LED will set you free

It's a beefy looking thing, this projector. It's not much larger than other high-end single chippers, but there's something about its boxy, ribbed design that makes it a little more commanding than others. This is a good thing, I think. If you're going to spend 15 large on a projector, it should look the part.

Its claim to fame, though, is not its size or aesthetics, but its light source. Three little LEDs—making all the light needed to fill your big screen.
    
Try-Color

In the past, front projectors have used a lamp (a fancy light bulb) to create the light needed for the DLP or other technology to create an image.

These lamps were expensive, hot and only put out white light. Single-chip DLP designs, like the H9080FD, used a color wheel to filter the light so you could see a full-color image. There was a significant loss of light with a color wheel, as well as the oft-discussed and occasionally noticed "rainbows" that came with sequential color.   

By using red, green and blue LEDs, all of these problems can be addressed. More light makes it to the screen without having to pass though a color filter, so less energy is wasted. The LEDs themselves are more efficient. Those combine for less power required to run. Color is still created sequentially, which is to say the image is created with all the red information, then the green and then the blue.

It's done so fast that your eye/brain combines it to see everything at once. It’s done much faster than with a color wheel, so it's pretty much impossible anyone will see rainbows.

Then there's the color itself. On paper, if you have accurate color points with one display, it will perfectly match a different display. In fact, this is ideal. You want the colors to match what the editors edited to, and the directors wanted for their movie/shows. Of course, it's never that simple.

What surprised me was how much more realistic the colors were on the H9080FD—some of the most realistic colors I've ever seen on a display of any technology. In measuring the color points, red and blue were pretty much spot on. Green was a little greenish blue and grass and leaves looked a little off. But it was more than that, more than the measurements can tell you. Colors across the entire spectrum were more vibrant, more real. There seemed to be more subtle gradations between shades. The difference in skin tones suddenly became much more noticeable. Fine differences between lip shades stood out.

Colors popped more than they did on other displays I've seen. For a color junkie like myself, this was flat out extraordinary. Accurate color is awesome, but accurate and vibrant color is even better. And for the record, this was with "Brilliant Color" turned off and Color Gamut and Color Space set to either REC709 or Auto.

This is one of the first video technologies I've seen in years that I would actually recommend making the trip out to see for yourself.

More good, some bad

There are tons of adjustments in the menu, from the various color settings mentioned above to in-depth selections for sharpness and noise reduction. If you want to dial in the projector even further (out of the box is pretty close on all fronts), there are easy adjustments for color temperature, and if you put the Color Gamut to Native, you can play around with the color points in the HSG menu. It can get pretty hairy in there though, so proceed with caution. Settings for Color Gamut include SMPTE-C, EBU and others. Pretty cool stuff.

DLP Framerate lets you do 48 Hz with 24p material. This takes out the 3:2 judder inherent in film sources on a 60 Hz product like all TVs. You'd think 48 Hz would flicker, but because DLPs are actually running much faster than 60 Hz because of the sequential color, there's no flicker—just smooth motion.

Processing is done by a Gennum 9450 chipset. All and all it does a good job, able to pick up 3:2 with 480i and 1080i sources, and detail from scaled DVD is quite good. There are some small jagged edges on the rotating bar test. Perhaps more annoying is the inability to zoom in on 16x9 material that's in a 4x3 window. So watching Top Gear (16x9) on BBC America (4x3) makes for a "tiny" image.

On the not so great side, you're locked out of the color and tint adjustments in the menu with HDMI. True, you're not supposed to need those adjustments with HDMI, but each source can be a little different and it would have been nice to see this feature.

Contrast ratio and black level, sadly, aren't great. They're certainly not bad, but even with the oddly named Dynamic Iris (there's no iris, just the ramping of power to the LEDs), set to Infinity, the contrast ratio was significantly less than you can get in the LCOS-based projectors like the Sony VPL-VW85 and the new JVC projectors. Black level is also higher—not to the point of being distracting, but definitely not "black." No matter which of the several Gamma settings you choose, the H9080FD crushs blacks slightly with video. So near-black objects, like dark color suits, lose all detail. Shows like Lost become difficult to watch.

One other feature that's noticeably missing is the lack of a motorized lens. Not a huge deal, as you'll likely only have to set it up once (or not at all if your installer does it), but it’s still noticeable given the price.

LED Zeppelin (as in, it rocks)

As a first-generation product, and one of Vivitek's first high-end projectors, the H9080FD is great. Despite the negatives I listed above, the quality and vibrancy of the color goes a long, long way in absolving any quirks. The color really is that much better than other projectors.

Even if you factor in bulb replacement over the, ahem, projected lifespan, the price is still pretty steep. If you're like me and you see the cents click past every time your projector is on, then the peace of mind afforded by an LED projector with an approximately 20,000-hour lifespan for its light source is worth the premium.

As a sign of things to come, I'm even more excited. LED offers startlingly lifelike color wrapped in a package that's more environmentally friendly. Sign me up.

PRICE:
H9080FD: $14,999

CONTACT: vivitekcorp.com