Viewing - HDTV

Posted on October 5, 2009 by Art Feierman

Once Living Room Mode was adjusted properly, I found it to be excellent for viewing HDTV, and especially sports. Consider these images, which show that rich dynamic ability of the Epson. All of the football shots were taken with a fair amount of ambient light. If you want to watch in the dark - "cave" style, the color dynamics are even more spectacular.

Like the HC400 before it, I would definitely say this is a projector that will really please sports fans, even more so, than the slightly brighter Panasonic PT-AX200U. Please note you can make out some ambient light below the screen on the walls and speakers. Since the exposure is set for best viewing of the screen, the ambient light appears much darker than the room really was (shades all down, but they all leak light on their sides, bright sunny day, with all the windows on the left having a southern exposure).

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Now these show you the excellent performance of the Epson under modest ambient light conditions. (You can see just a little washing out of the image in the lower left corner). The choice of my Firehawk screen helps with the ambient light.

I better help you understand how much ambient light there is in the room for the shots above. Here is a previously taken image showing a pretty accurate view of the room. (The image on the screen is from a different projector, the much less bright Sony VW60), but the shoots were done during almost identical conditions.

Picture Quality - Bottom Line

Rich and dynamic colors, with plenty of "wow factor" on HDTV and especially sports. On movies the imagery is good, and again, rich colors, perhaps not quite as natural or film-like as some of the competition. Do keep in mind, to a certain degree we are "splitting hairs" here. The differences between the Epson and various competitors is hardly dramatic. The Epson's extra "crisp" look, I would say, is a trade-off against that softer look that some do better, that most refer to as being film-like.