Optoma MovieTime™ DV10 Multimedia Projector review
| Design |
The first thing we thought when we saw the Optoma Movie Time DV10 was 'what is that?' With its futuristic design resembling a starship, the Optoma DV10 looks like something taken out of a Star Wars movie and unlike the majority of projectors in the market, this portable unit will stand out in your living room like an OAP at a Busted concert. The unit comes in a bright black and white curved pastic shell. It weighs 2.5Kg and measures 104 x 265 x 236mm, allowing you to carry it with you where ever you go. On the front of the unit we find the 1.11:1 manual zoom/focus lens of the projector. |
| Setup/Installation |
There are loads of devices on the market claiming to be Plug & Play that require “some” kind of installation. This is not the case of the Optoma DV10. The unit is a truly Plug & Play device. Having integrated DVD player and speakers means that there are no cables to connect to the unit (apart from the power lead, of course). Simply get the unit out of the box, place it on a flat surface, plug it into the mains and voilá, the unit is ready to go. It took us about 5 minutes to set it up, as we had to play around with the tiny feet at the bottom of the projector to make the image fit on our projector screen. |
| Features |
| The strongest point of the Optoma DV10 is its portability and the fact that has integrated DVD Player and 5W built-in stereo speakers. It projects a widescreen image of 91 to 99 inches from a distance of 10 feet. The unit uses a DLP chip with a native resolution of 852x480. Yes, we know it’s not HD resolution, but don’t worry, you will be able to connect HD feeds via the included component-video adapter, which plugs in to the RGB connection. The same RGB port can also be used to connect PCs; and you can plug in video game consoles through S-Video ports or the basic composite connection. The Optoma DV10 has an aspect ratio of 16:9, ideal for watching movies, and a contrast ratio of 4000:1. There is no DVI or HDMI input for an external digital video source, but remember that this projector was not designed to be central display device for a multi-source home theater system. It’s designed to be a portable stand alone system. Optoma uses their new ImageAI Technology on this nifty projector, which analyzes the image to see if it’s mainly dark or mainly light, and adjusts lamp output to reduce black level or increase lumen output. The unit has a very decent brightness of 1000 ANSI and Optoma claims that the lamp will last for 2,000 hours in high-brightness mode and 3,000 hours in standard mode, which is not bad at all. |
| Performance |
| The Optoma Movie Time DV10 performed really well on our tests. When playing DVDs, the image quality was surprisingly good given the price of the device. Black level is more than acceptable (if you turn the Bright mode off) and colour tone is authentic, although you will have to play around with the colour settings to achieve true colours. The built-in stereo speakers are average, and they will definitely not knock your socks off. We found that the sound quality does not match the image quality, which is a bit of a dissapointment. We played the movie Troy on DVD and we really missed a deeper bass level, so if you want to have a full cinema-like experience while watching your favourite movies you will have to connect the projector to a home sound system. The DV10’s cooling fan is very quiet compared to more expensive projectors in the market and will not distract you while watching movies. The exhaust is located on the right side of the unit, allowing you to sit right behing the projector. The remote that comes with the DV10 controls both the DVD player and the projector, although most of the space on it is taken by the DVD player buttons. The remote is adequate, but we would have liked to see some backlighting on it to make it easier to use while watching a movie. The system menus are well organised and you will have no problems finding your way around them. Options include digital zoom, image shift controls to change the vertical position of material wider then 16:9, white peaking adjustment, gamma adjustment and colour temperature. |
| Overall Opinion |
Our favourite feature when it comes to the Optoma Movie Time DV10 is the futuristic design. We like the fact that it comes with a built in DVD player and speakers, and of course its portability is just as great as its price. To be honest however, there are much better projectors out there, but they are also much more expensive (ie. Sanyo PLC-UF15, Sony, VPL-VW100). The Movie Time DV10 offers a complete package for those looking for an all-in-one digital projector at an affordable price. |
By Nacho Galvez |
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Pros + Stylish design + Built-in DVD Player + Affordable price + Portable |
Cons - Average speakers |
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Overall Rating 
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30/11/2006 at 7:30:00pm
