Few projectors have caused quite such a stir as Optoma's ThemeScene H30. It practically rewrote the rule book on what sort of quality we could expect to find on a budget product. So, you'll forgive us if we confess to being a wee bit excited by the arrival of the H30A... especially since the A stands for Advanced - as in 'equipped with significantly boosted specifications'. Hubba...

So, what exactly are these spec changes? Perhaps the most important is the use on the H30A of Texas Instruments' new Dark Chip 3 chipset, with its native widescreen shape and 3,000:1 contrast ratio (vs 2,000:1 on the previous H30).

The H30A's brightness is also up to 850 Lumens from 800, while the unit's throw distance has reduced slightly, to 1.65-2.0:1, making it much more friendly for your average-sized living room.

There are also a couple of handy changes in the H30A's onscreen menus. A particularly noteworthy one is a choice of scaling modes for 1080i high definition feeds. But we also got some mileage out of the provision of new zoom modes designed specifically to get rid of the black bars around 1.85:1, 1.66:1 and 2.35:1 films.

Having just mentioned high definition, it's a pleasure to report that the H30A should be compatible with Sky's hi-def broadcasts when they start, thanks to its (new) DVI jack being equipped with the all-important HDCP anti-piracy system.

It's perhaps a pity, given all this attention to high definition detail, that the H30A's native resolution is only 850 x 480, meaning therefore that scaling is required to 'fit' a high definition feed. But hey - maybe the scaling will turn out to be none too shabby...

In fact, there's nothing remotely shabby about any aspect of the H30A's pictures; they're nothing short of a revelation.

There are so many good points it's hard to know where to start, so our choice of contrast is completely arbitrary. Boy, are this projector's black levels great. Not only does the projector manage to deliver blacks that actually look black, but it does so without losing subtle gradations in detail in dark areas, or making dark areas 'glow'.

There's no over-emphasising the impact of this black-level response on the solidity and depth of field of the picture - it's the best we've seen on a budget projector. You feel you could just reach out and touch the world being shown.