Epson's new PowerLite Home Cinema 720 HD projector
By Paul Miller 
posted Oct 22nd 2007 9:12AM
posted Oct 22nd 2007 9:12AM
Epson seems to think it's hit the sweet spot with its new home theater projector, the PowerLite Home Cinema 720 HD (the PowerLite 400 is pictured), and it may very well be on to something. The 3LCD projector retails for $1,300, and packs in 1,600 ANSI lumens, a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, 10-bit color processing and fancy AccuCinema Color Management, and built-in lens shift. Epson doesn't mention the resolution, but we're guessing the "720" in the name means this 16:9 unit is shooting out 720p. There's a full complement of ports, including HDMI, and the lamp should last about 4,000 hours. The unit should go on sale later this month.
It does mention that this projector is 720p native:
"This new high definition projector is engineered to set a new standard in performance among all 720p native resolution projectors currently on the market."
Hey, they cant read very well...but at least they can make accurate inferences?
Companies who make projectors really need to look at lamp life. So many on the market have a limited lamp life span and the cost of new lamps still isn't comming down. This is the main reason why I won't touch projectors.
I bought my projector with the appreciation that the lamp is a consumable. Even so, the price per diagonal-inch far exceeds all direct-view TVs available today for basically the life of the device (at least 6 – 10 years).
This looks like the projector I will be getting. I have an old 800x600 resolution one with 120 lumens that is very loud. This seems to be the right price, right resolution, and right size. It even has a HDMI port.
If it is 720p, how well does it handle 1080i TV broadcasts?
I'm not too concerned about lamp life. I watch about 10 hours of TV/sports/movies a week. So, it will either be time to upgrade to something better in 6-10 years, or the $400 or so for another lamp for the next 6-10 years isn't that bad.
The only bad part is that I would have to make a new projector screen that is 16:9 and 120 diagonal. Darn.
I have Epson TW700 since 6 months. My TW700 has the same specs. So it is nothing new.
Judging by its spec, it looks like an EMP-TW700 with better lamp life (1000 hour more), and the D4/SCART port taken out.