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PERFORMANCE – Epson LCD ProjectorSet-Up If you’ve never in your life set up a projector before, have no fear and breathe easy. The 1080 features vertical (96%) and horizontal (47%) lens shift. This feature all but eliminates the need for keystoning: simply adjust left-right, up-down, and in a matter of minutes, you’ll be good to go. And with a 2.1:1 zoom lens, this unit affords you an extremely short throw distance. I set mine up in a room with limited space and was able to project an image just over 100 inches, at less than 10 feet back. Conversely, you can go as far back as 21 feet and project the very same image size. So whether you have lots of room or limited space, the Epson 1080 projector works around your particular circumstances. That’s extremely crafty engineering on the part of Epson. If only everything in life was this accommodating. But I digress… Out-Of-Box Picture Standard operating procedure when testing a video projector out-of-box – without the benefit of any image adjustments – says that your picture usually never inspires much in the way of audience applause and appreciation. In this regard, the 1080 was a pleasant surprise. I tested the unit using BBC’s Planet Earth with a PS3 for HD playback, connected via HDMI and component, alternating between 720P, 1080I, and 1080P. With respect to the different connections and resolutions, I found no obvious and discernable differences in image quality. Had I chose to watch less than two feet away from my screen, perhaps the 1080P high-resolution benefits would’ve factored into the equation. But as it was, everything was uniform across the board. Color gamut showed great range, colors were crisp and sharp, details in the blacks were good, and the whites, in particular, had some real snap to them. Again, I haven’t touched a single thing and I’m already impressed. Now I decide to do a little image tweaking by eye. I adjust as follows, and leave a few other things as they are:
At this point, the unit’s color gradation is impressive, and color banding is basically non-existent. Typically, issues of color banding and sub-par color gradation are usually more apparent in scenes where things like the sky or a sunset aren’t rendered as one whole, with all the subtle shades of one color making up the image. Rather, you are able to see “banding,” or where different shades of the same color begin and end; in essence, an Calibration The Epson 1080 is one of the more intuitive and straight-forward projectors I’ve ever had the pleasure of calibrating. Post-calibration image settings were so close to the ones done by naked eye, I could hardly believe it. This only further reinforces what an absolute beast of a performer this unit is out of the box. While the unit favored a red and blue color shift in the sub-30 IRE range, once Absolute Co lour Temperature was adjusted from the 7000K factory setting to 6500K, blue and red became far more obedient. In the high-brightness 70 IRE range and above, while there was a red and blue co lour shift as well, this one was less pronounced. This is nothing unusual, and many of the made-to-order image options available in the projector’s main menu do a great job of balancing out the vast co lour gamut perfectly across the board. This Epson 1080 is clearly making full use of native, 1080P HD horsepower, driven by a souped-up engine featuring 10-bit color processing and C²Fine™ 3LCD technology. In all of this calibration talk, I’d like to reiterate just what a treat Epson’s Advanced Image display menu is. It offers you complete and total control over the RGB settings in the gain and offset categories. With some skillful adjusting here, I was able to get the unit bang on to the 6500K (actually 6487) mark which is the ideal setting for giving you the most accurate and realistic co lour reproduction. While the understated nuances of the very dark or very bright scenes, in particular, had more detail to offer post-calibration, this is by no means something you have to do to maximize your viewing enjoyment. As is, with just some simple image adjustments available in the Image menu, you’ll be more than satisfied with the results FINAL THOUGHTS – Epson LCD ProjectorWhen it comes to home theater video projectors, the playing field is literally littered with an infinite, mind-numbing, head-scratching array of players. Generally, they fit into one of two categories: the pretenders and the contenders. I’m sure you’ll have no problem in guessing where I’d classify the Epson 1080. Ease of set-up, great out-of-box performance, a powerful collection of image presets, and a great price-point all combine for a memorable home theater experience that’s quite easy to recommend in the 1080P projector class. DETAILED SPECIFICATIONS – Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080
Highly Recommended
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