Customer Reviews

Optoma HD73 720p DLP Home Theater Projector

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We had a Sanyo Z2 projector for three years and were getting close to the realization that technology had moved along quite a bit since our purchase. In the world of Sanyo, they had gone from the Z2 to the Z3, Z4 and most recently the Z5. Some of the performance changes were more incremental than revolutionary, but it was hard to argue that the picture quality difference between the Z2 and Z5 was anything other than significant.

Still, I was lured by the DLP "DarkChip3" technology as opposed to the LCD of the Sanyo. We had experienced problems with dust blobs, dead pixels and finally dead LCD panels. Sanyo did repair the machine under the warranty, but the process was anything but seamless and it required a threat of legal action to get the warranty coverage.

First the down side. As a DLP machine, there are limits of image adjustability (offset) that come into play when mounting the projector. If you have low ceilings (<8 feet), you might have an issue. OTOH, LCD projectors are famous for being able to cast the image high or low or and right or left. In our case, we have a 9 foot ceiling and plenty of mounting flexibility so small offset was not an issue. That's it for the downside.

On the upside, the color is eons ahead of the Sanyo. Blacks are really black and whites are really white and all the colors in between are vivid and natural. A well made HD DVD like "King Kong" has astounding picture and color quality on the HD73.

Optoma still has a free lamp ($400 or so value) offer until the end of June. Mine also came with a free Oppo 981 DVD player that upscales to 1080p. All in all a great deal and a very satisfying upgrade.

I've had this for over 24 months. It's being phased out, but it really has an incredible picture. Very film like in quality. I rate it an extreme value for the money. I project in a basement rec room. My sole caveat is that it isn't capable of handling a lot of ambient light. But the picture quality is breath taking. I'm hooked on projectors. I have a 100 inch (diagonal) picture that beats my LCD TV's. I love Blu-Rays on it.

Very pleased. It gets a lot of use. First bulb lasted over 2000 hours using the AI function. Easily replaced.

I bought this projector to be used with a media center pc and a few game consoles. I do really enjoy the projector as it looks sharp and has good black levels.

I only have 2 complaints. The first is that this projector runs natively at a 1280x768 resolution which is meant to cater to the pc market, I believe I read that it was more friendly to pc resolutions (being 15:9 vs the norm 16:9 for tvs) I find this more of a hindrance than anything since if you run a 16:9 source and have black bars from a movie or something else, you get two different colored black bars (annoying). Bottom line on this issue is that a 16:9 would have been much better and the option to run 15:9 just seems to get in the way.

The other issue is the rainbow effect. I believe I may pickup on it more than most people, but I see it a good amount on this projector. Even though it has a good color-wheel. Again, oh well. Still a great projo for the money.

I was coming off of a 7 year old Sony LCD projector and was hesitant with a DLP because of mounting issues and the possibility of being sensitive to the "rainbow" effect that is common with DLP. The installation was straight forward and the "rainbows" only appear once in a great while but the piccture quality is amazing. The black levels are sooooo much better then my old LCD. I know newer LCDs having better black levels, but it would be tough to compete with this product. Color was nice and it is bright enough for my 120" screen. A few years down the road I will look into a 1080p DLP.

I purchased this projector almost a year ago and it is still performing just as good as it did when i got it. When this is paired with a good screen the picture is amazing. I use a Panoview Gray Wolf 2 93 inch 16*9 pull down screen. I also just recently got a Panasonic dmp-bd35 blu-ray player and the picture is great!

Don't let the 720 fool you, the picture is still almost twice the resolution of standard tv. Plus a similar performing 1080 projector is over half the price.

This projector has an amazing picture, it is cheap, and it works great even if your room is not completely dark. A definate 5 stars for me!!!

I purchased the HD73 after reading many specs for other units due to its high contrast ratio. I was very impressed after installing it by the clear picture and deep blacks. I think it is about as good as I could get without going to full HD, which is far more expensive. I have an old Epson TW10 LCD projector which when purchased seemed very good, but there is no comparison to this new unit.

Bought this projector after extensive research online back in 2008. Everything was great for 2 years (1300 lamp hours). Then, completely out of the blue, the screen would go black after about 30 seconds of running. The projector would still function, but the lamp would not light. You could hit the power button and turn it off. Turn it back on and again, same problem. It's like the lamp is overheating, but the temp light never kicked on. Apparently there is a defect in the lamps that shipped with these things and you can roll the dice on buying a new lamp (around $200) and hope that it doesn't have the same problem, but 1300 hours is not very good mileage for a projector that boasts 3000 hours per lamp. Searching online turned up that MANY people did exactly as I did and have experienced the same issues after about 900 hours on the lamp. At this point, I've opened a desperate ticket with optoma for support hoping they will hook me up, but the odds are pretty good they'll tell me to take it to a shop at which point I'm probably better off investing in a different solution.

This is my first home theater projector (although I've had several standard resolution units for work), so I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who has only used flat-panels for HDTV at home. I own two plasmas and three LCDs from various manufacturers, and can say moving up to a projector is a no brainer. Even at 720p, the HD73 will amaze you. I've got a 90" screen going with the projector 11 feet away, and it is so incredibly big, bright, and clear that I can't even describe it. I've got a keen eye for HDTV imperfections at this point, and I see none with this unit - not even a rainbow effect.

Comparing it to a 1080p projector - my buddy has a much more expensive 1080p projector, and his is quite a bit brighter - you can tell the difference if you have any ambient light. If you can control the light in your media room, then then difference is negligible. Regarding resolution, his Blu-Rays look better, but not $2k better. All other HD content looks nearly identical to me. Overall the HD73 does a great job at this price point - I purchased mine from Amazon for just 25% of its original MSRP in 2007 (do the math). The other option would be Optoma's HD20 1080P unit which has a sub $1k MSRP. Check that unit out before pulling the trigger on 720p.

But what about bulbs? - So here's what you're thinking - "But what if the bulb goes out? Will I have to pay an expensive repair bill? Should I just go with an LCD flat-panel to be safe?" - My answer is quit worrying and just enjoy the 100"+ screen. From my experience, every HDTV has a shortcoming, including LCD HDTVs (uneven backlights) and Plasmas (decreasing brightness). Aftermarket bulbs are cheap ($100-$250) and you can replace them on your own in minutes, restoring your projector to 100%. With the money I saved buying a projector (vs a 55"+ flat panel), I can replace the bulb 3 times over.

Highly recommend the projector experience, and highly recommend the HD73.

I purchased this projector in June of 2007 and I have been very, very pleased with its performance. I'm still using the original lamp but when it goes, I'll be staying with the Optoma projectors, just upgrading to 1080p. My home theater includes an Oppo DV-981HD DVD player, Onkyo 803 receiver, Boston Acoustics speaker package (7.1 channel), Monster PowerCenter, 108" GreyWolf screen and a Harmony remote to control it all. I think I spent around $6K for the entire system. The system is also hooked-up to cable (Comcast) so that I can watch football, movies and TV shows in HD. With the upscaling of the DVD player and receiver, the picture is incredible, even for a 108" screen. Can't wait for the bulb to burn out so I can upgrade!

The price on this unit was outstanding and the quality of the HD images are inpresive.I do recomend you chose the recomended screen for this projector it makes all the diffrence in obtaining the best picture.