Optoma HD81-LV Discussion/Reviews - Page 2

The first review I've seen of the HD81-LV is up at projectorreviews.com. Art
had previously reviewed the HD81 and owns a JVC RS-1.

http://www.projectorreviews.com/opto...1-lv/index.php

Some highlights:

Brightest under $10K projector by far that he has reviewed. 2900 lumens in max. settings!

Twice as bright after gray scale correction as JVC RS-1 in best movie modes.
(1474 lumens in high brightness, iris off, low power 1061 lumens)

Very good black levels and shadow detail.

Poor out of the box color accuracy, but easy to correct.

The Panamorph sourced anamorphic lens is also reviewed.

Art said the next projector he buys to replace his JVC RS-1 might be an HD81-LV.

Some observations about the review:

I predicted weeks ago that lumens in low power movie settings would be
around 1000 and I was correct, according to Art's measurments.

He complained of green flesh tones out of the box. This is not the case
with Brilliant Color turned on--it is too red/magenta. With Brilliant Color
off, the colorimetry does look cold to plus green uncalibrated.

I wish he would have said more about Brilliant Color by TI. It seems like the
purpose of the feature is to not saturate colors, but brighten them, although red seems to go in the other direction, losing luminance and also shifting towards magenta.

I also wish a contrast ratio spec had been provided which calibration software
such as ColorFacts offers.

No mention of 24p source handling in Film Mode 48Hz and the fact that it is not possible to use in LBX or Auto235 modes with anamorphic setups on 2:35 material.

Two of the HD81-LV menu pictures look to have come from an HD81. The first menu, "IMAGE", does not show a line item for Brilliant Color. The display menu shows, "HD81 C06 2006/10/03". Clearly from an HD81, not an LV, which shows firmware level D02 2007/03/xx on my projector.

Certainly a very favorable review and reflects what I think about the LV for
the most part. I hope Greg Rogers reviews this projector, but I doubt it. It
will be interesting to read the HD80 review on projectorreviews.com to see
how it compares to the HD81 and HD81-LV.

Art,

Yes, you immediately said you weren't happy with out of the box performance,
unlike your last two HD81's, which you were happy with. When I received my
HD81-LV, Brilliant Color was turned on, so I wasn't aware of the cold/plus green
balance.

Regarding the other Art's review, I thought it interesting that he minimized the
effect of a low iris setting. I think we both agree that it pays dividends in CR
and full field blacks. With the LV and iris is very important because it's so bright of course, but I always ran my iris as low as I could with the HD81 to try to
extract better CR and blacks.

Tom,

Thanks for the link, I have placed it at the beginning of this thread. Wow,
it's like two reviewers living in a parallel universe. This is why I'm having my
LV ISF'd in a few days by a tech who was recruited and trained by Joe Kane.

I'm hoping that the wine colored/crushed reds can be improved, but have a
feeling that this will not be possible, given the CMS limitations of the LV.

As far as lumens, I know my HD81 lost a fair amount of brightness when
D65 calibrated, but I have a difficult time believing that the LV won't be
able to light up a large screen after calibration. I will post all the numbers
my tech gets.

Art uses Avia Pro and a Optic One sensor for gray scale calibration. He always
says he is writing for the 95% of the audience that just wants to know if a
projector will work in their room, is it bright enough, how does it compare to
another model? Not us hardcore AVS Forum HT buffs.

Art Feierman, Projector Reviews. Don't know if he has a light meter, assume so.
I have a nice Sekonic digital light meter, but it only reads out in F-Stops or
T-Stops. Watched the HD DVD of "Hot Fuzz" tonight in 2:35:1 anamorphic.
Fantastic image quality, great contrast range, really awesome.

Hi Art,

I'm still blown away by the CNET review that says the gray scale "goes into the toilet" when using larger screens. This doesn't make sense to me, unless he is saying that changing iris position affects color temp. or white shading drastically. That would imply some very poor optics, which is not the case
with the HD8x series.

So we have Projector Reviews settings and CNET's settings to try out. Last
night's HD DVD really left me with a sense that I couldn't come up with anything wrong with the image I was seeing. Really, the only thing that came to me was that it was a bit too bright with iris at 14!

Thanks Tom. That makes more sense. Does that imply not having enough
range in red and blue gains and bias to balance to a higher green(luminance) output?

Art,

Something to try to mitigate the crushed/maroon reds, go to Vivid Color, select USER and
change the hue of most of the red levels to around 8. This seems to have helped, just
like bringing overall hue up.

Yes, you must put the projector in Film Mode 48Hz at which point the 24 FPS is doubled.
It will not work when using vertical stretch(LBX, Auto 235) for 2:35:1 anamorphic display,
however.

Jason at AV Science would be a choice. Why not check with our hosts?

I had my LV calibrated by an ISF tech today. The projector has lost a lot of
brightness compared to its uncalibrated output, but it still measured a whopping
28 footlamberts at D65, twice as much as a typical commercial movie theater.

I'm not sure why CNET was only able to get 9 footlamberts on their screen,
although they used a Grayhawk vs. my Studiotek 130.

Like my HD81, green gain had to be brought down, as did blue to compensate
for the lack of red gain to balance for D65. This affects lumens, as does turning
off Brilliant Color. The LV is still plenty bright, but not the eyeball searing monster it used to be when uncalibrated.