If you want a higher resolution on a large screen, this is a good choice, but a non-4K projector is a better choice.
Optoma's UHD30 is
with
Compatible and impressive
. On a huge screen, the details have reached the desired effect of 4K, and the wrinkles on each face are bigger than life. The projector also does an excellent job of creating accurate colors. Compared with many cheap projectors, the green grass and blue sky are much more realistic. So far, it's not bad, but there are two problems that make it difficult to recommend that you spend extra money to get the extra pixels of the projector.
First of all, UHD30 performance is moderate
, Which is nowhere near the best projector like mine that costs less than $1,000
. In view of the rest of its performance, its image lacks the impact you expect. HDR video also has obvious stripes. Although this is not a trade breakthrough, it does damage the overall image quality.
Does UHD30 look good? Yes it is. The real question is whether it looks good enough to be worth the extra money spent on the HT2050A. For this, I will say no. Don't get me wrong, 4K resolution is great, but other than that, the HT2050A looks very similar, offers similar brightness, and has better contrast.
If you are a true 4K fan and want a super bright projector with accurate colors, then UHD30 is your ideal choice. After all, a screen of 100 inches or larger is the purpose of 4K resolution. In other words, this is not the best value. You can spend less money on the HT2050A and still get excellent images, but the images are slightly softer-unless you see them side by side, you may not notice the difference.
UHD30 is most famous for its 4K resolution. On a 100-inch screen, you will see various textures, wrinkles, hair and beards. When displayed side-by-side with a 1080p projector, the four-fold increase in pixels is very obvious. As you will learn later, UHD30 is not a winner in terms of picture quality.
It also has HDR compatibility, but like all projectors, it has a big asterisk.
Because they lack TV display technology (for example,
with
. For projectors, HDR signals must be converted for use on displays with much lower dynamic range. Optoma's conversion is excellent
I have made a review before, but, as you will read below, not about UHD30.
UHD30 is almost bright. Even in the darker Eco mode, it is brighter than many of the projectors I reviewed. Since all projectors will get darker and darker over time, out-of-the-box brightness is generally a good thing. If that's your business, it can also provide a huge screen.
Deliver CNET's comprehensive introduction to home entertainment technology to your inbox.
Like most DLP-based projectors, this size has no lens shift. The zoom range is also fairly medium, at 1.1x. This means that for a given screen size, you don't have much scope to place or install the projector.
In the brightest mode, the lamp life can reach 4,000 hours. Call it back to Eco, this may be the time you will use most of the time, up to 10,000. The dynamic black mode changes the power of the lamp according to the brightness of the content, further increasing it to 15,000 hours. However, I noticed that the brightness fluctuates up and down during viewing. It's not too distracting, and I don't mind, but I know someone noticed it and was annoyed by it.
If you plan to use this projector with HDR content, there is technically only one input. It’s no big deal, because I think most people who use this tool will do some kind of home theater setup and will pass
Pass them to the projector.
If that's the way you want it, the USB input is powerful enough to run a streaming joystick, and a 10-watt speaker is built-in to make sound. This is not the ideal way to watch a movie, but it certainly works. There is also a 3.5mm audio output that can be connected to external speakers.
The remote control has a backlight, uses a true Optoma method, and is bright enough to be used as a flashlight or to add oil to your sunscreen.
The HT2050A is not 4K, it is half the price of Optoma, but it is our current best projector choice. I think it would be interesting to see how it competes with 4K projectors at twice the price. 3550i is a direct competitor of Optoma in terms of price and resolution, and I have not yet conducted a comprehensive evaluation of it.
For comparison, I connected two 4K projectors via Monoprice 1x4 4K HDR distribution amplifier and connected the HT2050A to its own streaming joystick. This setting is necessary because the distribution amplifier ("splitter") does not change the resolution, so a single source will send the lowest common denominator (1080p) to all three sources. Then, I checked everything on the 102-inch 1.0 gain screen.
At first glance, these three projectors look very similar. All of these can create bright images with accurate colors. However, after careful inspection, the details of the two 4K projectors will be more obvious. One effect is that people look older. Wrinkles are more obvious, and the texture of individual hair, beard, especially fabric is also obvious. HT2050A is placed side by side on at least one large screen, which looks almost soft in comparison.
Optoma and HT2050A are both very bright, much brighter than 3550i. The projector itself does not look dim, but it is obviously dim compared to the other two. It's great to be able to emit so much light while still having accurate colors. Many projectors sacrifice color accuracy for the output light, and the result is an unsatisfactory image. Therefore, grass looks like grass, tomatoes look like tomatoes, and so on.
However, contrast is where 4K projectors are insufficient. The black level of UHD30 is so bright, even if the dynamic black function and dynamic light mode are enabled, you can hardly call them black, more light gray. The image does not look faded, but compared with the HT2050A of the same brightness, its perforation effect is much smaller.
The contrast ratio I measured on UHD30 is about 859:1. From a perspective, this is less than half the price compared to the price I measured with Optoma's own HD28HDR. The measured value of 2050A is more than twice this value. Generally speaking, especially in contrast, the HT2050A has its own advantages relative to the price of twice the price, and the projector with four times the resolution.
Although the contrast is so disappointing, the HDR performance is not satisfactory. No affordable home theater projector
. They are too dark and lack contrast like OLED.
To offset this. Therefore, all projectors that accept HDR must handle HDR in a way that compresses the high dynamic range to the normal-looking standard dynamic range.
Although the Optoma HD28HDR process works well, it is strange that the company's more expensive UHD30 does not. No matter what the HDR mode is used, any bright gray scale has obvious streaks and noise, and it almost looks like a cheap flat-screen TV around 2004. In addition, there is a lot of random noise in the shadows. From a video purist's point of view, this can be a big problem. However, since there is no real benefit to using HDR on the projector anyway, you can always turn it off in the menu without worrying about this.
UHD30 has many things to like. Bright images with excellent colors are a basic part of a great projector. 4K resolution is very popular, especially the lack of motion blur provided by the UHD30 DLP light engine. In comparison, it makes 1080p projectors look softer.
The problem with UHD30 is the image quality. These problems did not make headlines or spec sheets. HDR streaks and grainy noise in shadows will reduce an otherwise good image.
Compared to any projector I have reviewed, it took me longer to adjust the settings of the UHD30. Most projectors are set once and for all, but UHD30 sometimes needs to be adjusted according to the movie or projection. Keep it convenient.
Therefore, I can't even tell you the settings I use to get the best image, because I have to change it based on the specific content I'm watching. Generally speaking, the "Cinema" mode is a good starting point, and the "Dynamic Black" helps to some extent mask the medium black level of the projector. The detailed HDR settings usually look the best, thus minimizing streaks in HDR content. In some cases, this mode is dimmed, so Bright looks better. Switching between them sometimes requires adjusting the brightness, and surprisingly, also adjusting the gamma setting.
By turning it off, the extra noise and trouble caused by HDR can be avoided. Just make sure to restart the content (return to the show menu and continue) to get a non-HDR feed.
The D65 color temperature mode is slightly warmer throughout the grayscale range, but quite close, never exceeding 500 Kelvin, and usually less than 250 Kelvin.
Under such color temperature and accurate color, the brightness measured by UHD30 I is about 1,634 lumens, which is comparable to
, But this color is more accurate than the projector.
In short, for projectors in this price range, the overall color is very accurate. Red, green, and blue are almost all on top, although the saturation of blue is slightly reduced. Cyan and yellow are also accurate, although magenta is slightly lower than saturation but slightly reddish.
For the projector, the contrast ratio is quite moderate, with an average of 859:1. For comparison,
Is 2,094: 1 and 600 USD
It is basically the same as UHD30 of 716:1. The dynamic black mode can change the brightness of the light according to the content, resulting in a dynamic contrast ratio of 1,396:1.
Respect others, be polite, and keep the topic. We delete the offending comment
, We encourage you to read. We can close the discussion thread at any time at our discretion.
