6. Epson EX71 Multimedia Projector

Epson EX71 Multimedia Projector

• Ex71 Wxga Multimedia...
• • Epson
  • $749.99
• • STAPLES
  • $749.99
• • CompUSA
  • $649.99

Giving the gift of a home-theater upgrade? That marked-down 47" LCD HDTV at the big-box store is not your only option. For many people, ditching the TV screen in favor of a multimedia alternative proves to be the right choice, while choosing a projector can both save space and allow for an enormous image size. And, as the Epson EX71 shows, a high-end TV-replacement projector needn’t cost more than a mid-range LCD TV.

The EX71 can display an image between 33" and 320" in size. Unless your home is palatial, you probably won’t be able to find a spot in your living room for a 320" image, especially considering that to make the 320" image look decent, you’d have to sit nearly 36 feet from the screen (called the “throw distance” in projector lingo). Instead, we found that the ideal spot for the EX71 in our living room was about 11 feet away from the wall or screen (mounted near the ceiling or on a table), which creates a crisp and amply large 107" image. Try shopping for a 107" HDTV at Best Buy.

We consider the EX71 to be a true television-replacement projector and not a movie theater replicator. This is because it is bright (2,500 lumens of color and white light) and stands up well to non-ideal lighting conditions like most of us live with in our living rooms. With a contrast ratio of 2,000:1, the EX71 won’t produce the deep dark blacks of a high-end plasma HDTV (but then again, those high-end HDTVs cost a lot more than this projector). Depending on the lighting scenario in your living room, you’ll want to set the projector to either Game Mode for the brightest image or Theater Mode for best contrast.

This projector supports 1080p video output, though its own maximum resolution is about 720p (precisely 1280x800 or 16:10 widescreen). It features an HDMI port, so it can project an image directly from a Blu-ray player for audio and video without the aid of a computer. But the projector can also be used to display video from a laptop. While you can utilize your computer’s DVI/VGA port to put YouTube or Hulu on your wall, it is much more convenient to avoid the pins and screws associated with those connectors and instead use the USB cable that comes with the projector. This feature, called “USB Plug ‘N’ Play,” will simply replicate your desktop through the projector.

Just want to show a photo slideshow on your wall? Put the images on a USB stick that you can put directly into the projector’s USB port. It will display the images without the need of a computer.

Many of us remember the joy of upgrading from a 32" standard TV set to a 47" or 50" HD set. With a projector you can sit in the same spot on your couch and turn that 50" set into 107" with this box that is less than a foot wide, for the cost of a mid-range LCD HDTV. --Rachel Rosmarin