Epson Home Cinema 6500 UB: Bottom Line Sharpness

Posted on October 9, 2013 by Art Feierman

This Epson is extremely sharp. While it's possible that one or two under $10K, projectors can produce a sharper image, from all those I have seen, any difference between the Epson and other sharp 1080p projectors is extremely slight, and the difference between this Epson, and the older Epson or other average sharpness 1080p projectors - like the JVCs or the PT-AE3000, is much greater.

Check out the next image, from The Dark Knight. I was very impressed by the sharpness of the Epson on all the connectors, etc., in the phone box:

Epson_6500UB_DarkKnight_alarm

6500UB_vs_JVC_RS1_DarkKnight_alarm_large

The improvement, though, from the 1080 UB to the Home Cinema 6500UB - and therefore the Pro Cinema 7500UB as well, is enough to catapault the new Epson's into the sharper group. One less minor issue that has to be considered!

Light Leakage

Very clean, no noticeable leakage through the lens, even with a fully dark screen. The most minor amount of light is visible through the front vent, but only from a side angle, and definitely a non-issue.

Image Noise

Regular image noise is very good, as one would expect from a projector that relies on both Silicon Optix' Reon VX processing, and Pixelworks, each doing what it does best. Jaggies are clean, general image noise is there, but less than is typical with a DLP projector and not of any real concern. I ran the tests with Noise Reduction off. No doubt turning it on, will further reduce mosquito noise a little, but, I don't see the need.

The one "Noise" issue, if one wants to consider it noise, relates to the frame interpolation issues which is discussed in the Special Features section on the first page of the review, and a long string of blogs.

Home Cinema 6500UB Audible Noise

The Epson Home Cinema 6500UB is definitely quieter than the older Home Cinema 1080 UB, and that's a good thing. The 1080 UB was on the loud side of average, just slightly quieter than a typical DLP projector, and a couple of LCoS projectors. The quietest projectors, in terms of Audible Noise, tend to be 3LCD projectors, but the old Epson is one of the noisier of the 3LCD projectors. The 6500UB is probably at least 3, and perhaps 4-5 db quieter than the 1080 UB. The Sanyo, Panasonic and Mitsubishi competitors are all still noticeably quieter, but the 6500UB closes the gap significantly.

Those most audible noise sensitive may not like the Epson when running at full lamp power, but the Epson is very quiet in low power, claiming 22 db, and probably close (relative to other projectors and their claims). The 30db claim for full lamp power, is also probably about right. Most DLP projectors tend to be 30 - 34 db claimed, and most are somewhere between just a little noisier, to a full step noisier.

You won't notice the fan noise (full power) except on a dead quiet (or almost) scene, at worst. The dynamic iris, which made a bit of grinding-like noise on the old 1080 UB, is much quieter with this new projector, and now definitely not a factor.

So, keep audible noise as a possible issue (full power), in the back of your mind, but it really shouldn't be an issue for the vast majority of people. I can tell you that when our forced air heat, or air conditioning kicks on, the noise of the air coming out of the vents in my room is definitely noisier than the Epson running at full power. Hopefully that provides some useful perspective.