The official Epson 8700UB thread - Page 94

yeah.It will wash the image out quite a bit. There are screens out there that will help with ambient light. thank you

Don't buy an epson. I did and it 's the worst mistake I made. I purchased a brand new 8700 UB and it has been sent out twice and now I'm stuck with a refurbished $2,000 piece of junk. Oh yeah by the way my lamp has less than 60 hours on it since originally purchased, what a joke. The customer service is horrible unwilling to work with you in any way. True story, Nathan Weidner

I wouldn't say the customer service is unwilling to work with you. It's the opposite for me. The quality control is awful.

an update to my saga: I still haven't received the replacement 8700UB that was supposed to be inspected prior to shipping, so I called back this morning and was told the 8700 refurbs are on backorder, which should be concerning for anyone who has an 8700 that will need future replacements since they aren't making any more of them. The 1st level agent, though, told me I could wait or just upgrade but that an upgrade has to be done through a level 2 rep and they won't open until later this morning so she put a note on my account for an upgrade and I'm calling back later today.

So hopefully for any with future 8700 problems if they really are running out of these units for replacements, your chances of getting an upgrade should be improving. I don't know what model I'd be upgraded to or if I'll run into resistance from the level 2 rep, but the level 1 rep was easy to get the upgrade out of. I'll update after I call them later today.

I'll keep that in mind. Keep me posted please.

well, upgrade was "not an option" but they are refunding me for the projector.

Clevername, why is the upgrade not an option? It is probably due to stock levels and nothing else. If you are persistent, they will probably work with you to get you something. Sometimes they may think the customer only wants a refund when actually the customer might have a preference for an upgrade. I told Level 2 I definitely wanted to stick with Epson when they offered me a refund, so they helped me find a product when I made that specific request.

Second, the fact that the 8700UB-Rs are unavailable currently may also be cyclical. I was very concerned about that same issue when I was in the middle of RMA hell with my 8700. Level 2 informed me that the stock of 8700s was depleted, but called me when more hit their shelves.

they didn't specify, but when they told me they could refund my money instead I just jumped at that. I'm tired of dealing with this and I was planning on selling whatever they gave me, anyway, so now I don't have to go through the ebay process.

we're going to reach a point with 8700 supply levels where there just aren't any good ones left after so many of us have been on the return carousel. I imagine that day is rapidly approaching, but I have no idea if it's here now or not.

I will say that the experience hasn't necessarily soured me on Epson in general. I knew this was a possibility when I ordered a refurb projector in a model that was no longer in active production. At this point, I'd still buy a projector from Epson again, but I'm very pleased with the Sony HW50 and will hopefully not be projector shopping again for years.

Also, just thowing this out there, but do you think Epson customer support is getting wind of the fact that you are planning to sell whatever refurb you receive? I know you've mentioned this plan on the thread before. Epson's motivation for giving you an upgrade will be purely in the hope that you will talk them up to your friends and say what a great company they are. I doubt they will play friendly if they sense that you might have another plan.

I doubt it, but, again, at this point I really don't care anymore.

I bought an 8700UB from a guy for $725 on craigslist. It looked great when he demo'd it for me. When I got it home the picture looked great until I used a 1080p signal. 720p looked fine. With 1080p the screen showed fine vertical blue lines evenly spaced throughout the screen. I found that the "offset" option on the RGB adjustment screen fixed my problem. I adjusted the blue offset. I don't know if this menu option is adjusting the pixel alignment, but it appears to have worked for me. This RGB menu is NOT in the service menu.

Ha! I doubt it too, but it does amaze me that they've let you get to RMA #7 without taking more affirmative action.

Does anyone know what has happened to Epson? I have two projectors and they both work flawlessly with ZERO lamp issues (Cinema 720 and 6500UB).
Did they sell the company? They used to be THE BEST period. Just wondering what has gone wrong? Been out of the game for a few months.

All these posts are scaring me!

I just ordered a refurbished 8500ub from Epson because it sounded like the best bang for the buck for my needs.

But I can still cancel my order I bet. It's a Sunday.

I do not need 3D.

But what I do like are its reported excellent black levels.
And I definitely need something with Vertical/Horizontal Lens Shift. (So that ruled out Optoma HD33, Epson 3010e)
And I like that Epson has a 2 year warranty versus 1 for most of the others.
My living room is not a huge throw - just 10' 6".
I'm mounting on the ceiling, upside down.


Others I was considering:

Panasonic AR100u: Very good projector. A little more expensive though. LIke that it has lens shift.

BenQ w1070 - Maybe this is the one I should have bought instead. It's much smaller and lighter. Easier to mount I imagine. Has 3D and lens shift.

Acer 9500BD: I was strongly considering this, but didn't like the reports of light leakage and how much noisy it makes. Also only 1 year warranty . But maybe someone here can convince me that getting the 3D is worth it and getting something newer is worth it.


Anyway, think I should switch back to one of those 3, given m needs?

I definitely do not want an RMA nightmare.

thanks for any help.

yes, how can I access it?

Was set on getting an 8700r off visual apex, but they are sold out. Now reading the recent post does not look good either. Am I better off going 8350?

If you just want to watch just sports the 8350 is fine...if you like movies it is no match for the 8700 or even the 8500 which you can buy directly from Epson clearance.

8700 vs 8500, sure it's been reviewed before but you have personal experience?

The 8700 is an amazing projector and the earlier 8500 had similar specs. Be careful, though, because you will see that many people on this thread received 8700UB-Rs with signifcant problems (usually related to lightpath or focus ring pull) from Epson's refurb pool. If you want a projector with similar contrast and performance for movies, you should also consider the 5010/20 and 6010/20, although this family of products is much brighter and also carries 3D specs.

Only problem with the newer 5010/20 and 6010/20 is that they are at least double the price. Then that always raises the question worth double and more options are available at that price point too.

I'm helping my brother get his basement setup for him, 80% TV/sports and only 20% movies. Probably going 110" or slightly larger 16:9 AT screen from Seymour.

It's NOT fully light controlled nor a batcave ;(

Sounds to me like a new 8350 might be your ticket.

Thanks. It's his first PJ and sure he will like it as he's never seen anything else.

I figured out why I was getting the vertical lines on my 8700UB. When playing a Blu-Ray disk on my Play Station 3 I had set the frame rate at 24FPS to "on". When I disabled it, the lines go away. Another thing I notice is when I turn deep color off on my PS3, frame interpolation doesn't work on the 8700UB.

I agree with some of the other posters here that Theater Black2 looks the best for movies. The THX mode picture seems a little muddy with a slight greenish tint. I have 670 hours on my blub projecting onto a 110 inch 1.0 gain screen from PI Manufacturing. I watched Star Wars Episode IV on it last night and it looked awesome on Theater Black2.

Hey all!

Been about 3 months since I posted. I was having an issue with a softball blob on my 8700. Long story short, Epson referred me to Projector Doctor, took me over 3 months to get the unit back!!!!!!!!!! Between issues of them trying to charge me for warranty work, losing my information, incorrect diagnosis, extremely poor support, I finally had enough and called Epson to MAKE them ship a unit out, why PD couldn't do that in the first place i'm not sure. Anyways lesson learned, I suggest anyone considering them just use Epson or another service instead. I'm a pretty nice and understanding guy, but PD had some of the WORST service I have ever had in my life.

So I finally got it back to today, fired it up, seems to be working OK, haven't calibrated yet. Threw in the the AVS DVD just to make sure a picture would come up and it looked fine. Then I put a Blu-ray in, and I noticed a slight green line on the right, and a blue line on the left, both vertical. Is this anything to be concerned about? I read on here someone did an offset of RGB colors, or is something else wrong? Any help would be great, i'd hate to have to lose this thing again!!

Best,

Josh

Well 2.5 years later after purchasing this unit, major problems with the bulb. Using conservative settings and adequate ventilation got under 2000 hours on the first bulb, 1000 on the second bulb. No longer under warranty and questioning wether frequent bulb replacements is worth it. Epson customer support is non existent once your warranty is over. Not looking like a good investment....

looks like u need to buy a new lamp.
don't expect epson to give u new lamps for free forever

NO lamp based digital projector is a good investment, and try getting a free bulb from another manufacturer. Customer support after the warranty expires is non-existent with any of them.
Customer support IN warranty can be like teeth pulling with quite a few, and some will outright claim it was YOUR fault to get out of the warranty.

Don't diss Epson. They are with all their faults still some of the best in that regard. Arc lamps just plain suck. You may get one that lasts 100 hours, or 5000! You just cannot know.
The only projectors that EVER lasted for years and years are CRT based, and I loved mine. But they were never very bright.

Not holding my breath, but I am hoping the LED based projectors actually WILL last at least half as long as the manufacturer's claims. My only wish is that my Epson lasts long enough
for a good 1080p LED unit that's AFFORDABLE.

Sent my 2nd unit back, now on my 3rd, we'll see how it goes!!!!

Has anyone had any luck in getting "upgraded" to a new unit or newer model?

At least one guy did.

Sigh 3rd Unit focus ring is broken, and theres a giant smug inside the lens.

Grrrrrr, see If I have any luck in getting an upgrade!

I had the identical probledm with my 8700. Epson sent me a refurbished unit within 3 days. INo problems currently. Fingers crossed.