Epson Home Cinema 705HD - Review Summary-2

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Art Feierman

It's low price should make a great entry level projector for a lot of folks. (The football scrimmage shot was taken with more than a little ambient light in the room.)

Finally, it makes an excellent, low cost, crossover projector, one you can buy for business usage, and have it double as a very respectable home entertainment projector. Or, of course, the other way around - buy for home, take to work when needed! Buy one, use it for both, and take the appropriate tax write-off.

This year's Epson Home Cinema 705HD positions better than its predecessor, the 700 did last year. This is thanks to the lower cost, and the brighter image. Other improvements are there, but those two improve the value proposition compared to Epson's entry last year. Although not without competition, it's a pretty darn good entry level home entertainment projector, if you ask me.

Home Cinema 705HD Projector: Pros

Looks very good on sports and general HDTV viewing
Excellent warranty
Exceptional lamp life, for low cost of operation
Good skin tones
Good shadow detail
More portable than most
Can easily double as a business projector (think Epson Powerlite W7)
USB port can handle interfacing with various memory and flash cards for presenting directly from them, with an adapter
Lamp door on the top, for easy access if ceiling mounting (projector inverted)
A good match for a family room, bonus room, or even for taking outdoors at night in the summer.
Able to handle large screen sizes thanks to lots and lots of lumens
A great projector for the average consumer, (thoug

Home Cinema 705HD Projector: Cons

Unimpressive black level performance, not really designed for a dedicated home theater
One of the audibly noisier home projectors
Dynamic iris also adds a little to the overall noise, with a soft whirring/click sound
Limited placement flexibility (1.2:1 zoom lens, no lens shift) suitable for table top or ceiling mount, but not rear shelf mounting
Less expensive compared to a few higher performance projectors, but not dramatically so
Remote is not backlit
Sports an occasional motion artifact or two when processing fast changing content, but barely visible

Home Cinema 705HD Projector: Typical Capabilities

Placement flexibility - if compared with the DLP projectors out there (the other 3LCD projectors are all much more flexible)
Documentation - actually pretty good, but not great