Optoma HD72 Projector Review - Image Quality - 3

Posted on February 21, 2006 by Art Feierman

Tweaking the Optoma HD72

You'll find more details in the General Performance section. However the point is this, the Optoma really does require your attention to get out its best performance. Get a calibration disk, or you can try the settings I've published in the next section, but you will enjoy your projector a lot more for the little effort required. In a perfect world, for watching DVD's your projector should output a color temperature of 6500K (Kelvin). Projector lamps however are more like 10,000K which means whites have a bluish caste, vs a reddish caste at 6500K. DVDs are color balanced for 6500K, so for a projector to faithfully produce a move, it should be balanced for 6500K. The adjustment to get that 6500K setting is normally one of a projector's presets, the one manufacturers recommend for watching movies. In this case, it is the Cinema mode.

Out of the box this new HD72 projector measured just under 6700K, with the green component significantly stronger than the red or blue components.

After calibration, here are the measurements for 30 IRE (dark gray) = 6514 , 80 IRE (light gray) = 6557. (I make adjustments at those two IRE levels). I also measured the results of the calibration at 50 IRE (neutral) of 6511, 90 IRE (almost white) of 6642, and lastly at 100 IRE = 6788. So you can see, in the brighter ranges the HD72 shifts a slight bit more toward cooler blue. Most importantly, overall, the images at this setting were extremely pleasing.

Optoma HD72 home theater projector: Image Quality Summary

As I've said before, if you put in the effort, the HD72 produces a great image. I would have to say that its color handling produces the most vibrant, and brightest image of any projector in the price range that I have yet seen. While the projector cannot match the shadow detail of more expensive DLP projectors using the Darkchip3, black levels are very good for the price range. Shadow detail follows with that. In my opinion, the projector does a better than average job on shadow details considering the expected limitations in doing the blackest blacks. I would attribute this to the punchy, vibrant overall image quality. Whether this is a direct result or TI's Brilliant Color" technology, or other aspects of the projector's design, doesn't really matter.

Continue on to the General Performance link for more on adjusting the Optoma projector, as well as a look at its menus, remote control, some screen recommendations, lamp life, and more.