New Epson Projector

[mantis]

Whats up people?
We just started carrying Epson projectors. I was totally against this move at first as we already have killer projectors in Anthem , Mitsubishi , Sony and JVC.I thought "why the hell do we need another line?". Well the rep came in and trained us on the line , I was blown away by the quality vs price performance. The Pro 9700 retails for 3199.99 and it smokes it's price to performance ratio. It looks like a 8 to 10k quality projector.

A few things I don't like about it is it's manual lens shifting. We do put projectors in boxes and such and this makes it very difficult to dial in. They also don't come with Discrete power commands which is totally annoying for doing control. I built a work around but I'm not in. They do however have RS232c control which will give me discrete. next install I'm running RS232c.

I did a very nice theater in a basement 120 inch matte white 1 gain screen , Mythos STS ,9 center , XTR20 rears and surround back with a killer Supercube I for a 3rd sub in the room. Here is a few pic's of this job. Gear lives in a closet which is a Pioneer ELite SC-35 , Pioneer Elite BDP 31 , APC Power , HD cable , Control 4 for control , Apple TV new streamer , Audioquest all lives in a Mid Atlantic rack.
The room isn't painted as we had to cut some work holes and so did the plumbers , they where working on the bathroom that lives behind , you will see a huge work hole cut out in the back wall. Room is going to be painted dark brown of some sorts on the ceiling and screen wall and a slightly lighter brown on the walls with non reflective paint.

[mantis]

We put the seating in there for calibration reasons and so they can use the room until the painters get there.

[kuntasensei]

I went from a Sanyo PLV-Z2000, which I thought was pretty decent, to an Epson 8500UB... and the Epsons are amazing projectors. The 8500 blows away that Sanyo by a long shot. I do agree that the manual lens shift isn't great and that it takes a little work to really line up perfectly, but for the cost, it's a minor niggle. The Epsons have a bright enough lamp to still throw a watchable picture with some room lighting on, and for the tweakers out there, the THX mode gets you so close to D6500 that it really only takes some minor adjustment to nail a very accurate picture.

Nice looking install there!

[leroyjr1]

Nice install !!!

That screen makes those STS's look tiny.

[Sherardp]

Your a tad late to the party, half the forum guys with front PJ setups rock the Epson line up. A few JVCs and Panasonics also. Question is when is the OP going to the dark side. I see all the installs, but still wonder why you haven't come over yet Mr. Mantis.

Nice work btw.

[Serendipity]

I've been running the Epson Home Cinema 1080UB for years now with no problems :)

[polkfarmboy]

Your a tad late to the party, half the forum guys with front PJ setups rock the Epson line up. A few JVCs and Panasonics also. Question is when is the OP going to the dark side. I see all the installs, but still wonder why you haven't come over yet Mr. Mantis.

Nice work btw.

Yep ....get that down stairs basement finished instead of finishing everyone else's you lazy sod

[Ron-P]

I've been running the Epson Home Cinema 1080UB for years now with no problems :)

Same here, best PJ I've ever owned and will ever own. Both my Sanyo and Panny were problems but I've had my 1080ub for 2+ years and it runs like the day I bought it.

Like you said Dan, you cannot beat the price to performance...and reliability.

[mantis]

Nice install !!!

That screen makes those STS's look tiny.

I was thinking the same thing. I really like the STS but they are not the ST's. I think the ST's would have been a better fit with a Mythos 10 center and 4 Mythos 10's for surround and surround back. Hell I would have used a external amp and used another pair of 10's for the 2nd row. If you look at the rear placement I placed the rears for the 2nd row as I only had 1 pair. Both rows sound really good but I prefer using 1 pair of surrounds per row. I also track the seating as I measure each row and get the tweeters to 72 inches. This is the best placement I have found and it's with in THX , Dolby and DTS spec's.

On a side note here the STS's with the Supercube I wrecked that room. We ran a Space shuttle scene and you swore it was in the room. The 3 sub's totally rocked every single seat in the room which is why we used 3 subs. I have a technic for calibrating each sub then all together to get the max out of each placed sub.

From what I understand Epson is coming out with a higher end projector to suit all of my needs. I seen the spec's , you guys will have to wait.

[mantis]

Your a tad late to the party, half the forum guys with front PJ setups rock the Epson line up. A few JVCs and Panasonics also. Question is when is the OP going to the dark side. I see all the installs, but still wonder why you haven't come over yet Mr. Mantis.

Nice work btw.

I was totally against the Epson projectors. As I said we have many high quality models and I didn't feel we needed another line but now I'm happy I got to experience their stuff and It goes to show prejudging doesn't always work out in your favor.

As far as building my theater , it's been my dream for many years. I built the house I live in around the 9 foot basement for my theater room. I will get it done one day. Money has been my wall , when you buy a new house , you still buy many things for it like new everything. We had the ground sodded as the builder seeded badly , built a very nice deck on the back , had a custom Shed built like a barn, Had the front and sides all landscaped , Got married , Purchased some cars , kids braces ,, kids needs in general , I could go on and on.
When I go get down their and start my theater , it's going to be badass. I have it all spec'd out with 3 rows of seats 3 sets of surrounds , surround back channels , 3 or 4 subs , no gear in the room , fully sound treated , stage with hidden speakers and a micro perf screen so the center channel can be behind it. I'm even going to have where the front channels go to be fully upgradeable with removable platforms to accommodate different height floor standing or even book shelf design speakers. You will not be able to see the main channel speakers as they will be hidden behind acoustic material on a angle perfectly aligned , height for all rows to get a good experience. I got this idea from Overture in Delaware where they have a Triad theater system with McIntosh running it. They had these easy removable walls with the Triad Golds sitting on removable stands. I was so in. I should have taken pictures.

[mantis]

Same here, best PJ I've ever owned and will ever own. Both my Sanyo and Panny were problems but I've had my 1080ub for 2+ years and it runs like the day I bought it.

Like you said Dan, you cannot beat the price to performance...and reliability.

I love to find products of all parts of our hobby that stand out here. I judge them this way. I also try to lower my guard and try not to pay much attention to brand names. I judge on performance vs everything else I have installed or listened / used. I will however pay more for a product if it proves worthy over a lower priced model that has a higher value ratio. Some things I can't give up on , ok I don't like to budge.

[Sherardp]

I was totally against the Epson projectors. As I said we have many high quality models and I didn't feel we needed another line but now I'm happy I got to experience their stuff and It goes to show prejudging doesn't always work out in your favor.

As far as building my theater , it's been my dream for many years. I built the house I live in around the 9 foot basement for my theater room. I will get it done one day. Money has been my wall , when you buy a new house , you still buy many things for it like new everything. We had the ground sodded as the builder seeded badly , built a very nice deck on the back , had a custom Shed built like a barn, Had the front and sides all landscaped , Got married , Purchased some cars , kids braces ,, kids needs in general , I could go on and on.
When I go get down their and start my theater , it's going to be badass. I have it all spec'd out with 3 rows of seats 3 sets of surrounds , surround back channels , 3 or 4 subs , no gear in the room , fully sound treated , stage with hidden speakers and a micro perf screen so the center channel can be behind it. I'm even going to have where the front channels go to be fully upgradeable with removable platforms to accommodate different height floor standing or even book shelf design speakers. You will not be able to see the main channel speakers as they will be hidden behind acoustic material on a angle perfectly aligned , height for all rows to get a good experience. I got this idea from Overture in Delaware where they have a Triad theater system with McIntosh running it. They had these easy removable walls with the Triad Golds sitting on removable stands. I was so in. I should have taken pictures.

Too many excuses man, it all starts with a trip to your local Home Depot/Lowes. Buy a few pieces of wood and get to it. You can worry about the gear, etc later. And the type of setup your talking has been posted on AVS quite a bit, suggest you check out some builds there as well. I figured you would be tired of the tiny screens by now. Digital projectors are very good these days. Epson is a very good start to, the higher end model gets close to JVC's lower model. Pick your poison, but for the price you can't beat those or the Panasonics.

[leroyjr1]

Too many excuses man, it all starts with a trip to your local Home Depot/Lowes. Buy a few pieces of wood and get to it. You can worry about the gear, etc later. And the type of setup your talking has been posted on AVS quite a bit, suggest you check out some builds there as well. I figured you would be tired of the tiny screens by now. Digital projectors are very good these days. Epson is a very good start to, the higher end model gets close to JVC's lower model. Pick your poison, but for the price you can't beat those or the Panasonics.

Can't explain it but having a projector makes your speakers sound better. Guess it's the cinema experience.

[dave shepard]

Too many excuses man, it all starts with a trip to your local Home Depot/Lowes. Buy a few pieces of wood and get to it.

I've been telling him that for awhile now, I even offered to fly there again and help, he acts like he's listening but I just think he's lazy. .
Just remember to use treaded wood that contacts the concrete floor use split inserts with lag bolts to anchor them to the floor with construction adhesive (PL Premium is what I use, the best I've found). I want pics of the material tomarrow enough already lets get it started.

[madmax]

As far as building my theater , it's been my dream for many years. I built the house I live in around the 9 foot basement for my theater room. I will get it done one day. Money has been my wall , when you buy a new house , you still buy many things for it like new everything.

You need to do it sooner, not later. I found that 15 years went by in my old house while I dreamed about what I wanted. When I sold it I thought to myself I wasted the whole time thinking about it and missed out on the pleasure it would have brought, even if not built to the standards I had wanted. One of my friends did the same...
madmax

[dave shepard]

All this time has gone by and no reply from him..... I told ya he was lazy, he probably really works at BB .

[Sherardp]

From what I understand Epson is coming out with a higher end projector to suit all of my needs. I seen the spec's , you guys will have to wait.

Pro Cinema 61000 (Euro equivalent: EH-R4000)
Contrast 1,000,000:1
Networking capabilities
Black case
Sold only by authorized, local, installing dealers

[madmax]

All this time has gone by and no reply from him..... I told ya he was lazy, he probably really works at BB .

Or, maybe he is hauling in 2x4's as we speak! Nah, just lazy.