Epson PowerLite 955WH Projector Review - Performance

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Art Feierman

Epson PowerLite 955WH Projector - Performance: Brightness, Noise, Networking

Brightness
Color Mode	Lumens*	Average Color Temperature
Dynamic	2981**	7415K
Presentation	2270	7821K
Theater	1950	6863K
sRGB	1934	6885K
Blackboard	1447	8140K

* Lumens values in the table are with the projector's zoom lens set at its mid-point. The listed lumens apply to both white brightness and color brightness.

** The PowerLite 955WH is a bright projector. It has rated light output of 3200 lumens and my measurements show that with its factory default settings the peak light output (measured at the center of the projected image) came very close to the Epson specification when the zoom was set to its maximum position (for shortest throw) where the measure lumens increased to 3176 in Dynamic color mode.

The above lumens values were measured with the projector operating in normal lamp mode. Changing the projector to “Eco” mode reduced the light output by approximately 34%.

The brightness levels in the table above are with the projector's zoom lens at its mid-position. When set to maximum zoom (for shortest throw) the brightness increased by approx. 6.6% and when set to minimum zoom (for longest throw) the brightness decreased by approx. 9.8%.

I measured the brightness uniformity with the projector sitting on a table and projecting a 54 inch wide image with the zoom lens at its maximum setting. The vertical and horizontal keystone adjustments were set to zero, meaning no electronic keystone correction was being used. The brightest point was near the center of the image and the brightness remained within about 20% of that value at the least bright corners (i.e., top corners in this case) of the image.

The PowerLite 955WH that I received for review had a small, but at times visible, color uniformity issue that was most obvious when projecting a full white image. I had not observed any similar color uniformity issues with other PowerLite projectors of the 9xx series that I had previously reviewed. After being informed of the issue with the review sample, Epson provided a replacement projector and that second sample had good color uniformity. Note that all screen shots in this review were from the first sample, but the color uniformity issue was generally not very visible with normal program material.

Noise

The Epson PowerLite 955WH is specified to produce a noise level of 37 dB in normal lamp mode and 29 dB in Eco mode. These values, especially in normal operating mode, are toward the upper end of what is typical for this class of projector. While the noise level, especially with the lamp operating in normal mode, is certainly audible, it should not be distracting when this projector is being used in a classroom environment. Changing to the “Eco” mode resulted in a noticeable decrease in noise level and to a level similar to that from a typical home theater projector when such a projector is operating inits normal mode.

Networking

The PowerLite 955WH has a RJ-45 network port on its rear panel for connection to a wired local area network and Epson also offers an optional wireless adapter (not provided with the unit used for this review). Epson provides both PC and Mac networked projector management software with the projector. This software provides the tools to manage one or multiple Epson projectors from a single PC/Mac location. The administrator can both monitor the status of each Epson projector and also control the power and certain settings for each of these networked projectors. See the Section 2 of this review for more information.

Epson also offers a free iProjection App for iOS or Android mobile devices that enables content from the mobile device to be displayed by the PowerLite 955WH, if the projector has been equipped with the optional wireless network adapter.

As discussed in section 2 of this review, Epson also provides “Moderator” software that enables content from up to four devices (mobile, PCs or Macs) to displayed by the PowerLite 955WH in a split-screen mode.

The networking capabilities nor the Moderator software were tested for this review.