to v1.5. Is there anything I can try to replicate your problems? Might rule in a faulty box rather than faulty code.

Let me know.

Piers

I was thinking similar, man Art to give up the best equipment in your rack. My HDA1 is the pinnacle piece of machinery I've got. I got maybe 50 HD-DVDs and the Matrix is coming. Better pick up a deal on an HDa1 from someone that chickens out, get back on board buddy.
Check out Charlie & the Chocolate Factory you'll be back. :)

Anybody owning a current Blu-Ray player will find out that the October '07 units will be very different. Functionality of today's BD players will be less than those meeting BD specs of October and beyond. So, the choice is spending around $300ish for a 2nd gen HD DVD player,
or $700+ for a feature impaired BD stand alone player. My A1 first gen. player works great with my HD81 and I'm happy that Toshiba is still offering firmware updates. In terms of consistent quality and interactive features, I'll take HD DVD over BD any day.
Hate to disagree Jeff, but Blu-Ray players are unbelievably reliable. I'm glad your player is working well, but for many others just playing an HD-DVD movie is filled with anticipation that it might not make it to the end. Just peruse the hardware threads of each format and you'll see.

That doesn't mean everyone who own HD-DVD players have problems, but there are a number of people who can't play some movies. Happy Feet and Children of Men are two recent releases causing numerous playback problems.

To me this is unacceptable - I'll take perfect playback over interactivity any day, especially since I only care about the movie not the extras.

Hate to disagree Jeff, but Blu-Ray players are unbelievably reliable. I'm glad your player is working well, but for many others just playing an HD-DVD movie is filled with anticipation that it might not make it to the end. Just peruse the hardware threads of each format and you'll see.

That doesn't mean everyone who own HD-DVD players have problems, but there are a number of people who can't play some movies. Happy Feet and Children of Men are two recent releases causing numerous playback problems.

To me this is unacceptable - I'll take perfect playback over interactivity any day, especially since I only care about the movie not the extras.

I have had playback issues with a few NetFlix HD DVD rentals, and it is very frustrating when it happens. My own discs have not been problematic since
the first or second firmware update. I think the disc coating may be more
impervious to scratches on BD discs, which, if true, is a great feature.

I can remember watching a BD demo disc at a store and seeing it lock up on
playback. Then the problems with the Samsung player, some poor quality transfers on titles known to look good on DVD, no CD playback on some BD players, slow to offer 50Gb dual layer discs. lack of extras, lack of HD audio codecs, lack of interactive capability, lack of net connectivity for features and firmware and a price that is twice as much for the hardware, all led me to shy away from BD.

I am surprised that Toshiba's 2nd gen. units have some issues, this should not
be the case with 2nd gen. models, IMO. Hopefully the newest firmware will help.

I've been enjoying HD DVD for a year while watching BD launch in fits and starts.
I have little doubt that BD will win the format war ultimately, but all of Sony's
claims of image quality or feature set superiority still have not been proven .

I have little doubt that BD will win the format war ultimately, but all of Sony's
claims of image quality or feature set superiority still have not been proven .

Hmmm, I am just curious. Has Sony won with any of their proprietary solutions? I remember Beta (it was Sony, wasn't it?), MiniDisks, Memory Sticks, and I am guessing there are others.

It reminds me when PCs first came around. IBM had their micro-channel technology and Token Ring and everyone else had standard ISA and Ethernet.

I just don't understand these companies that try all of these proprietary solutions.

Joe

PS2 is a Sony proprietary solution. I would say they won that one.

Same with PS one.

Well, this is all a bit off topic, but my fear about both new generation DVD platforms is that
they could end up like SACD(another proprietary Sony loser) and DVD Audio--both of which
detracted from eachother and ended up being two different answers to a question few consumers asked.

Manufacturers love proprietary formats because they get to keep the majority of the revenue stream and have less competition. They could care less about how it limits the consumer or ends up costing the consumer more.

The new low bit rate codecs, such as VC-1 and AVC, are more efficient for HD than
MPEG2, but Sony is loathe to pay licensing fees for these codecs. Once again, it's not
what's best for the consumer, but what's best for the corporate bottom line.

These same situations exist in broadcast video equipment. Panasonic and Sony love to
build formats that aren't compatible with eachother, they've been doing it for decades.

Manufacturers love proprietary formats because they get to keep the majority of the revenue stream and have less competition. They could care less about how it limits the consumer or ends up costing the consumer more.

I don't understand this short sighted view. I'm sure they care a LOT if this new format just up and dies because of all this "turf" cr*p. More of the revenue stream from a dead format is meaningless.

I don't understand this short sighted view. I'm sure they care a LOT if this new format just up and dies because of all this "turf" cr*p. More of the revenue stream from a dead format is meaningless.

Agreed. What Sony has done with BD is roll the dice and used its influence with
other consumer electronics manufacturers and movie studios to prop up a proprietary format that is completely outside of the DVD consortium's specs. They have played
hardball every step of the way, including their declaration of victory at the beginning
of this year with only 30,000 stand alone BD players delivered. Sony has always been arrogant, which is not so bad when you actually have superior product to back
it up with. BD is not that product, IMO.

Hate to disagree Jeff, but Blu-Ray players are unbelievably reliable. I'm glad your player is working well, but for many others just playing an HD-DVD movie is filled with anticipation that it might not make it to the end. Just peruse the hardware threads of each format and you'll see.

Not the first ones. They may have worked reliably but the picture quality sucked compared with HD DVD. Which of course made them worthless.

Agreed. What Sony has done with BD is roll the dice and used its influence with
other consumer electronics manufacturers and movie studios to prop up a proprietary format that is completely outside of the DVD consortium's specs. They have played
hardball every step of the way, including their declaration of victory at the beginning
of this year with only 30,000 stand alone BD players delivered. Sony has always been arrogant, which is not so bad when you actually have superior product to back
it up with. BD is not that product, IMO.

But isn't Sony struggling to stay afloat? Didn't they just bring in a new top guy to try and turn the company around?

You would think they would learn. As a typical consumer I will not puruchase Sony products just for the reasons we are talking here. And I spend a LOT on consumer electronics. ;)

Joe

Not the first ones. They may have worked reliably but the picture quality sucked compared with HD DVD. Which of course made them worthless.
Craig - that's actually not true. The first Blu-Ray transfers were horrible (Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers). Numerous side-by-side comparisons have been done since and no one can see the difference between the original Samsung player (with the fix) and more recent players.

So if you bought the first Samsung player, you currently have a reliable and top-notch quality Blu-Ray player. Something that is not true if you picked up a 1st gen HD-DVD player.

I am now using the HD A2 as my only dvd player via HDMI. Good dvd transfers look as good or better than with my SDI modded RP56 player. Of course HD DVD's blow them away.

Craig, any HDMI issues with your HD-A2?

G'day Folks,

I'd waded thru a lot of the posts here in this thread ( and searched ) but have yet to read a definitive answer about the HD81's Colour Management System being able to adjust the primaries and secondaries. I read a real early post from Kevin Anderson indicating that it wasn't able to , but that would have been with an earlier firmware I expect. Perhaps a later firmware upgrade now gives that option??

I have a client who is interested in using an HD81 for post production viewing of a film he in involved in making and it's imperative that the colour presentation is accurate. I'll be using my ColorFacts system to facilitate any tweaks needed, but if the HD81 is limited in it's adjustability I'll be looking at alternatives.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers :)

Russ

Craig, any HDMI issues with your HD-A2?

No. This is the first time I've found an all digital path from the player to the projector to be better picture wise and as reliable as component. I decided to run the HDMI cable directly to my VP ( why switch it through my Denon ?? ) and everything works great. Great picture.

No. This is the first time I've found an all digital path from the player to the projector to be better picture wise and as reliable as component. I decided to run the HDMI cable directly to my VP ( why switch it through my Denon ?? ) and everything works great. Great picture.

I agree. I used to use only component connections through my Denon. I actually did this mainly because it was easier to use a single remote to do the source switching.

I recently used a product called Remote Control II on an older PDA that I had and now have created buttons that do all of the necessary IR codes at one time.

So now I have a combination of HDMI into the VP itself and component into the Denon and then to the VP and the Xbox is component directly to the VP.

Because of all of the issues that I have read from all of you guys regarding the hdmi connections I was fearful to even try it. Luckily so far I have not seen a single issue with this setup.

In reflection.... One thing I made sure I did when I built my theater is that I have absolutely no low voltage lighting anywhere. I went with all 120v lighting to minimize RF interferance in the room. I had seen what RF interferance can do when I remodeled my kitchen and did not want anything like that going on in the theater. I don't know if that is what is preventing me from having the issues or not. I just thought I would share.

Joe

G'day Folks,

I'd waded thru a lot of the posts here in this thread ( and searched ) but have yet to read a definitive answer about the HD81's Colour Management System being able to adjust the primaries and secondaries.
Russ

The HD81 has a "Vivid Color" function that allows saturation and hue
of each primary and complementary color to be adjusted, albeit in a
very complex 16 level capability.

The color accuracy is pretty good out of the box, with red and green
being less oversaturated than most projectors. Blue is a bit under-
saturated.

I recommend you read Greg Rogers review of the HD81 in Widescreen
Review magazine.

Cudos to Warren Pierce at Optoma. Received a call yesteray that they were out of new replacement remotes. Warren offered and I agreed to accept the repair group's remote because the new ones will not be in for at least 60 days. He said that if I wanted a new one at that time, they would send me one. The old one will not come apart and Warren said they do not repair anything on remotes.

Works Perfectly. However, I have been getting increased intermittent very short droputs on my 3 HDMI inputs. Wires have not been touched. Not a problem yet but I don't like the stability of f this machine. Picture continues to be superb on everything going into the VXD.

The HD81 has a "Vivid Color" function that allows saturation and hue
of each primary and complementary color to be adjusted, albeit in a
very complex 16 level capability.

The color accuracy is pretty good out of the box, with red and green
being less oversaturated than most projectors. Blue is a bit under-
saturated.

I recommend you read Greg Rogers review of the HD81 in Widescreen
Review magazine.

Thanks Jeff .. I'll try and track down a hardcopy locally. Subscribing isn't warranted just at the moment.

Cheers :)

Russ

Is it just my imagination or is HD81 optimized for contrast (and light output) at the expense of other image features? When I have experimented with the picture settings, I have noticed that when I lower the contrast to -5 and the set the color temp to user mode and set blue contrast to -50 (and red to something like -30 and green to -36), the image suddenly looks much smoother (but dimmer and less contrast, of course)! Gradations looks better and no dithering can be seen. I think that some clipping must happen at some stage to the signal. Of course, errors are harder to spot from a low contrast/brightness picture, but it looks like there is something else happening here too.

Kari

Last night, about 45 minutes into "Thunderball," my screen went to black. I re-selected the component input that I was using, and the picture returned.

After only a few more minutes, it went blue, and I wasn't able to get it back by simply re-selecting the correct input. This happened about five times over the course of 15 minutes -- sometimes returning on its own, sometimes not.

I don't know what the LEDs on the projector were doing when the screen was black, but the times when it went to blue, the blue LED was blinking.

I finally gave up and shut it off --- it'd spoiled the movie experience.

I'm completely convinced that this is a thermal problem. The ambient air temperature in the theater room was about 75 degrees F, warmer than it has been during the winter months. Nothing else in my setup has changed.

I'll try again tonight, but I'm nearing the inevitability of returning the projector.

Denver, Colorado: 5280 ' elevation
Normal lamp mode
High Altititude fan setting.

Does anyone know if Optoma has figured out how to really cure this problem? I don't want to return the projector only to get another that does the same thing.

Moving to a lower elevation or making the room colder aren't really very practical for me.

-doug-

Zelmo,

I had been waiting for a long time to see if a person living at a high altitude might suffer my Blue Screen symptoms. I am in MD almost at sea level. I must run mine on High Brightness all the time. Try that.

Art:

I will try it, but realistically, wouldn't that make it worse? Running the lamp at High Brightness would create MORE internal heat?

-doug-

Zelmo,

I had been waiting for a long time to see if a person living at a high altitude might suffer my Blue Screen symptoms. I am in MD almost at sea level. I must run mine on High Brightness all the time. Try that.

Zelmo,

As far as I can tell, I believe there is an electronic component in the serial path that fails when a number of different variables cause the circuit to open. If I drop the fan speed by switching from High Brightness to Normal Brightness, the Blue screen comes on within 30 sec.. Same thing occurs if I switch from high altitude to normal altitude. Using High Brighness solves the problem completely. Using high altitude with low brightness does not fix it so that it works 100% of the time. Maybe 90%. It is a lot noisier with the high altitude switch set to "on". Bottom line..Try it. It worked for me.

I purchased my HD81 in January 2007 and have yet to install it due to construction delays. I have been reading this forum about issues with firmware upgrades. How do I know if my HD81 has C06 or C08?

When you turn it on and look in the adjustment MENU, you will see the firmware version.

After 10 hours of continuous uperation, I saw some strange effects last night. It was like impurity on a CRT. Splotches of Purple, Red, Gold and Yellow appeared and disappeared at the right edge of my screen. The movie ended within 5 minutes. The next movie did not demonstrate these artifacts. I do not know whether it was the projector or the home made disk. Hopefully it was the disk. However, it looked like the projector. For the next 3 hours I had no problems of any kind. Hopefully, it was an anomally.

Is it just my imagination or is HD81 optimized for contrast (and light output) at the expense of other image features? When I have experimented with the picture settings, I have noticed that when I lower the contrast to -5 and the set the color temp to user mode and set blue contrast to -50 (and red to something like -30 and green to -36), the image suddenly looks much smoother (but dimmer and less contrast, of course)! Gradations looks better and no dithering can be seen. I think that some clipping must happen at some stage to the signal. Of course, errors are harder to spot from a low contrast/brightness picture, but it looks like there is something else happening here too.

Kari

When I watch some DVD's, with the input level at -7.5 IRE, I have to adjust contrast down from the factory provided +9 to +4 or below to avoid losing detail in the peak white areas. This only happens with the YPrPb 480i input setting from my Elite DV-09 SD DVD player. The 720p,1080i and 1080p settings from the factory through HDMI or YPrPb do not cause the picture to saturate regardless of the source. All I can figure is that the DV-09's contrast level is set hotter than the other devices.

I have been following this thread pretty regularly for the past 6 or so months and finally decided to take the plunge and order the Optoma HD-81 in spite of all the people reporting issues here. My primary reason was the recent price drop and the outboard Gennum Scaler with all the inputs available near my equipment rack. Although some of the newer 1080p projectors that have come out in the past few months have superior picture quality according to the reviews, I could not justify the $3K - $5K premium. My basement home theater room had sufficient leeway from a height and depth perspective to be able to overcome most (but not all) of the HD-81's mounting limitations.

My setup:

Optoma HD-81 with C06 Firmware (shipped on 4/2/07)
Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player via HDMI
XBox 360 with HD-DVD add-on vis Component (no HDMI available)
Dish Network PVR-622 via HDMI
50 Ft HDMI Cable from Scaler to Projector
50ft RS-232 Male-Female extension from Scaler to Projector
Chief RPA-U Universal projector mount with LSB-1 lateral adjustment bracket
Carada Brilliant White 114" diagonal screen (Precision Series 2" border)

Due to some issues with my basement walls (chair rail 3 feet off the floor all around), I ended up tilting the projector slightly upwards to overcome the huge offset. I then tilted the top of my Carada Screen forward to compensate for the trapezoid effect.

All I can say is WOW! So far I am extremely impressed with the projector and to date have not had any blue screen or other HDMI issues.

I just got my Carada screen yesterday and mounted it. I have not had a chance to do any calibration on the projector but just out of the box the images are breathtaking! I have the still delayed Digital Video Essentials HD-DVD on order and will do some calibration when it finally arrives.


Overall positives:

1) Simply excellent pictures from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Almost as good images but not quite from some of the HD channels from Dish. The regular broadcast networks are hit or miss depending on the specific show and compression levels used.
2) Reasonably good images from SD DVDs with the upscaling handled by the Samsung or the HD-81. They still look good, but it is easy to tell the difference.
3) Excellent images when using my XBox 360 as a Windows Media Center extender connected to my upstairs Vista Ultimate box to view all of my digital pictures. The color, depth and detail is amazing (5 mega-pixel images)
4) So far no HDMI hand shaking or blue screen issues. I am in Chicago at sea level and run my lamp on economy mode with the fan on normal. I have not had the projector on for more than 3 - 4 hours at a time so I will see if I start to develop any issues as the projector ages. I don't know if there is a correlation between the C08 firmware update and the increase in bluescreens, but if anyone with C06 (which is what I have) or lower is experiencing the same issues, it might be useful to post that information here.
5) Fan noise (on normal) is not bothersome. I have the projector mounted about 5 feet behind and 6 feet above the viewing area. When there is dead silence, you CAN hear some noise, but it is not bad at all. The auto iris is definitely loud though.
6) No issues as far as skipping or lockups with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs from Netflix. The Samsung Blu-Ray player does take about 30 - 45 seconds to load up a disc when inserted (vs. only about 15 sec for a SD DVD) and the XBox takes about 25 - 35 seconds.

I only have a few negative points to report:
1) The auto iris is a joke with a very noticeable changes in image brightness when it decides to kick in. It is also very noisy. After I finish calibrating the unit, I will probably turn the Iris to a fixed setting.
2) No 1080P over Component. I was disappointed to learn this. My XBox 360 can output 1080P over component but the HD-81 cannot handle it. Frankly, even in 1080i the free King Kong HD-DVD that ships with the XBox HD-DVD add on looks flawless so I don't know if I am actually missing anything.
3) The remote seems to be a bit fussy with the projector not responding unless you point it directly at the controller box.
4) Turning the unit on and switching inputs seems to take awhile. From powering on to first image, it takes about 1 - 2 minutes with the "Warming Up", then "Optoma Digital Lifestyle" splash screen and then the the "Processing" message. Switching inputs takes 10 - 15 seconds. This is my first projector so I am not sure what is typical, it just seems long.

I hope my positive experiences will last given some of the reliability issues people have been experiencing here. At this point I am in no hurry to upgrade from C06 to C08.

hdcl,

Congrats!! I hope you get many, many hours of uniterrupted enjoyment from your projector as I have from mine.

Joe

My primary reason was the recent price drop


What is the drop in MSRP or MAP for the HD-81 and processor?

What is the MSRP or MAP for the HD-81, processor and 2.35:1 Motorized Lens?

Thanks!

$5,399 from VisualApex bundled WITH the Samsung Blu-Ray DVD player ($500 -$600 online currently) and free shipping so the projector alone would have been about $4,800. This price included a 1 year GE extendted warranty and a 2 year bulb warrenty.

There were cheaper online retailers but VisualApex had 95%+ positive seller ratings.

Before you get a slap on the wrist....you can only talk about MSRP on this forum.

The MSRP for the HD81 is $4299 plus a $300 mail in rebate. You can guess what street price is from there.

I don't know if the CIH lens is available as a package yet but it is OEM'd by Panamorph. It's their U380. MSRP just under $5000.

Randy

I don't know if the CIH lens is available as a package yet but it is OEM'd by Panamorph. It's their U380. MSRP just under $5000.

Randy

Optoma does offer the Panamorph lens, sled and mounting plate, and when purchased with an HD81, pricing should be more favorable than the Panamorph MSRP. I could be wrong, but last I heard, the pricing when purchased with the projector was in the $3K range.

Before you get a slap on the wrist....you can only talk about MSRP on this forum.


Oops, sorry about that.


The MSRP for the HD81 is $4299 plus a $300 mail in rebate. You can guess what street price is from there.



OUCH. I guess I should have waited another month and saved about $900. Oh well...

I am considering upgrading from the HD72 to the HD81 but after reading this thread, I am a little hesitant. Is it worth the upgrade?

This pricing drop does not say much for Optoma. I paid $6500.00+ for mine and like many others on here paid in many other ways. It looks like Optoma has a 100% markup policy. No wonder the salesmen in here were so eager to promote the Optoma HD81. I will live with mine with all its quirks but I am beginning to see a pattern of shodiness from Korean equipment. LG products are a PIA to keep operational. Seems like there is a great deal of pressure to get these things to market, make a killing and then leave the buyer with inferior firmware when the devices do not operate as designed or fail repeatedly.

Like i have said before, I will keep mine until I can no longer stand the noise or the cost of maintenance becomes prohibitive. No matter what, this will be my last Optoma product.

I am considering upgrading from the HD72 to the HD81 but after reading this thread, I am a little hesitant. Is it worth the upgrade?
I'm not as negative as Art about the HD81, though I doubt I'll ever buy an Optoma again, but if you are planning to build a hush box the HD81 is a great projector.

Otherwise, the Optoma is so loud that I can really only enjoy it when I watch HDTV, because TV seems to always be loud (sports, comedy's). During quiet passages of movies like Casino Royale, while looking gorgeous in its 1080p glory, the HD81 makes its presense known.

I am considering upgrading from the HD72 to the HD81 but after reading this thread, I am a little hesitant. Is it worth the upgrade?

Is your question about 720p vs. 1080p or about whether buying an HD81 makes
sense, assuming you already want to go 1080p? If the former, you should demo
an HD81 or any other 1080p DLP projector to see how much difference is apparent at your normal viewing distance compared to your HD72. If the latter, you should go by your experience with your current Optoma product and compare that to the experiences of HD81 owners on this forum.

It is clear that the HD81 is compromised by its business projector roots as well
as operational quirks and questionable reliability. Its published specs have not
been reached(not even close). The BenQ W9000 can be bought for similar money to the HD81, so it might be worth comparing that product and BenQ's reputation to the Optoma HD81.

When people say that they have read a fair amount of this long thread and
then ask if they should buy the HD81, it seems to me like if they haven't
already seen this product examined in excrutiating detail, they must not
have read this thread--of course many would not want to wade through
a thread of this size. Greg Rogers review is worth reading in WSR.

This projector can throw breath taking imagery, but black scenes are gray
and I'm always wondering about how long it will be until the next problem
with my third HD81.

Hi Jeff,

Just passed 700 hours last night. Like you, i keep wondering when.... It is wonderful when watching noisy, bright high contrast images but CSI and the like make me want to watch on my 15" 1971 Sony. I can see all the detail on that little gem. That was the first successful TV Sony sold in this country. It wieghs a ton but has lasted since 1971 with only minor convergence and color temp adjustments. Lots of copper and brass as well as superb mil spec switches make the difference. Wish we could buy products ike that today. I am afraid that the money is in mass marketing and in order to make it, plastic is the main structural component. I also believe that the digital technology is advancing and changing too quickly and thereby depriving us of compatible and reliable products whose specifications mean what they allege.

Hi Jeff,
CSI and the like make me want to watch on my 15" 1971 Sony. I can see all the detail on that little gem. That was the first successful TV Sony sold in this country. It wieghs a ton but has lasted since 1971 with only minor convergence and color temp adjustments. Lots of copper and brass as well as superb mil spec switches make the difference.

Art,

That reminds me of a Sony 12" monitor/receiver I bought in 1975. It was incredibly
heavy, but I loved the image it produced. I have a Sony 13" color critical BVM series
monitor currently and it is a tank, but it should be for what it costs--$5K range.
All of the Sony glass monitors are going away, sadly. At NAB, Sony showed a new
line of LED backlit LCD monitors and they looked very CRT like, so there is hope.
I don't like lighting with LCD monitors because of black level performance and lack
of shadow detail and contrast range. The clients watch the LCD monitors, I use the
high res. CRT's. Most video engineers feel the same way.

Jeff,

Since we are on the subject and with apologies to those who find us a bit nostalgic, I would like to describe to you my TV history as it says something about how I got into being so picky about what I watch.

In 1970, in my first apartment, after owning a 19" Panasonic Linitron that I used to learn about TV's while I was at my parent's home, I bought a 25" Zenith with the audible remote. My GF used to hang out of the 17th floor window to reach the back of the set for convergence and purity adjustments. I hated that set. In 2 months I sold it and bought the KV-1500 that I mentioned previously. What a Jewel. Wel saturated colors etc. In the early '70's I bought 2 Sony Consoles that were hard to work on. In '82, I bought a Sony ProFeel, the 25" set with separate tuner and speakers. Next i bought the 25" Proton. It had great blacks but, after having the Sony tube it was hard to life with the rounded front of the Proton. I bought the newer model of the Profeel in '83. This time I bought the external stereo multiplex decoder. That set had the same tube used in the Pro monitors used for broadcast work. It lasted until 2001. I loved that set. I replaced it with a 32" LCD Sony whose tuner is an embarrassment. The whole set is overpriced and short on quality but frankly, I could no longer lug a 200 lb+ CRT set around. My main sets have been projectors since 1985. That is where my heart is but alas, they are no longer worth the effort it takes to keep them at peak performance. OK Jeff and everyone, my apologies for reminiscing.

After lurking around reading 3/4 of the almost 4000 posts on this thread I don't know what to do. Reading origional reviews of the '81 I was pumped. Then the huge price drop... even better.


Then I found this forum. I have been somewhat inspired by a few of you who have not had problems, but the rest... wow. I feel for you guys! I just don't know what I would do if I had buddies over to see a "blue screen" or if I had to go get a fan to put on the projector just to finish the hockey game in HD. I sooo wanted one of these lemons.

What else is there to choose. Tonns of inputs, outboard processor, lots of lumens, and from what I can tell an awesome picture. I don't think the LCD's are bright enough, maybe the RS1. Still its more money, and limited on inputs and doesn't have the outboard processor. What a shame. I've started reading about the Benq, but one HDMI.... Are you kidding me?

You know its bad when some of the most positive on this board are hawking their HD81's for a preatty big loss.

:( 1sharpdog

Can the external processor be used to drive other 1080p displays, or will it work only with the HD81? I realize the serial protocol is probably specific to Optoma projectors (and probably to this model) so any functions involving it wouldn't work. But I figure the serial link just carries non-imaging commands like on/off, lamp mode, iris control, etc.

I don't have an HD81 yet, and like 1Sharpdog, I'm pretty hesitant to take the plunge after reading the second half of this thread. A big thanks to you early adopters for telling it like it is, though.

You know its bad when some of the most positive on this board are hawking their HD81's for a preatty big loss.

Yes, I've listed mine for sale, but not because I don't like it. I have a small “boutique” home theater business, so I try to buy what I think is the next hottest projector for demo purposes (which is why the unit only has 200 hours). Six months seems the average time for the next big thing to come out, so it is time to upgrade – probably to the JVC because that is what I’m getting the most requests about. I’ve done this for 2 years of buying projectors, using them for demos for a few months, and then selling them with the ISF calibration.

I don't promote my business on this forum because I don't want to run afoul of any rules and because I only do local installs where I can control the final setup and calibration.

This is, however, the first projector where I will take a loss, but if I amortize the loss over the 2 years I've been doing this, its not a big deal, and I've sure had fun.

I've demoed this projector for dozens of people and they have all been absolutely blown away with the picture because it is so much bigger, better, and sharper than anything they've seen before in home theater.

Can the external processor be used to drive other 1080p displays, or will it work only with the HD81? I realize the serial protocol is probably specific to Optoma projectors (and probably to this model) so any functions involving it wouldn't work. But I figure the serial link just carries non-imaging commands like on/off, lamp mode, iris control, etc.


Optoma offers a similar processor for use with other projectors. It is called the HD-3000. Last I saw, price was $3000 and comes with a three year warranty.

Let me just say, I loved my HD81 at the $6,000 price and I have not had any problems with my unit. At $4,300 MSRP, I think most people will feel that they've died and gone to video heaven. And remember a year ago, people were paying in the neighborhood of $20,000 for 1080p projectors and thinking that was a great price (how about $28,000 for the first Sony Ruby?).

Price goes down; quality goes up -- life is good.

Kevin,

In the 4 years before Woodstock, I put myself through school doing the same thing you are doing. It was called "two stepping" then. I bought equipment from wholesalers or filled up a trunk full of "non-discountable" BOSE 901 speakers in NY, and sold them out of my trunk in the parking lot of one of the great University's in MD. It was quite lucrative.

I did keep for my own place those pieces that provided a significant leap forward in perceivable audio quality. It looks to me like you are doing the same thing. I applaud you for being creative. On the other hand, you did lead many of us to buy this troublesome and one would have to honestly admit inferior projector. We trusted your words of praise. I never heard about Blue Screens and overheating. I certainly could not have imagined that a modern projector could be so noisy. I trusted you guys when you said I could upgrade on ine. I bought mine because of your and Tom's recommendations and the fact that the HD81 came with a separate box to plug my many sources. Alas, the VGA inputs would not accept 1080i and I was forced to rewire my whole system which for over 10 years had relied on RGBHV to move HD around at 1080i.

Like I said before, I applaud your ingenuity and spirit to make a few bucks while keeping your system current. I am less than thrilled at the financial bath I took and the stress this purchase has caused in my life. I hold you at least partially responsible but at the same time want you to know I bear you no malice and feel you are a good guy who enjoys his new toys and likes to share his joy with others. Next time tell the whole truth. That will let us make decisions based on a complete set of facts.

Jeff thanks for the response. I have had great success with my HD72 after I got the latest firmware, (sound familiar?) but I think it is ridiculous for a company to release a product that does not have the capability to do a field upgrade firmware. Why is this the case? Why are they just now addind it with C08 and a board mod?

It seems like if they new the product had problems and would need firmware upgrades, they would allow these upgrades through the net. Just like Toshiba did with their first gen HD-A1 HD-DVD player.


Is your question about 720p vs. 1080p or about whether buying an HD81 makes
sense, assuming you already want to go 1080p? If the former, you should demo
an HD81 or any other 1080p DLP projector to see how much difference is apparent at your normal viewing distance compared to your HD72. If the latter, you should go by your experience with your current Optoma product and compare that to the experiences of HD81 owners on this forum.

It is clear that the HD81 is compromised by its business projector roots as well
as operational quirks and questionable reliability. Its published specs have not
been reached(not even close). The BenQ W9000 can be bought for similar money to the HD81, so it might be worth comparing that product and BenQ's reputation to the Optoma HD81.

When people say that they have read a fair amount of this long thread and
then ask if they should buy the HD81, it seems to me like if they haven't
already seen this product examined in excrutiating detail, they must not
have read this thread--of course many would not want to wade through
a thread of this size. Greg Rogers review is worth reading in WSR.

This projector can throw breath taking imagery, but black scenes are gray
and I'm always wondering about how long it will be until the next problem
with my third HD81.

Art:

I did not have the issues you did, so I could not report them. I would never "puff" on the forum because I have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to persuade AVS members to buy or not buy a particular projector.

I can sincerely say that I have never enjoyed a projector as much as the HD81. In October, I could have swapped the Optoma for the Sony Pearl and actually saved about $2,000, but after spending a number of hours comparing them head-to-head, I liked the Optoma that much better. My enthusiasm, satisfaction and enjoyment of this projector have been genuine and my only disappointment has been the substantial price drop. I’ve never had a blue screen or flashing LED or other problems. Because I live at approximately 5,000 feet, I've always run my projectors at high-altitude mode, so the fan was not a big issue. I knew about the iris issue before I bought, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t intend to use it (even though I like having a manually adjustable iris). I only use HDMI connections, so I've not had any connection options. The picture is razor sharp, the colors are accurate, the processing is excellent, and it has a plethora of inputs. If it had the black levels of a CRT and was absolutely silent, I would consider it a “perfect” projector for my tastes and system.


I'm sorry, but I can only base my opinion on my experience. I realize that your experience with the HD81, along with your system and tastes, are different than mine. I don't discount your opinion based on your experience -- please don't discount my opinion based on my experience.

Every projector I've owned since 1992 has had one issue or another and more than one needed to be sent back for repair or a firmware upgrade – I think it just comes with the territory. I’ve calibrated or installed pretty much every projector around in the past 2 years (except the very high-end models), and they all have one or more problems, including exploding bulbs, failure to light, failure to connect, overheating, mounting issues, loud fans, etc. I know the JVC has imperfections that are different than the HD81, and I’ve tried to report what those issues are, but that is not going to keep me from enthusiastically enjoying that projector.

In the abstract, I think your expectations are reasonable (e.g., a product that is easily integrated into an existing system and performs as advertised for years with no problems); but the current reality of the projector market is that the Optoma is really no worse (and no better) than the Yamahas, Panasonics, BenQs, Sonys, Samsungs, InFocus, Mitsubishis (I’ve worked with all of these), etc. in the less-than-$10,000 price range.

Kevin, I have really appreciated you honesty, and willingness to trouble shoot other peoples units. Giving out you calibrated settings, telling others what was working for you, all great stuff that I think really adds to this forum.

I for one cannot wait until you start reporting on another unit. JVC or Sim2.

Whats with the Sim2 does anyone know?

1sharpdog

but the current reality of the projector market is that the Optoma is really no worse (and no better) than the Yamahas, Panasonics, BenQs, Sonys, Samsungs, InFocus, Mitsubishis (I’ve worked with all of these), etc. in the less-than-$10,000 price range.



While I dont believe that you ever intended to do anything more than report what you saw, and experienced, this appears to be somewhat of a reach. Ive never owned an Optoma, and cant say that I would ever want to, but that is not at all the feeling I get about Optoma projectors in general, and specially the HD81 in particular.

While I dont believe that you ever intended to do anything more than report what you saw, and experienced, this appears to be somewhat of a reach. Ive never owned an Optoma, and cant say that I would ever want to, but that is not at all the feeling I get about Optoma projectors in general, and specially the HD81 in particular.

Catdaddy I would have to agree with you. They have not had a good track record since the H56 that leaves the H30, H31, H57, H76, H77, H78, H79 and the HD81 for most part all problem childs from what I see. Come on Optoma clean up your act. It all comes down to engineering and they need to make some changes in that department. Heat buildup is killing them and they need to redesign they cases. Quite is not always better.

Yes I will agree with Kevin that most of the manufactures have there issues with certain models, but not as bad as Optoma has been the last 3 or 4 years.

I will guarantee that they have the worst track record of all HT projectors then any other manufacture. Other than Samsung but they have just entered this market, if they even plan to stay in it.

This would be a good poll subject, list your worst projector that your have ever owned and see who tops the list. :D

Dale

I'm outta here.

Kevin you should not feel that way. I like reading your post and I am not aiming anything towards you. As I said all manunfactures have their issues and it's a crap shoot with many models. I have a panic attack everytime I fire my W10000 anymore coming from a Opto H77 and Samy 710. Hoping I will have better luck this time. So far all is well.

Dale

Kevin you should not feel that way. I like reading your post and I am not aiming anything towards you. As I said all manunfactures have their issues and it's a crap shoot with many models. I have a panic attack everytime I fire my W10000 anymore coming from a Opto H77 and Samy 710. Hoping I will have better luck this time. So far all is well.

Dale

Dale, I hoping that you meant "don't have a panic attack" right?

Does anyone know when the new HD81LV is going to be available?

Thanks,

David

HDD,
where did you get your 50ft RS-232 Male-Female extension?

I didnt mean any negativity towards you either, Kevin, if you perceived that. I was just disagreeing with your thoughts regarding Optoma being of the same caliber as the other brands in terms of reliability. My perception of that is "hell no."

Dale, I hoping that you meant "don't have a panic attack" right?

Al I mean I am little gun shy now since the 710 and H77. :D I forgot to mention the Sony HS10 I had also with startup problems, had to be sent back 4 times before they got it right. The 710s I had did not have any startup problems like others did, I just could not get a even focus on all 3 of the 710s I had gone through. I firgure they were using a cheap lens.

Dale

Al I mean I am little gun shy now since the 710 and H77. :D I forgot to mention the Sony HS10 I had also with startup problems, had to be sent back 4 times before they got it right. The 710s I had did not have any startup problems like others did, I just could not get a even focus on all 3 of the 710s I had gone through. I firgure they were using a cheap lens.

Dale

Well to be honest with you Dale, I am the same way, not from personal experiance but from the posts that other have made!

I just wanted to chime in and thank Kevin for his input to this forum. I bought an HD81 based partly on some of the early comments in this thread and maybe I have just been lucky but I've not really had any problems at all. I get "wows" from anyone who sees it and my only disappointment is the noise (not yet built my hushbox) and I had hoped for slighty more shadow detail. Some dark movies still lack a bit of detail for my taste but my unit could probably do with better calibration. We all have different opinions and the most important thing is that we share them!

[QUOTE=pcarey] I get "wows" from anyone who sees it and my only disappointment is the noise (not yet built my hushbox) ......

pcarey ... Let me know when you are about to build your hush box and I'll send you some pix of mine. If you have not suffered any over heating problems yet, you will when you build that box! I have cool air running in (with tubes aimed at the hot parts of the PJ) and an exhaust fan pulling out the hot air directly from the PJ's vent. It is a pretty elaborate set up, in fact, but I can now run the PJ at any bulb or fan setting without fear of the dreaded blue screen. The hush box works great. Cheers!

HDD,
where did you get your 50ft RS-232 Male-Female extension?

I think you meant me.

cablestogo (it wont let me post a url so add the triple w and com at the end)

Item #: 09453
Product: 50ft DB9 M/F EXTENSION CABLE
Item Price: $31.99

bluejeanscable also has the best pricing on long (50ft) HDMI Cables and Component. Their shorter cables are a bit expensive.

[QUOTE=MCBRacer pcarey ... Let me know when you are about to build your hush box and I'll send you some pix of mine. If you have not suffered any over heating problems yet, you will when you build that box! [/QUOTE]

Thanks - that would be great. Do you use an anamorphic lens? I have the Panamorph UH380 and I would imagine that that adds a bit of a complication to the hush box because the lens is very close the projector lens.

Art:

I did not have the issues you did, so I could not report them. I would never "puff" on the forum because I have no incentive, financial or otherwise, to persuade AVS members to buy or not buy a particular projector.

I can sincerely say that I have never enjoyed a projector as much as the HD81. In October, I could have swapped the Optoma for the Sony Pearl and actually saved about $2,000, but after spending a number of hours comparing them head-to-head, I liked the Optoma that much better. My enthusiasm, satisfaction and enjoyment of this projector have been genuine and my only disappointment has been the substantial price drop. I’ve never had a blue screen or flashing LED or other problems. Because I live at approximately 5,000 feet, I've always run my projectors at high-altitude mode, so the fan was not a big issue. I knew about the iris issue before I bought, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t intend to use it (even though I like having a manually adjustable iris). I only use HDMI connections, so I've not had any connection options. The picture is razor sharp, the colors are accurate, the processing is excellent, and it has a plethora of inputs. If it had the black levels of a CRT and was absolutely silent, I would consider it a “perfect” projector for my tastes and system.


I'm sorry, but I can only base my opinion on my experience. I realize that your experience with the HD81, along with your system and tastes, are different than mine. I don't discount your opinion based on your experience -- please don't discount my opinion based on my experience.

Every projector I've owned since 1992 has had one issue or another and more than one needed to be sent back for repair or a firmware upgrade – I think it just comes with the territory. I’ve calibrated or installed pretty much every projector around in the past 2 years (except the very high-end models), and they all have one or more problems, including exploding bulbs, failure to light, failure to connect, overheating, mounting issues, loud fans, etc. I know the JVC has imperfections that are different than the HD81, and I’ve tried to report what those issues are, but that is not going to keep me from enthusiastically enjoying that projector.

In the abstract, I think your expectations are reasonable (e.g., a product that is easily integrated into an existing system and performs as advertised for years with no problems); but the current reality of the projector market is that the Optoma is really no worse (and no better) than the Yamahas, Panasonics, BenQs, Sonys, Samsungs, InFocus, Mitsubishis (I’ve worked with all of these), etc. in the less-than-$10,000 price range.


Kevin,

I have to agree. I own a HD81. It is not perfect. It is the best I could find at the best price/performance point. I have a dedicated room and am able to mount it in a soffit in the theater lobby. The initial lens throw put me near the limit for my room. A separate VP made me a believer. The HD81 is a winner. The Sony looks grainy in comparison. I have experience selling the early Proxima, Sanyo and Epson products. This one hits the mark.

That said it is not for everyone. It is a Porsche. In the wrong room or in the hands of someone looking for a plug and play pj it just is not the right solution.

Optoma has been good and kept their word on the C08 upgrade. I was able to wait until now to get it and I am happy. I believe they put in a new bulb. The meter says 0 hours and the image is better than before with about 200 hours on it.( I had also tweaked the color some so who knows right? )

With every product there are pioneers. You, Art and the others have paved the way for me. I made my decision with your help and am happy. BTW I have never experienced a blue screen. I have had may HDMI sync losses that remind me of the 60's!

In the future I will still look at Optoma but will continue to invest in hardware for my theater that will give me the best performance/price ratio.

Thank you to you all for your support of my hobby!

Best,
John

I have had may HDMI sync losses that remind me of the 60's!

Best,
John

John

Assuming you just had a new unit w/ CA08 FW exchanged for you by Optoma, how frequently and under what circumstances do you still get HDMI blue screen now and what needs to be done to get back the synced picture?

Optoma has been good and kept their word on the C08 upgrade. I was able to wait until now to get it and I am happy. I believe they put in a new bulb. The meter says 0 hours and the image is better than before with about 200 hours on it.( I had also tweaked the color some so who knows right? )


John,

While it is possible that Optoma changed your bulb, it is more likely that the firmware
upgrade reset the meter. This is what I believe happened with my first HD81.

Mine actually was much dimmer when i received it back from C08 upgrade. My meter said 0 but i'm assuming it was just a reset and i got a bulb with a lot of hours on it or something.

I'm going to buy a new bulb and test it out, if it really is the bulb causing the dimness i'll hit optoma up to send me a new one...doubt they will though.