Optoma HD8300

Optoma HD8300

You don't have to look any further than the $4,499 list price to know that the Optoma HD8300 is aimed at serious videophiles rather than typical consumers. In fact, it's sold primarily by the sort of custom dealer who will normally install and calibrate the projector for you, if not build your entire home theater. If that's the class of projector you're looking for, the HD8300 is easily up to job, with great-looking images in both 2D and 3D at up to 1080p resolution. Not too surprisingly, the HD8300 shares some important features with the Optoma HD33 ($1,500, 4 stars) that I recently reviewed. In particular it offers a similar frame interpolation feature to eliminate judder—the slightly jerky motion that's built into filmed content because of the standard 24 frame per second speed for film. It also shares the HD33's 3D support for both DLP-link glass and RF glasses, which are currently less common. As with the HD33, the HD8300's DLP-Link support is built into the projector. The RF support uses an external RF emitter that comes with the projector and plugs into its VESA 3D port. The advantage for RF glasses is that you don't have to maintain a line of sight connection to keep the glasses synched for 3D, which means you won't lose sync if you look away from the screen for a moment.