Optoma H31 review & screenshots - Page 9

Just been doing some checking online. Price I have seen on h31 is $200 more than list on Infocus 4805. If this holds, then sales will never get off the ground on a nice new projector. I will certainly buy a 4805 if this $200 difference holds.

Here is a quote from the H31 user manual for letterbox

"Enable the viewing of a 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 movie without black bars at the left and right of the screen. Some of the original image will be lost from the up and down edges of the screen."

Does not make sense to me. Is this a typo. After having seen 2 projectors my humble understanding is that for 2.35 and 1.85 you only get bars at the top and bottom and not at the left and right. I guess for 1.85 the bars are not much noticable because the difference between 1.85 and 1.78 (16:9) isnt that much.

In the case of 4805 the letterbox option works like this. It takes the 4:3 image (SD cable) and crops a bit at the top and bottom and shows the 16:9 portion unstretched. I have seen many channels and I dont find it objectionable because I dont care what is going on at the borders of the image.

Now to convert 2.35 to 16:9 and fill the screen without stretching, one could crop the image at the left and right ends where there is not much major details. I care less what the director intended me to see. I am sick and tired of having to deal with masking so if I lose a bit on the left and right I dont care. I dont pan my eyes all the time left and right to see what is going on at the ends anyway. So as long as I can get the major portion of the movie I am fine.

So what exactly does the letterbox option in H31 do assuming that I am playing an anamorphic DVD and I have set my DVD player to 16:9 and not to 4:3 letterbox. If I play an non-anamorphic DVD I presume it will just put
bars at the top and bottom but what the manual says does not make sense to me.

It says some image will be lost at the up and down edges of the screen. This makes sense only if the first line says "without black bars at the top and bottom". I am thinking who ever typed it just made a typo or my understanding of letterbox has been completely wrong.

Any idea what the diameter of the focus ring is. Will a 62mm filter fit the
focus ring. I noticed that the zoom ring is separate from the focus ring which is nice. I wont hit the wrong ring everytime :-)

Filter: so why do you think a filter is not needed. On 4805 I find it a must especially if I am watching on a white screen or even an off white wall. On a grey screen filter is not needed but I still prefer to use it. Because later on when the bulb gets weaker I can remove the filter and still get the same brightness instead of changing the screen or the bulb.


Aspect Ratio:

so when the 2.35 DVS are expanded to fill 16:9 screen, are they stretched
so people look taller and skinnier

(or)

the ends of the 2.35 image are cropped to maintain the aspect ratio
and scaled.

For example lets consider a non-anamorphic 2.35 DVD. It has 640x272. i,e only 272 out of 480 are part of the image and rest are for bars. H31 or any 854x480 PJ will scale 640 to 854 and 272 to 363 and the 2.35 image is now 854x363. The rest 117 are for bars. If it is anamorphic DVD then all 363 lines of image are available so no need for vertical scaling. so only horizontal scaling is required. So far so good with both anamorphic and non-anamorphic.

Now consider the filling part. i.e to take an image 854x363 and fill it to 854x480 without losing the aspect ratio. 363*16/9=645. So crop 209 out of 854 to get 645x363. This is a 16:9 image with proper aspect ratio but some 100 pixels of image are lost at the ends. Take this 645x363 image and scale it to 854x480. There is no loss of resolution nor aspect ratio. Only loss of image. But since a smaller image is scaled i.e from 645x363 to 854x480 the image may not be as sharp.

Is this what is done when H31 fills a 2.35 DVD to 16:9 screen or it just stretches 854x363 to 854x480 in which case people will look tall and skinny which non one would prefer.


A crazy thought. Just like they make 4:3 Pan & Scan where they basically crop the ends of a wider image to get a 4:3 image so that the main focus of the people involved in a conversation is in the 4:3 image, why cant they
make a 16:9 pan & scan. Instead of blindly cropping some 100 pixels on either side they can pan the 2.35 image and pick the 16:9 portion just like they pick the 4:3 image in 4:3 Pan & Scan so the main focus of the scene is not lost. Isnt this a cure for getting rid fo bars. If people hate this and prefer 2.35 with bars they can use the 2.35.

Ofcourse this would need more space on DVD. well make 2 DVDs in the widescreen version. One for 2.35 and one for 16:9 Pan & Scan. 4:3 lovers can buy a 4:3 Pan & Scan version. Or add the 16:9 pan & scan in the superbit

I dont think this is a bad idea.

you mean lose info from the sides for 2.35?

Just an observation:

To fill 4:3 image in 16:9 without losing aspect ratio (people look normal), the 4:3 image has to be cropped at the top and bottom by 1/8 th of the height

To fill a 2.35 image in 16:9 without losing aspect ratio (people look normal), the 2.35 image has to be cropped at the left and right by 1/8 th of the width

The cropped 4:3 image on 4805 did not look bad at all. So I am assuming the cropped 2.35 would be fine, especially when the heads are not going to be cut as in cropping 4:3 to fill 16:9


SO IN SUMMARY: I do not need a 2.35 masking as I can view all DVD's in 16:9 with people looking normal. Right?

I wonder why 4805 doesnt have this option. it fills the screen but people dont look normal.

Tom
how is the brightness uniformity and light spill on H31. I guess H30 doesnt have even brightness left to right.

X1 had that bright lower left portion and some slight spill around the image

4805 alsol has a brighter lower left portion and the light spill around the image as they probably used the same chasis so there is some light reflection or whatever. 4805's brightness uniformity is better. On a bigger screen the brightness is pretty much unifiom and not as distracting as on X1. Only on a small image like 50 inch I can notice the lower left corner being bright. There is some light spill around the image but if the wall is black this light spill is absorbed. But there is a major light spill from the front grill (front lower right when table mounted) which wasnt there on X1. This has been documented in the 4805 thread. This is a concern if PJ is ceiling mounted as that light spill gets bounced back by the ceiling. For table mounting this is not a serious concern but still I would not like it as it adds that extra ambient light to the room. Covering it with the hand make a lot of difference especially if I have white carpet.

Light spill?? Is this common with sub $2000 DLP projectors? Is there also light spill from the H77? I would most likely have the the projector sitting on a table. But on the off chance that I do plan to ceiling mount my future projector I would like to know what kind of things I could be in for.

tom,

how would you rate the H31 in brightness compared to the NEC HT410 and the Benq PE5120?

i'm buying a projector soon but am in an apartment with all white walls/ceiling and am concerned about ambient light during the day. i like the H31's specs (particularly the 4x wheel because i see rainbows on the Benq PB6100) but am looking for the brightest option under $1500.

which one of the above 3 do you think is the brightest? or are there any other options that i'm missing?

thanks

Mupi,

It seems you already have a 4805? Am I correct to assume that you are considering an H31? To replace the 4805?

If so, may I ask why?

Fleaman

Just from readings posts in this Forum, it seems the 4805, on average, has a longer lived bulb than does the Optoma projectors, h30 and, now, h31.

The bulb life of these projectors is most discouraging to a potential new buyer of a projector. Do the bulbs last longer, on average, on LCD projectors? Because of this bulb failure projectors will never go mainstream. Of course, there are other reasons for them never to go mainstream as well. But, I would say, this bulb 'problem' is something the companies involved must tackle.

one of the reasons Tom just mentioned. Better contrast. The spec is 3000:1 but that must be on/off contrast. So the contrast after calibration may be less. Dont know how less it will be.

Other reasons

Fan noise
Shorter throw (1.77 vs 1.64)
DVI .4805 has M1-DA so you need that adapter which is $45 or buy the
M1-DVI cable which is $99. For $45 I can get a decent DVI cable from parts express or better yet use the DVI-I cable that came with my DELL PC.
M1-DVI adapter or cable is not something you can get from the net. only infocus sells them and you are forced to buy that at ridiculously high price.

lower fan noise and shorter throw ratio works out well for me
as I have to table mount the PJ. It can get farther from me ans still
give the same size image as 4805 and will also be quieter. Even if all
other aspects are same I will be sold on these two.

More aspect ration options. Tom had mentioned that the image
can be moved all the way up so that there is no bar at the top for 2.35
So making DIY masking may be easier as I have to deal with masking only one side.

I was hoping H31 will have less light spill but looks like it has a lot of light spill.

I am not sure about customer service by optoma. I am able to easily reach Infocus support.

My main reason to change is not picture quality but other reasons. The black level on 4805 is very good and it will be hard to beat it by a significant margin. So I am hoping the non PQ related differences will be better on H31. Someone has to do a shootout (not just image comparison)

PS: If anyone does a shootout please look at all the non PQ related issues also. I am sure both the units will be very close in image quality. Most or all shootouts dont care about other issues. No one ever said that fan is loud on 4805 in the shootout. Only when you get it to your place you will see all such issues. Moreover what is loud to one is not the same to others. But looking at the number of people complaining about fan noise on 4805 and also 5700 and 7200 I guess fan noise is an issue and has always been an issue with Infocus products starting from X1.

If 4805 had a quieter fan I wouldnt bother to replace it until it died
because the PQ is just incredible after all the things I did to my room and screen. Just couldnt stand the fan.

Tom
silly question: When you say you are putting the lens cap on H31 to tame the halo what do you mean? Shouldnt the cap be off when the PJ is on unless you meant something else. I am sure you meant something else.

BTW is the fan exhaust at the front or rear

wanted to mention this. H31 does 2.35 cropping so that the image fills the 16:9 screen. Tom confirmed that it does for both regular and anamorphic 2.35 DVDs. I am also sold on this feature.

In movie industry or home theater industry this is considered unethical and all OAR (original aspect ratio) fanatics will throw stones at this feature. I dont care. I am tired of having to deal with the bars. The bars have significant effect on the perceived contrast. They tend to washout the image especially if the room is not ideal (white walls) as the light from the bars gets reflected back to the image. Ofcourse masking this will solve the problem but making a movable masking is not everybody's bread and butter and getting a $5000 electric screen is not an option. So I care less if I lose 1/8th of the image at the ends if I can watch everything (HD and DVD) filling the 16:9 screen. If it sucks I can always go back to OAR and think about a movable masking or give up HD and make a permanent 2.35 screen. It will take a while for HD to catch up. Right now there is not much program content in HD that is worth watching on a regular basis. The image quality and audio quality varies so much from channel to channel and it is annoying. So I might give up HD. Anyway that is besides the point.

Mupi....

Ok, so essentially it's the fan noise on the 4805 that's the deal breaker.

I can understand 'cos I got a buzzer H30 that still buzzes! And it is annoying. After about 100 hrs on the bulb it now actually only buzzes for the 1st 30min to 1hr after firing up, so I tend to warm it up for at least 1/2 an hr before movie time. When the buzzing fades away (about an hour after warm up), it is very quite, just wish it didn't buzz at all. Sucks that I have to use up lamp hrs time just to pre-buzz the machine out. Also, this is the 2nd H30 I got that buzzes. Sometimes the buzzing takes 2 hrs to go away, sometimes just 20 mins.

While I wasn't the only one to get a buzzing H30, it seems like Optoma finally might of eliminated the buzzing problem as I haven't heard any complaints on these forums about it lately.

But like I said, when it doesn't buzz, it is very quite.

Fleaman

what is this buzzing you are talking about?
is it color wheel whining?

Well, it continues to look as tho the h31 will be priced around $300 street higher than the 4805. So, I guess, if that continues, the choice will be made easy for me. I sort of consider the 2 machines equal, on balance. The few problems with both seem to not be associated with the PQ, which is very good in both cases. It becomes a shame, when equal machines are priced apart by $200-$300..just not a level playing field, it seems. But then, it does make the final choice very easy.

Well, it's been covered in the H30 thread a while ago....do a search on that thread (buzzing) and you should come up with it.

No one seemed to pin the buzzing cause down (including Optoma, or they would not admit to it). Some thought it was the pwr supply (like a transformer buzz) others thought it was the color wheel.

In any case, as noted, none of the later H30's seemed to have the problem.
My H30 seemed to come from a time period batch in which many got buzzers on. The 2nd H30 sent me buzzed also, and it seemed to have also come from the same batch.

Mine still does, although it goes away most of the time. Tonight it only took about 12mins to fade away....that's a record!

Fleaman

And I want to repeat, when mine doesn't buzz, it is very quite!

Tom. The problem is..2 dealers have h31 priced at $200 over suggested selling price. If $1299 is list, I would like to find several dealers at that price. Then, I would try to get $100 off.

I know the h31 is for home use and the EP 737 is for commercial use. The specs are about the same and the 737 is XGA. Prices are about the same. Warranty is 3 years on 737 if I read this right. Again, why would the 737 not be a good projector for the home?