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Hi Stan, With your ambient light source coming from the back, and only slightly to the side, high contrast, gray and high gain screens will not help you with ambient light issues. For that reason, I would probably suggest a white surface with modest gain - 1.0 - 1.4 gain. If fixed screen, something like the Carada Brilliant White. But everyone’s got screens like that, so if you need motorized, and low cost, you might look to Elite. Da-Lite and Draper are more expensive, and well respected US screen manufacturers, and then, there are plenty of other companies, such as Grandview, Vutec, etc., without getting into the really expensive brands like Stewart. -art

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OK, still could be overscan. What about DVD, or Blu-ray DVD. What about TV through another input (if you have that option (such as component).

Anyway, you should try turning on overscan in the menus. It should eliminate the line. But you still need to determine if it is overscan. Thus the DVD or Blu-ray test.

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Greetings Carmen,

Not sure. You say it’s 1 inch wide? That’s obviously far too much to be a panel alignment issue.

Are you getting it from all sources, or only TV signals? My first thought would be a broadcast issue. The Epson is very good, compared to some, but SD-TV (standard definition), and also standard definition content over an HDTV broadcast often has a line at one of the sides or the top, or bottom.

For that reason, projectors all have an overscan control, which basically doesn’t use the outermost lines of information, typically cropping off a couple of percent of the picture.

However, that wouldn’t occur with a DVD or Blu-ray DVD.

If you are getting it on multiple sources, then I do believe you have a problem. Give Epson tech folks a call. They can confirm, and replace if needed. Or if you just got it, and Epson says it’s a problem with your unit, you probably will want to go back to the dealer. Epson sends out refurbs, but if it’s a brand new unit, your dealer most likely will swap it out with another new one.
Best of luck. Let me know how it all turns out. -art

Don

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Hi Don,

Yes saw it at the show, but it wasn’t being demo’d. I’m going to include it in the next blog, late tonite, with preliminary comments. -art

I’ve had my trusty Sony VPL-VW10HT for 8 years now and I think it is time for a change.

My dilemma is this; four years ago I built a dedicated cinema room and mounted the projector on the ceiling. I laid a reasonable quality component cable behind the wall before the builders plastered it. (I didn’t know about HDMI / DVI back then)

My problem now is I can’t connect an HDMI cable without completely destroying the walls and removing shelving.

I therefore have two questions:

1) The most important question. I see the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB supports 1080p 60/50/24 with a component cable. Is this worth doing or will the difference in quality be too poor compared with HDMI?

2) Minor Issue. From your review of the Epson (one of the most comprehensive ones I’ve read) it seems perfect in it’s versatility for placement and performance. The only negative comment I have seem is the slow iris, apparently it can take a couple of seconds to catch up from dark to light scenes?

I hope you can give me some advice,

Many thanks

David Knight

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Hi David,

I love the UB projector. It is my first choice - (the iris is slow, true, but far less intrusive than other slow irises. I never considered it a problem, except for those who spend far more time analysing every frame of a movie looking for artifacts and issues, than watching the movie.

don’t open your walls. not only should your component be fine, but there is a Plan B.

If it ships on time, you will have the option to add a wireless HDMI solution before year end, or early next year. Belkin is launching Flywire, a 1080p HDMI 1.3b (with Deep color, 24fps, etc. support). Two versions - #1 roughly $699 for one room, or $999 for one that can have multiple receivers so one source can be routed to several rooms. (I’m guessing that the more expensive one will come with two room capability, then a couple hundred for each addtional “receiver”.

I’m planning on intsalling one in my house as soon as they are out. I too, have old wiring, with CAT5 extenders. I still can’t get a 1.3b signal to work, as the extenders are still only 1.2…

Thus the Belkin for me, if it ships, and works as demonstrated.

so, point is, go component for now, if you feel the need for HDMI - that should do the trick, down the road.

-art

For your sized screen, the full range of the Epson’s lens is about 11 feet. The difference between 14.2 and 15.5″ is only about 8% out of the 100%. In other words don’t worry about it. I have no idea why their calculator picks exactly that spot. It’s obiviously a bit more wide angle than dead center, but the difference in brightness based on an 8% shift, is likely going to be only about 15-17 lumens. Not enough to care about.

They are obviously using a formula, but it doesn’t seem to be effected by screen gain, or other relevant factors. Perhaps they just chose to recommend about 1/3 back instead of using mid-point.

Bottom line - place it where you need to - you should have no visible difference whether you use 14.2 or 15.5 feet. -art

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art,

great explanation, as always… keep up the good work!

- allan

i’ve got the epson 1080ub paired with a da-lite damat w/ protrim (1.0 gain) 106″ screen. both are on their way.

projectorcentral’s calculator is telling me to put it at 14′2″ back from the screen (18-fl).

your post above says: “15.5 feet back puts your projector just about right in the mid-range of the zoom, so you should have about the same 468 lumens we measured.”

i’m confused… how far should i place the projector? fyi, i’ve got an almost batcave room (15′ long) with beige color walls and neutral carpeting.

thank you so much!

- allan

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Hi Allan,

For your sized screen, the full range of the Epson’s lens is about 11 feet. The difference between 14.2 and 15.5″ is only about 8% out of the 100%. In other words don’t worry about it. I have no idea why their calculator picks exactly that spot. It’s obiviously a bit more wide angle than dead center, but the difference in brightness based on an 8% shift, is likely going to be only about 15-17 lumens. Not enough to care about.

They are obviously using a formula, but it doesn’t seem to be effected by screen gain, or other relevant factors. Perhaps they just chose to recommend about 1/3 back instead of using mid-point.

Bottom line - place it where you need to - you should have no visible difference whether you use 14.2 or 15.5 feet. -art

The first lot of information we were getting was to go for a data projector the Benq SP831 or Mitsubishi WD2000. But we have one supplier recommending the Epson EMP-TW1000, I think the Epson 1080UB would be a better option if we decide to go this way. But I’m wondering is this projector suitable for a 150″ screen?

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Hi Caroline,

Hmmm, you find yourself a bit “between a rock and a hard place”. With the right 150″ screen, the Epson can handle it in what I call brightest mode, but that’s with noticeably less color accuracy, than the best modes (too much green, etc.). Of course a higher gain screen, really helps.

Also, where you place the projector. It reads that you are ceiling mounting (I’m assuming your screen is going to be on the 24 foot wall, so your room is 44′ deep, which is too deep to shelf mount in the rear.

Therefore placing a projector near the wide-angle end of it’s zoom lens, gives you more lumens, which also helps - for a 150″ screen, that would be around 16-20 feet (furthest back would be around 36 or 37 feet (quick math in my head - don’t take it to the bank). I generally recommend not going to the widest position, so let’s say 17.5 to 20 feet back (measured from the front of the lens.

With a high gain screen (I’m assuming you haven’t bought one yet), you will have more rolloff to the sides. If you go with a gain of, say 1.8 (pretty high, but still well below some in the 2.5 gain range,) rolloff should not be too big a problem (certainly not for folks sitting between the left and right edges of the screen (about 12 feet or so).

But it comes back to the overall picture quality. With a new lamp, in best mode, I found the Epson could just barely fill my 128″ firehawk screen (relative gain of 1.25 - no, don’t ask what that means).

So, with a higher gain screen, it is doable, and you can always compromise among the many modes and adjustments, and probably get a more than acceptable image with a solid 1000 lumens output (I recall about 1660 lumens after improving “brightest” mode a bit, but further color improvement could be had and still stay at 1000 lumens or brighter.

Biz projectors have issues - first, the LCD types have poor contrast ratios and with them, poor black level performance. Biz DLP projectors mean typically 2x color wheels, and a higher percentage of people sensitive to the rainbow effect, than home theater DLP’s typically with 4x or 5x color wheels

Sadly, no one has an affordable home theater projector that can crank out 3000 or 4000 lumens (the Panasonic PT-AX200U (only 720p resolution) can almost hit 3000 in brightest mode, but again, colors are well less than ideal.

As between the TW1000 and the UB (TW2000), the biggest difference is in black levels, which may not benefit you with some ambient light on, but I’d still favor the UB if the price difference isn’t huge.

The TW1000 was a very good projector for the bucks, the Epson - is a spectacular projector for the bucks. End of conversation.

Hope that helps! -art