Vivitek H5080 - Performance 2

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Art Feierman

Sharpness

The Vivitek H5080 is a classic, single chip DLP projector, and as expected, produces a very sharp image. In reality, even the 0 setting (lowest) for sharpness, is probably a little too high, as there is a touch of oversharpening appearing. Still, it's relatively slight.

For your consideration, our usual close up images

Top left: Vivitek H5080, Top Left Center - HD8600, Top Right Center - JVC RS-25, Top right - Mitsubishi HC7000

2nd row left: Epson Home Cinema 6500UB, left center: Panasonic PT-AE3000, right center: Optoma HD8000, right: InFocus IN83

Note, starting with this review, now that my DTS test disc died, for this sharpness demo, we will be using a closeup of the PS3 system screen, showing the Video icon

Vivitek H5080

HD8600

JVC RS-25

Mitsubishi HC7000

Epson Home Cinema 6500UB

PT-AE3000

Optoma HD8000

InFocus IN83

Below: Close up of a computer monitor, from Space Cowboys (Blu-ray), left to right: Vivitek H5080, DLA-RS25, Epson Home Cinema 8500UB, and BenQ W20000. The H5080 holds its own against most, but not a few of the sharpest DLP projectors.

Vivitek H5080

DLA-RS25

Epson Home Cinema 8500UB

BenQ W20000

Vivitek H5080: Bottom Line Sharpness

Very sharp! DLP's tend to be. The H5080's image is about as crisp looking as they come. As always, of course, you can't get perfect sharpness from center to edge, but the H5080 has minimal sharpness roll off, nothing noticeable during normal viewing. This projector is enough sharper than most LCD and LCoS projectors to make owners of such projectors at least a little jealous (and that includes me, with my LCoS JVC RS20).

Click Image to Enlarge

Light Leakage

No issues to report. Very little light detectable anywhere but out the back vent, and even that is minimal. There's even less out the side intakes.

Vivitek H5080 Image Noise

For reasons I've never understood, it seems like DLP projectors have slightly more visible image noise, than other designs. That said, like the Optoma, the Vivitek H5080 seems as good as any of the DLP's. I'm not sure if they are using the same circuitry, but there was nothing of overt interest to report with either. There's still more noise, say than my JVC, but I have no problem with the image noise levels I see, and that's without using the Noise reduction control.

Vivitek H5080 Audible Noise

Vivitek says 28db audible noise in low power, and 33db in high. Like the Optoma, it's not a quiet projector. Really quiet ones are in the low 20 db range at full power. Overall, the Vivitek is a bit noisy, as is the tendency of most DLP projectors.