Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-2 Posted on August 19, 2008 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Highlights - Overview - The Dynamics of Owning a Home Theater Projector System2. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-2 - The Dynamics of Owning a Home Theater Projector System - What's Normally Involved in Putting Together A Home Theater3. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-3 - What's Involved in Doing a Home Theater, Epson Ensemble HD Style - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 System Overview of Equipment - Ensemble HD 1080: Basic Specifications4. Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System - Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A/V Controller5. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-4 - Ensemble HD Screen (and speaker) System - Ensemble HD 1080 5.1 Speakers and Amplification - Ensemble HD 1080 Remote Control - Ensemble HD 1080 Miscellaneous Equipment6. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 System: Image Quality Sections - Home Cinema 1080 Projector: "Out of the Box" Picture Quality - Skin Tone Handling7. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-2 - Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail - Black Level Performance - Ensemble HD 1080 Shadow Detail Performance8. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-3 - Ensemble HD 1080 Shadow Detail Performance9. Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail – 2 - Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema 1080 projector - Shadow Detail Performance - Epson Home Cinema 1080 Projector: Sharpness - The DTS test disc main menu is a good test of sharpness - A close-up of the monitor image in Space Cowboys - Bottom Line Sharpness10. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-411. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-512. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-6 - Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema 1080 projector13. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-914. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-10 - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Performance: HDTV and Sports - Overall Image Quality - Overall Picture Quality: Bottom Line15. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System Review: General Performance - Ensemble HD 1080 Menus - Ensemble HD 1080 User Memory Settings - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Universal Remote Control16. Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Ensemble HD 1080 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector Brightness17. Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector Light Leakage - Ensemble HD 1080 Audible Noise Levels - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Epson Home Cinema 1080 Post Calibration Measurements: - Theater Black 1 mode: - Living Room Mode - Dynamic (Art's settings - a very quick calibration)18. Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise - Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise - Ensemble HD 1080 Sound Quality19. Other Cool Features of the Epson Ensemble HD 1080 - Midnight Mode - Multiple formats accepted by the DVD player - The USB port on the front - Headphone Jack! - AM/FM tuner - Preset screen drop - Additional Radio Frequency capabilities20. Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD Home Theater System - Installing the Epson Ensemble HD in my Office/Testing Room/Theater 2 - Home Theater Installation: Day One - Bingo, at that point, they discovered Problem #1. - Problem #221. Home Theater Installation: Smooth installation from there on out - Smooth installation from there on out - That didn't take long: Day 1 - Day 2: Smooth as Silk!22. Home Theater Installation: Hooking everything up - Hooking everything up - One, Two, Three, Go - If Only You Could See What I Saw23. Home Theater Installation: And, finally: Calibration, then – All Done - And, finally: Calibration, then - All Done - And what have we learned today? - The Bottom Line: Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD - The Low Cost of this Complete Home Theater Installation24. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A Complete Home Theater System Review: Summary, Pros and Cons - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Pros - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Cons25. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater Projector System: Summary - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater Projector Based System - Bottom Line:26. Epson Ensemble HD1080 Projector Specifications The Dynamics of Owning a Home Theater Projector SystemFor the first time, a high quality large screen projection system – with sound to match – can be installed in people’s homes, stress free in less than a day! We’re talking projector, 100 inch diagonal screen, a full 5.1 surround sound system, with sub-woofer, DVD player and AM/FM tuner, complete with almost all of the trimmings. (You’ll likely still want to have your cable or satellite hooked up, and sooner or later, a Blu-ray player – I recommend sooner!) A home theater system like this makes the average sized LCDTV look so small that it all belongs in the kitchen! Projector-based home theater systems are a tiny portion of the home theater market, with sales in the hundreds of thousands in the US each year, compared to tens of millions of LCDTV and plasmas sold. Most people who have thought about a projector-based home theater system in their home, find the prospect of actually buying one to be too daunting. As a result, by my estimate, most people who have a room set up with a projector for some first class home theater, fit into three categories: Home Theater enthusiasts, hobbyists, or whatever you like to call them, including DIY types (do it yourself) – they simply can’t live without Folks with a healthy checkbook – who will locate a local dealer, work with them to determine what level of system, and a few choices, but leave all the work to the dealer. Further, these people are typically not intimidated with home projects that can take weeks, or months, as long as it’s completed on time, on budget, and performs as expected (or better). All-in-one Projectors – these aren’t full home theater systems, but a portable projector with some built in speakers, and maybe a DVD player, but are really entry level products – pick one up, plug it in, and shine it on a wall – great in the kids room. These are, overall, far inferior compared to what we are talking about here, and very low cost What’s missing from this list is most of the other 5 Billion plus people on the planet. Most people go out and buy from their favorite toy store – Best Buy, Circuit City, and appliance stores that sell plasmas and LCDTVs. They then do the most basic setup in their homes. Over half of these people will just have their Plasma or LCDTV on a stand or table top, and not bother with wall mounting. Most will not even add to the typically anemic built in speakers inside the LCDTV or Plasma, thus losing the great room filling sound available on HDTV, TV, and DVDs of all types. Basically people want to keep things simple, and with a serious home theater system at any budget level, there are many important choices to be made. That’s enough to intimidate the vast majority of people, whether they want a system for $3000 (or less), $100,000 or more, or anywhere in between. What's Normally Involved in Putting Together A Home TheaterIf you decide you want to put together your own projector based home theater, here is a list of most of the many decisions you normally have to make, and for many, they will want to understand the basics of each choice. First, you have to figure out what room it will go in, then: Choosing the right home theater projector – for your budget, the picture quality you expect, the size of your room, and the options on placing the equipment Choosing the right screen – including motorized, pull-down or fixed wall, and the right type of screen surface (intimidated yet?) Choosing a full surround sound system (5.1 is most popular), but you still have to pick the speakers (five plus the subwoofer), by price, size, and positioning, sound quality (will your spouse let you have free standing speakers or must you have unobtrusive in-wall speakers)? You are going to need a DVD player, or a Blu-ray player for those movies – which one? and Why? You’ll almost certainly want to have a cable box or satellite receiver added to the room And the “piece de resistance”, you don’t want to do it yourself, so you need to hire folks to handle the full installation. You’ll have to check out the price, choose the right company (sometimes companies) – especially since not all home theater dealers do “everything” which includes opening your walls to run wires (and not all dealers have electrical contractors licenses either), drywalling and painting the aftermath. That includes mounting the projector, speakers screens, and doing all the final wiring. And you even have to decide about the quality level of all the wiring used! And finally, to get the last ounce of performance out, you likely will want the system calibrated. I’ve been in the AV industry for roughly 30 years, and that’s enough to almost intimidate me! I know, I have had a theater (currently two) of some level, in each of my last 3 homes. 1. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Highlights - Overview - The Dynamics of Owning a Home Theater Projector System2. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-2 - The Dynamics of Owning a Home Theater Projector System - What's Normally Involved in Putting Together A Home Theater3. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-3 - What's Involved in Doing a Home Theater, Epson Ensemble HD Style - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 System Overview of Equipment - Ensemble HD 1080: Basic Specifications4. Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System - Ensemble HD 1080: Physical Attributes of the Complete System - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A/V Controller5. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-4 - Ensemble HD Screen (and speaker) System - Ensemble HD 1080 5.1 Speakers and Amplification - Ensemble HD 1080 Remote Control - Ensemble HD 1080 Miscellaneous Equipment6. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 System: Image Quality Sections - Home Cinema 1080 Projector: "Out of the Box" Picture Quality - Skin Tone Handling7. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-2 - Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail - Black Level Performance - Ensemble HD 1080 Shadow Detail Performance8. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-3 - Ensemble HD 1080 Shadow Detail Performance9. Home Cinema 1080: Black Level and Shadow Detail – 2 - Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema 1080 projector - Shadow Detail Performance - Epson Home Cinema 1080 Projector: Sharpness - The DTS test disc main menu is a good test of sharpness - A close-up of the monitor image in Space Cowboys - Bottom Line Sharpness10. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-411. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-512. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-6 - Epson Ensemble HD Home Cinema 1080 projector13. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-914. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater System Review: Image Quality-10 - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Performance: HDTV and Sports - Overall Image Quality - Overall Picture Quality: Bottom Line15. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System Review: General Performance - Ensemble HD 1080 Menus - Ensemble HD 1080 User Memory Settings - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Universal Remote Control16. Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Ensemble HD 1080 Lens Throw and Lens Shift - Ensemble HD 1080 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector Brightness17. Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector Light Leakage - Ensemble HD 1080 Audible Noise Levels - Ensemble HD 1080 Projector: Measurements and Calibration - Epson Home Cinema 1080 Post Calibration Measurements: - Theater Black 1 mode: - Living Room Mode - Dynamic (Art's settings - a very quick calibration)18. Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise - Ensemble HD 1080 Image Noise - Ensemble HD 1080 Sound Quality19. Other Cool Features of the Epson Ensemble HD 1080 - Midnight Mode - Multiple formats accepted by the DVD player - The USB port on the front - Headphone Jack! - AM/FM tuner - Preset screen drop - Additional Radio Frequency capabilities20. Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD Home Theater System - Installing the Epson Ensemble HD in my Office/Testing Room/Theater 2 - Home Theater Installation: Day One - Bingo, at that point, they discovered Problem #1. - Problem #221. Home Theater Installation: Smooth installation from there on out - Smooth installation from there on out - That didn't take long: Day 1 - Day 2: Smooth as Silk!22. Home Theater Installation: Hooking everything up - Hooking everything up - One, Two, Three, Go - If Only You Could See What I Saw23. Home Theater Installation: And, finally: Calibration, then – All Done - And, finally: Calibration, then - All Done - And what have we learned today? - The Bottom Line: Installation of the Epson Ensemble HD - The Low Cost of this Complete Home Theater Installation24. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 A Complete Home Theater System Review: Summary, Pros and Cons - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Pros - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Home Theater System: Cons25. Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Competitive Aspects - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater Projector System: Summary - Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete Home Theater Projector Based System - Bottom Line:26. Epson Ensemble HD1080 Projector Specifications Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review Epson Ensemble HD 1080 Complete, Projector Based Home Theater System Review-3