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Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review - Hardware Tour 2

Posted on October 30, 2014 by Art Feierman
EPSON HC3500 PROJECTOR REVIEW - HARDWARE TOUR Page 2:  Menus, Remote Control

Home Cinema 3500 Menus

For your consideration we've captured most of the menus and sub-menus found on this Epson projector.  I've provided captions with comments on many of them.  Of course there's more info available if you download Epson's user manual.

Epson has been using the same basic organization of their menus for more than a decade, although they have made changes from time to time.  Mostly though, Epson menus from one projector to the next, differ with the addition or lack of certain features.

HC3500 Menus

Image Menu

Here's where all the main "picture" control lives, from presets to lamp brightness

Color Modes

There are four 2D presets and two 3D ones, plus Auto

Advanced Sharpness

An alternative to the "Standard" simple sharpness slider, Advanced offers more control

Advanced Image Menu

Three sets of calibration controls: Gamma, Grayscale (RGB) and CMS (adjusting individual colors)

Calibrating Grayscale (RGB)

Offers separate Offset and Gain for red, green, and blue to dial in proper grayscale

Calibrating individual colors RGBCMY

Control Hue, Saturation, and Brightness of each primary and secondary color

Power Consumption - Lamp Modes

High is full power, Medium is about 10% less bright, and ECO about 30% less

Signal Menu

3D, Super-Resolution, Aspect ratio, Motion Detection 3and the Advanced menu

3D Menu

Off and On, Auto sense, Convert 2D to 3D, Screen size and Depth (for fine tuning image), and 3D Brightness control

Advanced Signal Menu

Overscan, Noise Reduction, HDMI range control and Image Processing (Fine is standard, Fast for fast gaming)

Settings Menu

Too many to list, but HDMI Link, also Wireless HD for the HC3600e, plus PIP, Panel alignment, Audio and more

HDMI-Link Control

To use Epson to control other HDMI-Link devices, and vice versa

Panel Alignment

Digitally minimizes visible fringing caused by slightly mis-aligned LCD panels

Display Sub-menu

Background and Startup screen options

Operation Sub-menu

Sleep timer, 12 volt trigger, High Altitude mode...Illumination lets you turn off projector's indicator lights when viewing

User Button selection

These are your three choices for the remote's user button.

WirelessHD

These menus are for the HC3600e which offers WirelessHD. The HC3500 does not

Network controls

This will look familiar to folks who configure networks (including you, at home)

Saving Network Settings Changes

Once in the networking area, you can't just back out, make changes, or not, you have to save to exit

User Memory

Epson offers 10 savable User areas for saving your favorite modes with customized settings. Rename them for clarity

Load Memory

This shows we have 3 saved modes. In this case the first and 3rd are after Mike's calibrations. the 2nd Natural is for quick comparison of calibrated to default Natural

Security Sub-Menu

Set a password to lock out the control panel, and Child lock

Info Menu

Provides a lot of info on the state of the projector, Version shows firmware version

Info Sub-menu

Lots of info from resolution, to bit depth, serial number, hours on lamp and more

HC3500 Remote Control

This Epson HC3500's remote control is typical for an Epson remote.  It's pretty long, moderately heavy (for a remote), has a very good backlight, and great range.

The remote is laid out in sections.  It won't take long for a new owner to know what buttons are where, thanks to the logic

Let's run through all the sections and buttons, from the top.

Power top left, once for on.  next to it, a smaller button for power off (also press once).  The backlight button is on the top right.

The next section of 8 buttons all relate to source selection. There are seven different sources, plus, the upper left most - labeled PIP is for picture in Picture, which of course relates to the sources.  There is a USB/LAN button, then two HDMI (HDMI supports MHL, HDMI2 does not), Component Video, Video (composite), and PC (analog computer).  The last one is labeled WirelessHD, a feature only found on the HC3500's twin, the HC3600e.

Immediately below that is the HDMI-Link area that lets you use the Epson remote to control other HDMI-link devices (thus buttons like fast forward, play, stop, pause, which are found on Blu-ray players, etc.)  There's a Link-Menu button for when you have other devices set up.  The larger HDMI-Link button just below those others, brings up the HDMI-Link button you saw above.  The other two large buttons on that row are volume Up and Down.  Above the Down button is a Mute.  Apparently the volume and mute can control the internal speakers, or work with configured devices.

After a space - large white buttons:  3D, changing Color modes, and direct access to the Super-Resolution menu.

Then comes navigation:  Four arrows in a round formation with Enter located in the middle.  Below the Nav arrows are three buttons in a curve.  Left most returns a menu to the default settings.  In the middle is the Menu button itself to open menus, and on the right is Escape, which takes you back up a level when navigating the menus.

We're almost done.  The next six buttons are more that provide direct access to sub-menus:  Fine/Fast processing, CMS (color management system), and Aspect ratio on the first row.  On the second row is the User button, Memory (menu) and 2D/3D. On the 3rd row is a button to bring up the test pattern, and an AV Mute button that "mutes" both audio and the picture.

There are four more buttons - outlined with a white line which are all buttons for controlling the WirelessHD not offered on this version of the projector, but found on the HC3600e.

I really like Epson remote controls like this one.  There are two or three other manufacturer's I like about as much, and far more that aren't near as good.

Click Image to Enlarge

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