With home theatre systems becoming increasingly popular, the DLP projector has moved out of the board-room and into the living room. As an added bonus, they're getting cheaper, with a number of companies now offering entry-level home theatre projectors which offer a cheaper alternative to large screen TVs.

One of the latest of these entry-level projectors is Optoma's H27, a widescreen projector with a price that makes it a serious alternative to buying a large flat panel for your home theatre setup. And, weighing just 2.5kg, it has the added advantage of being portable.

At this price point something has to give and in this case it's the relatively low resolution; just 854 x 480 pixels (WVGA). It's not exactly the most stylish projector around, either, and it doesn't have adjustable lens shift, but these are small prices to pay for a projector that offers performance and features found on many projectors costing twice as much or more.

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Light output is a claimed 850 lumens with a lamp life of around 3,000 hours in standard mode, while you'll get around 2,000 in Brite mode. The H27 has two contrast modes; Standard, which is 2,500:1, and a high performance 4,000:1 contrast which it achieves by using Optoma's AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology - something it shares with some much more expensive projectors. The projector makes image adjustments on a frame-by-frame basis to optimise picture quality and viewing angle.

Even that bugbear of DLP projectors, the rainbow effect (an artifact unique to single-chip DLP projectors which appears as a rainbow or multi-color shimmer briefly noticeable when changing focus from one part of the projector screen to another) has been brought under control in the H27. Most budget DLP projectors use a 2x colour filter wheel, and the more expensive ones use a 5x wheel. Optoma has headed towards the high-end route for the H27; a 4x speed wheel with six colour segments.

The image quality of the H27 is simply stunning when you consider it is supposed to be an entry-level home theatre projector; the colours are rich and vibrant while the level of detail in black and shady areas is very impressive.

Conveniently, the H27 can take input from a wide variety of sources. You can use it with a PC, component video, composite video sources (e.g. a VCR), S-video (from your DVD player), and if that's not enough you can add a second source from either PC, component video or digital sources. On the down side you will have to already own some of the cables for these sources, or budget for them, as Optoma only supplies a 3 x RCA component cable and an S-Video cable with the H-27.

The supplied remote control provides access to most of the usual suspects in the menu by a single button; source selection, brightness, contrast, aspect ratio, image shifting and freezing and re-sync (auto setup). Using single button access means that the menus themselves are uncluttered and simple to work through, even when you are calibrating the projector.

On top of everything else it's also quiet; well, as quiet as a projector can be expected to be. Optoma claims just 28dB when in standard mode. It does get noisier in Brite mode, but it's certainly no screaming banshee.

If you are looking at building a home theatre setup on a budget and want to go down the projector route rather than using a large flat screen, then Optoma's H27 should be near the top of your shopping list.