Sound+Picture magazine evaluation
This evaluation initially appeared in Sound+Picture journal, considered one of What Hello-Fi?’s Australian sister publications. Click here for more information on Sound+Image, together with digital editions and particulars on how one can subscribe.
Extremely-short-throw projectors are going nice weapons. Even mainstream firms not beforehand or not just lately concerned in projection (LG, Samsung, Hisense) have realised {that a} projector sitting on a bench can ship a large-screen ‘TV-like’ expertise with a comfort {that a} typical projector can not when it needs to be pushed again within the room or held on a ceiling.
As a consequence the ultra-short-throw is quickly evolving. Because it’s going to work like a TV, shouldn’t it have audio system? Shouldn’t it’s sensible, like a TV? Sure it ought to. So right here comes Epson, an organization which declares itself the world no.1 in projection (on the affordable foundation it has been declared so by Futuresource Consulting for the final 17 consecutive years), with fashions for simply this house. The ‘4K Professional UHD’ EH-LS500 arrived first, and now this EH-LS300, which presents Full-HD decision of 1920 x 1080. With such underlying experience, however a decrease decision, does it ship the promised new age of UST?
Construct
Extremely-short-throw projectors use a mixture of lenses and mirrors to forged the image up onto a display nearly instantly above them. The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B is a reasonably compact specimen at 467mm huge and 400mm deep. Inside there are three 15.5mm LCD projector panels utilizing Epson’s C2 Wonderful know-how, and a laser diode. That form of mild engine works by firing the laser into some phosphor, which then produces a vivid white mild.
Using this sort of mild engine means a number of good issues. Firstly, lengthy life. The projector is rated at 20,000 hours of lamp life. Secondly, the projector activates quick – 5.5 seconds when in standby, in accordance with our stopwatch, or 6.5 seconds if it has been disconnected from energy. It goes off quick as nicely.
And the lamp might be managed in degree to assist darken scenes. Epson says that the dynamic distinction ratio is as a lot as 2.5 million-to-1 (on the datasheet) or 1.5 million-to-1 (within the US handbook we discovered on-line).
There are two HDMI inputs, a USB socket for taking part in again video content material from a USB stick, and Wi-Fi for the sensible TV stuff. Surprisingly, there’s no Ethernet connection – we’d desire that possibility relatively than having to depend on Wi-Fi in our considerably RF-congested fashionable environments. However it’s dual-band Wi-Fi – 2.4GHz and 5GHz – supporting the 801.11ac normal, so it might nicely outperform the usually-installed 100Mbps Ethernet of many units. (Our 100Mbps take a look at clip was fairly uneven… however we do have an especially busy Wi-Fi atmosphere.)
Sound
A pleasant contact: built-in sound that’s fairly good. As at all times, we imagine that the sound of your system ought to match the size of the video. Because the Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B delivers massive imaginative and prescient, a good exterior sound system needs to be so as. However absent that, we had been fairly impressed with the audio constructed into the projector. Epson relied on the audio experience of Yamaha for this: a 2.1-channel forwards-firing audio system with 20W of energy, higher than any precise TV that we’ve used – and we’ve used a lot. We additionally checked the Audio Return Channel functionality through HDMI to a related residence theatre receiver, and it labored completely nicely.
Organising
The projector is out there by itself at £2500 ($2000, AU$4000). However in Australia you can too get it as a bundle with an ‘Ambient Mild Rejection’ display in 100 inches (AU$5099 bundle) or 120 inches (AU$5699). These make use of a floor remedy which reduces the reflection of sunshine coming from above or straight in entrance, growing their distinction ratio when there’s mild within the room. These screens weren’t accessible to us on the time of evaluation, so we used our common viewing display.
Epson EH-LS300 tech specs
Projection know-how: three x 15.5mm C2 Wonderful LCD panels
Decision: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Facet ratio: 16:9
Lamp: Laser diode
Lamp life: 20,000 hours (Regular and Quiet modes)
Brightness: 3600 lumens (each white and color); 1800 lumens (ECO mode)
Inputs: 2 x HDMI, 1 x USB, Wi-Fi
Outputs: Optical digital audio
Management/different: Mini-USB (Service)
Dimensions (whd): 467 x 133 x 400mm
Weight: 7.2kg
In a few methods an ultra-short-throw projector is a bit trickier to arrange than a daily projector. There isn’t any zoom lens, for instance, so the scale of the image is decided solely by the gap between the projector and the display – far lower than a traditional projector, however nonetheless vital for the biggest display sizes. For a 100-inch display, the gap from the wall to the again of the projector (the aspect going through the wall) needs to be 26.6cm. With the biggest beneficial display dimension of 120 inches, the gap is simply 38.6cm. The projector itself is getting on for 40cm deep, so its entrance will find yourself greater than 75cm from the wall – which is plenty of bench depth.
The opposite barely tough factor is that the picture is forged at such an excessive angle it’s a must to modify all the pieces with better-than-millimetre precision. The slightest angle to at least one aspect and you’ve got a marked trapezoid of an image. You actually don’t wish to be nudging the projector while you’re dusting.
However there’s a intelligent adjustment system for image geometry. There’s even a devoted button on the distant. With this you may drag the corners of a field to ensure all the pieces’s sq.. It’s form of like a supercharged keystone correction system. However like keystone correction, it’s executed digitally, which signifies that Full-HD enter indicators are now not straight mapped onto the show pixels, so element is misplaced. So it’s finest prevented for those who can.Get the bodily placement proper as a substitute.
Last item on bodily set-up: we discovered the main focus modify lever fairly spongy, so a bit tough to get the main focus precisely proper. With perseverance we did succeed. (One of many oddities about this sort of projector: focus adjustment has mainly no impact in any respect on the backside of the display, which is at all times in focus, and a large impact on the prime.)
As for the sensible set-up, Android TV has this nicely underneath management. You simply use the Google Dwelling app in your telephone – it really works on iPhones as nicely – which talks you thru with little or no fuss. We had the unit related inside a few minutes.
Efficiency
It seems that 3600 lumens permits a surprisingly viewable image even underneath the total glare of our room’s fluorescent tubes! Not that we did any form of important viewing that approach, we hasten so as to add. However we suspect that children can be completely happy with afternoon cartoons served this fashion, particularly onto an Epson directional display. And it’s wonderful for the information and such. So think about this not only a residence cinema gadget, however a (form of) on a regular basis TV.
Then, when evening fell, we began to make use of it as an actual residence cinema projector. And we had been impressed. What impressed us? The color and the black ranges. The subjective black ranges had been solely satisfying. Which is to say that with all the fabric we seen – together with HDR content material from 4K Blu-ray – the black parts of the image appeared, nicely, solely black. And sure, 4K Blu-ray, as a result of despite the fact that the projector delivers 1080p output, it helps Extremely-HD inputs together with HDR (and Dolby Imaginative and prescient, which it treats as HDR).
We jammed in as a lot night-time viewing as we might within the time accessible, and we should say that we discovered it solely satisfying: daring, correct colors; sharp, detailed picture.
The EpiqVision shortly demonstrated that it’s probably not one for interlaced video in Australia. With each 576i/50 and 1080i/50, it appeared merely to imagine that each one such indicators had been video-sourced. So it utilized motion-adaptive deinterlacing, relatively than checking to see if a easy weave is perhaps higher for any given little bit of video. More often than not you received’t discover this, however sometimes there’ll be some strains or grid within the image which adversely work together with the processing and develop distracting moire patterns. The answer, as at all times: use a supply with good high quality deinterlacing.
Community streaming
If you first set the Epson up, you’re provided a default bunch of apps, together with (in Australia) TV station apps equivalent to iView, SBS On Demand and so forth. There’s YouTube, Google play Films & TV, Disney+ and Stan, Vimeo, Spotify and Tidal and a complete lot extra. Even after we’d completed the organising, it took a short while to obtain and set up them one after the other. It was form of enjoyable watching them pop up within the checklist of apps as they had been loaded. When it had completed, we went to fireside up Netflix – one of many paid video companies to which we subscribe. We couldn’t discover it.
So we figured we’d attempt Google Assistant to assist us discover it. A press of the microphone button on the distant and the utterance of the phrase Netflix, and the projector introduced within the acquainted Google Assistant voice, ‘Right here’s Netflix on the Google play Retailer’. And there was, certainly, the play Retailer entry for Netflix. Solely downside was, on the backside of the display it stated, ‘Your gadget isn’t appropriate with this model.’ This was additionally the case for Amazon’s Prime Video.
We checked the projector’s web site and, certain sufficient, there it was within the wonderful print: “Not all streaming apps are natively accessible on the EpiqVision EH-LS300B. An exterior streaming media gadget is required to stream some companies, together with Netflix. Netflix can’t be streamed utilizing Chromecast from Android TV, iOS, Mac or Home windows units.” (We assume by that ‘Android TV’ that Epson really means Android, as in an Android telephone.)
In different phrases, not solely does this projector not help Netflix, apparently you may’t stream Netflix out of your telephone to the projector through Chromecast. We tried. In reality, we might form of stream Netflix from our telephone, however solely within the slowest, choppiest most broken-up approach. To check, we plugged an precise Chromecast with Google TV gadget into one of many EpiqVision’s HDMI inputs, and located that Netflix would stream pretty easily through that route.
YouTube, against this, streamed easily through both route, as did iView and SBS On Demand and Stan. We did discover it fairly puzzling why any model of Android TV wouldn’t help Netflix and Prime, the second and fourth hottest streaming companies (that’s counting YouTube as being primary).
Apparently the projector can be capable of help video calls utilizing the Epson On-line Assembly app – powered by Zoom. You’ll have to plug a digital camera and microphone into the USB socket for that.
Verdict
Except for the lack to play Netflix and Prime Video direct, we had been impressed. The Epson EpiqVision EH-LS300B delivers a vivid and spectacular picture to a big display – and we might certainly suggest utilizing a display equivalent to considered one of Epson’s, relatively than a non-flat non-reflecting little bit of wall, as a result of we guarantee you, partitions won’t ever get the picture really flat. Plus the great high quality sound and the extraordinarily long-life mild supply makes this unit sensible for on a regular basis use, with some limitations, in addition to for really immersive bigscreen film nights.