Optoma HD25-LV Projector – Performance 3

Optoma HD25-LV Sharpness

Nicely done.  A pretty sharp, low cost DLP projector. With only a single chip, not 3 panels like 3LCD and LCoS projectors, there’s no misconvergence to cause softness. That said, the HD25-LV doesn’t seem to have the best optics around, and considering the price, that’s not unreasonable.

That said, consider the HD25-LV projector to look at least as sharp as any of the slightly more expensive 3LCD projectors near its price, and it is certainly comparable to other projectors under $1000.  That’s not to say that it’s the sharpest.  For example we typically find BenQ’s competing projectors to be a touch sharper.

Optoma HD25-LV: Bottom Line Sharpness

Light Leakage

Like many Optoma projectors the HD25-LV does leak some light out of the front vent, mostly to the front right.

The light has a pretty purplish color to it, as you can see here.

In reality among the lower cost single chip DLP projectors this HD25-LV is one of the better projectors in terms of light leakage. For example one direct competitor, the short throw BenQ W1080ST is by comparison, terrible.  (The W1070 with it’s traditional, non-short throw lens is a lot better than the W1080ST):

Obviously incredibly overexposed (Bond night train), you can see a faint halo around the image, and you can also see the purple light from the vent to the right of the image.

However, here’s the BenQ W1080ST showing what really bad light leakage is by comparison (given that it is even more overexposed than the HD25-LV projector’s image).  Note that the 1080ST is a very short throw projector, the standard throw W1070 has dramatically less light leakage.  (BenQ – perhaps a better “light path” design next time?):

Generally the 3LCD projector competition, is, by comparison, leak far less light. Call that an advantage of that type of light engine.   (There are always trade-offs, right?)