Epson PowerLite 1785W Wireless Portable Projector Review - Hardware Page 2

Epson PowerLite 1785W Projector Review – Hardware Page 2: Control Panel, Remote Control, Menus

The Control Panel found on the Epson PowerLite 1785W is laid out in a simple and easy to use way.  Several buttons have dual uses.  When looking at the control panel, start left to right, you’ll find a power button that is slightly sunken in; press once to turn on the projector, and press twice to turn off.  Next is a bar-type button for focus, which has a left arrow on one side and a right arrow on the other.  Below that you will find the Screen Fit button, which runs the Automatic Image Adjustment sequence to better fit your screen.  The Screen Fit button is one of those dual use buttons, and if held for three seconds it will bring up the Gesture Presenter settings menu.  To the right is the Home button, which can be used to access the built-in help system by way of the Home screen.

Below the Home button is the Source Search button, which automatically searches through connected video sources for signals.  The Menu button is next and displays the main system menus, where most settings can be accessed.  To the right is the standard directional keypad, with a twist; there are no arrows on the buttons!  The top and bottom buttons are labeled only with the vertical keystone symbols, but function both as vertical keystone correction and as up/down arrows buttons.  The left and right buttons don’t feature arrows either. Instead, they are volume down and volume up buttons, but of course also function as left and right arrows.  The center button is Enter, and displays the same symbol you might find on your computer keyboard.  The last and final button is the Escape button, in the upper right corner of the control panel.  Escape functions as a Go Back or Exit button from the different menus.

The Epson PowerLite 1785W comes with a mid-sized remote control, with a drawback I wish every manufacturer would fix: it’s not backlit and I found myself needing to hold the remote in the projected beam of light when I had darker images displayed to be sure I didn’t press the wrong button.  We’ll start from the top left and go row by row, or section by section when it makes sense to do so.  The top section of the remote has a black background to differentiate it from the rest of the buttons.  The power button is blue in color and lives in the top left.  The opposite side of the top row is the Source Search button, which searches for input source signals.  The next row consists of Computer, HDMI/Video, USB, and below the USB button is LAN, for accessing network content.

The next section is a ten-digit number pad; 1, 2, 3, followed by 4, 5 6, followed by 7 8 9.  The next row has “Num,” which, when held down, toggles the numeric keypad to their alternate functions.  Zero, of course, is in the middle, followed by “ID” on the right, which allows the user to toggle between different Epson projectors.  Several of the numbers in the numeric keypad have alternate functions, accessed with the “Num” button; these are 6 (Link Menu), 7 (Auto),8 (Aspect), 9 (Color Mode), and 0 (Pen Mode).

The next section consists of a directional keypad (with actual arrows this time), with an Enter button in the middle that also functions as a left mouse click.  Surrounding the directional keypad are four buttons, and going clockwise from the top left they are: Menu, Escape (which also functions as a right mouse click), Pointer, and User.

Below the directional keypad are three pairs of up/down, increase/decrease type buttons.  Left to right, they are Page, E-Zoom, and Volume.  Below that are A/V Mute, Split (Split Screen), and Freeze, followed by Home.

This concludes our tour of the Epson PowerLite 1785W's hardware. Next up is our discussion of the projector's picture and sound quality.