Review: Optoma Movietime DV11 projector

Once the preserve of the well-heeled movie enthusiast, home cinema projectors are now surprisingly affordable.

If you’re looking for a way to make the most of that DVD collection but don’t want an expensive TV that dominates the living room, Optoma may have just the answer, in the MovieTime DV11.

Designed to get that big screen experience going in a matter of minutes, this all-in-one projector includes a built-in DVD player and stereo speakers. Simply plug it in, pop a movie into the slot, point the projector at a light-coloured wall and you’re away. Using a proper projector screen will give the best results but it's not necessary to enjoy the action.

The DV11 features a VGA port for hooking up a computer, making it ideal for photo slideshows or watching downloaded video files (it’s compatible with JPEG, WMA and MP3 format discs), while composite and s-video connections and a supplied Scart-to-VGA adaptor mean you can connect a Freeview or Sky receiver for the big match. And once you’ve seen Xbox 360 games projected across 150 inches it’s hard to go back to a 21in television in the corner. There’s also a digital output for connecting a surround-sound system.

On the technical side the DV11 is a DLP projector with a resolution of 800x600 pixels, and it is compatible with both normal 4:3 and widescreen 16:9 material. Sadly, that resolution means it’s not HD-ready but it will accept high-definition signals and scale them down.

Push-button controls allow for tweaking (a remote is supplied) and we didn’t need to do much to get things looking good, as there are several preset picture modes. Our unit was quite noisy, however, although this is drowned out by film sound once things get going.

Overall image quality is great and with contrast and brightness rated at 2000:1 and 1,600 lumens respectively, we had no problems watching some material in partial daylight. We did notice some of the rainbow colour flashing that's endemic to DLP, though, and this may be a problem for those who are sensitive to that (unfortunately, there's no way to see if you're sensitive without watching a DLP projector). Meanwhile, the sound is surprisingly beefy for such a small system.

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