Vivitek H9090 Home Theater Projector: Hardware Tour

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Art Feierman

VIVITEK H9090 PROJECTOR - HARDWARE TOUR: Overview, Lens, Inputs, Control Panel

Vivitek H9090 Hardware - Overview

The H9090 is a relatively large projector. It's about the same overall size and bulk as Sony's VW series projectors, and the JVCs, perhaps a bit larger than Epson's sculpted LS10000 and LS9600e. (but they are taller) It certainly dwarfs most lower cost DLP projectors, and is a size larger than popular projectors like the Epson HC5030UB /PC6030UB. That it has a more boxy, rectangular, commercial look, may make it seem a bit larger, still, compared with some of the nicely sculpted projectors. No matter, it's finished in black. Hang it from a ceiling in your theater, and it's mostly going to disappear when the lights are off.

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The lens area (4 interchangeable lenses are available) is centered on the front, for simpler installation. The lens you choose will stick out a bit. There's also a front infra-red sensor for the remote control, just to the left of the lens. Down below are the front two of four screw thread adjustable feet.

Venting is located on the left, right, and back. This is important: The Vivitek sucks air in from the back, and right (when viewing from the front) side, while the left side is the hot air exhaust. The projector seems to run far cooler than most, thanks to the LED engine.

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I say important, because you can shelf mount this projector, and many will, if desired, thanks to the longer than usual, throw range of the standard zoom. You'll need a little room in the back for the intake for air to come in, but you will have to keep the sides clear too, to limit heat build up overall, and also keep the right side intake free. If some reasonable amount of room isn't available on the left side for the hot air coming out, a lot of it could get sucked back in from the rear, and cause potential overheating. Nothing insurmountable in this, just "pay attention" if you are rear shelf mounting.

Unlike many projectors I review, with my seat 4-5 feet forward and to the right of the projector, this one doesn't cook me, since I had to place it several feet further back. Nice.

All of the inputs and other connectors are on the rear, and above them is the control panel.

Vivitek Lenses

Lens Options: Vivitek H9090, Distances from 100" Diag. Screen (est.)
Lens	Zoom (Dist/Width)	Closest	Furthest
Standard Zoom 1.3:1	1.85 - 2.41	13.5 ft	17.5 ft
Short Zoom 1.19:1	1.56 - 1.86	11.3 ft	13.5 ft
V. Long Zoom 1.67:1	2.4 - 4.0	17.5 ft	29.1 ft
Short Fixed 1:1	0.73	5.3 ft	5.3 ft

Choose from four! There's less than an $800 difference between the standard lens, and the most expensive - the very long throw zoom. The other two are within $300 of the standard configuration which as mentioned (many times) is $9999.

Here's a simple chart showing the relative throw range and also the distances for a 100" diagonal screen. I calculated the distances from info provided by Vivitek - we did not measure (besides, I only had the one lens). Only the Very Long Throw Zoom has a lot of zoom range to it, which means the other lenses should be both very bright provide superior optical quality.

A note about the long throw zoom. As the chart points out, that would allow the front of the projector to place up to 29 feet from a 100" diagonal screen. That, folks, is way back. of all the popular projectors without interchangeable lenses, Epsons and JVCs, and some Sonys offer the largest range zooms, yet none of them can be placed as far back as 22 feet from that same 100" screen. That long throw should be great for a very deep, but narrow home theater where screen size is relatively small compared to room depth.

H9090 Inputs and Connectors

Time to run though all the connectors, inputs, on the back of the H9090.

Back panel of Vivitek H9090 showing Input panel and control panel

We'll start top left of the back panel, with an RS232 serial port for "old school" command and control.

Next come two 12 volt screen triggers for screen and shades.

Then comes S-Video (DIN connector), followed by a composite video (RCA connector), and three RCA connectors for Component Video.

The second row starts with a pair of HDMI inputs, then a Computer input (RGB), and a second Component Video input (3 BNC connectors).

That's a pretty good selection of inputs. As always, I wish companies would put on 3 HDMI ports. It also would have been nice to have MHL support on one of them for interfacing to streaming sticks, tablets and phones, but then, you really need a speaker, or audio out to take proper advantage of some of the MHL material that has sound.

H9090 Control Panel

No real surprises here. The control panel is pretty basic, and, as noted is on the back, above the inputs, with small silver buttons and bars. One cool thing, Vivitek has the name of each button twice so it can be read whether table top, or ceiling mounted (inverted). Clever.

From the left: The Menu button, and below it, two indicator lights for Power, and what they call "Issue", we call "problem." Power is the usual press once for on, twice to power down.

Next comes the four arrow buttons in a diamond configuration using bar type buttons. The Select button (enter) is located in the center of the four. Straight to the right of the right arrow key is the Power button (once for on, twice for off), and above it, the Source Select. That's what you call a basic, no frills control panel.