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Highly Recommended Award
Our Highly Recommended designation is earned by products offering extraordinary value or performance in their price class.
As one of the few projectors designed specifically for game playing, the Optoma GT750E is both a prime representative of this still new category, and one of the projectors that's helping define it. Despite the focus on video gaming, or more precisely because of it, the GT750E can also fill in as a capable data or low-end home theater projector, which is lot more than you might expect from the $799 price.
Optoma says that the GT750E has been engineered to essentially eliminate the video delay that can make action games painful to play with some projectors, and, indeed, I didn't see any noticeable delay in my tests. Beyond that, it offers a constellation of features that make it particularly appropriate for games.
To help give you an immersive experience, it offers a short throw lens, which lets you sit close enough to the screen for the image to fill your field of vision and still be behind the projector where you don't have to worry about casting shadows. It also offers an audio system that delivers both high volume and good sound quality, a 3000 lumen rating so it can throw a large image that can stand up to ambient light, and a DLP engine with a native 1280x800 resolution, so you can show games at 720p without scaling.
Most important, because games have scenes with photorealistic rendering that approach a video-like image and also have screens that are visually equivalent to business graphics with text that you need to be able to read easily, the GT750E is designed to handle both kinds of images well. This is the key factor that lets the GT750E serve as a data projector or home theater projector if you need it to.
Still another feature that helps make the GT750E particularly appropriate for games is that it's fully 3D ready, able to plug directly into, say, a PlayStation 3 for 3D games. And, finally, if you're the kind of gamer who takes your equipment with you, you'll appreciate both the light weight, at 6.6 pounds, and the padded backpack that the GT750E comes with.
What Makes a Projector a Game Projector
Strong Points
Good data image quality. Since some game screens share the same characteristics as data screens, it is important for a game projector to handle data images well. The GT750E does well enough on this score so you can use it as a data projector.
On data screens, colors were a bit dark in terms of a hue saturation brightness color model, but they were fully saturated and suitably eye-catching. Yellow was a touch mustard color, but no more so than with most DLP projectors. Note too that text was crisp and readable down to the smallest sizes we test with. The text was easy to read even in an assortment of color combinations with color text on color backgrounds.
Good video image quality. The GT750E's video quality is easily a match for some low-end home theater projectors and better than you'll get from most data projectors. In my tests, it handled skin tones well and did an acceptable job with shadow detail. I saw a slight loss of detail in scenes that tend to bring out the problem because they're not lit well, but poor lighting (or, rather, it's digital equivalent) is an issue you're not likely to see in games.
I saw some moderately noticeable noise in large areas like the sky or a solid blank wall, but no more than with most inexpensive home theater projectors. I didn't see any motion artifacts or posterization (shading changing suddenly where it should change gradually). More generally, the GT750E's video quality is good enough that I'd be comfortable using it to watch a full-length movie.
Good Game image quality. Good image quality for both data and video almost necessarily translates to good image quality for games, but to confirm it I took a look at both Batman: Arkham Asylum and MLB 10 The Show. The projector handled both the dark Batman scenes and the bright baseball scenes without any problems, and also without the noise I saw with video.
Short throw lens. Thanks to its short throw lens, the GT750E can easily throw a large image in a tight space. For my tests, I measured a roughly 90" diagonal image at 720p at just 57" from the screen. That puts the projector close enough to the screen to let you sit behind it, not have to worry about shadows, and still have an image that fills most of your field of vision.
Fully 3D-ready. The GT750E is one of the few inexpensive projectors with HDMI 1.4a ports, so it can accept a 3D signal directly from a PlayStation 3, a FIOS box, or the equivalent. I tested it with 3D games, Blu-ray discs, and HBO's 3D content on FIOS and it worked as promised, with no problems and with no noticeable crosstalk.
Portable. At 3.8" x 12.8" x 9.2" and 6.6 pounds, the GT750E is small enough to carry easily. If you want to use it occasionally as a data projector for business presentations you may want to get a second carrying case. The included black backpack with red and gray highlights doesn't look businesslike, especially with the words Game Time showing clearly in large letters.
Good quality audio. The GT750E's sound system is far better than what you'll find in most projectors its size. In fact, the two 5-watt speakers offer stereo at high enough volume and high enough quality to match a typical large screen TV, which means you can do without an external sound system if you like.
Test Results and Connectivity
Brightness. I measured the GT750E in Bright mode with the lamp also set to Bright at 2805 lumens, or about 94% of its rating. Game mode came out to 1883 lumens, which is still easily bright enough for the 90"-diagonal image I tested with to stand up to moderate ambient light, even considering the dimming effect of 3D glasses. Switching to the Standard lamp mode drops the brightness by about 24%, to 2140 lumens with the Bright preset. For lower ambient light levels, other presets range as low as 1137 lumens with the lamp's Bright mode.
Adequate brightness uniformity. Short throw lenses often have a problem maintaining uniform brightness across the screen, so it isn't surprising that I measured only a 61% brightness uniformity with the GT750E. That's a large enough difference, that I could easily see a cool spot in the upper right corner on a solid white or color screen. However, it's a small enough difference to be hidden in any screen filled with detailed images. I didn't see it in any of the video or game screens I tested with.
Connectivity
The back panel on the GT750E offers a well chosen set of connectors for the focus on games, starting with two HDMI ports for computers or video sources and a VGA port for a computer or component video, with Optoma including a component video adapter with the projector, so you don't have to buy one separately.
Other ports include S-Video and composite video, a set of RCA Phono plugs for stereo audio input, a miniplug for stereo audio output, and an RS-232 connector for controlling the projector from a computer or control box.
One port that deserves special mention is the VESA 3D port. The GT750E supports both DLP-Link and RF 3D glasses with DLP-Link support built in, and RF support depending on a supplied 3D emitter that plugs into the VESA port.
Optoma recommends using RF glasses since they don't need a line-of-sight connection. That means there's no chance of momentarily breaking the line of sight and having to resync. In addition, Optoma's RF glasses are smaller, lighter, and, frankly, less dorky looking than its DLP-Link glasses. On the other hand, Optoma also says its DLP-Link glasses offer better contrast, and my subjective impression is that they give more of a sense of 3D depth. Given that the GT750E supports both options, you might want to try both before committing to buying one kind or the other.
Limitations
No Zoom. The lack of a zoom lens on the GT750E means that the only way to adjust image size is by moving the projector. This could become a minor annoyance for a portable projector you'll likely have to set up repeatedly in different locations.
Rainbow artifacts. Rainbow artifacts are potentially an issue for any single-chip DLP projector. More important, if you see the rainbows easily, you're more likely to find them annoying in a long game playing session or watching a movie than when watching a business presentation. With the GT750E I saw an occasional rainbow with data screens and saw them a little more often with video and games, but still not often enough to find them bothersome.
Unless you're both sensitive to the effect, as I am, and unwilling to accept seeing any rainbows at all, it's unlikely that you'll consider them a problem. To prove the point, I connected the GT750E to a FIOS box and spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours watching movies in 3D, despite the occasional rainbow.
Doesn't include 3D Glasses. The GT750E doesn't come with 3D glasses, which means you'll have spend extra for them, at $70 to $100 each. Optoma says you can find the identical projector selling as the GT750 with one set of RF glasses. At $899, or $100 more than the GT750E, however, you won't save any money that way.
Conclusion
Somewhat ironically, the GT750E's tight focus on game playing makes it a good choice as a jack of all trades. By designing it to handle game images well, Optoma wound up with a projector that offers good image quality for both data and video too. And by adding a sound system that's good enough for games, it wound up with one that's also good enough for movies or business presentations with sound.
Being able to use the GT750E for data and video is a welcome extra, but the best reason to consider it is for its intended purpose, for game playing. The simple truth is that it's well designed for games, with good image quality, good audio, high enough brightness, support for both RF and DLP-Link 3D glasses, and fully 3D-ready. If you plan to play games, the GT750E belongs on your short list.
For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Optoma GT750E projector page.
The question is lag, and the question is lumens. This PJ seems to be a "gaming LANFest" type where you put it in your backpack and run. The short-throw helps with setting it up easily in a tight spot.
I just wonder, a 120" 720p vs 1080p image is easily differentiated, but maybe not with mainly 720p games.
how can it be "no scaling" by playing 720p content, if the native is 800p?
