Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 400 Discussion Thread, MSRP 1599 available now - Page 5

Did Epson store lower the price of the 400 by $100? I think it was higher just a few days ago. If you can wait, I think the best time to buy electronics is between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Sanyo already has a rebate for the Z5. Man, I hope these projectors will be $200 less in a month.

I just checked. It doesn't look like they lowered the price; However, with their 10% discount the Epson is still a little less than the Sanyo Z5 with the $200 rebate. With the Z5 in the game now, my decesion is getting harder. I'm still leaning towards the Epson because of it's higher lumens and price.

Do we have to pay tax on the Epson?

Yes, taxes still apply.

Really? I am in California, so that's like over $100 in sale tax for me. Suddenly, the Z5 is starting to look better because I can buy it from an out-of-state vendor and don't have to pay the sale tax. Another thing about the warranty -- what I have learned is that projectors are pretty fragile items and they break down more frequently than other electronics. A long warranty gives me reassurance.

Forget what I said, I thought you were referring to the Canadian site Epson.ca.

Epson will add sales tax if you live in California or Indiana.

So my projector arrived yesterday while I was at work. I didn't get home until 8pm.

It was shipped in the factory box. Fortunately it was not beat up. It was very well packed.

We pulled it out and set it up for a quick test run. I'll just make note of the first few things that jumped out at me.

The build quality seemed nice. It felt solid and well built -- not cheap and flimsy like some electronics equipment can feel.

Unfortunately my only source of non-TV based video in the house is either a PS2 or XBox. I plugged in the RCA video input and fired up both the PS2 and projector.

At the moment I'm only projecting onto the wall. The cats were going crazy over the little orbiting spheres that the PS2 displays as its startup screen. For this reason, I'll probably continue to project onto the wall for a few more weeks until the cats get used to this -- because I don't want them tearing up a brand new 118" screen.

Anyway, I threw in a few test DVDs -- obviously standard def. with a 480i signal coming from the PS2.

I tested a few 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1 DVDs to see how the projecter handled them.

4:3 was as expected. You have the option of "stretching" it as well.

16:9 I found to be interesting (maybe I was doing something wrong) -- but I had to select "Zoom" mode for the aspect ratio in order for the projector to fill the whole screen with the video -- otherwise it would project the 16:9 image as a smaller image within what would be the 16:9 viewing area. Hopefully that made sense.

2.35:1 was also interesting -- however I found that "Squeeze" mode worked best for filling as much of the 16:9 viewing area as possible.

I cycled through the various "image" modes to see how the brightness and projector noise varied -- and there was a noticeable difference between all settings in both brightness and audible noise.

Audible noise has never been a deal killer for me though (and I'm not saying one way or the other that this projector's is good or bad) -- and I have no previous projector experience to compare against. I should also note that I don't have the sound system hooked up yet -- so all of this viewing was being done in complete silence -- which is funny, because your ears can play tricks on you when you're "expecting" to hear something.

I was viewing in a completely dark room last night with the image projecting on a wall -- of which, I'm certain has a gain of less than 1.0. To me -- the brightness level of both "Theater 1" and "Theater 2" image modes seemed good. It will be interesting to see what a real screen does for both the brightness and contrast.

Anyway -- those are my initial observations.

Eventual primary viewing material / sources will eventually be XBox 360 w/HD-HDV and Nintendo Wii.

Good initial impressions, Brian. I have been wondering what happened to this thread? Although I am now leaning toward the Sanyo Z4/Z5, I still keep an eye on this projector. Keep the reviews coming guys.

This is because your dvd player thinks you have a 4:3 tv hooked up and is letter-boxing it for you. To correct this you nead to choose the approprate setting on your dvd player so that it will not letter-box (ie tell it you have a 16:9 tv), making this change will also give you a higher resolution picture, since detail is lost in the letter-boxing process.

Does anyone know if there's been an objective head-to-head comparison between the 400 and the AX100? I'm looking seriously at both of them and am aware of some of the differences, pros and cons, but I would really like to hear some unbiased opinions (if there is such a thing)! If someone can point me to a thread or link I'd really appreciate it.

Art's reviews on projectorreviews give the basic values to compare the two. In short, from my reading of them, the two are just about as bright in their brightest mode, however the ax100 is quieter in this mode. In the video calibrated modes the Panasonic is brighter. It sounds like the CR performance is comparable in best quality mode. The Panasonic has the edge with SDE due to it's MLA implementation. Everyone here says it's great, without compromising sharpness. The ax100 has a longer zoom range at 2:1 compared with the Epson at 1.5:1. The Epson has better lens shift at about 100% screen height up or down ( purely by anecdotal evidence, and the Epson manual seems to be wrong ), while the Panasonic seems to have about 60% up or down. Epson offers next day replacement ( with a referb pj ). Epson seems to be known for better customer service compared with Panasonic. The Panasonic comes with a free lamp, but the Epson is less expensive.

Just my take

Jonathan

I didn't know the AX100 comes with a free lamp. Now this looks interesting.

It does in Canada to offset a much higher price.

Greetings, a quick note, from talking with Panasonic, Smoothscreen is not part of the LCD panels themselves, but technology, in front of them. From what I gather both projectors are using the same panels (is that important?).

Here's my personal opinion, since I've been getting a lot of people emailing me, about how they compare.

Johnathan summarized well, and personally I value the Epson warranty and support, but those are issues that you all will weigh differently.

When I got the 400 in for review, I was very impressed. The 400 produced a sharper overall image than the older 550, improving it from so so to good. Pixel visibility is typical LCD, and the newer panels may be slightly better than the 550's, in this regard. Overall, the Epson projects a nice, saturated, sharp image.

When the Panny came in, I expected Epson brightness or maybe a little better based on specs, and they delivered. The Panny definitely has an edge in best modes, and the difference at max brightness gives the Panny a bigger advantage, but as I think I mentioned in the review, the panny is going to lose a decent amount of lumens iimproving the color, whereas if I recall the Epson probably gives up a little less in tweaking their bright setting, still the Panny has the advantage.

But, for me, it really was the smooth screen technology Panny employs. For almost anyone who likes to sit in the front half of a movie theater (likes the large screen, more immersion), Panny has made pixels less visible than the DLP's - perhaps half way between DLP and LCOS, yet I found its sharpness to be very typical, about the same as the Optoma HD72, Mits HC3000, and probably the Epson 400. (except the epson's more visible pixels will tend to give an impression of more sharpness, even though detail would be about the same.

That's a big tie breaker for me. Especially since I like close (11 feet and change, from a 128" diag screen) Other than initial price, warranty and support, where the Epson has the advantage, most significant things are pretty comparable but for the brightness and smooth screen.

So, I prefer the Panny, but remove the smooth screen, and it's a toss up, the difference in brightness not being great enough to make a real difference to most users. (You could say, the Panny gets an A+ in brightness while the Epson gets merely an A.)

Either projector is good enough to recommend, and there will be man people I will recommend the Epson to, the kind of folks that want an excellent projetor, but aren't interested in the subtleties, but whom will be much happier with knowing they have excellent warranty and support (and I'm a big fan over overnight replacement programs and Epson delivers for both years of the warranty. Also selling Epson projectors for a decade - much of it as one of Epson's largest online dealer's I never found any line we carried (panny, Mits, Optoma, BenQ, Sanyo, etc.), that came anywhere near Epson in product reliability - none ever came close.

So everyone figure out what's most important to you, and those of you who bought the 400, no buyers remorse, just remember how blown away you were when you fired it up when you got it. Besides, in a couple 3 years, you'll probably be plunking down another couple thousand or so, for a 1080p projector with 100,000:1 contsrast ratio.

Greetings, a quick note, from talking with Panasonic, Smoothscreen is not part of the LCD panels themselves, but technology, in front of them. From what I gather both projectors are using the same panels (is that important?).

Here's my personal opinion, since I've been getting a lot of people emailing me, about how they compare.

Johnathan summarized well, and personally I value the Epson warranty and support, but those are issues that you all will weigh differently.

When I got the 400 in for review, I was very impressed. The 400 produced a sharper overall image than the older 550, improving it from so so to good. Pixel visibility is typical LCD, and the newer panels may be slightly better than the 550's, in this regard. Overall, the Epson projects a nice, saturated, sharp image.

When the Panny came in, I expected Epson brightness or maybe a little better based on specs, and they delivered. The Panny definitely has an edge in best modes, and the difference at max brightness gives the Panny a bigger advantage, but as I think I mentioned in the review, the panny is going to lose a decent amount of lumens iimproving the color, whereas if I recall the Epson probably gives up a little less in tweaking their bright setting, still the Panny has the advantage.

But, for me, it really was the smooth screen technology Panny employs. For almost anyone who likes to sit in the front half of a movie theater (likes the large screen, more immersion), Panny has made pixels less visible than the DLP's - perhaps half way between DLP and LCOS, yet I found its sharpness to be very typical, about the same as the Optoma HD72, Mits HC3000, and probably the Epson 400. (except the epson's more visible pixels will tend to give an impression of more sharpness, even though detail would be about the same.

That's a big tie breaker for me. Especially since I like close (11 feet and change, from a 128" diag screen) Other than initial price, warranty and support, where the Epson has the advantage, most significant things are pretty comparable but for the brightness and smooth screen.

So, I prefer the Panny, but remove the smooth screen, and it's a toss up, the difference in brightness not being great enough to make a real difference to most users. (You could say, the Panny gets an A+ in brightness while the Epson gets merely an A.)

Either projector is good enough to recommend, and there will be man people I will recommend the Epson to, the kind of folks that want an excellent projetor, but aren't interested in the subtleties, but whom will be much happier with knowing they have excellent warranty and support (and I'm a big fan over overnight replacement programs and Epson delivers for both years of the warranty. Also selling Epson projectors for a decade - much of it as one of Epson's largest online dealer's I never found any line we carried (panny, Mits, Optoma, BenQ, Sanyo, etc.), that came anywhere near Epson in product reliability - none ever came close.

So everyone figure out what's most important to you, and those of you who bought the 400, no buyers remorse, just remember how blown away you were when you fired it up when you got it. Besides, in a couple 3 years, you'll probably be plunking down another couple thousand or so, for a 1080p projector with 100,000:1 contsrast ratio.


Have fun -a

Art, your are amazing...now what are you doing up at 4am?

You can't rush perfection. Art gives the best reviews on the net. The reviews on Projector Central are pretty vague and biased. His tend to be more technical and open to let you decide for yourself. His are also very descriptive and the photo comparisons are great. I'm waiting for that review myself, it's between the Epson 400 and Z5, because of the warranties.

Target now has this pj on sale for $1499, plus you can still use the 10% off coupon......that pretty much decided it for me. $1,472.17 out the door!!! Can't wait.

But on the epson site you can get it for 10% of msrp with no tax and free shipping, which works out to be less.

He does a great job. I look forward to reading his review of the Epson 400 and the Sanyo Z5. Of particular importance to me is fan noise, as I will sit about 4 feet from the projector. Also, because of a viewing distance of only 10ft, I would like to know about the SDE of these projectors as well.

Not if you live in Cali man......plus much easier to return to a Target store, earlier in the thread it says they will take a walk-in return within 90 days. That to me is worth the small price difference.

I just got off the phone with Target and recieved a $100 credit.

Is any one using a DIY screen or screen goo???

I used a piece of plastex vinyl 4x8 sheet from Menards. I think it was $12.99. You can find it by the wall paneling material. Use the textured side, not the smooth side for your screen. Works pretty well, no hot spots on the screen. Cut the sheet to a 85 and 1/3 inches, this will give you a 16:9 screen. I mounted mine on a frame that I made and made an three inch edge around the screen with molding material that I painted flat black.

The material is not stiff ,so you will have to mount it to a piece of plywood or MDF board, if you decide to frame it.

I bought this unit and was projecting on a elite home series 121 inch screen. The image was nice and sharp. But the background scenes had a lot of noise- hd, and dvd's. I was always sending 720p but tried 480p&1080i and it was always there. Tried both hdmi and componet no difference. I was wondering if anybody else using a screen this size notices any noise. By the way it's a matte white screen. I returned the projector for this reason. Did i get a bad unit?

What's the diag measurement on that screen you have? Total cost into it? Any pics?

Thanks Peter. Is your room totally light controlled? I'm wondering if I should go with a high contrast grey or white. My room can be totally dark but I will also be watching lots of HD sports.
I've been doing lots of research in the screen forums....seems to add to confusion though.

I am about to purchase the 400 but have a newbie question. The PJ is going to be hooked up to my computer, because my cable tv tuner and hd tuners are cards in the pc. The only output I have is the standard monitor RGB output. Am I going to be loosing quality using this connection to the pj instead of something like hdmi or Component Video?

You will lose virtualy no quality, that is how mine is setup right now. Just make sure to set your computer to 1280x720 60hz and it will do perfect 1:1 pixel mapping. It looks perfect to me.