Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

09/07/2015 Another edit: Amazon replaced the previous faulty HD141X I had and I've had this new one for months now. It suffers from the same severe HDMI port and HDCP (an HDMI copy protection protocol) issues as the previous one that I replaced. The projector's HDMI ports are still so flimsy that the slightest bumps nearby where it sits or hangs can cause HDMI flickering, cut outs, snow, red/blue speckles, and worse... My niece will run through the house 20 feet away and shake the ground and...yup, the video cuts out. So then the HDMI source rescans automatically for 5 endless seconds only either to fail to resync completely or it syncs the video but not the sound so there's no sound. Pressing the resync button does nothing since it's 99% an HDCP issue. So I have to get up to power off the device so it can completely redo its HDMI scan fresh or I have to completely unplug the HDMI and plug it back it. Did I mention this projector takes 30 SECONDS TO TURN ON THEN OFF? Oh ok, I'll say it again. This projector takes 30 solid seconds to turn off then turn on again immediately. So once you do that it then rescans for 5 more endless seconds...oh! ooops, looks like the HDMI did not handshake correctly from the HDCP...so you can either unplug replug, unplug replug til it works which will destroy the HDMI port or turn it off and on forever til you get lucky. It never ends. It happens every day. It can take an entire hour to get it fixed and you have that anxiety in your heart because you spent so much money on an item neither amazon nor Optoma will happily refund you for. You're stuck and you have to deal with this or cry and go insane. The projector is absolutely gorgeous but the HDMI ports are simply busted. I've troubleshooted everything for both of these HD141X projectors. I've used: 1) Multiple XBOX 360's, fail 2) Multiple PS3's, fail 3) My Alienware M17 laptop, fail 4) Multiple HDMI cables ranging from XBOX HDMI 1.0 to AmazonBasics HDMI 1.4 and 1.4a cables, fail ......all issues from the previous projector are still present in this new projector Yes, it gets worse people. More than that above nightmare I wrote.... Once you get it working you sigh in relief....wait, what is that flickering on white screens (like all-white webpages)? What, you're kidding?? Flickering now??? Unplug, replug...unplug, replug. I JUST GOT IT HUNG ON THE BLEEPING CEILING AND NOW I HAVE TO STAND ON A STOOL FOR ANOTHER HOUR DOING THIS HDMI NONSENSE!!!!! It's endless. THE HDMI PORTS ARE NOT RELIABLE AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!! THIS ENTIRE LINE OF PROJECTORS IS FAULTY! So now I'm writing this angry review. The cut outs happen CONSTANTLY and then suddenly stop for a day when you get it right but you know you're gonna bump something. Someone is going to slam the door too hard one day and there it starts again. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. It can take up to an hour of resyncing, resourcing, un/replugging until the @$#@$#@$ projector finally works only to have to do it again once you power off all of your devices. THAT'S RIGHT. Once you get this @##$ working if you never want to go through this HDMI hell again you must never power off the projector or the devices connected to it. Every day you will encounter this. It's bad for me because I use it so much. I suppose if you wanted to pop on a movie once per week you wouldn't care. But I use this for movies every day and for TV every day. IT'S MADNESS. Do yourself a favor and burn your money if you are compelled to buy this. Save yourself the insanity or buy a different projector. I always give the benefit of the doubt. In fact, I will write a neutral review when I'm angry because I don't like angry reviews. I even ignore reading angry reviews like this one. But this is my second HD141X and the cost is so high (double a TV when you buy a screen). This quality issue is unbearable and unacceptable for such a high cost. 1) $600 for this projector 2) $50 for a special screen 3) Assemble the screen, arrange your entire living room around the projector 4) $40 for a projector mount 5) $20 for special HDMI cable 6) disaster. This projector is gorgeous and faulty and price cannot possibly compensate for the HDMI troubles. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. DO NOT BUY THIS PROJECTOR. 5/28/2015 projector now has all 3 modes severely flickering now. It started with eco mode which I read most projectors struggle with the low power draw which allegedly leads to flickering. Dynamic Black mode was next about 6 months later. Now, after about 10 months bright mode is also severely flickering. Sometimes just turning off the projector for 5 minutes fixes it but 100% of the time eco mode and dynamic black modes flicker within moments no matter what troubleshooting I've done. If I sent this in to Optoma it'd take weeks and weeks to return to me since they have no locations in America. The nearest location would be Germany!!! It's just not worth it. I spent $640 on this after tax plus a $50 Carl's Blackout Cloth and this projector is all but gone WITHIN a year. Stay clear of this projector. It's beautiful and convenient and cheap, but it simply will not last. It's color wheel, power supply, and lamp modes are all Korean junk. The HDMI ports are loosened as well and I've only unplugged and plugged them in a few times. They should not be in there sideways, which is likely the problem. Since the HDMI ports can't simply be replaced I'd have to junk the ENTIRE projector. Everything was fine for a while then it's just begun to all fall apart. I'm very sad. I'm a young guy and my lifestyle cannot accommodate a TV so a projector would have been ideal, but nearly $700 to make this thing work should last at least 5 years. Buyers strongly warned to stay far away from this product. ORIGINAL REVIEW ONGOING BELOW Hi all, I am definitely a videophile so I wanted to write a thorough review for all those people who are like me and wanted some really bone-dry criticism as well as some questions answered. ME: I've been accustomed to such displays like those with 120Hz, super-white features, interpolation, wide gamut, full color spectrum, super-black blacks, color quality/accuracy and all around connectivity to multiple sources. I tend to shift between gaming one second via ALT+TAB and internet search then switch HDMI sources to a PS3 for updating and so on. You get the picture, I do a hundred things at a time and don't like to wait, don't like messing with settings and expect everything to be perfect or I'll be annoyed. FIRST: Unanswered question: Q: Is this projector true 120Hz (as in, can I play games and display 2D movies at 120Hz)? A: Yes, no, and maybe so. At low resolution I can hit 120Hz with an HDMI 1.4a cable. My graphics card control panel actually does show it to be a real 120Hz display capable of what gamers call 120 Frames Per Second. In fact, it also can display at 24Hz, 25Hz, 29Hz, 30Hz, 50Hz, 59Hz, 60Hz, 70Hz, 72Hz, 73Hz, 75Hz and 120Hz. However, for me at this moment with an HDMI 1.4a cable, every refresh rate above 60Hz is italicized, which may indicate it's more of a 3D function than a 2D 120Hz function. This may be because it has to scan vertically and horizontally. That is a typical way 3D players manage to overcome HDMI bandwidth issues. So when I select the 120Hz while in 2D mode it defaults to 800x600 resolution and I cannot get it higher than that. No brightness decrease either. With this in mind, chances are high that with an HDMI 2.0 cable, a true 120Hz refresh may be possible in 2D mode. Even still if not, then from a site called Blurbusters there is a download that allows you to override a graphics card's EDID (at your own risk), then if the projector really is capable of 1080p120Hz it will certainly do so. I plan on trying this myself when I bother to buy a new HDMI 2.0 cable. I do know that previous models of Optoma projectors can display at 720p120Hz, so my own difficulties probably boil down to having an old laptop with a lower end HDMI cable. PROS: Brightness---------- 1) Right out of the gate, I will say this projector is bright enough to blast against a white wall with little loss of quality. Actually, it's so bright that I have a baby blue colored wall and it threw the image well even still 2) Not too bright to blind you if you're in a studio like me sitting only 20 feet away. Still though, this projector is bright enough that you will never need to turn on lights in your living room. The image is bright enough that I know I would get a headache after a few hours of looking at all of the white on internet explorer. Not so for other colors like when gaming Connectivity, Ease of Use and Setup---------- 1) I immediately connected this to my PS3 with perfect results. Very little adjustments were needed since consoles typically have a great deal of their own settings for details, colors and resolution. Huge plus! Also, for games that do not output to 1080p the projector automatically switches to 720p. This is good because you don't want image stretching. Some people argue that 1080p forced is better but I've always preferred to maintain the source and aspect ratios (etc) 2) I also plugged in my laptop, which was immediately fantastic. I sit about 20 feet away and the screen is bright and vivid. I bought Carl's Blackout Cloth and everything was very easy to set up. I did things the lazy way as well and everything is still amazing. That's how easy this all was 3) As of 11/7/2014, replacement bulbs are only $190, which is easily less than half the price of competitor brand bulb prices Colors----------------- 1) Dark colors are exceptional and wonderful. It is in this area that the contrast ratio really shines 2) Movies and video are great. None of the issues for color listed below in the cons area affect movies or games at all. It only seems to be a Windows 7 color issue, probably from Aero. Resolution, input Lag, and Clarity------------ 1) Plain and simple, this is a full blown 1080p projector. No gimmicks at all. This is the real deal and the image clarity is easily capable of rivaling some of the leading TV's I've own in recent months. 2) There is no discernible input lag,. if there was, I'd mention it because I would have seen it easily. I can guarantee that this projector's response time is good enough even for dedicated deathmatch gamers for competitions like for those clowns who live on Call of DooDoo all day 3) No choppiness, judder, blur, or any other word you could use to describe what TV's experience. I took a chance on this projector and to be blunt, my every last penny was spent well. Very well. I got rid of my 120Hz LG, which was really great, but input lag was awful and judder was always an issue. I had to spend so much stinking time setting the Hz so movies would sync properly and even when I did it correctly, some TV shows and content simply do not sync properly, resulting in the most eye watering judder and choppy video playback. INCLUDING 60p sources. This projector does not suffer that at all in any way, shape, or form. Features: 1) The lens zoom and focus is by no means hard. This is actually unbelievably easy. I was worried I'd spend two hours screwing around with the focus to get it juuuuuuust perfect but I spent less than 20 seconds! 2) The projector keystone takes a moment to get used to if you've never used a projector. It is excellent. It takes a moment to realize that every time you even move the projector a little bit the entire image can shift slightly and the corners will no longer be a square but take on a weird shape. This is not the projector's fault. The keystone is great, be prepared though to take a few moments after setting up your screen to line up the projector. If you set up your projector first then do the blackout cloth and other things, you will have to redo everything 3) Menus are great. I've owned a lot of TV's with horrid menus and this one has taken the gold crown for ease of use 4) Remote control is a blindingly bright blue. As someone else had noted, it could very easily be offensively bright! I find this to be awesome though, but perhaps battery life will suffer for it 5) This projector has specific "auto-on" features, so for instance, if you connect this to a computer, with the appropriate activated setting you can actually automatically turn the projector on if the computer is turned on when it sends a signal. This is great! 6) Hooray for sleep timers! For all of you out there who prefer to fall asleep with a TV on, this projector has a sleep timer! Swoosh! CONS: Contrast---------------- 1) Just as with TV's, contrast ratios tend to mean little to most people since every manufacturer has their own method of determining their numbers. Most people cannot see the difference between one TV's alleged 50,000,000:1 contrast ratio and another's 6,000:1. This projector is 20,000:1, so all I can say is that despite whatever that may actually mean to anyone who has never owned previous generations of Optoma projectors is that there are some noticeable but MINOR color vibrancy issues, such as; a) Whites that are not totally pure can sometimes appear a washed out grey, however pure whites are totally white so this is a strange issue I hope to work out. In fact, pure whites are so white I am currently having some minor eye strain with the brightness so that is a good thing b) Some colors that are much lighter seem to suffer from this general issue. For instance, blues like baby blue can also appear rather washed out, meanwhile blues like navy blue are extremely vibrant, deep and lustrous. This may be due to the Dynamic Black feature. If only this projector had a Super-White feature, then perhaps this would all be solved. c) During gameplay I noticed that some colors were much too vibrant. For example, while playing inFAMOUS on PS3, exploding cars looked great but strangely too orange or red. I then realized that explosions have a bright white flash following the red fire ball. Without the stark contrast between that flash of white to the red fireball at the instance of an explosion I felt that the colors were a tad dull. 2) NO LENS SHIFT, NO LENS SHIFT, NO LENS SHIFT. This SUCKSSSSSSSSSSSS! This means that if you want a perfectly straight, square picture...then you have to point the projector straight at the wall. What does this mean then? It means that if you plan on sticking this in your living room that everything must be set around it. Since this must be front and center to the wall that you are using as a screen, it means that unless you hang it from the ceiling that you will have to center your entire living room around the projector. This is tolerable but actually makes it really hard to incorporate this into a flexible living room. It means that from the day you buy this to the day you toss it in the garbage that every living room you have ever again will be situated around this projector. This is bad. This falls into the, "Oh my God this is such a pain in the butt I'm going to kick some guy in the face." I made it work with no planning and little effort, however, I've always centered my life around my computer and TV. This means I had to make no sacrifices in my living arrangement. I strongly suggest anyone who is not introverted like me to really plan this out, because if you move into a new home it means you will have to reorient your entire living room to the projector, which may not always be possible depending on your furniture or how you prefer to sit around. 3) This projector is not bright enough to use with lights on and still maintain great picture quality. However, it is actually bright enough that if you are like me and have your living room within 40 feet of your kitchen that you can read and write in the kitchen with no lights on save this projector! No matter what projector you buy, every light sources costs you quality. However, this will always be bright enough that it can still be seen very well with several very bright lights on. You will never be able to drown out the image, only reduce its quality. VERDICT from a penny pinching Videophile: So is this projector worth the $600 pricetag? YES. A hundred yeses and a kick in the butt. I was and still am blown away. If there were any real complaints about color I may still be able to iron them out as time goes on with a more solid understanding of the color settings. After 8 hours however, I'm tired and don't want to keep playing around. So far the sheer size of the screen has just sucked me in. I am in love and I will never go back to TV's ever again. 4.8/5 stars EDIT EDIT: Hey everyone, this is a following edit for the brightness. Apparently, what I perceived as "washing out" of the brightness is actually the projector being so insanely bright that adjacent walls and the ceiling is actually re-reflecting the light in the proximity of the screen area. I noted above that the brightness only seemed to get washed out in Windows, however, Windows is really the only time lots and lots of bright white backgrounds are used (folders, internet explorer). The brightness is actually SO BRIGHT that when I take a Windows folder and move it around the edges of the screen that I can see an actual Flashlight effect. It is so bright I can literally see beams of light comparable to any household flashlight. With this in mind, I've noticed the screen has looked a little less washed out by placing non-reflective material around the objects around the screen. Black felt seems to be ideal and keeping any objects that could reflect light away from the screen is also essential. Plan on dedicating an entire wall with nothing on - or - around the screen for optimal results because this baby is BRIGHT BRIGHT BRIGHT! Also, after using this for a while I noticed that I am very sensitive to Rainbow Effects, primarily during movies since there is a lot moving on the screen. I've read that barely even 5% of the population can even see this at all, and less than that see it regularly. Well, now you guys know why I'm a videophile. My vision must be very sharp because I'm regularly annoyed by every TV I've ever looked at. However, bare in mind that this effect is less than a fraction of a fraction of a second. It's probably an effect that is moving at the speed of light and people can perceive it unconsciously and then realize what happened a second later. Vision can be like that sometimes. This rainbow effect has ZERO effect on quality and I do not find it even slightly annoying. I was surprised when I saw it. Apparently this is unavoidable with single chip DLP projectors. So if you're on a $1000 and less projector budget then don't worry about it because every single projector in that price range will have it. And don't buy 2-3 chip projectors either, they have horrid black levels. REVISED SCORE: 4.8/5, same as before. EDIT EDIT EDIT: Final Edit Regarding brightness and reflection off of the walls. Simply put, this projector as I said is so bright that if there are nearby walls (like if the edges of the screen you use are near adjacent walls or corners) then reflecting light can become an issue with images washing out (usually with bright whites taking up the screen). Well, I solved the issue. If you have limited room like I do, just cover the walls around the projector screen with a blanket to prevent reflection. This solved at least 80% of image wash0out and I did not even do a good job. If done right, even the brightest screens will be pure awesome. Last but not least, make sure you pull your blackout screen pretty tight so the light will reflect as straight as possible. Do these two things and you will have a picture with colors and brightness that not only match current 1080p TV's with dedicated panels, but this projector can even surpass their quality if you take the time to control your environment. 4.9/5, not perfect since rainbow effect is and always will be noticeable to me. This projector met and exceeded every last expectation I had. If I had known this would be the case I would have spent double for this! Continued Review-- 5/1/2015 1) The Eco mode flickers constantly (common issue to all brands of projectors), making the mode unusable 2) The Dynamic Black Mode that Optoma boasts in the description page has a full 1 second delay when screens switch rapidly between bright and dark frames, making this mode unusable for videophiles and generally unattractive. This means Bright mode (best anyway) is the only mode you should consider 3) HDMI port is flimsy and scanning issues can become incredibly frustrating and time consuming 4) Optoma has no US locations, so keep that in mind when buying a warranty...it may be too time consuming to bother with Because of this, I'm lopping off one star 8.5/10