Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review

The Optoma HD143X is a 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution projector with DLP technology. When I received the HD143X, I thought it was another business/education projector, as I tend to get sent more of those than home theater projectors. To my surprise, this is a low-cost home entertainment projector designed for gaming! Sweet. Optoma is known for having excellent gaming projectors, so I am eager to put this one to the test not only with HD movie and TV content, but with video games as well, and will be sure to include the projector’s input lag measurement in this review.

I’ll start this review with an overview of the Optoma HD143X home entertainment projector’s specs and features, expanding on those features on the second page. A tour of the hardware and menus will follow. Then we’ll take an in-depth look at picture, video and audio quality, discuss our findings, and find out if it performs as well as I expect. We’ll end our review with a summary page which will allow you to re-cap the highlights, pros and cons, and photos. Let’s get started!

The Optoma HD143X is a $499.99 DLP projector for the home, and a winner of our Hot Product Award. The Optoma’s native 1080p (1920 x 1080) resolution provides a nicely sharp, clear image. This projector has a 3,000 lumen claim, making it well-suited for bright room environments where there’s not a lot of control over ambient light. The HD143X will also be fitting for Superbowl parties, as you will not have to close the curtains and have your party in a fully darkened room. Whether your using your projector in a living room, media room, or bedroom, you should find that the HD143X has enough lumens to go around for most environments!

This Optoma has a pretty impressive lamp life. Up to 15,000 hours is about as good as it gets for a lamp based projector, and seriously cuts down on the lifetime cost of ownership! Sure, lamps are pretty low cost these days – anywhere from $100 to a couple hundred dollars – but it’s not just about the money. With such a high lamp life claim, you’ll save many hours of your life over the course of a decade by not having to switch out the lamp every several thousand hours, if you ever have to at all before you replace this Optoma with a higher resolution model. Time is your most precious resource, my friends.

In addition to the Optoma HD143X’s lamp life being a time saver, the projector also has a number of other special features that we will discuss in detail on the following page. These are: Dynamic Black for improved black level performance, 3D capabilities, and ISF calibration modes – to name a few. This Optoma also has all the inputs and connectors you need for your home entertainment purposes, as well as a 10-watt speaker, adding to the projector’s portability. With a built-in speaker, you can easily move the projector from room to room, or take it outside for a movie night (weather providing, of course).

The Optoma HD143X also features a six-segment RYGCWB color wheel. This is not a typical color wheel we see on projectors these days – usually you’ll have an RGBRGB or an RGBW (red, green, blue, and a clear slice for white). This color wheel has red, yellow, green, cyan, white, and blue. But, it’s not about what kind of color wheel the projector has, or whether it’s unusual, but how it performs in terms of color. I’ll give you the full scoop on that when we get to the Picture and Sound Quality Page. Next up is an overview of the highlights, followed by a close look at the projector’s special features. See you on the next page!