Optoma HD33 3D Home Theater Projector

October 28, 2011 by

Optoma’s known for its HD20 projector, a 1080p capable projector at a price under $1000. Now they have done it again with their new projector the Optoma HD33 3D Home Theater Projector that is by far the cheapest 3D capable and 1080p local resolution you will find. The HD20 was able to withstand some serious competition and still remains as a front runner in the affordable 1080p projector department two years on. So will the Optoma HD33 3D Home Theater Projector be able to emulate the success of its predecessor?

Design
When we look at the design of this projector from the size perspective, at 11 x 36 x 31 cm, it is slightly smaller than most 3D LCD projectors out there and really tiny when you compare it to any of the LCos projectors from Sony, JVC, LG and Mitsubishi. It weighs 3.5kg, so it’s not too heavy either. For the price the Optoma HD33 3D Home Theater Projector is being sold, it actually comes with a lot of connectivity options. It has the two typical HDMI 1.4a inputs and others include a component video, an analog input for PC and composite video input, all these from left to right respectively. There’s also a DIN connector for the 3D emitter – which by the way gives longer range than DLP-Link -, a mini-USB service port and it’s also got a new addition to the family which is the 12 volt screen trigger. There is also a serial RS232 ro control your projector from your laptop or computer. Looking at the remote control, it’s got a good lay out and a decent range too. Optoma may have fitted extremely bright backlights which weren’t to our liking but otherwise it is a pretty complete remote control and you can just lie back on your couch and control your projector.

Features
One of the notable features in the Optoma HD33 is PureMotion which is a system that does frame interpolation to cut down on judder. It comes with three different settings, and they increase in aggressiveness from one setting to another. On the higher setting, you get some digital video effect that is preferred for live performances but not so much when watching a movie. The fact that this feature can be turned on in 3D mode, it makes the picture appear less jerky. The RF Glasses is the word of the town as Optoma HD33 is the first 3D projector to sync its glasses to the projector. This is better than IR as for IR you need the glasses to be in a straight line with the emitter. Therefore, now your glasses will not be disconnected if you moved a little to stretch yourself or so on. The process of calculating the range with this RF glasses can be done in a jiffy as there is no need to worry about images being bounced off the screen, as now all you got to do is put the emitter next to the projector and your job is done.

Optoma HD 33 has a basic lens that offers 1.2:1 zoom ratio which means you don’t have much room to play around with the distance. A lens of a scale like this is expected for a low cost projector such as this one and this isn’t really a huge problem if you know where to put your projector.

Setting up the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8700UB HD Projector
After connecting the cables, you are pretty much good to go really. However there is no lens shift on the Optoma HD33, so you have to properly mount it. If you do not, then you will have to rely on the keystone correction which is something you want to stay away from as it degrades picture quality to a certain extent. Once that’s done, just bring up the setup menu and you are ready to choose all your preferred options. You can from this menu set your input source and activating the source lock which will make the projector to automatically connect to the source input of your choice every time it’s turned on. The input source function can also be found on the exterior controls as well as the remote control so you don’t have to go the menu every time. One of the more advanced controls you can set up in the Display menu for instance is Edge Masking which reduces the edge noise around your image. On the Optoma HD33, Blu-ray 3D is configured automatically but you are also given to option to set the controls to other formats manually.

Video Quality
Optoma have done it again just as they had pulled it off with the Optoma HD20 as the Optoma HD33 produces great picture quality in 2D for both standard and high definition modes. It produces vibrant and saturated colors plus the grayscale tracking is close to the ideal 6500K mark. However, if you would like absolute perfection, you can do some fine-tuning to get 6500K across the board. The dynamic range on this projector is good as well and the black level is as good as its competition in this price range. Detail clarity is also extraordinary except for some digital noise and DLP dithering.

3D performance was equally as good as 2D if not better as the 3D glasses makes the projector’s black level to go even deeper making the picture look higher in contrast. The glasses also bring down the brightness the highlights that felt a bit too bright in 2D. Another thing that caught our eyes was the fact that there was crosstalk. While you are watching the difficult scenes, Optoma HD33 still does a tremendous job of separating the images on your left-eye from your right.

Pros and Cons
The Optoma HD33 seems to be the brightest 3D projector to have come to us to date and it also has about 1000 lumens in its best mode. Edge Masking and Vertical digital image shift were also present. The 3D glasses use RF so you don’t need line of sight which means you won’t go out of sync with the projector that often.

Black level although good, still is entry level quality. As we had mentioned earlier, we also face limited placing options with the Optoma HD33.

Conclusion
The Optoma HD33 3D Home Theater Projector is truly a great projector for its price range. It provides better than average specs for a low cost projector. So there is no reason to look further if you are looking for a 3D projector that’s worth every hard earned cent.