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 The
playing field is getting crowded with high quality display technologies in the
high definition projector market. DLP, LCD, D-ILA and S-XRD all have high performance
models available, yet the cost and performance variables make no single technology
completely dominant. Epson's new PowerLite™ Cinema 500 High Definition LCD
projector is the best of three new projectors being offered by the company, each
specifically designed for home theater applications. The Cinema 500 offers a true
high definition image with its 720p (1280 x 720) native resolution using a trio
of 0.7" Poly-silicon TFT Active Matrix panels. The 200W UHE (Ultra High Efficiency)
lamp is designed to last up to 3000 hours in the low power modes and up to 1700
hours in the high power modes. Cool air is drawn from the bottom of the unit through
the user replaceable filter and exits through the front side of the projector.
The contrast ratio is said to be as high as 1200:1 with a light output of 1000
lumens. The powered zoom (1.5x) and powered focus sets this projector apart from
its competitors. The horizontal and vertical lens shift options further improve
flexibility during installation. Four standard mounting positions (Front/Rear
Desktop or Front/Rear Ceiling) are available using the menu controls. Fan noise
is very low (27dB) when running in the low power modes and increases significantly
(36dB) when switched to the higher power modes. The Cinema 500 hosts an array
of video processing features including Faroudja's highly regarded DCDi® algorithms.
The
Cinema 500's DigiScan™ Processing includes a 3D motion-adaptive Y/C separator
that performs processing on composite signals to greatly reduce cross color artifacts.
The 3D Digital Noise Reduction circuitry and 3D Y/C separator both compare previously
stored frames for processing. The 3D Gamma Correction improves dark scenes by
adding more gradation levels to the video signal. The design features the highly
acclaimed Faroudja (now Genesis Microchip, Inc.) DCDi® deinterlacing along
with PixelWorks DNX™ technology that uses video processing algorithms with
3:2 pull down. The result is excellent video processing capabilities in this high
definition projector. Epson's
AccuCinema™ Color Management is said to provide color accuracy and performance
that meet Hollywood cinematic mastering standards for extraordinary picture quality.
The processing includes a Black/White Enhancer, Color Enhancer, Color LUT/3DLUT,
and Edge Enhancer. Priced competitively at $4999, the PowerLite™ Cinema 500
is designed to please serious home theater enthusiasts.  Installation
The
chassis of the Cinema 500 is fairly large measuring 13.6"D x 17.7"W
x 5.8"H, yet the unit weighs less than 14 pounds. The smooth contours make
it more attractive than the rectangular boxes from other manufacturers. We mounted
the projector onto a Peerless PRS Series Projector Ceiling
Mount with the Spider® Universal Adapter Plate. Using the horizontal and
vertical lens shift controls, we were able to move the image without creating
any geometric errors. The vertical lens shift can move the image as much as 100%
upward or 50% downward. The horizontal lens shift can move the image up to 50%
left or right. This is a huge advantage over projectors that do not offer any
lens shifting capabilities. The image was projected onto our 100-inch Stewart
FireHawk 16:9 filmscreen from a distance of about 13 feet. Although the Cinema
500 has both horizontal and vertical keystone adjustments, we avoided using them
to minimize artifacts.
The power zoom and power focus worked well and made it easy to accurately adjust
the picture while standing close to the screen. This is a feature that is not
commonly found on most projectors, even those costing over $10K. The 1.5x zoom
lens offers greater setup flexibility by allowing a large image even in smaller
rooms. The Cinema 500 even has a built-in pattern generator that produces discrete
gray level steps to help properly set the white and black levels. The
factory lens has threads which appear to be designed to work with optional filters.
Although we did not have any for our review, neutral-density filters can sometimes
help improve picture quality by cutting the light output and deepening the black
levels. This of course is at the cost of reduced light output. Running the projector
in the Theatre or Theatre Black mode effectively accomplished this
by reducing the light output through the iris and increasing the contrast ratio. Connectivity
The rear panel of the Cinema 500 has a wide selection of interconnects including
a composite and s-video input that is compatible with NTSC, NTSC4.43, PAL, M-PAL,
N-PAL, PAL60, and SECAM. An HDMI input and two sets of component/RGB inputs (via
five RCA jacks) handle both standard and high definition signals. There is also
a D4 input that is used in Japan, but not in the USA. The HDMI input accepts 480i,
480p, 575i, 575p, 720p and 1080i video. In addition to controlling the projector
with the IR remote and top panel buttons, the Cinema 500 can be controlled via
a serial or USB connection (defined in the COM menu) or an ethernet connection.
Epson also provides a smooth looking cable cover that attached with two finger
screws to hide the unsightly wires on the back of the unit.  Cinema
Color Editor Software
The Cinema Color Editor software is included
with the projector on a CD. We received version 1.10 with the projector and loaded
it onto our laptop (Sony Vaio K23) that was also used to calibrate the display.
Since we had a network already installed in our viewing room, we connected the
projector to our local ethernet hub rather than use the serial or USB interfaces.
We quickly realized that we needed to enable DCHP and turn on Network Monitoring
in the Setting/Operation menu to get the projector to communicate properly. Once
we did this, the Cinema Color Editor software immediately found the projector's
IP address and we soon gained control over the projector functions. What really
made this great for us is that we could control the projector settings from the
same laptop used to take the measurements for calibration. Using the ColorVision
(formerly Milori) ColorFacts Professional software, we adjusted the RGB Gain and
Offset. We were actually controlling the projector through a wireless 802.11g
link making it very convenient to adjust the projector settings. We noticed a
couple of interesting things when using the software interface to the projector.
First, the fan on the projector would always run even when the projector had been
powered off and cooled down. We thought this might have to do with the network
electronics needing cooling, but there was absolutely no heat coming from the
fan exhaust. In addition, the fan noise wasn't completely consistent when going
between high power and low power Picture Modes.
Selecting
the Remote Control button in the Cinema Color Editor interface enabled
basic functions for choosing the source input and changing the aspect ratio. My
only complaint is rather than opaque the Aspect Ratios that are not available
with a given input source, the software pops up a message window Projector
setting failed when the Aspect Ratio change is made on an invalid mode.  Selecting
the Picture Quality button changes the user interface to more advanced
menu controls. Four menu items (General Setting, Adjustment of Image,
Advanced and Memory Management) are selectable by the user. The
General
Setting menu
has controls for Input Adjustment, Brightness, Color Intensity, Tint, Sharpness,
Color Temp and Fleshtone, Tracking and Sync. The Adjustment
of Image has
allows the user to change the Color Mode (Dynamic,
Living Room, Natural, Theatre, Theatre Black and sRGB) and
access the Color Adjustments (RGB or RGBCMY).
The Advanced
menu has controls
for Epson's Super White, Progressive, Motion Detection, Output Scaling, Setup
Level, Noise Reduction, DVI-Video Level and Auto Setup. The Memory
Management menu
allows the user to save and access configuration data used to adjust the projector's
settings.
 Remote
Control
The
remote included with the Cinema 500 projector has a nice ergonomic design with
logically placed buttons. Separate On and Off power buttons are
included with the latter being recessed to prevent users from accidentally Turning
off the projector. Four large buttons select the Menu, Color Mode,
Memory and Aspect functions and are conveniently located near the
top of the remote. Most of the controls are the same ones found in the Cinema
Color Editor software.
The
Menu button displays four menus on the screen for Image, Setting,
Info, and Reset. The
Image menu has controls for Picture Quality (Brightness, Color,
Tint and Sharpness), Color Adjustment (Absolute Color and RGB/RGBCMY),
Color Mode (Dynamic, Living Room, Natural, Theatre, Theatre Black and sRGB),
Memory (Last Memory and Reset). display. The navigation buttons include
separate Up / Down / Left / Right with a Select
and Escape button. A group of six buttons select the video input and include
HDMI, D4, Input A, Input B, S-video and Video.
The lower four buttons control Pattern, Blank, Zoom and Focus.
Pattern displays the test pattern. The backlight button is located on the very
bottom of the remote making it easy to find in the dark. The backlight illuminates
all the buttons red, except the power buttons. Power On illuminates green,
while power Off button illuminates orange. There are separate locks that
can be enabled for Focus, Zoom and Operation in the event
the user wants to keep these settings from being changed. The remote must be used
to operate the projector when these features are active. Top
Panel
 The
top panel of the Cinema 500 has the same basic buttons as the remote for controlling
the projector's functionality. The backlight is great and very easy to see in
the dark . If the lights bother the user, the backlight feature can be completely
turned off in the menu settings. The power indicator illuminates orange when the
unit is in standby mode. When powered on, the indicator light flashes green while
the unit warms up at which time the indicator constantly illuminates green. When
powered off the indicator flashes orange until the unit cools down and then it
goes back to a constant orange.  Display
Primaries
The
Cinema 500 has some of the best color adjustment features we have seen in a projector.
Full 6-axis color adjustments for red, green, blue, yellow, magenta and cyan are
available for optimal color accuracy. Hue and saturation levels for each of the
colors allow the primaries to be positioned virtually ideal on the CIE diagram.
We measured the Cinema 500 primaries using the GretagMacbeth Eye-One Pro Spectrophotometer
and ColorFacts Professional software from ColorVision (formerly Milori Software).
Data was taken directly from our Stewart FireHawk filmscreen. The CIE chart shows
where the ideal primaries (RGBYMC) are located with the smaller three points making
the dark triangle. The measured primary colors have the red, green and blue corner
markers connected together with the white triangle. Yellow, magenta and cyan are
located between the points along the lines that make the triangle. The accurate
color primaries resulted in natural looking flesh tones with excellent color saturation.
Outdoor scenes produced vivid colors with lush greens.
Color
Tracking
 We
set the projector's Color Mode to Theatre Black for all our measurements.
Our Sencore CP5000 color analyzer and VP403 video generator connected to the projectors
HDMI input. Using the native 720p video, we set the black level using the PLUGE
pattern and checked the stair step levels to ensure that we had properly adjusted
the display. The Cinema 500 also has a built-in pattern generator for those who
lack test equipment for calibration. Color Temperature can also be selected by
the user ranging from 5,000 °K
to 10,000
in increments of 500 °K.
We measured the color temperature in 10 IRE increments starting with 20 IRE. The
6500 °K setting was fairly accurate considering the unit was brand new with
less than 100 hours of lamp time. The high IRE levels were only a few hundred
degrees off from our target temperature. Epson also includes a Flesh Tone
control. Performance
The LCD-based Cinema
500 has the same native resolution as most of the DLP projectors we have reviewed
in the past. The technology does have a more pronounced Screen Door Effect
than its DLP counterpart primarily due to the fill factor of LCD technology.
We found that we needed to sit a bit farther away from the viewing screen to prevent
this from bothering us. Sitting at a reasonable distance from the screen resulted
in an excellent image with a natural looking picture. The LCD panels produce some
very low level fixed pattern noise that could be seen on the screen up close when
viewing uniform backgrounds. It was similar to vertical banding, but not as obvious
as what we have encountered with some other earlier LCD projectors. Vertical motion
also showed some line structure, but nothing to be alarmed about. We
connected our JVC HM-DH30000U D-Theater D-VHS VCR using the component video inputs.
We looked at several HD-Net and D-Theater tapes and the picture quality was simply
amazing for a projector in this price range. Colors were accurate and well balanced
with outstanding resolution and
uniform brightness across the screen. Virtually no false-contouring could be seen
with the material we watched even from digital sources such as D-VHS. Using our
GretagMacbeth spectroradiometer, we measured the light output at 10.2 foot-Lamberts
when running in the Theater Black mode. This mode also produced the best
measured contrast ratio of 1009:1 after calibration. The light output jumped to
13.12 foot-Lamberts in the Dynamic mode, but decreased the measured contrast to
897:1. Fan noise is remarkably low, yet increases significantly when the Color
Mode is changed to Living Room or Dynamic. These two modes also
cut down lamp life from 3000 hours to 1700 hours.
The Dynamic
and Living Room color modes have the highest light output and work well
in situations where ambient room light must be kept at a higher level. However,
this mode does adversely affect the black level and is not recommended for critical
viewing. Conclusion
The Epson PowerLite™
Cinema 500 sets a new level of performance for high definition LCD projectors
and is a solution for a cost effective home theater. The features offered on the
Cinema 500 provide customers with some of the most advanced capabilities including
Faroudja DCDi® processing, power focus and zoom, ethernet control and flexible
color management. Contrast is somewhat limited compared to DLP technology, but
still produces an excellent picture in light controlled environments. The ability
to accept 480i, 480p, 575i, 575p, 720p and 1080i from its digital and analog inputs
makes this projector an excellent choice for today's high performance home theaters.
The low noise level from the fan when running in the Theater modes is especially
attractive for those who have their seating area close to the projector. The price
is a bit on the high side compared to some of the competing projectors and should
be taken into consideration when planning your theater system. Epson has done
an great job with LCD technology and the Cinema 500 is a culmination of what can
be accomplished in today's LCD home theater projectors. The
Cinema 500 includes Epson's service and support and a comprehensive two-year warranty.
Epson offers its customers a PrivateLine Technical Support card with their projector
purchase. The card includes a 1-800 number along with a Personal Identification
Number to help better serve customers who need assistance. This is said to be
a prioritized phone number that operates Monday through Friday from 6:00am to
6:00pm Pacific Time. We did not have an opportunity to take advantage of this
service. -
Kevin Nakano |
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