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The Optoma CinemaX P1 is a smart home projector that I had long been very excited to review. It is one of the first of what should prove to be hot new projector category for the home: A 4K UHD laser TV. The P1 combines its 4K UHD resolution with its ultra short throw design that places it just below your screen and a less than two feet back from it.

Black Panther test
The Black Panther - 4K/HDR off of the Kaleidescape Strato S media server. Vibrant colors provided by the P1!

Some may argue that to be a Laser TV, it should be complete – that is, come with a screen, although I don’t think so. I think having a choice on screen sizes and types makes for a superior big screen experience. Besides, there will be some folks who find a white wall is good enough. More on screens for the P1 later. I’ll just say now, you’ll want to get the right screen for your room and viewing goals.

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The CinemaX P1 and other “laser TVs” hitting the market offer you consumers a simpler solution to get the big screen experience into most rooms because the projector is close to the display, other equipment, and your sources

Optoma CinemaX P1 Specs
Price $6649
Technology DLP
Native Resolution 3840x2160
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim) 3000
Contrast 1,5000,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio Fixed Focal Length
Lens Shift No
Lamp Life 20,000 hours
Weight 24.3 lbs.
Warranty 3 years

Overview

The CinemaX P1 claims 3000 lumens.  It supports HDR – both the primary HDR standard and also the newer HLG (hybrid log-gamma), which is more for broadcast and streaming.  And of course, it supports SDR (“standard dynamic range” – aka everything that came before HDR).

The Optoma P1 when not handling HDR content, offers multiple picture modes, including, of note, an HDR SIM mode.  It’s not the first projector to have one, but most home theater and home entertainment projectors so far, don’t offer processing to take your Blu-ray discs, and cable/TV 1080p content, and make the image pop like HDR.  I count that as a nice extra touch.

Optoma was one of the very first to ship a 4K UHD resolution laser projector – back in the fall of 2017.  And of course, they have a large number of 4K UHD projector models for home, business and educational use.  With that in mind, we start out expecting the P1 to have less “rough edges” than, the last 4K UHD Laser TV I reviewed, the VAVA.  That was pretty much their first projector period – and it turned out pretty good!  

The P1 at a glance would be a modest step up from the VAVA which sells for several hundred less.  The P1 can certainly be used in a home theater/cave, but will also perform very nicely in a living, family or bonus room, even a spare bedroom that’s not too tiny. Given respectable lighting control, of course.  Hint:  This is not respectably controlled lighting:

 

pano of sunny room

Pano of my living room at brightest time of day, west, sun pouring in. Not usable! Screen partially open, LG OLED behind it much better, but suffers from too much glare.

 

It is bright enough to handle modest to moderate amounts of ambient light for casual viewing.  If this is going to be your primary TV, you will want reasonable control of your room’s ambient light.  You’ll definitely want coverings on your windows.   Within this review, you will see several different photos of both successful and unsuccessful viewing conditions. 

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My living room is a projector’s nightmare in the daytime. But that makes it ideal for showing you what can, and can’t, be done!

Cloudy day/early evening. Even with lights on full, a bright saturated image. More than fine for sports, general viewing.

 

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Come nighttime, the P1 shines – and rather brightly, as seen in this photo: 

black panther city

Highlights

  • “Laser TV” Ultra Short Throw design makes easy set up, large screen replacement for small LCDTVs
  • Pairing with an ALR screen designed for UST projectors lets projector work in most rooms with reasonable lighting control
  • Laser light engine will last many years of heavy usage.(40 hours a week, approximately 5 years or longer)
  • Smart, Android operating system, with a great many apps.i.e. key streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix…
    • IFTTT support
  • Voice control (some) via Alexa, Google Assistant
  • 4K UHD resolution:1920x1080p x 4 pixel shifter
  • 3000 Lumens claimed
  • HDR:Support for both HDR10 and HLG
  • Bluetooth input and output.
  • 3 HDMIs (one on the side – a nice touch)
  • Officially supports up to 120” diagonal!
  • Eyesight protection
  • Audio – built in NuForce “sound bar”(NuForce is part of Optoma)
    • Two channels x 19 watts
  • Multiple USB
  • Small Bluetooth Remote (all black – hard to spot at night)
  • 1 Gig of storage on board, expandable to 2 Gig
  • Media Player supports 4K UHD
    • Many photo, video, and audio formats supported
    • PDFs and Microsoft Office files also supported!
  • 30000 hour claim on the laser (eco), 20,000 full power

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Our next two pages take a look at some key “special” features. After that, we get into the general hardware, followed by picture quality, Performance. Additionally, we provide our calibration settings and notes. That is followed by our summary and specs pages (including datasheet).

The VAVA Laser TV LT002 looks to be about the least expensive projector of its type to hit the market to date. With an MSRP of only $2799, it claims 2500 ANSI lumens, at a price point well below the better-known brand names. It will sit several inches away from and several inches below your screen. Like all Laser TVs, it will work best in rooms with ambient light when paired with one of the screens designed for both UST projectors (Laser TVs), and ambient light rejection (ALR).  Officially the VAVA Laser TV is VAVA's model LT002, although they don't focus on that, rather that it is the VAVA 4K UHD Laser TV.

2019 saw the announcement of a number of Ultra Short Throw projectors, including the VAVA Laser TV, which started shipping in Q4, 2019. CES 2019 saw the initial announcement for this Laser TV as well as announcements of competing projectors from Optoma, Nebula, LG and more. Despite early promises from the manufacturers of Q2 2019 shipments, they all slipped into Q4 two, one being this VAVA

Projector Reviews Special Interest Award

This award goes to products that are either a cut above, but may have a rough edge. Or, if it is a quality, but specialized product.

VAVA Specs
Price
Technology DLP
Native Resolution HD 4K (4096x2160)
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim) 2500
Contrast 1,5000,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift No
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Overview

With several new models shipping now, (November), that is setting up for 2020 being the first year of significant Laser TV sales in the US. The first of all these new ones to ship was the LG (about twice the price, but a bit more advanced). Seems like VAVA has been fulfilling their crowd sourcing orders, and has recently started to sell to the general public, through Amazon…

The VAVA projector is smart, you run apps, like Netflix, and Amazon Prime and many others. Like most new smart projectors, it uses an Android operating system. This VAVA Laser TV, supports the usual Alexa and Google Assistant personal assistants.

The background on this projector is especially interesting. Back at CES last January, there were two established companies showing prototype Laser TVs that were building them getting funding from crowdsourcing. I like the concept, of companies, where it makes sense, to defray a lot of development costs if there is crowdsourcing interest. Of the two, Nebula and VAVA, VAVA is now shipping. Nebula which makes mostly very inexpensive projectors (and other things), seems to have dropped off the radar for now.

VAVA on 120" wall - Projector Reviews Images
VAVA projecting a vibrant image on to my living room wall(before my new screen arrived. Sunny day, 120" diagonal image

This is VAVA’s first projector. VAVA itself is one of several brands of Sun Valley Tek, a Chinese company that’s been around for about 12 years, and now has 100+ employees, has three additional “region” offices to serve the rest of the world, including one in the US.

living room ambient light - Projector Reviews Images
Bright living room conditions: VAVA sports image projected on the wall, is dynamic despite sunny day, lack of ALR screen.

As the first projector from a company, that may give you cause for reflection. We’ll take a look at the trade-offs, and take that into consideration in our recommendations.

Here’s a thought: VAVA had a very good chance of getting the picture pretty right, their first time out, thanks to this being a 4K UHD DLP projector. That's because Texas Instruments not only makes the DLP chips but offers manufacturers a range of optical and image processing solutions, essentially the building blocks of a projector. (For example “Brilliant Color” found on many DLPs, is from TI, but gets configured by the manufacturer, so that they work a bit differently. The point being, they don’t have to design everything from scratch, and I expect TI provides a lot of great support to their projector manufacturers.

I've awarded the Vava Laser TV our Special Interest award. The projector is impressive, overall. It's priced aggressively, but does have a rough edge or two (including a shorter warranty than most). which we'll get into.  Nothing too serious.

Also, though, the VAVA could be brighter.  It's brightness for the price is rather good, but there are significantly more expensive competitors, at least a couple of which are noticeably brighter.   As we like to say: "there are always trade-offs."  But, overall it was hard not to like this VAVA

Before we get into details, I wanted to talk about screens a bit more.  With the right screen, the VAVA can handle a room with a good bit of ambient light, as you can see in some of the photos in this review. VAVA says the projector will support screen sizes up to 150” diagonal. (The two screens I used in the course of this review were 100” diagonal, and 120” diagonal respectively.) Before I forget, the warranty is 1-year parts and labor. They have depot service at their US Region office in California.

boat at dusk
4K/HDR from Journey to the South Pacific (IMAX). Stunning imagery captured by VAVA - post calibration

The VAVA says the a pair of Harmon Kardon speakers inside facing the audience are rated at 30 watts ech, which should “blow away” the sound quality of most LCD TV’s unless you hook those up a really good soundbar to the TV.

It is also endowed nicely in terms of inputs, including 3 HDMIs (yay!) USB, RJ45 for wired networking (note, it has wireless built-in which is pretty much necessary to be a smart TV or Laser TV). There is also an Android App you can download, which you can use to wirelessly project from your android phones and tablets. Sorry Mac folks, no specific App (at least so far), but I'm told to expect more support.

Of course, all the features are nice, but first and foremost you want a really good quality picture to watch, we’ll discuss pre and post-calibration picture quality. The VAVA Laser TV, is, of course, 4K UHD (it uses the lower resolution 1920x1080x4 pixel shifting DLP chips, which the less expensive Laser TVs like this one, and the Optoma Cinemax P1 use. HDR10 is supported with 4K, and the VAVA has both Bluetooth input and also output (to feed a more powerful sound system or even some good headphones). We will discuss all this and more on the upcoming pages, with many in the Special Features page that is next.

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Highlights

  • UST – ultra-short-throw “Laser TV” design
  • 2500 Lumens claimed
  • Sits just inches below and away from your screen.
    • Far more convenient setup than traditional longer throw projectors
  • 4K UHD (1920x1080x2) pixel shiftint DLP chip
  • HDR10 support (but not HLG)
  • Bluetooth input and output.
  • Media Player (video, audio, and photos) 
    • 2 Gig of storage on board, and 32Meg of memory
  • 3 HDMIs
  • Up to 150” diagonal!
  • Eyesight protection 
  • Audio output
  • AV input
  • Remote (Bluetooth)
  • 25000 hour claim on the laser

The Maxell MP-WU5503 is a WUXGA resolution (1920 x 1200), 5,000 lumen projector for business and education applications. It has a laser light engine, which gives it a longer lifespan than its lamp based competition, and 3LCD technology. That it has 3LCD technology (has as many color lumens as it has white ones) and a 5,000 lumen claim makes it well suited for higher education classrooms and large venues where there is some degree of uncontrollable ambient light and optimal color is desired. This projector may also find its home in larger high school classroom environments, and in business environments such as boardrooms, conference rooms, meeting rooms, as well as in houses of worship and smaller entertainment venues.

I’ll begin this review of the Maxell MP-WU5503 with a brief overview, followed by the projector’s highlights before moving on to a list of its special features. We will also tour the hardware, discuss picture quality, and talk about performance before summing it all up for you on the last page. By the end of this review, you should know if the Maxell MP-WU5503 is the right projector for your business or education applications. Let’s get started!

Maxell Specs
Price
Technology 3LCD
Native Resolution 1920x1200
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim) 5000
Contrast 1,5000,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio
Lens Shift
Lamp Life
Weight
Warranty

Overview

This projector has a bit of an interesting story. Originally, Maxell was a part of Hitachi, but it was spun off a few years back. As of April 1, 2019 (no joke), Hitachi projectors will henceforth be known as Maxell brand. If you bought a Hitachi projector within the last few weeks or months, the Maxell projectors are the same, just under a different name. You can expect the same support and distribution. Hitachi (and now Maxell) has had a focus on the education market – this particular projector was featured in our education report – but they don’t publish their education pricing online.

Maxell-MP-WU5503_Explained-Chimp

The Maxell MP-WU5503 is a $6,299 laser projector with WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution claiming 5,000 lumens. It has 3LCD technology, which yields its own advantages over DLP projectors, though DLPs have some advantages over 3LCD as well. Projectors with 3LCD technology produce as many color lumens as they do white ones, so they maintain better color in the face of ambient light than DLPs. By comparison, a DLP projector costs less to make, tends to be more portable, and you’ll get more white lumens dollar for dollar than a 3LCD projector. As we say, there are always trade-offs.

The Maxell MP-WU5503 has a laser light engine with an impressive lifespan. It has the standard 20,000 hour claim when operating at full power, but kick it into ECO Mode, and that claim goes up to 50,000 hours! Talk about a significant jump. Most laser based projectors I’ve reviewed have a lifespan of up to 20,000 hours, maybe 30,000 if you’re lucky, but this is the first I’ve come across that claims 50,000. I’m sure Art has come across a claim or two as high as this in his decades of playing the projector game.

The benefits of such a high lifespan of the MP-WU5503 will be much appreciated in the education market. Though this projector (and all laser projectors) has a higher upfront cost, it provides an excellent value proposition when it comes to maintenance. With a lamp based projector, you’ll be switching out a lamp every 3,000 to 8,000 hours, and calling in maintenance to do so. With a laser light engine, you can expect the projector’s light source to last about a decade when operating at full power – two or so when operating in ECO Mode. Impressive.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Best Classroom Projectors report which includes this projector. 

This projector comes with some pretty awesome features for higher education and large venues, particularly in the form of Advanced Networking. This guy has HDBaseT, among other advanced networking features, and lens shift. That lens shift makes things a lot easier during the installation process – but more on that on the next page! It has several more features that we’ll dive into on the Special Features page. For now, let’s look at the highlights of the Maxell MPWU5503 projector!

Highlights

  • 5,000 Color and White Lumens
  • $6,299 List Price
  • WUXGA Resolution (1920 x 1200)
  • 3LCD Technology
  • Impressive Light Engine Life – Up to 50,000 Hours
  • 1,500,000:1 Contrast Ratio
  • Excellent Placement Flexibility – 1.70:1 Zoom Lens, Lens Shift (+5% Vertical, +4.6% Horizontal), and HDBaseT
  • 16-Watt Mono Speaker
  • Advanced Networking – HDBaseT, Remote Command and Control
  • Wireless Capabilities – Compatibility with iOS and Android Devices
  • Multi-Projector Mode
  • Excellent Warranty – 5 Years Parts and Labor or 20,000 Hours (Whatever Comes First)

Acer’s VL7860 4K UHD Laser Projector using DLP technology is hardly the first 4K UHD projector we’ve reviewed, (they keep showing up), nor is it the first 4K UHD projector with a laser engine here. If we count 4K UHD laser (fourth) and true 4K projectors with laser engines, that adds up to about 10. It is the thirteenth 4K UHD projector to cross my threshold.

The VL7860 projector, is the first 4K UHD one with respectable black levels that I've seen, and that makes it a strong, 4K capable home theater projector!

This review looks at the VL7860 as both a home theater projector and also one for commercial applications. Much of our conversation about things like color and black levels are more than what is needed for many business applications (though not all).  Hardware pages, Special Features and Performance pages, however, definitely have conversations that relate to non-home use as well as home theater.

This Acer is a good one! It has some real strengths and also a couple of rough edges. One thing I really like – we pointed out a couple of issues to Acer (discussed within), and they seemed very big on addressing them. We were waiting to see what they came up with.

I mention that because most companies sort of just want “issues” to disappear, and get addressed in the next generation products. Well, Acer will certainly earn a couple of well-deserved gold stars if they successfully improve in two areas.

Acer did not disappoint!

Projector Reviews Hot Product Award
Our top award given for products we review. Additionally we have Best In Class Awards in our special reports.]
Acer VL7860 Specs
Price $3999
Technology DLP
Native Resolution 3840x2160
Brightness (Manufacturer Claim) 3000
Contrast 1,5000,000:1
Zoom Lens Ratio 1.60:1
Lens Shift Yes
Lamp Life 20,000 hours
Weight 18.7
Warranty N/A

Overview

First, a quick clue or two: Mostly, I want to say that Eric calibrated the VL7860 and dropped it off two weeks ago. I was especially pleased with the color results that Eric obtained. When you calibrate projectors, you expect near perfect color, but the reality is always a bit less. This Acer, after Eric worked his magic, did about as good a job as any projector I’ve reviewed in the last year or more – with the exception of a few Sonys. That’s saying something!

To date, we have reviewed two really direct competitors to the VL7860 – both 4K UHD DLPs with laser engines: The Optoma UHZ65 and the Dell S718QL. Like the Acer VL7860, they sell at the $4K and up price point on the street.

Like most of these 4K UHD projectors – Acer, and other manufacturers just aren’t 100% sure who to sell them to. That is, they are all obviously built as business/education projectors, based on the feature sets provided, but in some cases, they may get an extra “home theater” feature to two not normally found on commercial projectors.

Truth is, so far, the demand for 4K content handling for business and education is just starting to grow. There’s little 4K content out there for commercial, although, of course, the home market is exploding, with 4K Blu-ray, 4K streaming… Still, this is a projector that easily would work in Higher education classrooms and labs (just not really huge ones), where the highest resolution is needed, such as scientific charting, renderings, detailed drawings, architecture, etc.

Ron, one of our reviewers, reviewed another Acer 4K UHD projector last fall. That one was more basic, lamp based, not as bright, and about half the price. Now, we get to see what the laser, and other features bring to the party.

Considering the Acer VL7860 for the home makes me first think of black level performance – handling of the darkest scenes.

Of the seven images in the photo player above, the first 4 are 4K content from Blu-ray UHD, then a 1080p image from The Hunger Games, followed by a couple of HDTV images, also at 1080 resolution.

The primary issue had been their Dynamic Black feature, which does “lamp dimming” in this case – “laser dimming” to lower black levels on dark scenes by behaving like a dynamic iris. I will describe the issue with the original unit. This update is added after Acer returned the unit with the fix. More on that in Picture Quality (Black Levels) and Summary pages. For here, let’s just say it’s definitely really good news.

Look for some detailed info on the Special Features page, and the Picture Quality page. This was one of those rough edges, but the good news is, it has “rough edges” where the competition has almost nothing – no edge at all, so to speak, and the review has been updated and finished to reflect Acer’s "spectacular" firmware improvements relating to black level performance.

The secondary issue, relating to calibration the projector, so not something on most people's radar, is discussed later: That is if Acer could open up the CMS (color management system) to all picture modes – not just the two ISF modes set aside for professional calibrators. They did not get done on the second projector. More on that later!

Like others, the Acer has a few features we expect to find on a good home theater projector but misses others. A pleasant surprise is CFI – also known as “smooth motion,” which several competitors skipped. But that is rarely a deal breaker for people – good for sports, generally bad for movies.  My point being that like most other 4K UHD projectors you can count it as a “crossover projector” – one built to sell to both business and home markets, but with more of a business/education pedigree than a home one.

And you regulars know how important I consider that.

The original unit I worked with tried, but failed. This is something I wasn’t concerned with because they had me ship it back for a firmware upgrade that they hoped would make it very effective. If they pull it off, (update, they did!) it will easily blow away the other 4K UHD DLP laser and lamp models we’ve reviewed to date.

The Acer earns a Hot Product Award, for a number of reasons.  Such as having a very good feature set, and respectable placement flexibility, but it is the black level performance that stands out!

dark scene demo

The updated firmware for the VL7860 effectively uses their laser light engine as a dynamic iris to lower black levels.

Overall, it’s as good as any of the competition, and with their successful effort at dealing "taming" the Dynamic Black for good black levels, has this Acer in the running - a top contender - for one of our Best In Class awards in our annual Best Home Theater Projectors report, publishing August 2018.

Here are the key highlights. After you take a quick look, see you on our Special Features page where I’ll discuss that Dynamic Black, and a number of other features in more depth.

Highlights

  • Laser Light Engine - superior color
  • Great Lamp Life – 20,000 hours at full brightness, and up to 30,000 hours at lower levels!
  • 3000 Lumens Claimed – It got very, very, close to hitting that number
  • Sadly, like most 4K UHD DLP projectors – no 3D!
  • Smooth motion - that is, CFI, great for sports
  • Excellent Placement Flexibility – 1.6:1 manual zoom and modest vertical lens shift
  • Two 5-Watt Speakers – Great for an outdoor movie night
  • Relatively Quiet – Claiming 30 db maximum
  • Wireless LAN Options – WirelessCast (i.e. Miracast) and a WirelessHD module

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