My Big Fat Tech Review
Affordable HD Home Theater
This is the third Optoma projector that I've owned. I started out with an EP716 which lasted three years and then moved on to an EP727. The HD65 was purchased as a replacement for the EP727 which died after one year for reasons unknown and right after the warranty expired. I honestly didn't think the HD65 would be that big of an improvement over the 727, but it's actually a huge difference. For one the HD65 has a larger diagonal size at the same distance as the 727, 25% larger in both 16:9 and 4:3. It also has a 4000:1 contrast which is double of the 727; and although the ANSI for the HD65 is listed as 1600 (800 lower than the 727) it is actually a bit brighter in my opinion. There are several boring technical reasons for this which you can read about here if you are so inclined. Of course the biggest advantage of the HD65 is it's resolution, 1280x720. Which means true 720p and less compression when dealing with 1080p (1080i is not an issue considering most agree 720p looks better than 1080i). If you really need a 1080p you can spend the extra $400 and get an Optoma HD20. No doubt it's better, but for $400 more can you really see the difference? Some say no, some say yes. Either way for the money the HD65 is an amazing step up for projectors when it comes to quality and price. My only beef is it would have been nice if the HD65 had an extra HDMI or DVI port, instead it only has one each HDMI, component, VGA, s-video and composite video inputs. It seems strange to give a HD projector only one digital HD input. Outside of this one small fault the HD65 is stellar HD projector for a Home Theater and for playing video games.