LG HU85LA: problems, parts and running costs

Checked: 2026-10-21

Summary

The HU85LA is a discontinued 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector whose real problems are placement and picture accuracy rather than a dying lamp: the unit has to sit inches from the wall and be leveled by hand, the bright picture modes come out garish and red-shifted until they are calibrated, and the 5 W x 2 built-in speakers cannot carry a movie. The laser light source is rated for up to 20,000 hours and there are no consumables to buy, so the only yearly running cost is electricity at 350 W while the picture is on. It is a good buy only for someone who wants a 100-120 inch image inches from the wall in a bright room and will also pay for an ambient-light-rejecting screen and external audio.

Common problems and fixes

The bright picture modes are garish and red-shifted out of the box — the default Standard mode was “not even close to accurate”, and only Cinema and the two Expert modes were reasonably accurate, and even those had rosy skin tones and cool whites. The fix is 2-point and multi-point white balance plus the color-management system, which reached a D65 match; a professional calibration runs a few hundred dollars. The brightest modes do not expose the full grayscale and color-point controls, so full light output and accurate color cannot be had at the same time. [3]
No autofocus, no motorized zoom, no lens shift, no HLG and no 3D — focus is a manual thumbwheel under a spring-loaded cover on the top panel, so alignment has to be physical and 12-point warping has to fix what the adjustable feet cannot. HDR is HDR10 only, and 3D playback is not supported. [3]

Parts and consumables

No replaceable parts or consumables reported.

The light source is a laser rated at up to 20,000 hours, and the manual has no lamp replacement procedure, no bulb replacement interval and no user-serviceable lamp module; no parts catalog and no service manual for the optical engine were found, so the engine is not a field-repairable item. [1][2][3]

Nothing is stocked as a consumable: the laser engine is not sold as a replaceable part, and the single Magic Remote that ships with the unit comes with its battery included. The ambient-light-rejecting screen and the external audio system are separate purchases, not parts of the projector. [1][3]

Yearly running cost

Not enough data for a per-year total. The sources give the 350 W power draw and under 0.5 W in standby, but no viewing hours and no electricity rate; across the rated 20,000 hours of the laser source the projector would use about 7 MWh, so the yearly bill is that lifetime total multiplied by the share of those hours you actually use and by the local rate. Everything else is one-off money: a specialty UST ALR screen at roughly $1,500 to $6,000, external audio, and professional calibration at a few hundred dollars. [1][2][3]

When it is a good buy

ProjectorCentral’s dealer list showed $4,997 at ProjectorScreen.com, $4,997 at ValueElectronics and $5,000 at Focused Technology in October 2026, about $1,000 below the $5,999 launch price of the projector alone. [3][4]

About $3,500 or less for the projector alone — a strong buy for someone who already owns a suitable 100-120 inch ALR UST screen and external audio, because the projector is the only part of the system that moves to another room. No US dealer was anywhere near that in October 2026, and the Optoma P1 was announced at $3,299 when the review was written in 2019. [3][4]
$4,997 to $5,000 for the projector — the projector is the smaller half of the bill. The reviewer put a specialty UST ALR screen at roughly $1,500 to $6,000, which puts a working system at about $7,500 to $12,000, the same money as a premium native 4K long-throw projector plus a dark-room screen. [3][4]
$7,500 to $12,000 for the whole system — fair only for a bright room and a wall inches away; a discontinued 2019 flagship UST is a poor way to spend that money if the goal is a dark-room theater. [3]

Alternatives, and when each one is the better choice:

Epson LS500 at $4,999 with a 100-inch ALR screen — the better choice when a bundled screen matters more than the picture engine, because the bundle already carries the $1,500 to $6,000 screen cost that this system adds on top. [3]
Hisense Laser TV at $7,999 with a 100-inch ALR screen — the better choice for a large lit-room image near the top of this budget band, again with the screen included rather than billed separately. [3]
JVC long-throw models, with the Sony VPL-VZ1000ES at $25,000 as the dark-room reference — the better choice for a home theater with deep blacks and sharp 1080p content; in the reviewer’s A/B the LG was clearly sharper than the JVC DLA-X790, though still short of the DLA-NX7’s organic sharpness. [3]