Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 705HD

CR 3000/1 according to projector central.

Also one of about 5 I'm looking at but will be a couple weeks before released.

yeah that quoted cr is pretty disappointing concidering the Panny ax100/200 were quoted as 6000:1 and thats 3 year old tech. Still, looking forward to see reviews on this one.

I'm more curious what this does to the pricing of the Epson Home Cinema 720. Will they keep it at $1000 (plus free bulb) as a "high end" 720p alternative to the 705HD, will there be a price drop, or will they discontinue it? I'm hoping for the second alternative, personally..

Does anyone know the official release date for this projector?

Wanted to give this thread a bump. Has anyone purchased this, or read any reviews on it?

720p is good enough for my needs, and the 2500 lumens is very appealing.

I'm surprised that the Panasonic AX200 hasn't had a price drop with the announcement of the 705hd. 500 more lumens for $250 less?

It's in stock in multiple places, but wanted to see if anyone had any experience with it yet.

Thanks!

This is very similar to the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 700 which has been out for a year or so.

I too am very interested in this projector and really wish that someone would review it or post their impressions. It appears that it has been available for at least a while as it has been "in stock" at various places for at least a week or two.

I am looking to get a projector in the next week or two and am leaning towards either this one, the HD65, or the HD20.

The things that I like about this projector include:
-2500 lumens (waiting for review to see actual lumens and color performance)
-LCD (I did see rainbows on an X1 years ago, don't know if I would on newer 3x/4x CWs).
-Instant on/Instant off technology
-USB port allowing easy viewing of digital camera or PC free presentations
-Lamp life of 4000/5000 hours, depending on mode
-2 year parts/labor warranty with 48 hour replacement program

I just wish that there were more info out on it. I have searched and all I have found is the following:
Art's first look/blog
Link to manual (from PC)

I am very curious as to the measured brightness and the contrast/blacks. Is is safe to assume that it will perform at least as good as the HC 720 (since it is being released almost two years after that one, shouldn't it perform similarly, and maybe even better)?

The main difference that I see between it and HC 720 is the lack of lens shift and wider zoom range but increased lumens and some additional features. For installation differences, I see there always being a $100-$200 difference between the two (although with the bulb rebate on the 720, it makes the projectors about the same price, right?). I have been hoping that the HC720 or AX200 prices would drop with the release of the updated projector, but so far that hasn't been the case and I question whether or not it will happen.

I am looking for a small, light, bright projector to use for the next year or two until I get my dedicated theater finished, at which point it will be a spare and used for outdoor theater/events/trips/etc.

I am curious to hear anyone else's opinions regarding this projector, especially any hands on experience/reviews as well as how you think it would stack up against the HC720/HD65/HD20/others?

I think the real availability at those "various places" was questionable. The official release date for the 705 was yesterday. It is now available at the official Epson store. I also saw it on the HHGregg web site and it said it was in stock at the stores too, but who knows...

To me the big draw to this projector is its bulb cost, with 5000 advertised hours and $180 MSRP for the replacement bulb, it has got to be the best deal I've seen.

I doubt the picture will be as good as a true HT projector, but the value sure looks unbeatable. What I am wondering is if they've fixed the noise that people were reporting with the HC700 (and its other various versions) from the dynamic iris.

I might go by HHGregg these days and see if they have it in stock. Does anyone know if they allow easy returns?

Received 705 from J&R a week ago. A real step up from Infocus 7805. Very bright picture when projecting a 96 inch diagonal image. Colors really pop, easily viewable with room lights on. Picture sharpness at 720P is acceptable, but not great, but I think it's more the lens than the quoted contrast ratio of the projector, based on experience with cameras and camcorders. The auto iris feature still makes noise, can be heard from 4 foot distance, not too objectionable, but it's there. A little disappointed by the lens, the projector must be placed much closer to the screen than the Infocus to obtain a 96 inch image. This has caused me to have to rearrange my viewing area.

Thanks for posting! I too was looking at buying this but have since decided to wait and save up for maybe something else. The low cost and long lap life was the biggest draw for me, but with help from a forum member I going to hold off and save up. Congrats on your new projector I hope your liking it.
Robert

So are you happy enough that your going to keep using it?

Nice to finally read a review for this projector, thanks for posting. So what it your take on the contrast/black level of this projector when there is little ambient light (i.e. at night)? How do the various modes change the appearance? I tried to lookup the Infocus 7805 to see what you were comparing to and couldn't find any info, is that the correct number?

Thanks again for posting your first thoughts, any additional info that you can post would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry about the erroneous model, I have an Infocus screenplay 4805. The black level on the 705HD is good for an inexpensive projector, although not nearly as good as an LCD or plasma panel. I have no way to measure it, and no real comparison to other projectors. I haven't tried all the modes or adjustments yet, but will post my opinions when I do. Cost was a driver for me, and so far I'm happy. This projector cannot compare to a large screen flat panel, but I prefer the larger picture and accept the lower performance. It's a true theater experience sitting 8 feet away from a 96 inch display.

I had it, returned it. The lens was a killer for me. There is very little flexibility with the lens. I would have ended up rearranging my whole room and mount. Picture and black levels were ok. Nothing that I would consider spectacular. For the price it was a good projector, however, not what I thought it was going be.

I had it and returned it as well. The picture was underwhelming, and the lens was a killer for me as well. There is no lens shift or horizontal keystone, and the black level was pretty bad. It is better in my opinion to just save an extra 200-300 for a better projector.

I actually need this lens . I need to throw a 108" picture from 11' away and this PJ will do that, what other projectors can do it (inexpensively)? The lens shift may be an issue though as I only have 7' ceilings.

Just bought this projector yesterday, already thinking about returning it. It is ok for XBOX games, but for movies I can barely stand it - the picture is like looking through muddy water. I don't know if there is anything that could be done, I've experimented a lot with the limited picture controls with very little success. The auto Iris is very noisy, though it makes little, if any, difference so turning it off seems the better solution to me.

The thing is blindingly light even in power saving mode. The fan is unacceptably loud in normal mode, and most of the time OK in the power savings mode. I had a problem switching from normal to eco, the light output visibly changed, but the fan remained at the loud volume. I had to turned if off to quiet down the fan.

This is definitely a presentation projector for large, well-lit rooms. I simply don't see it as a home theater projector.

I almost bought one of these a few weeks ago. After reading the reviews of the Epson 700 on projectreviews.com I decided to pass..I can see I made a good choice by the comments here! The reviewer in a nice way really hated the 705HD's predecessor.

Has anyone tried this projector with an XBOX 360 over HDMI? Mine won't sync - it flickers a couple of times and then says "no signal".

On another note... I don't understand why the system menus look very crisp and focused and the black backgrounds are really black, but any actual projected image is washed out, blurry, full with color fringing on the edges, and completely devoid of black.

Well just in case anyone still cares... It rained all day here, so I didn't feel like running to the store to return the Epson. It's been bugging me since I got it because it's such a sweet deal.

I'd have to say I finally achieved some semi-acceptable picture with it. The problem is its internal de-interlacing chip. My previous projector - Mitsubishi HC1500 - worked best with 1080i sources so all of my equipment was set to that resolution. The Epson 705 was literally painful to watch with any interlaced signal.

So today it occured to me that maybe I should change everything to 720p and to my surprise the results were instant. If nothing else the picture is now well focused and sharp, while before any text was extremely blurry.

Contrast also improved dramatically, but the black levels are still pretty poor.

I also figured out why it wasn't syncing with my XBOX 360 - it was set to "auto display discovery" and I am guessing the two simply couldn't agree on the proper settings. After manually setting the XBOX to 720p it worked just fine.

I haven't made up my mind yet, but I am starting to like this projector much better now.

Oh, one more thing I discovered - its internal speaker only works with PCM signals from the HDMI port (maybe DD2.0 too but I am not sure). In any case, any audio signal with more than 2 channels does not work.

I'm kind of the silent minority here but I just want to say thanks for the updates. I'm still on the fence about this projector and am consuming every review I can find. I need the short throw and really like the price.

I have 7' ceilings and will throw a 108" picture from 11 away, do you think the ceiling height (or lack thereof) will be an issue without lens shift?

This is my 4th projector, and so far none of them have had lens shift, but I've made everyone work in my room without any keystone correction. I don't know how tall my ceilings are, but I can touch them when I raise my arm up (I am 5'11").

I don't think the 705 has much of a lens offset. Sorry I can't give you any exact measurements, but I never understood those to be honest. I am more of a "trial and error" type a guy.


Oh, just one more thing - again, no expert on measures, but if you are going to watch this thing from 11 feet on 108" screen, I think it will be blindingly bright. I actually wish there was an even lower "eco" mode to turn down the brightness to about half. I also wish there was a way to leave the Iris closed the whole time. For some reason the auto iris thinks that people like things bright and murky. Whenever there is a bright section on the screen the iris opens up increases the brightness even more - very annoying.

If the auto iris it turned off, it seems to stay open and allow max lumen output.

I'm also on the fence about this projector. I need flexibility over enthusiast satisfying picture quality. I plan to use my PJ to watch HULU in the living room and while in bed (so 2 different setup locations), to watch regular DVD's (played through a macbook pro most likely), and to play wii. Sometimes viewing will be at night in a dark room, other times during the day in a room that has very little light control (no heavy duty drapes), and then once in a while to host Guitar Hero parties with every light in the house turned on.

I'm no enthusiast... and if I ever did plan on setting up a dedicated home theater that time is years and years away, I just want a nice big acceptable picture at a budget price that will be better than viewing on a macbook pro screen or a 10 year old 32" CRT TV. Will the 705HD work for me or will even my lower standards be offended by the picture quality prompting a return?

My sister just got one of these, and I had the opertunity to set it up and calibrate it with DVE HD for her. First off this projector is extremely bright even with a 128" screen in a room that is not light controlled. I have a HD1000 upstairs (92" screen)and an 1080UB downstairs in my theater room (128" screen) graduated from and X1.The 705 is at least as bright as my HD1000, again 92" screen, (18ft lamberts measured off the screen with an Eye One) on the 128" screen, I did not measure it though, and quite a bit brighter than my UB on dynamic with the same sized screen. The picture did look a little soft to me also, I also switched all the equipment to 720p and it did help. The auto iris is loud, I turned it off, the fan is loud on normal but ok on eco (5000hr lamp life!), the blacks are not the greatest but if you don't have pretty good light control it doesnt matter, it does have a 16:10 aspect ratio so expect a little more light spill on 16:9 material. All in all for a living room projector with less than ideal light control I would recommend it.

Wembley, is there anyway you could take some screenshots and post them? I can't find real use pics from this projector anywhere online and it would be really helpful.

Thanks!

Papa, I will see what I can do, it may take me a few days though.

Wembley

If anyone is interested, hhgregg.com is selling the 705hd for $665. If you live near one, it might be a good deal?