HD Projector Review

1

Optoma HD20 High Definition 1080p DLP Home Theater Projector (Grey)

I decided to take the leap into the projection world after a power surge thru my satelite cable took my plasma hdtv out. I have always wanted to create a home theather, but never could justify it when I had a perfectly good tv already. Now that I have this little baby, there is no going back! I had done a lot of research on projectors, and this one was by far the best you can find for the money. Decided to purchase a 100″ fixed screen from EliteScreens(they are the cheapest) to finish the room up. The combination of this projector and the screen is simply amazing. I am like a kid at the candy store everytime I watch a blu-ray movie. Seeing movies in 1080p at this size is stunning! I have read other reviews about the projector not being able to produce deep dark “blacks” This may be true, but if your not an absolute fanatic about that, its not all that noticeable!

My only warning about this item is to not turn the “Image AI” setting on. For some reason the sensor doesn’t respong quick enough and you can be in a whole different scene before it kicks in. Ex…..start out watching a night scene and it changes to a daylight scene the projector will overcompensate the daylight scene because it is pushing settings for the night scene. Overall not a big deal….just keep it off!

For under $1000 you can’t go wrong with this projector. Amazon shipped it immediately and I had it up and running in no time. If you happen to be looking for a screen too I suggest you look into elitescreens also.

2

Optoma HD66 720P 3D-Ready DLP Home Theater Projector

I bought my first ever projector, the HD66 from Amazon and it got delivered across the Pacific in 9 days (I’m in Australia). Adequately packed and tracking was sufficient to keep my anxiousness at bay!

The projector itself is a little wonder! Very compact in size and easy to use, every feature/setting is available through a few menu clicks. I primarily gave it the HD Set-top box and DVD player input through HDMI and the picture turns out brilliant. Mind you, a few tweaks to the settings need to be done as the preset modes are horrible – and to be honest, you need to tune it according to your room/light/placement/wall/screen color etc! .. Video quality through the composite video is not good, but not many devices use them now .. there is a VGA to Component (or vice versa) converter cable provided .. which gives the same crisp output as the HDMI.

I’m projecting it on to a white-ish wall (no screens!) and yet the picture is amazing to the detail .. I view normal TV at a 100″inch screen (zoom -3) and for movies I increase it to 124″inch (zoom 0) – Awesome! .. I have it ceiling mounted and the throw distance/ratio is just perfect. I did notice that the DLP chip used in the HD66 has a native resolution of 1280×800 .. which is perfect for a laptop/VGA signal (squarish) but to display TV or Movies in 16:9, the resolution used is 1280×720 (which is the true 16:9). What this means is that there will be a light shadow around the 16:9 picture as its not using the full DLP chip for image. This is sometimes distracting specially for me as I project on a wall and don’t have a set viewing area. But to be honest, the projector is so bright, i leave a light in the adjacent room on and the little ambient light takes care of the light border. I’ve had no problems with using the projector in the afternoon with the blinds closed (i do not have a dedicated theatre room).

The zoom in the projector is not enough .. i measured that the full diagonal image only increased or decreased by about 8-10″inches. So if your shortest throw is a 100″inch image, your maximum would be 110″. Mine is places about 4.5m from the wall which gives me 114 and 124″inch images.

The remote control layout is unintuitive and useless – although you’d still be using it for all the tweaks and on/off. I haven’t used the 3D capabilities as i’m not into gaming, and its not compatible with 3-D HD sources yet (like TV signal or DVD/Blue-ray) – Have to wait for Optoma to release a firmware update if that has to happen.

In summary, this is a bright 720p HD projector. Displays SD and HD (upto 1080p) with ease and is bright enough to be used with some lights on or in the day with blinds drawn down. The features and controls are easy to use and the unit itself is compact and can be placed un-noticed! .. Finally, the lamp setting on Bright is not needed, the Standard Eco setting will be bright enough and give you 4000 hours of life – which in my currency translated to about 7c an hour of viewing!

Hope this helped those of you who are still undecided on which entry level projector to go for :)

3

Optoma HD65 720p DLP Home Theater Projector

this projector thinks it’s a trust fund socialite!

flying from NY to LA more than a coked out fashion model in the last few months.

i bought this in December and have used it less than a month!

it’s been fun carrying it around though. the box looks like a cardboard briefcase. it makes me feel important.

when it worked, it was great! don’t get me wrong.

just know that some models have herpes.

4

Full HD Widescreen Projector

So, I bought a Walkman a year ago, figuring that Sony would of course make accessories (clock radios, etc) for their own products. Wow! Imagine my surprise when I found out they only make iPOD accessories. Even though I love how the walkman works, WHY would you ever buy one, if you can’t get accessories! What an incredibility STUPID company. I wrote an email to them an got no response. So, I will never again buy another Sony product.

Stay away from Sony products, they’ll leave you in the cold!

5

Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 705 HD 720p 3LCD Home Theater Projector

I’ve never written an Amazon review before, but I’ve learned a lot about projectors over the past couple weeks, and thought I should share.

As prices have been coming down, I finally decide to get a projector. 720p was plenty good for me. After reading plenty of reviews here and the various projector websites out there I narrowed my search down to the Optoma HD66 and the Epson 705HD, both going for +/- $650 at the time of this writing, and both highly rated.

A bit about me – I’m not a projector or electronics nut, but I do appreciate knowing that I have the best (or better) of what’s out there when I do buy things of significant $$$. Male, early 30’s. Don’t watch any TV, just the occasional movie at home.

After much fuss, I decided to order the Epson. It seemed to have more features, had longer bulb life, and in the end I figured since I’m no projector connoisseur I would be more than impressed with its performance. However, I was not blown away enough, so I ordered the Optoma. I am keeping the Optoma, and returning the Epson. I tested both using a connection to my old Mac Powerbook G4 laptop, projecting onto a white wall painted matte white.

Here is what I learned:

Epson 705HD:

-LCD technology really does display “little pixels” that are visible if you are up close. Not really a big deal with a movie where things are moving all the time.

-Significantly brighter than the Optoma.

-Better designed box, integrated lense “cap” that slides, easier to use adjustable legs, more friendly packaging/manuel, carrying case. Basically you get the feeling that Epson put some thought into its product. Feels more name brand and consumer friendly.

-Supposedly has ~1000 bulb hours more than the Optoma when in Eco mode (a touch less bright than normal mode).

-Has a speaker (I didn’t use it).

-Definitely better for office or daytime use.

-Blacks appear grey when compared to adjacent wall.

-Compared to the Epson, has a larger “screen size” to “distance from wall” ratio (I think this is called “throw”). Plenty big. In fact I had to “zoom out” as the screen actually felt too large for the distance I was from the screen. The projector was propped up on a table immediately behind my couch. Once adjusted it was fine. The large size could be great for the gamers out there though.

Optoma HD66:

-Feels more “made in China” with less fancy stickers and design.

-Not quite as bright as the Epson.

-I have yet to try this one during full daylight, but guessing the Epson would be better here. But this is fine with me b/c I figure if it’s bright outside, I should probably be there instead of inside.

-Much better colors.

-Throw ratio not as good as Epson, but more than adequate for my needs.

-DLP really does have much better blacks. The “black frame” around the movies is a far cry from grey, and I have a feeling if I fool around with it, I can probably get it to almost disappear.

-Better picture quality – this was apparent to me and all 4 of my non-professional projector testing friends, and more apparent the darker the room is. The Epson is great, but the Optoma is like “Whoa – I wouldn’t think I would be able to tell, but I can.”

-Harder (though still possible) to discern the “pixels” – feels more like film.

-I was worried about the “rainbow effect”. My friends and I were all able to see RGB shadows if we shook our heads back and forth wildly, and maybe a flash of it once or twice during the movie when our eyes would flick across the screen. Not really a big deal, though I guess some people are more “susceptible” to seeing it than others.

Both:

-Easily found my computer and displayed the correct resolution automatically.

-Amazing resolution.

-Plenty of adjustments to mess with color and whatnot. I only fooled around with these for 5 minutes or so. You can easily make the colors warmer or cooler.

-Have a small remote with plenty of functions. Batteries included.

-Do NOT come with HDMI, DVI, VGA cables. However, each does come with cable that allows you plug the traditional DVD player (the yellow, red, white “RCA?”) cables into the VGA port.

Like I said in the end I am sticking with the Optoma HD66.

Since the reason to get a projector, for me, is to have a really great screen to watch movies on, I figured I should lean toward picture quality over features. If I watched TV for a lot of the day, the brightness and bulb life of the Epson may have swayed me in that direction. I hope this is helpful and saves you all some time.