Customer Reviews

Vivitek H1080FD 1080p Home Theater Projector (White)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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 bulb watching SD videos on a 120" screen. Anyway, I was very happy with my projector and it has not let me down yet. Everything I expected from such price range for a projector was met. I love my little vivitek H1080FD.

I've had my projector for 4 months, and the color on HDMI port 1 has gone out. The color on port 2 still works fine, but I can't get a response from customer service. Also, sometimes when I start the projector the bulb doesn't turn on for several minutes. Other times it starts up instantly. I can't find any information about whether this is normal, but again, customer service won't respond. They only provide an online form and no actual phone number. It's been more than 30 days since I sent my first service request, and haven't received an email even confirming that they received my service request. BAD BAD BAD

This projector was great for 2 weeks. Then trouble started. The projector will shut down after 50 to 80 minutes into the movie. The screen goes blank, the power button flashes and fan comes on full blast. If I leave it, the fan will stay on forever. If I power down and restart, the projector shuts down after 5 minutes or so. Some kind of overheating problem? I was extremely disappointed!

Contacted Vivitek and all they can do is to repair it. It's within the warranty period, so I won't have to pay for the repair. But I'll still have to pay $20 or so to ship it to them. Why do I have to pay anything for receiving a defective item? I'm already being inconvenienced with the hassel of having to return it. I guess that's how they handle warranty service.

The silver lining to all this is that Amazon replaced the defective projector for a new one. I didn't have to pay a cent, even for returning. They also shipped the new one to me right away, and didn't wait until I return the old one. Good job by Amazon! I was without a projector for only about 2 days.

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.

Tried 2 of these. First one would shut down after 40 minutes or so with the power light blinking 5 times. Found out that was code for bulb approaching end of life. Tried to contact support at Vivitek and didn't hear anything for a week so decided to send it back (which Amazon is excellent about), and try another one. I had the new one from Amazon within 2 days. Set it up again using all default settings and 40 minutes or so through a movie it shut down, just as on the previous unit. Turn it on again and it would run about 15 minutes and shut down again. All default settings and projector was out in the open with nothing to block ventilation. Decided to give up and sent it back (again Amazon's return policy is super) and try a different brand. Won't buy a Vivitek again.

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.

ok, sure if you (especially) have a drink or two and make your eye scan quick left/right during a big white-on-black crawl sequence
(a custom Star Wars anamorphic dvd source like ours for example)
you can see rainbows to be sure. but how about this? don't force your eyes to look for it!

if you don't know about the rainbow, you wont see it. so i recommend moving on to the real concerns...
(disclaimer -- this is my 2nd DLP set -- previously had 50" samsung 1st edition DLP rear-projection HDTV (720p) after being excited by the tech details, circa 2001)

picture: awesome. beyond awesome. better than most movie theatres awesome. like invite all your friends over like we do awesome.

we had a commercial barco huge projector (from the late 90s maybe and estim. $10K or so in the day) from a govt surplus auction (heh for $50) that, ok, could slightly beat some of the dark levels -- which gives a more "3d" kind of look to the image -- but the barco suffered greatly in lumens and sharpness, comparatively. and it was analog. this is pure digital. and pure amazing.

the 1080P sources (PS3 bluray and new mac mini, yay!) look *amazing*!
A MAZ ING
why would anyone waste $ on LCD or plasma these days when, for cheaper, you can get a 15' diagonal
image (we are blessed with a 19 foot throw distance and a SMTPE-recommended 12 foot seating distance from screen)?!

i'd invite you all over to see this (since you cant find it in most stores - we looked all over the geeky bay area and noone
had it so bought it over the mail sight unseen save for some great reviews by projectorpeople.com and the like)
i'm a super video nerd so was stressed about "what did we get ourselves into?" (after our barco blew its main board)
when it arrived. when we had it setup, we looked at each other like "OMG!" and couldnt believe how amazing it was
and continues to be.

we have moderate (to possibly extreme if needed -- not needed now w/ vivitek compared to barco)
light control (ie: made some custom lightblocking backed window treatments) so you will want to have some
shades over windows of some sort in broad daylight. but otherwise, it **blows away** every other picture i've seen.

seriously! we still think both smugly and surprisingly we have the best home theatre we've ever seen now, thanks
to the vivitek, and that includes all the crap we've seen at US retail stores. i don't know why they aren't figuring
out to carry (only this -- or possibly similar tech Optima projector).

viva vivitek!!

For the price this thing can't be beat. I'm using it for video editing and it's awesome. Watch blueray on it as well and it's like being at the theater (with the 5.1 as well).
There are times when it runs all day and I haven't has a single problem.

This is the perfect projector for someone who is looking for an entry level theater in their home... and maybe even more.

I am completely blown away at how sharp and bright this vivitek is. I am throwing up an 82 inch screen onto a flat ultra white base paint and this looks sharper than my 42" LCD. The colors are vivid and the blacks are nice and dark. No issues and this is only in standard mode. The machine is whisper quiet also.

Vivitek has exceeded my expectations with the H100FD. To have such an amazing 80 inch projection for 800 dollars is the deal of the year. Do the research. This projector gets high ratings in every review I have read even by high end projector snobs.

This ia like having an 85 inch HDTV at much less cost! Who needs the big expensive projectors with this quality and simplicity of use. The vivitek plus a good home theater system for less than $1200 (including screen and ceiling mount). The sound from the vivitek isn't great but who would use it anyway!