Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Nikki Zelinger

Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features: Dynamic Black, ISF Calibration Modes, Long Lamp Life, 3D Capable

Low Input Lag

Optoma claims a low input lag of just 16ms! That's fast enough for serious gamers, and about as good as it gets when it comes to lag time on projectors. For your reference, here's a breakdown of acceptable lag times:

50ms+ – Acceptable to all but the most hardcore, high-speed gamers

33ms to 40ms – Pretty good. It’s totally fine for those of us who are not competing, and just want to play a little Red Dead Redemption 2 or Spiderman after work or on the weekends. 33ms translates to just over one frame behind on a 30fps game, and 2 frames on a 60fps game.

16ms to 32ms – Excellent for gaming, with 16ms being the best of the best we can expect!

Dynamic Black

Dynamic Black is an exciting feature on a home entertainment projector, especially one at such a low price. Dynamic Black, not to be confused with a Dynamic Iris, is a process that darkens the blacks while preserving dark shadow detail by adjusting the lamp output. The result is a higher contrast image. See the slider below for examples of Dynamic Black On and Dynamic Black Off.

A scene from The Hunger Games, projected with Dynamic Black on.

A scene from The Hunger Games, projected with Dynamic Black off.

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ISF Calibration Modes

This is fairly unusual for such a low-priced projector, but an awesome feature nonetheless. The ISF Calibration Modes allow you to save your calibration settings for Day and Night, so that you don’t have to adjust the various modes to achieve the best color the projector has to offer. The photo below shows a calibrated picture versus an uncalibrated picture. Please note that this was not professionally calibrated – just me messing with the settings to get a picture that looked great to me.

Long Lamp Life

As mentioned on the previous page, the Optoma HD143X has a lamp life of up to 15,000 hours. This is in what they call their Dynamic power mode – that is, their most economic ECO mode. ECO Mode has a lamp life of up 10,000 hours, while the Bright, full power mode comes in at 3,500 hours.

That 3,500 hours is typical of lamp based projectors at full power. Now, with a projector this bright, you won’t really need to keep it at full power unless you’re watching during the day. ECO or Dynamic will be suitable for night viewing, when your room is fully darkened.

So, utilizing the projector’s ECO modes, you should expect the lamp life to be anywhere between the low end 3,500 hour and high range 15,000 hour mark. It’ll all depend on how well you pay attention to the power modes you are using, and utilize the ones that are best for your lighting conditions.

You may wish to use Bright for when you are viewing 3D content, as 3D tends to bring the brightness down to about a third of its lumens. Speaking of 3D…

3D Capable

The Optoma HD143X has 3D compatibility. That is, you can watch your favorite 3D movies and content with this projector. Though 3D isn’t as popular as it once was, for many projector fans, the ability to handle 3D is a make-or-break kind of deal. Using active shutter DLP Link glasses, you and your family can enjoy all the 3D you want. These days, 3D glasses run around $20 or less online, so a family of four can enjoy 3D for under $100.