Epson Pro Cinema LS12000 Laser Projector Review - Hardware

While the LS12000 is larger than many single-chip DLP projectors, it is more compact than the native 4K home theater projector on the market. The LS12000 is approximately 20.5" wide x 21.9" deep x 16" high and it weighs about 28 pounds.

The projector’s lens is located center of the front panel. To right and left sides of the lens panel are the air exhaust vents. The window for the IR remote receiver is located on the lower right side of the front panel as well. The top of the projector has status lights. On the left side of the chassis, there is an air intake vent. On the right side of the chassis, along with the power and input buttons, there is another air intake vent covered by an air filter.

The rear of the projector holds the power connector, a second IR remote receiver, the inputs, and connections. along with the projector’s control panel.

There are dual 48Gbps HDMI 2.1 (HDCP 2.3) inputs that support 4K HDR at up to 120fps. There is a LAN connection and a single 12V trigger output which can be used to control a screen, the sled of an anamorphic lens, or motorized shades.

A traditional serial RS-232C port (DB9 connector) is also included for “old school” command and control. There is also a service port and security cable attachment point. There is a USB-A input with 5 Volt- 2.0A which is enough output to power/charge a streaming media player. The second USB connection is 300mA power port designed to power an active copper or optical HDMI cable.

As with many newer home theater projectors, many of the older “legacy” type inputs are gone, including a VGA input or component video and S-Video.

The Pro Cinema LS12000’s control panel is simple, but most people will only use the control panel for initial setup then rely on the remote control or a home automation system for those types of functions.

There’s a MENU button along with an ESC button that takes you back one level in the menu. You can use the four arrows for navigating the projector’s menu with an Enter button located in the center. Pressing the lens button toggles through the motorized Zoom, Shift, and Focus lens functions.  

LENS

The Epson VRX Cinema Lens used in the LS12000 has a 15-element precision glass lens structure. It is designed to eliminate light leakage and deliver great edge-to-edge focus uniformity while maximizing image clarity. The lens on the Epson LS12000 has a zoom range of 2:1. Below are the throw distances for the LS12000 for filling a 100” 16:9 screen (measured from the front of the lens to the screen):

Closest: 118 inches (300 centimeters)

Furthest: 248 inches (630 centimeters)

The LS12000, like most premium 3LCD and LCoS based home theater projectors, offers a good amount of lens shift range while most DLP projectors usually offer less.

Lens Shift: -/+96.3% Vertical and -/+ 47.1% Horizontal

Vertical and horizontal lens shift is great if you can’t line up the projector lens with the center of the screen (left to right). Just remember, like most projectors, the more horizontal shift you use, the less vertical adjustment you will have available.

16:9 Aspect Ratio Throw Distances

More lens adjustment (zoom and shift) increases installation flexibility making it easy to utilize projectors like the LS12000 in a variety of applications including ceiling or shelf mounting.

The LS12000 is also equipped with a motorized lens cover which automatically opens and closes when the projector is powered On and Off. This is a great feature because helps keeps the lens clean and dust free.

REMOTE CONTROL

The Pro Cinema LS12000 includes a large backlit remote control. You have source input buttons along with all the normal buttons commonly used to navigate a projector’s menu.

In addition, there are several buttons to directly access many of the projector’s picture settings including Color Modes, Light Output, Image Enhancements.  Frame Interpolation and CMS adjustments just to name a few. It was nice not having to dig through several menu layers to make the most common setting adjustments.

Since the LS12000 does not have Dynamic HDR tone mapping, the HDR button is especially convenient for making quick on-the-fly adjustments to the HDR10/HDR10+ Setting menu to compensate for big swings in HDR scene brightness.

For customers with 2.35:1 screens, there are two lens memory buttons to quickly adjust the image position when switching from widescreen to 16:9 content. There are even buttons to control the playback of connected devices that support the HDMI CEC standard. While there were tons of buttons, due to its size, the remote control didn’t feel crowded.

MENUS

The images of the menu shown in this section represent only a small number of all the sub-menus available. I tried to show a couple more notable sections found in the sub-menus (image, setting, and networking, etc.).

The menu system of the LS12000 is well organized and easy to navigate. There are a lot of settings on multiple pages so I like that many of the picture adjustments can be directly accessed via discrete buttons on the remote control.

AUDIBLE NOISE

While we do not measure audible noise, this LS12000 seems to be quieter with most of the Home Theater projectors. The noise level is on par with other premium home theater projectors from manufacturers like Sony and JVC.

There is a noticeable increase in fan noise when switching from ECO (22dB) to high (30dB). Since the LS12000’s chassis is big enough to utilize larger slower moving fans this helps muffle the exhaust noise. Most of the time, even when watching HDR, I didn’t find the LS12000 fan noise distracting.