Optoma HD25 review

The Optoma HD25 is billed as the ultimate 3D projector. It’s a bold claim considering how much one’s enjoyment of 3D varies from person to person, but this 1,080p DLP projector really is in a class of its own when it comes to 3D home cinema.

Its picture quality is stunning. With a brightness of 2,000 ANSI lumens, colours were rich and vibrant even with all the lights on in our brightly lit test room. As with most home cinema projectors, you’ll get the best picture when the lights are turned off, but even ambient light in the background didn’t disrupt the overall image quality.

Its in-depth menu settings were equally impressive. It has five 2D colour modes (Cinema, Reference, Photo, Bright and User) and two 3D colour modes (3D and a second User mode). Each one is customisable and has settings for brightness, contrast, sharpness, colour and tint, and its advanced menu options cater for noise reduction, gamma, colour temperature and individual colour settings. It’s easy to navigate too, even in the dark, thanks to a backlit remote.

We used the default Cinema settings during our testing, as this produced the deepest and most accurate colours. Contrast levels were equally excellent and we were able to pick out a very high level of detail in darker film scenes without compromising its bright and vivid colours. Blacks were very slightly grey in places, but overall they were much deeper than other projectors we’ve seen in this price range. We were a little disappointed to see that altering the various settings in the menu system slowed down the frame rate slightly, but otherwise images were very smooth and judder-free.

Its integrated 10W speakers were another highlight. Not only did they have enough volume to fill our large test room, but the HD25 also has extensive audio controls that allow you to alter the levels of bass and treble (or turn it off altogether if you’d rather connect it up to a different audio source). Having quality speakers can be useful if you want to take the projector to a friend’s house or use it in a different room. However, for proper home cinema, you’re better off with a dedicated surround-sound system.

For a projector that’s supposedly the king of 3D, though, we were surprised by its rather basic 3D menu options. You can change how the 3D appears on screen (though anything other than the auto or frame sequential settings hurt our eyes) and invert the 3D sync, but you can’t change the depth of field or alter the brightness. We also found the VESA 3D mode to be the most comfortable setting, as the DLP-Link 3D mode was a touch strong for us.

Menu issues aside, though, and the end result was some of the best 3D we’ve seen on a mid-range projector. Unlike most of its rivals, the HD25 comes with a pair of active shutter 3D glasses in the box, which would normally set you back around another £100 if you had to buy them separately. All you need to do is power up the glasses once you’ve connected the 3D emitter to the back of the projector. There was an inevitable loss of brightness when we turned on the glasses, but there was no evidence of crosstalk or flicker regardless of our viewing angle.

Running costs can be quite high, though, thanks to relatively expensive replacement lamps. At full brightness the lamp is rated to only last 3,500 hours, but switch to the ECO mode, which is fine for a darkened room, and the lamp is rated to last 6,000 hours. This means running costs are 10p and 6p per hour respectively.

At a price of just under £800, the Optoma HD25 would be a fantastic projector regardless of whether it came with 3D glasses or not, but the fact that it does really gives it an edge over its competitors. It also has a massive five-year colour warranty to help give peace of mind. It may not have the best 3D menu options we’ve ever seen, it’s still incredible value and it wins a deserved Best Buy award.