Vivitek H1060 projector: as convenient and affordable as smartphones and tablets

What kind of projectors is better to produce, the protracted crisis begins to dictate. I thought of that when I turned on the latest Vivitek H1060, unlike any other in the well-known brand’s lineup. The closest to the novelty are last year’s units – H1186 and H1188, they also work as the main link in a budget home theater. Why Vivitek decided to release another projector for the same purpose? For me, the intrigue remained until I understood the technical features of this novelty.

Vivitek H1060 video projector

Technical Specifications

Class of device	portable
Matrix	1xDLP
Color wheel	6-segment, GYRWCB
Recommended application	For Home Theater
Actual resolution	1920×1080 Full HD
Wide	yes
HDTV support	Yes
3D Support	is
Built-in Loudspeakers	1 x 2W
Noise level	34 dB
Lamp
Lamp life	5,000 hours
Service life in economy mode	10,000 hours
Number of lamps	1
Lamp power	190W
Projection
Projection distance	1 -8 m
Sizes diagonally	from 0.76 to 8.05 m
Distance to diagonal ratio	1.14:1 – 1.5:1
Line Frequency	15 – 91 kHz
Frame rate	24 – 120 Hz
Scaling is optical	1.3x
Aperture	2.59 – 2.91
Focal length	16.87 -21.87mm
Image
Contrast	15000:1
Light output	3000 lumens
Keystone correction	is vertical
Supported Broadcast Systems	PAL, SECAM, NTSC
Supported input signal formats	480i, 480p, 576i, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
Interfaces
Inputs	VGA, HDMI x2, composite, audio minijack
HDMI version	HDMI 1.4, MHL support
Outputs	audio minijack
Interfaces	USB Type B
3D interface	Sync
Dimensions
Dimensions WxHxD	275x100x212 mm
Weight	2.3 kilo

Marketing zigzags

Wonders! Not so long ago Full HD projectors for home cinema were the lot of wealthy citizens. And now, at the bottom of the crisis, we discuss which DLP unit is best suited for mass demand. Movie buffs and full-wall movies, gamers, soccer fans who also need a large projection wall…

The image of budget projectors has improved so much that they are now a real competitor to TVs. For an LCD TV, say, with a diagonal of 80 inches are asked now at least 400 thousand Dollars, and the rest: player or android tv box, soundbar or audio system, we will not even consider. Get your money ready, gentlemen! You can get more than 3 million Dollars for a good TV set..

Reacting to new trends Vivitek decided to expand the line of affordable home projectors. The Vivitek H1060 is not a stripped down version of the H1186 or H1188, it’s a new product with its own features..

Key Features

When you buy a new car, the first thing you look for is the engine and its speed. What purpose do you buy for: for street racing, for riding in a forest track, or just for riding on pavement?

In the new projector the key parameters are brightness, contrast and color rendering, which directly affect the image quality. What for and who needs a new projector, for “what kind of drive”? Let’s find out.

The brightness in the Vivitek H1060 has reached an impressive 3000 ANSI Lm, which is one and a half times more than the more expensive models – H1186 and H1188. However, it significantly loses to them in contrast – 15000:1 vs 50000:1. Translated from the technical, this ratio of key parameters means that the depth of black has slightly decreased, but the projector has become more versatile and unpretentious.

Increased brightness, amplified by inexpensive optics with a projection ratio of 1.14 – 1.5:1, allows you to arrange a decent viewing, even in daylight, with ambient light. And in total darkness, the projected image can be up to 119 inches diagonally from three meters away. Can you imagine a soccer or hockey game on such a bright wall?? Don’t even ask how much it costs to buy a TV set with the wall in it…

Nuances in color rendering

There is only one more important aspect left to be clarified – color rendering. The Vivitek H1060 is powered by DLP technology. Let me remind you that this technology is based on a reflection of light rays from a huge number of micromirrors that make up the DMD-matrix. Light is fed to the micro-mirrors via a color wheel consisting of three RGB segments in the classic version. The wheel rotates, and colored beams reflecting off the micro-mirrors merge on the screen into a full-color image.

As a rule, in modern DLP projectors a 6-segment RGBRGB wheel is spinning, that is the base colors – red, green and blue have time to flash twice in a frame for one turn of the wheel, which makes the color rendition more natural and clear in comparison with the classical RGB wheel. This technology is commonly referred to as Brilliant Color.

So, the new Vivitek projector also uses a 6-segment color wheel, but with a different set of base colors – GYRWCB. Theoretically, the accuracy of color reproduction of these models is inferior to traditional RGBRGB: segments and svitl are only for smoother transition from green to red and from blue to green, especially in the contrasting areas of the image.

However, the color model GYRWCB has its own advantages. By adding a W-transparent segment, the white light from the lamp falls on the micro-mirrors without loss of luminous flux, which enhances the black and white brightness of the image. Here’s the highlight! You can add another 10-15% to the brightness of the image in 3000 ANSI Lm without increasing the lamp power. And the color rendering quality can be compensated by adding more speed to the color wheel: faster speed means more accurate colors on the screen. Judging by the very decent picture, which gives Vivitek H1060, speed compensation must have a place..

Brightness, like color rendering, is very important for home projectors that often entertain a motley crowd and sometimes in unpredictable ambient lighting conditions. Anything can happen: watching a new film, a talk-show, ice-hockey championship, a local gamer’s tournament…

In short, Vivitek has made an affordable and versatile projector. The new model is destined to become as convenient and in demand as smartphones and tablets. That is why all kinds of “enhancers” like smooth motion processor, dynamic contrast, noise reduction, which have a permanent residence in the Hi End technology, have left the novelty to reduce the cost.

Package Contents

It is better not to save on small details. Despite the fact that the model H1060 is considered a budget model, the package includes all the necessary cables for connection, which will easily connect to devices as HDMI and USB-generation, as well as to a passing technique with VGA-connectors. The package includes:

• remote control with battery,
• power cord,
• HDMI cable,
• RGB cable,
• instruction manual on CD-Rom,
• quick reference guide,
• warranty card.

connectors

Once again H1060 interfaces speak about the versatility of the new projector. Users are offered a comprehensive set of connectors, which will satisfy their needs in almost all cases.

I will tell you only about two details. The project uses a high definition HDMI version 1 connector.4, which supports ARC AudioReturnChannel function. If you connect the receiver or other source to HDMI with ARC support, the video signal will be separately extracted from it and displayed on the screen. The sound can be played through either built-in speakers or through a return audio channel through an external audio system. It could be a soundbar or a quality component speaker.

We would also like to mention that one of the HDMI sockets supports MHL function, which allows you to display an image from a smartphone or tablet. By the way, there are already smartphones with built-in TV tuner. Now you can watch TV shows all over the wall by quickly connecting the projector to your mobile gadget.

All the connectors are located on the back panel, here is the complete list:

• VGA-In 15pin D-Sub ,
• HDMI HDMIx1,
• HDMI/MHLx1 ,
• Audio-In Mini-Jack ,
• Audio-Out Mini-Jack ,
• 12vTrigger,
• 3D-Sync,
• USBminiB Service .

Case ergonomics

New model – new case. Although the Vivitek H1060 is positioned as a home theater projector, it is smaller and lighter than some portable models for presentations. All the stuffing is packed into a neat 274 case.6x212x100 mm and weighing only 2.3 kg. Nothing prevents it from being used for presentations in the field if necessary. Or take it to the cottage for everyone’s enjoyment.

The top and end sections are made of white plastic and the rest are made of gray plastic. I’m eternally glad that the plastic is matte: neither scratches, nor fingerprints on the case will inherit much.

The zoom control ring on the lens is tight and recessed, which eliminates accidental shift in setting. The focus ring is located around the lens itself. It’s soft and moderately pliable. You can point to the sharpness using the test grid, which is called up from the menu in a click.

The external control unit is located on the top and includes only the power button and the navigation. Hot keys for inputs and trapeze control are located here. And for the rest, welcome to the menu.

Two out of three legs can be tweaked to compensate for uneven surfaces or to direct projection beams to the screen in an upward vector.

Powerful and therefore hot lamp with increased brightness requires serious cooling. The fans are located on the rear panel. These are built in so that they blow heated air backward away from the lens, while cool streams are drawn in from the sides and from the bottom – closer to the lens. The cooling system in the H1060 is very punchy and efficient, but it’s not exactly quiet.

The menu and its features

the menu for the projector control could be called quite standard: the first tab Settings 1 contains the obligatory settings for the image: source selection, projection type, frame format, etc. the Settings 2 tab groups the settings for the input signal and the light source.

But the proposed menu turned out to be quite non-trivial, thanks to another tab that allows advanced users to calibrate the projector rather quickly. For example, you can adjust the 6-segment color wheel for primary and secondary colors red, green and blue, as well as yellow and blue , you can adjust the white balance yourself, rather than settling for ready-made presets. The menu allows you to adjust the gamma value quite finely, changing it in increments of 0.2. Slightly behind only the color temperature, which varies by fixed values – warm, cold and normal.

So you can calibrate the projector very well to the installation site using the built-in tools.

In general, the menu is simple, logical and with its own zest: such a convenient calibration in budget projectors almost never occur anywhere else.

Remote control

Remote control is compact and includes keys for accessing basic projector settings. It’s nice that it has a playback function: you can flip forward and backward through your movies or slide shows, or press pause.

Under the finger control are the most popular buttons: menu call, source selection, auto mode, image settings, zoom, 3D, etc.

The downside of a compact remote control is the lack of key illumination, in a dark room you have to look for the right buttons by touch.

Visual image test

Vivitek H1060 has a good set of preset modes, which allow you to choose the right picture in one click: Game, Custom, Presentation, TV, Film, Bright, sRGB and Blackboard.

Everything is simple and straightforward except, perhaps, for the Blackboard mode. In this mode, the picture becomes black and white with a negative effect: light becomes dark and vice versa. It is believed that this colorless mode significantly increases the readability of small details, such as various schemes.

We will test the built-in modes in more detail later on, but for now we will visually evaluate one of the most popular modes – User mode, which shows the picture “as is”, without any software modifications.

To visually evaluate the image quality we leafed through a dozen of photos from summer hikes go to the album

The motive is simple – the author knows exactly how these images should look, how they are conceived in terms of color nuances, so you can reliably compare them to what is displayed on the big screen.

Rainbow over the Sea of Japan. Primorsky Krai, Olginsky District, Cape of Four Rocks.

Let’s start the visual test with this random photo. In the first days of our trip the weather was awful, the tent was flooded with rain, and the whole coast was covered with fog. We sat in the hood on the headland, eating dry rations. Suddenly clouds started to melt and, by some miracle, a ray of sunlight broke into the sea and a bright rainbow appeared, just like in my childhood.

The rainbow on the screen appeared almost in vivid colors, very close to the original. I did not see any acid colors and the picture looked quite contrasting. True, the saturation of the green tones was still somewhat lower than in reality.

Dawn of the far east.Primorsky Krai, Nakhodka district, Triozero Bay. Stunning sunrise – such a clear sunrise is rare in our seaside lands. Believe me, the live scenery looks amazing at all..

Projection of the photo “The Dawn of the Far East” has shown, that in the zone of the maximum intensity different shades of colors do not mix and do not merge, at least in the red tones. All the halftones had individual accents, complementing the overall picture with their picturesque strokes. The subtle colors made the picture look alive on the big screen.

Waves and rocks. Primorsky Krai, Khasansky district, FERHMZ, unnamed bay.

The photo was taken on the last day of the hike, when the waves were rolling over the polished preserve rocks with noise, and the sky was covered with the remnants of the Lion Rock cyclone.

Despite the modest contrast, the projector is quite good at reproducing details in shades and highlights. In the picture displayed on the screen you can even see the branches of relic grave pines verdant over the cliff in the background. You can clearly see the clouds left by the cyclone that caused heavy flooding in Primorye this summer floating over the sea.

SEAL Arch. Primorsky Krai, Olginsky District, unnamed bay.

These are probably the most beautiful rocks I’ve ever seen. I saw a whimsical arch? Underneath, you can walk around surrounded by splashing seals. If you sit quietly on a rock, they’ll swim almost up close..

The color temperature demonstrated by the projector in this photo was a pleasant surprise.It wasn’t too cold, on the contrary, it felt very close to the real landscape. So the emotional feeling of this unique place is preserved on the big screen. The age-old growths on the rocky bottom in the center of the frame retained their cool transparency, while the deep depression on the left stood out as a blue “mini Baikal”.

By the way the picture with archway checked how smoothly the gradients change: there were no stripes and abrupt changes on the lightened sky illuminated with orange sunset. Having watched the whole Seaside series I can say, that it shows quite good picture, which by quality of color rendition is much higher than its budget price.

Though, even in this model the “generic tram” of all DLP-projectors can be glimpsed here and there. I mean the lilac and rainbow halos appearing on the borders of particularly contrasting objects. But compared to other models, which use a classic 3-segment RGB wheel, the rainbow artifacts are pretty muted and barely noticeable. The quality of color rendering is noticeably improved, as we have already found out, due to the additional segments on the color wheel – Y yellow and C blue , which smooth out the sharp transition from one color to another in the contrasting area.

3D image

The projector supports active 3D glasses with DLP link technology, which are not included. But I still got those glasses and checked the volumetric image. High brightness of the projector allows to avoid fading on the screen. But 15000:1 contrast ratio is still not enough for full immersion in 3D. If one is serious about 3D content, it makes sense to check out the older models. Judging by my personal experience I can say that the passion for 3D passes most often quickly, you recollect about this option sometimes, on major holidays and even if you have been drinking…

Conclusions

Vivitek H1060 projector, despite its modest price about 60 thousand Dollars has a serious functionality: Full HD, 3000 lumens, 6-segment color wheel, connection to any device, including smartphones and tablets, small size. Visual test showed good color reproduction in fairly saturated photos.

If you’re looking for an inexpensive home theater projector and are willing to compromise a little on contrast and fine electronic adjustments, the Vivitek H1060 may be a very good choice. And if you like to have fun with the company in front of the big screen, then there’s nothing to think about! A projector like this knows how to rock any party.

Technical specifications, low price, portable size, good color rendering, great built-in calibration capabilities

No backlight on the remote control, no third adjustable foot-stand.