Optoma has added a new projector to its home cinema range that looks like it also has the potential to be an excellent big-screen display for gamers.
The Optoma UHZ58LV’s key specifications comprise a punchy peak brightness of 3,000 lumens, 4K playback (using Texas Instruments’ XPR pixel-shifting technology), claimed coverage of as much as 95% of the DCI-P3 gamut most commonly used in high dynamic range mastering, and an “advanced” dual-laser light source for its DLP-type projector engine that’s claimed to be capable of delivering a 30,000-hour effective life span.
The Optoma UHZ58LV combines promising home cinema chops with impressive convenience and gaming features.
Photo: Optoma
The UHZ58LV’s support for high dynamic range video extends to the premium HDR10+ format, which adds extra scene by scene image data to the video stream to help compatible screens deliver punchier and more accurate results. Optoma has backed this up on the UHZ58LV, too, with its PureEngine Ultra image processing suite, which continually analyses incoming images and works to enhance/refine their contrast, sharpness and motion clarity. Without, Optoma claims, compromising creative intent.
If you really don’t like the idea of the PureEngine Ultra tinkering with your projector’s images, though, fear not: The UHZ58LV also has both a Filmmaker Mode designed to deliver the “purest”, most direct and most accurate images the projector can achieve, as well as ISF Day and Night modes that could be used by a professional calibrator to optimise the projector’s images for your specific room conditions.
The UHZ58LV seems on paper like it has the potential to switch between quite serious home cinema environments and more casual living room setups, so it’s pleasing to find it sporting a fairly sleek, compact chassis, as well as flexible installation options that include a healthy 1.6x zoom, optical vertical lens shift, four-corner correction, and so-called 360º Projection support, meaning it can be set up for front, rear, ceiling or desktop placement.
The Optoma UHZ58LV has a built-in 15W speaker. Though contrary to what this image suggest, it can’t project images out of its butt.
Photo: Optoma
The UHZ58LV’s gaming potential, meanwhile, finds it capable of handling refresh rates all the way up to 240Hz at 1080p resolutions, and at that extreme refresh rate level it’s capable of getting the time the projector takes to render image data received at its HDMI ports down to just 8.5ms (though you can probably roughly double that figure for each step down through the more common 120Hz and then 60Hz game refresh rates).
Connections on the UHZ58LV comprise two HDMIs (one 2.1 and one 2.0), two USB outputs (one with 1.5A of power, one with 2A), a 3D Sync jack reflecting the fact that this is one of a dwindling number of projectors that still support 3D playback, a 3.5mm audio output, and an S/PDIF output. Plus there are RJ45, RS232 and 12V trigger ports to help you integrate the projector into a wider home control system.
One of the HDMIs supports eARC functionality, meaning you can use it to pass sound including lossless Dolby Atmos soundtracks through the projector to an eARC-capable soundbar or AV receiver. The projector does also carry its own built-in 1 x 15W sound system, though, for occasions where an external audio system isn’t readily available.
Running noise for the UHZ58LV is quoted at 28dB or 32dB, depending on which projection mode you’ve got selected, and finally Optoma claims that its new projector is bright enough to potentially drive an image as big as 320 inches across.
The UHZ58LV is available in the U.K. from today, priced at £1,999, and is coming to the U.S. soon for $2,299.
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