The Hottest Home Theater Projectors: Our Top Picks for 2007
03/12/2007-Art Feierman

$1500 - $2000 Home Theater Projectors

Introduction
All-in-one home projectors
Lowest cost home theater projectors
Under $1000 home theater projectors
$1000 - $1500 home theater projectors
$1500 - $2000 home theater projectors
$2000+ 720p home theater projectors
Under $5000 1080p projectors
Over $5000 1080p home theater projectors

Best In Class: Panasonic PT-AX100U
Runner-up: Optoma HD73
Special Interest: Optoma HD72

Panasonic PT-AX100U Home Theater Projector:

It's really hard to not love the PT-AX100U. It is almost all strengths, including: Brightest home theater projector around (without spending several times more), extremely good "out of the box" color, very good black levels, excellent placement flexibility, and an invisible pixel structure (and this is an LCD projector)!

To get the invisible pixels, Panasonic uses their SmoothScreen Technology in front of the LCD panels. Pixels are no longer visible unless you are standing less than 3 feet from the screen. There is a trade-off, sharpness is on the low side of average, also due to SmoothScreen (no such thing as a free lunch)! The slightly soft look due to SmoothScreen, also gives the projector a more "film-like" look, than other LCD projectors.

The PT-AX100U really exceeded my expectations when it arrived for review in September, I had been expecting a typical replacement situation from the PT-AE900U (the previous best seller in the US market), instead, the PT-AX100U was a major step forward, including the unprecendented brightness. Overall I still believe this is probably the best under $2000 projector on the market for most of us.

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Not everything is perfect though. Panasonic only offers a one year warranty, which really is too short. The good news is that many dealers offer very affordable 3rd party warranties. The other downside is that there have been some technical issues, but the PT-AX100U has now been on the market for 5 months and Panasonic should have worked through most of these.

Optoma HD73 Home Theater Projector:

I recently received a review unit of this first, under $2000, DLP projector to be equipped with the "top of the line" Darkchip3 DLP processor, and already I appreciate the HD73. Essentially a reworked HD72 (one of my favorites), but with the Darkchip3 instead of the Darkchip2, the HD73 offers improved black levels. While still not as "black" as some of the best DLP projectors out there, it is the best I have seen in the under $2000 range. There is plenty of variation in black levels and shadow detail handling, from one Darkchip2 to another, with a couple of them able to match the performance of some of the lesser Darkchip3 projectors. Optoma overall, has always been about average in black levels, but by being the first with Darkchip3 in this price range, they also are the black level champs for the price.

The Panasonic can match and even beat the black levels of the Optoma HD73 home theater projector on the right scenes - those that are very dark AND do not have any bright areas at all, but on every other type of scene, the HD73 is just plain better.

The HD73 is also rather bright, it can't match the PT-AX100U in brightest mode, but if you compare "best" modes, the Optoma definitely puts out the same kind of lumens as the Panasonic projector.

The HD73 projector is a typical lower cost DLP, in that the zoom has very limited range, and there is no lens shift. If the HD73 had lens shift and a siginficantly wider range zoom, it just might have taken the top spot in this category. Build quality, like most under $2000 projectors is not sensational, you just don't get the feel of a Mercedes. Adjust the zoom, and it goes out of focus... that type of stuff. Of course once you set it down, or install it, you only have to adjust the zoom and focus once - so no big deal. Like its predecessor, the HD73 produces a very watchable and enjoyable image on movies, especially the new hi-def formats, and plenty of brightness helps it look great on sports and other TV content. Its 2 year warranty is industry average.

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Optoma HD72 Home Theater Projector:

The HD72 DLP projector (identical looking to the HD73) has been around for about a year, and when launched it was the brightest of the under $2000 projectors. Optoma has not indicated how long it will remain in the lineup, but considering the HD72's popularity, and past Optoma decisions on very popular models, I doubt it will be going away very soon. Today, the Panasonic PT-AX100U and Epson Cinema 400 are even brighter, but primarily in brightest mode. In best mode the HD72's measured 518 lumens still makes it one of the brightest in good movie watching mode.

The HD72 cannot match the HD73 in black levels and shadow detail, and color performance out of the box without adjustment isn't as good, but the color balance is easily correctable with a basic end user friendly calibration disk.

If you like that "film-like" quality that DLP projectors are known for, but need significantly more lumens than the HD73 provides, and are willing to give up some black level performance, then the Optoma HD72 is an excellent choice for those who find it can be positioned properly in their room.

Introduction
All-in-one home projectors
Lowest cost home theater projectors
Under $1000 home theater projectors
$1000 - $1500 home theater projectors
$1500 - $2000 home theater projectors
$2000+ 720p home theater projectors
Under $5000 1080p projectors
Over $5000 1080p home theater projectors