Epson Home Cinema 3010 Projector – Physical Tour

Epson Home Cinema 3010 Projector - Appearance

Impressive! Rounded corners, center mounted lens, the Epson Home Cinema 3010 and the 3010e are finished in a shiny white, with gray trim on the two large front vents. I like the gray on the front, adds some style the way they did it, and won’t reflect as much light back to the screen as a white front. (Good thinking, for a white projector.) In other words, it blends in, in a typical family room, bonus room type environment, but has that one thing (darker front) going for it if you are dropping it into a home theater room.

Let’s take a quick spin around the Home Cinema 3010. Continuing with the front, the recessed manual zoom lens, as noted, is center mounted (easier math when mounting). There is also a front infra-red sensor for the remote control (and a second one in the back).

For those not mounting the projector, but, say, placing it on a table top, note that the venting in the front works this way: If you are facing the front of the projector, the intake vent is on your right. That makes the left side the exhaust vent. It blows air out to the right front. You don’t want to be sitting within 2-3 feet of the path of the hot air. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of other places to sit.

Underneath the 3010, are two screw thread adjustable front feet for your tabletop use convenience. There’s a single, wide, rubber rear foot in the back center, without adjustment. Since the Home Cinema 3010 has no lens shift, and 0 lens offset, if you put it on, say, a table the same height as the bottom of the screen, you’ll need to raise the rear slightly (or use lens shift). This can be a minor nuisance at times for folks setting up in different rooms.

Home Cinema 3010 Projector - Input/Output

Click to enlarge.  So close.All the HC3010’s inputs are centered on the back panel. To either side are the rear facing 10 watt speakers for hefty sound.

There are two HDMI 1.4a connectors, for full Blu-ray 3D compatibility. There’s a single IR sensor (bottom left), for the remote. There’s a 3D IR port, a USB connector (for running slideshows without computer), the usual composite video and stereo audio inputs, a component video input (3 color coded RCA connectors), and a standard HD15 analog computer input.

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There’s also a Kensington lock slot, and the power receptacle. Also of minor note, there is a cable clip setup to help secure the HDMI connectors, which is handy, since those of you who have worked with HDMI, realize how flaky the connector is, the weight of the cable can bend it. Epson’s solution is a nice extra touch, that most projectors don’t offer.

Home Cinema 3010 Menus

Other than the addition of the various 3D controls, the menus of the Home Cinema 3010 and the “e” are very typical for Epson. Below I’ve dropped in screen shots of most of the main and sub-menus. I won’t attempt to mention more than a few things. If you want details about all the hundreds of menu choices, I recommend downloading the user manual.

Epson Home Cinema 3010 Remote Control

Click to enlarge.  So close.The Home Cinema 3010 remote control is big, and black, and backlit. Overall, it’s a really nice remote control, and it seems to have very good range, I have to worry far less about where I’m pointing this remote, than most others, and I attribute that to range and spread of the IR beam.

The top row as the big power On button on the left, a smaller Off button in the middle, and the backlight button far right.

Next comes two rows of buttons with your Source choices. On the “e” version of the projector one of them is for the WirelessHD HDMI setup. With support for HDMI-Link, the remote provides all the usual DVD type controls since it should run any HDMI-link player. In fact on the row of large buttons immediately below, are the HDMI-Link button, and Volume Up and Down.

Below those, white buttons from 2D/3D modes, Color Mode, and Memory

That takes us to the navigation controls – four arrow keys in a round formation with a center Enter button. Below all that are three buttons in a curve,

Below those buttons are Default, Menu, and Esc (takes you back a level on the menus).

Finally, near the bottom, 7 more buttons offering direct links to features/menu items: AutoIris, Color (RGBCYMK), Aspect Ratio, Split Screen, test Pattern, User (programmable from menus), and AV Mute.

I have two complaints: The backlight itself, could be a touch brighter, but it really is ok. (Better than one of those remotes with overly bright, blinding blue LED lights!)

The other complaint (and that’s about it), it’s that the backlight button is way at the top right, and the backlight doesn’t come on, when you press any button. With a remote this long, the backlight button is far from the center of balance, so you really can’t hit the button while holding it balanced in one hand.

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