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Official Optoma UHZ65 Owners Thread

444K views 2K replies 243 participants last post by  DunMunro 
#1 ·
Got mine in today. Luckily I never throw any left over parts and pieces away so I dug out the pieces to my universal ceiling mount got it hung pretty quickly. Took a little bit of time getting the picture tweaked to line up with the screen since everything is manual, but it's not like you have to do that everyday. My ceiling mount has a long pole to get the projector under my ceiling fan so it isn't the most rigid mount. My new receiver (Yamaha 3060) and UHD player (Samsung M9500) won't be in until Friday so I don't have any 4K yet. Only had a few minutes to play with it, but out of the box was very impressed with how bright it is. Granted I'm coming from a 10+ year old Panasonic AE3000 with a dying bulb. Turned it onto bright mode and even with all the lights on in the room picture was easily visible. Would work great for superbowl party etc. Not sure what the HDR Simulate mode is for, but it turned people comically orange in certain scenes on TV. I'll have more time to play with it on Sunday. My daughters birthday is this weekend so what little free time I have is being spent in the kitchen making cupcakes for her school party and a cake for the party with friends.

I never calibrated my old system. I'm reasonably technically inclined. Is it worth getting the software and sensor and doing the calibration myself or would I be better off hiring a pro? I live in a small town so not sure where to even try and find a pro.

Edit: Daughter got home from school so we fired up the PS4 Pro (still using my 1080P receiver so no 4K) and loaded minecraft. With the old projector we struggled reading the descriptions on the items in the inventory. I often went and got a chair from the kitchen so I could sit 6-7' from the screen instead of my normal 14'. With the new projector, no issues at all. Words are crystal clear. Colors are so vibrant and really jump off the screen. It is killing me to have to wait until my new receiver, player, and a coupe of UHD movies come in on Friday.
 
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#3 ·
I never calibrated my old system. I'm reasonably technically inclined. Is it worth getting the software and sensor and doing the calibration myself or would I be better off hiring a pro? I live in a small town so not sure where to even try and find a pro.
Dave Harper can probably give you some starter settings to get the projector in the ballpark of calibrated, since he calibrated his UHZ65.
 
#5 ·
Its Great!

Just received and installed our UHZ65 yesterday. Upgraded from my old, trusty Panasonic PT-AR100U. Not surprisingly everything is improved, IMO.

My environment is not well light controlled. Family room, open concept to kitchen and dining area which has unshaded windows. 12' wide screen, so ~154" diagonal (IIRC). The Panasonic (rated at 2800 lumens) had enough light output for viewing from late afternoon on, and the UHZ65 appears to have greater light output, although its not a fair comparison since the Panny's bulb has a couple of thousand hours on it. I didn't think the UHD65 would have enough light output for our environment, which was a key factor in selecting the UHZ65.

Ours is a ceiling installation, and since our previous projector had limited zoom and shift, the installation was pretty straightforward. Interestingly the zoom and shift on the UHZ65 are both just slightly less than the Panasonic, so some repositioning was necessary.

The UHZ65 is installed with a Marantz AV7704 and AppleTV 4K which are all working very nicely together, operating at 4K@60 HDR 4:2:2. I installed a Monoprice optical HDMI cable ("SlimRun AV HDR Cable for HDMI Enabled Devices, CMP Plenum, 4K 60Hz, YUV444, 50ft") which is working perfectly. With 1080P signals it was possible to have another HDMI cable segment between the projector and the optical cable (an HDMI keystone jack for a clean looking installation), but for 18Gb signals that won't work. No problem, the optical cable just has to plug directly into the projector.

We're enjoying the considerable amount of 4K UHD material on Netflix (Netflix app on AppleTV 4K), experiencing the image quality of the UHD65.

Image quality (resolution, brightness, black levels) are all a step up from the Panasonic, as expected, so no insight there. So far, I haven't noticed any significant or bothersome RBE.

In summary, my experience with the UHZ65 has been great over the first 24 hours.
 
#7 ·
A quick question to owners - is the vertical lens shift both + and -?

I have an awkward installation situation. Due to a low room height (210cm), ceiling mounting means that the lens is below the top of the screen. I'm wondering if the UHZ65 can cope with this, or whether I'd need to remask my screen (making it smaller).
 
#11 ·
Got mine today, its not playing nice with oppo 205.

Anybody having same issue? or a solution.

Its connected using the HDMI 2 output which states in the mnual is the 2.0 full 18gps but i keep getting "No source Found" from the projector and having to use "direct source" on the oppo to get back image.

Some help would be great.
 
#15 · (Edited)
So it was an HDMI cable problem, I learned today that a 250$ 50ft cable that is rated to work with 18Gbs over at 50ft is worth crap.

So what im seeing so fare, instead of a farily loud sound coming out of the fans this projector is 2 classes up then my 5040ub, sharper image, i think better blacks and much brighter. Oh yes, motion with puremotion on 1-2 beats the 5040ub every day of the week.

Please share some calibration settings ...
 
#16 ·
That's an awesome observation vs the 5040 as those in that camp usually tout the better contrast and blacks of the UB series, oh well, guess it pays to see it in person. Thanks for sharing, excellent news.
 
#18 ·
Oppo 205 with UHZ65 - Unexpectedly delicious

I've been setting up the system over the last three days, just installed a new 106" Elite 1.1 screen. I had received the 205 the week before and had been using that with the Epson 5025ub. Even though that projector is only 1080p, the quality improvement was remarkable over my previous regular bluray player. (The sound quality is stellar, by the way. I have reference studio monitors and a top quality pro DAC and this machine is right up there with it. I won't declare a winner till I spend time testing the audio.)

UHz65:
Out of the box it exhibits "department store syndrome" where everything is maxed out or close to it. Makes a quick impression, but after a few moments I am scrambling for the setup menu. It took me a while to learn the dance for each of my previous three projectors, this one is no exception.

The dance gets interesting:
I got the settings to a point that were ok for the moment on the UHZ65, then I started playing with the picture settings on the Oppo 205. Now it becomes a dance of comparing sharpening in player vs in projector, as well as for all the other settings.

My very preliminary feelings are:

Sharpening: The player seems to have more subtle and sophisticated sharpening capabilities than the projector.

Color: I am playing with a blend of saturation in player and projector, my sense is that the player is more subtle, but both settings can be useful working together. I currently favor gentle touches on the projector with bolder moves on the player.

Power level, brightness and contrast: Complicated dance. I am currently favoring anything less than 100% on the projector output. The range of 50 to 75 seems, in my setup, to be the sweet zone for getting subtle color distinctions. 100% feels "overcooked" regardless of my other settings, however I am open to further experimentation.

Dynamic Range controls: At lower power levels (currently 50%) I enjoy Dynamic Black 3. When I tried that at 90% I got too much image pumping for my taste. It seems that the lower power levels let this control breathe more naturally.

Still early days, much more playing to do. It is becoming apparent that the Oppo and Optoma can go places together that neither one can reach alone.

Great fun!
 
#19 ·
My measurements are not professional, but i'v owned a 5030 then a 5040 and its been playing in our living room every day since opened so im fairly familiar with what i'v got.

There is just something about the motion in the UHZ65 that does not happen in the 5040, the image is sharper then the 5040 regardless but with the puremotion on its stays share during fast motion action very very well.

i am having trouble calibration to accurate colors tho, hopefully some can share some settings here for "day time" (some fair amount of ambirt light) bright mode and "night time" control lighting almost no lights

Also seems like even when i set the laser to 100% and not eco mode, sometimes it decides to drop its power on its own while toggling the menus, is anybody else getting this issue? might be a flux in my model or my fireware update?

Hope to hear from more owners ~~~
 
#20 ·
How long does it drop for ? It sounds like overheating to me, which would explain why it only seems to happen at 100% power. I doubt there's too much power draw on your electrical wires unless they're very high gauge wires but we're approaching 500 watts at 100%, so if there's other things plugged in and drawing power and the electrical wiring of that circuit is very high gauge, that alone could make the projector overheat after a while when at 100%.
 
#25 ·
Fan does seem to be running in eco mode, not full speed but can still definitely hear it.

I wonder how this will compare to the Dell S718QL, specs they have the same new DLP chip but dell has it as "Dual LVDS" does that mean 2 chips? also dell native 2000:1 seems as good as the udz65 but then only 100,000:1 in dynamic mode i assume they put less time perfecting contrast for movies and focused more on presentations features, bad move by Dell i was ready to pull the trigger on this. projectors central review of the
S718QL seems so poor, they dont mention motion, sharpness, DCI colors, nothing poor writing, and there the only one who reviewed the dam thing.
 
#26 ·
My fans always run, but it is not high speed. It is about the same as my Epson 5025ub in low mode. In high mode the Epson sounds like a vacuum cleaner. I have never heard the UHZ65 in high speed fan mode yet, or if it was in high mode, I did not notice it. I am very sensitive to high fan noise, so I never ran the Epson on high. It would drown out dialog.

Some fan noise is normal.
 
#34 ·
Set mine up last night, 150" screen.

Played with settings. Color is amazing, I see no RBE, sharpness is legit, and contrast is wayyy better than the UHD60 o had set up.

Playing Cuphead, then some PS4 Pro, this is the first projector that I said "god dsmn this is bright"

Much brighter than the UHD60.

Is it worth $4,000? Well lack of 3D is the only real drawback here. Otherwise it's the real deal. HDR pops like a boss, will play with some more today.
 
#35 · (Edited)
Good to hear.

So this projector is bright enough to do HDR without the massive gamma adjustments most other pjs require? I'd throw on Goodfellas 4k uhd BD with dynamic black DB2 as a torture test to see how it handles the very low brightness and pervading blacks. I've seen a lot of OLED users claim its extremely dim with the default LG gamma, so would be interested if the UHZ65 could power through it or not.
 
#41 ·
I went to see the Sony 885/760 and 385/360 yesterday and if the 760 is the greatest projector I have seen so far, the 385 suffers from banding with 60Hz 4K HDR material and does not have FI, which for me is a must. So this rules out the 285/260 and 385 from my purchase list and all my hopes now rely within the UHZ. During yesterday's test they showed the initial clip of Cars, when McQueen is concentrating on the race to come from the comfort of his motorhome. Fast paced images are interleaved by black scenes. Can anyone try this part of the film and see if in DB2 the projector displays pure black? Does it come back on istantly when the images are displayed? Is the FI in this scene good?
Thanks to anyone that has the time and willingness to perform the test.
NOTE: the clip was taken from the Bluray 1080p
 
#43 ·
Hi all,

I got my UHZ65 fired up last night and tinkered with some settings. First and foremost, this thing is extremely bright. I have a Stewart 130 screen and it is like daylight in my dedicated room! I had my JVC RS-1 of 10 years with a fairly recent bulb, and it was like it was off when I did the comparison...and I really liked the image it put out over all these years!

I was messing around with various material from Netflix to Xbox One X gaming and I am a bit mixed. I saw some posterization on a few scenes where I didn't see them on my JVC. Not sure if my JVC masked it well or the scene was bad and the Optoma makes it stick out?

On Tomb Raider (Xbox One X enhanced), there were some seriously weird lighting problems going on and a longer input lag than my JVC. I think it extends from HDR, but it was like the screen would get really bright and then it would go dark. It fluctuated a bunch. At one time, when I was in the projector settings, the projector menu white letters did the same thing. Got dim and the lit up again. It was annoying. And another time the color of the scene went from vibrant colors to extremely flat and dull. I'm not sure what the hell is going on here. The menu flat out sucks. Let me just get that out of the way! Hate when I change a setting, the screen blacks out and reverts back to the main menu instead of the section I was previously on. On other scenes, I have seen like a "snow" noisy effect in the image in brighter scenes that I didn't see on my old JVC too. Starting to wonder if I got a bum unit?

I've done the settings for deep black, but am struggling with all the color options because it's hard to do A/B when the screen blacks out and you got to renavigate back to where you were. Too much delay. Any baseline settings to work with (not digging into the values of color, buy just the main basics)?

I have 2 hours on the laser so far. I have another hour to give before I get socked with a 15% restock fee if I return it. Not sure what to do at this point. I'm a tad frustrated! I love the brightness, not having to worry about a bulb getting dim with the laser (this projector is a daily driver, so it will get a lot of use), dropping $300+ on new bulbs, and the detail and color, but these weird brightness fluctuations, image noise, input lag for gaming and posterization is bugging the hell out of me!

I'll post my settings a little later tonight to see if I might have something checked that shouldn't. Maybe that will help.

Thanks!
 
#50 ·
Letters on menu dimming people try setting dynamic black to OFF and test if you still have the issue.

You may be seeing normal brightness / gamma changes when small menu screens against black background lower the overall brightness and engage dynamic laser dimming . If this fixes your problem try using DB1 mode and there will be less brightness fluctuation than DB2.
 
#61 ·
Hello

my older HD90+ reacts same of the own screen menus.
But i can change the reaction intensity in the customer service menu settings for all 3 DB types.

My UHD65 reacts not of his internal menu screens and change the dynamic only on the content which played.

I will get my new UHZ65 this week also.


Have anybody some information about the installed Firmware Versions?
I ordered my UHZ65 last week.

BR, Ronald
 
#54 ·
Can any of you guys see any issue on motion like panning, zooming, etc with a UHD output at 24Hz ? There is a rumor that early models of the UHZ65 might require a firmware update to properly display those at 48Hz, so it would be interesting to find out if there's anything to it.
 
#64 ·
**$**$** OPTOMA UHZ65 : warning 220v/50Hz **$**$**

So I knew something just didn't sound right with the explanation Optoma's tech support gave me yesterday and I called them back today to get clarification on that 50Hz bug.

This is a major blow for anybody living in a country where they use 220v/50Hz and thinking of ordering this unit from the US : do not do it or every signal you feed it will flicker!

And no, Optoma US will not do anything for you as they have no intention to issue a firmware update for the units sold in the US for this issue and even better, they will not perform that update for units purchased in the US even if you beg them.

That is absolutely deplorable because what is the point of having a 110v/220v, 50/60Hz power supply then ? To add to the features list like the absolutely useless 3D pc compatibility at 30Hz per eye ?

Sorry but there is nothing ethical about Optoma and that brand is definitely out for me, this is the worst service I have seen coming from a worldwide distributed brand.

Rant over.
 
#65 ·
And no, Optoma US will not do anything for you as they have no intention to issue a firmware update for the units sold in the US for this issue and even better, they will not perform that update for units purchased in the US even if you beg them.
To be fair, why should Optoma US absorb the cost of testing, issuing, and installing a firmware update for a problem that does not exist within their market?
 
#70 ·
Isn't Optoma an American company ? Shouldn't their products be sold based on the respect of American laws ? Isn't stanger89 coming to the defense of a clear breach of contract by an American company not an unprincipled statement ?
 
#73 ·
Now for something completely different:

I just got in the Blade Runner Final Cut 4K UHD.

This is really impressive. Beautiful film grain. Some scenes are much grainier than others, however I suspect this is due to shooting at different effective ISO and push processing, or something like that. There are a number of reasons why grain will vary between scenes, but none of that detracts from this wonderful remastering.

The first time I saw the film was in a theater, and we were fairly far back in the seating. It was also not a very good theater. The end result is that I am seeing things in the film that I never noticed before. Also, thank the heavens above, no voice-over! I do understand that for some people the voice-over has become part of the film for them. I get that.

For my taste, this is a spectacular release. I find it a significant jump up from the best I had previously seen.
 
#74 ·
I just got in the Blade Runner Final Cut 4K UHD.

This is really impressive. Beautiful film grain. Some scenes are much grainier than others, however I suspect this is due to shooting at different effective ISO and push processing, or something like that. There are a number of reasons why grain will vary between scenes, but none of that detracts from this wonderful remastering.

The first time I saw the film was in a theater, and we were fairly far back in the seating. It was also not a very good theater. The end result is that I am seeing things in the film that I never noticed before. Also, thank the heavens above, no voice-over! I do understand that for some people the voice-over has become part of the film for them. I get that.

For my taste, this is a spectacular release. I find it a significant jump up from the best I had previously seen.
They did a very impressive job on The bridge on the river Kwai as well, I really recommend it if that's your thing.
 
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#75 ·
I don't know, I think you're making too big a deal out of this.

Has nothing to do with America or anything like that, just eat the shipping and move on. **** happens.

But to rant and rave about America and all this insanity, it's overdone.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk
 
#77 ·
Look, the manager of Optoma US really was a jerk. He was clearly American. I've lived in California for many years and the bottom line is this : the country changed and the American exceptional attitude is now pervasive even in the projector business. 20 years ago, I would never have encountered such disregard for their own customers. Today, it's going unfettered from the manufacturer down to the dealer.

And I'm sad to say, this type of attitude is projected all around the world. I've been to many countries and the image of America has gone down the toilet because of that "might makes right" and "yes, we're doing something illegal but what are you going to do about it" attitude like I encountered while trying to give Optoma over $4000.

I don't understand why people don't try to honor their country by siding with principles. Once you try to diverge from that and justify all kinds of crooked behaviors, it really is a slippery slope for not just the person but also for the population and eventually for the entire country.

I knew my remark was going to hit some nerves but that comment from stanger89 was really what broke the camel's back : he constantly goes in every DLP thread to bash the technology and has no interest in keeping it about the particular issue of the thread. He has been told repeatedly that he had made his point yet he keeps doing it, so getting that comment from him was really upsetting.

This was my experience trying to use a UHZ65 and Optoma's attitude is absolutely ridiculous when you consider the fact that they're not even concerned with breaking US law. In fact, with their US headquarters based in California and the projector purchased sitting in California right now, I can guarantee you that the courts there would not side with Optoma.
 
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