Fire up the console!

Any projector that makes him less rubbish at games is just fine by John Archer

- John Archer

Projector brands have been falling over themselves lately to cater for the newly important gamer market. Optoma’s new £1,100 UHD38, though, is the most game-focused projector I've seen to date, partnering ultra-bright images with PC and console-friendly features including 32:9 aspect ratio support, 120Hz playback and vanishingly low input lag.

The question is, in ticking all the right gaming boxes with such features, has Optoma had to sacrifice too much other key picture quality stuff along the way?

A little bit more light

Joining the UHD38 in this new game-friendly PJ roster is the £1,000 UHD35, with the only real difference between the two being a brightness output claim of 4,000 Lumens on the UHD38 versus 3,600 Lumens on the more affordable model. Both (optimistically) claim a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1.

Differences with 2020’s UHD30 (see HCC #315) are much more pronounced. That model only hit 3,400 Lumens, and claimed a contrast ratio of 500,000:1. It also only provided one HDMI 2.0 port and one HDMI 1.4 port, while the UHD38 and UHD35 carry two HDMI 2.0 connections, meaning you can simultaneously attach two 4K HDR sources.

Also aimed squarely at gamers are the UHD38’s low input lag figures (when set to Enhanced Gaming mode) of 16.7ms, 8.9ms and 4.2ms when gaming in 60Hz, 120Hz and (yes) 240Hz respectively. Though please note that refresh rates higher than 60Hz are only supported in HD, not 4K.