NEW EPSON HOME CINEMA 3020, 5020 and 6020 AVAILABLE IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER 2012 - Page 22

My S. Maryland BB had 5020s up on the stock shelves a month ago even though they show unavailable now.

Can you be more specific? I'm in Aberdeen....

And all the BBs I've been to in MD, NJ and DE only ever had 3020s, and I don't see the 5020 listed online to even check stock....

Do you have to buy it from BB? You can get them from other places.

Waldorf. When I was looking at the 3020 they had a stack of 5020ub's on the overhead shelves

True, I see visualapex has them for $1399 as well.

No, of course not. But with the issue with 5020 convergence being a bit suspect quality control wise I was hoping to buy one locally rather than trusting internet ordering.

Did BB charge list? With the stupid uniform pricing policies nobody can advertise lower than list these days but BB seems to have some flexibility on pricing in store...

Edit: Found out why I couldn't find it in their system, they have stupidly given it a different number to make it harder to find. 57020
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Epson+-+PowerLite+Home+Cinema+Full+HD+3D+3LCD+Projector/6952923.p?id=1218816172909&skuId=6952923&st=epson%20projector&cp=1&lp=2

Looks like the only one close to me that has it is Owings Mills.
Edited by Kadath - 1/16/13 at 8:52am

From what I've been reading about epson's C.S. there shouldn't be much risk getting it online if you have no other option.

That's true. I've got a 720p PJ hung now while I save my pennies up so I can be patient. I've also been waiting on the first price break on it to jump in, so there is no rush. I haven't actually seen one in person yet, tho I have the Panny 8000 which is also in consideration were it not for the price difference... If anyone has a 5020 or 6020 they are willing to show off somewhere between Baltimore and Delaware I'd love a demo. As far as I can tell no vendors have them up on display near here.

I know first hand about their customer service. My projector did not work straight out of the box. Epson overnighted me a new one. Problem solved very fast.

I'm wondering if anyone could comment on how noisy their 5020/6020 fan is when viewing in ECO mode? I got my new 6020 projector one week ago today. Initially, it was setup on a table directly between a couple of recliners we have in our viewing area. It was only about 18 inches away from our heads and we never really thought much about the fan noise. Then, the projector was moved to a shelf at the back of the room about one foot directly below where it would eventually be mounted. Again, fan noise wasn't really an issue in this position. Last night I installed the mount on the ceiling and hung the projector from it (now about 4 feet from our heads). Now both my wife and I are noticing the fan noise. I wouldn't exactly say that it's loud... certainly nothing like it is when the projector is in Dynamic mode, but It's pretty distracting.

A friend has the 6010 model and he described what he hears as "just the air moving" but not the fan itself. I'm planning to drop over to his place tomorrow to do a noise comparison.

I'm wondering if maybe something shifted in the projector when I hung it upside down? Or maybe now that it's near the ceiling and back wall the sound is reflecting back to me more? Although, the mounted projector is only about 12" higher now than it was when it was on the shelf at the back of the room... Are my expectations for noise levels too high?

I'd appreciate any feedback the community may have on this issue. Could you quantify how loud your projector is?

Thanks!

It's hard to tell you what you should hear... ECO is supposed to be around 22 db, which is pretty quiet. In a quiet room I can hear mine, but watching any kind of show I can't hear it even if I try. Even during quiet scenes. Now Normal is a whole different story. Too loud for anything but sports.

BTW, you compared ECO against Dynamic. Dynamic has nothing to do with noise. Only "ECO" and "Normal" lamp modes have any effect on noise. If you're in THX and "Normal", it's going to be loud. Dynamic and "ECO" will be quiet. Dynamic and "Normal", loud.

I have had my 5020UB for about 10 days now, and have spent countless hours adjusting and evaluating whether or not I'm going to get a replacement unit. Based on my findings I have decided I will be better off having it replaced.

Here is why...

1. Focus uniformity: the focusing at the bottom left corner of the screen is horrendous! Here is a picture of what it looks like down there:


2. Convergence (LCD panel alignment, or lack thereof): this is how the projector look with zero LCD alignment performed:


3. Blooming?: I'm not sure what to call it, but when I finally get my focus as sharp as it can be using the green channel, there is quite a bit of blooming on the upper-right side of every pixel:

Note this is after doing the LCD alignment to the best of my abilities, but it doesn't matter since it does the same without it.

I know many are having focus uniformity and convergence issues, but Is anyone else experiencing this blooming I am seeing? I would expect to see some on the blue or red channel after focusing on the green channel, but not at all (or this much) on the green channel.


PS> These are iPhone pictures, so I apologize if the quality makes it hard to see what I'm trying to show. I may try to get some better ones using my DSLR later this evening.

Looks like massive flare. That's a lens problem, assuming it's focused properly. The corners of any lens are always going to have a problem, but that's pretty bad. Try focusing at 1/3 width instead of dead center. If that doesn't give you an acceptable picture then replace it.

Please remember to fill out the poll: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1445525/all-5020-6020-owners-please-help-please-answer-this-poll-in-an-attempt-to-get-a-response-from-epson/30#post_22782759

Thanks and good luck!

I spent quite a bit of time making sure it was focused, which was tricky because if I made each pixel as sharp as possible I'd get the flare, but if I made the flare go away then my pixels would be blurry. Hmmm, I wonder if that anything to do with the problem with focusing all three primary colors simultaneously...

As for the bottom-left corner, I could never get good focus there even if I tried making it my focusing target!

My Epson 5020UB is now en route back to Epson, so hopefully I will have a replacement one before the weekend. I will report on the new one as soon as I get it all hooked up.

I had three 3020's, all with really BAD alignment / flare problems. All three offered really poor focus - likely due to the limitations of the optics. I bought, less than a month ago, my new 3020. I already own a 5010 which I've had since last June. I had a bunch of problems with it . . . but figured at the good price point that I might have better luck with this year's 3020 as a second projector. I was wrong. Instead of going through the hassle with ANOTHER replacement, I decided to get my money back. The unit went back to Best Buy . . . I ended up getting from BB a great little projector that is sharp, bright and offers great color for much less.

It's great that Epson has great customer service . . . sadly, for it, it has come in handy far too many times.

Ian

Hi:

I'm very interested in the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 3020 & 3020E models. How reliable has the wireless HDMI connection function performed on the 3020e version? This is a great concept- ie. not having to physically route a very long HDMI cable from player/processor/receiver-to-projector. If the wireless HDMI function is not worth it I'll settle for a 3020 version. Hopefully there are enough users out there to be able to speak to this.

My room is on the smallish side- 10ft X 10ft X 8ft H. It's also not completely light controlled. Viewing distance would be approx. 9.0ft, trying to figure out best screen dimensions (I'm thinking 70in to 80in wide).

Considering Da-Lite screen models:
http://www.amazon.com/Da-Lite-Screens-Easy-Install-Manual-Screen/dp/B0044FTNV4/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1358978480&sr=8-6&keywords=Da-Lite+Easy+Install+Manual+with+CSR+projection+screen

or possibly:
http://www.amazon.com/Da-Lite-Tensioned-Electrol-Electric-Diagonal/dp/B00029318W/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358979121&sr=8-2&keywords=Da-Lite+Tensioned+Contour%C2%AE+Electrol%C2%AE
Edited by WestCoastD - 1/23/13 at 2:13pm

I have yet to hear a complaint about the wireless HDMI. Whether or not it's worth it is something only you can decide. Same with screen size. After you have a PJ, just project on to the wall for a few movies. Try different projected image sizes and find out what you like. Calculators and other people's opinions are meaningless; only what you like matters. One caveat: With the Epsons, you want to stay at seating distance = 1.2 x screen width or greater. if you have normal vision, you'll start to see screen door effect if you get much closer. If your vision is a little worse than 20/20, you can be closer. If you're an Eagle Eye, you may need to be as far back as 1.4 x screen width. The reason is Pixel fill. LCD PJs don't fill the entire pixel area. there's a little dead space around each pixel. This is not neccessarily a bad thing. For whatever reason, it tends to give the image a little "pop". A lot of people like that. The negative is that if you're too close, you can start to see what looks like a "screen door" in front of the image. If you like sitting very close to the screen, other PJ technologies can be a better choice.

thanks for your input, this is exactly the type of info I was looking for.

Yeah, I'm stuck with 9ft max viewing distance- literally from head-to-screen.

According to your seating distance fomula (where seating distance D = 1.2 x screen width) a 70in wide screen would place me approx. .84in back (or 7ft)? An 80in screen places me 96in back (or 8ft)? This gives me hope (at least within my room constraints). Looks like a 70in wide screen could function best in my situation, I could sit between 7ft to 8ft. My eye-sight has been dwindling these last few years, just started using eye-glasses (primarily for reading), but noticing I'm needing more-and-more for general use.

Right now I have my Pioneer Elite PDP-4280HD 42in Kuro plasma display (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Home/Plasma/PDP-4280HD) mounted to the center of the front (viewing) wall. The front edge of the display protrudes outward approx. 10in from front wall. I was considering installing a projection screen (from ceiling) such that it could be retracted in front of the plasma display when necessary. I could run two HDMI OUT's from Marantz AV8801 processor (1 HDMI OUT to plasma display, 1 HDMI OUT to projector), and have both viewing options.

While it would be nice to just remove the plasma display from the wall and project directly to a wall-mounted screen, I really hate to physically remove it. And I like the idea of having both options.

I discovered something about the problem with inverting some 5020/6020s. Some people have reported problems, which may not have been problems in some cases.

When you adjust the pixel convergence, you tell the red pixels to go up. (For instance.) When you invert the screen, up becomes down. However, the pixel alignment is still telling the red pixels to go up. Except that Up is now down, so the alignment adjustment is now telling the pixels to go exactly the wrong direction. So instead of aligning the pixels, the adjustment you had is un-aligning the pixels. Am I making sense? I tested this by not moving the projector, but changed the projection setting back to "Front" from "Front/Ceiling". Sure enough the pixels went out of alignment.

So, if you test a 50020/6020 on a bench before you ceiling mount it, and if you enable "LCD Alignment" while testing on that bench, and then you ceiling mount it, it's going to look like something moved inside because the convergence will now be horrible. The solution is to "reset" the LCD Alignment and start over.

Hopefully this information will help some people.

I've been having fairly bad problems wih ghosting on my 5020UBe. I never saw this thread until today though!

This 3D brightness setting... Which one is it? I think there was one menu, but it only had three options. Is there another place to lower the brightness?

Thanks!

Where do you experience the ghosting? Is it dark on light or light on dark? So far I'm very impressed with mine, especially coming from a first generation JVC RS40.
The only time I can detect them at all is on very dark type against a very light background, and they are pretty slight, mostly on really graphic stuff like titles.

S A M 33

Just a couple of questions about the TW9100W/ 6020/5020 operation.
1.How long from pressing the ON button should it take for the projector to display the EPSON logo on the screen. Seems to vary a bit with mine as does the fan speed/noise during the start up period. It's only the blue light that flashes.
2. I note that the Manual states that with the switch off process, the connected components should be turned off first , then the projector. (The reverse is stated for the switch on). Is there any reason for this sequence(particularly when using wireless)? I do tend to switch the projector off first, probably through habit with other projectors I have owned.

Looks like they got restocked over the weekend. Every store in MD and DE now has plenty of stock. Waiting for a check to clear then I may go grab one up in DE later this week.

I have a question on the Auto Iris on the 5020/6020

Is anyone unhappy with the speed or noise of the iris?

My last projector, an Acer, was so noisey and slow I turned it completely off within the first day or two of use.

I'll be purchasing a projector in about 2 months. I've decided on the 6020, but I'm curious about the iris.

Thanks

I keep the Iris on my 6020 in High Speed. I never hear it during a movie, even a quiet movie. In a quiet room you can hear it operate. It's fast enough that I've never noticed it operating during a movie, although I can see it operate while switching test patterns.

Regarding the screen size and the screen door effect of the EPSON, I am sitting less than 12 foot from a 92" screen and everything is OK
My vision is 20/20 and my projector is the EPSON EH-TW9000W (Epson 6010).

Also the wireless hdmi connection has been flawless and the picture has absolutely no difference between a wired hdmi connection and the wireless connection.
3D Blu Ray is also fine on the wireless connection.

Hope this help.

Are you saying that if the projector is mounted on the ceiling I should go the opposite direction when trying to align the pixels?

I don't own one of these projectors yet, but whenever I've aligned TVs/Projectors before, it's all done by sight. I move the alignment until it looks like it's in the right place. If I push left and the pixels go right, isn't it common sense to push the other way and stop when the pixels are aligned?

I find it hard to believe that people are pushing one way and the pixels go the other and then they just stop making the picture worse.

That is what I was thinking. That doesnt make sense to me and how would you ever get them setup correctly if you never see them aligned?

does ceiling mounting ruin the convergence?