Epson Home Cinema 8500UB Projector – Image Quality 2

If you are expecting blacks to be blacker in generally bright scenes, you are pretty much out of luck. If you want blacker blacks and more “pop” in dark scenes, that’s something the new Epson projectors deliver on. Quicktip: Someone very recently asked me about what made more sense, buying a 6500UB at closeout, or getting an 8500UB, in terms of the black level improvements that I’ve been discussing here. I think my comment to him might be helpful to others: Unlike trying to compare two projectors (say the Epson vs. the BenQ) where there are always trade-offs, in picture quality, color accuracy, placement flexibility, etc, that’s definitely not the case comparing the Home Cinema 8500UB with the older 6500UB. When I view the two, side by side, post calibration, they are almost identical. Skin tones on the 8500UB look more like the 6500UB, than, say any other 3LCD projector or any DLP projector. And they are similar in brightness. In other words, there’s nothing really about the 6500UB that the 8500UB doesn’t do the same or better.