Worth considering, especially if you're on a budget.

A couple months ago, I was getting frustrated with the video projectors I was being handed whenever I went to teach a class or do a presentation. I decided that it was time that I just bought my own. To help justify the purchase, I decided to use it "part-time" for "home theater" in my den. Now, anybody will tell you that there's a big difference between a true home-theater quality projector and a business presentation unit, and they are quite correct. This unit can't match the performance of a $2500 - $5000 HD projector.

On the other hand, this only cost $600 and it's a yeoman about meeting my varying needs. The projector is only about 4 pounds in weight and comes with a very nice carrying case. It does a great job coupled with my Dell D620 laptop when I need to do a brief presentation or even a much longer training class. One of the features I particularly like is that the projector takes only about 15 seconds to cool down. When you tell it to shut down, the fan speed increases for about 10 seconds, the screen goes black, and the unit shuts off and is cool enough to put in the case after another 5-10 seconds. I've used other projectors that took a full 3 - 5 minutes to shut down.

I also installed a (used) matte projection screen in my den and an adjustable shelf for the projector. When I'm not carrying the projector to a presentation or class, it lives on the shelf and is connected to a spare upconverting DVD player and stereo. Maximum resolution on the EP721 is 1400 x 1050 pixels and you can select three different aspect ratios (one 4:3 and two 16:9), so it actually does a pretty good job with high quality sources. Of course, you must use the DVI input (I use an HDMI to DVI converter cable) to get the best resolution from the unit.

Like most tabletop business projectors, the EP721 is configured to project at an upward angle, even when sitting on a level table. Therefore, placing it on a shelf just makes it light up your ceiling. You MUST invert the projector if you mount it any higher than 3 or 4 feet from the floor and then digitally invert the picture using the setup menu. I didn't want to buy the fancy inverted mount bracket, so I just rigged something up so I could lay the projector on its top without scratching it. (The hot air exhausts from the unit at the front, so cooling is not a problem as long as you don't block the rear or the front of the projector.) The projected image is bright enough for me, but I can see some room for improvement. The resolution more than meets my needs and there are no noticeable digital anomalies in the picture (other than those normally associated with DLP units.) I sometimes see the "rainbows" in the projected image, but they are hardly noticeable. I wouldn't let the fear of "rainbows" stop you from at least trying out a DLP unit.

The remote control for the unit works very well and actually works for me when I point it at the projection screen so it reflects to the projector. The only two complaints I have about the remote are (1) you can't directly change the aspect ratio using a single button on the remote...you must go through the setup menu, and (2) the directional buttons for the menu are different from the directional buttons for other functions.

Finally, I have not been able to figure out how to get the unit to lock on a selected input source. For example, I can't figure out how to make it STAY on s-video. No matter what I do, it seems like the unit wants to scan all the inputs for an active video signal. I probably need to go back to the instruction manual.

In my den, the projector is about 13' from the screen and I'm getting about an 85" diagonal image (4:3 aspect) at full zoom.

Overall, I've been extremely pleased. You can couple this unit with a sub-$100 upconverting DVD player, an HDMI to DVI cable, and an inexpensive surround sound system and you have a really nice (and cheap) home theater. This projector is (relatively) quiet and does what it says it can do. How can I complain about that?