Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 400 Discussion Thread, MSRP 1599 available now - Page 4

It will still work with them, but you have to output the signal at 720p which means the player will be doing all the scaling. It also may need to do some frame conversion to get the film source which is native 24fps/hz up to the 60fps/hz that the input accepts.

If the projector were to accept 1080p24 then you could output a pure signal from the player, let the projector handle the scaling down to 720p and no actual frame conversion is necessary.

This is what I've gathered at least, there may be a few errors in my explanation.

Gotcha! Thanks for the quick reply.

Okay -- after much deliberatin, agonizing, and hair pulling -- I just pulled the trigger on this projector.

This morning I was pretty much set on the Sanyo PLV-Z5 -- but after rediscovering this thread -- I changed my mind.

Thanks to Blazerz earlier in this thread for posting the 10% off discount code (6ZTCAXFP) applicable to orders placed at the Epson store website.

Price and warranty coupled with reasonable performance pretty much sealed the deal for me.

This will be my first front projector so I'm pretty excited. Will mount and play with for a while -- projecting on the wall for a while in order to determine which size screen to go with.

The wall will accomodate a 104" wide screen (118" diagonal) with 3" black borders. However, I'm not sure if I can/should go that large -- we'll see.

The HD-A1(X) HD-DVD both output a 1080i or 720p signal through component and HDMI and I have used 1080i to the epson with great results. I have not compared 720p to 1080i and will do so as soon as have a chance.

The Samsung Blu Ray outputs 1080 i/p and 720p so again it won't be a problem with this projector.

I believe the second generation players from toshiba will be 1080p via hdmi but only in the higher end model.

I'm not sure of the benefit of accepting a 1080p signal in a 720p projector though??

No real benefit -- just a nice "plus" I guess due to the fact that additional pull-down, processing, etc. can possibly be eliminated.

But whatever -- personally I will likely upgrade to 1080p when those projectors come down to more reasonable prices over the next few years.

For now -- I'm just excited to be in the game.

What do you guys think about the convergance on this? Are there any menu's to check it like on the AE700?

Cool. Glad to see someone used the code and it works. I too am agonizing on which pj to get. I'm going to get one within the next month but I can't make up my mind. Right now it's between the Epson 400, Panny PT-AX100 and the Sanyo PLV-Z5. I think I'm leaning to the Epson because of price. I really need 1500+ lumens because it will be in a family room. I really just need to decide whether the Panny is worth the extra 400 to 500 bucks.

It came down to those three for me too. However, it broke down like this:

AX100: Simply too expensive. If they would stop playing the Blockbuster free rental game and just knock those $300 off the price -- then this projector would become the defacto no-brainer. However, due to its limited warranty and high price -- it's out for me at least.

PLV-Z5: As of yesterday morning I had finally decided that this was the projector for me. The warranty is great, picture is supposedly great as well, lumens a little on the low side (but I'm pretty much light controlled), and the price was fair. However! -- after calling around yesterday morning -- while everybody could acknowledge that it was "supposed" to ship in October -- it may realistically end up being sometime in November -- which is cool -- but why wait when the Epson is here now?

Cinema 400: Great price. Good warranty. Good picture quality. Middle of the road lumens. Great customer satisfaction. Available now!

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I have family coming in. I still have to figure out the screen situation and can't and don't want to do that without first test projecting images -- which requires having a projector in hand.

So after giving all those points consideration -- it became clear to me that the Epson was a great match -- especially for my first projector.

I should also note that I do eventually plan on upgrading to 1080p at some point when those projectors become more reasonably priced. And for that reason the Epson's price was an even bigger factor.

Good luck with the decision!

Epson Canada just added the 400 to their site. The listed price is $1,999. You can purchase it right off the Epson site with free shipping.

Jonathan

Brian -

You made a good choice I think. I was very impressed with the Epson 400 the short amount of time that I had it. I only returned it because of the lack of HD scaling for a constant height setup.

If you want to see an AX100 in action with HD-DVD come on up to Plano I can demo it for you.

Laters,
Jeff

I'm a real newbie here. Anyway, what is lack of HD scaling and why did you feel it was important enough to spend an extra $400?

Thanks

Thanks for the update, that's great news!

I really don't want to de-rail this thread so just look in the 2.35 Constant Height section or in this section look for the Epson 400 vs AX100 thread. It will all be explained there.

Laters,
Jeff

First congratulations on joining the fp club/obsession.

A couple of quick points.

On the warranty you have the added benefit that if you have an issue
Epson sends a replacement so you are not out a projector while it is being fixed.
I would also say that this is better than "middle of the road lumens". For a true
HT projector in this price range the Ax100 and the Epson 400 provide
great flexibility with respect to brightness. From all reports they
have the potential to be substantially brighter than recent generations.

Enjoy.

I saw this as well. Epson treats us Canadians pretty well. Its anybody's
guess what the MSRP will be on the AX100 but $3999 would not surprise me with the AE1000 possibly being at $5999. Until the AE 900
dealers in my area have been very slow to discount
the Panasonic pj's

According to Panasonic.ca customer service the MSRP on the AX100 will be $2999CAD (don't ask me why it's the same as the US one). It can be pre-ordered for less through one dealer in Quebec that includes a free bulb, but you probably won't get it until late November.

But back to the 400... with it's availability on epson.ca and the fact it's shipping now I'll probably order it in the next few days. The AX100U looks like a great machine but for me it's not worth the price difference.

This is very interesting. Canadain MSRP's on Panasonics have
often been very high.


I am sure that you will be happy with the purchase. If your willing
to admit that all projectors have flaws and then allow yourself to just
sit back and enjoy its a very good time in the fp world.

Looks like Epson.ca disabled the 'Buy Now' option for the 400. I wonder if it was up by accident or if they just sold out already.

I checked the Epson Canada site around 2 p.m. EST and I could even click on the "buy now" button to get to the purchase screen. I think they are still not ready to sell in Canada.

I still think the Canadian price is still too high given the strength of the CDN $, it would make more sense if the price is $1799 and not $1999.

They also changed it to say 'estimated price'. If you click on the 810, they have an 'out of stock at Epson Store' and a 'Notify Me' message. This makes me think that it might have been a mistake.

As far as t$1,999 price, the $C has been down a bit recently, and I think they may be covering themselves. Also, I think they want to keep the price high enough that the small dealer / installers ( who I think sell the most Epson HT product in the Canadian market ) still can get some margin.

A U.S. dealer friend of mine recently sent me the dealer price list of of latest MAP $1,999 projector flavour of the month. I couldn't beilive it ... at the MAP price the dealer was making under $100 when buying qty 20! Less than a 5% discount!

Jonathan

I just paid for my 400 yesterday from a dealer in Winnipeg, and I paid Epson's "estimated" price of 1999.99. The dealer said they are landing in Vancouver tomorrow and that I should see it here sometime next week. I have owned a home 10 for 2 years and never had a single issue with it, I can't wait for the improvments the 400 is going to bring to my HT setup.

I just called my local home theatre store and they are selling the 400 for $2250 Cdn!!!

They said the $1999 Cdn price on the epson website is a mistake.

I'm hoping I can find it cheaper somewhere else.

Weird, earlier this evening the 'Buy Now' button was back, now it's gone again. Has anyone tried to order through the site yet? Did it work?

This is only a small point, but another thing I like about the Epson is that the remote control has separate on/off buttons, which will make programming macros easy on universal remote controls. I wish the website that did the Z5/AX100 comparision would do a 400/Z5 comparision. The 400/Z5 are a more similar in price point and lumens count than the Z5/AX100 are.

Art, the guy who runs Projector Reviews messaged me back the other day. I shot him an e-mail about the review for the Optoma HD70 and the Z5, he told me the review for the Z5 should be up by next weekend. I am choosing between the Z5 and the Epson 400. As it stands now, I am going with the Epson 400, unless the Z5 blows me away. I was considering the AX100, but this being my first projector, I'd rather have the excellent warranty and what I have seen in the review of the 400 is awesome. I'm pretty positive the HD70 is out of the picture for me, after reading about all the hassles people are going through with that unit.

A few days before Epson Canada put the 400 up, their price on the 550 was $1,999, then, on the 17th, the price jumped to $2,249. This shocked me because on the US site, the 400 was at the same $1,599 US price as the 550. So, I thought Epson Canada was going to try to sell the 400 for the same price as their 'new' 550 price at $2,250CDN.

This is nuts I thought, as a $400 differential between the adjusted US price and the official Canadian price would mean no Canadian would buy from this side of the border. But, then the 400 showed up at $1,999. I hope they get their act together, and that dHardy123's Hamilton dealer was mistaken.

Jonathan

I am not sure if this is still the case but when I bought my
Cinema 500 the warranty was a North American warranty
(though I bought locally). This takes away some of the
anxiety of ordering from outside the country.

Today, the Epson 400 in Canada site is now $2249 not $1999 anymore, which is rediculous.

And with North American warranty, this will make cross border shopping justified!

I have a paid invoice in my hand for $1999.99 plus tax for my 400. Do you guys think my dealer will be able to charge me the extra 250$ after the fact? will I be forced to pay or did I luck out?

No way he can force you to do anything, so it looks like you lucked out. If a charge does pop up on your credit card just inform your bank and they can dispute the amount. Whatever you do, don't go back to the dealer and sign anything.