Optoma is producing the 1280 x 768 DLP projector and selling it for $3k. At a street price of around $2k, this pits the beast squarly against market segment LCD heavyweights like the Sanyo Z4 and Panasonic AE900U. This projector has a contrast ratio of 5000:1 with “Image AI” activated. It uses TI’s DarkChip2 technology with a seven segment colour wheel rotating at four times speed. It has one HDMI port, one DVI port, and one set of component inputs. Whether or not this projector accepts 1080p on its HDMI port is, of course, irrelevant, because this is a 720p projector. So no worries there. It has a 1.2x zoom lens, which isn’t as flexible as the competition. Also, it has no lens shift, which the Panasonic and Sanyo projectors do have. Tsk tsk.

This projector uses TI’s BrilliantColor feature, whose implementation is “impressive”. He doesn’t really say what he means by that, however.

But how does it perform? The reviewer has this to say:

The HD72 delivers a sharp, high contrast image with abundant color saturation. The picture is highly competitive with the LCD 1280×720 products that sell in the same general range of street prices. As such it is the first DLP product in this resolution class to acknowledge competitive realities and price accordingly. As far as image quality itself is concerned, it sets a new benchmark in price/performance in 720p resolution.

Projector Central - Optoma HD72