Epson Home Cinema 5010 Home Theater Projector Review-4

Home Cinema 5010 Audio - Or Lack Thereof

Click to enlarge. So close. I borrowed this heading from the Home Cinema 3010 projector review, to make a point. There are no speakers in the Home Cinema 5010!

That lower cost HC3010 projector (about $1000 less) is targeted primarily as a home entertainment projector - you know, the family room, the bonus room, the living room, the garage door... while this Home Cinema 5010 projector is more the Home THEATER projector. That's not to say a lot of folks won't be placing these 5010s in all sorts of rooms and in all sorts of conditions. After all, the Home Cinema 5010 really is bright - right up there with any of the home entertainment projectors, and then some, in many cases.

Click Image to Enlarge

HDMI-Link

From the Home Cinema 5010 remote control, you can control other devices such as many Blu-ray players that support HDMI-Link. Note, you'll find a full set of DVD type controls on the Epson remote, which we discuss on next page.

Home Cinema 5010 Lamp Life

Another Epson, another platitude: It doesn't get much better than this. In terms of lamp life. Epson is claiming that the Home Cinema 5010 lamp will last 4000 hours running at full power, and 5000 hours in eco-mode. I don't recall ever seeing a projector running a lamp, that claims more than 5000 lumens at full power - at any price. Consider this Epson, therefore, to have a very low cost of operation. Epson lamp prices tend to be on the lower side as well. In this case, we haven't confirmed but the replacement lamp seems to be $299.

Epson's Fujinon 2.1:1 zoom lens

Epson's been using this lens since the original Home Cinema 1080 more than 5 years ago. It's got a touch more zoom range than anything close (such as the competing Panasonic). The optics do look pretty good. The lens allows a really sharp look at your pixels if you stand next to the screen. This is a 3 chip LCD projector, which means there's never perfect conversion. With the Epson Home Cinema 5010, no issues on the optics, and more placement flexibility than other lenses, very few of which offer more than 1.6:1.

Just remember, if you are going to place the projector at the maximum distance from your screen, as with all projectors with zoom lenses, the optics are at their least bright, and brightest, when the projector is at its closest.