My review of the XGIMI H1

danielnaveen2003

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XGIMI H1

It has been a long time since I posted here, and I thought I should post this review of the now not so new but very popular XGIMI H1. Given the high prices of even entry-level offerings from big name projector manufacturers like BenQ, Epson and Optoma in India, the number of people who can actually experience the big screen in India continues to be quite limited.
This is where the XGIMI H1 really caught my eye. It sells for Rs. 64,000 online, add customs and 3D glasses and wall mount to it and the total package ended up to 70k, or pretty much the price of an entry level 4K TV these days. A full-fledged 4K system is still a dream to most, as buying the 4K screen is the easiest part, the cost of acquiring material and so on is still not reasonable.

What is the XGIMI H1

The XGIMI differs from other DLP 1080p projectors is that it uses the new .47" DMD from TI, which is specifically designed for LED lit pico projectors. So there you have it this is a native 1080p projector, which runs a surprisingly stable android-based OS, and has LED backlight which means it never needs a bulb change (Realistically the LEDs will fail over time but it should be no different than the replacement cycle of most TV's these days).

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Mounted to the rear wall

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Remote Control


Notable features

  • Built in Harmon Kardon speakers with passive radiators on the bottom or I guess it would be the top if you ceiling mount it.
  • DLNA, Airplay and screen mirroring
  • A build in app store called APTOiDE rather than google play (apparently this is due to some licensing issue)
  • Youtube, Netflix, amazon prime and a few other streaming services can be found in the store along with a plethora of android apps
  • A Bluetooth remote with multi-axis gyros
  • 4K input compatibility (this is still a 1080p projector however)
  • Optical zoom (1.1x)
  • Motorized focus
  • DLP link 3D
  • Dynamic backlight adjustment
  • The projector can be controlled through an app on your phone as long as they're on the same Wi-Fi network

Setting it up

The remote being Bluetooth you cannot just point and expect it to work, you need to pair it first which is a bit annoying. This is a bit annoying as the screen is out of focus during setup however; there are audio instructions from the projector on what to do. Since the focus is motorized, it can be done from the remote, which is very convenient. The colours out of the box are terrible as is expected from most displays, they are over saturated and contrasty killing all shadow details. As I said this was not surprising at all, what was surprising is the controls to calibrate the colours. This is my first LED projector so I was completely confused, to add to the confusion there are two sets of menus with different labels, what is shown as brightness in one menu is Luminance in the other. There is no Gamma control. And most annoying off all some setting will show up differently in two different menus, for example I set up a custiom colour temperature profile, while it shows "user" in one menu the other displays "cold". Further the projector has separate RGB LEDs so you can adjust the intensity of the each colour separately under menu called LED luminance.. So yes there is a bit of a learning curve to get the colours just right. It doesnt have a dynamic iris to change brightness between scenes (I am not a big fan of these), however it has dynamic backlight colour. This is like the ambient light senor on a smart phone it reduces the brightness of the LED when the room get dark, this feature I really like as matching the brightness of the LED with the ambient light ensures the black floor is kept as low as possible.

Performance

All evaluation was done on a screen painted with black widow ultra screen paint. With the screen size under 80 inch this projector screen combination is bright enough to fight ambient light with ease. However I prefer running it a big larger 98 inches to be precise and at this size it does need some help, particularly if u have large windows like my house has. So despite its 900 ANSI lumen rating it is as bright as a 2000 lumen conventional projector. The science behind this eludes me.
To start I started playing a few videos on the built in youtube app. I immediately notices micro shudder, the image isnt as smooth as you expect it to be. However this was not noticeable by any of my friends but it's definitely there. This wasnt a good sign at all. So I immediately switched over to a HDMI source setting the screen to 16:9 input and played a simple overscan test image, ahhh the horror it was overscanning the image as the extreme edges were cut off. After diving through the various options I chose point to point as the ratio (this is pixel to pixel mapping). Now with a 1080p or 1080i image source there was no overscan, however if you feed it anything other than a 1080p or 1080i source you can not use this point to point to point mode and will have to use the 16:9 scaler which overscans. This is a big flaw in the onboard scaler, I havent seen any digital projector in recent times which is this bad at scaling. So unless you have external scaler like any HDMI compatible AVR this is no good, perhaps this can be fixed with a firmware update.

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HDMI overscan

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Dual picture setting menus


Next I played youtube videos through my Play Station to see if it still studders, happily this micro studder problem doesnt exist through HDMI. Playing through a few blue rays and watching satellite TV it was obvious that TI has done an amazing job on miniaturizing their 1080p DMD the image quality is as good as the bigger DMD's used in conventional projectors.
Sadly I do not own any 3D blueray movies so I couldnt test the 3D, I did try you tube SBS 3D videos they looked good. The only annoyance is that 3D doesnt automatically turn on when a SBS video is played it must be turned on manually. And if you leave the back LED backlight in dynamic it doesnt not automatically increase the screen brightness to compensate for the light lost by wearing 3D glasses.

Going back to the projectors smart features screen mirroring worked well from my iPhone, the touch pad interface on the phone app makes browsing and inputting test a breeze, the Bluetooth remote it comes with becomes a motion activated remote you have to shake it vigorously to get it in and out of this mode.

IMG_3964.jpg
Picture with the lights on

Conclusion

If you have been waiting for the big screen experience in your living room and things such as lamp replacement and ambient light have been stopping you, this projector has a lot of promise. It is sad that it does need further refinements in its firmware, but all is not lost if you have to time to tweak it then it does project some great images.
 
Hi...How is this holding up?

I am planning to get this instead of the Benq 2050 for its fast on/off and no lamp replacement cycle.

I have sent you a PM.
 
Hi.

Congratulations!
I saw some brilliant reviews of this H1.

If you don't mind, can you share more pics (of steady pictures/4K videos on youtube? projected by the H1?)

Also:

1. What screen, cost?
2. What mount is that, from where, cost?
3. With 70K as the expense, did you consider the more established names in PJ world? Frankly, I hadn't heard that company earlier. So, would like to know, what you considered to finalize & trust with the H1?


I think, I will soon think of upgrading from my bare-basic projector :p



Thank you,

Ace.
 
Hi.

Congratulations!
I saw some brilliant reviews of this H1.

If you don't mind, can you share more pics (of steady pictures/4K videos on youtube? projected by the H1?)

Also:

1. What screen, cost?
2. What mount is that, from where, cost?
3. With 70K as the expense, did you consider the more established names in PJ world? Frankly, I hadn't heard that company earlier. So, would like to know, what you considered to finalize & trust with the H1?


I think, I will soon think of upgrading from my bare-basic projector :p



Thank you,

Ace.

There are no pro reviews of the XGIMI H1, primarily due the XGIMI not sponsoring any reviewers I guess. Even the AVS forum which was quite neutral before has become full of non scientific stuff now. Personally I think the projector works really well as a TV replacement, however for hardcore videophiles the JVC DILA projectors are still the defacto standard.

To answer your questions
1. The screen has been described in detail in the other thread on grey screens
2. Its the offical XGIMI mount. Its costed me 4k since I got it using fedex and I had to pay 2k as customs
3. Yes I had and still own several projectors back home, this was an experiment and I was completely ready to scrap it and get my old Benq 1070 if it didnt go well. But it did go well so I stuck with this. The only down side is the contrast ratio, while much better than lets say the Epson tw -5300 and the likes its not as good as DLP projectors with the .67" DMD. It makes up for it by having better brightness however.

It is difficult to get accurate pics of a protector screen but I took one anyway, colours are a bit off and there was a little bit of day light coming in.
DSC04266.jpg
 
Good to see the review. From where you had bought this projector? From Ali Express? and which shipping channel you had chosen.

Regards,
Praveen R
 
Went thru the video of Xgimi H1, looks lovely with great features.. Especially the horizontal & vertical keystone.. How effective was it in your case ?

I have an LCD-LED Projector(600 ANSI lumens) the keystone correction skews the picture towards the corner...
 
Went thru the video of Xgimi H1, looks lovely with great features.. Especially the horizontal & vertical keystone.. How effective was it in your case ?

I have an LCD-LED Projector(600 ANSI lumens) the keystone correction skews the picture towards the corner...

Its just not possible to use digital keystone and not loose focus in the edge that was corrected, its literally a "physical impossibility". Key stone is only for very minor correction in permanent installs or major correction for adhoc installs like demos and conferences where edge sharpness doesn't matter. However if your projector just cannot be set square to the projection surface getting a projector with the required amount of lens tilt would be your only option.

Cheers
 
Its just not possible to use digital keystone and not loose focus in the edge that was corrected, its literally a "physical impossibility". Key stone is only for very minor correction in permanent installs or major correction for adhoc installs like demos and conferences where edge sharpness doesn't matter.

Got it..

However if your projector just cannot be set square to the projection surface getting a projector with the required amount of lens tilt would be your only option.

Cheers

Am evaluating options of getting it corrected without keystone correction (or) tilting the PJ..
 
3. Yes I had and still own several projectors back home, this was an experiment and I was completely ready to scrap it and get my old Benq 1070 if it didnt go well. But it did go well so I stuck with this. The only down side is the contrast ratio, while much better than lets say the Epson tw -5300 and the likes its not as good as DLP projectors with the .67" DMD. It makes up for it by having better brightness however.

Interesting. So you are essentially saying that this projector has better contrast than and is brighter than the Epson TW - 5300?
 
Interesting. So you are essentially saying that this projector has better contrast than and is brighter than the Epson TW - 5300?

Yep, but just to clarify I am talking about native contrast and not dynamic contrast. XGIMI doesn't have a dynamic iris so i cant compare any numbers for that. On an ANSI chart XGIMI will have the edge on a full on full off test the epson will win as it has dynamic contrast.
 
do you still advise this projector! and what is your advice about the LG PF1500G?

My opinion on the projector hasn't changed. I use it for over 8 hours a day and its still as good as it was the day i got it. The bluetooth remote battery needs to charged after 3 months, that's the only maintenance I've had to do.

The LG PF1500G is based on the same DMD reference design from Texas Instruments, the only change can be the brightness of the LED lights and the internal software. I have never seen it in person so I really cant say anything else about it.
 
Planning to buy this projector. H1S is due this month(International Version). Do you recommend waiting for that or going for this right away.

I am really liking the Auto Focus and Glass lens which H1S is offering over this. Also what channel did you get this through. Gearbest or likes or from U.S.
 
Planning to buy this projector. H1S is due this month(International Version). Do you recommend waiting for that or going for this right away.

The H1 or the H1S is a personal choice. I would not have bought the H1 if it has a less than 1.5 projection ratio as it was extremely important to be able to use a ALR screen. The H1S is 1.2.


Also what channel did you get this through. Gearbest or likes or from U.S

I got it from ebay.in when the price was more reasonable.
 
The H1 or the H1S is a personal choice. I would not have bought the H1 if it has a less than 1.5 projection ratio as it was extremely important to be able to use a ALR screen. The H1S is 1.2.




I got it from ebay.in when the price was more reasonable.
H1S is 1.2 mean??
We will get short throw with big projection like100"??
If it short throw then how many meters required to achieve 100" screen?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
 
H1S is 1.2 mean??

Roughly, for every 1.2 feet away from the screen, you would get 1 feet screen width.. If the PJ is 12 feet away from the screen, then you will have 10 feet wide image (Diagonal Approx 135 inch)..

We will get short throw with big projection like 100"??

If it short throw then how many meters required to achieve 100" screen?

Short throw is a type of projector, where you get approx 100 inch diagonal from less than 2 feet from the screen..

BTW, what are your room dimensions ?..

ELANGO, You bought H1 or H1S?

H1..
 
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