Although prices for 1080p LCD front projectors have dropped steadily this past year, models that use the competing DLP and LCoS technologies have continued to command a big premium over their liquid-crystal brethren. But it was only a matter of time until DLP models dipped below the $3,000 mark that most LCD models sell at — and with the release of the Optoma HD80 1080p DLP front projector, that big moment has finally arrived. At $2,699, the HD80 is currently the lowest-priced 1080p DLP front projector on the market.
The sleek lines of the projector's curved white case lend it considerable visual appeal — unusual for a low-price model. There's a control panel on top for switching inputs and navigating menus, but Optoma obviously skimped on installation features to hit the HD80's low price. There's no vertical or horizontal lens shift, and both the zoom and focus controls are manual. On the other hand, the 6x speed, 7-segment color wheel creates full color from the projector's single 1,920 x 1,080-pixel DLP chip with only minimal rainbow artifacts, which I confirmed during testing. Although there's no auto iris on the HD80, it does have a manual iris control to extract deeper blacks. Lamp life is rated at 3,000 hours in standard mode.
Inputs on the HD80 include two HDMI, one DVI, and one component-video. There's no VGA connection, but you could use the DVI input for a PC. I'd say the projector's cleanly labeled, backlit remote is an exemplary design, providing one-touch access to key picture adjustments and direct buttons for selecting sources and aspect ratio. While I'm on the subject, the HD80's aspect-ratio modes, all of which are selectable for both standard- and high-def inputs, include 4:3, 16:9, Letterbox, and a Native option that displays the signal as-is with no scaling.
SETUP
When I mentioned that the Optoma's installation features seem stripped down, I wasn't kidding. The lack of a lens-shift function, in particular, made initial setup of the HD80 kind of primitive compared with that of other projectors I've had in my shop recently. Image offset is 136% of the screen height. And with a 100-inch-diagonal screen, the 1.2x zoom lens allowed for a placement range of only 13.5 to 16 feet — a tight squeeze. On the plus side, the HD80 can be outfitted with an anamorphic lens for use with an ultra-wide 2.35:1 screen, a way-cool perk.
The projector offers a Brite lamp mode to boost light output. But selecting this also boosted fan noise, which was already relatively high in the standard lamp mode. Similarly, the projector's Image AI setting, which automatically switches lamp modes based on the signal content, also periodically increased fan noise. Since the HD80's image was bright and punchy enough without it, I left it off.
Each of the HD80's five picture presets can be tweaked for each input, although I discovered that both HDMI inputs shared the same User picture memory. Of the three color-temperature settings, Warm delivered the most accurate and natural-looking color. (A User color temperature with advanced adjustments is also available.) Strangely, some of the picture-setup features described in the HD80's manual turned out to be missing from its menus, among them a Film Mode setting. This feature, which Optoma hopes to enable in a future firmware upgrade, would allow the projector to display a 1080p/24-frame-per-second signal from a high-def disc player at 48 Hz, as opposed to the current 60-Hz refresh rate for a 1080p/24 input. Of the features that could be found on the HD80, the manual iris was the one I took greatest advantage of during viewing.
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The Short Form
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| Price $2,699 / optomausa.com / 408-383-3700 |
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Snapshot
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| DLP + 1080p + under 3K = Yeah! |
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Plus
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| •Excellent all-around performance •Powerful picture contrast via manual iris •Great value |
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Minus
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| •Short on installation features •Fan noise is a bit high •Soft standard-def upconversion |
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Key Features
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| •1,920 x 1,080-pixel DLP display •1.2x Zoom lens; 1.85–2.21 throw ratio •Manual Zoom and Focus •Manual 16-step Iris control •Anamorphic-lens-ready for 2.35:1 display •Inputs: 2 HDMI; DVI; component-, composite-, and S-video; RS-232C •16 x 4.5 x 12.3 in; 10 lb |
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Test Bench
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| With its Cinema picture and Warm presets selected, the Optoma's grayscale tracked ±650 K of the 6,500-K standard — below average performance. But adjustments in the user menu resulted in much-improved ±250-K grayscale tracking from 30 to 100 IRE. Color-decoder tests showed —5% green error on both the HDMI and component-video inputs. Red and blue primary-color points, meanwhile, displayed a slight degree of oversaturation. Overscan measured 0% for 1080i/p signals with the Overscan option turned off with both HDMI and component-video inputs. And the projector displayed 1080i/p and 720p test patterns cleanly and with full resolution via both connections. The projector's post-calibration brightness proved adequate for dark-room viewing on a 100-inch-diagonal screen. Turning on the projector's Brite lamp mode yielded much better brightness but also increased fan noise, which was fairly high to begin with. Optoma rates lamp life on the HD80 at 3,000 hours. Best-case full on/off contrast ratio that I measured was 2,717:1 with the manual Iris control set at 4 and the Image AI mode turned off — an excellent showing. Full Lab Results |
While I was testing the Optoma, a surprisingly sharp and clean-looking new HD DVD release of The Warriors arrived in the mail. The projector did an exceptional job of bringing to life the sordid details of late-1970s New York City so lovingly captured in this film: graffiti covering subway cars and concrete walls, the fine print on scuzzy subway maps, and mounds of garbage flowing from banged-up metal cans. When I switched over to a Blu-ray Disc, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the Optoma also proved capable of delivering both deep blacks and finely fleshed-out shadows in a scene where Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) descends below deck to share a jug with a drowned, barnacle-encrusted sailor. However, I found it necessary to consistently ride the manual iris to get the best mix of inky black and white highlights in this scene and others (a good Auto Iris feature would've come in handy here). Fortunately, the remote's one-touch access to iris adjustments made it easy to make changes on the fly.
The Optoma's exceptional color rendition was shown off in a Pirates scene where Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) is ushered into a British Commander's quarters. The soldiers' red jackets had a rich, vivid appearance; they almost seemed to be glowing. The faces of both Turner and the Commander, meanwhile, looked completely natural, with subtle differences in their skin tones coming through clearly. Another program that had me drooling over the HD80's color was the Discovery HD Theater show Bugs! A Rainforest Adventure. In addition to conveying a sense of near-3D detail that made it look like huge, exotic beetles were crawling off the screen, the Optoma made colors from this reference-quality program look both exceptionally vivid and nuanced. I've watched clips from Bugs! on countless TVs, but I've never seen such a range of subtle hues as I did with the HD80.
The Optoma also delivered the goods with HDTV sports: The baseball and soccer games that I watched in both 1080i and 720p formats looked crisp, and the green turf and usually screaming-red signage surrounding the field looked relatively balanced and not overly pumped-up. Upconversion of standard (480i) programs, like those on DVD, was mostly clean and artifact-free, although the pictures looked decidedly soft compared with those from the same discs upconverted by my Toshiba HD DVD and Sony Blu-ray Disc players. And I did note a slight amount of false contouring in foggy scenes from some torture-test discs. But these effects were few and far between.
BOTTOM LINE
Despite its lack of installation features, as the first 1080p DLP front projector to dip below $3,000, Optoma's HD80 has set the bar high. Its exceptionally good color and crisp, bright, punchy picture are qualities I'd expect from projectors priced many thousands of dollars higher. The Optoma HD80 1080p DLP front projector is one I'd be thrilled to have installed permanently in my home. And at $2,699, I might just be able to afford it.
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