Customer Reviews
Perfect small apartment all-in-one home theater system 
2007-12-03
I bought the DV11 three months ago after a good deal of research on home theater systems. It exceeded even my best hopes. I unpacked it and plugged it into the wall. Then I looked agape at the 12' wide perfect image (opening sequence of 'Serenity') thrown on my living room wall. I confess I dragged several neighbors in my apartment building over to take a look, and they were all similarly impressed (several offered to move in).
The DV11 image is quite good, particularly considering the price point. Movie images are amazingly bright and clear even on a white wall. The unit itself it quiet, and the built-in speakers surprisingly good. I can convert either my living room or my bedroom into a small movie theater by simply unplugging the unit and moving it into the next room.
The mobility and all-in-one nature of the DV11 are attractive to anyone who may not want to hide wires or speakers or have a projector permanently installed in their living room -- renters, people in small apartments, etc. When company comes you can put it away in a box.
Overall, a great product, executed remarkably well. Highly recommended.
AWESOME !!! 2007-11-26
It's worth having for the $550 tag with a free 72" projector screen, I bought during the Thanksgiving sale. I also threw in a 7.1 Onkyo Home Theater which I also bought during the thanksgiving for $400, and the result is unmatchable.
The sound, the picture, it feels like never getting out of the basement.
Do buy it if you get it for the same price I paid or even less.
A great choice as long as the price is right 
2007-11-26
I also purchased this projector during the Black Friday sale and found it to be a great bargain at $550. However, this wasn't the model I originally intended to buy that day and, despite being greatly pleased with the value, buyers in general should keep some things in mind.
I was originally going to buy an Epson projector which are known for strong reliability and bright images. I couldn't find one at a reasonable price so I ended up with the Optoma DV11 - but only because of the price drop.
There are three major technical specs when it comes to projectors: Brightness, contrast, and resolution. The DV11 has OK brightness (about 1300 lumens) and contrast (1:2000), but its resolution is basically SVGA (480). I've tried the projector in three completely different settings and with different DVDs and found that it does great in a dark room and performs best with already bright images. However, it does rather poorly with dark images.
For example, the middle of the day football shots in "Invincible" looked superb, but the dark images of "Battle Star Galactica" were rather poor. The blacks and greys were muddled and you could see pixels in many shots. "The West Wing," which is slightly brighter, had some of these problems as well but at a much lower level. On the opposite side, "The Incredibles" looked, well, incredible. That's to be expected, however, since just about any current projector should be able to handle animation.
There's also the issue of DLP (like the Optoma) versus LCD (like the Epson) technology which I didn't concern myself with at the time of purchase. If you think this is important (and there are differences) research the terms and see what experts have to say about what's best for what.
Despite these criticisms, the DV11 has some major selling points. The contrast on this model is higher than all the introductory Epson models which hover in the 1:400 to 1:500 range. Those are really bad numbers on the Epson side. However, those projectors have brightness levels in the 2000 lumens range which means you won't need as much darkness while playing games or movies. And as for resolution, all the projectors in the below $600 range are at SVGA.
The big selling point with the DV11 is the built in DVD player and adequate speakers. I didn't think this was a necessity until I used the projector in three locations over two days. Having an all-in-one is extremely important if you plan on using the projector in more than place.
As of this writing the DV11 is going for about $800 on most sites. That's just too high in my opinion. If you're going to spend that kind of money then you might as well throw in a few more hundred and get a projector with more brightness and XGA resolution. This is especially true if you don't need a built in DVD player and plan on just using the projector in one location. But at under $600, this projector is steal by 2007 standards. I'm definitely pleased with the purchase. Just do your research and know what you need and want before buying.
Edit: As of this writing the Optoma HD70, with 4000:1 contrast (twice that of the DV11, and HD XGA resolution, is going for $800 after rebate. It doesn't have a built in DVD player, but it's a far superior projector. Still no regrets on buying the DV11, but if I had had $800 to spend, I would have chosen the HD70.
Terrific! 2007-09-18
This is a terrific projector - great brightness, throw size and so simple to use. The sound is great as is, however, I am going to match it with a couple of speakers and an inexpensive 5.1 receiver for those times where some punch is needed.
All you'll need for AWESOME outdoor movies 2007-08-21
You should also buy the KLP GMXA-2.1 multimedia speakers ($99.99) and a 12' inflatable outdoor movie screen ($179.99 from walmart). Then for under $1200, you will be watching and hearing your favorite movies in your backyard!
No doubt this thing is great. Slip in your DVD and play a 12 foot extremely clear image of your movie. Researching this and its predecessor, the DV-10, I noticed that most complained about the sound (if anything). So here's my solution: instead of an expensive receiver and sound system, buy the 3 piece KLP GMXA-2.1 speaker set designed for use with computers. We just watched Happy Feet last night by the pool. More than enough sound to keep the neighbors up. The bass was great. The image was crystal clear. Simple to hook up the speakers to the DV-11 (all necessary cords included), and the blow up screen was awesome...it is a vertical screen with inverted V tethers that need to attach to included stakes or something else. That is all you'll need!
Good, but could be better 2008-05-19
The built in DVD player and speakers are great and very practical. The product functionalities are very good too, which makes this unit overall very good. The problems are:
1) The resolution could be a little better. This 800x600 doesn't match my needs anymore.
2) It doesn't come with a VGA cable. Shame on you, Optoma!
3) Optoma tech support does not answer my e-mails. Shame on you, Optoma!
4) The zoom function is almost useless. So you need to move the unit back and forward to adjust the image size. The zoom function is used to minimal adjustments only.
5) The DVD player is not region free.
Very good picture quaity/DVD player sucks 2008-05-11
The projector has very good picture quality. It doesn't seam to have digital video input but I have used it both through the analog VGA and the DVD and the picture quality is very good.
The DVD player seams to be deprived from some functionality (i.e. cannot fast forward or rewind, it only jumps between chapters) but of course this could be me not being able to figure out the buttons :)
It Broke and then the real fun started 
2008-04-20
This product brought a lot of joy to our family. Other then the screen door effect (the native 480 resolution results in little dots that can be seen if viewed from a short distance, about 11 feet or less) it is a fun toy, until the DVD player broke.
I purchased this unit for $500 at Circuit City and received a free screen. However, it broke after about 13 months, just outside the warranty period. The DVD would not longer read.
When you send it in for repair, they ask for $130 up front (non-refundable) and a wopping $45 return shipping fee. We are not shipping an elephant here, and when it was returned, they used DHL with no special foam packing. Shipping cost them about $9.00 and I guess there is a $36 handling fee.
The estimated repair bill to replace the DVD motor was $650, more then the price of a brand new unit! This would be like purchasing a new car for $30,000, driving it for a few years, the tranny going out and paying $40,000 to have it replaced.
So I am $130 lighter in the wallet for this great piece of information. My advice would be to purchase a projector with a separate DVD player. That way, if the player goes out, you do not have to replace the whole thing.
Great deal, no regrets! 2008-02-11
This has turned out to be our best family purchase in 2007. At first, I was wary of spending this much money for something that we'd only use periodically. In fact, we have used this more than I thought we would.
The quick set-up card put us in business right away. It couldn't be simpler: you put in the DVD and fiddle with the 'feet' until you get the picture at the right angle. We bought a portable screen and have had "movie night" in the back yard several times now. The kids love it. We don't have external speakers to hook up but we can hear the movie with the unit's built-in speakers.
After it got too cold for movie night, we started having movie night inside. We just set up the screen in the family room. We have even projected movies onto the ceiling in the family room! We had to break out the owner's manual, but there is a control to help align the image. This 'keystone control' takes care of the 'trapezoid' effect and squares up the image.
After several months, we decided to try to hook up our TV to the projector, so that we could watch the Super Bowl on the big screen. It was very easy (again, on the quick set-up card) to hook up the video feed. The cord that comes with the unit is a little too short for our purposes, so we bought a 12 foot cord at the local electronic store (only $17).
My only complaint is that if you forget to get the DVD out after you turn if off, there is no manual eject. You have to power it back up. No big deal, really. If you are looking for a great projector that is very easy to use, this is it.
ok for movies, not at all suitable for digital photographs 
2008-01-13
I bought this digital projector for our local nature club - based on the reviews and the product literature it seemed like an ideal item. We had 2 objectives for the projector - running nature DVDs before our club meetings began while people arrived and got settled, and as a digital photographic projector that could either be attached to a laptop (for PowerPoint presentations), or used with the built in DVD/CD player to show jpeg nature images by our guest speakers. The unit performed ok as a DVD movie projector.
The performance as a digital photography and laptop connected PowerPoint projector was poor in comparison to similar or cheaper projectors out on the market today. After a 1 month trial (1 monthly club meeting), we returned the Optoma DV11 and upgraded to an Epson 77C (and saved $300 Canadian). In the future when we want to show a DVD, we'll have a laptop there or may buy a cheap portable DVD player to hook up to the Epson.
The main problems with digital photographs were:
1) showing digital photos from a laptop (connected by the VGA cable) produced marginally acceptable results. Showing exactly the same digital files burned to a CD and inserted in the projector's built-in DVD/CD player resulted in significantly lower resolution - the image colour was not true and the image had poorer resolution which showed up as a significantly 'blockier' image.
2) the CD player would usually (2 out of 3 times) lockup when moving to the next image. The only way to recover was to power off the projector, unplug it and wait a minute, then power it on again and eject the CD quickly. Though the manual (badly written in fractured English) indicated that large jpeg files were a problem, this problem happened consistently with small image file sizes (<1MB).
3. Overall resolution was SVGA at most (perhaps 800x600) which isn't suitable for high quality nature photography. Also, all of the preset projection settings seemed to have significant problems with wash-out in the light areas of the pictures (really noticable, and unacceptable).
Optoma technical support (in Canada) did make some attempts to work through the problems, but overall I was unsatisfied with this unit for the specific needs our nature club had.
