Small enough to carry easily, and bright enough to stand up to ambient light, the Optoma HD28DSE ($799) can serve you well as a home entertainment projector. It offers 1080p resolution, supports 3D with video sources like Blu-ray players and cable boxes, and offers a rated brightness of 3,000 lumens.

The HD28DSE is physically similar to other recent inexpensive Optoma home entertainment models, including the Optoma HD141X and the Optoma GT1080 In addition to sharing a similarly small size and light weight, all three have their ports on the side, rather than the back, and all three are limited to HDMI for image inputs.

Still, the three models offer some important differences from one other. The Optoma GT1080 is the only one of the three with a short-throw lens. In addition, both it and the Optoma HD141X offer faster lag times than the HD28DSE, making them better choices for gamers. The key differentiating feature—and a significant strong point—for the HD28DSE is that it's the only one of the three with video processing in the form of built-in Darbee Visual Presence technology. The Darbee technology lets you enhance image sharpness, contrast, and color using settings you can adjust to your taste.

Basics and Setup

The HD28DSE measures 4.5 by 12.4 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 5 pounds 11 ounces. That makes it small enough to carry to a friend's house or your backyard for movie night, or store away when you're not using it if you don't have a place to install it permanently.

Setup is standard, with a manual focus and manual 1.1X zoom. The only image inputs are two HDMI 1.4a ports, which have full 3D support for direct connection to video devices. One is also MHL-enabled, so you can connect a compatible phone or tablet easily. The 3D feature will work with either DLP-Link or Vesa RF glasses, but not with both at once, and Optoma doesn't include any glasses with the projector. If you want to use RF glasses, you'll also need to get an optional emitter ($49) to connect to the 3D sync port on the projector.

Brightness

As with most DLP projectors, any discussion of the HD28DSE's brightness is complicated by its having a lower color brightness than white brightness, which can affect both color quality and the brightness of full-color images. (For more on color brightness, see Color Brightness: What It Is, Why It Matters.)

With that in mind, and strictly as a point of reference, using the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommendations and assuming a 1.0-gain screen, the HD28DSE's rated 3,000 lumens would be bright enough in theater-dark lighting for an image size of roughly 214 to 290 inches (measured diagonally) at 1080p's native 16:9 aspect ratio. With moderate ambient light, it would be bright enough for a 142- to 158-inch image.

As a reality check, I found it bright enough in moderate ambient light in a living room at night for a 92-inch image. For smaller screen sizes or dimmer lighting, you can lower the brightness by switching to Eco mode or a lower-brightness predefined mode.

Audio and Fan Noise

Also adding somewhat to the HD28DSE's capabilities as a home entertainment projector is its built-in sound system. But even though the 10-watt mono speaker delivers acceptable sound quality, the volume is barely enough for a small room. In most cases, you'll want to connect an external sound system to the audio output.

I'm not usually bothered by fan noise, but sitting three feet away from the projector, I found it loud enough to notice. It also had a tendency to grab my attention during testing, with an annoying whine as the fan sped up and slowed down at various times for no obvious reason.

Performance: 2D, 3D and Lag Time

Image quality for the HD28DSE is good to near excellent. However, you're well advised to experiment with the Darbee video processing, predefined modes, and other menu options rather than accept the default settings.

See How We Test Projectors

The Darbee Visual Presence menu in particular offers several modes to choose from, with settings ranging from 0 to 120 for each. The only way to find the setting you like best is to make changes and see whether you like the image better that way. The Darbee options are buried deep in the menu structure. However, you can bring them up with a single button press by choosing one of the User buttons on the remote.

In general, the projector does very well on color balance in all modes, with suitably neutral grays at all levels from black to white. It also does an excellent job with shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas). The brightest predefined modes tend to have the largest difference between white brightness and color brightness, making some colors a little dark in terms of a hue-saturation-brightness model. The smaller difference for lower-brightness modes gives them better color quality.

As with almost all single-chip DLP projectors, the HD28DSE shows rainbow artifacts (flashes of red, green, and blue). However, I saw them infrequently enough, in both color and black-and-white test clips, that even people who see them easily aren't likely to find them annoying.

Image quality for 3D is essentially the same as for 2D for those aspects of quality that both modes share. In addition, I didn't see any crosstalk, and saw only a hint of 3D-related motion artifacts.

I measured the projector's lag time, using a Leo Bodnar Video Signal Input Lag Tester at 49.8 milliseconds with all settings, including with the Darbee video processing, set to off. That works out to a 3-frame lag at 60 frames per second, which is on the sluggish side if you play games where reaction time matters, but it won't be an issue otherwise.

Conclusion

If you want a projector that absolutely can't show rainbow artifacts, you'll need to consider a three-chip LCD model like the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2030, our Editor's Choice moderately-priced 1080p 3D home entertainment projector. If rainbow artifacts aren't a concern, and you're looking for a projector for gaming, you're better off with one that has a shorter lag time, like the Optoma HD141X or Optoma GT1080. The Optoma HD28DSE is a strong contender if you're not much of a game player, or you'd simply rather have built-in Darbee video processing than a fast lag time.