Ill ad more later, but I LOVE my HD33. The best Optoma I have owned.

BTW, I bought mine new from Amazon on Decmeber 14th, 2011 for $1,429.00, its only depreciated $130, they really hold their value over time.

I also bought some RF 3D glasses.

You'll find praise about this projector everywhere including at Amazon where it is 4.5 out of 5 with 92 reviews.

Projector Central has it as their 3rd best in the Top 10 Home Theater projectors! This is quite a feat considering it is almost three years old. They also gave it their highest 5 star editors choice award.

PCMAG gives it high praise.

4.5 out of 5 at about.com.

Hot Product Award at projectorreviews.com

decent reviews (3.0 out of 5.0) over at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824219117

conanthelibrarian wrote:decent reviews (3.0 out of 5.0) over at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824219117

Dude... There are only three reviews there, and one of them is a 'My First Returned Product' with a 1 out of 5 rating on that review... That's not much of a consensus.

Check out what others had to say when it was last sold at tech.woot on 1/17/13

http://tech.woot.com/forums/viewpost.aspx?postid=5313445

The RF 3D glasses that I use with my HD33 work great and hold their charge a long time. They don't require line of sight to be used which is nice.

For those of you who may be looking for a good but inexpensive fixed tension screen, I did a lot of research for the best 'bang for the buck' screen I could find and eventually bought was Accuscreens 92" diagonal screen. You can also build your own screen pretty cheap using draper blackout cloth material, which I have also done and it worked very well.

Will this do double duty as a projector for business meetings or is it strictly for home theater? Like, will it be bright enough to project well in a typically lit meeting room, work okay for smaller projection sizes, etc.

papakeats wrote:Will this do double duty as a projector for business meetings or is it strictly for home theater? Like, will it be bright enough to project well in a typically lit meeting room, work okay for smaller projection sizes, etc.

You will not have the flexibility in positioning that you would have with a business projector (lens shift etc), but it is bright enough to use in most rooms. Personally, I would get a cheap business projector for that use, this is a real home theater projector that outperforms some other home theater projectors 2-3x its price.

The folks at AVForums get really technical in their review of the HD33 and earns their Best Buy award. The do some calibration and share the results.

You'll find some great tips for calibration and other information from HD33 owners at AVSforums' HD33 thread.

This is an excellent project, use it in my theater room. Great colors and brightness, great HD, and good 3D (although I haven't tried very much 3D content on it yet).

I got one of the Favi brand screens from Amazon to go with it, they are very cheap and are very nice quality. Went with the 120" Electric Drop Down, but manual pull downs can be a bit cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/FAVI-HD-120-16-120-Inch-Projector/dp/B0026DTP2S/

On the link you provided for the glasses it says "Currently, Optoma 3D projectors cannot be used to view 3D content from TV broadcast systems or Blu-ray players. Optoma projectors may support these applications in the future but will require additional hardware at an extra cost."

Is that true? What's the point if the projector cannot play 3D blu rays or TV broadcasts?

theguruguys wrote:The RF 3D glasses that I use with my HD33 work great and hold their charge a long time. They don't require line of sight to be used which is nice.

For those of you who may be looking for a good but inexpensive fixed tension screen, I did a lot of research for the best 'bang for the buck' screen I could find and eventually bought was Accuscreens 92" diagonal screen. You can also build your own screen pretty cheap using draper blackout cloth material, which I have also done and it worked very well.

pacodeth wrote:This is an excellent project, use it in my theater room. Great colors and brightness, great HD, and good 3D (although I haven't tried very much 3D content on it yet).

I got one of the Favi brand screens from Amazon to go with it, they are very cheap and are very nice quality. Went with the 120" Electric Drop Down, but manual pull downs can be a bit cheaper: http://www.amazon.com/FAVI-HD-120-16-120-Inch-Projector/dp/B0026DTP2S/

I bought the Favi electronic pull down and returned it for the other one I mentioned above. I couldn't stand how the edges curled and distorted the image. Others at Amazon have complained about the same thing on that screen, apparently it doesn't happen on all of them but I decided not to risk it and just got a tensioned fixed screen.

beabird wrote:On the link you provided for the glasses it says "Currently, Optoma 3D projectors cannot be used to view 3D content from TV broadcast systems or Blu-ray players. Optoma projectors may support these applications in the future but will require additional hardware at an extra cost."

Is that true? What's the point if the projector cannot play 3D blu rays or TV broadcasts?

I watch blu-ray 3D from my PS3 and have also played 3D PS3 games on my HD33. They are connected through my Onkyo 3D compatible receiver (though that is not necessary). I'm not sure what that link was about, I'm pretty sure it is way outdated information. I've not tried DirectTV 3D, but I'm sure it would work as well.

GooSystems sells custom movie screen paint specifically for home theatre projectors and they even have a Project Calculator to help you decide which Goo Paint to choose and how much you will need.

Then you too could have a beautiful shiny gray rectangle on the wall just like this... And your wife will love you like nobodies business!



They also sell special black border paint that is super light absorbing.

Oh man. Several years ago I gave in and bought the Panasonic AU-900U projecter at the then-good sale price of something like $1800 - and never even hooked it up. A bit later, I got the 65" LCD TV Woot was selling and that was that.

But I always wanted a projector just for the 'wow' factor not so much for movies - a bit for them - but for PC gaming.

And now this tempts me, not that I can justify it at all.

How do they make it call my name?

theguruguys wrote:You'll find praise about this projector everywhere including at Amazon where it is 4.5 out of 5 with 92 reviews.

Projector Central has it as their 3rd best in the Top 10 Home Theater projectors! This is quite a feat considering it is almost three years old. They also gave it their highest 5 star editors choice award.

PCMAG gives it high praise.

4.5 out of 5 at about.com.

Hot Product Award at projectorreviews.com

@theguruguys, the wealth of useful info you've posted today is amazing so thanks for that!

But be careful on the Projector Central link claim - that is a popularity list, not a 'best' list and the editor choice selection rating appears to be from 2011.

As an example, flat panel experts will tell us the Panasonic Plasmas typically yield the best picture in the right flat panel setups, but Panasonc's distribution network is pretty thin so its 'popularity' has never matched LCD's.

But agreed, this Optoma did look to be near universally loved.

Can anyone recommend a ceiling mount that can be used with this projector for a 9' ceiling?

Any reason to not get a refurbished unit? This looks like a great buy but I will have to hold out for next time it comes around as I am in the process of buying a house right now. So much great information!

bluemaple wrote:@theguruguys, the wealth of useful info you've posted today is amazing so thanks for that!

But be careful on the Projector Central link claim - that is a popularity list, not a 'best' list and the editor choice selection rating appears to be from 2011.

As an example, flat panel experts will tell us the Panasonic Plasmas typically yield the best picture in the right flat panel setups, but Panasonc's distribution network is pretty thin so its 'popularity' has never matched LCD's.

But agreed, this Optoma did look to be near universally loved.

Projector Central was one of the earliest projector dedicated review sites and is still one of the better ones IMO. The fact that it is from 2011 and is still ranked #3 on their top 10 (sorted by popularity) and #7 sorted by rating is a statement to how good the projector performs. They still compare recently released 3D projectors to the HD33 in their reviews.

The reality is, this projector is STILL universally loved, especially at its price point, despite it being released in 2011.

I've been on the hunt for a project for a few months now, I think after seeing one of the sales on woot for optoma refurbs. I was very close to ordering the HD33 until about 2 weeks ago when I started seeing reviews come out for the Benq W1070. It gets great reviews (large thread on avsforums).

I clicked the buy button on Thursday, and got it yesterday. It's really nice.

I'm sure I would like the HD33 as well, but I think the specs are slightly better for the Benq and the reviews back it up.

Do some quick reading on avsforum or some of the review sites before you click buy.

Regardless, it's really awesome to watch content in HD that big. Everyone should have a projector.

sixline wrote:I've been on the hunt for a project for a few months now, I think after seeing one of the sales on woot for optoma refurbs. I was very close to ordering the HD33 until about 2 weeks ago when I started seeing reviews come out for the Benq W1070. It gets great reviews (large thread on avsforums).

I clicked the buy button on Thursday, and got it yesterday. It's really nice.

I'm sure I would like the HD33 as well, but I think the specs are slightly better for the Benq and the reviews back it up.

Do some quick reading on avsforum or some of the review sites before you click buy.

Regardless, it's really awesome to watch content in HD that big. Everyone should have a projector.

Yeah, the BenQ is getting really good reviews. Optoma will likely release their answer to it later this year if their release patterns from the past tend to hold true (probably around September). If I had to buy a new one now it would be a tougher call, and honestly I would likely go with the BenQ, but that being said I've had a good history with Optoma projectors, I have sold my used ones with very little depreciation in value and upgraded to the new models every few years. I don't think you could go wrong with either the HD33 or the BenQ w1070.

Whew, I forgot about this and now it's gone.