Watching movies
Contents
Once we’ve managed to give the Optoma UHL55 a nice spot – on a very videophile piece of furniture, ahum – we can start with some video material. The nice thing about this projector is that it is possible to start videos directly via usb or the network. We have a NAS full of material, so we grab a nice movie and go see the result.
Rich
The colour palette comes across as rich. The LED lighting used by Optoma in the UHL55 apparently has a wide range, although not as detailed and sophisticated as the UHZ65 or UHD65. They really go a step further when it comes to refined reproduction of colour. Anyway, that’s what you pay for. The UHL55 costs about 1699 euro; the UHZ65 goes over the counter for 4499. Subtle difference.
Brightness and contrast is fine in this projector. Although it’s not as bright as the models mentioned earlier; we can watch a film with quite a lot of ambient light. We estimate that this projector can even be used in office environments at its brightest setting. Of course this is at the expense of black reproduction, but that is not important in situations like this.
Streaming videos
A very interesting and beautiful feature of the UHL55 – and the reason to buy it – is the built-in video streamer. Now this Optoma can connect to the network via cable or wifi. If you only stream Youtube, then wifi can work. However, if you are going to stream heavier material, then a cable really is a must. We stream from our Plex server and that’s fine via cable. Although 4K material with subtitles is a real challenge. It’s not the connection, it’s Plex. He’s having trouble baking the subtitles. It also involves a lot of data… – although a Xeon 10-core should be able to… hmmm. That calls for further investigation.
We choose a few nice movies to get an impression of the performance of this projector. Think X-Men, I Am Legend, Oblivion and John Wick 2. Plenty of toddlers, black and fast action.
The result via the streamer of the Optoma is not disappointing at all. But one thing stands out: some audio codecs are not supported. And then watching a movie becomes a very quiet affair… silence. Through the nVidia Shield, most codecs work. At least DTS. This is something to consider. We hope Optoma will add the codecs again.
Then to the statue. We don’t see a rainbow effect at all, for example. That’s because this projector uses three LEDs: red, green, blue. So there is no need for a color wheel. The UHZ does have a color wheel, so it does have a rainbow effect. Now it differs per person if it is visible and disturbing. But we immediately noticed it (especially with subtitles).
