The Official Optoma HD71 Thread - Page 7

So guitarman is/was an HD-DVD fanboy? lol.

For sure, they were first for quite some time, gave me HD-DVE - very useful for a calibrator. I'll miss it but will use what I have. Sony actually saved me some money, no need to get more involved now got enough.

Tubes still sound better, I like that. Just finished listening to records on my Rega Planer and Fisher 40watt a channel intergated Tube amp from the 60's. Music doesn't get better you're right. It works that way with guitar amp also.

Hi Guitarman,

I finally had time to post up some pics of the problem I'm describing, some screens of close up shots, which obviously are good.









Now here is the problem that I'm describing.





These 2 scenes looked VERY blurry when I was watching them, looks a little better on camera but you'll get the idea.






All the pics were taken with the same settings on the projector, nothing tweaked, displaying on my wall, via PS3 HDMI

hi

i have never had a projector just wondering where do i put it? how far from the wall?

i have couches on the side as well is the projector very visable from there?


please let me know

thanks

How does the brightness compare to the HD1000u?

Newbie here!
I am doing a backyard theater. I was ready to purchase a EP1691 then found this thread. I am going to use a Gemmy screen 144" and use a PS3 as the dvd player. So given what I want to do, is the HD71 worth th few extra bucks?
Thanks
-Joe

I also am trying to find out what the big differences are between the two pj's of the hd71 and the ep1691. It seems like these are them so far:

1691 has a 2x color wheel and the 71 has a 4x
the hd 71 has a lower noise rating
the hd 71 has a few more imputs
The bulbs for the 1691 seem to be a little cheaper

One thing of note is infocus is coming out with a new projector next week the work big in2106 that is only missing the HDMI input and 1080p conversion that has bulbs for less than 200 bucks.

Well my HD71 showed up yesterday
So all I need is my PS3 and I'm ready to go.

-Joe

Not much activity on this forum. I hope everyone did not return their HD71. I received mine a couple weeks ago and I am seeing the same out of focus issues that have been reported here at least by 2 owners. I am also a H30 owner and never experienced anything like this before. This appears to be a problem with the upconversion in the HD71. 480p signals seem to be the most effected although I have not tried a 720p signal. It is definately not an optical focus issue since it appears frame by frame for certain types of scenes. 1 frame will be OK and the next frame will be bad. For 1080i sources such as from my HDDVD it seems to me much less evident but I think it is still happening to some degree. I will try to isolate some scenes that produce this problem.

If I compare this unit to my H30 you can definately see the brightness improvement at the expense of a brighter background. Not sure which one I prefer yet. Detail seems better for 1080i sources. For 480P it is terrible due to this issue with non optical focus. It is intermittent since as I mentioned it only occurs for some scenes but it is really annoying once you notice it. H30 also seemed to have better skintones even after very careful calibration usiing AVIA and DVE.
I agree with guitarman that this unit is very sensitive to contrast levels. If you are a little off the picture suffers dramatically. On the H30 you could see above black and above white on the DVE grey scale. On the HD71 you cannot see below black or above white. If you use AVIA to adjust contrast so that you can barelhy see the second white bar this is way too high for the HD71 and most everything you watch will crush white. I ended up having to use the white lapel on the gal in restaurant on the DVE reference material. If you adjust your contrast so this lapel will not crush the whites it will look good for most material. I also agree that PC gamma is better than Film Gamma.

Did anyone confirm if a firmware upgrade was put in place to fix this focus problem? Has Optoma acknowledged that this is a problem?

Couple of other details regarding the HD71 story in my previous note:

I use a 1080i HD DVD DVE calibration disk for most things. I just double checked the contrast on the regular DVD AVIA disk which was upconverted by the HD DVD player to 1080i.

I am also using component input so I do not know if this is better or worse using HDMI. I will switch to HDMI once I get the cables.

Hello there,
I have an OPtoma TV model RD65, I was working on the mirror tunnel ( shawdow on the right), now the shawdow is fixed, but now some fine white vertical lines come out all across the screen and I can't get access to the DATA menu, before I fixed the right shawdow everyting was working fine, please help.
thank you very much
Icom.

Thank you! I just got mine up and was calibrating, and everything looked great except for the insane amount of grain noise. I turned the BC all the way down and it is completely gone!

On an unrelated note, how do you check your firmware version? And is it upgradable?

Well the rainbows and accompanying headaches and dizziness got to be too much, so I returned it today and got a Mitsubishi HC5500.

I am very happy with my new HD-71.

I upgraded from an Optoma 739 (XGA) 5 days ago after using it for 4000 hours. Went from a 67" wide Stewart 1.3 to 80" wide Elite 1.0 screen at the same time.

I do not have a PS3 (used for the blurry pictures above), but on my Moto HD cablebox, two HD tuners and a progressive DVD player, the PQ is outstanding. Brightness and colors are improved over the 739. Even old LD's are watchable via s-video (but boring compared to HD).

With Image AI or high lamp mode, fan noise is audible (I sit directly below) but not objectionable (my LaserDisc player is noisier). To get better bulb life, I stick with low lamp and it projector is not audible with a normal sound track - a low hum with no sound track.

This is my third DLP pj and I can confirm that RBE exists - I used to see it occasionally, but my brain seems to filter it out now (helped by a 4x color wheel). Out of dozens of friends and family who have watched my DLPs, only 1 person has suffered from RBE.

I do not have a light controlled room and even in the evening, we watch with lights on (this is our primary television). The HD-71 is fine for this and even in full daylight, we can watch sports with no issues. It comes close to being a 92" plasma.

I considered the HD65 as well, but when I found the 71 for the same price my decision was made.

JasG,

I'm really glad you posted this as I'm looking forward to getting one myself. Thanks.
A few questions if you would please:

1) what screen size do you have running with it?
2) if you have room and the pj isn't mounted, can you please see how a 143" size image looks like? that's what Im going with :-)
3) have you calibrated it yet or are you playing it with out-of-box settings?
4) what about SDE? how close would you say you would be from the screen before you see it?
5) do you think RBE would be cut drastically and maybe even vanished with a 120"-130"+ screen size?

Too many questions but I'd really appreciate it a lot. Thanks in advance.

1) what screen size do you have running with it?
A1) As I said above, 80 inch wide (92 diagonal),

2) if you have room and the pj isn't mounted, can you please see how a 143" size image looks like? that's what Im going with :-)
A2) Sorry, too small and mounted anyway. I'll leave it to others with that size screen, I would consider it too dim.

3) have you calibrated it yet or are you playing it with out-of-box settings?
A3) Mostly out of the box - dialed down Brilliant Color a bit. I just don't spend much time on tweaking - gives me more time watching

4) what about SDE? how close would you say you would be from the screen before you see it?
A4) 3 feet. SDE is a non-issue these days.

5) do you think RBE would be cut drastically and maybe even vanished with a 120"-130"+ screen size?
A5) I don't experience RBE and have never seen it related to screen size. Others may have more opinions than I.


As closing advice, don't overthink this. An old friend used to claim that music lovers listened to music on their stereos - but audiophiles listened to distortion. Those of us who are Videophiles (vidiots?) are susceptible to the same disorder. Make sure you spend your time watching movies!

You must have large room - in my room, with a standard 8 foot ceiling, the combination of screenheight and offset would put the bottom of the screen on the floor (or below).

Thanks JasG for a detailed reply. I really appreciate it a lot

In my RBE question, what I actually meant was given the screen size I'm going with, lumens will be cut down to about 600 or so, and this cut in brightness will ease RBE a lot if someone is prone to it. As I understand it, RBE is a DLP related issue and the color wheel speed is the main culprit, and if the DLP pj is of higher lumens e.g. say 1600+ RBE will be worse as brightness does play a role too. The HD71 has 4x speed color wheel so I guess that's ok, but the higher lumens i.e. 2400 will make it pretty obvious. Am I right in my thinking? Maybe not, as I haven't used DLP pj's before, only LCD's. So I'm not sure if I'm in the 5% who see them

But, I'll have to agree with your closing advice Great philosophy! Thanks

My rooms size is 16ft W X 25ft L X 11ft H so yeah I can go with a 143" screen size in 16X9 ratio and that's half of the fun

My actual screen is DIY 14ft wide 2.40:1 AT scope screen which will be coupled with a DIY anamorphic lens

HD71 is my choice now based on the rated lumens which I need really badly, plus it's HD65's bigger brother which was my choice in the first place

how would you explain advertised contrast ratio difference HD71 ( 1:4000, 1:3000) and HD75 ( 1:5000) .. as far as I can see HD75 does not have built-in speaker as well

1) My room is pretty small, and one window with very limited light. Would I be safe with HD65 or do you recommend me to spend the extra $200 to by the HD71?

2) I have a little problem! The room I am planning to use HD71 or HD65 is approximatly 19ft Long. BUT, 12ft from the wall that I will display the image is a beam that runs across the width 1ft down from the ceiling

So, can I install the projector at 15ft by bringing the projector down further and then try to tilt projector up so the picture miss the beam!? lol

Sounds as if you are light controlled, so the extra brightness of the HD71 might not be needed - will depend on your screen size.


My HD71 is mounted so that the lens is 11" from the ceiling. This works with the required offset and my screen size/position. Just do the math for your screen and you'll have the answer. I don't think you should tilt the projector, keystone adjustment would be needed and that degrades the image - especially if you use the PJ for computer display.

I couldn't believe the price.

Best Buy wouldn't match the price! $1,149
Costco don't match price either! $1,299
Circuit City $899. I think you can also save 5% by using Microsoft Live Search Cashback!!
Go to Live Search http://www.live.com and search for Circuit City, then click the link from there and finish the transaction with Circuit City and then I guess I will get 5% back from Microsoft Live Search Cashback!!!Che

Cheers.

Can anyone tell me what this projector does when you feed it 1080p?

My current InFocus sp5000 says 'invalid signal' or something. Will the HD71 display a picture?

TIA

hey guys how much should I sell my optoma hd71 with 19 hours on it??? I don't have a clue as to how much it should go for on AVS classifieds.

i know it can accept a 1080p signal but it will of course down-rez it to 720p...

Ryan

Interested in what settings others are using for both films and sports .

I am mostly using the default settings. Display mode is set to Cinema, degamma to PC, BrilliantColor to 7, TrueVivid to 1, ColorTemp medium, Image AI off, Colorspace auto, and Source Lock on. All of this is with DVI-D only and gives a realistic look to movies and jpgs from my camera.

I have 2065 hours on the lamp with it set to STD brightness (dim). The picture looks as good as when new. Also the projector is driven by an ATI Radeon and I have a 120" wide Hi-power glass bead screen.

Do you use the projector for TV at all - news, sports, animation etc.? I'm doing fine with the defaults, just wondering if I should use different settings for different media. Have had the pj for over a year and loving it.

Alright ive been lurking around these forums looking for a good projector for outdoor use and this has been recommended several times here. Im mostly leaning towards it because its so bright im sure we will be able to throw it 30ish feet and still get a great picture, but im just wondering about audio. Obviously the 10watt or whatever internal speaker isnt going to sound that great, so is there any sort of audio output on the projector, it doesnt look like there is, so would the only option be to get a separate receiver for the speakers?

It's mostly for my parents who arent too worried about audio quality and they dont want to deal with a receiver, so i wouldnt mind if it had like a 3.5mm output and i could just plug it into some computer speakers or something. But i looked over the specs and it doesnt seem like there is anything like that... so would the internal speaker be able to put out enough audio for like 5 people tops to enjoy?