Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector – Performance

Epson Home Cinema 2030 Brightness

The Epson Home Cinema 2030 is easily described as a “light canon.”  Interestingly, the HC2030 measured almost exactly as bright as the $600 more expensive Home Cinema 3020, that’s despite the 3020 being rated 2300 lumens vs. 2000 for the HC2030.

To make things even more “interesting”, this HC2030 is an engineering sample, and those typically measure less than full production projectors, often around 10% less bright.  We won’t know for sure though, until Epson follows up with a full production version for me to verify, in a couple of months.

Consider therefore, that the HC2030 and the slightly less bright HC2000 are about as bright as home projectors get, and therefore suitable in “normal” rooms that lack the lighting control (and typically the dark surfaces) one expects to have in a dedicated home theater.  As a result, it has to be one of the best affordable choices anywhere near the price range.

3D brightness is discussed a bit further down.

Those numbers are all “right out of the box”, without any adjustments, to settings like contrast, which can affect overall brightness. They are also taken with the zoom at mid-range.  However, due to the limited zoom range typical of projectors in this price range, even at full wide angle, we only found an extra 37 lumens.  (Not enough to even notice.)

Epson HC2030 Calibrated: User "best" mode, based on Natural mode = 1408 lumens

That’s interesting, because it makes the HC2030 slightly brighter (46 lumens) than the HC3020 (and again, this is a sample).

Effect of zoom on lumen output (Dynamic mode)

Home Cinema 2030 Eco-Mode vs. Full Power: