OPTOMA UHD65 HOME THEATER PROJECTOR REVIEW - SUMMARY: General thoughts, Performance - Everything but 4K, Performance - 4K, HDR vs Non-HDR
This is our top regular award for projectors. In addition we offer additional awards in our special reports.
Several thoughts, some a bit conflicting, come to mind immediately, as I summarize this review. I spent a lot of time “discussing” (to the best of my non-engineering skill set) what I see as the important aspects relating to handing of 4K, HDR and the expanded color space, and also how it performs on more traditional content. I do hope that this will make sense to most of you. So here goes - some key thoughts first - more general than the Pros and Cons at the bottom.
Consider:
- A very sharp image - sharper than anything else I’ve seen yet, at its price (when viewing 4K content).
- The UHD65 is a bit “rough around the edges” when it comes to all the new 4K related capabilities.
- It provides pretty good, but not exceptional, placement flexibility.
- Although it didn’t calibrate well on paper, overall I was pleased with the color, and skin tones, other than in 4K, perhaps not "dead on the money" but it does look good.
- In 4K, the color and skin tones were similarly good looking, but the overall balance of the image, especially relating to HDR and BT.2020 leaves room for real improvement. It's a bit too bright in the near bright areas, to accomplish the goals of HDR.
- It's reasonably bright for a dedicated home theater projector, but like all projectors, needs more brightness for 4K.
- I’m bummed that they omitted 3D capabilities. Shame on them!
- Like the other brand new DLP UHD projectors with 2716x1528 DLP chips and 4K support, this is first generation! Gen 2 should show some real improvements where I mention weaknesses
- Despite some downsides, I feel the UHD65 has a very good value proposition. And thanks to its sharper than the competing 1080p pixel shifters, it earns one of our Hot Product Awards for providing that value, regardless of having less features than those slightly lower resolution competitors.
- If you aren't dedicated theater/cave oriented, consider the similar but $500 less priced, UHD60. It's got more white lumens, and is targeting brighter room environments.
Like all the 4K capable projectors out there, I find it necessary to look at 4K content handling separately from traditional 1080p and lower content that we’re used to. HDR poses a challenge for all projectors and most LCD TVs because HDR is dependent on having a whole lot of brightness available. As a result, whether you are buying a projector with 1000 - 3000 usable lumens, or the typical lower cost LCD TVs (that handle 4K), the brightness HDR calls for just isn’t available. Translated, that means some compromise in achieving what HDR promises.
OPTOMA UHD65 HOME THEATER PROJECTOR REVIEW - SUMMARY: General thoughts, Performance - Everything but 4K, Performance - 4K, HDR vs Non-HDR
This is our top regular award for projectors. In addition we offer additional awards in our special reports.
Several thoughts, some a bit conflicting, come to mind immediately, as I summarize this review. I spent a lot of time “discussing” (to the best of my non-engineering skill set) what I see as the important aspects relating to handing of 4K, HDR and the expanded color space, and also how it performs on more traditional content. I do hope that this will make sense to most of you. So here goes - some key thoughts first - more general than the Pros and Cons at the bottom.
Consider:
- A very sharp image - sharper than anything else I’ve seen yet, at its price (when viewing 4K content).
- The UHD65 is a bit “rough around the edges” when it comes to all the new 4K related capabilities.
- It provides pretty good, but not exceptional, placement flexibility.
- Although it didn’t calibrate well on paper, overall I was pleased with the color, and skin tones, other than in 4K, perhaps not "dead on the money" but it does look good.
- In 4K, the color and skin tones were similarly good looking, but the overall balance of the image, especially relating to HDR and BT.2020 leaves room for real improvement. It's a bit too bright in the near bright areas, to accomplish the goals of HDR.
- It's reasonably bright for a dedicated home theater projector, but like all projectors, needs more brightness for 4K.
- I’m bummed that they omitted 3D capabilities. Shame on them!
- Like the other brand new DLP UHD projectors with 2716x1528 DLP chips and 4K support, this is first generation! Gen 2 should show some real improvements where I mention weaknesses
- Despite some downsides, I feel the UHD65 has a very good value proposition. And thanks to its sharper than the competing 1080p pixel shifters, it earns one of our Hot Product Awards for providing that value, regardless of having less features than those slightly lower resolution competitors.
- If you aren't dedicated theater/cave oriented, consider the similar but $500 less priced, UHD60. It's got more white lumens, and is targeting brighter room environments.
Like all the 4K capable projectors out there, I find it necessary to look at 4K content handling separately from traditional 1080p and lower content that we’re used to. HDR poses a challenge for all projectors and most LCD TVs because HDR is dependent on having a whole lot of brightness available. As a result, whether you are buying a projector with 1000 - 3000 usable lumens, or the typical lower cost LCD TVs (that handle 4K), the brightness HDR calls for just isn’t available. Translated, that means some compromise in achieving what HDR promises.
