The Optoma EP729 Road Warrior Projector

After Work, Relax

As we said to you a little earlier, why not use this little rascal for something a bit more entertaining? Once your hard day's work is done, you can connect the EP729 to a game console or a DVD player. But, while we're on this subject, this product does not offer a DVI socket. While it's true that DVI interfaces can be found on a great many household DVD players and also on graphics cards, the majority of notebook PCs offers a 15-pin VGA D-sub or an S-Video output.

Having said that, we did watch a few movie extracts such as Gladiator and Lord of the Rings and a few animated films such as Shark Gang and The Incredibles. Here, you can set the projector to 16/9 and put the video mode on "cinema," which then has the effect of increasing the contrast and chromatic precision levels. Keeping the projector at 13.12 ft. (four meters) from the screen for a projection of 6.56 ft. (two meters) in 16/9, the image turned out to have better contrast than during our business application tests. If you darken the room completely and put the bulb in "economy" mode then you'll be reasonably satisfied. Though the EP729 is not all that comfortable with video, it's far from being disastrous. But we're a long way short of the quality of home theater products in the same price range. The image isn't always totally smooth and really lacks sharpness. You can improve things because there are a number of adjustments (contrast, brightness, sharpness, white level, etc.) but at best the final results will be nothing more than average.

The luminosity capabilities of the EP729 quickly become a handicap for watching movies because it's difficult, even after adjusting everything, to get an evenly distributed image. On the other hand, that can be an advantage when connected to a games console because then dark and moody games like Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube work very well.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a video projector for mobile businesses applications, such as giving PowerPoint presentations at a customer site, then the EP729 was made for you. Small enough to fit in your hand and weighing only a couple of pounds, it could become an integral part of your "well-equipped business man" toolkit. With a launch price of around $1,500, its cost-of-ownership is also reasonable thanks to a bulb with a life expectancy of 4,000 hours. Even with five hours of projection per day, that will leave you with around 160 weeks between bulb changes. And even that can be done without the need to call for an electrician since all you have to do is remove two or three screws and the job's done. Overall, the EP729's multimedia capabilities are adequate and once you're back at home, you can benefit from your professional investment to put together a quick slide show or watch a basketball game with full-size players.