Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector
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Tired & Dirty
> 3 dayProbably the best value in 3D 1080p projectors when I bought it earlier this year. Might still be. I came from an older DLP projector, and this Epson is at least as good in terms of color and overall image quality as that. 3D works very well with Panasonic TY-ER3D4MU glasses. Shutdown takes only a few seconds, unlike the DLP which needed to cool off first. The fan is noisy, but I use surround headphones so its fine for me. May be a problem for you if you use speakers exclusively and you are close to the projector. There is not a major difference in actual brightness between the economy and bright modes for some reason, but the fan is noticeably louder in bright mode. I just keep it in economy mode for simplicity and to save the bulb. Some other things: - Optical zoom adjustments are narrow, making placement a bit awkward in my case. - Fewer holes on bottom than normal for ceiling mount. Had to be extra creative with my existing mount. - AV Mute is a just stupid manual lens cover. I forget about this sometimes. - Remote is not backlit, hard to see buttons in the dark. - No component input. What cancels out all the negatives is that the official bulbs are C-H-E-A-P. Cheap enough that I use this as my primary TV now. Hopefully the rest of the unit lasts a long time.
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CMH Houston
> 3 dayI received this projector a week and a half ago, everything is set up fine on the ceiling mount. It worked great for about 6 days, then a faint bar appeared on the left side of the screen which almost looked like burn-in but it seems to be an image processing issue or defect. The bar has a thin white line that intermittently shows up on top. The warranty looks legitimate, and I will revise my review if the customer service/technical support resolves the issue promptly. Like I said the projector was great until the defect appeared. Revised, after some trouble shooting, figured out the problem with technical support. Everything appears to be working back to normal, image is great, responsiveness when playing games is great, warranty and cost of replacement bulbs is unbeatable. Highly recommended as the best all around in this price range, tried playing FIFA with a friend on a BENQ and it was almost unplayable with the delay, the Epson is pretty much just as good as an LCD TV in terms of responsiveness.
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Phil Sayles
> 3 dayThis is my first home theater projector, so take my opinions with a grain of salt, but I am very happy with it. At the time, I was debating between this Epson 2040 and either the BenQ W1070 or slightly new HT1075. The vertical positioning of the Epson wasnt an issue for me, so the ultimate tipping of the scales was that this Epson went on sale for $699 (list of $799) at the time I was looking to buy. Brightness There are 4 varying levels of brightness than you can select depending on how much ambient light is in the room. During the daytime, I usually run it on the max setting to get the best picture. My set up is not ideal and actually have a fairly large bay window right next to the projector screen, but I can still manage a good picture in spite of the high level of background light. The downside is that the fan is working hard to keep the projector cool and is pretty loud on the brightest setting. At night however (which is 90% of the time I normally use it), we run it on the lower settings and the fan is practically silent. Color Shift? Im not sure what the correct term for this is, but as other reviewers have noticed, there is a detectable color separation of green and purples on the edges of still black and whites next to each other on a menu or setup screen. Im not sure what this means, but its definitely there when you get up close to the screen. But once I sit back down at normal viewing distance, I dont notice the difference. And I definitely cant see a difference when watching a movie or anything else. In the end, I may have been happy no matter which projector I opted for, but this one has certainly exceeded my expectations.
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GP
> 3 dayItem arrived earlier this evening and I instantly set it up and tested a couple of blu ray DVDs in my collection from Avatar to MI:Ghost Protocol to Game of Thrones to Man of Steel and lastly, settling with Inside Out (my daughter and son requested for them to see it again) and instantly, my family enjoyed it out of the box! The picture was so clear although I was playing a bit in its initial setup with keystoning but I didnt need to as the throw was just about right. We couldnt be any happier with our purchase and as 1st time home theater owners, wed be looking forward to spending time in the theater room more often, probably re-watching some favorite blu ray titles we have in our decent collection. Id recommend this for 1st time or even experienced owners.
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BlockDuck
Greater than one weekAbsolutely wonderful projector! I bought this for my basement cinema. Pros: - Super clear picture for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and the TV receiver box for antenna stations. - Fan is relatively quiet. I sit right below it and dont notice it when watching a show - Vivid and true colors - Easy to mount to ceiling when you buy a universal mount - Very easy to set up - Looks great even when projecting directly onto a wall. I havent put our screen up yet, and just have it aimed at a muted green wall. - Great picture even with lights on. Our basement has two lighting areas. I usually watch it with the back area lit and the picture is still very bright and clear. Cons: - I bought a Harmony 350 universal remote. It can turn the projector on, but it cant shut it off for some reason.
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trbizwiz
> 3 dayI have spent much more on projectors, but this is my favorite so far. The picture quality in a light controlled room is excellent, and the picture quality in a room with moderate ambient light is fine. I love that replacement bulbs are easily acquired for under $100. My past projectors required builds over $300. At the price of bulbs for this projectors, its easy to update when the picture dims, rather than dealing with a faded picture and waiting for the bulb to pop. I was looking for a budget projector. I wanted a good movie watching experience. I have all that and more and I am well pleased. There are projectors in this price range with better contrast ratio. Contrast ratio is important. I may well like those projectors better if I tried one. I chose this one because of the cost replacement bulbs. I was not concerned with having the best and newest. That can get expensive. I wanted a great movie watching experience for an affordable price.
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mpalmer
> 3 dayOverall: I cannot express how truly happy I am with this projector! I received this projector in December and have been using it non-stop since! I previously had an Epson 705HD and that was a good projector but this one makes that seem like it was childs play. The image is definitely 1080p and colors are vibrant and bright. There are several color modes to choose from (Dynamic, Cinema, Bright Cinema) and I prefer to use Cinema. I have not used the 3D capability as of yet because I do not have a 3D player as of yet, but I expect that the 3D is just as amazing as the rest of the projector. I want to talk about the frame interpolation a little bit. This is something that many high-end projectors have and it is very apparent when it is on. I personally love it because it makes the images seem clearer and smoother. At times, however it makes the images look fake because of the effect of the heightened frame rate. There is also a slight problem with the processing of movement with words. When the interpolation is on and there is a sweeping landscape, or when there are words on the side of a vehicle driving through the frame, the words lose their definition. Here it is obvious that the interpolation programming is attempting to pick the relevant information and becomes obvious. Even with these negatives, the overall opinion I have is that the interpolation is worth it; the picture is smoother and, to me, appears crisper. There are many inputs and outputs from the unit which make it quite versatile. I have only one HDMI plugged in currently, but it is a comfort to know that I could use more inputs if need be. The noise from the fan, as some people have noticed, is present, but only when the bulb is set to normal. Keeping the setting on Eco fixes this and makes the fan almost silent. I find that Eco is plenty bright for all the purposes I need. Also, having a good 5.1 system will really help with the noise (i know, duh) because this will diminish what can be heard coming from the fan. Only during silent scenes will there be any noise heard, and this is less than the sound that most fridges make when they are running. There is very little light leakage. Some projectors have lines of light rays that escape from the housing and cause bright spots in the dark room; I have not noticed any of these. I am using the projector with a 100 inch screen and it is very crisp and bright. I have used bigger screens with the projector and, of course, with a bigger screen comes the downside of seeing more pixels. You will definitely want to start using Blu-Ray players if you havent already. With my previous projector and some TVs the difference between the two is negligible, but not so with this projector. DVDs are much less clear and it is very obvious once you begin using blu-rays. The remote reaches from very far and very many angles; there are 2 sensors on the projector for the IR signal and this means that you dont have to be in the right place like some other projectors on the market. Thank you Epson! I was comparing this to some DLP projectors and ultimately went with this one. I have not used a DLP and therefore cannot speak to their image quality, but I can assure you that you will not be disappointed by making this your next home theater investment. I am a very happy customer and have recommended it many times!
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Luke E
> 3 dayI was in the market for a project for under $1000 and this one was constantly rated at the top of the charts. I have a dedicated room so I can control the light fairly well and was blown away upon turning it on. The quality and color is great and even in eco mode has plenty of light to show a movie with moderate ambient light. The project has vertical as well as horizontal keystone correct which helps mounting it as it doesnt have to be perfect. I watched a couple of movies now and love every single one. I have a 144in screen at 15ft back. While the projector looked good on my wall paired with the Carls ProWhite I was blown away. The colors pop and the contrast looks good. Im sure the contrast would look better on a higher end projector but its left me nothing to complain about.
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Wilsonlibrarian
> 3 dayI sat in front of this for the first time, put a good movie in the bd player and my jaw dropped. I just sat there awed and the only word that came to my mouth was wow. Later a friend came to see, and he had exactly the same reaction. Wow. The detail was amazing. Admittedly, I am not a videophile in its truest form but I have an appreciation for a good display and for the price this one definitely qualifies. I have it mounted about 12 ft from a homemade screen that I made using Carls Blackout Cloth, and it give me a picture approximately 120 in diag. The image is so bright, I use the eco mode and it still displays a nice picture with soft lights on in the room. This projector also has a horizontal keystone adjustment that allows me to mount the projector to the ceiling off to the side instead of in the center. There are two things that in a perfect world might be considered negatives. One, it is somewhat noisy when there is nothing playing on the screen. Not an issue when the movie is on. The second thing is because I have the projector mounted to the side. I can see a light reflection below the lower rh side of my screen. It is probably a reflection off the lens and it is in shape that you would get if you moved the projector off center and didnt use the horizontal keystone to correct for it. I didnt notice it at all when I had the projector centered, so I am sure it is a product of the keystone correction. Neither is bad enough to dampen my enjoyment of this piece of equipment in any way.
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TL
> 3 dayIve been trying out various projectors over the past week for my bedroom. Im not looking for anything too crazy or too expensive, just a decent projector with decent image would suffice to watch movies from my bed. I started with very cheap models and gradually moved to more expensive ones. This is the 5th projector I tried and hence I had some comparison points. What I love about the projector: 1. Image is bright and crisp. I compared the brightness of Epson Home Cinema 2040 to another projector with the brightness of 3200 lumens