Epson Cinema 810 (TW700) sounds VERY nice!

Hi,

Thanks very much for the post. I live in Australia and am very interested in getting this projector. If you could post any details or a review once you've got yours that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

it got reviewed in dutch: http://www.htforum.nl/yabbse/index.php?topic=51423.0.

Basically they compare it a bit to the ax100 he reviewed the week before and it beats the ax100 by a very small margin on most points.

less noise
better blacklevels,
huge zoomlens that makes placing it almost as easy as with the ax100
awesome shaprness and depth
good scaling
crappy deinterlacing (so you need progressive scan)
way less noisy iris
iris has been improved alot

But! the margin ax100 <> tw700 is way smaller than ae900 <> tw600 in image quality

No word on the lumens tho... and that's what i want to know becase i'm gonna throw from 5m away on a screen that is 2m30cm wide and i have some ambient light.
I read somewhere that the actual lumens of the epson is higher than that of the panny (in contrast with the specs) any info on that?

Finally some reviews. I'm very interested in the 810/700 and it's great to have some information outside of Epson specification sheets. Thanks.

Unfortunately in the U.S., so far its about $1000 more than the AX-100

I may be wrong, but I thought it was OK to note where one bought their projector from. The only thing not allowed is specifics on street pricing. So, please do post if you'd like!

And, looking forward to more reviews of this projector...especially in terms of how it compares to the Panasonic and Sanyo.

I am also very interested as it is very suitable for my setup: mix usage movie/live music/HD cable (soon), rear shelf mount, living room environment with light color wall and ceiling, all windows with BOC curtains, DIY 120" 2.35 ratio screen with 1.12 gain, CIH using DIY prism, source HTPC.

There are thus far very few reviews on this projector which is very frustating.

It was officialy released last week in Singapore with a MSRP of S$3,300. One of the dealer told me that they will have samples for demo by mid of this month. According to him the improvements over the TW600 are not very significant.

My other option was the AX100E which is not yet available in Singapore. The more I read comments on the Internet about this device the less convienced I am. This model seem to have a lot of teething issues (flicker, inconsistant manufacturing quality). The AX100 design is quite a departure from the AU900 wheras the TW700 seems to be a design improvement over the the TW600 and therefore the TW700 should be less prone to failures. It also comes with a better warranty and better track record as far as reliability is concerned. Epson service in Singapore has also very good reputation.

The only issue noted thus far are the fan noise. The TW600 fan was already not a concern for me because the fan from the room aircon is far noisier.

By far, the main problem affecting the TW600 is shading. If anybody can share their experience with this on the TW700 will be helpful to finalize my decision.

I guess that the extra money you have to pay over in the US for the 820 is due to more time spent on the assembly line for better calibration of the units as it was the case for the TW600 vs. 800 at least if you trusted the ads.

Alain

Where does the 400 now available in the US fit in this line up? All the international model numbers of Epson are confusing.

Mid range:

Last year: Cinema 550 (USA) > TW520 (RoW)
This year: Cinema 400 (USA) > TW620 (RoW)

High end:

Last year: Cinema 800 (USA) > TW600 (RoW)
This year: Cinema 820 (USA) > TW700 (RoW)

all models are 720p native, mid range model have lower CR, lower lumens, less sharpness.

Epson carries also a low end 480p lineup.

Thanks Alain.

Henry

Hmm it's about the same as the tw600, it works, but not flawlessly. The panny has a good scaler/converter


ye i asked the poster on htforum.nl and he feels the epson has a higher lumens output than the panny

I am also interested in more reviews, but not sure it is worth nearly double the price of the Z5. That Australian review seems to indicate the Z5 has just as good or better picture (in terms of blacks, for example), but without the extra lumens of the Epson.

If they had put C2fine in this projector it would have been a slam dunk and justified the higher price...

Please post your impressions! I'm very interested in the TW-700 as over here in Europe it is just slightly more expensive than the AX-100 and even slightly cheaper than the Z5.

Epson seems to have position the Cinema 800/820 in USA as a product for custom installers, putting it as the only LCD alternative to LCOS and DLP on this market. It may make sense for them to sell less and charge a premium. In the rest of the world where the business for custom installation is smaller they may feel that volume sales can generate a bigger revenue and they position the price against similar specs LCD projector. This is likely why they are using two different names for rougthly the same product. Unfortunatly for them, there is the Internet and us, people sharing our opinion without borders

It would be interesting to hear from the Epson product manager on the topic LOL.

BTW, it seems that the TW700 can be mail ordered directly from Japan for very little money and still get a 2 years international warranty.

This from a Frenchman living in Singapore, working for a Japanese company and dealing with US customers... who said globalisation?

Does this unit have the required modes for an anamorphic lens. That was one of the reasons a friend wound up going with the AX-100 over the Epson 400. If this thing doesn't require a scaler for the anamorphic lens it may have found it's way onto my list. Also Alain.. can you PM me the website you are referring to please sir.

Thanks,

I am not sure. I have downloaded the user manual in French and the explainations are not very clear although they should be self explainatory if you give them a try.

The available modes are:
NORMAL: this one fills the matrix without changing the picture aspect ratiol
SQUEEZE: constraint the signal to use the full length of the panel (4:3 signals are stretched horizontaly to 16:9)
ZOOM: constraint the signal to use the full eight of the panel (crop 4:3 images top and bottom). May be this one can work. Not sure if you get the deformation needed.
CAPTION ZOOM: same than above with an offset so the caption can still appear at the botom of the screen.
LARGE: almost the same as squeeze, only different is the strech is not regular and more toward the side of the picture. Not available if keystone is used.
THROUGH: match source pixel to pixel if the source is less than 1280x720
SQUEEZE THROUGH: match source height pixel to pixel if the source is less than 1280x720, stretch the width to get 16:9 aspect ratio

Well, I am afraid you cannot do without a HTPC or an external scaller with this projector if you want to go CIH.

This is interesting about the deinterlacing. The premium priced Cinema 500
from two generations ago had the Faroudja FL2310 chip. It also had excellent
optics. power zoom and power focus but at a significantly higher price than
the competing LCD's at the time. It seems that Epson is trying to compete
more agressively with the Panasonic and Sanyo by stripping down some
of the premium features. Is it still very accurate out of the box?

out of the box:
grayscale a bit off
perfect 2.22 gamma
too much blue & red and not enough greens

but all over, the image is quite ok, maybe a bit oversaturated

My mistake: it appears that the Japan models only come with 1 year local warranty and shipment charges back to Japan at the owner's cost... not very exciting after all.

anyone bought this one yet?

How is the fan noise on this?

In terms of image sharpness, is it actually as sharp as the Z5, or somewhere between the Z5 and AX100?

Should be the same as last year's model, almost silent, practically unnoticeable in low lamp and noticeable but not bothersome in high lamp.

Still waiting for first hand reports, but according to Epson their "new lens" improves sharpness. Z5 might be tough to beat, it may be close, but it will definitely be sharper than the AX100.

Guys, I've had my TW700 for 9 days now after living with a TW600 for 7 months.
The good people at Epson replaced my old model with a brand new "NEW" 700 model after the old one's HDMI circuit went "kaputt" - I can confirm that there is more picture depth, the optics seem a little clearer (not that the old one was bad) the auto iris is much more sensitive i.e. it adjusts itself very quickly while the TW600's was quite slow. The lamp has also been improved (it's not interchangeable with the previous model). I find that I am watching allot more now in the "quiet" economy "Theatre Black 1 & 2" modes, as it has a GREAT picture, while I found the old one was a bit "grainy" in these modes. I project onto a 104 inch (2.6 metre) diag screen from 3.7 metres (12.3 feet) in a lounge room with light cream walls and white ceiling. The blacks were very good in the 600 but the 700's are better. I've chalked up about 20 hours only on my new unit while I had about 700 hours on my "old" TW600. I use HDMI only, through my HTPC and I can't wait to watch the next episode of Enterprise in HD ...... the picture quality is just "jaw-dropping" !!!
Hope this info helps.

can you try to throw an image of about 2m30 wide from about 5m for me?

Want to know if it's possible

Thanks Schuy-1, that is great news! Sounds like the new lens also enhances the blacks/contrast just as Epson said. Good to hear about the iris too. Enjoy