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Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350

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#1 ·
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350

Description:
Convenient and affordable, this Epson V11H373120 PowerLite 8350 Projector enhances your entertainment experience - presenting movies, sports and videogames like you've never seen them before. A solid lineup of Epson technology makes it possible. The cast includes Epson's D7 chip and a superb contrast ratio of up to 50,000:1, for sharp, distinctive details. And, those details shine bright, day or night, thanks to 2000 lumens of color and white light output. C2Fine™ 12-bit technology, 3LCD, 3-chip technology, an Epson exclusive cinema filter and a state-of-the-art Fujinon™ lens to generate a full spectrum of spectacular, true-to-life colors.

Details:
DetailValue
BindingElectronics
BrandEpson
EAN0010343878419
FeatureSharp, crystal-clear detail - a contrast ratio up to 50,000:1
Brilliant images, anytime, day or night - 2000 lumens color and white light output1
High-definition, 1080p home theater experience - D7 chip delivers 1920 x 1080 resolution
Sharp, crystal-clear detail - 1080p TFT D7 chip and a contrast ratio up to 50,000:1
Rich, vibrant color and reliable performance - C2Fine technology and 3LCD, 3-chip technology
Item Height5.7 inches
Item Length15.5 inches
Item Width17.7 inches
LabelEpson
ManufacturerEpson
MPNV11H373120
NumberOfItems1
Package Height11.1 inches
Package Length20.79 inches
Package Weight22.97 pounds
Package Width19.29 inches
PackageQuantity1
PartNumberV11H373120
ProductGroupHome Theater
ProductTypeNameVIDEO_DEVICE
PublisherEpson
SKUVS341340
StudioEpson
TitleEpson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350
UPC010343878419
UPCList - UPCListElement010343878419
Item Weight16.1 pounds
CatalogNumberList - CatalogNumberListElementV11H373120
ModelV11H373120
ColorWhite
DepartmentElectronics
Warranty2-Year factory parts & labor warranty
 

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#2 ·
My First Projector

review by supakats

When I was looking for my projector my two biggest needs were under $1500 (closer to $1000 would be better) and a relatively short throw based on mounting options in my room. The final two candidates I had in mind were the Epson 8350 and the BenQ W1070. I ultimately choose the Epson due to the extra lens shift in case I needed it and from all that I read It seemed like it would have the overall better picture quality in 2d. The 3d of the BenQ was very enticing but I just didn't feel it would get the use right now to be worth it. With that said I am extremely happy with my purchase and I think the Epson is a great entry point for people looking for a lower cost first front projector.

Features-As previously stated the best feature to me is the throw range and lens shift. This provided us with the ability to shelf mount as we were getting the room finalized and then ceiling mount in a place that would fit without having to move anything around in the room or move wires or anything of that sort. The ability to have good picture quality and high light output in the Living Room mode allows us to watch movies with the kids, and have people over for sporting events with the lights on without totally killing what we are watching.

Setup-Getting the projector mounted and set up was pretty easy. The menus seems intuitive enough to me and using the zoom and lens shift to get the image correct on the screen is also pretty easy. As mentioned in the cons motorized lens shift would be nice but is not available at this price point that I am aware of. The only other thing I would want people to know is that with the lens shift both planes move together so moving the image left or right will also move it slightly up or down and vice versa.

Performance- I am by no means an video expert like some on the site are and am not nearly the critical viewer that some here are but to me the picture put out by this projector is excellent. I have my projector paired with a 100" fixed mount screen from Visual Apex and they are a great combo. When I first set it up I just used settings found at projectorcentral.com to get me started and make sure everything was working an that it was watchable and those settings worked pretty well in my room. I then used Digital Video Essentials HD disc to get it dialed in a little bit better and am very pleased with the results. To me the colors are wonderful and I have had no issue with any sort of artifacts or anomalies pop up that are not source related (cable compression for example).

As stated above brightness is excellent on this projector. I use the cinema setting when watching with the light off in the basement and with the 100" screen from about 10 ft away it gives great light. When we want the lights on because people are over or kids are in the basement then I switch it to living room setting which works wonderfully in that setting. The living room mode obviously hurts the colors and black levels some what but for watching with the kids or sports it doesn't have a big enough impact to really hurt the viewing experience. The only real performance negative I would have is the black levels, contrast, shadow detail could be better but I think that is just part of the price point. Higher levels of performance in those areas can be had but at the current time you have to spend more to get that and that is not something we were willing to do at this point.

To close I would just like to say that anyone that is looking to get into a front projection set up from under 1500 with a screen I would highly recommend this projector.

ProsCons
Excellent placement flexibilty due to large throw range and lens shift, great overall picture, priceCan be loud when switching viewing modes, no 3D (which some DLPs offer at this price), no motorized lens shift (not available at this price)

Ratings
Design4
Features4
Performance4
Color Accuracy5
Black Levels4
Value5
Overall4
 
#13 ·
Fine Projector for the price brings excellent viewing for less cash than a Flat screen

review by video2012

This unit is my second projector, as a former AV professional and waiting for prices to finally fall enough, I upgraded from a Benq with 800 lumens to 2000 lumens. I bought this much the way you will, word of mouth and reviews. I have a drop down mount that brings it lower to the center of the screen, then use the positioners build into the unit to center the screen, this seems to avoid any keystoning issues. This is plenty bright in the evening, but with the custom brightness for cinema, living room and such it can boost the brightness greatly,. 2D is fine for now, I do not need the third D at all. The other downside is projectors with lamps to replace, so you have to be hands on. The PC input function shows a poor resolution on the screen sadly.

ProsCons
Great brightness controls, extra big and bright from almost any distanceThe PC function leaves a rathe rpoor resolution that leaves much to be desired

Ratings
Design0
Features0
Performance0
Color Accuracy0
Black Levels0
Value0
Overall4
 
#14 ·
Still going after 2 years!

review by thirdgenlude

I picked this projector due to the price at the time, and the price really hasn't dropped much since then. This unit is now available for around $1000 (although I'm sure better deals are out there), and I paid maybe $150 more than that, which says a lot for how popular this projector remains after what is an eternity in "technology years."

I have a ceiling mounted installation, and with the Projector Gear ceiling mount, it was a breeze to put together. Because I wanted to have the projector centered in the room, then lens shift was important to me. It works great, but once the horizontal and vertical dials reach their limits, they can be knocked out of place when the lens itself is adjusted, making it a little bit of a pain to get everything perfect. As mine sits, the image is pretty square with the screen, with the left-lower corner being "in" a little. A keystone option would be nice, but at this price range, I'm not complaining; as long as the image is the width of the screen, you can't tell it's not exactly square.

I have this projector paired with a Jamestown custom 117" screen (highly recommend these guys, although my screen was built during the natural disasters of 2011, so they had to rush to get it to me in time, so the construction of some of the pieces had to be modified a little), and the image quality has not ceased to amaze anyone we have had over. Some friends of ours have a very nice, high end Samsung, and they feel that the image this projector produces is every bit as sharp and detailed. Of course, black levels are not as strong as they could be, but this isn't a bother to me -especially at this price point- and no one has complained yet. There is an Auto-Iris feature that lightens and darkens the image based on the action in any given scene, and there are different settings for it -"normal" and "fast" I believe- which work pretty well, but the noise from the iris can be very noticeable, especially during quiet scenes.

It seems that I am the only person on the planet who has encountered this, but after several hours in Eco mode, the image will flicker from light to dark. This has nothing to do with having the Auto-Iris feature enabled, as I always have it disabled, and I can't say whether it has to do with the lamp either, although it has done this for the last 1200 hours at least. The remedy has been to switch the power consumption mode to Normal, which produces a slightly brighter image and a little more fan noise (the projector is VERY quiet in Eco mode), and after a few hours of viewing in this mode, the projector can be switched back to Eco mode for several hours flicker-free. Again, I am the only person I know of who has had this issue.

When I first received the projector, I was only able to use it for about 14 hours before the lamp popped and I had to wait somewhere around 10 days for a replacement as they were back-ordered at the time, but the process for replacement and return was pretty simple. The customer service I received was not terrible, but I remember the departments not being well in sync or being able to tell me when my lamp would arrive - it just magically arrived one day. My new lamp has nearly 2000 hours on it now, and with the advertised 4000 hour lamp life, I am really hoping that this one will last until passive 3D technology is available in this price range for projectors. The image brightness does not seem to have deteriorated, so I believe this could happen.

All in all, I am very pleased with this, my first projector purchase. For the money, this unit has terrific functionality and features, and will definitely impress!

ProsCons
Large image for short throw, picture quality, price.Flicker when in Eco mode, louder fan noise when not in Eco mode.

Ratings
Design0
Features0
Performance0
Color Accuracy0
Black Levels0
Value0
Overall4
 
#16 ·
Great projector for the price, but could be better

review by scottsh

When I moved into a new house that had a small media room, I decided to purchase the Epson 8350 as my first projector. The room is small, approximately 15 feet from the screen to the projector and not very wide (approximately 9 feet.) I mounted the projector at the back of the room on a shelf approximately 8 feet from the floor. I also purchased an Elite Screens ER110WH1 Sable Fixed Frame screen at the same time. I use an Onkyo HT-RC360 as my HT receiver and to switch inputs. The source data for my projector comes from an Xbox360, a cable TV tuner, and a sometimes a Wii. The first two output HDMI to my receiver while the Wii is limited to component video.

From a design aesthetic, I wish it were black instead of the white/grey but as it is over your head and rarely seen this isn't that important.

Setup: I couldn't have been easier to place the projector on the shelf, connect the HDMI and power cables, power it up, and be watching TV in minutes. Overall, setup was dead simple. You wouldn't have to mess with any settings out of the box if you didn't want to. I did play around with the menu, however I think I ended up changing nothing that I can remember besides calibration. Aligning the projector to my screen however has been a never ending challenge. The projector has a great range of options when it comes to placing the image and while this is one of its strengths the lens gears themselves are also one of its biggest downfalls. I can't figure out if its is caused by the plastic gear teeth or something else but it has been a bear to both get the picture aligned to my screen and for it to stay there. I'll get it right, then come back the next day and see the edges slightly off. I don't mind a little slop of and inch or so all around, but it often ends up multiple inches off the edges. Due to what turned out to be no fault of Epson, I had the projector replaced twice under warranty and all 3 projectors I have had did exactly the same thing in terms of challenges with lining up the lens to the screen. The screen is 110" diagonal at a throw distance of about 13.5 feet and well within the wide limits of this projector.

Remote/UI: Because I use a HT receiver to switch inputs, I don't use the remote for much except to turn the project on/off. It is reasonably laid out although the button for changing picture modes is labeled Color Mode and always momentarily confuses me since I don't use that setting very often. The onscreen UI is simple and effective but isn't especially well done. I've seen better on other projectors but this isn't that big a deal. If I have a complaint, it is that it takes 2 button presses to turn off the projector (one to initiate, another to confirm). I have used multiple Epson projectors around the office and this something they seem to always do. The names of the Color Modes are also a little unusual, they are Dynamic, Living Room, Natural, Cinema, and x.v.color. I'm not sure why they decided to apply what looks like marketing names to the levels but I would have appreciated more straightforward names.

Brightness: My room is relatively dark with just a french door on one wall that opens to another room. As a result I find this projector too bright on its highest setting. It sits on Natural most of the time even though the room is rarely fully dark and it works just fine. The black levels are fantastic overall. With the room fully dark and the projector on Cinema mode only my plasma TV has better blacks (and that includes my LCD TVs.)

Color: I did some very basic calibration using one of the well-known DVD calibration tools and I needed to change a few things but overall it looks great. Both XBOX360 and Cable TV look great. I'm not a huge snob when it comes to color calibration though, so your mileage may vary.

Bulb: I got approximately 2300 hours out of the lens that came with the projector before it failed. I purchased an OEM replacement and I will be satisfied with a similar lifespan although of course I hope for more.

Overall I am very happy with the quality of the project for the money. It seems somewhat marred by the one feature that sets it apart: the huge range of placement options is really appreciated, but the lens position controls seem cheap and don't always stay when set.

I mentioned that I had the projector replaced twice but it turns out that wasn't Epson's fault. Twice the project just died and wouldn't display valid HDMI; it would try a few times and finally give up and go to a blue screen. I falsely indicted the projector twice when it ultimately turned out to be the receiver. I honestly feel bad for having Epson replace it under warranty two times before I figured this out. I have to give them lots of credit for working with me and for making the warranty replacement service a delightful experience. Epson gets extra points from me for the good customer service (while Onkyo's is non-existent, but that's a different review..) On the other hand, I also know that the problem I have with the lens control is a design flaw - all three projectors had exactly the same behavior.

ProsCons
Very bright, outstanding placement options, very easy to operate day-to-dayLens adjustment imprecise, difficult to align perfectly for all resolutions

Ratings
Design4
Features4
Performance4
Color Accuracy5
Black Levels4
Value4
Overall4
 
#17 ·
high-performing budget HD projector

review by natros

I purchased the Epson 8350 as a major part of my HT upgrade in early 2011. This projector has been my primary media viewing device for 2.5 years. It's currently paired with an Onkyo TX-NR809 reciever and an LG BD570 Blu-ray player.

Setting up the projector is a breeze. Because the 8350 has an adjustable lens, you have a lot of flexibility in terms of projector placement, without sacrificing image quality. Keystone adjustment inevitably results in lost image size and accuracy, while adjusting the lens is a simple matter of rolling the horizontal and vertical adjustment knobs until the image is centered on the screen. When I bought it, the lens movement was one of the features I thought was nifty, but it's proven to be absolutely invaluable. I've moved 4 times in the last 3 years, and it's never been a problem to find a useable site for the projector. The 8350 accepts a variety of inputs, including 2HDMI ports, VGA, Component video, S-video, and Composite video. I currently use my Onkyo to manage source switching, but I used to run devices on nearly every input, and never had a problem switching between them.
Image quality seems quite good, especially for the price point. I run the projector with a use Da-Lite screen I picked up; I don't know the exact specs, but it's nothing special. The 8350 comes with several preset lamp/color modes, and I find myself switching between them regularly. The "Dynamic" mode is by far the brightest, and is intended for daytime use. This is a very bright mode, and while you'll lose a lot of subtle color detail, the ability to watch TV during the day is helpful. Very dark scenes will be washed out, so shows like "Buffy" are difficult to watch, but sports will work just fine. "Living Room" is still bright, but a less intense setting, useful around twilight or if you're watching TV while doing something else (ironing laundry, for example). The best modes are probably "Normal" or "Cinema," intended for serious viewing in low-light conditions. "Normal" provides pretty accurate color representation, while "Cinema" does the same while putting the bulb into a lower brightness mode to conserve power. These last 2 modes perform very well in low- to no-light environments, and I have little to no trouble making out details in dark movie/TV scenes.

I only recently got ahold of a good calibration disk, so I'm not an expert at gauging color accuracy. I can say that the default settings are quite good out-of-the box, and the more intensive calibration work I've done with the Spears & Munsil blu-ray has actually only resulted in moderate changes to contrast, tint, and hue. In some test patterns, some of the color channels seem as though they might be clipping, but that may well be the fault of my player rather than the projector. In any case, the projector provides a lot of controls for making adjustments, including independent adjustments of the RGBCMY channels if you choose. There are 10 memory settings for calibration adjustments, and the projector seems to remember the last-used setting for each source input, which is convenient if you don't want to constantly remember what settings went with which source.

My biggest complaint about the 8350 has to do with lamp. Although the advertised life is around 2000 hours, I got about half that. To be fair, I live in NM, a fairly dusty region, but I faithfully cleaned the filter and vents regularly, and still the bulb burned out after only about 950 hours of use (about 18 months for me). I purchased an aftermarket brand of replacement bulb, and since then I've noticed that the brightness flickers, particularly when in the ECO modes. It's mostly noticeable on menu screens and other places with lots of bright, stable backgrounds, but it's still somewhat irritating to me, and I'll probably go back to an Epson-branded replacement bulb next time.

All in all, I'm very happy with this projector. I did a lot of homework on it prior to buying it, and I've been quite pleased with its performance. I'd love to spend the big bucks on a high-end projector, but given my lifestyle, budget, and the honest constraints of my living situation, the Epson 8350 has represented $1200 very well spent.

ProsCons
good picture quality, adjustable lens, lots of connection optionslower than advertised lamp life, lamp flicker in ECO modes

Ratings
Design3
Features4
Performance2
Color Accuracy4
Black Levels2
Value0
Overall4
 
#18 ·
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350â€"After Three Years, Still a Viable Option

review by imagic

One of the best things about attending CEDIA 2013 was the opportunity to view a number of projector demos. All the projectors at the show were higher-end than my budget allows for, but I did happen to notice one thing: in general, I liked how Epson's projectors looked, especially considering the price points. The end result-I wound up buying a projector that was introduced back at CEDIA 2010-the 2D-only Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350.



My new Epson projector, on its stand, which was once a car subwoofer.

My home theater is really designed for an audience of two, with perhaps a couple of guests squeezing in on occasion. In other words, it is a sofa. For the past couple of years, I have relied on a 55-inch Vizio M550KD LCD TV I acquired because I really enjoyed watching 3D with passive glasses. Prior to the Vizio, I had a Panasonic GT30 plasma, but I found that watching 3D on it to be headache inducing at best. Of course, plasma technology-and active 3D glasses-have improved since then, and subsequent generations feature very good 3D, which I have witnessed at manufacturer line shows for Samsung and Panasonic. But for the last few years, the Vizio served as my primary display. It did a great job with 3D content, but its rendering of 2D content left something to be desired. I didn't know how much was missing until I started digging into high-end televisions over the past year, in the capacity of an AVS Forum Newsbreaker. While I already understood that deep blacks are a key component to image fidelity, I was less aware of other issues that plague LCD televisions, such as motion resolution, flashlight artifacts on edge-lit units, limitations of viewing angles, etc.

However, the solution for me was not buying another plasma-I really wanted a much larger image size than I can afford with LCD or plasma flat panels. When I first joined AVS Forum almost a decade ago, it was because I had purchased my first projector-the InFocus Screenplay 4805. It offered the tantalizing promise of full resolution DVD playback, and I quickly became interested in do-it-yourself screen building.

Fast-forward a few years and I found myself the proud owner of a pair of the 720p projectors-the Optoma HD70 DLP unit and the Sony VPL-AW15 LCD-based projector. Between the two, I wound up enjoying the Sony just little bit more. Whereas the Optoma had deeper blacks, I could see the dreaded rainbow artifacts that can be an issue with single-chip DLP projectors. Watching LCD-based projection was so much more relaxing to my eyes, but I knew that I would have to give up something-in this case, the deep blacks of DLP.

Skip to just few days ago, and I found myself pining for a new projector. I'm always on the lookout for open-box specials, and my local Best Buy served one up for me: the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350. For a cool grand, I walked out with a projector that is a bit of an anachronism in this modern world: It is 2D only. When I got it home and turned it on, it reported zero hours on the bulb, which was consistent with my impression that it had never been used-just bought and returned.

Despite the lack of 3D capability, the Epson 8350 had attributes that endeared it to me, one of which is a lens that is about as adjustable as it gets in the world of affordable projectors. It is also a well-understood projector, having been around as long as it has. In fact, when I was doing my research, one of the articles I relied on turned out to be written by the one and only Scott Wilkinson. Needless to say, his observations were totally accurate-the 8350 is a good performer, except that it is not capable of reproducing those elusive, extremely deep blacks. Instead, it does a good job of rendering details in shadows; according to most reviews, it is better in that regard than its main DLP-based competitors at this budget price point, the BenQ W1070 and Optoma HD20.

After picking up the projector, the first thing I needed was a screen-and it had to be portable because of the way my studio is set up. A quick online search turned up an Epson Duet screen, which is an 80-inch diagonal, 16:9, freestanding screen. The Duet moniker refers to the fact that it can also display 4:3 content because of the way that it folds. It is a relatively inexpensive, bright white screen that seems to perform well, and I am sitting approximately 95 inches away from it-just slightly farther than my typical viewing distance for the 55-inch TV. Now, my screen is the closest that THX recommends for 1080p viewing at home, which happens to be the screen's diagonal measurement divided by 0.84.

Unpacking and Setup

The 8350 is a relative large projector for a budget unit. Weighing a somewhat hefty 16 pounds and measuring 17.7" x 15.5" x 5.4", it is much larger than the DLP units I have owed in the past. However, size is a non-issue for me-of far greater importance was placement flexibility. The 8350 features a 2x-zoom, manual-focus Fujinon lens with manual horizontal and vertical lens shift-rare at this price point-that made setup a breeze, and the image filled my screen perfectly within just a couple of minutes of tweaking the controls.

The next step was to tweak color, brightness, and contrast for my room. I use the projector as the primary display for my DIY workstation PC, which also doubles as a home theater PC and a gaming rig. I used the AVS HD 709 material to establish basic settings for contrast, brightness, and gamma. As for color, I had to wing it since I don't currently own a colorimeter-but at least I got to wing it with Photoshop and a catalog of hundreds of thousands of photos that I have taken over the years. I know exactly what the accurate color for many of them should look like, and that formed the basis of a somewhat laborious manual calibration process.

The end result of my tweaking looked great and is based on the Natural picture-mode preset-as opposed to the Cinema preset. I had to go to the RGB controls to tweak away a slight green cast, and I actually had to reduce the overall saturation to -3. Power is set to Eco mode, while Epson Ultra White and noise reduction are both set to off. For what it is worth, I am probably going to use the auto iris for some movies, but not all. It is a bit distracting because it does not react quite fast enough to be imperceptible, but it does help with black levels.

The menus on the 8350 are perfectly clear and easy to navigate. The full-sized, backlit remote made programming simple enough, although there was an occasional lag-perhaps a second or two-registering commands. The 8350 is a basic, budget projector and as a result does not have too many bells and whistles such as frame interpolation. That is not an issue for me, since I tend to disable such features and watch video that is as close to the pure source as possible.

First, Contact

I wanted to inaugurate the new projector with a long-time favorite film, Contact. There are aspects of the Robert Zemeckis sci-fi film that look dated (check out the phones and the TVs), but the overall impact of the space-trip scenes featuring Jodie Foster were not diminished-and the opening "Power of Ten" zoom-out effect looked as good as it ever has. While the 8350 does not come anywhere near the black-level performance I recently witnessed on numerous fantastic projectors at CEDIA-as well as with this year's crop of plasma televisions-I was definitely able to enjoy what the budget Epson had to offer.

Aside from the mediocre black levels, I found little to complain about regarding my new projector. The most noticeable improvement versus my TV-aside from the awesome huge picture-is the handling of motion in movies. Properly cadenced 24p movement looks smoother than it ever did on my Vizio, and there is so much more motion resolution, it totally changed my viewing experience. I had to reconsider what I find acceptable for movie night in terms of the quality of the content.

Allow me to digress for a moment… Last spring, I performed a number comparisons between Blu-ray and several online-delivery formats. As expected, I found that Blu-ray was notably superior compared with Vudu HDX and iTunes HD 1080p, the two online-delivery formats that were consistently the best in terms of quality. Using a 55" TV, iTunes HD performed similarly to Vudu HDX. Not so when viewed on this projector-suddenly the extra bandwidth afforded to Vudu HDX became apparent. Quite a few of the iTunes movies that I had previously enjoyed on my Vizio looked hideous on the projector. I suppose this is a good thing, because it means that when the quality is there, the Epson renders it with greater fidelity-plus the fact is that defects in the signal are generally more visible on a larger screen, all other things being equal.

When it comes to online content delivery, there is still quite a bit of variation in quality from movie to movie. It does not help that iTunes cannot play back proper 24p, or that the audio is inferior. The main problem is clearly the compression itself, which was suddenly obvious in terms of visible blocking artifacts and nasty, pulsating shadow noise. Even when it comes to new releases, the quality of the compression and transfer can vary widely.

One great example of quality variation from a given provider is Life of Pi, which actually looked pristine on iTunes. This is consistent with what I found when I performed a format comparison for that movie on the Vizio. However, Star Trek: Into Darkness did not have enough bandwidth to reproduce the intense, hyper-detailed special effects served up by that movie. Whereas the limited motion resolution of the Vizio glossed over this particular limitation of streaming video, the projector laid bare the damage done by excessive compression.

In past comparisons, Vudu HDX often came closer to Blu-ray in terms of detail. For example, Wreck-It Ralph-Vudu HDX was much closer to the Blu-ray ideal when it came to reproducing details during fast moving scenes, translating to a more cinematic experience than what iTunes HD offered. Despite that, Blu-ray was always better than any online format-as a result, I am now 100% in agreement with the AVS home-theater purists who insist on Blu-ray whenever possible, especially when the image is projected. The quality difference is just too obvious, when a movie is shown on a big screen.



Viewed on the Epson, Wreck-It Ralph looked best on Blu-ray, good on Vudu HDX, mediocre on iTunes

To me, the lesson here is that for $1150 (screen included) I can enjoy image quality that will likely elude anybody who opts for a LED-backlit (or edge-lit) LCD television of a similar size-and an 80" LED-LCD TV will cost a hell of a lot more! While plasma and OLED flat panels (or curved panels, in the case of OLED) can offer superior image quality, neither technology can match the cost per inch of front projection, especially at larger sizes. Naturally, there are pricier projectors offering higher performance, but my budget is what it is-limited. And of course, I dream of owning a 4K/UHD projector one of these days, but as appealing as the new technology is-and I can see a clear difference between 1080p and 4K-Blu-ray offers tremendous value and selection while featuring quality that comes incredibly close to the movie-theater experience. As a result, it is hard to get excited about spending exponentially more money for 4K, a format that is currently very limited in terms of content availability.

Sometimes I am an early adopter, and sometimes I am a late adopter. When it comes to display technology, I am typically a late adopter. I feel good about purchasing a three-year-old model Epson that does not even support 3D. Instead, the venerable PowerLite Home Cinema 8350 does what I need it to do-and when I want to watch something in 3D, the screen folds up and the Vizio is right behind it, ready to spring back to life doing what it does best.

One of the great pleasures of shopping for this projector was how Google searches would lead right back to AVS forum. I know there are fans of each projector technology, and of course, the first thing I expect to see in the comments is the suggestion that I should have saved up some money and bought a LCOS-based unit with super-deep black levels. Well, there's always next year, and at some point I do hope to get a 4K/UHD 3D capable projector. But for now, I am once again hooked on front projection, and this time there is no going back.

ProsCons
Extremely flexible placement thanks to 2X zoom lens with shift. Accurate color, bright, quiet. 4000-hour bulb rating. Proven performer.Blacks could be deeper. No 3D support. Three year old model. Large. Auto iris is slow. Lacks fancy video processing modes such as motion smoothing.

Ratings
Design4
Features4
Performance4
Color Accuracy4
Black Levels4
Value4
Overall4
 
#19 ·
Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8350â€"After Three Years, Still a Viable Option

review by imagic
Likewise... I bought into an 8350 in July, retiring a 7 year old JVC HDiLA 56 inch rear projection. I was also slightly discouraged by the near-black level, but found a happy medium with a hard screen and Maxx Mud sprayed surface. For the price, I am happy that I now have a better and larger surface to watch movies that fits more closely with the 7.1 surround system it accompanies. There are better units, but this one fits my wallet and lives up to the hype this forum has provided.

As a note, I opted for the ceiling mount and went with the $90 cheaper universal bracket over the $230 dedicated one. The cheaper one uses a plastic joiner that lends to vibration and movement. There is a room above and anyone (person or pet) moving around up there causes a bit of screen shake. Just a heads up for those interested in saving the difference.

This is just review, in my opinion.
 
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