Optoma UHL55 4K UHD Home Entertainment LED Projector Review-Performance

Optoma UHL55 4K UHD Home Entertainment LED Projector Review- Performance: Brightness, Contrast, Audible Noise

The Optoma UHL55 put a great image on the screen. The best part is the color is very well balanced. Skin tones look good, no one is sunburnt or cursed with super red ears and cheeks. It does offer a few different color modes. Each of these does vary in brightness.

To measure the brightness on the Optoma UHL55 I had to bring the projector much closer to the screen. As there is no zoom lens, only focus. As it has a 1.2 throw ratio, to take measure ments I wanted to have the vertical height of the screen at 30”.  This simulates the screen size the manufactures use when measuring their products for specifications.

It's good to see what the brightness measurements are for the different modes. Often times the different modes lend themselves to different uses. Perhaps you want to use the UHL55 on a very bright day, with lots of ambient light coming in through the window. You could put the projector in Bright mode. Take advantage of the 1100 lumens we measured.  While the image will appear a little green, you will be able to see it.

The Optoma UHL55 has respectable contrast for a home entertainment projector and provides very nice details in the dark scenes. There are few pieces of content that I like to view to see the level of detail the projector can show in the dark portions of a scene. As projectors can’t throw black light onto the screen, the brightness and greys they produce give our eyes the contrast and black level detail we are looking for.

When watching Netflix Earth 4k, there are lots of great scenes with bright colors and fantastic scenery. One part that I like to run a projector through is in the jungle about two-thirds of the way through, there is a portion about these birds that have a beautiful blue plumage on their chest and red on top of their heads.

Great detail in the neck feathers, Earth 4K on Netflix

Their face and neck are a deep black. If you view this on a display that has poor contrast. You can not even see their eyes. The Optoma UHL55 did a great job. Not only could I see their eyes, but you could see the feather details as they fluff themselves up and dance around the trees. Other comparable projectors that I have seen lately, didn’t have the contrast to show as much detail as the Optoma UHL 55. It looked fantastic. Not only with the details on the black portions of the birds but also in the landscapes and night scenes.

There are scenes in Jumanji as the picture above. Where they are racing in the jungle to get the jewel back to its resting place. The Optoma UHL55 did a great job of showing the night scenes in all their glory. You can see the details in the shadows and the beautiful orange and reds of the torches. It was very nice to watch these scenes on such a well-performing projector.

You can also see in the images above that the UHL55 performs great in a lit room. I was able to use it with the curtains open. I have a window right by the screen. However, on this bright grey day. The UHL55 does just fine. Of course the dark scenes lose some of their black level as its washed out by the ambient light, however the image looked great.