Official Epson Home Cinema 3020 Thread - Page 20

Not sure what you mean by a**ed...

But from other threads I have seen a few problems.

At this point cannot tell if they are having more problems than standard or less.

Rich

.

Add ss where the stars are lol.

OK still does not make sense...

It looks like your saying some people can be A**holes about the projectors??

And you imply Epson has problem free PJ??

Well I can say from having 5 units in my hands that is not so.

And their are others in other threads that have had problems as well.

Rich

*NEWBIE ALERT*.
So I read this entire thread, and just popped on a 3020 this evening. I live in Canada. The unit was on sale for $1500. But I bought the 4 year extended coverage from Future Shop. I was wondering if I should just go with the reputable epson 2 warranty. I have had both good and bad luck with extended warranties in the past. It only costed 200.00.
My other questions in regards to the projector itself are:
1) when mounting ( keeping the top of lense at top of screen). Doesn't this make the screen seem kinda squished to the ceiling? I bought a SANUS VP1-B1 ceiling mount. Which has a extender to 8 "And the picture on the box cover clearly shows a different result. I will be mounting it 14'0" from wall. Looking to get a 133" screen
2) I am setting it up in a controlled light basement. But would you recommend I paint my ceiling dark. My walls are quite dark already
3) finally ( for now) I am planning to watch a lot of HD hockey. What type of screen will display sports the best. Grey or white? What gain?
* this thread is great! Thanks to any advice in advance*
-sc

Its was intended as a reply to your post regarding the lack of people posting what problems they've had. Hence why I said either people can't be a ss ed or Epson are now making problem free PJ's
Are we on the same page now? Lol

1) It could. If you use you're screen's 8" adapter, then the PJ will have to drop from the ceiling the same distance to keep the top/top ratio. At 14' you're only going to get a 117" diagonal picture.
2) Wouldn't hurt, but I wouldn't knock myself out of doing it. The 3020 is a light cannon.
3) I'll let someone else answer this.

http://www.projectorreviews.com/epson/home-cinema-3020/screens.php
A grey screen might be beneficial for more movie watching, displaying better blacks. But at that distance and mostly watching sports, a simple 1.0 gain, white screen should be fine giving a little brighter image. Enjoy!

noticed there is some useful info on this thread related to 3020 models, and inter-related info from other current Epson models:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1427196/new-epson-home-cinema-3020-5020-and-6020-available-in-october-and-november-2012

Thanks guys. I'm thinking of painting my screen. I know there is a ton of posts for what paint works or is " best". Just wondering if anyone has a winning formula from recent experience?

In Canada you should be able to get your hands on Sico Cashmere. That's what I have on my wall and the projected image is truly great. That paint has no gloss (less than 5%). I'm just wondering what kind of image I would get if I had painted with Sico Chamois instead, which has a soft gloss (4-10%). But right now I run in Cinema eco mode, which is the dimmest setting, and the image is still plenty bright with about 500hrs on the 3020.

Yeah I can get SICO. Is there any benefit to adding a small amount of light grey metallic if mini wax ? Thanks for your advise

I'm approaching 3 years of use on my viewsonic pro8100 and am thinking of upgrading to either the 3020 or the 5020ub.

I've enjoyed the viewsonic but I have never been 100 percent happy with it.

Of course I had the issues with VB. Though that was easily solved with an outlet timer to kill the power once a day.

HB is present but varies in how noticeable it is. After 3 years I have yet to figure out a pattern. Sometimes I need to stand inches from the 100 inch screen to clearly see it. Other times its painfully obvious from as far as 10 feet.

And I never got the picture to anywhere I was 100 percent that happy with. It seems like I am constantly struggling between a bright vivid picture with wildly inconsistent color and fleshtones. Or a correct looking image color wise that is too dim even with all the lights off.

In addition I really would like to add 3d.

I'm leaning towards one of the current Epson models as a replacement.

Ideally I would like 5020. My current viewsonic is rear shelf mounted. And I am making use of both vertical and horizontal lens shift. So the 5020 is perfect for that reason alone as it has lens shift capability.

That said my room is not a darkened theater. I can kill all lights, have heavy curtains. But I have white walls and ceilings. My understanding is the 5020's black level advantage really requires a darkened space to be of use.

So I'm leaning towards the 3020 since its a thousand cheaper.

Is there anybody here who has gone from the pro8100 to the 3020 or 5020 that can comment?

I don't know bout the 8100 but you will see a significant picture quality improvement with the 5020 over the 3020 even in a not perfect room. I'd spend the extra you'll be happy you did.

It's not just that I wonder whether I will see a thousand dollars worth of improvement; 2500-2600 for the 5020 is more then I would like to spend. I was considering stretching my budget mainly because I have been spoiled by a lot of the premium features my 8100 included mainly lens shift.

I honestly feel I am not the most picky when it comes to image quality. I value brightness most and am willing to sacrifice "some" color accuracy.

Ideally I want a bright punchy image that basically looks correct from a quick inspection. And 3d is a must.

IMHO the 3020 might not be a match for your 8100 for image quality. In the under $1500 range I find I like the DLPs better. Once you get to the projectors using the UB chips it brings it up to the next level. If it were me I'd rather wait longer and afford the 5020. It is worth the difference. That price range between the 5020 and the JVCs or Sony is really the sweet spot. There is big jump from the projectors below that range and above that range not worth it for the average user. Enthusiasts and AVSers excluded:-)

I have the Epson 3010 (which is pretty much the same as the 3020) AND the VS Pro8100. I'm NO videophile expert at all but I'm very happy with both of them. Got the 3010 about 15 months ago 'cause I wanted 3D on a big screen as well. The 8100 is mounted about 18' back & the 3010 is 13 1/2' shooting to a 1.3 gain, 120" 16:9 budget Focupix (same as Favi) screen. The 8100 DOES have a higher quality picture, especially image detail but it was a $5K MSRP pj initially although I doubt that any were sold at that price. However the Epson is MUCH brighter and looked very good to ME out of the box. Plenty bright for 3D as well @ 120" and my ceiling is white too. Why not pick up a 3020 and try it if you can get along without lens shift? You can always trade up or return it if it doesn't make you smile. I think you might be happily surprised.
JMHO. Hope this helps.

Ed

That's actually one of the thoughts I had. Going with the 3020 and then if I'm not reasonably happy with as compared to the 8100 return it for a 5020.

One problem is to switch to the 3020 I'm going to have invest time, effort and money on a ceiling mount.

I may install the 3020 temporarily on my rear shelf and use a combination of jury rigging and digital keystone correction to get a temporary setup going for my evaluation.

As far as your opinion that the 3010 image quality did not match the 8100 what would say are the primary ways in which it doesn't quite match? Black level? Sharpness? My understanding is one of the key differences between the 3010/3020 and 5010/5020 is the 5010/5020 uses plastic optics as opposed to glass? Does that make it not as sharp?

I will say that despite my issues with image quality on the 8100 one thing it always was was wicked sharp. Though sometimes I feel that sharpess is offset by the hit and miss HB issues.

interesting screen, very good price. Is quality that good?

I'm very intrigued with the Focupix Flexio electric motorized projector screens:
http://www.simplylowprice.com/Focupix_Flexio_16_9_Electric_Motorized_Screen_103_p/fxo169a-100-bk.htm
is the picture quality immediately noticeably better than 3020? Hard to believe, especially seeing the Pro8100 listed at such low prices (less than $1000.00USD)

My understanding is that Viewsonic put out the 8100 as there first entry into the high end custom install home theater market.

But it seems they did not have much success so they drastically lowered the msrp making it appear that they just wanted to drop the stock.

Although people were impressed by the build quality and the sharpess at that price point the projectors were plagued by common issues.

It seems all units (or maybe almost all units you never know) have serious problems with vertical banding. It is fixed by simply attaching an outlet timer to kill the power to the projecter for an hour or two a night every night. But still its disconcerting the manufacture would not repair a problem like that.

Worse were issues with horizontal banding. Some people claim their units were HB free. But it doesn't seem like there was ever any consensus as to the pattern. There appear to be more complaints with units manufactured later in the projector's life (if not all the later manufactured ones). So if you did have HB it may have been hard to get HB free unit if you invoked your warranty.

My unit has HB but it seems to come and go. For awhile I thought mine was HB free. But it was a combination of not sitting close enough and the HB varying in how bad it was.

In addition there were lots of little quirks. The iris action was awful. It had a terrible yoyo effect. They did actually fix this with a firmware update. But even later units shipped with this bug. You would need to check this forum to know there was a fix you could apply.

I enjoyed my unit but I would never try a viewsonic home theater projector again based on those quality control issues.
Edited by Bob Benson - 3/10/13 at 9:24am

Ouch, Benq has cheap builds and now Viewsonic...

Not much left.

Rich

I wouldn't say the Viewsonic build quality was cheap. On the contrary it seemed quite high. The problem was quality control (in my opinion).

They seemed to want to make a big entry into the high end home theater market. But then when the product didn't sell they just unloaded whatever stock they had and abandoned fixing issues with the product.

I see the 5020ub has a lot of complaints about convergence. But at least Epson seems to be standing behind the product even if it takes customers a few returns to get a satisfactory unit.

Viewsonic offered a competitive warranty with the 8100, even when they reduced the msrp to unload the stock. But from postings in the 8100 thread customer service continued to deny defects and since the HB defect seemed to be present in possibly all later manufactured units getting a replacement without HB was most likely impossible.

But anyway enough about the 8100....

I'm excited about the 3020 (maybe 5020ub).

My biggest hope is that I can get a bright colorful image with pop. I'm hoping it can still provide a reasonably detailed picture in low light scenes within reason.

You can do what I did, which was wall mount my 3020. Picture here: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433899/official-epson-home-cinema-3020-thread/240#post_22769194

Thanks. That's actually exactly how I was considering doing the install.

I am beginning to see a red blotch dead center in blank scenes...

Is this the beginning of a problem with Epson like the green spots??

Rich

nice mount. I may look into that one. I've seen them advertised on Amazon, but never actually seen one mounted. I imagine the mounting bolts must be significantly long?

One thing with my room set-up, I have an air-conditioning/heating duct literally right above the projector in the ceiling, dead-center, adjacent to rear-wall. I guess I'll have to just live with it?

yeah, I'm excited to get an Epson 3020 as well. Although checking on-line there are practically none in stock almost everywhere. I really wanted the 3020e (to save running a long HDMI cable). But I may have to settle for a 3020, we'll see. This will be my first projector.

Can we use other brand 3D glasses with the Epson 3020 projector? I have multiple pair of Samsung 3D glasses I use with my LED 3D Smart TV.

Regarding the duct, I would suggest creating some sort of deflector for it, if not even closing it off completely.

Regarding the Peerless mount, yes the mounting lag screws are quite huge. I am very happy with the projector side of the mount, but if I had it to do over I might seriously look at building the arm out of 1.5" black pipe, which would be much stiffer than the arm that comes from peerless. (The pipe would thread into the projector mount).

We really need a FAQ for this thread.

See this excellent post: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1433899/official-epson-home-cinema-3020-thread/450#post_22946683. Basically, numerous brands of RF based (Bluetooth) glasses work. No brand of Infrared based glasses will work.

(And don't hesitate to use the "Search This Thread" option )

hey thanks for pointing me to this post. It hit the nail right on the head, being I'm using exactly, both, the Samsung SSG-3050GB and SSG-4100GB 3D model glasses:
http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/tv-accessories/SSG-4100GB/XC?subsubtype=3d-glasses
http://www.samsung.com/us/video/tvs-accessories/SSG-3050GB/ZA

Great to know they will work and provide additional options
Edited by WestCoastD - 3/11/13 at 12:44pm