» Optoma HD70 High Definition Home Theater DLP Projector Review

• all
• projection technologies
  • digital projectors
  • document projectors
  • rear projection tv
• display technologies
  • lcd flat panels
  • plasma flat panels
  • interactive whiteboards
• accessories
• presentation software
• brands
  • 3M
  • benq
  • canon
  • casio
  • dell
  • epson
  • HP
  • hitachi
  • infocus
  • JVC
  • LG
  • mitsubishi
  • samsung
  • sanyo
  • sharp
  • sony
  • toshiba
  • viewsonic
  • philips
  • ACTIVboard
  • SMART technologies
  • ONfinity
  • panasonic
  • pioneer
  • optoma
  • elmo
  • nuvision
  • promethean
  • projectiondesign

• about presentationtek
• home_top
• link news archive
• Popular LCD 1080p HDTV Reviews
• search links

Editor's HDTV Pick

HP 47 inch MediaSmart 1080p LCD HDTV "Out of the box" digital media platform. Enjoy videos, pictures and music from home network + digital media delivered over your broadband Internet connection + 3 x HDMI

Optima’s HD70 is an entry level, 720p high definition home theater projector. The HD70 utilizes Texas Instruments DLP technology in the form of a 0.62 inch DarkChip 2 which brings Brilliant Color technology for impressive onscreen colors. The combination of Brilliant Color, a high contrast ratio (3000 – 4000 with AI) and 1000 lumen brightness produces images with rich colors and deep blacks.

Texas Instruments Brilliant Color

Brilliant Color is a Texas Instruments technology for improving brightness and the range of reproduced colors. Traditionally, most display devices have rendered images using only the three primary colors red, green and blue. The full gamut of colors visible to the human eye cannot be reproduced using this approach, with the color space subset covered not including vivid colors such as yellow and cyan commonly seen in nature. By processing up to six color channels Brilliant Color allows for multi-primary color systems by adding colors such as yellow, cyan and magenta. As well as increasing the color space, the system also utilizes the light source more efficiently with a 50% brightness increase.

Another benefit of Brilliant Color technology is more accurate rendering calculations from the use of floating point arithmetic. According to Texas Instruments, this results in less noise and more accurate colors at the display with over 200 trillion color shades being possible.

Image AI for Contrast Ratio Boost

Optoma’s AI technology increases the contrast ratio by varying the lamp output according to the video source luminance. So the lamp power is boosted for bright scenes (such as those outside with bright sunshine) and reduced for dark scenes (such as those indoors with limited artificial lighting). The technology produces the same sort of contrast ratio boost as dynamic iris technology.

Projector Setup

Optoma have given the HD70 a 1.2:1 manual zoom lens which will provide some setup flexibility. For squaring the image there is horizontal and vertical keystone correction. However, its best to position the projector correctly for a permanent installation as digital keystone correction can introduce undesirable artifacts into the projected image. With a noise rating of 28dB the Optoma HD70 is reasonably quiet compared to market competition.

In the reduced ambient light of a home theater, a backlit remote control as supplied by Optoma is almost an essential.

The Optoma HD70 comes with a 2 years limited parts and labor warranty on the projector and 90 days on the lamp.

Other Home Theater Projectors to Consider

While the HD70 is a solid home theater projector, Optoma do offer the higher specification, and price, HD72. The HD72 has a higher resolution (1280 x 768) allowing more video sources to be projected at native resolution. It’s something worth considering if the projector is to be used for both movies and business presentations.

Those considering this home theater should have a look at the Panasonic PT-AX100U which has 2000 lumen brightness combined with a contrast ratio of 6000:1 and a more powerful video processor.

Resources

Projection Screen Selection

8 Tips to Extend Projector Lamp Life

Replacement Projector Lamps and Bulbs

User Reviews and Price Comparisons for Optoma HD70 Projector

Amazon has had the Optoma HD70 720p DLP Home Theater Projector in it’s Best Seller list for some time and there are plenty of user reviews to read.

Other places to check prices include;

Buy.com Optoma HD70 Home Theater Series Projector

At NewEgg.com the HD70 has an excellent customer review rating for the Optoma HD70 DLP HDMI Home Theater Projector. There are plenty of reviews to read.

TheNerds.net customers have also given good ratings in their reviews for theOptoma 1000 Lumens WXGA DLP Projector TheNerds.net publish the prices of numerous other sellers so you can compare a lot of prices at once.

Optoma HD70 HD DLP Home Theater Projector Specifications

Technorati Tags: HD70, 720p, home theater projector, DLP, Brilliant Color, AI technology