Epson Home Cinema 5010 Projector – Performance 3

Epson Home Cinema 5010: Bottom Line Sharpness

As a result, with rare exception LCD, LCoS and three chip DLP projectors are sharp, but the well done single chip DLP projectors are “sharper still.” After saying all that, it translates to, movies look really sharp. Their own artifacts, including film grain, are far more noticeable. On clean digital 1080p content (satellite and cable are signifcantly compressed), those single chip projectors will seem a touch sharper, and show more depth.

Of course, you want real depth, switch the Home Cinema 5010 into 3D mode and apply some stunning content. (Did I mention Hubble 3D?)

Light Leakage

Image Noise

I’m still trying to define 3D type noises, artifacts etc. Meantime 2D looks just fine. I’m so rushed I haven’t even checked to see if Epson’s still using Silicon Optix processing. I believe it was their Reon-VX in last year’s Epson. (I use a Silicon Optix test disc for image processing, and their own processing does very well, as you might expect.)

Audible Noise

The Home Cinema 5010 projectors are on the noisy side when it comes to full power. Epson claims 32 db, not a number to be particularly proud about, but, it doesn’t seem to be that much of an issue, as the pitch is farily low, no whining. There is also some low rumbly, and clackity dynamic iris noise, but I consider it fine for all but the most noise adverse.

The overall noise level is pretty much just below most of the DLP projectors, and noisier than most other LCD based projectors. I sit in my captain’s chair about 3 feet from ear to projector, not a problem for me, but I know a few folks really don’t like any audible noise. (The Epson’s quieter than my PS3’s fan.)

In low power the Epson claims 22db, and truly is very quiet – and for everything but 3D, is still very bright.