Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-16 Posted on October 15, 2009 By Art Feierman 1. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 Home Theater Projectors - HD8000 Projector Overview - Optoma HD8000 Highlights2. Optoma HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour3. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality - Optoma HD80 and HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones4. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-2 - Optoma HD8000 Black Levels and Shadow Detail5. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-36. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-47. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-58. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-69. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-7 - Optoma HD8000 home theater projector: Sharpness10. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-8 - Optoma HD8000 home theater projector: Sharpness-2 - Optoma HD80 Overall Picture Quality - HD8000 Projector Image Quality: Bottom line 11. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - Optoma HD80, HD8000 with Optional Anamorphic Lens - ptoma HD80 Projector: Menus12. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2 - Optoma HD80 Memory Settings13. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-3 - Optoma HD8000 Remote Control14. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-4 - Optoma HD8000 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Optoma HD8000 Screen Door and Rainbow Effects - Optoma HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Light Leakage15. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-5 - Optoma HD8000 Audible Noise Levels - Optoma HD8000 Brightness - Measured Lumens - Optoma HD8000 Lamp Life and Replacement16. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-16 - Optoma HD8000 Projector Screen Recommendations - Optoma HD8000 Calibration - Optoma HD8000 Image Noise 17. The Optoma HD8000 and HD80 Projector Review – Warranty18. Home Theater Projector Reviews: Optoma HD8000 DLP Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons19. Optoma HD8000 Projector: Pros20. Optoma HD8000 Projector: Cons - Optoma HD8000 Projector: Typical Capabilities - Optoma HD8000 Summary21. Optoma HD8000 Projector Specifications Optoma HD8000 Projector Screen RecommendationsFor most people I think that a white screen with modest gain (1.1 to 1.4 gain) is probably ideal. Of course if you have side ambient light, a nice high contrast gray surface can really help a lot, but if ambient light isn’t your problem, then this should be pretty straightforward. For seasoned videophiles who want to really darken the blacks, the high contrast gray surface like my Firehawk works great, as well. My point is, that the black levels are sufficient to satisfy the vast majority, without needing a gray surface. I also usually point out that if you are going with a smaller screen (under 100″ diagonal), then you might find a projector to be a bit too bright. That however is not a possibility with the HD80 and HD8000 projectors. The adjustable manual iris will easily allow one to darken the image significantly. I didn’t measure, but I suspect that you can combine low power lamp mode, and the iris to come up with less than 200 lumens, if you had to. I’d like to mention that there are some new screens “optimized” for 1080p projectors. Basically they have a finer surface structure. My new Firehawk G3 is one of them, and I can see the difference (slight), between it, and my older Firehawk, in that regard. I imagine we’ll be seeing more “1080p” resolution screens in the future, so keep an eye out for them. Optoma HD8000 Calibration 100IRE 7390K 80IRE 6748K 50IRE 6901K 30IRE 6389K To get a significantly improved color balance, here are the settings I came up with: Set the Color Temp to User: The numbers in ( ) are the default numbers Gain: Red (100) 100, Green (100) 84, Blue (100) 79 Offset: Red (128) 128, Green (128) 128, Blue (128) 127 100IRE 6563K 80IRE 6764K 50IRE 6869K 30IRE 6443K And with it, the heavy shift to green and blue is gone and skin tones look really good. Here are the color temperatures for white (100 IRE) for the other settings. I didn’t adjust any others (as I had one great for movies): Bright mode: 7844K TV mode: 9396K OK, that’s it. I’m sure a professional calibrator can manage to at least match my improvements to grayscale, and probably do so without giving up as many lumens as I did. For those of you who don’t go the calibration route, let me remind you that there will be variance from projector to projector, most notably with the lamps. So don’t expect my settings above to perform exactly the same on your projector. Still, they should get you much closer to a great image than the projector will offer out of the bo Optoma HD8000 Image Noise Optoma uses Gennum processing on their higher end HD81 and HD81-LV projectors, but I believe that the HD80 and HD8000 projectors are using image processing from Pixelworks. Overall image noise performance is perfectly acceptable, using the HQV test disk. The Optoma did well on all the standard jaggie and standard motion artifacts tests. There is some slight background image noise, but at levels typical of DLP projectors. I do not run the many different cadence tests. Time for a quick look at the Warranty, then the Summary section! 1. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 Home Theater Projectors - HD8000 Projector Overview - Optoma HD8000 Highlights2. Optoma HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour3. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality - Optoma HD80 and HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones4. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-2 - Optoma HD8000 Black Levels and Shadow Detail5. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-36. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-47. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-58. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-69. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-7 - Optoma HD8000 home theater projector: Sharpness10. Optoma HD80 and HD8000: 1080p Home Theater Projector Review – Image Quality-8 - Optoma HD8000 home theater projector: Sharpness-2 - Optoma HD80 Overall Picture Quality - HD8000 Projector Image Quality: Bottom line 11. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance - Optoma HD80, HD8000 with Optional Anamorphic Lens - ptoma HD80 Projector: Menus12. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2 - Optoma HD80 Memory Settings13. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-3 - Optoma HD8000 Remote Control14. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-4 - Optoma HD8000 Projector: Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Optoma HD8000 Screen Door and Rainbow Effects - Optoma HD8000 Home Theater Projector: Light Leakage15. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-5 - Optoma HD8000 Audible Noise Levels - Optoma HD8000 Brightness - Measured Lumens - Optoma HD8000 Lamp Life and Replacement16. Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-16 - Optoma HD8000 Projector Screen Recommendations - Optoma HD8000 Calibration - Optoma HD8000 Image Noise 17. The Optoma HD8000 and HD80 Projector Review – Warranty18. Home Theater Projector Reviews: Optoma HD8000 DLP Projector: Summary, Pros, Cons19. Optoma HD8000 Projector: Pros20. Optoma HD8000 Projector: Cons - Optoma HD8000 Projector: Typical Capabilities - Optoma HD8000 Summary21. Optoma HD8000 Projector Specifications Optoma HD8000 and HD80 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-5 The Optoma HD8000 and HD80 Projector Review – Warranty