New Epson Home Projectors – IFA and CEDIA Shows
August 31st, 2012 Art FeiermanGreetings Projector Fans!
It’s touch and go time here. the big IFA tradeshow has begun in Germany, and as is the case most years, it’s shortly before the US CEDIA tradeshow.
Epson's new Home Cinema 5020UB looks like the older 5010
These two shows are where most new home theater and home entertainment projectors are announced.
My understanding is that here in the US, Epson like many other home theater projector manufacturers, is distributing information on their new projectors in advance of CEDIA to we members of the press, but with the restriction, that “it’s a secret” until Sept 5th, which is Press day at CEDIA.
What that means to you, is that even if Epson told me everything about any new home projectors, I couldn’t legitimately share that info with you until they lift the “embargo”.
Fortunately, that doesn’t really apply to information that I learn about from other sources, such as, for example info announced in Europe at IFA.
The bottom line is this: It seems Epson has upgraded three of their projectors for this season. Mind you, model numbers in Europe are different, but it’s not hard to figure out the feature sets.
I’m going to create three more short blogs: One for each of the new projectors:
Epson Home Cinema 3020
replaces the 3010
Epson Home Cinema 5020
replaces the 5010
Epson Pro Cinema 6020
replacing the 6010.
As to pricing, sorry, can’t help you there, as all I know is that as of a couple of days ago, Epson has said they have not yet set US pricing.
In these blogs I’m able to share some key improvements and changes that are part of these new home projectors.
First let me position the three models, and then you can read about each in the separate projector blogs:
The Epson Home Cinema 3020 will replace the 3010, as Epson’s lowest cost 3D capable projector, with two versions, both should be selling for under $2000 (The older versions were $1599 and $1799.)
The Epson Home Cinema 5020 projector, replacing the 5010 – This is Epson’s high performance projector, that is available online. The older 5010 is legendary for its exceptional black level performance for the price, and for being exceptionally bright. Again, two versions, the 5020UB, and the 5020UBe (the e for wireless HDMI).
Epson's wireless HDMI transmitter comes with "e" series home projectors
Speaking of Epson’s wireless HDMI, here’s a photo I found of the new transmitter. Sure looking at the back you can see 5 HDMI inputs, and a Digital Audio Input (and power receptacle). Besides this being far better thought out than the old 2 HDMI transmitter with last year’s “e” versions, one of the more interesting things about the photo, is what else is in it. Back left – a PS3 (makes sense), front left (a tiny slice of what must be an iPad (or a Samsung knock-off). Straight back is the front of the Epson transmitter. The item that I want to point out, though is back right corner. I recognize that from ones I have at my house. That’s an Apple TV adapter. Hmm… Not sure why that’s in the picture, but I have to at least trust that all of this is Apple TV compatible. Definitely something I will follow up on, at CEDIA.
Epson’s Pro Cinema 6020, replaces the 6010 projector, and is in most ways very similar to the Epson Home Cinema 5020, but is sold through a different dealer channel (local authorized dealers), and has a couple of extra features, and comes bundled with lots of goodies.
OK, that’s the basics, read the next blogs for more “dirt” on each projector:
There’s one for the Pro Cinema 6020 UB, one for the 5020 UB and 5020 UBe, and one for the 3010 and 3010e. Hopefully that will keep you busy for a few days. -art
September 2nd, 2012 at 8:13 am
[...] Epson showed a new generation of projectors this week at the IFA show in Germany. While these were European models, the corresponding models for the North American market are expected to be introduced at the CEDIA Expo. The top-of-the-line European model EH-TW9100 should correspond to the new Pro Cinema 6020 (i.e., replacement for this year’s North American model Pro Cinema 6010) while the European ES-TW8100 should correspond to the Home Cinema 5020 (replacement for this year’s North American model Home Cinema 5010). It appears the new models are evolutionary from the current models, which they appear to be based on. Incremental performance improvements are claimed over the current models. For example, the EH-TW9100 has a rated on/off contrast ratio of 320,000:1 as compared to the 200,000:1 for the current pro Cinema 6010 model. In both cases these contrast ratio values are with the maximum use of the projector’s dynamic iris, while it is not yet known if the new projector’s native contrast (i.e., without use of the dynamic iris) is improved over the current models (the manufacturers typically do you specify native contrast when the projector is equipped with a dynamic iris). The new models are now using RF based 3D glasses, which is perhaps based on the new industry standard that has been adopted by several 3DTV manufacturers. For more information on the new Epson projectors see Art’s blog post of August 31st – HERE. [...]
September 2nd, 2012 at 9:17 am
I bought my epson 3010 this friday.
Should I wait for 3020? How long does it take to be available to buy ?
September 22nd, 2012 at 2:20 pm
Hi Manuel,
There are no “breakthrough differences”. The biggest improvements are probably that you can now engage the dynamic iris when in 3D, and that lag times for serious gamers, are being improved. You do get a small boost in brightness as well. If you are happy with the 3010, I wouldn’t worry about it!
December 13th, 2012 at 8:58 pm
Hi Art,
I have got a Epson TW9000 – equivalent model of 5010e. Do you think that I can get the new 5 in 1 wireless transmitter designed for 5020ube somewhere so that I can use it on mine?
Thanks,
December 14th, 2012 at 11:29 am
Greetings Bin,
I will ask Epson. Will let you know what they say, back here. -art