Epson Home Cinema 5030UB Projector Review – Hardware 2

Although not exactly identical to last year’s remote, it is extremely similar.  A couple of buttons have been added – near the top and a few functions moved around. We will start at the top.  First top left is the Power on button (press once). These new Epson’s have a Standby (Off) button, which is also one touch. To the right is the backlight button.  The backlight is orange yellow.  reasonably, but not too bright.

The next set of buttons consists of three rows, the first with two buttons, the others with three. The first of those is the Picture in Picture button, to engage that function.  across from it is the Blank feature, moving up from near the bottom on older remotes.

Those next two rows have the individual source buttons:  Two HDMIs, and the WirelessHD button which only relates to the 5030 UBe version with it’s wireless, lossless, HDMI inputs, are on the first row.  The next row has the regular component video input (from the color colored RCA jack), the Composite Video and the PC input.  (In the menus you select whether that input has a PC or a component video source to deal with.

The next four rows of buttons aren’t found on most home theater projectors.  They all relate to HDMI-Link, which lets the remote control of one HDMI-link device control other HDMI-link compatible devices.  For example, with the Epson’s remote, I can control my Panasonic 3D capable Blu-ray player which is HDMI-link.  I cannot, however, control my Sony Playstation 3s which are my primary Blu-ray players.  That’s because the Sonys are relatively unique, using bluetooth control instead of IR.

As a result that section of the remote looks very much like the buttons on a Blu-ray or DVD player, with pause, stop, fast forward, and rewind, a “Link” menu, and audio mute.  Then three more related buttons including the primary HDMI Link button, and volume up and down (of the Link device being controlled.

Next come buttons for 2D/3D, Color Mode selection, and Super-Resolution.

Next is the usual Navigation:  Four arrow keys in a round formation with a center Enter button.  Below that a Default mode, button, Menu, and Escape (takes you back up a level in the menus.

We’re almost done, just 12 more buttons:  Auto Iris (control). Color management system, Aspect ratio, User mode, the Memory button (takes you to loading or saving to the 10 user memories.  Other buttons control Frame Interpolation (CFI), the Timer system, the test pattern area, and the 3D format menu.  On the last row are access to the WirelessHD functions found on the Home Cinema 5030 UBe not the standard UB.  Those include Input and Output, and well as P-I-P, for selecting the sources from the remote Wireless HDMI transmitter.

That’s it. The remote is big, well laid out, and pretty logically at that. It’s a bit heavy, but I have only one real ergonomic complaint: The backlight button is in the top left, a long reach if you are using the remote balanced in one hand.  It tends to make me have to use my other hand to hit that button.  (Talk about a fairly picky complaint!)