First I want to mention that I'm very happy with this projector. I had an HD70 for a while but took it back mainly due to RBE. The HC 720 is a better projector in almost every way, it is even quieter than the HD70, and to my surprise it actually had LESS SDE than the HD70! Nice!
I have a few concerns, though, that have been bugging me since day one, and I want to know if anyone has any potential solutions. I use a PS3 as my source over HDMI.

1. I can't seem to find any way to crop/zoom ultra-wide movies to 16:9. I know lots of people here frown on doing so, but with some movies I really want to have this ability. Most of the aspect options are disabled over HDMI though! What gives?

2. (This is my biggest issue). I enjoy Theater Black 1 the most, largely because the lamp goes into eco mode and the fan slows way down, making the PJ silent. HOWEVER, the picture becomes exceedingly dim in this mode, even at default settings! I have a 106" light-grey 1.1 gain screen and my room is PITCH BLACK, totally light controlled. Even in this environment, the image just has absolutely no "pop" in the Theater Black modes, and the contrast ratio appears to take a massive nose-dive. I understand this is its lowest-lumen mode, but it is way way darker than my HD70 was in eco mode. For as bright a PJ as this, you'd think eco mode would be at least acceptably bright. It's not. It's basically unwatchable.
The PJ seems to automatically close it iris almost all the way in this mode on any scene, and "Auto Iris" has next to no effect. I think this is my problem with it. I want it to open up a bit. Why is there no eco-lamp mode with low fans where the iris is more open? To achieve that you have to select one of the high lamp modes. Stupid, no?

3. I'm right in the middle using no lens shift, but for some reason the focus points for the center of the image and the outer edges are different. They can't both be in perfect focus at the same time. Is this normal?

4. Overscan: None of the modes seem to just "do nothing." Auto Mode crops a lot, Normal Mode crops quite a bit, Large Mode actually seems to "zoom out" and leaves black borders all around the image, even though the PS3 just outputs 1:1 with no expectation of overscan over HDMI.

5. Others have said the 720 can in fact accept a 1080p signal, but I can't get mine to recognize the signal. It WILL recognize 1080i, which is not useful. I want 1080p because it would provide a great way to crop ultra-wide movies by selecting a "native" aspect mode like I did on my HD70.

What is with the stupid lack of options when using HDMI on this projector? Please tell me I'm just missing something here.
Are there service menus I can access to help solve any of these frustrating problems?

1. I have no desire to do that, so I can't help with that one.
2. I just got an Elite ezFrame 106" Cinegray screen. I was previously using BOC, which is about 1.1 gain. After a few days, I've come to the conclusion that I don't care for the Cinegray material. I'm gonna try their 1.8 Powergain material and see how I get along. I've been running Theater mode...even with the BOC. Hopefully, I will be able to run in TB1 mode with the Powergain material. Sounds like you might want to try a higher gain screen.
3. I don't have that problem with my HC720.
4. What are you trying to achieve? Overscan reduction will make the image smaller because *you are seeing more of the image*.

As to #4, I am just trying to get the projector to display 1:1 the pixels that come out of the PS3. It is either cropped (zoomed in, everything seems larger, edges cut off) or the edges are there but there are black bars on all sides because Large Mode actually seems to zoom out farther than 1:1.

As for getting a higher-gain screen, I get that, but doesn't it seem weird that the HD70 was so much brighter in eco mode? And this is the part that really gets me: why is there no option to open the iris more while the lamp is in low-power mode? It just doesn't make sense to design it like that.

Try turning the Iris off and see if that hleps. I've never had mine on, and watch in Theater Black 1 with no problems.

As for getting a higher-gain screen, I get that, but doesn't it seem weird that the HD70 was so much brighter in eco mode? And this is the part that really gets me: why is there no option to open the iris more while the lamp is in low-power mode? It just doesn't make sense to design it like that.

The HC720 does not have one low power mode, it has multiple modes with different levels. If Theater Black 1 is too dark, run it on Theater or try calibrating.

The HC720 does not have one low power mode, it has multiple modes with different levels. If Theater Black 1 is too dark, run it on Theater or try calibrating.

The reason I want to run in Theater Black is because the fan is loud in all other modes. You are right, there is not one low power mode, there are two: Theater Black 1 and Theater Black 2. These are the modes in which the lamp is in low-power mode. And BOTH of them clamp down the iris (yes even when auto-iris is off). The lamp, and subsequently the fan and black levels, are in high for all other modes. All I want to do is open the iris up in a low-power mode. I would probably be ok with running in a high-power mode all the time if the fan weren't so much louder. I've noticed that even in these modes, the black level and shadow detail are quite a lot worse than the HD70, yet the brights are also half as bright. The thing that is better is color saturation and accuracy, which is nice.
Anyway, it's becoming obvious to me there isn't any actual solution to this other than "deal with it," so moving on... anyone been able to feed a 1080p signal to the Epson? If so, how?

Anyway, it's becoming obvious to me there isn't any actual solution to this other than "deal with it," so moving on... anyone been able to feed a 1080p signal to the Epson? If so, how?

The Epson handles 1080p 60hz and 1080p 24hz. I've fed it 360 and PS3. Both works, but the tracking is not good in 1080p60hz and there's jerikness. 1080p24hz is ok in forced mode on the pS3. You want to feed it 720p at all times if possible.

The Epson handles 1080p 60hz and 1080p 24hz. I've fed it 360 and PS3. Both works, but the tracking is not good in 1080p60hz and there's jerikness. 1080p24hz is ok in forced mode on the pS3. You want to feed it 720p at all times if possible.

Thanks, I figured out the problem... my receiver for some reason was refusing to pass 1080p (worked before; strange).
But yeah, it looks really bad compared to the downscaling on the Hd70, and beyond that, the "Through" Aspect mode becomes disabled in 1080p, so again I'm back at square one for trying to figure a way to crop ultra-wide to 16:9.