Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 Posted on October 30, 2014 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review - Home Cinema 3500 Projector - Overview - Home Cinema 3500 Highlights2. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - Home Cinema 3500 Super-Resolution - PIP - Picture In Picture - HDMI-Link - MHL - Home Cinema 3500 Built in Audio3. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Special Features 2 - Dynamic Iris and Black Levels - Eco-Modes - LCD Panel Alignment - 3D Performance - HC3500 as a Gaming Projector - No Wireless HD for this Epson...but4. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour - Overview and Lens - HC3500 Control Panel - HC3500 Inputs and Connectors - Home Cinema 3500 Lens Throw and Lens Shift5. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - Home Cinema 3500 Menus - HC3500 Remote Control6. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out of the Box Picture - Skin Tones - HC3500 Black Level Performance7. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - Dark Shadow Detail - Home Cinema 3500 on HDTV and Sports - Overall Picture Quality - Home Cinema 35008. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Performance - Color Temp Pre and Post Calibration, Calibrated Brightness - Sharpness and Super-Resolution - Image Noise and Audible Noise9. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Calibration & Settings - Color Temperature - Basic Settings - Mike's General Comments10. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Advanced Calibration Information - About this Calibration Information - CMS Calibration - Calibration Charts11. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Summary - HC3500 Capabilities and Features - Brightness Summary - Overall Picture Quality12. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Summary 2 - Home Cinema 3500 Value Proposition and Competition - Stacking up Against BenQ, Optoma, Sony, Panasonic - Pros - Cons13. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications EPSON HC3500 PROJECTOR REVIEW – HARDWARE TOUR Page 2: Menus, Remote Control Home Cinema 3500 MenusFor your consideration we’ve captured most of the menus and sub-menus found on this Epson projector. I’ve provided captions with comments on many of them. Of course there’s more info available if you download Epson’s user manual. Epson has been using the same basic organization of their menus for more than a decade, although they have made changes from time to time. Mostly though, Epson menus from one projector to the next, differ with the addition or lack of certain features. HC3500 Menus Image Menu Here's where all the main "picture" control lives, from presets to lamp brightness Color Modes There are four 2D presets and two 3D ones, plus Auto Advanced Sharpness An alternative to the "Standard" simple sharpness slider, Advanced offers more control Advanced Image Menu Three sets of calibration controls: Gamma, Grayscale (RGB) and CMS (adjusting individual colors) Calibrating Grayscale (RGB) Offers separate Offset and Gain for red, green, and blue to dial in proper grayscale Calibrating individual colors RGBCMY Control Hue, Saturation, and Brightness of each primary and secondary color Power Consumption - Lamp Modes High is full power, Medium is about 10% less bright, and ECO about 30% less Signal Menu 3D, Super-Resolution, Aspect ratio, Motion Detection 3and the Advanced menu 3D Menu Off and On, Auto sense, Convert 2D to 3D, Screen size and Depth (for fine tuning image), and 3D Brightness control Advanced Signal Menu Overscan, Noise Reduction, HDMI range control and Image Processing (Fine is standard, Fast for fast gaming) Settings Menu Too many to list, but HDMI Link, also Wireless HD for the HC3600e, plus PIP, Panel alignment, Audio and more HDMI-Link Control To use Epson to control other HDMI-Link devices, and vice versa Panel Alignment Digitally minimizes visible fringing caused by slightly mis-aligned LCD panels Display Sub-menu Background and Startup screen options Operation Sub-menu Sleep timer, 12 volt trigger, High Altitude mode...Illumination lets you turn off projector's indicator lights when viewing User Button selection These are your three choices for the remote's user button. WirelessHD These menus are for the HC3600e which offers WirelessHD. The HC3500 does not Network controls This will look familiar to folks who configure networks (including you, at home) Saving Network Settings Changes Once in the networking area, you can't just back out, make changes, or not, you have to save to exit User Memory Epson offers 10 savable User areas for saving your favorite modes with customized settings. Rename them for clarity Load Memory This shows we have 3 saved modes. In this case the first and 3rd are after Mike's calibrations. the 2nd Natural is for quick comparison of calibrated to default Natural Security Sub-Menu Set a password to lock out the control panel, and Child lock Info Menu Provides a lot of info on the state of the projector, Version shows firmware version Info Sub-menu Lots of info from resolution, to bit depth, serial number, hours on lamp and more HC3500 Remote ControlThis Epson HC3500’s remote control is typical for an Epson remote. It’s pretty long, moderately heavy (for a remote), has a very good backlight, and great range. The remote is laid out in sections. It won’t take long for a new owner to know what buttons are where, thanks to the logic Let’s run through all the sections and buttons, from the top. Power top left, once for on. next to it, a smaller button for power off (also press once). The backlight button is on the top right. The next section of 8 buttons all relate to source selection. There are seven different sources, plus, the upper left most – labeled PIP is for picture in Picture, which of course relates to the sources. There is a USB/LAN button, then two HDMI (HDMI supports MHL, HDMI2 does not), Component Video, Video (composite), and PC (analog computer). The last one is labeled WirelessHD, a feature only found on the HC3500’s twin, the HC3600e. Immediately below that is the HDMI-Link area that lets you use the Epson remote to control other HDMI-link devices (thus buttons like fast forward, play, stop, pause, which are found on Blu-ray players, etc.) There’s a Link-Menu button for when you have other devices set up. The larger HDMI-Link button just below those others, brings up the HDMI-Link button you saw above. The other two large buttons on that row are volume Up and Down. Above the Down button is a Mute. Apparently the volume and mute can control the internal speakers, or work with configured devices. After a space – large white buttons: 3D, changing Color modes, and direct access to the Super-Resolution menu. Then comes navigation: Four arrows in a round formation with Enter located in the middle. Below the Nav arrows are three buttons in a curve. Left most returns a menu to the default settings. In the middle is the Menu button itself to open menus, and on the right is Escape, which takes you back up a level when navigating the menus. We’re almost done. The next six buttons are more that provide direct access to sub-menus: Fine/Fast processing, CMS (color management system), and Aspect ratio on the first row. On the second row is the User button, Memory (menu) and 2D/3D. On the 3rd row is a button to bring up the test pattern, and an AV Mute button that “mutes” both audio and the picture. There are four more buttons – outlined with a white line which are all buttons for controlling the WirelessHD not offered on this version of the projector, but found on the HC3600e. I really like Epson remote controls like this one. There are two or three other manufacturer’s I like about as much, and far more that aren’t near as good. Click Image to Enlarge 1. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review - Home Cinema 3500 Projector - Overview - Home Cinema 3500 Highlights2. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review – Special Features - Home Cinema 3500 Super-Resolution - PIP - Picture In Picture - HDMI-Link - MHL - Home Cinema 3500 Built in Audio3. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Special Features 2 - Dynamic Iris and Black Levels - Eco-Modes - LCD Panel Alignment - 3D Performance - HC3500 as a Gaming Projector - No Wireless HD for this Epson...but4. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour - Overview and Lens - HC3500 Control Panel - HC3500 Inputs and Connectors - Home Cinema 3500 Lens Throw and Lens Shift5. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour 2 - Home Cinema 3500 Menus - HC3500 Remote Control6. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Picture Quality - Out of the Box Picture - Skin Tones - HC3500 Black Level Performance7. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Picture Quality 2 - Dark Shadow Detail - Home Cinema 3500 on HDTV and Sports - Overall Picture Quality - Home Cinema 35008. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Performance - Color Temp Pre and Post Calibration, Calibrated Brightness - Sharpness and Super-Resolution - Image Noise and Audible Noise9. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Calibration & Settings - Color Temperature - Basic Settings - Mike's General Comments10. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Advanced Calibration Information - About this Calibration Information - CMS Calibration - Calibration Charts11. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Summary - HC3500 Capabilities and Features - Brightness Summary - Overall Picture Quality12. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Summary 2 - Home Cinema 3500 Value Proposition and Competition - Stacking up Against BenQ, Optoma, Sony, Panasonic - Pros - Cons13. Epson Home Cinema 3500 Home Theater Projector Review – Specifications Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Hardware Tour Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector Review – Picture Quality LnRiLWhlYWRpbmcuaGFzLWJhY2tncm91bmR7cGFkZGluZzowfQ==