Optoma GT720 – Competitors

In this case, we’re going to take a pass on this page. Sorry, no comparisons, and for good reason.

That’s because the Optoma GT720 is the first projector we’ve reviewed, that is designed with gamers in mind. And being reviewed in detail for its abilities as a gaming projector. True, we’ve spent a lot of time on the rest of the GT720, but both Pete and Scott S. are blogging about how they see the GT720 as a game projector.

This is a projector for folks who are more into World of Warcraft, SIMS, Carbon Canyon, or Nintendo Wii’ Sports, than for watching Lord of the Rings, American Idol, or Midnight in Paris (rather excellent movie, BTW, for a “chick flick” /aka romantic comedy.) Midnight in Paris is a Woody Allen flick, starring Owen Wilson. Sorry, I digress.

We can tell you that the GT720 is about the least expensive projector for the home that we’ve reviewed to date, unless you want to count the small pico projectors.

Even to compare it to the almost twice the price BenQ W1200 we recently reviewed, doesn’t work well, unless the BenQ is also being reviewed as a gaming projector. The BenQ is easily the better of the two for movie watching, but is strictly 2D, while the Optoma is 3D capable. Other popular projectors like Optoma’s own HD20, HD71 and HD66, are not 3D.

So, the GT720, is probably at the least, better at gaming, if for no other reason, that it can play 2D games, 3D games, and even convert a great deal of 2D games to 3D, thanks to supporting the Nvidia 3D and their certification program. Nvidia, as most of you know, can, with many of their graphics cards, re-render 2D games, on the fly, into 3D. Of course, those games were likely all originally rendered in 3D, before being converted to 2D. Still, Nvidia’s setup does work, as I’m told. Of course we’ll shortly be also trying out 3D games on other projectors being reviewed.

Actually, we’ll know soon. Pete is currently playing with the BenQ W1200, considering its gaming abilities. He will blog on it, and certainly, let us all know how he sees the BenQ W1200 vs. the GT720.

We are expecting the new GT750 soon (as of 7/11). That model should be very similar to the GT720, but add 1080p 3D support including Blu-ray 3D. (Yes, it’s still a 720p projector.) Soon!