Optoma Home Theater Series HD7100 (DLP projector)

Pros: Outstanding image quality; decent brightness

Cons: Short-throw lens limits placement options somewhat

Summary: My decision to purchase this projector boiled down to it being the best value in its price range. At my price point of $2,000 to $3,000, I had initially decided I would purchase the Panasonic PT-AE900U; however, in the period of weeks--yes weeks!--that I was planning my home theater for my new home, the Optoma HD7100 hit the market and helped create a noticeable shift in the pricing of budget conscious home theater projectors.

Optoma's predecessor to the HD7100 sold for around $6,000 just a year ago. The HD7100 hit the market with a street price of around $3,000 a few weeks ago. And in the last couple of weeks, deals have popped up for as little as $2,500. I purchased this product from VisualApex.com at a price of $2,900, less a $400 mail-in rebate. For $2,500, I am thrilled!

Some reviews mention the somewhat noisy fan at the higher output setting. This issue is potentially exacerbated by the fact that the short-throw lens will likely mean that the projector will sit relatively close to one's viewing position in the room. However, I have used the projector exclusively in its bright mode, and I have never been bothered by fan noise. I have found it noticeable--but not really problematic--only during periods of near silence in movie or music soundtracks.

I did my own audio/video pre-wiring for my home theather before drywall was installed. To be safe, I installed both HDMI cable from the projector's ceiling mount location and a triple coax run for use as component video cable if needed. Happily, the HDMI cable (and a cheap one ordered online at that!) works flawlessly. I had to use an HDMI to DVI adapter, since this projector only includes DVI and not HDMI, but since the digital video encoding is identical (HDMI uses a different plug form factor and can carry audio as well as video), the signal still arrives at the projector in pure digital form. I have been able to leave my backup coax cables stuffed in the ceiling, which gives me great pleasure!

I have spent little time comparing projectors in person, and I have never had an opportunity to compare multiple projectors side by side. With that disclosure, I find the image quality excellent. I have an early 15" LCD television in my kitchen, which has terrible black level issues, so that is an issue to which I am quite senstive. I have experienced absolutely no deficiency in the black level department. Blacks are satisfyingly black and plenty of detail is visible in dark areas. My previous home theater used a 56" CRT rear projection HDTV, and I cannot see any ineriority in black levels using the HD7100 projector. If you are in a totally light-controlled and dark-colored room, you may want to use the lower bulb output setting to achieve the blackest blacks possible. If you do not have perfectly controlled lighting, then you will probably find that the lower output setting is not satisfyingly bright on a large screen.

The short-throw lens means that the projector needs to be placed about twelve feet from the screen for a 106" diagonal image at 16:9. In all but the smallest rooms, this precludes placement on a bookshelf at the back of the room. Zoom range and lens shift are also somewhat limited. In my home theater, I had the luxury of ceiling mounting the projector pretty much wherever I desired. My viewing position is only a couple of feet behind the projector, which is ceiling mounted. With the vertical lens shift pushing the image as far down the wall as possible, I still had to use a short extension arm to put the lens about a foot below the ceiling level in a room with nine-foot ceilings.

For those new to this stuff, the lens shift feature optically shifts the lens assembly inside the projector to move the projection image up and down or side to side while the projector is pointed perfectly perpendicular to the screen wall. Lens shift, so long as you operate within the limits of the shift, does not cause any keystone distortion or degredation in image quality. If you angle the projector instead to throw the image where you want, you will create keystone distortion. There is an electronic control for compensating for this, but keystone compensation **does** compromise image quality.

The image exhibits no noticeable "screen door" effect, which is a common complaint of less expensive LCD projectors, unless one stands insanely close to the projected image. On my 106" screen, I cannot see individual pixels unless I am within six feet of the screen.

Finally, my projector appears to have a power supply related defect that causes it to lose all power when attempting to turn the projector on from standby. I have to unplug and re-plug the power cord to get the projector to turn on properly each time I use it. I am waiting to hear back from tech support at Optoma, but I trust that this peculiar problem will be solved soon.

At a net purchase price of $2,500, I could hardly be happier with this projector's performance. Tradeoffs to hit an affordable price point are minimal and can be worked around--no HDMI and limited zoom range on short-throw lens.