Optoma H27 FP - 720p / 1080i (1 Viewer)

[Jeff Cooper]

Does anyone have any experience using the Optoma H27 projector in 720p or 1080i mode via the DVI input?

I have this projector and was considering getting a Toshiba HD-A2 HD DVD player to play upconverted SD DVD's plus HD DVDs on it.

The projector is 480p native, so I was just curious how the higher resolutions would look on it. I don't have any equipment currently that can output those resolutions to test it.

Thanks!

 

[Jim Mcc]

You'll get a slightly better image, but not worth buying a HD DVD player for. Your projector will scale down the signal anyway to 480p to display it. I would wait until you upgrade to a 720p projector. That's what I'm going to do. Plus the HD players are still too expensive, the whole format war thing, and not enough good HD DVD's.

 

[Stephen Hopkins]

If you're in need of a decent scaling DVD player anyway I wouldn't discount the Toshiba A1, especially w/ a 480p projector (no need for 1080p output from the A2). You may not notice huge gains in clarity and sharpenss but the wider color-space of HD content can make a noticable difference. Also, the A1 can ba had as low as $300 (I payed $291) new shipped on eBay. At that price even if HD-DVD fades into obscurity then you still got a pretty good scaling dvd-player anyway.

My plan for avoiding getting stuck in the format war is to use my A1 for HD-DVD and DVD and add a PS3 for BluRay once they become readily available. This way I have all my bases covered until one format pervails or universal players become the norm.

Alot of folks will tell you to stay away from the A1 because of load times. They are slow... 30 seconds can be longer than it sound... but in the scheme of things it's something I can deal with considering the cost of a superb perofrming unit in all other senses.