Epson Home Cinema 8350 Projector - Physical Tour 2

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Art Feierman

Epson Home Cinema 8350 Remote Control

Click to Enlarge.So close I'm very pleased with this Epson remote. It's rather familiar, it's the same one as Epson has been using for several projectors we've reviewed the last 2+ years. One of the best things about the Epson remote control is that the range of the remote is very good. In my larger home theater, this remote has no problem bouncing off the screen to work, which is about a 26 foot range. Believe it or not, over half the projectors I review can't handle that much of a distance with a bounce off of screen or wall, forcing me to point the remote behind me. Thank you Epson. From the top: On the left side is a large round power button, and to its right, a small button for turning on the backlight. Next comes three rows of two buttons, one for each of the six sources. Below them, are the menu controls the four arrow keys in a circular layout, with an Enter button in the center. Above to the left and right are the Default and the Escape buttons. Directly below the arrow keys a large Menu button, all by itself. That takes you to the bottom four rows of two buttons provide direct access to popular menus including user Memory, color controls, Gamma, Color Mode, Aspec ratio, and Sharpness. There's also a test pattern button and one to blank the screen. Which they made the only darker button, I guess, to make its function obvious.

Click Image to Enlarge

Epson Home Cinema 8350 Lens Throw

Epson's 2.1:1 zoom ratio is the same as the older Home Cinema 6100 and the 6500UB. That's a little more than most LCD and LCoS projectors, and a lot more than the under $5000 DLP projectors. The Epson's zoom range is 2.1:1 - a lot more than most projectors and even those closest, with 2:1 zooms can't quite match it, so it can be placed closer than just about any other projector, and it can be placed further away (slightly) as well.

For filling a 100 inch diagonal, 16:9 aspect ratio screen, the projector - measured from the front of the lens to the screen - can be as close as 9.8 feet or as far back as 20.9 feet. You can calculate distances for other screen sizes, by starting with those numbers.

Lens Shift

This Epson has plenty of lens shift too! For that same 100 inch screen, the Epson can be placed, (normal or inverted), anywhere from 22.7 inches above the top of the screen surface, all the way down to 22.7 inches below the bottom of the screen surface. That is measured from the center of the lens. There is also a good amount of horizontal lens shift. Using horizontal lens shift will partially limit the range of the vertical lens shift (and vice versa).

The combination of the wide range zoom lens, and excellent lens shift, makes ceiling mounting, or shelf mounting practical, in almost any room situattion.

Anamorphic Lens

The Epson Home Cinema 8350 does not support an anamorphic lens. Epson reserves that feature for the more expensive Pro Cinema 9350, and the Home Cinema 8700UB. The Home Cinema 8700UB has only one anamorphic mode. That means a sled is needed to move the lens in and out of the light path. There's also the Pro Cinema 9700UB, which does not need a sled to work with the anamorphic lens, as it has a "squeeze" anamorphic mode, saving the hefty cost of a motorized sled.