I'm looking strongly at both of these projectors. I will be using my basement to watch a lot of football as well as movies on a 92" screen. Both are priced about the same. Epson is 1500 lumens and the Sony is 1100.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Lawrence

Well, the Epson is very bright... probably twice as bright as the Sony after calibration. That said, the Sony should definitely top the Epson in terms of contrast, colors, black level and overall "pop" for movies. The Sony also has a "high brightness" mode which significantly boosts brightness (more so than other manufacturer's high brightness modes) without increasing fan noise. That could come in handy for sports viewing with with some ambient light in the room.

Personally, I think the Sony puts out a very refined image so I would go with that and get a Da-Lite Hi-Power screen to give the image a nice plasma look. Then you get the best of both worlds for movies and sports.

Thanks very much for your advice. My only worry on the Sony is the lumens level. Its not near as bright as the Epson if I'm watching football during the day, and that's my issue.

Thanks very much for your advice. My only worry on the Sony is the lumens level. Its not near as bright as the Epson if I'm watching football during the day, and that's my issue.

Definently go with the Epson..... If you need the bright punchy pic. for football during the day. Also the Epson has a large amount of lens shift//zoom which will allow you to place it almost anywhere in your room. I would have bought this for myself, but I can't find one in Canada.

Definently go with the Epson..... If you need the bright punchy pic. for football during the day. Also the Epson has a large amount of lens shift//zoom which will allow you to place it almost anywhere in your room. I would have bought this for myself, but I can't find one in Canada.
I own the AW15 so I may be biased, but it also has a great lens shift and it is plenty bright in high lamp mode... especially using a Hi-Power screen (which comes with a lot of other benefits detailed in post 725 in the AW15 sticky thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=11423355&postcount=725)). Considering that the OP has a basement setup, I'm guessing light control will not be an issue. If that is indeed true, I see no reason to sacrifice overall all picture quality for brightness which can be achieved in other ways (i.e. with high lamp, the right screen & thoughtful lighting).

My $0.02.
-Matt

Epson panel is inferior compared to Sony. Now if brightness is all what you consider the main objective for a pj then Epson is the one. But that is NOT to say that Sony is dim. In Dynamic mode you can get nearlly 550 lumen out of the Sony which is a good a brightness after D65.

Agree with CaspianM. I found Panny using Epson panels had VB issues, both the ae100 and the ae900; their qc varies. My 2 Sony HS51 had no such issues.

I own the HC400, and I have no VB issues whatsoever. The fact is, Epson makes the LCD panels for most OEM LCD PJ manufacturers, but their implementation may vary. If you want the Epson panel you may as well go for the total Epson package! Sony, of course, went their own way, as they always seem to do. I don't know how the Sony PJs would compare in an A/B comparison, but I find the HC400 to be bright, well saturated, very nice blacks and shadow detail, and extremely easy to set up. With the $500 rebate what more could you ask for?

VB is caused by other factors than panel itself. Same thing about misconvergence and uniformity/shading. Both Sony and Epson suffer to some degree depending on unit to unit variations. Sony panel has better native ansi and on off contrast than Epson. Besides Sony is a giant in fpj and its DI are far better than any one else.
I doubt the Epson is twice brighter after D65 maybe 20%. So you need to be carefull so you don't get lost in brightness game. Get a PJ with good overall performance.

VB is caused by other factors than panel itself. Same thing about misconvergence and uniformity/shading. Both Sony and Epson suffer to some degree depending on unit to unit variations. Sony panel has better native ansi and on off contrast than Epson. Besides Sony is a giant in fpj and its DI are far better than any one else.
I doubt the Epson is twice brighter after D65 maybe 20%. So you need to be carefull so you don't get lost in brightness game. Get a PJ with good overall performance.

That's why I said the implementation varies. Numbers not withstanding, the Epson throws a very nice image, is infinitley (almost) adjustable, and really is a bargain coupled with the rebate. To each their own, but you really can't go wrong with the HC400.

doubt the epson is twice as bright?

well the aw15 pulls a near worthless 262 lumens at D65, the epson is just a hair under 500 lumens at D65.

crank the sony up as high as it will go and you get a bit over 600 lumens and brightest usable picture quality comes in at 550 lumens.

meanwhile the epson 400 comes in at near 1100 lumens in its living room mode.

personally i'd rather just use deeper gray screen to pick up the blacks with the epson 400 rather than have to fight for optimum light control just to make the sony usable to its full intent.

heck the sanyo z5 can get significantly brighter than the aw15 and that's saying something!

Keep in mind that in most real world situations the rated contrast of a PJ can't be achieved, due to ambient light, reflections from white ceilings and light colored walls, etc. Unless you have a "batcave" for your home theater I feel the added brightness of the Epson would be more of an advantage than any slight increase in contrast ratings.

I can watch football with the shades open and the lights on in the living room mode or even better on the dynamic modes on the HC400.
I wouldn't try to watch a dark movie that way but football is fine.
If you want to really make it shine close the shades and switch off some lights.
It doesn't ever have to be a bat cave either. I watch plenty of tv with the lights on and the 400 is more than bright enough.

Don't get me wrong, if someone was asking for a projector that could put out a 120" image with a daylight problem, I would definitely recommend the 400 (or possibly the AX100 depending on how quality reports have been lately). However, keep in mind we are only talking about a 92" screen in a basement theater.

Bottom line, the OP needs to decide which performance is more important, movies with the lights low/off, or sports with ambient light. In their respective best modes, the Sony should definitely top the Epson for movies, and we know that Epson can trounce the Sony in brightness for things like sports. Both units will be usable in the opposite situations, just not optimal.

And again, there are other ways to deal with brightness (screen and room lighting selection/placement). In critical viewing situations, you can always tweak your setup to achieve the existing performance potential of your machine. But you can never add performance to your machine which doesn't exist in the first place. It all depends on what is most important to you as a viewer and and how much effort you are willing to put in.
-Matt

I have a 106 inch da lite high powe,r 14 feet viewing and throw with my AW15 and I can have a 100 watt bulb and a 60 watt bulb on and the screen is still veiwable. So if you're looking for more light than that go ahead with the epson, I think the picture would wash out to much past that amount of light for me. I am using low power mode.

ProjectorCentrals review noted the lack of brightness and the higher than average pixel visibility as the major faults of the Sony. They also stressed the need for a very dark room to be able to utilize the contrast of the Sony. Some things to keep in mind... I bought the Epson, couldn't be happier!

if you want the best of both worlds (sony / epson) then why not just go with a sanyo Z5?

it's brighter and sharper than the AW15 (much brighter in living and dynamic modes)
sharper and has better blacks and shadow detail than the 400

if the screen is only 92" then you're right in the perfect size range for a Z5 to get dark room picture viewing or throw on its dynamic mode for football etc.

once we get a real review of the benq w500 then we will know how well it's 1100 lumens work - seem to be a fairly accurate rating from initial reports.

ProjectorCentrals review noted the lack of brightness and the higher than average pixel visibility as the major faults of the Sony. They also stressed the need for a very dark room to be able to utilize the contrast of the Sony.
Well, Projector Central criticizes the Epson 400 for being overly soft, even to point of being noticeable on HDTV sources. And Projector Reviews fault the 400 for worse shadow detail and black level than its LCD competitors and that it is noisy in the bright modes.
Some things to keep in mind... I bought the Epson, couldn't be happier!

Ditto... I bought the Sony, couldn't be happier!



Seriously though, you can always find something to complain about with any projector. floridapoolboy, I'm sure seeing those negatives of the Epson above don't affect your enjoyment of it. Same goes for me with the Sony which I think is awesome in every situation I've needed it for. The OP asked which to buy so of course everyone is going to defend their purchase. This is starting to sound like the the Blu-ray/HD-DVD forum in here... ;)

To be honest, compared to what you could get only a year or two ago, a $1000 buys you a heck of a projector these days. Most models are more similar than different so I doubt anyone would be unhappy, no matter which brand they select. Now, where did that OP go...?
-Matt

doubt the epson is twice as bright?

well the aw15 pulls a near worthless 262 lumens at D65, the epson is just a hair under 500 lumens at D65.

crank the sony up as high as it will go and you get a bit over 600 lumens and brightest usable picture quality comes in at 550 lumens.

meanwhile the epson 400 comes in at near 1100 lumens in its living room mode.

personally i'd rather just use deeper gray screen to pick up the blacks with the epson 400 rather than have to fight for optimum light control just to make the sony usable to its full intent.

heck the sanyo z5 can get significantly brighter than the aw15 and that's saying something!

I don't know where you pulled those numbers on the Sony but they are incorrect.

From pjcentral epson produces only 435 in theater mode and 1036 in living room and not one of them is after D65.
PJCentral hardly goes thru D65 and pjreviews numbers are always too low from Sony pj's. You can believe what you want.

TJN tested the Sony and it produced 322 lumen in theater mode and pjcentral said it produced 634 in Dynamic.
But that is not the entire story.. pj with bad black always produce a lot of lumen. Still sony was down only about 25% in lumen in theater mode compared to Epson. Epson does about 40% better in living room vs dynamic.

If you want to use the pj as TV then Epson makes an excellent TV in a room with ambient light but in home theater setting even with some light Sony is the better pj imo with nearly 250 ansi cr and 7000:1 sequential cr vs. 120:1 ansi and 3000:1 sequential for Epson. A gray screen will only improve black level but not contrast.

Well, Projector Central criticizes the Epson 400 for being overly soft, even to point of being noticeable on HDTV sources. And Projector Reviews fault the 400 for worse shadow detail and black level than its LCD competitors and that it is noisy in the bright modes.


Ditto... I bought the Sony, couldn't be happier!



Seriously though, you can always find something to complain about with any projector. floridapoolboy, I'm sure seeing those negatives of the Epson above don't affect your enjoyment of it. Same goes for me with the Sony which I think is awesome in every situation I've needed it for. The OP asked which to buy so of course everyone is going to defend their purchase. This is starting to sound like the the Blu-ray/HD-DVD forum in here... ;)

To be honest, compared to what you could get only a year or two ago, a $1000 buys you a heck of a projector these days. Most models are more similar than different so I doubt anyone would be unhappy, no matter which brand they select. Now, where did that OP go...?
-Matt

You're correct, the PJs at $1k or under these days are unbelievable compared to a few years ago! I'm sure the OP would like any of them, it's just a matter of which compromises work best for his particular situation. Myself, I'm satisfied with my HC400 , at least until 3 chip 1080P DLP projectors are going for $1995!!! (oh yeah, they MUST have lens shift!)

BB has a 10% off coupon running til 9/5/07, so price wise the Sony and the Epson are about the same.

BTW, I hate to deal with manufactureres' rebates in general.