Optoma UHD38X 4K UHD Projector with High Dynamic Range - White

Update: I left my original review below for Optoma fans to read. As for me, I had a problem almost the same day that I wrote the review. The projector started flickering in monochrome colors and did not respond to the remote to turn it off. It turned off on its own after about a minute. Then the blue & red LEDs for status began blinking together to form "purple". I had to disconnect the power cord after letting the lamp cool to get the unit to restart and it did. I looked to see if others had a similar problem on forums. A few people did and one guy suggested blowing out the lamp compartment with compressed air. That did NOT sound like a good idea so I contacted Optoma. The tech was very brief and curt in his reply. He told me to press "sync" if it happened again. I looked that up since I recalled "sync" only helping with 3D issues and this had nothing to do with a 3D Blu-ray disc. This happened again several times and after an additional attempt at getting a reply from Optoma support I finally decided to return the unit. I had been reluctant to switch from LCD to DLP technology originally but reviews seemed enticing. Wish my experience had been better. Maybe this was just a bad unit as noted in at least one other review but the support was so poor I did not want to continue down that path. My previous experience with a SONY and an EPSON projector did not involve service issues of ANY kind for more than 8 years for either unit. Note that this unit is only about one month old as I write this update. Hope someone at Optoma learns from this review.If you need a short throw projector or want to move the projector often keep looking. My review will only cover this projector in a dedicated home theater with no windows and a 120 inch fixed screen with plenty of length and height for projector and screen placement. This is my third projector with the first being a 1999 model Sony 720p unit that cost $6,000. The second was the much-lauded Epson 8350 3-LCD and 1080p projector that cost about $1000. (This unit is about the same price corrected for inflation.) The built-in speaker is about what you would expect but why would someone create a dedicated home theater and not include at least a decent 5.1 surround system? Here is why I bought this projector after considering about 20 from four manufacturers. The picture is sharp, crisp and has much more color saturation than my previous projector. I have native HDR without settling for 1080p resolution units that are "compatible" and able to process HDR input. The HDR is manipulated to make it specifically function with this unit according to reviews and the results seem good as you will see from my sample snapshots taken with a Motorola Moto G Power phone that has a good but not great camera. The picture mode is set to Cinema as recommended in reviews and brightness is Eco and that works well in a dark room. Any additional brightness would cause eye strain in my opinion. Color saturation seems very good in this mode to me and is miles ahead of my previous projector. The images are free of rainbow effect that some people associated with DLP. There are no screen hot spots unlike what I encountered in some bright scenes with the Epson. So far, all action shots seem very smooth but I have not watched football as of yet. Where I always noticed jutter with the Epson when the credits roll there is a slight hint still there but I have to look for it. Credits with small print are much more readable. I did increase brightness and contrast AFTER taking the shots above but only by a couple of points and far from a major increase. This was as a matter of curiosity almost as much as any perceived necessity. The first picture, from TAXI, is from an old 4:3 DVD that is not Blu-ray and it was upscaled dramatically. The DVD player is a SONY UBP-X700 connected over a good HDMI cable 30 feet in length. The rest of the pictures are from Life in Color (4k & HDR) and played through a Roku 4k/HDR 8310X stick since I don't have my 18Gbps cables for input from my DVD yet. My screen, for now, is an off-brand, inexpensive-but-surprisingly-good outdoor unit mounted in front of my $1100 21-year-old Da-Lite fixed screen that has seen better days. It supposedly has a 1:1 gain so consider the image quality with the projector settings + the screen properties. The center of my lens is within 1/2 inch of the 13 ft - 10 in calculation that leaves the lens adjustment centered between left and right adjustments. Also, the lens center should be 3" above the top of your screen's final white edge for ceiling mount and 3 inches below for an upright mount at floor level. I spent less than 10 seconds focusing the lens with text on the screen and I am pleased with the results. Note that the Optoma calculator yields the shortest throw for a given image size and then shows the total amount back from there that will work for the lens. That means you need to divide that max offset by 2 and add the result to the dimension shown to get the ideal location. Don't forget to also add the offset between front of projector and mounting screws for your ceiling mount. I used the back 2 screws and that added another 8.5 inches as I recall to that 13-10 dimension. I took time to calculate all this because the most technical reviews said that using keystone and offset corrections results in small-but-measurable picture distortions. My images seem clear to my eyes over all the way to the corners of the screen. In summary, it took me several days to come up with my choice but once I put my must-haves at the top of the list and checked again in my mind how important those were, I came up with this choice. Btw, I did consider another 1080p projector based upon some discussions but decided this was the way to go and I am very glad I did. Keep in mind that I cannot comment on reliability or Optoma support since I have had this unit less than a week.

review with updates over course of 4 years.But basically I love it, and it works out the box, but also has plenty of room to tinker the picture to your liking. Total cost of ownership for it's life has been about $1/day, with 5,200 hours of use on dynamic mode. This is about a third of the advertised life. I would get extended an warranty.Day 1: I opened up the box and plugged it in, just power and hdmi. Aimed it at the wall. It took a few seconds to warm up and then, even in broad daylight with no curtains, on pukey apartment tan/gray/green paint, there was vivid color and bright whites and a perfectly legible 9 foot playstation screen. This just feels magical. I adjusted the keystone to undo the distortion from the angle I had it at, played with the focus and zoom for a few seconds, and started playing some games. Even without extended game mode it was responsive enough to play some resogun, so I turned game mode on (not just the color setting, the low lag) to try it out. The keystone undoes, so my quick setup ran the top of the screen into the ceiling, but it was so smooth, so pretty, so big. Like I feel like a kid and this is magical watching black screens look like wall then in slides a logo or loading screen and then it's a game on my wall. Is it a little washed out in daytime? Yeah, the blacks aren't super deep around noon, but perfectly watchable even if you don't close the curtains, and your eyes adjust better than it can look in a photo to make the blacks look black next to the amazing whites. Is it amazing in the dark? Yes. Even after around 4pm with no curtains, when you don't even need a room light on yet, blacks look deep black next to the brights and everything is rich. Is it magical? Always. Is it good for gaming? Yes. I am very very impressed. Been gaming for decades and I never want to use a tv again, the brightness on this and the size make a rich deep picture with a wow factor even just on an off-color wall with no prep. I bought a sound system in expectation that the built in speaker would suck, but it's about on par with decent tv speakers and serviceable. Great volume actually, I have yet to turn it above 3. I got this to treat myself and holy **** it's amazing. Highly recommend. Just do it. It weighs so much less than a tv and is so magical. Great color and brightness and good for gaming and watching Netflix or whatever. I am so excited to play everything on this I feel like I just bought a second childhood. It has no business looking so good in the daytime.Considerations after a few weeks: use "game" or "hdr sim" in daytime, it blows out the whites but the contrast and brightness is so much better. The dynamic brightness is supposed to give you 15,000 hours of life, that's like 10 years of 4 hours a day, but you can hear the fan speed change, and the brightness ramp up can be noticeable and distracting when brightness changes on screen back and forth: not usually noticeable on games, but on some shows where dialogue cuts back and forth. If you want 240hz and atmos, good luck. You would need the right dual outputs on your pc to go straight to the projector and av receiver, as the projector only has stereo out, and I don't think there is an a receiver or splitter on the market that can do 1080p240hz, best I can get is 1080p120hz or 4k60hz, which is still exceptional. Those considerations said, I still highly recommend this, it's amazing.After a few months: still loving it. I think the only complaint is that on dynamic brightness the whites get crushed a bit on hdr from my PS4, this can probably be solved by switching to the non dynamic bright mode. On hdr in general, the dynamic black ramping will occasionally create banding and white blowout on transitions of dark to bright content too, the response time of the lamp and pixels seem to differ, this could probably be solved in a firmware update. Still highly recommend. It's a 4k60,1080p240hz projector with gaming speed and insanely good brightness and color. Nitpicking aside nothing compares to this. Pair with a surround or Atmos sound system and it's a perfect home theater.1 year update: still loving it and highly recommend it. I run my PC at 1080p120hz for movies upscaled with svp, and PS5 at 4k60. I stopped using HDR because the picture looks better without it, as it crushes whites and blacks on dynamic brightness mode. Overall the only downside is that around noon the picture is washed out, and you need to either pump the contrast up to about 30, or close the curtains. Best display I've ever used, don't even need game mode it's not laggy. Possibly the best purchase I've ever made.I eventually found the setting that was blowing out the whites in dynamic brightness mode, in the image settings screen scroll, to the second page and there's some trademark sounding color menu like tru color or vibrant color or something, it's basically a second contrast scaler. I still usually leave it on the default setting for the brightness boost for a clearer image with lights on, but if you're doing movie night with the lights off, setting it lower will give you a better reference image, which of course there's an image preset for anyway.2 year update: one dead pixel, which means it's always bright. Annoying but still pretty easy to ignore.3 year 9 month update: colors started to get messed up. It fluctuates and can't really be worked around. Like I can still use it, but it's not great I contacted optoma about it and just the parts are like $800, not sure if that includes the actual repair.Final breakdown: So cost of ownership is just under $1/day, which I think is worth it. I've used it a lot and really been pleased with it. But the life has been only 5,200 hours on dynamic mode, not the advertised 15,000. Still, I can't find better specs elsewhere even after 4 years, so I am getting another one, and getting extended warranty to make sure it is good for 3 years again.