Epson Home Cinema 5010 Projector - Physical Tour
The Epson Home Cinema 5010 and 5010e projectors are a new design. From our perspective, it's always more fun to look at a basically new projector, even if some of the internals are no doubt the same.
11/22/2011 - Art Feierman
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Epson Home Cinema 5010 Projector - Appearance
Time to take a tour of the Home Cinema 5010 and 5010e projector's physical features, including lens, control panel, and inputs. In addition, Projector Reviews discusses the remote control and the menu system.
11/22/11 -art
A new box for this year. The finish is white, with dark grey front vents. It's not overly large, has lots of rounded edges, and looks pretty good. The Home Cinema 5010e looks exactly the same.There is also Epson's Pro Cinema 6010, shown here, the version sold through local installing dealers (a couple more features and a black case). A lens shutter closes to protect the lens when powered down.
The top has the lens shift controls, while the control panel is mostly recessed on the side (right side if you are facing the projector). Inputs and other connectors are on the back. There's a single, fixed, rear foot, on the back bottom.
From the front, the Home Cinema 5010 starts with a centered, recessed. manual, 2.0:1 zoom lens. The focus and zoom controls consist of recessed dials on the top, right behind the lens. Other than the large vents on the front, the only other feature is the front IR sensor for the Epson remote control.
Look down below and you'll find two screw thread adjustable front feet.
Besides the focus and zoom dials, you will find smaller vertical and horiztonal lens shift dials on the top.
Home Cinema 5010 Control Panel
Moving to the side, the power switch and source selection buttons are up by the front (right side if you are facing the projector). The rest of the Control panel consists of a square recessed panel with a sliding door to cover it.
Image coming!
Slide it out of the way, and there is your basic feature set, a menu button, the navigation buttons in a diamond shape, a Center enter key, and then Enter and Esc keys.
Just above the control panel, actually on the top, are three indicator lights for power, temp and lamp.
Home Cinema 5010 Projector - Input/Output
The Home Cinema 5010 has a fairly typical set of inputs and connectors. As usual, our tour of the panel begins on the left. For this year, we get to start with an ethernet type jack for, if needed, an optional, (for longer range) external 3D emitter. Two HDMI 1.4a inputs, capable of Blu-ray 3D, come next
One set of component video with the usual red, gren and blue RCA jacks, followed by the obligatory composite video (yellow RCA jack).
The Epson Home Cinema 5010 and the other variations, each have the usual, analog computer input (HD15 connector) for a monitor out.
Next over is serial port, RS232C and a 12 Volt trigger to control a screen, or an anamorphic lens (Epson 6010). There's also the power receptical, hard power switch, and a Kensington lock slot
Home Cinema 5010 Menus
Check out the HC3010's menus which are similar. The HC5010 has a few extra features, such as CFI, but they are 95% the same.
Epson Home Cinema 5010 Remote Control
It's big, loaded with buttons, and works rather well. A similar remote control is used for the lower cost Home Cinema 5010, but that one has a few less buttons. My only real objection then, was that as a long remote, it would have been nicer to have the backlight button closer to where you would grip the remote for balance. Or, let any key light the remote! That, though covers the complaints, as range is very good, handling an 30 foot trip with a bounce off of my 1.3 gain Stewart Firehawk G3.
Let's take a look: (tomorrow)
Epson Home Cinema 5010 Lens Throw
Epson's 2.1:1 zoom ratio is the same as the older Home Cinema 8700UB and previous generations. That's a little more than most LCD and LCoS projectors (just about all are between 1.5:1 and 2:1), and a lot more than any of the under $5000 DLP projectors (which max out at 1.6:1, I believe).
For filling a 100 inch diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio screen, the projector - measured from the front of the lens to the screen - can be as close as 9.8 feet or as far back as 20.9 feet. You can calculate distances for other screen sizes, by starting with those numbers.
Home Cinema 5010 Lens Shift
This Epson has plenty of lens shift too! For that same 100 inch screen, the Epson can be placed, (normal or inverted), anywhere from 22.7 inches above the top of the screen surface, all the way down to 22.7 inches below the bottom of the screen surface. That is measured from the center of the lens. There is also a good amount of horizontal lens shift. Using horizontal lens shift will partially limit the range of the vertical lens shift (and vice versa).
The combination of the wide range zoom lens, and excellent lens shift, makes ceiling mounting, or shelf mounting the Home Cinema 5010, practical, in almost any room situattion.
Anamorphic Lens - Wide Screen
Epson does not support an anamorphic lens with either the Home Cinema 5010 or the 5010e. The Pro Cinema 6010 is the one you want if an anamorphic lens is in your future. (The Pro costs more, but also comes with a 3rd year warranty, and I believe, a spare lamp and ceiling mount).