Optoma GT720 Projector - Physical Tour-2

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Art Feierman

GT720 Menus

The Optoma GT720 menus are reasonably well laid out. There aren't a zillion different settings, so navigating is rather straight forward. There are only 4 main menus, and the important Advance Image sub menu. All are shown below.

For the most part, they are all rather straightfoward.

Above: Unlike many DLP projectors that have just Brilliant Color Off/On, or offer only 1 or two different settings, Brilliant Color on the GT720 offers 9 (I believe) different Brilliant Color settings. This is a good way of doing it. I oft found the highest Brilliant Color settings to be a bit over the top, especially making things appear too contrasty. Backing off allows good compromise, between "pop and wow", and more natural looks suitable for movies and soft skin tones.

GT720 menu image advanced

GT720 menu display

GT720 menu image advanced

GT720 menu setup

GT720 menu options

On the Display menu, 3D options including DLP-Link, and Sync invert, appear when you feed the GT720 3D content.

Optoma offers a number of standard features. We like that it offers both Overscan, and Edge masking. With Overscan, you hide edge noise by enlarging the image, and therefore not having to project the outermost lines of data. Problem is, you are stretching - the rest, and that means no 1:1 pixel alignment, which means a softer image.

Optoma offers Edge masking as well. In this case, you simply don't bother to project the othermost 1, 2, 3% of the image. What's left is a slightly smaller image, but preserving the 1:1 pixel mapping. I strongly prefer the Edge Masking. There's also Vertical image shift. This allows you (when your image is less than the full vertical height - such as a letter boxed movie), to reposition the image up or down relative to the screen. With enough range, for example, you could have the bottom of that Cinemascope image flush with the bottom of your screen, while the top of the image is about 20% below the top of the screen. All the letterboxing at top, instead of splitting it top and bottom. It's a nice touch, although not that many home theater projectors offer image shift.

The Setup menu is pretty straightforward, with Volume, Mute, language choices and menu location options. There is also the wireless control, and setting the Projector ID.

Finally there's the Options menu seen above. Again, no surprises here. There's a keypad (control panel) lock (a feature shared with business versions), that I don't think is normally a home projector feature. And of course, one resets the lamp counter upon changing the lamp, from this menu.

Optoma GT720 Remote Control

Interesting. This is a non-backlit remote that shows some elements of the GT720's cross-over nature as a business or classroom projector. There are extensive navigation controls for Powerpoint, etc. At first attempt to navigate I was surprised by the small menu button tucked into the middle of the GT720's remote. Then to move around the menus, I naturally used the Up Down Left Right nav controls in the big round ring at the top.

Wrong! Those are for remote mousing. The actual menu navigation is a separate set of four buttons in a diamond shape, right below, and with a center Enter button.

Well, owners will get used to it. If my gaming bloggers are any indication, they aren't that much on adjusting projectors, relative to firing them up and throwing a game at them.

Optoma GT720 Lens Throw

The Optoma GT720 projector offers a fixed, short throw zoom lens. The formula is simple. To fill a 100" 16:9 diagonal screen, the front of the projector is placed 5 feet one inch (approx) from the screen, measured from the lens. For other sizes, just break out the calculator (ie. for an 80" image, then the distance would be 5 feet 1 X 80% = 4 feet 1 inches, approximately)...