Epson has a new lower end 3D and 2D capable home theater projector in their lineup, and they're calling it the Pro Cinema 4030. Expect the pricing of the Pro Cinema 4030 to be under $3000. For that price the projector comes bundled with a spare lamp, a ceiling mount and a 3 year parts and labor warranty with 3 years over 2nd business day replacement program. And, it comes with a cable cover, to keep things neat. Lamp life is rated up to 5000 hours in eco mode. I haven't seen full specs yet, but most likely it will have a 4000 hour claim for full power.
The Pro Cinema 4030 offers 2000 lumens and a three year warranty
Finished in black this 3LCD projector has extensive lens shift, and a Fujinon 2.1:1 zoom lens for excellent placement flexibility.
A contrast claim of 120,000:1 (using a dynamic iris) would indicate a noticeable improvement over past lower cost Pro series projectors from Epson, although still not up to the UB series such as the Home Cinema 5030UB or the also announced Pro Cinema 6030UB projectors. This 4030 should offer black level performance that can in general compete with most DLP projectors, near and above its price range.
This Epson 4030 projector promises as extensive feature set, with many User savable settings. 3D should be
very good, as previous lower cost Epson projectors have already been known for good 3D. There's plenty of brightness for 3D. Really like 3D, like I do, there will be 2D to 3D conversion. I'm looking to test how well it converts sports and movies. So far almost all 2D to 3D conversion I've seen have left me disappointed, but some are definitely better than others. And with each generation, I expect better on the fly 2D to 3D. Perhaps this Pro Cinema 4030 will be the one where I think, Cool, I'm going to watch a bunch of NFL converted to 3D!
As with other Epson 3D capable projectors, these use Epson's lightweight (37 grams), RF (radio frequency), rechargeable glasses. Those run about 40 hours on a charge, but the great thing is, if they need a charge, 3 minutes is enough to view a single movie.
Like the more expensive Epson projectors, the Pro Cinema 4030 has a built in color filter to improve color fidelity that engages in the "best" modes but moves out of the way to deliver 2000 lumens when you need a whole lot of brightness and still good color. Epson states that this projector will produce 2000 color lumens as well as 2000 white lumens.
Back Panel of Epson's Pro Cinema 4030 Home Theater Projector
Despite the Home Cinema designation, with those 2000 lumens this projector is can not only perform in home theaters and "man caves", but also play in media rooms, living rooms, family rooms etc., where lighting control is far less than perfect. Note that Epson also announced three other Pro Cinema projectors all a good deal more expensive, but also far brighter. Those have list prices of $3799 to $7499, and sport 4000, 5200, and 6000 lumens respectively, and go by the models Pro Cinema G4855WU, G6550WU and G6900WU!
Overall, the Pro Cinema 4030 looks to take over the spot of the Home Cinema 8350 and Pro Cinema 9350 projectors, with mostly evolutionary improvements, but I'm expecting the sum of mostly modest improvements to make for a noticeably better performing projector, since Epson's had 3 years to The Pro Cinema 4030 should therefore also definitely prove to be a more serious enthusiast projector than those older models, which launched over three years ago!
What else? The Pro Cinema 4030 has picture in picture.
The Pro Cinema 4030 will be sold only through Epson's local, authorized dealers. Do not expect to see it selling through the usual online stores. More from CEDiA after I meet with Epson! -art
