Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review – Performance

Posted on December 5, 2018 by Nikki Zelinger

Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review – Performance: Brightness, Effect of Zoom Lens on Brightness, Effect of ECO Mode on Brightness, Input Lag, Image Noise

Measured Brightness, Wide Angle

Optoma claims the HD143X produces 3,000 lumens. Not quite, but still respectable, with enough lumens to tackle the ambient light found in your typical living room, family room, media room, or bedroom. It measured 2,315 in its brightest mode, named Bright. Most projectors will fall up to 25% short of claim, while some will actually measure over claim. Though it didn’t hit its claim, most modes will have enough lumens to handle a modest amount of ambient light. I wouldn’t call it a bright room projector, but it does have enough brightness to tackle quite a bit of ambient light in its brightest mode.

Picture Mode	Lumens
Cinema	1191
Vivid	1401
Game	1351
Reference	889
Bright	2315
Bright - ECO	1428
User	1669
Wide	2464
Telephoto	2113

The next brightest mode is called User, and is intended to be calibrated for better color. It measured 1669 lumens. I didn’t play around much with this mode because I found several others to have excellent color, right out of the box, as mentioned on the first Picture Quality Page. Vivid is the next brightest mode, and that will be your best, brightest mode – it measured at 1,401 lumens. Game Mode is next at 1,351 lumens, followed by the best mode, Cinema.

Cinema Mode came in at 1,191. That’s around what my Epson Home Cinema 5040UB measured at in its Cinema Mode. Now, that’s still respectable, but is more of a lights-out, shades-drawn kind of mode. Reference Mode measured at 889 lumens, so that one will be saved for night time viewing, or else not used at all. So, bottom line? This is not a bright room projector, but can be used in your typical living room that has some control over ambient light. If you want to get more out of this projector, I suggest pairing with an ambient light rejecting screen, such as this one by Elite Screens, to stave off some ambient light and get an overall brighter image.

Effect of Zoom Lens on Brightness

With only a 1.1:1 zoom, there’s minimal brightness variation as you change the zoom from wide angle (closest placement to your screen), to the furthest (telephoto zoom). The difference is barely visible, about 6% across the whole range, so it shouldn’t be much of a concern to anyone buying this projector. At full wide angle, the projector measured 2464 lumens in its brightest mode, and 2113 with telephoto zoom.

Effect of Lamp Settings on Brightness – Brightest Mode, Mid Zoom

Picture Mode	Lamp Mode	Lumens
Bright	Normal	2,315
Bright	ECO	1,428

Input Lag

The Optoma HD143X has two measurements for input lag. It measured at 33.1 ms with Enhanced Gaming Off, which is considered acceptable for all but the most hard-core gamers. With Enhanced Gaming On, the projector measured at an impressive 16.4ms! I should mentioned that to get this low input lag, you’ll need to have Dynamic Black turned off, otherwise you’re looking at a 17.4ms lag. Still, that’s about as good as it gets when it comes to projectors, and this projector will be quite suitable for both the casual gamer and the hard-core, will-wreck-you-before-you-know-it’s-coming, competitive online gamer.

Image Noise

Nothing to report here. Projectors today generally perform quite well in this aspect. Image noise is background noise, sometimes called “mosquito noise,” and wasn’t noticeable on this projector.

Motion noise, however, is something to mention. This is generally found on slow panning shots, such as the one found in the early neighborhood scene in the movie Red. Though there is some slight judder as the shot pans, it’s not as bad as it could be – I’d say it’s typical. But, you’re not likely to come across this kind of shot often, so it shouldn’t be any sort of nuisance.

No issues to report when gaming!

That does it for our review of the Optoma HD143X! Our final page will sum up everything discussed in the review, and provide a list of pros and cons so that by the end of this review, you should know whether or not the projector is right for you!

Optoma HD143X Home Theater Projector Review – Performance: Brightness, Effect of Zoom Lens on Brightness, Effect of ECO Mode on Brightness, Input Lag, Image Noise

Measured Brightness, Wide Angle

Optoma claims the HD143X produces 3,000 lumens. Not quite, but still respectable, with enough lumens to tackle the ambient light found in your typical living room, family room, media room, or bedroom. It measured 2,315 in its brightest mode, named Bright. Most projectors will fall up to 25% short of claim, while some will actually measure over claim. Though it didn’t hit its claim, most modes will have enough lumens to handle a modest amount of ambient light. I wouldn’t call it a bright room projector, but it does have enough brightness to tackle quite a bit of ambient light in its brightest mode.

Picture Mode	Lumens
Cinema	1191
Vivid	1401
Game	1351
Reference	889
Bright	2315
Bright - ECO	1428
User	1669
Wide	2464
Telephoto	2113

The next brightest mode is called User, and is intended to be calibrated for better color. It measured 1669 lumens. I didn’t play around much with this mode because I found several others to have excellent color, right out of the box, as mentioned on the first Picture Quality Page. Vivid is the next brightest mode, and that will be your best, brightest mode – it measured at 1,401 lumens. Game Mode is next at 1,351 lumens, followed by the best mode, Cinema.

Cinema Mode came in at 1,191. That’s around what my Epson Home Cinema 5040UB measured at in its Cinema Mode. Now, that’s still respectable, but is more of a lights-out, shades-drawn kind of mode. Reference Mode measured at 889 lumens, so that one will be saved for night time viewing, or else not used at all. So, bottom line? This is not a bright room projector, but can be used in your typical living room that has some control over ambient light. If you want to get more out of this projector, I suggest pairing with an ambient light rejecting screen, such as this one by Elite Screens, to stave off some ambient light and get an overall brighter image.

Effect of Zoom Lens on Brightness

With only a 1.1:1 zoom, there’s minimal brightness variation as you change the zoom from wide angle (closest placement to your screen), to the furthest (telephoto zoom). The difference is barely visible, about 6% across the whole range, so it shouldn’t be much of a concern to anyone buying this projector. At full wide angle, the projector measured 2464 lumens in its brightest mode, and 2113 with telephoto zoom.

Effect of Lamp Settings on Brightness – Brightest Mode, Mid Zoom

Picture Mode	Lamp Mode	Lumens
Bright	Normal	2,315
Bright	ECO	1,428

Input Lag

The Optoma HD143X has two measurements for input lag. It measured at 33.1 ms with Enhanced Gaming Off, which is considered acceptable for all but the most hard-core gamers. With Enhanced Gaming On, the projector measured at an impressive 16.4ms! I should mentioned that to get this low input lag, you’ll need to have Dynamic Black turned off, otherwise you’re looking at a 17.4ms lag. Still, that’s about as good as it gets when it comes to projectors, and this projector will be quite suitable for both the casual gamer and the hard-core, will-wreck-you-before-you-know-it’s-coming, competitive online gamer.

Image Noise

Nothing to report here. Projectors today generally perform quite well in this aspect. Image noise is background noise, sometimes called “mosquito noise,” and wasn’t noticeable on this projector.

Motion noise, however, is something to mention. This is generally found on slow panning shots, such as the one found in the early neighborhood scene in the movie Red. Though there is some slight judder as the shot pans, it’s not as bad as it could be – I’d say it’s typical. But, you’re not likely to come across this kind of shot often, so it shouldn’t be any sort of nuisance.

No issues to report when gaming!

That does it for our review of the Optoma HD143X! Our final page will sum up everything discussed in the review, and provide a list of pros and cons so that by the end of this review, you should know whether or not the projector is right for you!