# HD20 and my Vizio. What am I doing wrong



## infurno (Jun 14, 2010)

Years ago I got an Optoma 719 for movies and computer use and I was really happy with it. Eventually prices on 1080p HDTV's went down and since then I have been using that as my primary desktop output.

HD projectors are now below the $1k mark and I thought this was a good time to get back in. I decided to go with a 42" as my primary desktop output and a HD20 projector as my display for all types of media.

Finally got everything setup. Here watching movies, looking at pictures, and typing this with the two outputs cloned... I'm shocked by how poor the HD20 performs compared to my 42" Vizio. In fact, it's so bad that I'm about ready to box this thing up and return regardless of the restocking fee.

They are both 1080p, displaying the exact same signal but the HD20 lacks color accuracy, saturation, contrast, and detail. The only advantage the HD20 has is scale... I understand that the screen is a factor, I'm not sure what brand I'm using but I don't think any screen could fix this.

I have been playing with settings and calibration for about two hours now and I really can't figure out a way to make it work. Maybe I don't know what I'm doing. in fact, I can't even find the setting for saturation. There are some color related settings but they don't seem to be what I'm looking for.

Am I expecting too much, or am I just doing something wrong?


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## infurno (Jun 14, 2010)

Followup: Bought a new screen and things have improved. Now I just need something acoustically transparent


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## mechman (Feb 8, 2007)

Are you taking readings directly from your projector or from the reflected image off the screen? What meter are you using? Which screen did you have and what did you upgrade to?

The menus on most displays are what they are. :huh: Sometimes you cannot adjust things that you'd like. But that's how they keep costs low. Contrast for a projector will depend upon the environment. Detail should be similar except for the fact that it's a much larger image.

Custard has a thread on the HD20 here.


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## infurno (Jun 14, 2010)

Not sure what the brand of the screen I had was. Got it off craigs list years ago. Had nothing that identified anything other than some number. The new screen I got is Projecta brand, 92" I believe. I'll probably gert a transparent screen sometime next week to accommodate my massive center speaker.

Yesterday I bought an Epson 8100 to replace the HD20 and I'm pretty happy with the result. I am getting some strange color cast though, somehow the red and blue diverge on pixel fine detail.. I don't know if this is to be expected or not but I'll call Epson and get the unit swapped for another just in case.


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