The Optoma UHD65 shakes it up

We’re a rather lucky bunch at Rapallo. We get to play with the best ‘toys’ available in the market, test them, compare them and show them off to our customers. The last few weeks, thanks to the good folks at JVC, Epson and Optoma, we have been able to see with our own eyes what is happening in the world of projectors. Let’s just say things are moving in projector world.

This week, we received the first production model to hit NZ shores of the Optoma UHD65 4K UHD DLP projector. We were sceptical, as we had never really been impressed with the price/quality point of DLP projectors before. Add to that that the BenQ 4K UHD projectors were a disappointment. So…. how did the even cheaper Optoma fare?

As we just mentioned, the Optoma UHD65 is a DLP projector. You’ll remember from our previous blogs that DLP is a patented technology from Texas Instruments. DLP projectors use a colour wheel spinning at high speed. The wheel can be made of a sequence of different colour segments; like RGBRGB.

Both BenQ and Optoma are the DLP projector brands available in NZ for home theatre projectors (with large cinema projectors from Panasonic typically 3 chip DLP units).

DLP projectors do well for gamers, and their black levels are very good. They are cheaper on average, and much lighter and smaller than their LCD counter parts. But the colours were never as good, the image not as good, and then there is the potential of rainbow effect….

Enter the UHD65….

The big feature of the UHD65 is the higher pixel density DLP chip that meets the 4K UHD standard (more about that further in the blog). Apart from that, very important is the support for HDR – High Dynamic Range.

While every 4K projector has at least UHD resolution, the UHD standard also refers to “HDR” or high dynamic range. HDR delivers deeper contrast, better colours, basically a better picture. The trade off? You need a lot of luminosity/light/brightness. A lot! You really need of a minimum (absolute minimum) of 3,000 lumens. Not all of the recent projectors handle HDR very well (actually, most don’t do a good job yet), not just because of the lack of brightness, but also because of the sometimes poor processing of the vast amount of digital information that is sent by UHD discs. While the Optoma UHD65 is reasonably bright for a dedicated home theatre projector, it needs more brightness for HDR. Let’s just say that HDR is a work in progress.

Apart from that, the Optoma is a pretty typical home projector: lens functions are manual zoom and focus, there’s a modest vertical lens shift allowing for a small amount of placement flexibility.

So, what did we think about the Optoma UHD65?

We unboxed the new Optoma UHD65 a few days ago and from the get go, our reaction was… “WOW!”. Yes, the new Optoma is painful in terms of installing. You can only mount it on a ceiling or put it on a table, but the lack of decent vertical lens shift (manually unfortunately) does not allow for putting it on a shelf higher than a table. Yes, the zoom is manual and there is some light spilling at the front. Yes, it still produces rainbow effect for certain people. But….

The image is stunning. Period. It is bright, the contrast is beautiful, the colours can be calibrated to very, very close level compared to the LCD projectors. In fact, we put it against the Epson LS10500 (an excellent enhanced 4K projector) and even though the Epson is still better in terms of colours, it is also about double the price.

It is often argued that you don’t really need the 4K pixel density when you are 4 meters away from a 120″ screen. The human eye can’t see the difference anyway, which is absolutely correct.

But the UHD65 also produces a BT2020 color gamut (or approximation of that), widely used in 4K content – which provides richer, more intense colors than the REC 709 standard we’ve enjoyed all these years for HDTV and Blu-ray movies. Just remember, almost all Blu-ray UHD movies support not only 4K, and HDR, but also that expanded color space of BT2020 (or the more practical, obtainable P3 “subset). And that is showing.

So we like what we see, but how does  the Optoma UHD65 compare to its competition?

The line-up of projectors that we have been able to compare over the last few weeks is solid. First we had the JVC Z1, a $47,000 laser full 4K giant. Remember, Native 4K projectors use an 8 megapixel chip.

Our 4K UHD DLP projectors on the other hand use a new TI 4 megapixel chip called a ‘UHD 4K chip’, resulting in just under 3,000 pixels across (or 2716×1528 resolution, as opposed to 1920×1080 for the e-shifters and 3840×2160 for the true 4K’s.). This means we are now dealing with yet another class of projectors.

BUT TI’s new chip will also have pixel shifting capabilities (like the e-shift projectors) so that will place the projectors that use it, almost exactly half way between the 2K pixel shifters, and the native/true 4K projectors when it comes to resolution.

The thing is that the UHD 4K standard counts the new TI chip as being 4K.  Here’s why: The argument is based on ‘addressability’, not resolution. Since the chip has 4 million pixels, and each one fires once, then shifts and fires again, with possibly different data, that’s 8 million addressable, which is the same number has having a true 4K chip with each pixel firing only once.

Are we making sense?

After last year’s Sony at over $80,000 for a native 4k laser projector, the Z1 was JVC’s first laser native 4k projector. An excellent projector but the consistent feedback from our customers was “this is a first generation projector, so we’ll wait for the next generation, which will be half the price, maybe even next year”. The proof will be in the pudding (we hope it is correct). Performance-wise, the Optoma is no match to the JVC Z1, but then again, so is its price tag.

Looking at the Optoma UHD65’s price range, you venture into the realm of 1080p e-shift projectors (4K-enhanced). The Epson retails at $5,199 (and $5,599 for the TW9300) and the JVCs start at $6,999 (currently on sale for $5,999).

Going back to our earlier explanation of the UHD 4K chip used by DLP projectors, the 4K enhanced projectors accept native 4K video signals and are HDCP 2.2 compliant. However, rather than using native 4K resolution imaging devices, they use 1080p 3LCD panels with a pixel shift technology that enables them to approximate the resolution of a native 4K projector.

While true 4K offers 8 megapixel chips, the UHD 4K projectors do with 4 megapixels and the 1080p projectors go with 2 megapixel chips.

So what’s the verdict? Compared with the Epson TW8300 and the JVC X5500 (both enhanced 4k projectors), the JVC still wins in the lens quality department, and on 1080p content JVC is the king, no argument.

But….the Optoma’s brightness, combined with excellent imaging does a very, very decent job.

And then you throw in a UHD disc (assuming you don’t suffer from the rainbow effect) and suddenly the difference between 4K UHD and 4K e-shift becomes obvious.

We have one last thing to get off our chest, though: What’s with bumming 3D capabilities?  Shame on you, Optoma! 🙂

With CEDIA around the corner and the rumours of new product announcements, we can finally say that the projector landscape is currently undergoing some serious change, progress and excitement. And it’s the consumer who is winning!

So is the Optoma the ultimate projector? No, it’s not. But it’s definitely surprised us in a good way. We recon it’s a very good value proposition and we predict it’ll be a bestseller.

Do come over for a demo to judge this game changer that is the Optoma UHD65.