The better game graphics get, the more fun it is to game on king-sized screens. And the more the market for big screen movie and gaming experiences grows, the more appealing ultra short throw projectors become as they allow you to enjoy pictures bigger than any TV can manage for a fraction of a king sized TV’s price (and weight!).
Leading projector brand Optoma hopes it’s hit upon the perfect formula to cash in on this meeting of trends in the unusual shape of the new GT3500HDR.
Described as “a compact full HD 1080p ultra short throw projector for optimal gaming experiences, movies and home entertainment viewing”, the GT3500HDR really does seem designed and specified from start to finish with your living room and regular day to day lifestyle in mind.
The Optoma GT3500HDR is an ultra short throw, HDR-capable projector aimed at gaming and home … [+]
For starters, its vital statistics of 327(w) x 327(d) x 109(h) make it relatively compact by UST projector standards (it’s actually almost 30% smaller than its predecessor), meaning it’s an easy and unobtrusive fit for a sideboard or deep bookcase placed against whatever wall you want the projector’s images to appear on. The fact that it’s a UST design means, of course, that it doesn’t have to sit right in the middle of your living space like regular-throw projectors do.
It’s also quite light by UST projector standards, making it potentially easy to move round between rooms if you wish, and its crisp white finish is likely to blend more successfully with typical living room decor than the usual black or grey too.
A high claimed peak brightness of 3800 lumens, meanwhile, should be able to punch images through even quite high levels of ambient light, reducing the need for you to darken your living room down every time you want to watch TV or play a video game. The GT3500HDR’s high level of brightness should also prove very handy when it comes to getting decent impact out of the GT3500HDR’s high dynamic range video support.
The Optoma GT3500HDR can produce a 100-inch picture from just a one foot throw distance.
The GT3500HDR uses a laser lighting system that further increases its consumer appeal by extending the projector’s effective ‘no lamp changing required’ lifespan to as much as six times that of a regular lamp projector. The picture performance of laser light systems doesn’t gradually deteriorate in the same way that pictures from lamp projectors do, either, while lasers can be driven hard/bright to combat ambient light without their lifespan being anywhere near as drastically shortened as regular lamps would be if used in the same way.
While brightness is particularly important for projectors aimed at living rooms rather than dedicated home theater set ups, it is of course not the only image factor that matters. So it’s encouraging to see Optoma also claiming a very promising contrast ratio of 500,000:1 for the GT3500HDR (though this will only have been achieved by applying various intelligent brightness manipulation techniques, rather than it being a truly ‘native’ figure).
Despite its relatively compact form, the GT3500HDR is capable of producing images as big as 120 inches depending on how close you put it to your wall or screen, with a 100-inch image achievable from just a foot of throw distance.
Top down view of the Optoma GT3500HDR UST home entertainment projector.
Turning to Optoma’s claims that the GT3500HDR is a killer gaming projector, in its fastest response mode it’s claimed to take just 8.6ms to produce 120Hz 1080p graphics feeds, and 17ms for 4K 60Hz inputs (though remember that any 4K source images will only be rendered at a full HD resolution).
Enhancing the GT3500HDR’s lifestyle appeal even further is a surprisingly quiet claimed running noise of 27dB (though this is only achieved in the projector’s lowest brightness, non-HDR Eco setting), and relatively easy set up by UST projector standards thanks to tools such as four-corner correction, horizontal and vertical keystone correction and even a portrait mode.
There’s a built in 15W sound system too, and the GT3500HDR’s connections will comprise two HDMI 2.0 ports, one USB 1.5A power output port, a 3.5mm audio input, an RS232C control port, an Ethernet network port, and a 3D sync port – the latter of which actually points us to the projector’s last big feature: 3D playback. Provided you also buy a pair of compatible 3D glasses and happen to have access to some 3D content.
The Optoma GT3500HDR gaming and home entertainment projector is available in the US and UK now, priced at $1,499 and £1,499 respectively.
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