Vivitek H1080FD 1080p Home Theater Projector
Too low to display
- Bright 1800 lumens and BrilliantColor technology for rich, stunning images
- 5000:1 contrast ratio for vivid picture quality
- 3,000 hours of lamp life; whisper-quiet at 26dB
- Built-in 5-watt mono speaker
- 1-year warranty on parts; 90 days on lamp
Product Description
The Vivitek H1080FD is a high performance digital projector that integrates into any home theater based installation. With native 1080p resolutionthe H1080FD delivers brilliant and amazing digital images with full color saturation. Designed for high impact picture quality the Vivitek H1080FD is unmatched and unrivaled in function and performance…. More >>
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Vivitek H1080FD 1080p Home Theater Projector
I just got mine last night. It was easy to set up even though the manual is on a disc. I hooked up my blu ray player to the projector and slipped in a blu ray disc. The colors are nice and rich with a blu ray disc. I subsequently watched a regular 480p DVD and the picture wasn’t so great. This may be attributed to the fact that I was watching an older movie from the 60’s so that may account for the grainy appearance. I was extremely disappointed with the fact that while I was watching an action flick on Blu ray, I could see some of the rainbow effect, albeit brief, while scanning the screen. Some people are more sensitive to this than others. I may return the projector and go for a more expensive LCD model so I won’t have this problem. Other than the rainbow effect and the 480p DVD, this is a nice little unit.
Rating: 4 / 5
Let me get this straight to you. If you’re trying to buy your first projector, just go buy it or watch it in action. You don’t have to look at all the negativity surrounding this projector. I really was pushed away from this projector because of all these rainbow effect comments and I was leaning toward the Optoma H20 because of the 4 color segmant wheel which is supposed to be faster and produces less rainbow effect than the Vivitek H1080FD. But you have to know that This Vivitek projector has higher contrast than the optoma H20. That’s what really matters to me. I’m glad I took the Vivitek route. I really can’t say anything bad about the Optoma HD20 since I don’t have it, but I can tell you that my Vivitek is amazing as my first ever projector and I’m totally satisfied with it.
I unboxed the projector and hooked it to my PS3 using HDMI cable and projected the image on a light yellow flat wall from about 6 feet away, from that distance and using the maximum zoom, you’ll get around 80″ diagonal picture. I played Call of Duty: Modern warfare 2 and the picture was excellent, I really forgot that I was projecting the image on a wall that is not fully white and the color of the picture seemed to be correct!!!…. I was afraid of being a rainbow effect guy, but that wasn’t the case. I really didn’t suffer or noticed any rainbow effect. only when I turn my head to the left or to the right fast, I kinda see some vertical lines of primary colors which I think is what people refere to as rainbow effect. I invited my 3 nephews to play MW2 on split screen mode. we played for 4 hours and no one complained from the rainbow effect or any headache. So there you have it, rainbow effect is either overrated or only few few people suffer from it.
Closing the rainbow effect chapter and moving on to the performance of the projector. I was expecting some lag or frame rate drop from this projector when playing fast paced games, but I really did not encounter any, the gameplay was as smooth as silk. The picture projected was vivid and crisp, although there are minimum adjustment to the picture quality from your projector, but you really aren’t going to need them because the presets are very accurate, you still can play with the contrast, brightness and hue.
Ease of installation is an issue here, this projector is not flexible, it’s not an expensive projector so you’d expect such features to be stripped out, there is no vertical or horizontal shift to the picture. That means you’re going to need to install or place your projector in the middle of the intended projected image. That means if you’re going to ceiling mount it, you have to get rid of whatever is hanging from your ceiling.
The only real drawback of this projector is the black levels, if you’re picky and have the budget, this is not for you. But if you’re just like me,, someone who’s got his first projector, who’s not too picky about the darkest black in his projected image, then you will not care about this at all, you’ll just be amazed at the performance of this projector.
the noise was very low, I was sitting 3 feet away from this projector an I couldn’t hear anything.
PROS: Vivid & crisp picture, quiet and very cheap.
CONS: black is kinda dark gray.
I would recommend this product to a friend.
I’m waiting for my 120″ Elite screen to arrive and once I install it and ceilling mount my projector I’ll be able to provide you with my feed back on a bigger projected image.
[UPDATE]
Just got my 120″ screen installed!! The projector was able to fill the entire screen with a very bright picture.Watched a couple of blu ray movies and some SD videos. I wasn’t expecting the SD feed to be viewable, but it was very good. Anyway, you don’t want to consume your lamp watching SD videos,, this is a 1080p Projector, so you better not put alot of milage on your lamp watching SD videos on a 120″ screen. Anyway, I was very happy with my projector and it has not let me down yet. Everthing I expected from such price range for a projector was met. I love my little vivitek H1080FD.
Rating: 5 / 5
Returning it for the Epson 8100. I do see some rainbow effects but rarely. Colors and everything look great but this is my first projectors and I have nothing to compare to. Remember if you want to place it on the table or shelf it is not possible because of its limited zoom and non existence tilt function. I am buying the Epson 8100 so I can place it anywhere with flexibility. If you can spend 400 dollar more buy the Epson 8100.
Rating: 3 / 5
If you are a newbie like me, go look up the rainbow effect for dlp sets. That is the problem here. Basically, this unit uses a 3x color wheel meaning that you can these rainbows all over the place in 1080p content. And frankly, aren’t you here because you want 1080p?
This unit is better than the Optima H20 that you are likely also looking at in every way except what I just mentioned, but you’re going to have to take that hit. I’m returning this unit now for the Optima. Such a shame. It was almost perfect.
Rating: 3 / 5
The bad: I’m not 100% sure but when I connected a component video cable to my previous projector, a mitsubishi hc1000 720p I did NOT get redish horizontal lines going through the viewed image. Nor did I occasionally get distorted skin tones. However, i did experience this with the Vivitek. Again, this is only with the component video cable. I happen to think that for viewing a digital cable box, its’ better to use component. In any case an HDMI cable is fantastic especially for viewing Blu-Ray or HD DVD. This issue with rainbow effect, is not as slight as they make it out to me. Maybe I’m one of those people who is more sensitive to it. My wife said she sees it too but only when she makes an effort to see it, like quickly removing her eyes from the screen. Any way the effect is definintely there and I’ve already surpassed more than 50 hours of viewing but I would otherwise exchange it for a projector that does not have this effect.
The Good; Other than these “flaws” Just pop in a blu-ray, especially one of the newer movies and prepare to be awed ! Between the luminance, the resolution and the color, It truly makes for a satisfying viewing experiance. I watched the movie The public Enemies on blu ray and it was like, true home theater experience if not better than at the movies. The Roku movies (to long to explain what this is but for those who have it, you know what I mean) in HD also look fantastic, but again only the newer movies blow you away. Older movies that have been converted to HD somehow and do not make as good an impact. In summary, take away the fault when viewing through a component video, take away the dreaded rainbow effect, and take away the fan noise (it’s not overwhelming but it is noticable, I have mine cealing mounted so that helps a bit) and focus on the HD or Blue ray viewed movies, and this projector is to die for.
Rating: 4 / 5