Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Warranty & Summary Posted on October 9, 2013 By Art Feierman 1. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Special Features - Home Cinema 8100 Lamp Life - Placement Flexibility - Sharper Focus - Improved Dual Layer Dynamic Iris - Lots of Memories3. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Physical Tour - Home Cinema 8100 Control Panel - Input/Output4. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Physical Tour – 2 - Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens5. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - Flesh Tones - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Black Levels & Shadow Detail - Black Levels - comparison - Black Levels6. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 2 - Black Levels - comparison7. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 3 - Shadow Detail Performance8. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 4 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: HDTV and Sports - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports9. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Brightness - Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE: - Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration):10. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Performance – 1 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Sharpness - Sharpness - comparison - Epson Home Cinema 8100: Bottom Line Sharpness - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise11. Projector Calibration and Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Color Temperature - Color Temp over IRE Range, Cinema Gamma, Medium color temp, BC on: - Lumen Output for various Gamma modes at 100 IRE, color temp on Medium: - Lumen Output at various Color Temps at 100 IRE, Gamma on Auto: - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Basic Settings12. Projector Calibration and Settings – 1 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Post Calibration Grayscale: - RGB Settings13. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Projector Screens & Competitors - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Screen Recommendations - Home Cinema 8100 vs. Home Cinema 8500UB - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Mitsubishi HC380014. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Projector Screens & Competitors – 2 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z700 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. BenQ W6000 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Sharp XV-Z15000 - Home Cinema 8100 vs. Optoma HD20 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. BenQ W1000 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Panasonic PT-AE400015. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Warranty & Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - Warranty - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - The Bottom Line - The Very Bottom Line on the Home Cinema 8100 projector:16. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Typical Capabilities17. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Specifications Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - WarrantyThe Epson projector comes with a two year, parts and labor warranty. In additon, it includes Epson’s replacement program for both years, which together, makes it a superb warranty. While two year warranties are the most common found on 1080p projectors, a few projector models offering three, and a number of lower cost, entry level models offer only one. As it turns out, this Epson is one of only a few under $2000 1080p projectors with a two year warranty. For comparison, Sanyo’s similarly priced PLV-Z700 comes with three years, but no replacement program. Mitsubishi’s new HC3800 has a standard 2 year warranty, and Optoma’s new $999 projector comes with only one. With Epson’s replacement program, if your unit has a warranty covered issue, Epson will ship you a replacement, and you simply send back your unit to them, in the box the replacement came in. Epson pays all freight. Typically you are back up and running in 1 to 2 business days after contacting them. Hard to top that. Epson also has a long established reputation for superior customer support. I base that on feedback from site visitors, but also from owning a large internet projector reseller for many years. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - The Bottom Line To create the Home Cinema 8100 projector, Epson simply made minor improvements to the 6100 it replaces. The 8100 is not some great new projector, but really, the latest version of an already very good one. The Home Cinema 8100 has very good skin tones, very good black levels for a projector its price, and overall is a contender for best entry level projector so far this fall. Better still, the starting price of the Home Cinema 8100 is $400 lower than the 6100 was a year ago. True, the street price of the 6100 has been falling, so the 8100 isn’t much less today, but then, a newer, slightly better model for less is never a bad thing. The Home Cinema 8100 is probably at its best as a projector for people wanting to watch both movies and other content, such as sports and HDTV. With the Home Cinema 8100’s brighter than average maximum lumens, the projector can deal with more than the absolute minimum of ambient light. Have a group over for football. You’ll be able to enjoy the company in a reasonably lit room, not a cave like environment, and still have a bright, well saturated image. While a couple of other similarly priced projectors come somewhat close in maximim brightness, most quite noticeably less bright. Although the Home Cinema 8100 measured only high 1200s, we expect production units to measure a couple hundred lumens brighter, as that would be consistant with the older Home Cinema 6100 and 6500UB. There is no reason for the 8100 to be any less bright. While I do think that the Home Cinema 8100 is a rather excellent projector value, I must confess to being just a little disappointed. I had hoped for a little more in black level performance. Yes, the 8100 can produce a blacker black, on the darkest scenes than the older 6100, but on the usual fairly dark scene, best I can tell, it may not be delivering a blacker black, or one only slightly better than the 6100. My take is that Epson could further improve the iris action to lower the blacks in those scenes where there are bright areas, but not too bright. This is something Epson may find it’s able to do as a firmware change, but we are talking a very slight difference. Certainly there is no flaw in their design, improving the blacks in that manner would also mean slighty more image compression, a trade-off. Perhaps it’s just I like seeing major advances, and Epson saved what significant improvements it has up its sleeve for the Home Cinema 8500UB, which when it ships, will sport new improved creative frame interpolation, and several other tricks. Well, perhaps that’s why the new 8500UB is not less expensive than the old 6500UB, while the 8100 is less than the old 6100. More goodies, less price drop. The Home Cinema 8100 is definitely one of the best sub-$2000 projectors we’re going to see this year. Its predecessor, we rated higher last year, than a few other projectors including Sanyo’s PLV-Z700 which are not being replaced this year. The Very Bottom Line on the Home Cinema 8100 projector:One of a couple of great choices out there. For those needing a bright projector for sometimes dealing with ambient light, and for working with a mix of source material, it’s a first class choice. The Home Cinema 8100 however, is limited a bit in brightness in its “best” mode, so for those who don’t want to compromise picture, the Epson is limited a bit in screen size. For movie viewing in “best” mode, I would not normally recommend going larger than a 110 inch diagonal screen. If you are highly critical of picture quality, you’ll probably find the Home Cinema 8100 to be of very good quality, but may find something better. That’s why I distinguish between “purists” and “enthusiasts”. The movie purist, will probably look elsewhere, but the typical enthusiast will have to put the 8100 on their very shortest list. 1. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Review - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Highlights - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Overview2. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Special Features - Home Cinema 8100 Lamp Life - Placement Flexibility - Sharper Focus - Improved Dual Layer Dynamic Iris - Lots of Memories3. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Physical Tour - Home Cinema 8100 Control Panel - Input/Output4. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Physical Tour – 2 - Lens Shift - Anamorphic Lens5. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Out of the Box Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - Flesh Tones - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Black Levels & Shadow Detail - Black Levels - comparison - Black Levels6. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 2 - Black Levels - comparison7. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 3 - Shadow Detail Performance8. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Image Quality – 4 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 - Overall Color & Picture Quality - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: HDTV and Sports - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports9. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Performance - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Brightness - Lumen Output and Color Temp at 100 IRE: - Color Temp over IRE Range (Pre calibration):10. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Performance – 1 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Sharpness - Sharpness - comparison - Epson Home Cinema 8100: Bottom Line Sharpness - Light Leakage - Image Noise - Audible Noise11. Projector Calibration and Settings - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Color Temperature - Color Temp over IRE Range, Cinema Gamma, Medium color temp, BC on: - Lumen Output for various Gamma modes at 100 IRE, color temp on Medium: - Lumen Output at various Color Temps at 100 IRE, Gamma on Auto: - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Basic Settings12. Projector Calibration and Settings – 1 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Post Calibration Grayscale: - RGB Settings13. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Projector Screens & Competitors - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Screen Recommendations - Home Cinema 8100 vs. Home Cinema 8500UB - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Mitsubishi HC380014. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Projector Screens & Competitors – 2 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Sanyo PLV-Z700 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. BenQ W6000 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Sharp XV-Z15000 - Home Cinema 8100 vs. Optoma HD20 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. BenQ W1000 - Epson Home Cinema 8100 vs. Panasonic PT-AE400015. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector – Warranty & Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - Warranty - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector - The Bottom Line - The Very Bottom Line on the Home Cinema 8100 projector:16. Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Review Summary - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Cons - Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector: Typical Capabilities17. Epson Home Cinema 8100 Projector Specifications Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Projector Screens & Competitors – 2 Epson Home Cinema 8100 – Review Summary