Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality Posted on August 30, 2013 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Overview - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Highlights2. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review2 - Home Cinema 2030 3D Capabilities: - Positioning of the Epson Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 projectors - Back to the Home Cinema 2030 projector:3. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review 3 - Home Cinema 2030: Built in Sound, with Audio Out Feature - Home Cinema 2030 Lag Times - Gamers start your consoles! - Roku Compatibility - Epson Home Cinema 2030 and 2000: "Smart" Home Projectors - Home Cinema 2030 Energy Efficiency and Green 4. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review 4 - Home Cinema 2030 Projector 3D - Home Cinema 2030 USB Slideshow - Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Dynamic Iris - Home Cinema 2030 Lamp Life - Image Slide - Image Adjustment - 1.2:1 Zoom Lens5. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Physical Tour - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Appearance - Home Cinema 2030 Control Panel - Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Input/Output - Home Cinema 2030 Menus6. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Physical Tour2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Remote Control - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Lens Throw - Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens - Wide Screen?7. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Flesh Tones8. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Black Levels & Shadow Detail9. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 3 - Black Level and Shadow Detail Performance: Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Bottom Line10. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 4 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports, including 3D11. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 5 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports, and also 3D HDTV Content12. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Brightness - Epson HC2030 Calibrated: User "best" mode, based on Natural mode = 1408 lumens - Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode) - Home Cinema 2030 Eco-Mode vs. Full Power:13. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Performance 2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Pre-Calibration Color temp - Home Cinema 2030, Post Calibration, Best Mode (Natural) - Home Cinema 2030 Picture Modes - Epson Home Cinema 2030 3D Brightness - Subjective14. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Performance – 3 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Sharpness - Comparison images - Bottom Line Sharpness - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise15. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Calibration - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Color Temperature - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Basic Settings16. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Advanced Calibration Info - Color Management Settings (CMS) - CMS Calibration Notes - Calibration Charts (Before and After)17. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode - Home Cinema 2030 RGB Settings18. Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors - Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Optoma HD25-LV - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Epson Home Cinema 8350 - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Epson Home Cinema 302019. Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors – 2 - Home Cinema 2030 vs. BenQ W1070 and W1080ST - Epson Home Cinema 2000 vs. Acer H6510 and Viewsonic PJD7820HD - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Panasonic PT-AR100U20. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Advanced Calibration - Color Management - CMS Calibration21. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Warranty - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Warranty22. Home Cinema 2030 – Projector Screen Recommendations - HC2030 Projector Screen Recommendations23. Epson Home Cinema 2030 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - The Bottom Line - The Very Bottom Line on the Home Cinema 2030 projector24. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros and Cons - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros and Cons - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Cons25. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Specifications Before we discuss the picture quality of Epson’s Home Cinema 2030, our usual comments on the color accuracy of the images: A lot of processing goes on from the start of a photo shoot until you are viewing the Epson Home Cinema 2030 images on your computer screen. As a result, these images are reasonable indications, but not accurate enough for comparing precise color, saturation and other aspects. Note: Selected images relating to shadow detail, and especially black level performance can be very effective at demonstrating how the Home Cinema 2030 positions itself compared to other home projectors. Different computers, browsers, displays, graphics cards, and software, all affect how the image looks on your screen. Most can be found in other reviews to help you compare projectors. I’ve always said, that all home projectors, including this Epson Home Cinema 2030, definitely looks better live at your place, than any of our images would indicate. Note, as I often do, sometimes in the whole process, our images pick up a slight tint that isn’t there when viewing the screen. In the case of the Home Cinema 2030, that slight shift is there, and it is adding some additional mostly greenish tint. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Out of the Box Picture QualityOut of the box picture quality would have to be considered rather good even if the HC2030 was twice the price. There are four 2D color modes and two 3D ones. Dynamic, the brightest, is definitely a bit on the cool side but not too much. It’s very punchy as one would expect, only slightly “over the top”, the kind of “over the top” you need to cut through more than a little ambient light. Living Room is even cooler but not at all over the top! Football looks killer. Wow! While cool, adjusting the Color Temp down one warms it up a good bit, without removing very much brightness at all. Your call. Natural and Cinema are a couple/three hundred lumens less bright than Living room, and have that more Cinema feel. Both are very watchable, without adjustment. Hey, they all are, and that’s rare. Click Image to EnlargeOn the calibration page we discuss calibrating the Natural setting, and also adjusting the settings of Dynamic for our “quick-cal” basically an attempt to improve overall color and watchability without sacrificing significant brightness. If we wanted to sacrifice a whole lot of brightness – well, that’s a full calibration! That makes the HC2030 very LCDTV like. “No muss, no fuss.” Take it home, power it up, and watch it, watch from Blu-ray and DVD players, satellite and cable, but also with internet content from Roku, and personal content such as photos, using a typical USB stick. This is a “$1000” projector. We’ll discuss other aspects such as black level performance and shadow detail, and the effects of our calibration. But consider this a projector that can be slightly improved by our settings, but looks pretty impressive just as it is, or with the changes we suggest. Out of the box it looks better than the typical LCDTV you see at Best Buy, and those things are tweaked to add lots of pop at the expense of overall picture quality (often the mode they are in is called “showroom” or “demo”.) Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Flesh Tones Check out the images. All the HDTV based images are with default settings for Living Room unless otherwise noted. Or, for a few of them, I reduced the color temp setting by one, to warm things up. All and all, you will likely find the skin tones to be rather good, pleasant or easy to enjoy. That’s especially nice for a near entry level 1080p projector. Certainly however, if you plug in our settings skin tones can be even more right. Watch out for that little extra greenish caste that I report ended up in the images that wasn’t on the screen when photographed. I’m not pitching this projector for the hard core enthusiast seeking color perfection. This is for the family, or the person who wants big bright and enjoyable. The images here give you a good idea, keeping in mind of course, that all images will look different on your monitor after graphics cards, image compression the DSLR and more. Overall, I’d say these images aren’t a bad representation, although they look a touch more saturated than on the screen. Trying our calibration settings will improve the picture, but only slightly from Natural mode. Again that’s because the out of the box color is pretty impressive without playing around. Let’s look at some assorted images, starting with good examples of skin tones. Above and below, our usual suspects – Gandalf and Arwen, from Lord of the Rings, on Blu-ray. Arwen below from LOTR is a bit green. There’s two reasons: That slight shift I mentioned, and that she’s supposed to have a slight green caste because the image it taken in a very green forest… Below are our three James Bond images from Casino Royale. Each has a different lighting scenario, the first – full sunlight, the second image; indoor fluorescent, and finally, filtered sunlight in the third image. And as one would expect, that causes each image of James Bond – Daniel Craig – to have different looking skin tones. 1. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Overview - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Highlights2. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review2 - Home Cinema 2030 3D Capabilities: - Positioning of the Epson Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 projectors - Back to the Home Cinema 2030 projector:3. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review 3 - Home Cinema 2030: Built in Sound, with Audio Out Feature - Home Cinema 2030 Lag Times - Gamers start your consoles! - Roku Compatibility - Epson Home Cinema 2030 and 2000: "Smart" Home Projectors - Home Cinema 2030 Energy Efficiency and Green 4. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Review 4 - Home Cinema 2030 Projector 3D - Home Cinema 2030 USB Slideshow - Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Dynamic Iris - Home Cinema 2030 Lamp Life - Image Slide - Image Adjustment - 1.2:1 Zoom Lens5. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Physical Tour - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Appearance - Home Cinema 2030 Control Panel - Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Input/Output - Home Cinema 2030 Menus6. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Physical Tour2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Remote Control - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Lens Throw - Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens - Wide Screen?7. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Flesh Tones8. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Black Levels & Shadow Detail9. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 3 - Black Level and Shadow Detail Performance: Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Bottom Line10. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 4 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports, including 3D11. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 5 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports, and also 3D HDTV Content12. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Brightness - Epson HC2030 Calibrated: User "best" mode, based on Natural mode = 1408 lumens - Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode) - Home Cinema 2030 Eco-Mode vs. Full Power:13. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Performance 2 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Pre-Calibration Color temp - Home Cinema 2030, Post Calibration, Best Mode (Natural) - Home Cinema 2030 Picture Modes - Epson Home Cinema 2030 3D Brightness - Subjective14. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Performance – 3 - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Sharpness - Comparison images - Bottom Line Sharpness - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise15. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Calibration - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Color Temperature - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Basic Settings16. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Advanced Calibration Info - Color Management Settings (CMS) - CMS Calibration Notes - Calibration Charts (Before and After)17. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Post Calibration Grayscale: User Mode - Home Cinema 2030 RGB Settings18. Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors - Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Optoma HD25-LV - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Epson Home Cinema 8350 - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Epson Home Cinema 302019. Home Cinema 2030 and Home Cinema 2000 Competitors – 2 - Home Cinema 2030 vs. BenQ W1070 and W1080ST - Epson Home Cinema 2000 vs. Acer H6510 and Viewsonic PJD7820HD - Home Cinema 2030 vs. Panasonic PT-AR100U20. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Advanced Calibration - Color Management - CMS Calibration21. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Warranty - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Warranty22. Home Cinema 2030 – Projector Screen Recommendations - HC2030 Projector Screen Recommendations23. Epson Home Cinema 2030 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - The Bottom Line - The Very Bottom Line on the Home Cinema 2030 projector24. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros and Cons - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros and Cons - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Pros - Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector: Cons25. Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector Specifications Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Physical Tour2 Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Image Quality 2