Optoma EH320USTi Ultra-Short Throw Projector Review - Hardware Tour

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Art Feierman

Optoma EH320USTi Projector - Hardware Tour: Appearance, Connector Panel, Control Pad, Lens & Camera, Remote

Appearance

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The EH320USTi is a reasonably compact ultra short throw projector housed in a white case. The front of the projector, as seen in the 1st gallery photo above, has the connector panel (described in more detail below). The right side of the projector (when placed on a table), as seen in the 2nd photo above, has a speaker grill. The rear of the projector, as seen in the 3rd photo above, has one of two IR receivers for the remote control. The left side of the projector, as seen in the 4th photo above, has a focus control along the lower edge. There are grills for cooling ventilation on the right, rear and left sides of the case.

The top of the projector (i.e., when sitting on a table) can be seen in each of the above photos and has the projector's lens, a infrared camera for the interactive functions, and the control pad. The lamp cover is also located on the top of the projector, making for easy access when a lamp replacement is needed.

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Connector Panel

The EH320USTi's connector panel is shown in the above photo. Connectors are provided for AC Power, RJ45 (network), USB (power), 3D Sync., RS-232C (serial comm.), 12 volt (power/trigger), Audio 2 out (mini-phone), Mic input, Audio 1 in (RCA), Audio 2 in (mini-phone), HDMI-1, HDMI-2, Composite Video input (RCA), VGA-1 in (YCbCr or RGB format), VGA-2 in or out, USB mini. There is no cover supplied for the connector panel (as found on certain other projectors).

Control Pad

The EH320USTi's control pad is shown in the above photo. This is a very simplified control pad with just a power button and a signal source button. To the right of those are status lights for indicating a issue with the lamp or an over temperature situation. To the far right is a small window for the infrared remote receiver. With such a simplified control pad, the projector’s remote control becomes essential for accessing the projector’s setup and operating functions.

Lens & Interactive Camera

The projector's lens and interactive camera are shown in the above photo. The lens can be partially seen toward the left and the camera toward the right in this photo. The infrared camera is used to track the position, relative to the projected image, of the interactive pens or the presenter's finger tips.

This is a fixed focal length lens and the size of the projected imaged is adjusted by moving the projector closer for further back from the white board/screen (i.e., changing the throw distance). Given the ultra short throw design, changing the throw distance by only a few inches can make a big difference in the image size.

Remote Control

The supplied remote control is a compact unit lacking any backlight. At the top of the remote, as seen in the photo, are the Power button and a Mouse Switch button (used when connected to a computer). Below that are 3 buttons for Video Mute, Freeze (freeze the current video frame), and Audio Mute. Next down are buttons for Left Mouse Click and Right Mouse Click (used when connected to a computer).

Below those are the 4-way menu navigation buttons with an Enter button in the center. Below those are Page Up and Page Down buttons (used when connected to a computer) and a button to activate the remote’s built-in laser pointer. The next 4 buttons for are adjusting the Keystone Correction and adjusting the audio Volume. Next down are buttons for adjusting the image Aspect Ratio, displaying the projector’s Menu, and displaying the 3D menu.

The next two rows of 3 buttons each are for directly selecting the input signal source. The final 3 buttons are for displaying/selecting the signal source, selecting the brightness mode (lamp mode), and Re-sync is used for sync’ing the projector for analog video sources (if needed).