Customer Reviews

Optoma HD70 720p DLP Home Theater Projector

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have owned an Optoma EP 719 XGA projector for about a year and find it an impressive unit for the price. However, when Optoma released the HD 70, a full 720p projector, for under $1000, I had to buy it. The projector is light, but substantially-constructed with a sturdy gloss white case. I was immediately impressed with the quality of the build.

I wasn't too sure what to expect--after all, it had half the rated lumens of the 719 and offered a gain of about 33% in resolution on a 16:9 movie. I plugged it in, attached my HDMI DVD player, made some minor adjustments--and was amazed at the result. The HD 70 provides a bright, crisp, high-contrast and richly-colored image that was in every way measurably superior to the 719. Standard DVDs take on a 3-dimensional look; my wife even asked if I had bought a high-definition DVD player because the images looked so sharp. The beginning battle sequence of Star Wars III is simply breathtaking; the opening "dark" scenes of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" take on a rich depth, with lots of hitherto unseen (on the 719) shadow detail available. I project on a 106" Grey Wolf screen.

The HD 70 achieves this by using some advanced technology--and it works, most of the time. The Image AI function boosts contrast to an astonishing 4000:1 by varying the light output of the projection lamp based on the scene displayed. This function really does deliver, although it can be a noticeable distraction at times. In the scene in Apollo 13 where Lovell is discussing the fire that killed his colleagues with his son, Image AI seemed to be a little "lost" and there was noticeable and almost constant adjustment to the lamp brightness. In most cases, however, the function performs admirably. Another major improvement is the 7-segment, 4x color wheel. If you're susceptible to "rainbows" on DLP projectors, you'll find that this setup pretty much eliminates the problem, even on scenes with stark black-and-white contrast.

One or two more problems come to mind--the offset of the projector (as with most Optomas) elevates the projected image at about 33 degrees from the horizontal. This works well for a "tabletop" installation, but anyone who wants to do a ceiling mounting might find this offset inconvenient. The zoom ratio on the lens is 1.1:1, giving very little flexibility in projector placement if you want to fill a screen. The lens cap is completely annoying; it is almost impossible to get it to fit in place. It is a rubbery plastic and pushing it onto the lens almost always defocuses the projector. Most of the time, it simply falls off, no matter how hard you try to stick it in place. Some people have complained that the whites "pop" too much on this projector and have covered the white segment of the color wheel to correct the problem. On the Grey Wolf, I see no problems at all with the white balance and I would strongly recommend that no one black out the white color wheel segment.

In conclusion--this unit represents superb value for money. At under $1000, this the the projector you've been waiting for if you want to step up to 720p front projection.

Just received 2 days ago to replace my 480p Infocus 4805 and am very happy with the step up in resolution. Much quieter than my 4805, better picture, and HDMI input are the biggest advantages so far. Seems to be very solid, light but not flimsy. Zoom and Focus dials have a little tension which makes it easier to fine tune. Great remote and easy setup. IMO the best 720p projector you will find on a budget.

I upgraded from an Infocus X3 and I can tell you first hand that you will immediately notice that the HD70 has much better contrast. You can make out more details in the shadows. It makes quite a difference if you are watching a horror movie.

I would recommend this projector to anyone.

I did find a good deal on a projector ceiling mount, google "projectormountstore". $50 for a really sharp looking projector mount.

I've had my HD70 about 3 months now, and I'm still blown away. I work as a projectionist in a movie theatre and I've been playing with Video Projectors for a long time and bringing them home to test. I also show 16mm and Super 8 films in my living room and nothing until now ever came close to the look of real film. I have mine mounted on the ceiling, but I do have very high old Victorian Ceilings, so the off set was not a big deal, plus the mount I bought adjusts very easily. I use about 7ft of my 9ft wide pull down screen so the full 16.9 image is about 7 x 5 feet. (I never cared for that silly salesman diagonal inches crap). Even with the bulb setting in economy and all the fancy AI Image stuff turned off, this projector just blows me away. Some one mentioned not being able to find the right screws to mount this projector, I just took the Manuel to the local True Value Hardware store and asked the guy if he had these screws. He walked over to a big wall full of fasteners and gave me exactly what I needed and told me to come back if they didn't fit. Something to be said for supporting your local Mom & Pop stores when ever you can. I also bought an HD tuner and an upscaling DVD player. Over the Air HD looks fantastic. I watched most of the World Series in Hi Def this year. I can't imagine what 1080p looks like. Oh and yes, the beginning of Star Wars III is the closest we can get to the pure digital signal on regular DVD so far, and it is amazing on this projector. It's a great sequence to show off your machinery. One thing I might mention... when you blow up an image this big, you are going to see the imperfections of lesser resolutions. For instance, Broadcast HD is still working out the bugs, and so you will hear changes in Volume and see changes in Resolution you won't see on regular TV because they are still working out the bugs. It's not your Projector or your sound system, it's the Broadcast, and I'm talking about NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and PBS etc. You'll also notice the resolution changes much more on this huge image compared to a regular HDTV. It's just so much bigger, you're going to see it. We took my machine over to another film buffs home and tried it on his 12ft wide screen and it looked a little dim, but we forgot we still had the bulb set on economy. A 7ft wide screen is still really big for the average living room and it looks terrific at that size. Oh, one more thing I noticed, speaking of Star Wars. I was looking at the DVD of Return of the Jedi and it looked really fake and dated, but the others, New Hope and Empire didn't, so I don't know what George did wrong there, but all the filmed matte shots looked obvious and had black seams around them. Very noticeable on the big screen. I look forward to seeing my favorite films on HD or Blue Ray someday, but I'll wait until one of them dies before I go nuts. I have walls of Beta Tapes and nothing to play them on as it is...

I started this review off with a sentence saying I was going to make it short and sweet. It did not turn out this way. I have discovered after deciding to start writing reviews for products I buy that you really do have to read the longer reviews to get an idea of what you are buying.

I bought this in September (its January) which give me 5 months of experience to talk about it. I loved this projector the first time I used it. Its size is great and its quality has only truly just been shown to me after getting a Toshiba HD-A1 HDDVD player a couple of weeks ago. I have nothing bad to say about it. In mid november, something happened to it (rainbow looking "scratch" on the projection that I had no idea what it was), and I sent it in, they fixed it, and I got it back with the problem being dust. I had to pay to ship it out, but they fixed it and shipped it back for free... not complaining too much because it only cost $26 to ship (you have to insure it when you ship it). I would definitely recommend paying for the extended warranty if you can afford it, only because projectors are more delicate than TVs and you must treat them as so, and if you do not, or if things just happen, its very nice to have a good warranty to fall back on.

I first used this with a Phillips upconvert DVD player. It was nice, the quality was better than what I would see on my 30" TV.. compared to the 85" of projection (I can use all 100" on my wall, but I am a college student living in an apartment and its just inconvenient to move it to where I would need to put it to get all 100"). Now I use the Toshiba HD-A1 HDDVD player and WOW. Upconverts are a bit better, and now I can see what HDDVD is made of. This projector with the HDDVD looks NIIIICE. To be honest, I know 1080p looks better, I have seen it, but considering no one else that I know has an HDDVD player, WITH an HD projector, I am easily the toast of my friends in this department.

Would I recommend this product. Definitely. If your looking for an HD projector, just stop here. Just stop. This is what you want.

Specifics:
-I use this on a short stand... it sits about 2 feet off of the ground. This projector projects upward (supposedly 33% or something and I guess I agree). You can place this projector anywhere and it will work for you. It has settings on it where you could put this thing upside down and project it to be right side up. Its versatile.
-Look at the picture. The right hand side of it opposite of the lens... that is where I notice most of the heat coming out. If you have this around things, make sure that is clear of any blocking, it gets somewhat hot. I wont say VERY hot, but it will raise the temperature of about 6 sq. feet around it about 5 degrees after 30 minutes or so.
-If you "ground" mount it, make sure you vacuum the immediate area around it very well with it NOT around, then put it there and use it. I do this every time I use it now after that dust debacle I had. If you ceiling mount it, I would not think you have to do this.


What I use:
HD70 Projector (5 star)
*RCA HDMI Link Cable (4 star)
**Toshiba HD-A1 HDDVD player (4.5 star)
***The wall (??? star)

*I bought this because I kept hearing its better with it. Indeed it is. Not as much as I thought, but I have not tried it out with the HDDVD player I just got so I am sure it is night and day in that case. I would recommend getting an HDMI cable.

**Look it up and read my review for it. If you do not have an HDDVD player already and want one, give this one a hard look.

***I do not have a projector screen so I do not know if it looks better with it compared to a blank wall. Its kept very clean and it looks good so I cannot say with certainty that using the wall downgrades the quality, because I do not know.

If on a budget. OK. so it's not the greatest projector ever made... but it is easily the best for the price. When I first saw a HD projector at my friend's house it was being used in his parent's theater room and looked amazing. I watched Lord of the Rings : Two Towers on it the entire way through and was blown away. The light scenes lit up the entire theater while the dark scenes (battle in the rain) were extremely pleasing as well. Granted this experience was on HD it was still an unreal projector. The next day I knew I had to have one so I began the research for the one for me. Since I'm a college student, I am on a tight budget (ie less than 1000) which limited me to two projectors: The Mitsubishi HD1000U and the Optoma HD70. I researched both extensively and both were very similar quality-wise and features-wise. The reasons I went with the Optoma HD70 are as follows:

The month that I bought it (July 07) there was a $[...] rebate on the Optoma.

The price also dropped that month to 860 bringing my total after rebates and shipping to 660 which is the same as 27-32 inch flat screens!

My room in college has a standard 8ft ceiling and there were many reveiws about the Mitsubishi HD1000U that said it is difficult (not impossible) to get a good placement in a smaller room with lower ceilings.

The throw distance was less on the Optoma HD70 than the Mitsubishi thus giving me more options of location of the projector and allowing me to have a bigger screen.

Finally... The negatives:

Since my room has two windows on the same wall as the screen if I do not close the curtains (which I had to add the blockout light stuff to it) the light from outside will "bleed" onto the screen thus dimming the picture and not allowing the total viewing pleasure it deserves.

Overall, the projector is phenomenal for the price and with an HD hook-up one can't go wrong with it. Highly Recommended.

I love this projector. The picture is great on my wall -- I don't even use a screen. I've got windows in my room, but with the blinds closed the picture is still decent.

I concur with the limitations mentioned by others: Lens cap is practically useless, and the way the picture is angled upward from the projector it forces you to set the projector low. Also there is no native way to tilt the back end of the projector to lower the picture. The optical image shift will lower it a bit but soon begins cutting off part of the picture.

I do have a problem with getting a headache from the DLP if I watch it for too long.

Even with these minor problems, I am still loving this projector.

I've searched for quite a long time and this projector was all worth it!
You can not find a 720P projector under 1G and has a great picture like Optoma HD70.

I have had the Optoma HD70 mounted and in use for just over a week.
I upgraded from an X1 that I had for years. The Brightnes and Contrast levels on the HD70 are great. Much brighter and crisper than the Infocus X1. The High definition image is absolutely superb and is much better than the Infocus.

However:
As for standard definition TV and DVD I am disapointed. The Faroujada DCDi processor built in the X1 made the 480i media look fantastic. When viewing standard broadcast TV with the HD70,the dark scenes are blotchy and the bright scenes are washed out. I will need to upgrade my HT Audio/Video receiver to one with an upconverter and video processor. The Onkyo TX-SR705 shows goood promise
Onkyo TX-SR705 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black) to get back to a good viewing experience when viewing Broadcast TV and DVDs.

I highly recommend the HD70 for viewing HD content including BluRay or HDDVD. If you are going to watch Broadcast Standard Definition TV or standard DVD get an additional unit with either a Faroudja DCDi or HQV Reon-VX video processing & Upconverter.

I don't want to get into the technical aspects of the HD70, as that has been covered by other reviewers. I'll just say that for the HD/projector novice, this is a great way to start. It is very easy to hook up and start watching. The menus are easy to navigate and any adjustments you need to make to the image are very intuitive to execute.
I use mine in the Man Room to watch movies & TV and to play video games. Everything looks great. XBOX 360 looks awesome in 720p, even PS2 is much cleaner than usual.
All in all, you absolutely will not find a better value in a front projector.
I also highly reccomend the 100" manual projector screen by Ultra to go with this item.Projector Screen Manual 100"