The Epson Home Cinema 760HD is one of a trio of projectors from Epson’s new value line. Similar in feature set and hardware, the three differ in a few small ways. The biggest differences are seen in resolution and price point. About that – they all fall below $700.  List price of the HC760HD is $549, but street prices start at $499 (the current price on the Epson online store).  The projector is sold online, and at big box houses, as well as some smaller dealers.

A 3LCD projector claiming 3,300 lumens, the Home Cinema 760HD is impressively bright and will be able to combat most instances of ambient light. With 720p resolution (1280 x 720), it is a step up from the Home Cinema 660, and could be one for you to consider when shopping for your low-cost home entertainment projector.

This First Look Review of the Epson Home Cinema 760HD will explore an overview of the projector, delve into its features and benefits, talk about the differences from the HC760HD’s siblings, and review the projector’s highlights.

Before we continue – what is a First Look Review? It’s something between our full-fledged reviews where we spend lots of time both watching projectors perform, and playing with the projector’s full feature set, and, the other extreme – putting up a manufacturer’s press release, as loaded with hype as they are, (as many sites do). 

In some cases, our First Look Reviews are done after we have had a brief look at the projector – at our facility, typically for just a few days. Other times, such as this time, we haven’t had a chance to play with the projector. In such cases, our goal is to apply a mix of insight and common sense to describe how this projector might fit your needs. 

This is something we like to do, especially when the projector is just announced, is expected to be very popular, and/or is a direct descendant (with limited differences) with a projector we’ve already reviewed. Enjoy!

There is a 2-watt mono speaker, which should be loud enough for small rooms and quiet family gatherings. And I mean pretty quiet. There’s no audio input for connecting external speakers, which I’ve already ranted and raved about in my First Look Review of the Home Cinema 660. I see fit to do so again, and again when I write my piece on the Home Cinema 1060.

The speaker is small, and Epson shows imagery of the projector being used outdoors. I haven’t tested this projector myself, nor have we had it in for review yet, but I’m pretty confident that the speakers won’t be able to compete with significant outdoor noise.  So, if there's a freeway nearby...

The rated fan noise of this projector is 37db. That’s loud. That’s just 5 db short of the loudest projector HT projector I've reviewed, and that one has louder speakers than the HC760HD. Epson did do a good job lowering fan noise in ECO Mode – 28db – and you’re not going to lose too much brightness when in ECO since the projector is already so bright, but I still can’t wrap my head around the absence of an audio out jack, at least for those streaming.  Other sources all should have viable work arounds, i.e. with HDTV, Blu-ray, etc. going through an AV receiver.

Good news, everyone! Playstation 4 (possibly Xbox – I do not own one), BluRay and internet players, HDTV cable and satellite boxes generally will have other ways than HDMI to send audio out to an external sound system. So, you’d have your HDMI cable plugged into the projector from your player, and an audio cable plugged into the player and external speakers. That’s how you can get good sound when you need it. However, most streaming sticks do not have an audio out port – Apple TV used to – and so you’ll have to use the built-in speaker.

Other connectivity includes a single HDMI port, a VGA computer input (no audio out input, but we’ve got a VGA… fantastic), old school RCA ports for composite video and audio input, and two USBs – a Type A for PC-Free playback from a USB and a Type B for connecting a computer for easy plug-and-play projection.

Update:  It's been half a year since this First Look review.  We still hope to find the space to bring in one of the Home Cinema 760's for a full, in-depth review.

The NEC NP-ME331W is one of four similar models in NEC’s ME-series of portable projectors intended for business or education applications.  The NP-ME331, like the other three, is WXGA (1280x800) resolution. The other ME-series models include the NP-ME301W, NP-ME361W and the NP-ME401W.

All four of these ME-series models use 3LCD display technology and have a very similar physical appearance, but offer different brightness levels and at price points (MSRP) ranging from $629 (NP-ME301W) up to $949 (NP-ME401W).  NEC also offers another ME-series of projectors with model numbers ending with  'X" (e.g., NP-ME331X) which have similar features but offer lower XGA resolution in a 4 X 3 aspect ratio.

The NP-ME331W, being reviewed here, is a mid-level model in the ME-series of WXGA projectors that is priced at $699 and is specified to offer 3300 lumens of brightness, in its brightest picture mode.

The NEC NP-ME331W received our Hot Product award for its combination of a good feature set, very good color performance and a reasonable price.

A short video overview is available on our site featuring this projector, and can be viewed here.

The NEC NP-V332W is one model in NEC's V-series of portable projectors intended for business or education applications.  It appears NEC intends for this to be their "Value" series, offering a lot of performance for the modest price.  The other V-series model line-up also includes the NP-V302H and the NP-V332X.   All three V-series models use DLP display technology and have a very similar physical appearance, but offer different resolutions and at price points (MSRP) ranging from $479 up to $799.  The NP-V302H has a full-HD resolution of 1920 x 1080.  The NP-V332W, being reviewed here has WXGA resolution of 1280 x 800 while the "entry level" NP-V332X has lower XGA resolution of 1024 x 768.

Thus, what we are reviewing here is the mid-level model, both in price (i.e., $579 MSRP) and resolution, of NEC's V-series of portable projectors.

The Viewsonic PJD6350 Projector is bright, offers networking, big sound, and XGA resolution.

It's PortAll feature lets you project from any wireless MHL compatible dongle.

The Viewsonic PJD5555w projector offers lots of horsepower in a small, and notably low-cost package.

The InFocus IN126STa is a portable DLP projector with networking and short throw lens. MSRP $779!

InFocus says is a "short throw projector combines short throw, widescreen resolution, high brightness, networking and low cost – making it perfect for the classroom, office or other tight space."  If offers WXGA resolution (1280 x 800) along with extensive networking  and multimedia capabilities.

A mighty boast.  Let's see if it lives up to their description!

EPSON BRIGHTLINK PRO 1430Wi Projector Intro: The Epson Brightlink Pro 1430Wi is an ultra short throw, interactive projector, specified with 3300 lumens of light output that offers a lot of features for its $2999 price.

This Epson 1430Wi projector is built to be both a super sophisticated, yet user friendly solution for corporate boardrooms and conference rooms where having both powerful interactive features and yet easy to understand operation is appreciated.  The Brightlink Pro 1430Wi brings ultra short throw and interactivity to conference rooms, training rooms, and at trade shows.

It targets the business projector market,  and is very similar to the Brighlink 595Wi that is sold for the education market.  Our previously published review of the similar Brightlink 595Wi is HERE and a video summary is available HERE.  Features of the Brightlink Pro 1430Wi include WXGA resolution (i.e., 1280 x 800 pixels), wired and wireless networking,  advanced user interactive inputs using dual pens plus finger touch, and conference room filling sound.

Epson also offers the less expensive Brightlink Pro 1420Wi for $2799, which is very similar to the 1430Wi, but lacks the finger touch user input interactive capability of the 1430Wi (i.e., the 1420Wi only supports pens for interactivity).  Also we reviewed (HERE) a Brightlink Pro 1410Wi back in 2013 that, at that time, was the flagship model in this series.  That earlier model has now been replaced by the Brightlink Pro 1420Wi.  Like the current 1420Wi, that earlier model also lacked the finger touch interactive feature (i.e., used only interactive pens) and had a slightly lower 3100 lumens light output specification. I reviewed the BrightLink 595Wi in 2014  and Art reviewed the 1410Wi in 2013 and since those models are in many aspects very similar the 1430Wi, where appropriate I have used text from these earlier reviews for this review of the 1430Wi.