Optoma HD81: 1080p comes to projectors

By David Katzmaier, CNET.com on 09 January 2006

CES 2006: The ongoing rollout of 1080p native-resolution displays -- you know, the ones that should be able to deliver every detail of the highest-resolution HDTV format, 1080i -- has finally come to home-theatre projectors, and one of the first to be available is the Optoma HD81 (US$10,000, due in June or July in the US).

This two-piece projector/processor system employs a new Texas Instruments 1080p chipset that supposedly delivers better colour than the 2005 version, but notably, the chip is still wobulated (a process called wobulation or smooth picture rapidly shifts the pixels to double the horizontal resolution).

The press release on Optoma's new top-of-the-line projector also boasts of an improved contrast ratio of 6,000:1, along with a new colour wheel, 10-bit colour processing, a Gennum VXP scalar, and a galaxy of adjustments that include five-step brightness control and a "studio grade" colour-management system. The company is also touting the projector's quieter operation. As a two-piece system, the HD81 houses all of the input connectors in a separate processor box that connects to the projector via a digital cable that can be as much as 30m long. Among the processor's many connections are a trio of HDMI inputs that are, according to the company's rep, compatible with 1080p sources.

Texas Instruments' press release, for its part, mentioned a number of other front-projector manufacturers that would be producing 1080p DLP-based projectors this year, including Marantz, Projectiondesign, Runco, Sharp, and Sim2.

For the complete round up of stories from CES 2006, click here.

Topics: projector, ces2006, 1080p, optoma

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Comments (3)

  • Man1080Plove commented on 03/11/2007 10:49

    I also bought one from www.optoma.com.au .. spoke to someone named Atish and he gave me an excellent deal also. Mate how good is this projector? There is absolutley no bleeding of colours whatsoever and the blacks are superBBB!!!

  • Magnific commented on 19/10/2007 22:50

    Absolutely the best 1080p projector i have seen to date. Before i purchased one i got to demo the panasonic ax1000, JVC DILA and Epson TW1000. The Optoma HD81 was much sharper than all these projectors with deep black levels and absolutely no color seperation. I also got an great deal for this projector from www.optoma.com.au

  • Phil Smith commented on 29/03/2006 09:49

    David,

    I went to CES and Optoma said clearly the HD81 is *not* wobulated. Other web references say this, too.

    Could your source have been wrong?

    I saw the machine at the show and the picture was fantastic!
    Contrast this with the Sony SXRD projector which was *unplugged* in their booth!

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