Optoma HD142x Projector Review

The new Optoma HD142X Full HD home theater projector produces a stunning image with superb contrast, beautiful skin tones, and plenty of shadow detail. It’s very bright: when adjusted for best video, it produces over 1200 lumens, which is more than enough for a darkened room home cinema. In moderate ambient light, you may also quadruple the light brightness if you require it for playing.

Aside from the outstanding picture and affordable price, Optoma claims that the light will last 5000 hrs in maximum energy mode and sometimes even extended in power saving mode, so you won’t have to change the lamp too often.

The HD142X, which is rated at 3,000 brightness, can withstand strong ambient light while still producing a clear picture. Even in a brightly light environment, the image has some pop with an image quality of 23,000:1.

The HD142X may also be used as a powerful data projector, which is an unexpected advantage. Even tiny fonts are rendered crisp and sharp in their preset Bright or Vivid settings. The one constraint in terms of data utilization is there is no VGA port, so you’ll need HDMI ports from whatever source of data you’re using. You may show material from laptops, smartphones, and other portable devices using one of the HD142X’s two HDMI ports, which is MHL-compatible.

Although the HD142X is marketed as an entry-level home cinema projector, it excels as a projection screen for the home interior when friends come over for some weekend fun. If HDMI sources are available, it is also tiny and light (5.5 lbs) enough to be utilized at work or on the road.

Price

In the realm of home cinema, bigger is nearly always better, yet most of us skip a projector in favor of a larger flatscreen TV. Optoma’s low-cost HD142X DLP projector, which costs just $544 -£489/AU$1299- might alter everything.

$544
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Design

So describing the Optoma HD142X’s design as boring and dull is an exaggeration, but that’s projectors for you, and at once this DLP projector is compact. It’s not exactly light, dimensions 3.7 x 11.7 x 9 inches (386 x 162 x 280mm) and tipping the scales 5.5 pounds (2.49kg), but it’s small enough to slip under one arm and race for the upstairs bedroom theater area.

The back panel may look sparse at first sight, but the two HDMI inputs (also HDMI 1.4a for MHL and 3D compatibility) will satisfy most users. A 3.5mm audio output, a 12V trigger for use with bespoke home theater controllers, and a USB port for firmware updates are all nearby.

Unfortunately, the remote control is tiny and cheap-looking, with buttons that are awkwardly positioned. It is, however, sensitive, and anytime you touch it, it backlights in blue light for around five seconds, which is great whether you’re observing it at night.

Positive
  • Quiet fan
  • Sound Quality
  • Color and shadow detailed
Negative
  • Basic Speakers
  • Cheap control design
  • Rainbow effect issue

Perfomance

The HD142X has always been about low-key illumination. Do not even overlook the benefit of having a projector that can be utilized at whichever time of day, and the HD142X’s 3,000 ANSI Lumens is a terrific real worth feature at its inexpensive cost.

The HD142X, on the other hand, pulls off a smart trick by producing adequate light while keeping its fan silent. The HD142X never became louder over 65dB in our tests, and we had no trouble seated near enough.

When used in Sunny mode during the day, the HD142X produces bright, viewable pictures with just minimal overcooking of the colors. The Cinema picture option, which utilizes only around 50% of the brightness this projector is competent of, provides contrasty pictures in a blackout right out of the box, as you’d hope out of a DLP projection screen.

Chroma is realistic, vivid, and smooth, so while we did detect rainbows from the color spectrum, whether or not you do will be totally dependent on how sensitive your eyesight is.

Off of a practical standpoint, owning an integrated loudspeaker should be a huge benefit. Unfortunately, the HD142X’s 10W stereo speaker is a sham, with muffled music that lacks clarity. It restricts the soundscape of both speech and music and lacks any form of alternative activity.

Setup

The HD142X has several archaic navigation interfaces that fit inside the past century, but they’re quite easy to use in practice. The HD142X employs a mechanical zoom button and keystone adjustment to obtain a picture that’s 28 inches wide (from 32 feet) to a staggering 305 inches wide (from 32 feet). We’re not big fans of the latter technology because of the picture distortion it causes (a physical lenses gear shifter and a zoom seem to be simpler and more precise), but with the HD142X, we were able to rapidly construct an image with the shape we liked.

Cinematic, Luminous, Vibrant, Playing, sRGB, and Reference (allowing for expert ISF calibration) are among the picture presets, and the bulb may also be programmed to burn in Brilliant, Economy, and Vibrant modes to extend the lamp life even further.

Simon
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