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Editorial Review Optoma's HD66, 3D-Ready home theater projector delivers the future! Breathtaking and bold, the Optoma HD66 hometheater projector provides stunningly beautiful widescreen viewing. The 3D-Ready HD66 adds a whole new demension to the gaming and home theater experience-and delivers more dynamic learning in education and training applications. With 2500 ANSI lumens, 4000:1 contrast, and native 720p widescreen resolution, the HD66 delivers subtle details and striking clarity for pure viewing delight! ... Read more Reviews 
Does a truly excellent job for the price!, January 23, 2010
I bought this projector 3 weeks ago from Amazon. Delivery was prompt and on time. The projector came in the usual Optoma box but without a carry case. Of course I knew that, but one would have been nice anyway. I had already printed out the manual (at work of course) from the Optoma website.
Set up was easy enough but a little time consuming as the settings where totally off. I believe everyone using this projector primarily for home theater will and should set the bulb to standard. The extra lumen will come in handy however when using the 3D glasses to view 3D content.
Once calibrated, picture quality was very impressive for a 720p projector. Blacks were black enough, color and shadow, rich and detailed. The projector does a good job (imo) of scaling 1080p content. I have two Blu-ray players and the projector showed Blu-ray content a lot better with my Philips player so like everything else the source is important.
Overall I'm very happy with my purchase. Couldn't convince the wife at this stage to let me spend the extra money on a 1080p projector, so I was already looking at the HD65. I was encouraged by what was being said by the very early adapters that had pulled the trigger on the dedicated AV forums (God bless them). Early veiwings included Iron Man and Transformers, and Walle and UP for animation, all in Blu-ray on a 72" 16:9 screen and I'm truly impressed. The harshest critic is too, the wife. Picture is as good, if not better, than my Sanyo 42" 1080p plasma. I'm English; my wife is American so were now looking forward to the World Cup being shown in 3D. By the time the tournament begins hopefully the price of active shutter glasses will have fallen enough so were not passing one pair around the room to everybody.
If you have bought this projector from Amazon just post a review good, bad or indifferent. I was compelled to do so because for a long time the only one posted nearly caused me to pass on the HD66. $700 is a lot of money (to me at least), so I utilize reviews all the time without giving back. This was my first one ever, hope it helps.
Great entry level projector......, May 1, 2010
....but ended up going with the HD20.
This is my first projector and I use it solely for watching movies; blu-ray, DVD, and streaming HD from VUDU\Netflix. I had nothing to compare it to except for my brothers which was a Optoma 1080p projector with a throw of 15-18 feet.
I was very impressed out of the box. Blu-ray looks great @ 11' throw\85" diag. picture. Works quite well in ambient light, but really comes alive in lights off. HD stuff looks really good from viewing distance of 12'.
There is some rainbow effect, but not often at all and usually during credits. Certainly not a deal breaker for me. We watch it directly off our light gray painted wall and it looks very good. Older DVD's are blurry, but that is just the nature of the lower res DVDs. The texture of the wall and no gain gray paint will require a screen eventually.
The controls are pretty basic and simple to use. There are some advanced calibration settings that I didn't mess with.
Overall this was a very satisfying experience for the money.
However....
I felt that the 11' throw\12' viewing distance put me right on the cusp of being able to benefit from 1080p. I got the bug and started obsessing about it and decided to order and HD20 to compare it to, realizing I may take a restocking hit on the returned projector. I really wanted to see the difference because I felt that at 85" to 95" inch diagonal I could really make the hd stuff crisp.
Set up the HD20 yesterday. First run was in soft ambient daylit room with shades drawn. I immediately noticed the difference in brightness. The HD20 at 1700L vs. HD66 2500L was definitely not a good viewing experience in ambient light. Even on bright mode, the picture seemed washed out. I became somewhat discouraged, but since my gf and I pretty much only watch with lights off at night, no cable, I waited to make my decision. Fan noise a little louder on HD20 especially on bright mode.
Once it became dark outside, the experience totally changed, even with low light in the room, the image began to get brighter and clearer. I watch several HD previews off of VUDU and Up in standard DVD and Avatar on DVD.
Verdict, The HD20 really made a difference in 1080P. It just seemed more comfortable displaying it's native res than the HD66. From my viewing distance it was really really awesome. My girlfriend came home, I didn't tell her I swapped them out, and she immediately said, "Is there a screen there, the image seems really sharp." I chuckled and said no.
Final Thoughts:
If you are throwing from 12" or less and viewing from around 10' to 12' AND you want viewing in ambient light AND your budget is limited, The HD66 is a great buy. You won't be disappointed. If however, you can spend the money and you are throwing from farther than 11' AND you will be watching primarily in dark or near dark room, I would say go for the HD20. I was a bit nervous until I put UP in standard DVD in and it looked better than in the theater. It was really crisp and that was without a screen(which does help a lot, I tried the HD66 out with one.)
Great box for the price, January 19, 2010
Very nice projector, good colors, brightness and black levels. This is not going to compete with a $2k projector, but for its class, it does a really impressive job.
I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because out of the box, the settings make the image look quite poor, complete loss of detail in faces, skin tones are definitely off. After some quick calibraiton, Specifically:
- I turned down the bulb to standard
- turned "Brilliant Color" way down
- reduced the contrast to about 42-45.
- I also turned down the brightness to 43, but after doing a THX optimizer, brought the brightness back up to the standard 50.
AFTER CALIBRATION, I am VERY pleased with the colors, the black levels are good (not great, but pretty darn good) and the shadow detail is much better than what I have seen in the past.
I would recommend this projector to anyone looking for a ht projector in this price range.
(Also, as others have reported, the remote is not laid out well at all (although this would not sway my purchase decision, it is worth noting))
Optoma HD 66 vs Epson 705 HD, July 15, 2010
I've never written an Amazon review before, but I've learned a lot about projectors over the past couple weeks, and thought I should share.
As prices have been coming down, I finally decide to get a projector. 720p was plenty good for me. After reading plenty of reviews here and the various projector websites out there I narrowed my search down to the Optoma HD66 and the Epson 705HD, both going for +/- $650 at the time of this writing, and both highly rated.
A bit about me - I'm not a projector or electronics nut, but I do appreciate knowing that I have the best (or better) of what's out there when I do buy things of significant $$$. Male, early 30's. Don't watch any TV, just the occasional movie at home.
After much fuss, I decided to order the Epson. It seemed to have more features, had longer bulb life, and in the end I figured since I'm no projector connoisseur I would be more than impressed with its performance. However, I was not blown away enough, so I ordered the Optoma. I am keeping the Optoma, and returning the Epson. I tested both using a connection to my old Mac Powerbook G4 laptop, projecting onto a white wall painted matte white.
Here is what I learned:
Epson 705HD:
-LCD technology really does display "little pixels" that are visible if you are up close. Not really a big deal with a movie where things are moving all the time.
-Significantly brighter than the Optoma.
-Better designed box, integrated lense "cap" that slides, easier to use adjustable legs, more friendly packaging/manuel, carrying case. Basically you get the feeling that Epson put some thought into its product. Feels more name brand and consumer friendly.
-Supposedly has ~1000 bulb hours more than the Optoma when in Eco mode (a touch less bright than normal mode).
-Has a speaker (I didn't use it).
-Definitely better for office or daytime use.
-Blacks appear grey when compared to adjacent wall.
-Compared to the Epson, has a larger "screen size" to "distance from wall" ratio (I think this is called "throw"). Plenty big. In fact I had to "zoom out" as the screen actually felt too large for the distance I was from the screen. The projector was propped up on a table immediately behind my couch. Once adjusted it was fine. The large size could be great for the gamers out there though.
Optoma HD66:
-Feels more "made in China" with less fancy stickers and design.
-Not quite as bright as the Epson.
-I have yet to try this one during full daylight, but guessing the Epson would be better here. But this is fine with me b/c I figure if it's bright outside, I should probably be there instead of inside.
-Much better colors.
-Throw ratio not as good as Epson, but more than adequate for my needs.
-DLP really does have much better blacks. The "black frame" around the movies is a far cry from grey, and I have a feeling if I fool around with it, I can probably get it to almost disappear.
-Better picture quality - this was apparent to me and all 4 of my non-professional projector testing friends, and more apparent the darker the room is. The Epson is great, but the Optoma is like "Whoa - I wouldn't think I would be able to tell, but I can."
-Harder (though still possible) to discern the "pixels" - feels more like film.
-I was worried about the "rainbow effect". My friends and I were all able to see RGB shadows if we shook our heads back and forth wildly, and maybe a flash of it once or twice during the movie when our eyes would flick across the screen. Not really a big deal, though I guess some people are more "susceptible" to seeing it than others.
Both:
-Easily found my computer and displayed the correct resolution automatically.
-Amazing resolution.
-Plenty of adjustments to mess with color and whatnot. I only fooled around with these for 5 minutes or so. You can easily make the colors warmer or cooler.
-Have a small remote with plenty of functions. Batteries included.
-Do NOT come with HDMI, DVI, VGA cables. However, each does come with cable that allows you plug the traditional DVD player (the yellow, red, white "RCA?") cables into the VGA port.
Like I said in the end I am sticking with the Optoma HD66.
Since the reason to get a projector, for me, is to have a really great screen to watch movies on, I figured I should lean toward picture quality over features. If I watched TV for a lot of the day, the brightness and bulb life of the Epson may have swayed me in that direction. I hope this is helpful and saves you all some time.
the HD66 is just amazing, April 3, 2010
i have used many projectors before at friends homes and at work. i love this projector, 3d tv's are around 2000 to 4000 dollars but for $799 this projector is really good. i watch with all the lights off in my theater room and the brightness, color and quality are very good. i would really say that i have an imax experience at home. i would suggest this product to anyone.
best buy relative to features, May 6, 2010
if you're looking for HDMI, 720p native, this is the projector you want. it's relatively cheap, extremely bright, replacement lamps last 4000 hours and are cheaper than other lamps in the same class, and it's quieter than others with similar specs. the video and audio passthrough is nice. the composite video is very clear, but has a few interlacing issues with movement... not a problem with the machine, more with the standard, but when it's 100"+ it's pretty noticeable. i looked at about 50 projectors before buying this one and i'm extremely pleased.
Awesome big screen experience at a low price!, July 28, 2010
I bought my first ever projector, the HD66 from Amazon and it got delivered across the Pacific in 9 days (I'm in Australia). Adequately packed and tracking was sufficient to keep my anxiousness at bay!
The projector itself is a little wonder! Very compact in size and easy to use, every feature/setting is available through a few menu clicks. I primarily gave it the HD Set-top box and DVD player input through HDMI and the picture turns out brilliant. Mind you, a few tweaks to the settings need to be done as the preset modes are horrible - and to be honest, you need to tune it according to your room/light/placement/wall/screen color etc! .. Video quality through the composite video is not good, but not many devices use them now .. there is a VGA to Component (or vice versa) converter cable provided .. which gives the same crisp output as the HDMI.
I'm projecting it on to a white-ish wall (no screens!) and yet the picture is amazing to the detail .. I view normal TV at a 100"inch screen (zoom -3) and for movies I increase it to 124"inch (zoom 0) - Awesome! .. I have it ceiling mounted and the throw distance/ratio is just perfect. I did notice that the DLP chip used in the HD66 has a native resolution of 1280x800 .. which is perfect for a laptop/VGA signal (squarish) but to display TV or Movies in 16:9, the resolution used is 1280x720 (which is the true 16:9). What this means is that there will be a light shadow around the 16:9 picture as its not using the full DLP chip for image. This is sometimes distracting specially for me as I project on a wall and don't have a set viewing area. But to be honest, the projector is so bright, i leave a light in the adjacent room on and the little ambient light takes care of the light border. I've had no problems with using the projector in the afternoon with the blinds closed (i do not have a dedicated theatre room).
The zoom in the projector is not enough .. i measured that the full diagonal image only increased or decreased by about 8-10"inches. So if your shortest throw is a 100"inch image, your maximum would be 110". Mine is places about 4.5m from the wall which gives me 114 and 124"inch images.
The remote control layout is unintuitive and useless - although you'd still be using it for all the tweaks and on/off. I haven't used the 3D capabilities as i'm not into gaming, and its not compatible with 3-D HD sources yet (like TV signal or DVD/Blue-ray) - Have to wait for Optoma to release a firmware update if that has to happen.
In summary, this is a bright 720p HD projector. Displays SD and HD (upto 1080p) with ease and is bright enough to be used with some lights on or in the day with blinds drawn down. The features and controls are easy to use and the unit itself is compact and can be placed un-noticed! .. Finally, the lamp setting on Bright is not needed, the Standard Eco setting will be bright enough and give you 4000 hours of life - which in my currency translated to about 7c an hour of viewing!
Hope this helped those of you who are still undecided on which entry level projector to go for :)
Wow, April 30, 2010
Excellent!!!! Recomend highly. Chose the HD66 over the HD65 for the extra hrs of lamp life, and lumen output, 3D is a little out of reach for me but the price diff. was null, now maybe i'll have a chance a 3D when it is readily avail. and not soooo crazy exspenive.(for the glasses $150.00 a pair?)
After I cracked the Screen on my LCD, I began anew. The original idea was to replace the LCD, but was not happy with my last one and price and quality were not matching up to my expectations. I had many reservations about a projector I have seen them in home theatres, but not that impressed. Big screen, yes image quality was iffy( maybe it was the setup, or the screen,(there are a lot of variables)technology has vastly improved since.
So I began researching, and almost stumbled across the optoma line. I was impressed, but not convinced. I read and read and talked to friends. Read some more, and decided that it was the best bang for my buck(wich was supposed to my myself a new 7.1 head unit).
Then there was the screen issue, exspenive, gain, etc. Should I buy over priced specialized paint? Well after even more research i found screen material on ebay, the sellers name is Chris Young and he sells different sizes and gain screens to fit you're needs cheap. [...]. That is the link for the screen I purchased. I chose a high contrast screen because of the size image I would be projecting. From what I learned the closer and smaller the image the harder it is to control black levels and contrast. Also in ambient light or day time viewing situations the grey makes the picture appear more like the way it should. By the way the screen is awesome, it glows. I did a comparison with some white duck canvas I had considered using, I made the right decision.
Out of the box this projector looked phenominal,(sd dvd upscaled, mind you) was a little bright reduced the bulb to standard, the contrast and color to my liking and that was it. A little bit of screen door effect durring high contrast scenes, I fixed that by moving my couch back about 1 foot. I have not noticed much rainbow effect more than once or twice in a film, it happens so fast I don't know if it is really there or if i'm phsyching my self out, or having flashbacks. Either way it is barely noticable, and does not effect me or the others who have whatched this negatively, in the least.
The remote setup is poor, I use a universal so no big deal.
More than enough menu options for the average user.
Mounting screws I felt should be a little larger(damn engineers!)
I think it looks better(more natural than my fathers new 55" samsung LED) I wont tell him that since he paid 4 times the price for half the size picture!
And so after all my ramblings(hope it helped!)If this is in youre price range you are making a great decision this thing is amazing.
I am projecting an 80" Diagonal screen on a grey high contrast .08 gain screen. Projecting from 10' away my couch is about 11.6'away and this is awesome!
Great Quality, as long as you don't like the rainbow effect..., March 4, 2010
I bought the HD66 (and subsequently returned it) based on the reviews on the web, and from other users. It's a great projector, and is very sharp. Once you calibrate the settings, the HD-movies will appear flawless (or expose flaws). I played some of my PS3 games on it, and watched some Blu-ray movies, and its definitely great quality. I do not see any issues with the contrast, despite what some folks said on this website.
However, if you are sensitive to the rainbow effect - and it really comes out with the higher contrast movies and games, it may annoy you enough that you cannot tolerate it. The rainbow effect probably only applies to a small part of the population, but it stood out more during movies (and games), with high contrast.
Otherwise, if you can handle the rainbow effect or can't perceive it, it's a great buy. Otherwise, I would stick to LCD Projectors - and my old Hitachi CP-RX60, even running at component at 720p, had a better picture and contrast than the Optoma HD-66.
2D is great, 3D is a total pita., February 26, 2010
For starters, Nvidia doesn't support this projector yet - so unless you like beating yourself in the head all day, the 3D will probably be out of most people's reach until there's some actual support for it. When the 3D DOES work it's pretty fantastic - but there are WAY, WAY, WAY too many bugs for me to recommend you even attempt it.
When the projector is mounted to a ceiling and the image is rotated 180 degrees to orient the image correctly - it reverses the L/R interlace forcing you to wear the 3D glasses upside down in order for 3D to work. There is a setting on the projector under 3D mode that looks like it was intended to compensate for that - but it doesn't.
New Mac products will not display 1080p/i or 720P on the HD66. They also recognize the projector as the EW536. So that sucks.
Anyway, to sum up: they rushed this to market without sufficient testing or support. If you're buying it with the hope of using it for 3D - wait until there's actual support for it and Optoma has worked out some of the bugs (of which there are many).
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Good buy if you understand the limitations, November 4, 2009