Vivitek H5080 Physical Tour

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Art Feierman

There are some differences physically, between the Vivitek H5080 projector and the almost identical looking Optoma HD8600. That they come out of the same factory, is of little doubt. Some paragraphs that are relevant about the Optoma have been used again, here, with minor modifications. 'The names have been changed to protect..."

Vivitek H5080 Physical Appearance

The Vivitek projector starts with a glossy black case. In the front, you'll find a center mounted lens. The projector, I should note, ships without the lens installed. Installing it was a snap, literally. I took off the packaging, inserted the lens, turned it slightly and the mount snapped into place. The lens almost recessed, but not quite. The lens is manual, you use the outer and inner trim rings to focus and zoom. There's also an infra-red sensor on the front (another in the rear).

Below are left and right front, screw thread adjustable, feet.

Moving to the top of the Vivitek H5080 projector there's a slide forward door justabove the front center of the Vivitek projector. Slide it forward, and there are two rotating dial controls, one for vertical lens shift the other for horizontal.

The input panel is located on the back, along with a power switch and a holder for a small "convenience" remote control (there is a full backlit remote as well).

Strangely, the projector has its air intakes on the side, but vents the hot air out the rear. This means for rear shelf mounting, ventilation may be a problem, if you can't provide a fair amount of space between projector and the wall. Keep that in mind.

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Control Panel

The Vivitek has a small round control panel on the top center. It consists of two concentric "rings" The outer ring has Menu at the top, Blank to the right, Auto (setup for PC signals) to the left, and Source. The inner ring has the left right up down navigation, and in the center, the usual Enter button. It's your basic control panel, with no additional features or extra functions. After all, an occasional reviewer aside, who uses the projector's control panel except infrequently, if at all?

Interestingly, one thing is missing. That's the Power switch, which is something normally found by the control panel. Not so with the H5080, the Power switch is located on the back in the Input (connections) panel.

Input/Output

The H5080 is rather typically equipped. Actually it has 3 HDMI inputs, one more than most, and that's handy for those who aren't using an AV receiver with lots of switching. There's the classic analog computer input, which can be used as the second component video input instead.

There's also the usual composite video and S-video inputs, not to mention an RS-232 and also a USB for command and control from a computer or room control system.

The Vivitek comes equipped with two 12 volt screen triggers, which can be used for motorized screen control, controlling an anamorphic lens sled, or a screen masking system. Few projectors have two, although that may be a new trend, considering the expanding range of devices they can be used to "trigger". Nice touch, and it may be convenient, however, controlling all such devices can also be done other ways, with infra-red or RF remotes, for example.