Optoma HD20 DLP Projector Review

Build Quality and Setup

It's almost impossible to explain to people that they can get a 100" front projection system for a similar or less price than a flat panel of one quarter the size. Or, for the same price you can get a 3/4 size rear projection DLP that will fuzz out on the edges and look terrible off axis. "But how will I set it up?" they ask. To this, I respond, "It's a 100-inch screen, you'll figure it out."

One of the larger arguments lately has been that in order to get a similar price, you needed to "settle" for a 720p projector. Not anymore. Optoma has upped the bar with their release of the HD20. This sub-$1k projector is full 1080p, has more than enough inputs for most applications, and gets you into a front projection system for an unbeatable price. Value shop for a power retractable screen and a mount and you're only out around $1700. I know lots of people that have paid that (and more) for a 50" flat panel. Tack on a couple of hundred (max) to have someone install all that for you and all the arguments disappear. Of course, the question is how it performs. At this price, if it turns on it's pretty much a success. Well, I'll spare you the suspense - it turns on.

Build Quality

The Optoma HD20 arrived in good working order in a dedicated box with air filled packing protection. The Optoma HD20 is white, has a lens cover, security bar (for locking the projector), and top controls. The body is constructed out of white plastic with grey highlights. The lens is mounted on the right (if the projector is upright and you are facing it) with a series of vents on the other side. The unit feels well-built and sturdy. The top of the unit has everything you need to control the HD20 if you lose the remote or if you have it table mounted. There are dedicated source, power, and menu buttons along with directional controls for accessing and navigating the menus. Near the lens there is a 1.2:1 manual zoom control.

Included in the box is the projector, a small remote with batteries, a manual on a CD, and additional warranty information. The HD20 sports a one year parts and labor warranty (typical for 1080p projectors is two years) and a 90 day bulb warranty. The warranty really doesn't bother me too much as you'd expect any problems you come across to develop long before you hit the end of that period. Bulb replacement is typical, but pricy at about 1/4 the price of the unit (replacement bulbs I found online were about $220 to $250) but we've seen worse.

The back of the unit sports a VGA input for computers/HTPCs, composite and component video, and two HDMI inputs. At this price point, that seems about right. There is a USB service port as well as a 12-volt trigger for controlling a screen - a great feature at this price point. The bottom has three adjustable feet for leveling.

Setup

Setting up the HD20 is fairly straightforward. Once you decide if you are going to ceiling or shelf mount, front or rear project, you can get started. Make sure you visit the Optoma website to ensure you have the right throw distance for your screen. The HD20 does have vertical image shifting but no true lens shift so you'll want to make sure you have the right placement centered to the screen. The manual zoom is only 1.2:1 which is typical. There is a feature in the Display menu called Edge Mask which is essentially cuts off the side/top/bottom of the image. This is great if you have some of visual overscanning artifacts like you'll find with some set top cable boxes. It does not, however, take the place of a digital zoom. This really limits your placement options with the HD20 and should be taken into consideration. Also in the Display menu is V(ertical) Keystone. We highly recommend you stay way from any digital keystoning as it can add a number of artifacts.

The most important menu is Image with all the normal top level display controls like Brightness, Color, Contrast, Sharpness, etc. We recommend immediately switching the HD20 into Cinema mode and reducing the Sharpness as low as it will go. Depending on your ambient light, source device, and other considerations, your Brightness, Contrast, etc. settings will vary. We found that between different models of DVD players we got very different settings.

Under the Advanced menu (again under Image) is Noise Reduction, Gamma, B/W Extension, Color Temp., and RGB Gain/Bias. The last one is a great feature on what is essentially an entry-level 1080p projector, allowing you to make very fine color correction to the projector provided you have the right equipment. In general we found that setting the projector to Cinema with the Gamma set to Film and the Color Temp to Warm we got very good results. The image was a bit oversaturated but that was easily adjusted to our liking with the Color and Tint controls. Most importantly you need to set your Brightness and Contrast using a disc like DVE or Avia. Expert video calibrators agree that you'll be a long way towards a correct picture if you do just that.

We played with the Noise Reduction and, as you'll see in the testing section below, it preformed very well. One thing that we've experienced in the past is that Noise Reduction processing will often create more problems than it solves. This has not been our experience with the Optoma HD20. That being said, we also haven't run into a whole lot of instances when we've actually needed Noise Reduction. So, we recommend that you play with the feature to see if you notice a difference (good or ill) and have the default as "Off".

The first thing we noticed with the HD20 is that the auto-source function doesn't allow enough time for the HDCP handshake. What this means is that the projector will cycle through the inputs looking for a valid source. With Component (we had our Xbox 360 hooked up directly to the unit via Component video), it would lock on immediately. But if we were using an HDMI input, we'd see the "Searching for input" message and, just as it was locking on (the display would switch to 1080p/60Hz), it'd change to the next input. The HD20 would continue to cycle through the inputs and, if we got lucky, it'd catch the HDMI input, but more often than not it would cycle indefinitely. Luckily the HD20 has a "Source Lock" feature which means you'll have to a switch the inputs manually (or via Macro).

There is quite a bit of light leakage from the front of the HD20 but the grills keep it pointed away from the screen. While my 4 month old son loved to look at it, this is generally undesirable. Our room is painted a dark color so we never noticed any negative effects in the room from the light. In addition the HD20 is also a louder projector than we'd like to see. While it is a good bit quieter than your typical business projector, like the InFocus IN3108 we just reviewed, it is still louder than we want to see in a Home Theater projector. While it wasn't a problem during most viewing, quiet passages were definitely interrupted by the noise.

Starting up the projector took only a few seconds (not including input cycling). The Optoma HD20 would show a splash screen while the lamp powered up. Shut down took even less time. The HD20 would exhaust loudly and quickly turn off. Overall, we were pleased with the startup/shutdown time of this projector.

Remote Control and Benchmark Tests

The remote for the Optoma HD20 is small, backlit, and very functional. There are a ton of buttons on the remote for most all the possible settings you might want to adjust on the fly. There are dedicated on and off buttons - a great feature for those that plan on using the projector in a universal remote/home automation setting. All of the inputs have their own button as does many of the projector settings such as Brightness, Contrast, Aspect Ratio (individual buttons for each), Edge Mask, Overscan, Source Lock, and more. You can cycle through the different sources with a left arrow and ask the projector to resync with a right arrow. In general, we really liked the Optoma HD20 remote save one thing - the backlighting.

It is bright.

And by bright, we mean so bright that you have to give your eyes a chance to readjust to a dark environment after looking at it. It actually hindered the calibration processes with the amount of light it gave off. While we often complain that remotes aren't backlit, this goes way too far.

Video Benchmark Tests

We installed the Optoma HD20 on a Da-Lite UPM-1 universal projector mount throwing to an 80' diagonal Da-Lite Tensioned Cosmopolitan Electrol screen. For protection, the projector was plugged into a Panamax MX5102 Uninterruptible Power Supply via the MIW-XT in-wall power extender. Signal was provided from a number of sources including a Motorola Comcast cable HD box, Denon DVD-3910, and an Oppo DV-970HD DVD player via HDMI from a Denon AVR-4310CI (which handled upcoversion/scaling duties). In addition, the HD20's component video inputs were connected directly to an Xbox 360. After calibrating using Avia, we found that the black levels were decent if not stellar. The default values of 50 on Brightness were universally reduced (regardless of source) but varied in their intensity (some as low as 10, others as high as 40). Contrast was usually reduced as well, though much less severely. Lastly, we wanted to get an idea of how well the HD20 upconverted a 480i signal over HDMI. Understand that when the Denon AVR-4310CI performed the upconverting duties, we had no problems and highly recommend you research all of your gear to ensure that the best processing available is being utilized.

Audioholics/HQV Bench Testing Summary of Test Results

Perfect Score is 130
Optoma HD20 Benchmark total score: 63/130. All tests were run through the HDMI 1 input.

Comments on Audioholics DVD Torture Tests

The HD20 did fairly well on the HQV tests, though the score was a bit inflated because of superior noise removal. While the HD20 failed the Color Bar test, we didn't notice too many problems during actual playback. Jaggie reduction was nominal at best with this projector and the Detail test showed an artifact-free, if a bit soft, image. 3:2 Pulldown was done without a problem, though (expectedly) the rest of the cadence tests failed. We don't generally find that to be much of a cause for concern as obscure cadence problems are pretty rare. Moiré was eliminated in milliseconds in the Film Detail test. Overall, the only real cause for concern is the weak jaggie reduction and the Color Bar test. You'd probably want to pair this projector up with a decent source that can handle these issues. The Noise Removal is probably one of the best we've seen (definitely at this price point) and is a real plus for the projector.

Viewing Evaluation and Conclusion

We were on a Bruce Willis kick during the viewing evaluation of this projector though we watched a number of DVDs, HD TV shows, and Blu-rays during the evaluation period. The pictures below were all taken when the projector was doing all the upconverting from an Oppo DV-970HD sending 480i over HDMI. Brightness for the projector was admirable as long as the front of the room was blacked out. Of course, the less ambient light the better. We were impressed with the overall with the brightness of the image and the saturation of the colors. For a sub-$1k 1080p projector we were expecting a lot more compromises on picture quality. With the Optoma HD20, we were duly impressed with both its price and its picture.

DVD: Unbreakable
M. Night's second movie and the last that had a twist that took anyone by surprise (actually, we stopped watching his movies after the horror of Lady in the Water) has tons of dark scenes contrasted with vibrant colors. We looked for Rainbow Effect (RBE) during the action scenes and found none. What is really of note here is the dark detail. While the blacks aren't particularly black (easier to notice if you have a side by side comparator), the detail in the dark areas is all there. The colors look a little oversaturated in the second picture (a camera issue) but in-room they looked very vibrant and realistic. Notice that even though jaggie reduction was marginal with the HD20, the lines in the background all look crisp and clean.

DVD: The Fifth Element (Superbit)
It's hard to have a favorite Bruce Willis movie, but this one is definitely near the top of our list (OK, Die Hard has to be number one but you probably knew that). We chose this movie as a great contrast with the previous one. With the color palette and detail of this Superbit edition of the DVD, we couldn't help ourselves. While some of the backgrounds start to get a little soft, the close up detail is excellent. Action again was crisp and clean and we were really impressed with the overall performance of this projector. When we paired this projector with an external scaler (the Denon AVR-4310CI), the performance was better, but not so much so that the uninitiated took notice. Will you? If you are a true audioholic, yes. 

Conclusion

We can't stress enough that the price of this 1080p projector is just amazing. For under a grand you have the ability to get a great big picture for less than the price of a flatscreen at one quarter the size. While it isn't the only sub-$1k projector on the block, the cheaper bulb replacement may win out over the quieter Vivitek H1080FD. For us, we're just happy to see this price point reached. With a white wall, you're only out the price of the projector and the cost of a DIY shelf. On the "high" end, you could get a motorized screen and a mount for less than a $1700 total investment. With 46" LED LCDs going for more than that (on sale no less), it isn't hard to see the value. As projector prices come down, we can't wait until the public starts to catch on. Then we can all enjoy what we once paid $10 a ticket and $30 in popcorn and drinks PER flick to enjoy - the movie theater experience at home.

About Optoma Technology, Inc.
Optoma Technology, Inc. is an award-winning developer of projection and digital display products for business and home. The company manufactures multimedia projectors for mobile users, fixed installations and home theaters, as well as HD displays. Optoma products combine superior image processing technologies with exceptional engineering and innovation to deliver images that are bright, crystal clear, and finely tuned for tone and color. Optoma products are sold through the company's global network of ProAV dealers, major consumer electronics retailers and Internet resellers. For more information, visit www.optomausa.com.

The Score Card

The scoring below is based on each piece of equipment doing the duty it is designed for. The numbers are weighed heavily with respect to the individual cost of each unit, thus giving a rating roughly equal to:

Performance × Price Factor/Value = Rating

Audioholics.com note: The ratings indicated below are based on subjective listening and objective testing of the product in question. The rating scale is based on performance/value ratio. If you notice better performing products in future reviews that have lower numbers in certain areas, be aware that the value factor is most likely the culprit. Other Audioholics reviewers may rate products solely based on performance, and each reviewer has his/her own system for ratings.

Audioholics Rating Scale

• — Excellent
• — Very Good
• — Good
• — Fair
• — Poor

Metric	Rating
Detail and Resolution
Contrast and Black Levels
Color Reproduction
Build Quality
Ergonomics & Usability
Ease of Setup
Features
Remote Control
Fit and Finish
Performance
Value