Vivitek H9080FD Physical Tour

Posted on August 19, 2009 by Art Feierman

Vivitek H9080FD Physical Appearance

It's BIG, it's mostly black - with a large silver plate running down the center of the top, from almost the front, to the back. The manual 1.3:1 zoom lens is recessed, with manual focus and zoom on the lens' trim ring. Screw thread adjustable feet allow the projector to be leveled nicely for those not ceiling mounting.

The control panel is located on the top (in the middle of the sliver plate, while inputs are located on the back. The H9080FD comes with a large cable cover, that makes this somewhat massive projector look even larger.

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It is, to say the least, and intimidating looking projector, larger than even the BenQ, Sony, and JVC entries, though smaller than most 3 chip DLP home theater projectors.

The projector has filters that recommend cleaning every 500 hours. They recommend using a small vacuum cleaner placed up against the vents to pull out the dust.

Since it has an LED light source rated 20,000 hours, there is no lamp door issue to consider. Many projectors must be unmounted to change their lamps (if ceiling mounted). Since it is unlikely that even the heaviest users will own the projector longer than the light source lasts, it's a non-issue.

The H9080FD comes with a cable cover to keep things nice and neat. Here is an image of the back of the projector, and a second one, with the cable cover installed.

The Vivitek logo pops out to pull cables through, but it also looks like you can pull the cables through the bottom of the cover.

Control Panel

As noted, he H9080FD's control panel is located on the top. In the image on the right, you are viewing the panel from the back of the projector.

Toward the front of the control panel are the four arrow keys in a diamond pattern, with a center Enter button.

Below are three buttons, the first for Menu, then Source, and finally Power. Press once for on, and also, only once for off.

Click Image to Enlarge

Input/Output

Despite being a rather expensive projector, the selection of inputs and outputs is pretty typical for home theater projectors. Perhaps the most notable deviation from typical, for the Vivitek projector is that it has two "screen triggers". We have seen this on a few other projectors, and having two, for example would allow one to control a motorized screen, while the other might operate a screen masking system.

The Vivitek has two HDMI 1.3 inputs, an analog computer input, two component video inputs (one has 3 BNC connectors, one has three RCA projectors. Of course it also has an S-video input, and a composite video input.

In addition, there's an RS-232 for command and control, and two screen triggers. Finally, there is a connector for hard wiring in the remote control, as one might do in a rear projection environment, or if the projector is mounted where a good bounce of the signal isn't possible, or possibly for direct connect to a room conrol system.