Founded in 2000, Automa Technology is a sub-brand of Coretronic, the world's largest projector manufacturer. According to PMA's 2014 market research report, Optoma home projectors ranked first in the Taiwan market with a market share of 52.4%, and its 1080P home series also ranked first in sales in North and South America.

 

Unlike Sony and JVC, Optoma does not have its own core imaging technology, and mainly uses the DLP chip solution of the upstream manufacturer Texas Instruments. At present, Epson and Sony are the world's top two LCD LCD panel manufacturers, and Texas Instruments is the only supplier of DLP chips in the world, but Texas Instruments does not produce projectors, and there is no direct competition with projector manufacturers. Compared with Sony and Epson, which integrate upstream and downstream advantages, ordinary manufacturers can better compete with Sony, Epson and other manufacturers by choosing Texas Instruments' chips.

 

DLP (Digital Light Processor) is a patented technology exclusively developed by Texas Instruments, which replaces the LCD panel responsible for imaging in traditional LCD projectors by DMD (Digital Micromirror Device). The DMD chip contains thousands of tiny lenses, and one micromirror represents a pixel, so the number of micromirrors in the DMD device determines the physical resolution of a DLP projector.

 

Due to technical reasons, it is very difficult for DMD chips to achieve 4K resolution by increasing the number of micromirrors, and it is more likely to use a technology called XPR to obtain 4K image quality through pixel offset, commonly known as "pseudo-4K". Currently, only JVC's "e-shift" and Texas Instruments' XPR technology can achieve 4K image quality that cannot be distinguished by the human eye. This is the exclusive technology of the two manufacturers, and the video processing algorithms of their drive systems are different, so it cannot simply be regarded as the same implementation of the same technology.

 

At present, Texas Instruments has developed multiple sizes and resolutions of chips, and generally speaking, the larger the size of the DMD chip with the same resolution, the better the imaging quality and the higher the light utilization. Optoma's projection products mainly use 0.66-inch 2160P DMD chips, 0.65-inch 1080P DMD chips and 0.47-inch 1080P DMD chips, which are used in its 4K and 1080P projection product lines.

 

Although the core technology of the projector is provided by Texas Instruments, if you want to get a good projection image quality, it also has a lot to do with the lens selection and image and color processing technology of the projector manufacturer. Since its establishment, Optoma has been committed to the research and development of image and color processing technology, and its "tuned" projectors are also quite marketable among enthusiast movie fans. In the authoritative evaluation agency ProjectorCentral's ranking of the best home projectors under $10,000, the Optoma UHZ65 even beat out Sony's VPL-VW295ES and won the first recommendation. In the 2019 Best Home Projectors selected by the well-known media CNET, the Optoma UHD60 and HD142X, priced at $1,800 and $800 respectively, scored 8.1 and 8.0 respectively, winning the first and second place.

 

JVC's "pseudo 4K" projectors are priced at 4-90,000 yuan, while Optoma, which uses Texas Instruments' XPR technology for DMD chips, is generally priced at less than 40,000 yuan. The Optoma 4K projector uses a 0.66-inch 2160P DMD chip to achieve 4K by generating two overlay images within the 4K frame.

 

In terms of model naming, Optoma 4K projectors all start with UH models, UHC uses a laser light source, the highest price, but the service life is longer, and it also performs well in color and brightness; UHL uses LED light source, although the life is not inferior to the laser light source, but its brightness is not as good as the latter, and the performance is poor under the condition of bright environment; UHD and UHT are traditional light sources for high-pressure mercury lamps, which can support 4000 hours of use, and the traditional light source has a shorter life but is more affordable.

 

On the 1080P product, Optoma uses two chip sizes, 0.65 and 0.47. Generally speaking, the 0.65-inch chip will have better imaging quality due to its larger size than 0.47 inches, higher light utilization. In the use of light source, laser light source 1080P is expensive, generally more than 10,000 yuan, in the comparison of BenQ 10,000 yuan4K machine, such a product obviously loses its competitiveness. The traditional light source of the 1080P projector,The price is generally within 10,000 yuan,From this point of view,It is more cost-effective than Sony's 1080P products。