Official Optoma HD7100, HD7300 + HD3000 Scaler thread. - Page 9

Bought a 7100 back in June and after ~100 hrs it developed problems firing the lamp and maintaining intensity. The image would occasionally start brightening and darkening in steps every few seconds. At first I thought it was a signal problem, but then observed that menus did the same thing. Ignored it for a week or so and the lamp eventually died completely right in the middle of a show. Returned entire pj to Optoma for a replacement. Replacement unit just hit ~150 hrs this weekend and guess what? Had trouble firing the lamp five times and image intensity flutter has started! PQ is fantastic otherwise, so here I go back to Optoma for another replacement. This is getting very frustrating.

What a shame. It is actually a great projector if they can only work through their problems. I am a heavy user and am at 475 hours (on my third unit) and have to say the bulb is working fine. It always fires, but i never have any idea what source it will come up on.

It should be looking for DVI for the scaler option. This is one projector I own, mine has 600hrs still looks like the day I got it. Very bright, sharp as a tack, deep black level, 4400.1 tuned contrast ratio.

I think head to head the HD7100 would put many if not all 720p projectors to shame.
Believe it

Just look, in my room which has white walls and ceiling I got - 4300.1
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/hd7100cr2.jpg

Now moving the sensor at the screen where the real black level is I got - 5700.1
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/hd7100cr3.jpg

You have to know white walls can effect CR levels, mainly towards the black level. If I painted my room these numbers should go way higher don't you think?
For joy my wife says I can paint the walls any color I like. She now understands the testing comes first over aesthethics. What color do you think? Crimson walls, Gray ceiling!

This is one of the best captures I've taken, very good depth of field.
http://www.cigarbest.com/sales/hd7100nwest4.jpg

I don't think you will find anyone who will debate the picture quality with you. However, the overall quality of other things in the projector leave much to be desired. Picture quality has never been an issue with me (or anyone that I have seen post here).

Both of mine have reliably come up on the DVI input, but that is the only input I have connected. Perhaps I'd see the same problem as you if I had live signal at other inputs. Annoyingly it (they!) always default to 16:9 scaling on power up. Since I have an external scaler (VP30) I'd like the default scaling at the pj to be pixel-to-pixel. It's bothersome to have to hit the remote every time. I'm tempted to build a little microcontroller board that would issue the proper RS232 serial command to swich the scaling whenever I power on the pj.

Seconded. PQ knocks my socks off every time, even when projecting on my uneven, excessively-reflective wall. (Theater w/ proper screen is under construction, of course!)

The first failure I chalked up to a lamp problem, but now with a second having the exact same symptoms I'm thinking there's a pj hw design problem. I've observered several times where the pj fires the lamp, the lamp achieves full brightness, but the pj never "boots" to display the Optoma logo. It eventually turns the lamp off and resets. Makes me think the firmware can't tell that the lamp is really lit so it turns off the power thinking the lamp didn't fire. All these false starts may be a result of a problem getting reliable data fed back to the micro.

All just pure speculation of course.

Yo

Any idea if theyve fixed the firing up problem, are newer ones any better ?

THanks

John

I'd like to know the same thing.

Yo, my third one doesn't have any firing problems. The problems with my other two (that were returned) are discussed in this thread (somewhere).

Well today is the last day of the $400 rebate. I found the 7100 for a really smokin price especially after the rebate. I'm really wanting a 720P projector. Should I jump on this or is it too problematic to deal with? I probably won't be getting a HDA1 for the next year or so but I do have a Bravo D1 that I would use to upconvert over DVI and a HD dishnetwork Receiver that I would be connecting through component, at least for now. Does anyone think Optoma will have the bugs worked out on this anytime soon?

a great deal is only a great deal if the thing is actually reliable.
For as long as this unit has been in the field, to be seeing several reports of the same consistent issue- I would take that as a big warning sign.

how lucky do you feel?

Very rarely are those rebates not extended (see Panny 900), and in some instances they are increased. Considering the market is getting more difficult for them, it is not likely they are going to effectively increase they price of their units (in real cost to the consumer).

Paulidan, Your absolutely right. That's precisely why I haven't pulled the trigger yet.

Raul, I was wondering if they might extend the rebate. It would be nice to let this whole issue shake out for a while. I suppose if the rebate goes away then it was just not meant to be.

Who knows, maybe Optoma will get it fixed before their $500 rebate expires!

Looks like the rebate (and debate) goes on. At least one of the forum sponsors is continuing the rebate until 10/31. This particular vendor is also offering a one year extended warranty, upping it to 4 years, in addition to a 3 year extended warranty on the lamp. It's not the same smokin deal I saw at the other site but the extended warranty doesn't sound too bad. That would give them an extra year to get the bugs out. However if you have to go without your projector while it's being repaired that could get old as well.

I suppose I should at least wait a couple weeks to see what CEDIA brings us but it won't be easy!

I just unpacked my optoma hd7100 yesterday. I connected it to my HD DVR (Dish Network) today and have a picture issue. I'm able to see all the "Text" (like..Channel name and lable and even the program guide text) but there is no picture, its just blank.

Has anyone run into this issue?

Looks like optoma does not have a technical support to call into! I had to fillout a service request on their website and they will get back in 24 hours!

PLEASE HELP

I would suspect your satellite receiver, not the projector in this situation. Try doing a reset on the receiver. Unplug it for about 2 minutes then plug it back in. Let us know if that solves the problem.

On my dish 6000 I have to select HD to get anything out of the HD outputs. If I have SD selected it only comes out on composite or s-video.

I have a second HDA1 with 2.0 and still get HMDI errors going straight from the Tosh. If I use the scaler I'll get no problems.

WOW!! Absolutely stunning picture........I love it.

rking401 you are correct, Optoma tech support also gave the same suggestion. It was a Dish receiver problem and the reciver reset fixed the problem.

Thanks

Tom, is this something Optoma is actively working on? I don't have the HDA1, yet, but I would like to know if I get this projector that they will get this problem fixed. What if they never got it fixed, would they replace it with something else?

Busy time of year for the headquaters. They know about the Tosh not working and I also asked for an overscan firmware and not yet. I just asked about it two days ago.

It could be a different brand HD player won't be so fussy. Looks like the player is dropping the signal between being on and the start of playing a disc.

I sort of figured that would do the trick. Congrats on the new projector. I have never had a complaint about the picture quality. Enjoy.

Does the Toshiba HD-DVD player A1 work wit this projector? I am gonna be getting my projector soon and been thinking about this one, does it work with HDMI Cables?

Not for me when I connect direct but if I use my HD3000 scaler it works without a hitch. It's a wierd problem because the Tosh works fine with the HD70 and HT1000 direct.

I just got the HD7100 last night, hooked it up to my Toshiba HD-A1 with a 6 foot HDMI cable and a DVI adapter - got the dreded HDMI Error 1! Could not get it to sync with the proj, kept dropping the signal after initial startup.

So I hooked it up with the supplied componet video cables and everything worked great. The HD-DVD of TLS looked very sharp with great colors and blacks.

I next played The 5th Element superbit DVD. I set the HD-A1 to output 480p to the optoma HD-7100. I thought it looked great, better than I remember. One question - does not the Optoma HD-7100 convert all signals to 720p? If so, then would not a 480p signal (regular DVD) get upconverted to 720p which should be about the same as the Toshiba HD-A1 upcovering to 1080i and then the Optoma HD-7100 converting it to 720p. Would not both of these methods produce a very similar picture??

If so, then would not component video connnections work just fine unless the HD-DVD's have the ICT turned on?

I love the projector, just want to know if I'm missing out by having to use componet video versus HDMI?

Strange thing, I was just looking at the specs for various Optoma projectors over at Projector Central and it says "This projector is manufactured by Liesegang as the e.motion 4100" in regards to the HD7100. All the other ones I checked says they are manufactured by Optoma, including the HD7300. I thought the 7100 and the 7300 were the same projector only the 7300 came with an outboard scaler? Are they both made by Liesegang? Does Optoma make any of their projectors? Maybe that's the reason there have been so many syncing problems with the 7100?

Im still on the fence about buying this projector, especially with all the new ones coming out at even better prices. Although none of the lower priced DLP models have lens shift like the 7100, which would be nice to have. Still it would be a much easier choice if, whoever is making the 7100, would get the HDMI input working correctly.

The A1 upconverts standard DVDs better than the projector will do, that is one reason why the HDMI has to be used for this to happen(unless there is no copy protection on the DVD you are trying to upconvert). I havent seen the HD7100 yet but I bet you would have a better picture with the A1 upconverting SD DVDs to either 1080i(most preferred) or 720p. My A1 makes DVDs look much sharper than my projector could do.


Exactly...until the flags are turned on, the A1 will play HD DVDs in 1080i out of the component output.


You are definitely missing something if you cant watch your standard DVDs upconverted through the HDMI.

I wish Optoma would have a firmware fix for this HDMI problem.

Mike

The only way I get the HDa1 to work all the time is with the HD3000 scaler in the mix. Although it seems my HDa1 died, no more play just lockups. I know they picked up a few Toshiba's to test with the HDa1 but nothings been settled yet.

I'm still asking for overscan also, stand alone HD7100's need a firmware for that.

Well I think I might just have to jump off the fence on this one. I really want to get something soon and it doesn't appear that Optoma is going to get this figured out any time in the near future. Kind of disappointing. I suppose if I want lens shift I'll have to look into the LCD lineup. The Panasonic AX-100 is looking pretty good. Probably doesn't have as good of a black level but it sure is versatile in where you can set it up at, you don't even have to ceiling mount it! That would make it handy if you wanted to temporarily move it to another room.

I'd still like to know if Liesegang makes all of Optoma's projectors or just the 7100?

Thanks for the info on my component video questions Mike!