[bjmarchini]

My Acer PH530, which replaced an epson home 20, died about 1 month ago. I decided to go with the HD66 for the brightness levels, but to my amazement, I apparrently suffer from Rainbow Effect. I never really knew what it really looked like til I got this projector and it irritated the heck out of me. I have about 1 week left to return it to JR.


I never knew that I suffered from RBE as I never saw it on my dads RPT and I never noticed it on my Acer. I think it is because my Acer used a 7 segment color wheel while this Optoma apparrently uses a 5 segment.


I also don't want to take a chance on guests getting distracted by it.


I really liked my Epson that I had years ago, but the Acer destroyed it in terms of black levels. I read some reviews, but am wondering if anyone has had any experience with the 705HD and how it compares to DLPs with blacks. I have a light controllable living room, but like to have the lights on with all but movies (which is when RBE is affecting me the most).


PS: My kids are convinced I am making this RBE thing up. kids....


I am on a budget and don't really want to go over the $700 mark (single dad)

 

[cjsiv]

I had exactly the same thing happen to me. I had an infocus x1 that I had no problem with at all. I bought a mitsubishi hc1600 and saw rainbows everywhere. I swapped it for an optoma hd71 and the same thing. Not being content with the x1 anymore after seeing hd projectors, I sold it and went without for awhile. I just recently got back into projection again and the epson 705 was what I bought. My wife gave me the ok for the hc8100, but I couldn't bring myself to part with the cash. I am very happy with the 705, but the black levels are not on par with dlp. This is a VERY bright projector though. I routinely watch with a light on in my basement and it has no problems whatsoever. To me, the brightness is more important than the black levels. The dynamic iris does help with the blacks quite a bit on dark movies, but is does have a little noise to it. About the same as a hard drive running. Usually my surround sound drowns it out though. The projector is noisy when the lamp is set to normal mode due to the fan, but it is so bright there is no need to ever use it. I use strictly eco mode. To me, it is a trade off. But I am a brightness junkie and prefer that to the blacks any day. I've got some screen shots and reviews over at the hd705 thread you may want to check out:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...1182562&page=4


Black levels is the one area of weakness, so if black levels are a deciding factor for you, you will need to look elsewhere. The next closest thing would be the panasonic ax200 but it is about $949. Hope this helps a little.

 

[d james]

I haven't had these two particular pjs, but having both optoma's and epson's I will say that I like the epson's better, they seem to be higher quality and the brightness is always true to their rating or more. I too believe that the brightness is more important, especially for the kids, when they want to watch movies early in the day, or play some games. The colors seem more vibrant with the epson on high brightness mode, compared to my optoma. Plus, the warranty is really nice with epson, you don't have to send in and wait for repairs. I hear the HD66 is a nice pj, if I'm not mistaken it has 3d ready? If this is the case you might want to swing that way, depending on the kids. I know most love 3d, and it would be a shame not to have it if they really crave it, when it comes out for blu ray.

 

[bjmarchini]



Quote:
Originally Posted by d james /forum/post/18241247


I haven't had these two particular pjs, but having both optoma's and epson's I will say that I like the epson's better, they seem to be higher quality and the brightness is always true to their rating or more. I too believe that the brightness is more important, especially for the kids, when they want to watch movies early in the day, or play some games. The colors seem more vibrant with the epson on high brightness mode, compared to my optoma. Plus, the warranty is really nice with epson, you don't have to send in and wait for repairs. I hear the HD66 is a nice pj, if I'm not mistaken it has 3d ready? If this is the case you might want to swing that way, depending on the kids. I know most love 3d, and it would be a shame not to have it if they really crave it, when it comes out for blu ray.

I wouldn't recommend anyone getting it for 3D at this point. It has issues with drivers (you need to wear the nvidia 3D glasses upside down) and the mechanical shutter glasses themself run about $100-150 each.


I got it for the brightness which can be an issue in that we use it for social functions or daytime ambient light use more than night time.


I would use Eco mode anyway as I would think it would improve blacks.


One issue that I had with the HD66 is that it is also a 1280x800 and I have a 16:9 screen so there is some overlap there when I output 720p using native res mode. I am able to eliminate it on the optoma so that it won't show up on the borders outside of frame (black velvet)


I am also using a gray screen so that should help as well. Actually, I guess I could even repaint the screen a darker shade of grey if necessary though I don't know when I could the time to budget that in my daily schedule nowadays.


How bad do you think this would be on the epson?


According to preojectorreviews.com, you lose about 21% of the brightness in ECO mode which would drop the 1500 lumens in movie mode to 1200. Plus factor in the Bulb losing about 20-30% of its brightness after 500-1000 hours and you are probably down to less than 1000 lumens which in my mind is the sweet spot for dark environments.


I have also read of people added a gray filter to the light to darken the image but I think that would kill your colors and contrast.

 

[UTCOUG]

I was deciding between the HD66 and 705hd recently and wound up going with the 705hd due to warranty and customer service. I like having the peace of mind that comes with an epson. We'll be using the projector quite a bit and the long bulb life is nice. I figure either way I'm going to get a similar picture. IF I was overly anal about picture I would probably be doubling what I spent anyways.


I just set up the 705 last night after receiving it and was really impressed. I haven't touched any settings yet and it was just projecting onto the wall so we'll see. It does light up the whole room though at times. I agree that the iris sounds like a hard drive in comparison to noise.


I gladly will exchange black levels for brightness and no RBE although it didn't look too bad to me.

 

[cjsiv]

The hd705 is actually a 16:10 also so you will still have the overshoot. I really don't notice it as I have a pull down screen so the overshoot is on the roller at the top and the black frame at the bottom. The black level is not that big of an issue to me. It just looks like dark gray other than black. The only time I notice it is on letterbox movies. TV, games, and everything else looks fine. It's kind of a trade off with these bright projectors. Basically what it boils down to is the HD705 is the only 720p lcd projector in this price range. It has a long bulb life and a fantastic warranty. Epson build quality which is much better than optoma. The picture is sharp and colors look great. Its only fault is the lesser black level compared to dlp. Under $700, you will have to learn to live with rainbows.