Optoma RD50A Owners Thread

[Rolen_it_Up]

As the first RD50A owner on the forum I feel it is my duty to create the official owners thread for this model.

There are a number of Optoma threads floating around, including a few of my own, but I would like for this thread to become the place to be for all "A" owners and prospective owners.

If all goes as planned, this thread should be devoted to the A's and not the 50, 65, 50H, or 65H. Those televisions are all very different internally and I feel that there is a significant advantage to limiting this thread to A discussion. One model that -could- be included here is the Sovereign Series XF model, which is mechanically identical to the RD50A.

Since this thread is intended to be official, it would be prudent to included some pertinent info in the first post.

So, about the RD50A and Optoma:

This TV has the HD2+ TI DLP chip and a seven segment color wheel.

It features a DVI input that -IS- HDCP compliant.

Optoma is a very well respected DLP display maker who have been quite successful in the front projection arena and have rather recently entered the RPTV market.

The RD50A is a second generation Optoma DLP set, with the RD50 being the first generation.

That will do it, for now. I can update this as it becomes necessary.

[USCsuperfan]

Rolen, why don't you post when you first got the RD-50A. It would be a good indication of just how recently this model became commercially available.

Also maybe it would be good for each owner to report how they have their set hooked up and to what components, so that we can compare how the tv looks with sat. versus cable, what dvd player does better upscaling versus the tv with a dvd player set to 480i on the SD1 input, etc.

[digitard]

I'll be recieving mine Tuesday... but if you do any DVE/etc based calibration maybe also possibly add what you changed and the settings you changed them to for those trying to tinker.

I will definitaly add my setup, where items ended up hooked up, etc late next week after I play w/ things.

[Dolphran]

Is there going to be a RD65A?

[Rolen_it_Up]

USC - I received mine on the 10th. I was the first person to order the A model from VA.

Later on I will post my picture settings for each input.

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by Dolphran

Is there going to be a RD65A?

The RD65A is offered by TV Authority, but the pricing is no where near the pricing for the 50A

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by Rolen_it_Up

USC - I received mine on the 10th. I was the first person to order the A model from VA.

Later on I will post my picture settings for each input.

I got mine on the 13th and ordered it on the 3rd. Am I Number 2?

[FLBuckeye]

Originally Posted by Dolphran

Is there going to be a RD65A?

There is already an RD65A but it is very expensive - close to $4k.

The RD65H is now discontinued at Visual Apex

[Rolen_it_Up]

USC - another forum member, whose name escapes me at the moment, ordered his set a few days after I did, but received it just a few hours after me, so he would be number 2.

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by Rolen_it_Up

USC - another forum member, whose name escapes me at the moment, ordered his set a few days after I did, but received it just a few hours after me, so he would be number 2.

Damnit. I was so ready to proclaim: "I'm #2, I'm #2!"

[USCsuperfan]

Since we are consolidating threads, I will repost a question I never got answered.

Has anyone run the THX optimizer on a dvd like "Finding Nemo"?

I ran into a problem I am most concerned about: The test pattern for 4:3 with the circle in the box was not a nice uniform circle, so the THX thingy said the tv was not outputting a true 4:3 picture. Likewise, the widescreen test pattern didn't look like a nice uniform circle in the Full, Full-L, Wide1, Wide2, or Wide3 settings. I think it was meant for the Wide1 setting but I listed the others just to cover all the bases.

Can anyone else confirm this is a problem or is it just my set?

[tavarua88]

ok i just got this the living room. this might be a stupid question but do you guys just take the box apart to get the tv out? or is there an easier way aside from just tearing it up?

[digitard]

Mines in transit right now... does that count?

It was bad enough waiting a week for this company to transfer the money to me (they bought one of my websites for around 5,000 so i was waiting for the bank transfer to go through) but now that my TV is actually in transit its even worse.

Before it was just... oh, once this goes through I can order. Now its... its already on the way, GET HERE ALREADY!

[Idahoguy]

Originally Posted by USCsuperfan

Has anyone run the THX optimizer on a dvd like "Finding Nemo"?

I ran into a problem I am most concerned about: The test pattern for 4:3 with the circle in the box was not a nice uniform circle, so the THX thingy said the tv was not outputting a true 4:3 picture. Likewise, the widescreen test pattern didn't look like a nice uniform circle in the Full, Full-L, Wide1, Wide2, or Wide3 settings. I think it was meant for the Wide1 setting but I listed the others just to cover all the bases.

Can anyone else confirm this is a problem or is it just my set?

I ran the TXH Optomizer from "The Incredibles." I don't remember that particular test. I'll look again. However, I could not do the FIRST test which sets contrast. You're supposed to see eight separate white boxes if you have it set right. No matter what I did, I couldn't see anything but one giant white box. That has me thinking that digging into the service menu may be required.

[canarsie]

Had my RD50A delivered and up and working on 5/4. Was ordered from VA on 4/29. Can't beat their service. Best mail order firm I've ever dealt with for high ticket consumer electronics.

BTW the driver was alone so I had him take it off the pallet and he and I carried it up my steep steps (hillside house) and then up another indoor flight to my second story. I unboxed it and disposed of the cardboard myself. That's service!

[tavarua88]

ok, stupid me i figured it out. now moving it onto a 2-ft high stand on your own, and taking off your 32" flat CRT off of it, that was tough. i cant really give my intial thoughts since i realized the last time i bought a dvd player was back in 99 so i dont even have a progressive scan player to see the quality. hopefully when the cable company comes by on sunday to install HD i'll have a better idea. the SD looked pretty sharp. a lot sharper than what i had expected from people posting on the boards.

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by tavarua88

ok, stupid me i figured it out. now moving it onto a 2-ft high stand on your own, and taking off your 32" flat CRT off of it, that was tough. i cant really give my intial thoughts since i realized the last time i bought a dvd player was back in 99 so i dont even have a progressive scan player to see the quality. hopefully when the cable company comes by on sunday to install HD i'll have a better idea. the SD looked pretty sharp. a lot sharper than what i had expected from people posting on the boards.

Simple. Hook up the dvd player with component cables to the SD1 input and let the tv do the progressive part for you.

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by Idahoguy

I ran the TXH Optomizer from "The Incredibles." I don't remember that particular test. I'll look again. However, I could not do the FIRST test which sets contrast. You're supposed to see eight separate white boxes if you have it set right. No matter what I did, I couldn't see anything but one giant white box. That has me thinking that digging into the service menu may be required.

What time of day did you do it? Mine was done at night with some lights on. I could very easily see the 8 boxes in both Cinema and Normal mode. I had to adjust the USER 1 settings to make the 8 boxes blend more together (more white with less contrast between them).

[drinkmilk15]

i'm number 2! I'm number 2! haha. i recieved mine the same day as rolen.

so far it looks like my screen shift issue has completely disappeared. it hasn't happened once in about 3 days. and i turn the set off and on a couple times a day. so i'm even more happy now than i was when i first got the set.

[derekg420]

wonders if he is the only one wth the 65a coming?????

[Sketcha]

Ordered mine Wed. May 18th.
Received it Wed. May 25th.

My H/K 635 is routing all video signals to the HD1 input.

I have Charter cable HD with a Moxi HD DVR. I've split the cable at the wall and run 1 direct to the Optoma for better quality analog cable. This also adds the possibility to view any channel from 2-78 while the DVR records up to 2 other channels.

I've run the THX calibration program from the Star Wars "Clones" DVD. My 4:3 and 16:9 tested with perfectly round circles.

I posted a review on another thread, but for consolidation purposes I'm pasting it below. Any updates, new discoveries and such will be added to the bottom of this post...


I THINK I'M GOING TO BE SICK!!!



This TV is freakin' gorgeous!

I just got my RD50AUXA. I'm assuming this model # on the back confirms that this is, in fact the "A" model that I ordered from VA. The lone TP Freight (local, I guess) driver was more than happy to help it out of the box and onto the mantle where it will stay.

I hooked it up for a quick test run and am quite pleased as you may be able to tell from my opening. I haven't touched a thing, as far as the picture goes. It came set to Cinema. The picture is almost 100% of my highly respected Hitachi 36UDX10S, but it's a whole lot bigger, especially factoring the 16:9 screen. A friend of mine watches allot of news as well as video games and movies. I asked him, "Which would you rather have, Bill O'reilly's head filling up your screen in all his splendor with black bars for your movies and games, or your movies and games filling up the screen with your black bars for Bill on the left and right?"

As far as the all important black is concerned, it is the best I've seen on an RPTV. Not quite as black and detailed as the Hitachi, but everyone knows you still can't beat a tube for that. But the resolution is greater. I think my Hitachi has 800 lines. I don't know how that works, exactly, but I could see the lines easier than I see the Optoma's pixels. Up close it looks like the cable HD is faltering before the Optoma, but, again, the picture is better than anything I've seen in the stores. Haven't seen the new Samsungs nor the Qualia. I'm sure, for 10 times the price, the Qualia is better. Still, the black and the picture, in general is many times better than Star Wars was last week in my non-digital, local theater.

I'm going to hook up the whole system. I've been waiting almost a month for this. My new home just hasn't been complete. It's been very unsettling. I'll try to write a little more this eve.

BTW, no screen shift or any problems to report. My Charter/Moxi HD DVR is hooked up via components to the Optoma in HD1. I tried DVI to no avail. Charter claims it is not supported, yet there's a port for it on the back of the Motorola box. At the same time the ladies at the desk stated 1 installer hooked one up for a customer and it worked. I'm going to fool around with it a bit.


ADDED at 4:33 PM:

From 12 feet away and my eyes about 8" below the bottom of the screen I notice just a hair less brightness than at eye level. If I didn't stand up, I would have no idea that it's not 100%. It looks perfect. Very impressive! I expected to have to shim the back of the TV and angle it down. Nope. Not necessary. Try that with your precious Samsung.

Oh yeah. BTW. Forgot to mention the SD quality.

Analog cable is very, very good going direct from the wall via coax to the TV.

Analog via the cable box is not nearly as good. Obviously no fault of the Optoma, though cable card ability might fix that for future models.

Digital SD via the cable box is better than both of the first 2.

Now obviously none of these are near HD. I think many people expect that and report on how terrible their SD is. Taking into account viewing angle, SD is better on this than on my non-HDTVs.

IMPORTANT!!! For those experiencing poor analog.


If you're unhappy with your SD, be sure to try another input method.

Now for me (Charter cable,) I found a drastic difference in splitting the cable and running direct to the back of the TV with my cable Coax. This has been mentioned in several other forums here. Sounds like it's fairly common. With DVR this has the added benefit of allowing viewing of a 3rd, albiet analog station while the machine records 2 others. Bonus!

vs. the D-ILA

I was so pumped on the TV yesterday, I forgot about the D-ILA. I have to say they're fairly even. The JVC is a bit brighter and prolly has better whites, but I think the color is more accurate in the Optoma. And it's cheaper. And it just happens to fit in my EC (barely.) I could prolly get the JVC in, but the sides would get covered and it would look funny (you'd have to see my EC to understand.)

I've never seen the JVC with a decent SD picture, where the Optoma simply rocks! It's damn good. Pretty important for cable with my 77 analog stations and tons of digital SD.

DVD

DVD is spectacular on this display. Nothing beats HD, but DVD is close. Still, I'm trying to hold out buying any more DVDs until HD-DVD comes out.

I tested the SD 480i input vs. the HD1 input with an inexpensive yet decent Toshiba 4900 Progressive DVD player.

Turning the progressive off for the 480i input yielded conflicting results. The picture was a hair sharper and had maybe a hair more contrast which I would normally love. But there was noticeably more pixelization. The HD1 MAY have been a hair softer, but viewing comfort was better. I would be happy with either, but since I have a decent prog. player, I'm sticking with HD1. The sheer ease of having just 1 input and switching via the receiver is reason enough. Especially for the WAF. But this TV obviously has a good deinterlacer. I don't know if it's the Sil 504 doing it on direct cable, but there seems to be some quality deinterlacing going on there, too.

HD

Just like any HDTV, this is where the machine truly shines. Digitally recorded material (vs. film transfer) like Discovery and ESPN is just sick. Before I DVR anything, I check to see if it'll be on the HD channels. HD takes up about 5 times the HDD space, so I just have to watch the recorded movies before too long. And then erase. If I had a DVDR, I would still watch HD movies before I record them and erase the DVR. Recording would be for library building purposes only until HD-DVD becomes affordable. The added expense of an "enhancer" to remove "record once" flags is also holding me back until HD-DVD arrives.


Update 5/29/05

The Fan

Can't hear it. My Motorola, Moxi, HD DRV box is much louder. Upon start up (which takes close to a minute. I think it's a bit quicker than the D-ILA) it runs loud for several seconds, but quiets down before the screen is up.


Update 5/30/05

FINDING NEMO--Optoma vs...

I just saw it was on Starz HD and decided to check it out for a minute. Damn! This TV really kills. I demoed allot of sets many times over. The sales people got tired of lookin' at me. "Nemo" was on several times and none of the displays were in this league. I thought the Panny HD, Plasma sets were incredible, well this thing blows 'em away. The Sammy DLPs aren't even in the same league. And remember, my eyes are 6" or more below the bottom of the screen at 10-12'.

Now Circuit City, Costco, Sears etc. may not have had the best feeds, but the pro shops I went too likely did. D-ILAs are prolly the closest in this price range, but I'm sooooo glad I didn't get a Sony LCD.


Update 6/5/05

HDNet Calibration

I was able to DVR the 10 minute HDNet Calibration deal. Though not all encompassing, it was very helpful. It showed that I have very acceptable overscan and resolution. I made a few minor adjustments to the vertical and horizontal and was able to get the contrast and brightness pretty dialed. For tint and saturation I relied mainly on facial shots from an average of several good HD shows. The resulting picture is most excellent.

Most importantly, though was the not-so-surprising discovery that my TV has a much better scaler than my Motorola/Moxi DVR HD box. The resolution charts of the Calibration image proved to be MUCH tighter when the Motorola was set to output 1080i vs. 720p. Very cool.

It's now time for a few, minor negatives...

Channel Change Lag and HD/SD switching

This has been reported elsewhere, but I thought I'd mention it as well.

Since I've begun using the TV's tuner for Analog SD (as stated above the TV does a much better job with Analog than my HD-DVR,) I've been forced to recognize the lag in channel changing. It's probably about a second or so. I've seen worse and it doesn't bother me, but it certainly could be better.

Also when I hit the HD button to return to HD1, it seems hit and miss. Sometimes it works perfectly and sometimes it goes to PC1. I then have to hit at twice more for HD1. It's a minor annoyance and could be operator error. I must admit, I haven't read much of the manual.

Start-Up Time

I believe this is typical for fixed-pixel displays (I know the JVCs, for sure,) but it takes a good 45 sec., maybe as much as a minute for the display to reach full brightness.


Update 6/7/05

On the slow channel surfing subject, if you want to click up (or down) a few channels and you know how far you have to go, the TV will let you hit ch. up as many times as you want and it will find that channel just as fast the next channel up. In other words it doesn't force you to wait for each channel if you know you want to skip a few. Obvioulsy you can punch in the desired channel on the keypad as well.


Update 6/8/05

Analog: RD50A vs. Hitachi 36" HD-CRT

I hooked up my Hitachi 36UDX10S last night. I split the cable out of the wall and ran 1 lead to the HD-STB and one to the back of the TV as I did with the Optoma. I was a bit surprised by the resulting picture. Analog was nearly indistinguishable through the STB vs. direct to the Hitachi. It was also clearly not as good as the Analog yielded by the Optoma's tuner and on par with the Analog from the STB to the Optoma.

I always thought the Hitachi had a great Analog picture. I found it sitting next to a Sony Wega at Rears. Both were being fed the same Analog signal and the Hitachi was beating the Sony pretty good. The Hitachi was an open box on sale for about the same price as the Sony (just over a grand, I think) so I grabbed it, took it home and started enjoying... DVDs and video games, mainly as I didn't have cable HD and couldn't afford a satelite HD-STB. But the Analog was still better than any non-HD sets I'd seen and much better than my friend's Samsung 32" CRT-HD. But....

The Optoma beats it.

[Sketcha]

Here's a shot of the 50A in my new entertainment center. A bound rug covering most of the living room's hardwood should be here tue. Right now the room is pretty hollow sounding. The Boston VR-M60s sound great even though they're in a cabinet. I had my concernts, but David Fabrikant form Ascend was never worried as long as the had twice the depth behind them as the diameter of the rear ports. Well there's much room to spare.

That's a M&K MX-80 on the left of the fireplace. I'm surprisinly happy with it there, though the H/K 635 is likely aiding with it's auto-eq. I'm keeping my eye on ebay for another for the right side to replace my wife's Dumbek. I may not need it, but for the sake of symmetry...

[Sketcha]

A near perfect fit.

[Sumdumgi]

My wife tells me, We have to wait!!! ag$5h%%! I have envy reading about you guys and this TV. AV has it for XXXX$$ now. It stinks reading about how you guys are enjoying your sets but I have to wait. Any ideas for how to make an older tv go bad quickly...
How about a hammer!
Enjoy your sets. I hope they dont start going up as they become more popular. I tried to tell her it was a steal but, NOOOO!!!!

[ysaric]

Since this is an owners thread that no one seems particularly concerned about consolidating with prior RD50A threads, it would be useful if some people could cut-n-paste their reviews, or add new ones, and also post a summary with resolution or lack thereof for common problems discussed in other threads.

[Sketcha]

Saw my first rainbows today.

The first one happened during an HD-DVR recording of "The Last Samurai." I'm batchin' it for a bit, here and was eating dinner on a TV tray while watching the movie. During a wild battle scene I quickly looked down at my next bite and that's when I noticed it (that's what I get for eating and watching TV.) It Took me a few seconds to process what I saw. With some serious effort, I was able to reproduce the effect, but only a few out of many attempts.

I may have seen 1 or 2 more, but it was not distracting. I think because I've read so much about it on this site is the reason I thought about it at all. I'm certain that had I been watching the movie instead of "multi-tasking," I would never have seen the rainbows. And, for me it is still difficult to reproduce.

Whew. Still a very happy DLP owner. My wife hasn't seen the set yet. It's gonna' be a real bummer if she's one of the 3%.

[Rolen_it_Up]

Ysaric - It is up to the mods whether or not to consolidate the threads. If they do, then my review thread will make its way in here. If not, I will cut/paste my review into here.

[Sketcha]

Just posted an update to my review regarding the fan. I'll be posting any new info. and discoveries there.

[Derik75]

As a potential owner I was wondering something...I expect to have the money to purchase the rd50a by the end of July. I was just wondering if there was any reason to worry about a new model discontinuing the rd50a bc I am really hoping to purchase it from Visual Apex for $xxxx.

[USCsuperfan]

Originally Posted by Derik75

As a potential owner I was wondering something...I expect to have the money to purchase the rd50a by the end of July. I was just wondering if there was any reason to worry about a new model discontinuing the rd50a bc I am really hoping to purchase it from Visual Apex for $xxxx.

This is not a problem at all. The sets just came out at the beginning of the year, and really became available at the beginning of May when VA started selling them. The manufacture date on mine was 12/2004. If Optoma puts out a model next year, I don't see anyone being able to get their hands on it before May 2006. BTW, each new model will be soley dependent on any innovations by Texas Instruments since they are the DLP technology. DLP is a rapidly evolving technology, but the next step seems to be 1080p, and nothing outputs to that yet, so I don't think that any new model will make the "A" series obsolete. The next Optoma 720p model will only be a slight improvement over the "A" series and a 1080p will be too far ahead of the programming curve, IMO.