Epson’s flagship home theater projector is this new, 4K capable, Pro Cinema 6050UB. Epson's UB series (Ultra Black) projectors, uses special high contrast 3LCD panels that aren’t used in any of Epson’s other home, or commercial projectors, except the near-identical Home Cinema 5050UB. The UB series itself is now 12 years old, and thanks to the often improved ultra high contrast panels, black level performance and overall picture quality continues to improve.

The Pro Cinema 6050UB (and the less expensive Home Cinema 5050UB are pixel shifting projectors, for greater detail. The Pro Cinema 6050UB offers an improvement over the previous models – the HC 5040UB and PC 6040UB – in terms of improved in pixel shifting but more significantly improved HDR handling. Of course, there are a number of other areas where the new models outperform the previous UB's. Epson calls their latest iteration on handling 4K with pixel shifting and image processing as Pro-UHD. Epson advertises that the Pro Cinema 6050UB (as well as the HC5050UB and two similar Epson’s using the lower contrast 3LCD panels – the HC4010 and PC4050) – as having a wider color gamut and reaching the full 100% of the P3/BT.2020 color range.

That' a claim that’s been echoed by several other manufacturers since CEDIA 2018, but as yet has not been delivered upon. Well, if this PC6050UB and HC5050UB don’t fully get to P3 color, they sure get very close. Our calibrator found all the primary and secondary colors achieved at least 95% of P3, with no other lamp-based projectors that we’ve reviewed to date, even coming close.

Epson’s new Pro Cinema 6050UB is a bright, 4K Capable – 2,600 lumen –fully featured projector that started shipping early summer. I apologize for the delay, but I’ve had to wait months for this review unit, because, as Epson puts it, the Pro Cinema 6050UB has vastly outsold its expectations, with the projectors heavily backordered. The Pro Cinema 6050UB – aka PC6050UB, comes only in a black case (with a nice gold trim ring). (The Home Cinema version is in white.) I’ll get into the other differences throughout this review.

The Pro Cinema 6050’s list price is $3,999 but includes a bundle of gear and a longer warranty, The PC050UB’s warranty is Epson’s three-year warranty with three years of Rapid Replacement, which they provide for their Pro Cinema projectors (Home Cinema series gets two years of both. The Pro Cinema series is sold only by local integrator dealers, and some big box houses, such as Best Buy’s Magnolia stores. Along with Epson’s $3999 price you get not just the projector and the best warranty around, but also a spare lamp, a ceiling mount, and a cable cover (to keep things neat).

Epson’s new Pro Cinema 6050UB is a bright, 4K Capable – 2,600 lumen –fully featured projector that started shipping early summer. I apologize for the delay, but I’ve had to wait months for this review unit, because, as Epson puts it, the Pro Cinema 6050UB has vastly outsold its expectations, with the projectors heavily backordered. The Pro Cinema 6050UB – aka PC6050UB, comes only in a black case (with a nice gold trim ring). (The Home Cinema version is in white.) I’ll get into the other differences throughout this review.

The Pro Cinema 6050’s list price is $3,999 but includes a bundle of gear and a longer warranty, The PC050UB’s warranty is Epson’s three-year warranty with three years of Rapid Replacement, which they provide for their Pro Cinema projectors (Home Cinema series gets two years of both. The Pro Cinema series is sold only by local integrator dealers, and some big box houses, such as Best Buy’s Magnolia stores. Along with Epson’s $3999 price you get not just the projector and the best warranty around, but also a spare lamp, a ceiling mount, and a cable cover (to keep things neat).

I should mention now, that while the change from the PC6040UB to the PC6050UB is definitely evolutionary, not revolutionary, there are some areas of improvement which will be very important to a lot of folks.

I have put well over 100 hours total on the Pro Cinema 6050UB by the time I started writing, and before measuring. Epson has agreed to lend this PC6050UB to me for an extended period to use as a reference projector (replacing the old HC5040UB). That lets me compare all other models I review to it, which in turn let’s be more precisely describe the differences between other projectors and this Epson, but also between other projectors. For example, if the dark scene handling is much better on the Epson than the XYZ projector, but only slightly better than on the ABC projector, we can conclude that the ABC projector does better dark scenes than the XYZ model. (Yep learned that stuff in a good old college level Logic course, several decades ago! After having compared the PC5050UB with the HC5040UB (or PC6040UB) predecessors, I was already appreciating a number of improvements.

This 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-$5000 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 the very least, some really good out of the box color and skin tones. Not that there aren’t some others that look great to start, as well.

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). Typically those controls need almost no, or no adjustment. Interestingly with the launch of these new UB's, Epson solves the briefly, slightly embarrassing situation  of having better performance in some ways, in its step down models over the 40UBs until the 50UB series started shipping. The less expensive HC4010 and PC4050 came out a year ago, with some improvements not found on the earlier UB's. Now they are all updated, so the new UB’s are the best at everything in their lineup. (Epson’s LS10500 laser projector seems to have been phased out quietly, making the PC6050UB their flagship for the time being.

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 Pro Cinema 6050UB, with some help from our HC5050UB review.

The V7850 is one of three new 4K/UHD projectors that Acer has introduced this year.  The features and pricing of each of these models is very similar to the new 4K/UHD DLP projectors that were recently introduced by Optoma (see our review of the Optoma UHD65, the most similar Optoma model - HERE).

As compared to the previous reviewed Optoma model, the Acer V7850 is noticeably smaller.  In fact it's cabinet size is the smallest we have seen to date for a 4K/UHD DLP projector. The other 4K/UHD projectors in Acer's line-up include the model H7850, a similar home entertainment projector priced at just under $2,000, and the model VL7860, a laser light engine home theater projector priced at just under $5,000.

All of these DLP 4K UHD projectors, including the V7850 reviewed here, use a single Texas Instruments DLP (DMD) micro display chip with a native resolution of 2716 x 1528 pixels, which is 1/2 the number of pixels found in a true native 4K display (approx. 4M pixels vs. 8M pixels).  Pixel shifting is then used to create a 4K image.  This technique produces an image that is sharper, with more fine details, that what is possible with a standard 1080 HD projector, including 1080p models that also offer pixel shifting.  In any case, this model is not a native 4K resolution projector, rather is it what we like to call a "FauxK" or "4K-lite" projector.

1/8/2018 UPDATE: The V7850 received our Special Interest Award for offering lower black levels and better performance on displaying dark scenes that does the closest competitor’s projector (i.e., the Optoma UHD65) that we have reviewed.

The main competition at this price point for some sort of 4K support are the pixel shifting 1080p projectors using 3LCD technology (or LCoS for somewhat more money) and pixel shifting DLP projectors from other manufacturers (such as the previously reviewed Optoma UHD65 - HERE).  All of the DLP models are using the same micro-display chipset from Texas Instruments.

When moving to 4K/UHD there are 3 picture enhancements available from certain sources, including Ultra HD BluRays and from some of the streaming video services.   From a moving to 4K standpoint, there’s one piece of the puzzle missing with the Acer V7850 and other current DLP models, and that relates to the ability to actually display a wide color gamut (WCG) – which simply provides richer, more intense colors than the ITU Rec. 709 standard we’ve enjoyed all these years for HDTV and standard HD Blu-ray movies. Just remember, almost all Blu-ray UHD movies support not only 4K resolution, and HDR, but also WCG (extended color space) based on the ITU Rec. BT2020 standard.  However, the full color gamut allowed by the BT2020 standard it not actually being used, rather the more practical, obtainable DCI-P3 “subset”, as used in commercial cinemas, is generally what you will find on the current generation of Ultra HD BluRays.

Acer claims in in some of their literature for the V7850:

"The V7850 has a 2,200 lumens rating and boasts a RGBRGB color wheel, which helps produce a wider color gamut, and supports the Rec. 709 standard to reproduce original colors and tones true to the film director’s intentions. It also touts a contrast ratio up to a whopping 1,200,000:1 and is compatible with Rec. 2020 signals, the UHDTV standard."

Most projectors that try to support Rec. 2020 come up way short, even for the more limited DCI-P3 color space.  Later in this review we’ll discuss how well the V7850 actually performs, but it appears to be particularly challenging for lamp based DLP projectors, of which the Acer V7850 is one, to support a color gamut significantly wider that Rec. 709.

One more thought before we get into more of an overview of the projector itself:  Just keep in mind, that the Acer V7850's native resolution of 2716×1528 is still one half of true 4K (either 3840×2160, or true DCI 4K which is 4096×2160, – note that the difference is in aspect ratio, rather than any real difference resolution). Pixel shifting helps, just as it helps the 1080p pixel shifters look sharper than standard 1080p projectors.  Appreciate the Acer for the sharpness it delivers, which is most impressive.  However, don’t fall for the 4K UHD hype.  Manufacturers tend to want to let readers “assume” it’s true 4K, and regularly use terms like 4K processing, 4K Enhancement, etc.  In fact most brochures today of 4K UHD projectors proclaim 3840×2160 resolution, but typically fail to remind us that the size of their pixels is larger than true 4K pixels, and you just can’t get as sharp an image when the pixels are relatively large and are also overlapping the adjacent pixels.  Roughly speaking, if a true 4K projector’s pixels were the size of a nickel, then this projector’s would be about the size of a quarter.

That’s marketing folks, skip the hype, instead concentrate on the fact that this is a $2500 projector with sharpness we’ve never seen so good without spending $5000 list price for the lowest cost Sony true 4K model (the Sony VPL-VW285ES, reviewed HERE).  As to the rest of the feature set, picture quality and performance – we’ll get to that.

The big feature of the V7850 is the higher pixel density DLP chip that meets the 4K UHD standard by displaying 8M pixels, through the use of using pixel shifting.  After that, very important is the support for HDR – High Dynamic Range, the rest of this Acer is a pretty typical home projector.   Lens functions are manual zoom and focus.  Plus, there’s vertical lens shift as well.  It’s a modest amount, allowing only 15%, of screen height, vertical adjustment but it does provide for placement flexibility.

I mentioned the lower cost Acer model H7850 above.  Let’s take a moment to define the difference between the two, (besides the lower $1999 price of the H7850).  These are very similar projectors with basically the same feature set; the primary difference is the color filter wheel.  Whereas the V7850 uses an RGBRGB color wheel, the H7850 uses a different configuration with a large clear slice.  This is typical of single chip DLP home entertainment projectors vs. DLP home theater ones.

That clear slice provides a lot more white lumens, (but less for color ones), with the idea being that as a home entertainment projector, the H7850 needs the extra lumens, to overcome the room's ambient lighting, at the expense of providing less color saturation.  So the V7850 reviewed here is expected to offer more accurate colors while the H7850 can potentially provide a brighter image, at least for whites and lighter color shades.