It seems like only yesterday I was reviewing the Optoma UHD50X projector. When you look at the UHD35 on paper or even at the projector out of the box, you would be tempted to think that Optoma just slapped the same components into an almost identical box. Maybe they did, but the performance of this projector is not a carbon copy of the UHD50X. The internal components may be identical, but the picture is different. Different good or different bad? You are going to have to read on... Like its older brother, the UHD35 is a gaming projector, and, like the UHD50X, it shares a lot of amazing specifications and technology.

As a gaming projector, the Optoma UHD35 core components operate at much higher levels of performance than a standard projector. Some of the key differences include the projector’s refresh rate, low input lag, and the ability to produce superior contrast. This level of performance provides the gamer with the ability to identify objects in the extreme ranges of bright and dark or to keep from getting killed by another player. Projectors like the UHD35 are optimized to work better with gaming consoles and high-performance gaming computers. This better performance is a result of being able to display a higher dynamic range of colors, higher resolution, and much faster refresh rates. Sound quality is also critical and in this review, I’ll let you know how the UHD35 does on all those fronts. Put simply, gaming projectors do more than offer a bigger and better television screen, they offer performance at a level that, until recently, was only available by owning a high-performance gaming display.

Optoma says that the UHD35 is the next generation of 4K UHD cinema gaming projectors. I paraphrase.

As with its previous UHD projector offerings, Optoma is focusing heavily on both the input lag rating of the Optoma UHD35 and its 4K cinema performance. When it comes to gaming, Optoma publishes a specification of 4.2ms vs the UHD50X input lag of 15.7 milliseconds in Advanced Gaming mode. This lamp-based DLP projector uses a Texas Instruments .47 DMD imager with TI’s proven pixel-shifting technology. This technology allows the Optoma projector to display true 4K resolution onscreen by using a single mirror to create multiple pixels of data, faster than the human eye can see.

Optoma says they want their users to be able to immerse themselves in a world of Ultra HD gaming, live sports, TV shows, and movies. The UHD35, like its predecessors, is designed to deliver impressive cinema-quality images, all with 3,600 Lumens of brightness. That’s the manufacturer’s claim. Since I don’t have the ability in my lab to measure input lag, my editor, Phil Jones will be testing this feature and adding an editor's addendum to this review. Like the UHD50X, the UHD35 offers a refresh rate of 240Hz with the exact same limitations. The UHD35 can project images up to 300-inches and, at least on paper, should be quite a projector at its price point.

The UHD35 is packed with Optoma’s latest technology and features. It boasts High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) compatibility, Full 3D, and two HDMI 2.0 ports.

The Optoma UHD35 has a manufacturer Lumens rating of 3,600 ANSI Lumens, an increase of 200 over the UHD50X, and a contrast rating that is nearly double that of the UHD50X at 1,000,000:1. The UHD35 makes use of Optoma’s BrilliantColorTM technology and an 8 segment color wheel that Optoma says will produce, “the truest and most accurate colors,'' presumably in this class or price point. You better believe that we’re going to check it out. Finally, Optoma is touting the UHD35’s HDR 10 & HLG support, which the manufacturer claims will provide, “the brightest whites, deepest darks, and lifelike color.”

As always, my goal is to provide you with a good idea of how the Optoma UHD35 lives up to the manufacturer’s claims, and if this projector is the right choice for your home entertainment/gaming needs. And away we go!

The new Epson 4K capable Home Cinema 5050UB projector is their latest and best projector in Epson’s now 12 year old UB series – aka “Ultra-Black” shifting projectors, offering an improvement over the previous HC 5040UB/PC 6040UB home theater projectors in pixel shifting and HDR, as well as in a number of other areas. 

Epson calls their latest implementations and improvements Pro-UHD (a registered mark), and advertises the Home Cinema 5050UB (as well as the HC4010 and PC4050), as having a wider color gamut and reaching the full 100% of the P3/BT.2020 color range; a claim that’s been echoed by several others since CEDIA 2018, but as yet has not been delivered upon – we’ll see if the HC5050UB/PC4050 can actually pull it off! (The HC4010 and PC4050).  See Eric's comments on the calibration pages.

Epson’s new Home Cinema 5050UB is a bright, 4K Capable – 2,600 lumen –fully featured projector.  The Home Cinema 5050UB – aka HC5050UB, comes only in a white case (with a nice gold trim ring).

The Home Cinema 5050’s list price is $2,999, The HC5050UB’s warranty is Epson’s standard two year warranty with two years of Rapid Replacement.  While the change from the HC5040UB to the HC5050UB is definitely evolutionary, not revolutionary, there are some areas of improvement which will be very important to a lot of folks.

Wireless HDMI transmitter comes with the HC5050UBe version

As usual, there is a second new projector in the UB line-up, the Home Cinema 5050UBe, which launched at the same time in April and sells for $300 more. That Epson physically looks identical but has built-in Wireless HDMI and comes with an HDMI transmitter, that handles three HDMI inputs on the back, plus one on the side.  It also outputs wired HDMI and Digital Optical audio!  BTW $300 for that ability is typically a good bit less than third-party wireless HDMI choices.

Also of note, since I started writing up this review, Epson just launched the Home Cinema 5050UB's almost identical twin - the Pro Cinema 6050UB.  Other than the black case, it looks just like the 5050UB but touts slightly better performance - which will be discussed in its review.  Just know that the Pro Cinema 6050UB is $1000 more, for which you get a slight bump in performance (including contrast for better blacks), along with hardware goodies:  Free spare lamp, cable cover and ceiling mount.  Don't forget the 3rd year of warranty and replacement program (vs the HC5050UB's two years of each).

I put on well more than 50 hours of watching the projector (ok, I’m not paying close attention all the time), before Eric came by to collect it, and take it for calibration.  He brought it back a week or so ago, calibrated and I helped him unmount the 5040UB and replace it with the Home Cinema 5050UB in my theater.  (Eric is tall, I’m not!)  Even before I gave it to him I was already appreciating a number of improvements.  I even took a pretty large number of my usual photos, pre-calibration because the Epson has several really good looking Picture modes, which may not be “calibration” accurate, but most will be quite thrilled with the “out of the box” settings.  

Not many sub-$3000 projector brands do as well,  Along with Epson, Sony (especially good) and BenQ, are the brands that come first to mind for consistently having at least really good out of the box color and skin tones – there are a couple of others though.  I normally adjust the Brightness and Contrast by eyeball, when I first start viewing (that’s really easy to do, no gear of software needed).

Interestingly with the launch of the 5050UB, Epson solves that slightly embarrassing situation of having better performance in some ways, in a step down model.  Let’s take a quick look at this new Epson’s major highlights, features, and benefits.  From there, we will tackle Special Features, Hardware, Picture Quality and Performance, before wrapping it up with a Summary page, where we will also discuss this Epson’s competitors.  Time to explore the Home Cinema 5050UB!

A rather exciting evolution of home theater projectors was revealed at CEDIA 2018, held last month in San Diego. We learned of the first home theater projector to support 8K resolution – something we’ve been waiting for ever since 4K became a thing. Always looking to the future here, the next best thing. When JVC announced the DLA-RS3000 – they announced the next best thing. In this First Look Review, we will explore the features of the JVC DLA-RS3000 and see what this addition to the world of home theater has in store for us!

Before we get into it – what is a First Look Review? Our First Look Reviews are one-page, simple reviews based on the projector’s specs, features, and our thoughts based on those aspects, before we get the projector in for review – these First Looks are a mixture of insight and common sense. We won’t know if the projector lives up to our expectations until we get it in for testing, but we can make assumptions from what we know about similar projectors from the manufacturers, in addition to those specs/features. Now, on with our First Look Review of the JVC DLA-RS3000!

The JVC DLA-RS3000 is a $1,7999 home theater projector with true 4K resolution (4096 x 2160). Wait, what about 8K? Though this JVC is not native 8K, it is 8K in the same sense that those lower-cost 4K UHD projectors are 4K. That is, it’s a pixel shifter that takes a true 4K image and shifts the pixels, overlapping them, to reach the new “standard” for 8K resolution (8192 x 4320). Guys, 8K is so new that there’s barely even a standard for it yet. JVC is calling their new pixel shifting technology “8K eShift.” This builds off the brand’s 4K eShift, which has been around for a while.

This new JVC claims 2,200 lumens, which is quite respectable. Lamp life is 4,500 hours in Low Mode, which will reduce lumen output, but in a dedicated home theater, this projector will be nicely bright. That’ll give you a couple years of heavy use, watching for several hours a night, every day of the year. It has a high contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1 – add to that JVC’s reputation of having the best black levels around, and you’ve got one heck of a home theater projector.

The DLA-RS3000 is a hefty projector, with the usual long, rectangular shape. It’s 19.6” wide, 20.4” long, and 9.3” high. In addition to its 8K capabilities, this JVC has a few other special features which make it even more useful in a home theater environment. We’ll get into that in the Special Features section on this page, after we talk about the Highlights of the JVC DLA-RS3000 projector.

As mentioned, the JVC DLA-RS3000 has native true 4K resolution, and pixel shifts to get up to 8K resolution. This is but one of the features that make it a truly high end projector for a dedicated home theater. Have one of those widescreens? No problem – this JVC is ready for your Anamorphic Lens, and has Lens Memory (with a motorized lens) so that you can easily shift from widescreen to a regular 16:9 aspect ratio, for when you want to venture back into watching your favorite TV shows.

JVCs tend to have rather simple input and connector panels, and the DLA-RS3000 is no exception. It does have two 18Gbps HDMI/HDCP 2.2 compatible inputs for accepting 4K content – many projectors only have one. Besides those, it has a 3D Sync input, a Remote Trigger connector, an RJ-45 LAN port, and an RS-232C connector for old school command and control.

The JVC DLA-RS3000, though not native 8K, is of the first home theater projectors that can produce an 8K image. It does so by pixel shifting, which is how those 4K UHD projectors get up to the 4K standard. This is the beginning of the evolution of 8K, and we’re ready for the ride! If it does, in fact, reach that 100% of P3/BT.2020 claim, it should have some of the best color available. Add to that fact that JVCs generally have the best black levels around, I am willing to bet that this will be one superb projector.

The Vivitek HK2288 – as far as our review of this 4K UHD, $1999 list price projector is concerned – may well be have taken the longest time from our first look of the product here, to finally posting this review. How long – 6+ months!

The HK2288 uses the 2716x1528x2 pixel shifting DLP chip to produce 2,000 lumens in its brightest mode. The HK2288 projector sports an RGBRGB color wheel and offers a manual 1.5:1 zoom lens, with a modest amount of vertical lens shift! Let’s get started.

Some quick background. Vivitek visited end of June (yep, 2017), bringing me an early engineering sample of the HK2299 (black case), there was confusion back then as to whether there would be an HK2299 and an HK2288 (there are), and what the differences would be. As it turns out, the projectors are basically the same, but the HK2299 comes finished in black and will tend to be sold primarily by local, installing-type dealers, while the HK2288 will be more internet-sales based. This is a common strategy in the US, with others, notably Epson, for example, marketing the same way (their black 6040UB and white 5040UB are almost identical, but have different pricing and distribution channels).

So, with that in mind, that first HK2299 that they dropped off: Well, it was iffy at best, and they said so – promising a more advanced version in a few weeks. That first one even came with two spare lamps because it was blowing lamps (I did not encounter a lamp failure while playing with it). Sure enough, a few weeks later, a replacement came in. It was better, and Eric calibrated it.

Alas, this was still 3+ months before first shipments, and still not ready for prime time.  Post calibration colors were great… but (there’s usually a “but”), the projector measured less than 1,300 lumens at its brightest – disappointing for a projector claiming 2,000 lumens!

A few emails and conversations later with Vivitek, we mutually agreed that because of the low lumen counts, and that further changes to the color tables were expected before first shipments, I should hold off on the review until a full production version was available.

That didn’t happen until early December. What with other projectors in the queue, the holidays, and CES in early January, it is easy to see why it has taken 6 months from first look to this finished review. That’s a record I do hope will not get broken.

As we get into the full review, I will say, there has been a substantial improvement in the HK2288 since we started this process. The current unit here, for example, still didn’t hit its 2,000 lumen claim, but it was very close – over 1,900 lumens a big jump from under 1,300. We calibrated this one, too. I must confess, I extorted some money from Vivitek to help cover Eric’s fees for the second calibration. It’s something we just don’t normally do. I gave Vivitek the choice – we could do the review without calibrating, and therefore also not having our settings to publish for our subscribers nor the projector at its very best, or they could help out. They chose wisely, even if what they kicked in only paid part of the cost (we didn't ask for the full cost.)

Valerian has stunning effects. This rather impressive image (it was way better projected on my screen) is Blu-ray UHD content.

The first two units were black – so they were HK2299s, while this one is white – an HK2288. When we received the first one last summer, even Vivitek couldn’t tell us what the differences would be, as they were still working on the marketing strategy.  Seems they sell through different distribution channels, and with that, the more expensive HK2299 gets a 5 year warranty vs the HK2288's 3 year - which is still longer than most projectors around its price range.

The Epson LS10500 laser projector is ready for prime time in your theater. Replacing the older LS10000 - one of the first 1080p projectors that could accept 4K content- the LS10500 adds one major capability - HDR support.

That's on top of all the capabilities that were new to the older Epson laser projector which  was a breakthrough for Epson on several levels:  4K processing and viewing of 4K content, dual laser light source, and quartz reflective panels.  That said, what counts most, is the picture, and the value proposition.

Update.  We have, of course, posted our calibration settings, but please be aware, there has been a firmware update since these were done. As a result, the only real change is in how the Auto (HDR/SDR) works, and the brightness of HDR 1 and HDR Auto 1.   For more on what impact that has, it has been discussed in the Epson 5040UB/6040UB review, which got the same feature upgrade, and we have a video posted on our site.

The Pro Cinema LS10500 is a 1500 lumen projector designed for best operation in a dedicated home theater.

This projector review is based on a full production LS10500.  As a member of Epson's Pro Cinema series, there are  a few extras thrown in for the price.   It comes with some extras in the box, as well as a great 3 year parts and labor warranty with 3 years of rapid replacement program.   That's pretty much the best warranty out there anywhere near its price.  Like all the Pro Cinema projectors, it will not be available for online purchase, rather sold through local authorized Epson Pro Cinema dealers. BTW:  So you understand how it works, just because some US dealer sells Epson printers, doesn't give them access to the projectors.

There is one other laser projector in the LS line-up, that's the LS9600e which launched the same time as the older LS10000.  There was no need on Epson's part to upgrade that $6000 laser projector.  It's primary difference is that the LS9600e doesn't support 4K, so the one big change to the L10500 - the adding of HDR support, wouldn't be relevant to a projector that can't accept any 4K.  If you don't care about 4K and want to save money, check out our review of the 9600e.

The images above were all taken with content projected by the LS10500.  The first three and last two images are from 4K HDR content, the rest from 1080 or 720 resolution content.  Of course, as with our other photo shoots of projected content,  there's no way these highly compressed images (and your display)  can really give you a great idea of how good the actual projected image appears when in the room!

So far, the LS10500 is the only laser projector shipping, under $24,995K (I think) that has the ability to accept 4K content and HDR.  That "exclusivity" will end in the next 12 months, I guarantee it!

I'm giving the Pro Cinema LS10500 one of our hot product awards.  It deserves it.  The picture is stunning, the 4K capabilities excellent, and it's a laser projector!    There are only a couple/three (at this time) serious competitors under $10K, and while they all have trade-offs, the LS10500 is able to do serious battle with all of them, but more on that later.   The LS10500 will also be competing, later this year, in our 2017 Best Home Theater Projectors report.  I should mention that previously, the older LS10000 won two awards in our annual report.  Best In Class awards in the  Projectors $3500 - $10,000, and for 4K and Blu-ray UHD Capable Projectors.

A few more things:  This Epson has a superior 2.1:1 zoom lens than we've been used to on all the older UB projectors.  Add to that, all motorized lens functions, and Epson is able to offer Lens Memory, which in turn makes it practical for movie lovers to go "wide screen" with a wider Cinemascope shaped screen instead of a typical 16:9 HDTV shaped screen.  My primary screen is a widescreen.  At the touch of a button I can resize the image depending on it's aspect ratio, so that I have the largest possible projection area for that image.

Some quick background on 4K.  This Epson supports 4K content from sources including Blu-ray UHD and cable.  But this is still a 1080p projector.  But it uses a technology called pixel shifting.  (FYI:  JVC and Epson were the first two companies to introduce pixel shifting to home projectors, but were now seeing a lot of pixel shifting DLP projectors being announced and starting to ship.)

Don't get me wrong, pixel shifting 4K content isn't going to do the same job as a true 4K projector, where the size of each individual pixel is 1/4th that of 1080p pixels.  Still, a 1080p pixel shifter  just might fool you on a lot of content, especially if you aren't paying close attention.  Remember the projector is a means to an end.  You want to be watching the content, not analyzing the projector while watching it!.

The LS10500, like it's predecessor happens to be one cool, "Euro" looking projector.   Physically its a bit taller than the competing JVCs and Sonys, but has a smaller footprint.

I should mention now that as a Pro Cinema series, it comes with these extras in the box:  Ceiling mount, cable cover, two pair of lightweight, rechargeable 3D glasses, and a cable cover for the back for a clean, neat installation. Of course, this is a laser projector so there's no free spare lamp, which comes with each lamp based Pro Cinema model..

Pricing is the same as the older LS10000.  The Pro Cinema LS10500 is priced at $7999.

Let's talk resolution for just a second.  This Epson projector is using these same liquid crystal on quartz (they call them 3LCD Reflective) panels.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, that's sort of fitting since Epson's watch division - Seiko pioneered quartz watch movements.

• 4K processing using pixel shifting
• Accepts true 4K content
• Support for HDR
• Dual blue laser light engine (30,000 hours), 1500 lumens
• Excellent 3D quality
• Firmware upgradeable, via hard wire networking to your router
• Bright for a dedicated Home Theater projector
• Pretty sweet looking
• Motorized 2.1:1 zoom lens with Lens Memory to support wide screens
• Maintains color accuracy and brightness for far longer than lamp based projectors
• Extremely quiet
• 3 year warranty with rapid replacement program

OK, let's get into some details!  Special Features time...

We have posted our Epson LS10500 Projector At A Glance video, which is an overview of the projector’s features and some images of the projector in action, with a few comments. This is not summary of this full in-depth review.

JVC's flagship home theater projector makes for stunning viewing in a dedicated home theater!

A quick clarification.  This JVC DLA-RS6710U accepts some 4K content, but technically it is still a 1080p projector, since it has 1080p panels.  It is not a native 4K projector.  It does use something called pixel shifting.

More on that later.  Let's get started.