Optoma UHD35STx Short Throw True 4K UHD Projector

Update: I left my original review below for Optoma fans to read. As for me, I had a problem almost the same day that I wrote the review. The projector started flickering in monochrome colors and did not respond to the remote to turn it off. It turned off on its own after about a minute. Then the blue & red LEDs for status began blinking together to form "purple". I had to disconnect the power cord after letting the lamp cool to get the unit to restart and it did. I looked to see if others had a similar problem on forums. A few people did and one guy suggested blowing out the lamp compartment with compressed air. That did NOT sound like a good idea so I contacted Optoma. The tech was very brief and curt in his reply. He told me to press "sync" if it happened again. I looked that up since I recalled "sync" only helping with 3D issues and this had nothing to do with a 3D Blu-ray disc. This happened again several times and after an additional attempt at getting a reply from Optoma support I finally decided to return the unit. I had been reluctant to switch from LCD to DLP technology originally but reviews seemed enticing. Wish my experience had been better. Maybe this was just a bad unit as noted in at least one other review but the support was so poor I did not want to continue down that path. My previous experience with a SONY and an EPSON projector did not involve service issues of ANY kind for more than 8 years for either unit. Note that this unit is only about one month old as I write this update. Hope someone at Optoma learns from this review. If you need a short throw projector or want to move the projector often keep looking. My review will only cover this projector in a dedicated home theater with no windows and a 120 inch fixed screen with plenty of length and height for projector and screen placement. This is my third projector with the first being a 1999 model Sony 720p unit that cost $6,000. The second was the much-lauded Epson 8350 3-LCD and 1080p projector that cost about $1000. (This unit is about the same price corrected for inflation.) The built-in speaker is about what you would expect but why would someone create a dedicated home theater and not include at least a decent 5.1 surround system? Here is why I bought this projector after considering about 20 from four manufacturers. The picture is sharp, crisp and has much more color saturation than my previous projector. I have native HDR without settling for 1080p resolution units that are "compatible" and able to process HDR input. The HDR is manipulated to make it specifically function with this unit according to reviews and the results seem good as you will see from my sample snapshots taken with a Motorola Moto G Power phone that has a good but not great camera. The picture mode is set to Cinema as recommended in reviews and brightness is Eco and that works well in a dark room. Any additional brightness would cause eye strain in my opinion. Color saturation seems very good in this mode to me and is miles ahead of my previous projector. The images are free of rainbow effect that some people associated with DLP. There are no screen hot spots unlike what I encountered in some bright scenes with the Epson. So far, all action shots seem very smooth but I have not watched football as of yet. Where I always noticed jutter with the Epson when the credits roll there is a slight hint still there but I have to look for it. Credits with small print are much more readable. I did increase brightness and contrast AFTER taking the shots above but only by a couple of points and far from a major increase. This was as a matter of curiosity almost as much as any perceived necessity. The first picture, from TAXI, is from an old 4:3 DVD that is not Blu-ray and it was upscaled dramatically. The DVD player is a SONY UBP-X700 connected over a good HDMI cable 30 feet in length. The rest of the pictures are from Life in Color (4k & HDR) and played through a Roku 4k/HDR 8310X stick since I don't have my 18Gbps cables for input from my DVD yet. My screen, for now, is an off-brand, inexpensive-but-surprisingly-good outdoor unit mounted in front of my $1100 21-year-old Da-Lite fixed screen that has seen better days. It supposedly has a 1:1 gain so consider the image quality with the projector settings + the screen properties. The center of my lens is within 1/2 inch of the 13 ft - 10 in calculation that leaves the lens adjustment centered between left and right adjustments. Also, the lens center should be 3" above the top of your screen's final white edge for ceiling mount and 3 inches below for an upright mount at floor level. I spent less than 10 seconds focusing the lens with text on the screen and I am pleased with the results. Note that the Optoma calculator yields the shortest throw for a given image size and then shows the total amount back from there that will work for the lens. That means you need to divide that max offset by 2 and add the result to the dimension shown to get the ideal location. Don't forget to also add the offset between front of projector and mounting screws for your ceiling mount. I used the back 2 screws and that added another 8.5 inches as I recall to that 13-10 dimension. I took time to calculate all this because the most technical reviews said that using keystone and offset corrections results in small-but-measurable picture distortions. My images seem clear to my eyes over all the way to the corners of the screen. In summary, it took me several days to come up with my choice but once I put my must-haves at the top of the list and checked again in my mind how important those were, I came up with this choice. Btw, I did consider another 1080p projector based upon some discussions but decided this was the way to go and I am very glad I did. Keep in mind that I cannot comment on reliability or Optoma support since I have had this unit less than a week.