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While we’ve been paying an extra lot of attention to the new crop of home theater projectors sporting 1080p resolution, we don’t want readers to get the impression that anything less is, well, crap. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, except for Blu-ray and HD DVD titles, there’s no 1080p content to watch anyway. Projectors with 720p resolution have been getting raves from users and reviewers for several years, and let’s face it, 720p is high definition.
Optoma’s new HD73 projector makes a good case for going 720p. It’s essentially an upgrade of the company’s HD72 which last year earned an E-Gear Top 40 Award. The upgrade is significant in only a few ways. One, it’s actually dimmer than it’s predecessor by slight margin, which means it’s a little less suited to brightly lit rooms than the HD72. The dip in brightness is a side effect of the other significant change, the boost in contrast level. With a 6000:1 contrast (in ImageAI mode, 4500:1 standard) the HD73 produces a punchier picture in a dark room than the HD72. It also uses Faroudja DCDi video processing for deinterlacing the image—reducing the jaggy effects.
For an image chip, the HD73 uses a Texas Instruments DLP DarkChip3 at a resolution of 1280 x 768. Yes, that looks like a strange number. Numbers like 1280 x 720 or 1366 X 168 are more common. This projector is actually a 16:10 aspect ratio or XGA, which makes is perfectly suited for either widescreen PC use (such as widescreen PC gaming) or home theater use via the 16:9 mode. Users who want to hook up a PC may use a 16:10 screen then switch the display into 16:9 mode for movie/TV viewing with slight bars on the top and bottom. If home theater is the only use for this projector, then simply keep it in 16:9 mode—you’ll still be using the full 1280 x 720 resolution.
Other video enhancements on this model include a 5x color wheel, TI’s BrilliantColor technology and an auto iris feature called ImageAI. It is compatible with a 1080p/60Hz signal, which means it’ll take the signal and scale it to the chip.
The jack pack of this projector has a lot going for it. You get both an HDMI and DVI port, plus the standard analog jacks (component, S-video and composit), RS-232 and a 12-volt trigger for an automatic screen. It does lack a 15-pin RGB jack.
Installing the HD73 presents a lot of the same challenges of the HD72 and reinforces the rule “measure twice, drill once.” The lens has a rather steep angle too it, so that if you’re hanging it from the ceiling it needs to be about a foot above the top of your screen. This is a challenge in rooms with low ceilings like my basement theater but an Omnimount PMD.5 mount that hugs the ceiling made it work. The HD73 features both horizontal and vertical keystone, digital image shift but no optical lens shift. The 1.2X zoom gives you a little room for maneuvering.
All that isn’t saying this is a hard projector to set up and get square to the screen. It just takes a little more careful measuring. The effort is worth it though. The HD73 puts out a very impressive image. The boost in contrast ratio gives the picture extra depth in the dark sections. Colors are, ahem, brilliant, in part thanks to the BrilliantColor technology. You can adjust the level of Brilliant color enhancement, as well as the ImageAI. I engaged both of them a little, but not the whole way.
High def images—from Blu-ray and HD DVD players or from my FiOS service, looked great. The Blu-ray version of Bridge to Terabithia offered some of the most stunning scenes I’ve seen yet in HD, and the Optoma did them credit. It also rocked on high def gaming via a Playstation 3.
The unit does have a few quirks First, it’s slow to lock onto signal changes. When playing movies from either Blu-ray or HD DVD, you may end up switching scan rates a number of times going between menu, feature and extras, and each time the HD73 goes into it’s searching “blue screen” mode for a second until it locks onto the signal. This is a little annoying, though it doesn’t really detract from playback or require you to do anything. It’s also louder than some projectors, though no louder than the fish tank filter that’s in the same room. To turn off the projector you need to press the power button twice—something you’d do well to automate with a programmable remote.
Overall, the HD73, at only $2K, is a real bargain. It’s about $1,000 cheaper than the cheapest 1080p projectors, and my guess is that few people would be able to notice the difference.
A review of Optoma’s $3,000 1080p product will be forthcoming as soon as we get one.
Optoma HD73 DLP projector|
$2,000
TI DarkChip3
1280 X 768 resolution
1100 lumens
TI BrilliantColor
4500:1 contrast ratio (6000:1 w/ImageAI)
5X color wheel
HDMI and DVI port
Faroudja DCDi processing
1.2X manual zoom
www.optomausa.com
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