100% agree. The funny thing is the comparison video was a blind test to me as I missed where they said which side was which projector.... and the whole time I was thinking that the left side was better... turned out it was the 5050.... which might well be true. The problem is I just don't trust video and audio on quality coming from you tube. it needs to be compared in person. So at that point all you can do is trust what the person comparing is seeing.

As far as specs go I have often bought and paid extra for specs and many times been disappointed. Sometimes specs are just not that obvious in the real world.

To make things even more unclear for myself I have been offered a used 6040 at half the price of a 6050. It's difficult to decide if a 6050 is worth that extra money.

I presently have the Epson 5020Ub. When I watch 3D movies using this projector, I wear the authentic Epson brand 3D eyeglasses which were recommended by Epson. Does anyone know if the 3D glasses which function so well with the 5020 can be used with the 6050 or 5050 ? Thanks for any advice.

I would agree that trying to use any videos posted anywhere or any pictures posted anywhere it's probably not the best way to decide which projector is the best one for you and your room conditions. I had the 5050 for about a month and I thought it was really good for HDR SDR. I think the 6050 does have perceived better contrast slightly better black level and more detail and Sharper Image. I did not have them in a side-by-side in a blind test. When we attended the event in New York City for the unveiling of the Epson 6050 Rodrigo Catalan the North American Senior product manager for Epson said they take the better Optical lens for the 6050 and that is how they achieve the better contrast.

So Epson gave the 6050 a totally different lens than the 5050?

The way that Rodrigo explained it is that they do a quality control check on all the Optical lenses and the best ones are diverted to the 6050 they are the ones that are capable of producing that 1.2 million to 1 contrast ratio or better. I would say that it is possible however unlikely that's some of the higher quality lenses might by accident make their way into the occasional 5050 but every 6050 should have the better lens.

If their quality control on parts is that bad for the remainder (5050) they have bigger problems than the difference between the projectors. Over the years Pioneer Elite and Sony upper end products did sound better. They had to in the minds of those that payed the higher price. I watched the comparison video and depending on the scene, I bounced back and forth as to which is better. And, not enough to pay the difference when both are the HDMI 2.0a..... and 2.1 is coming out shortly. Peace.

Bit the bullet and getting the 5050 tomorrow at my door. Will leave my 5040 mounted and then A/B and see if I can get 4k 60 out of my XBox One X. Had a Linker that caused me fits until I took it out.


I'll report back in a few days whether it is a big improvement, or it is going back to Amazon. Had to perform too many feats of magic on the 5040 to make all the sources operate correctly and look like I wanted them to after calibration.

Thanks for stopping by to give your two cents. I would say watching a video to compare projectors is like watching other people drive cars and you basing which one you're going to buy on the video you watched of two people driving two different cars . Probably not the best idea for anything but certainly not for video projectors or for cars . Pioneer Elite some of the products are really good other ones not so great. Sony has had such bad panel degradation in their projectors that they barely last two to three years. Sony hasn't even acknowledged issue because they don't really care about their customers from what I have observed. Ask any projector calibrators in the business and they'll tell you they don't even want to bother calibrating a Sony anymore cuz it's a waste of time and money. So not really sure what products from Sony you're talkin about seems like you're referring to their audio products which for decades Sony has been one of the biggest brands out there but not really part of the audiophile world because true audiophiles don't believe in paying for a big box brand name. Not sure what you're referring to in terms of epsons Quality Control process. There is always going to be a better diamond it doesn't mean that the other diamonds don't shine it's generally true you get what you pay for. Once again thanks for stopping by to give your two cents

I will give my two cents after looking at them (5040 and 5050) by myself. I was talking about Sony audio though. I've been through Krell to receivers for my bedroom. Good enough to satisfy the function. Those are all the same lenses for both projectors though. They just sort the better ones to the 6050. How much better is the million dollar question. Interesting that they post more HDR modes for the 5050 than 6050. So, you never know until you sit in your chair and watch. For the record, this is my second 5040 as the first had dust on one of the panels and Epson said send it back.

Once some more people have seen the 5050 and the 6050 it will be interesting to hear other people's opinions I look forward to hearing yours thanks again have a great day

I watched the video and I can see why you might think the 5050 on the left had a better picture and why many people might say that. I think picture quality is very subjective, especially when you’re talking about a high definition picture to begin with.

On this forum there are many knowledgeable people who are really into AV/ Home Theater and understand what is supposed to be a good picture by judging shadows, skin tones and color and that’s where the calibration talk comes in; however, I think many people who aren’t looking for certain tell tail signs might pick a picture that enthusiasts would consider the inferior picture because it’s brighter and more vivid.

I somewhat fall into that category because when a picture is not side by side to compare, if the picture is great then I’m happy and not looking for absolute perfection. This is what has allowed me to by an Epson shifter opposed to a native 4K.

It was easier for me to pick the 6050 because I wanted a black projector, I needed a new mount because my mount for the 5010 is white and probably won’t work on the 6050, the extra lamp and the extra year warranty with 2 DAY Replacement. All of that factored in really doesn’t make the 6050 that much more expensive. The price increase just for the contrast increase is not justified in my mind.

I greatly admire your honesty. Most consumers prefer the brighter image that has more color saturation. That is why big box stores oversaturate the color and turn up the brightness on store displays. I have learned to appreciate a properly calibrated display for the more subtle elements such as black color detail and spectral highlights and better contrast which reveals more detail in the picture. But sometimes turn up the brightness to wow a guest because that is how they think HDR should look. I enjoy it but I can notice the black crush lack of shadow detail and spectral highlights. Most people never care about those things as long as the picture is bright and colors pop.

In the video it seems obvious to that the left side screen is darker and crisper. (See the "play movie" at the menu). Hopefully I'm getting my point across. The brighter screen is on the right but to me looks washed out. Am I crazy? Anyone agree?

What are the recommendations for a 25-30' HDMI cable to run from my receiver to the Epson 6050UB projector? I probably want to run an Ultra High Speed?

As long as your 3D glasses are RF and not infrared, I believe they should work with the 5050/6050.

The only recommendation I can give is a Fibre HDMI cable that you can easily get from Amazon. You don’t need to spend anything more than $40-50.

It looks like it. Thankfully our TW9400 here is the 6050 there because what I'm seeing is the lens is way better than the previous 9300 I had here.

PLEASE! I have a 6040 and Xbox One X right now w/ a Linker and am really trying to figure out if a 5050 will play nicer. Wondering how many checkboxes you get with the Xbox One X. Look forward to hearing your report!

What are you using the Linker for?

These are the 3D glasses I am using with the Epson:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I also have (2) pairs of the Sony Bluetooth glasses that came with the Sony XBR65x950B that I have. Either brand works with either display but the new Sintron's I got look slightly better to me than the Sony's on both displays.

I have had 3 DLP (3D) capable projectors with the Optoma 3D glasses as comparison, even though the Epson has some Crosstalk (not much), the brightness and color accuracy allow for a more enjoyable 3d picture. all of my 3d is in ISO format from a Popcorn Hour VTEN for playback.

Has anyone else found it hard to see any extra detail with this projector over a 1080p one? I'm comparing it against my aging Panasonic PT-AE8000U, which (some) people even consider to be "soft". The difference in 4K was easily distinguishable when I had the JVC LX-UH1 and BenQ HT5550 here.

Yes, I know DLP is inherently sharper and these were both 4x shifters, vs the 2x shifting 5050UB, but it's hard to believe I can barely see any detail increase with The Martian & COCO at all, while both easily showed it on the DLPs. Playing the 4K disc thru the Oppo UDP-203 straight to the 5050UB, whilst the HD disc is playing in a PS3 through a receiver and on to my PT-AE8000.

The projector is at factory settings for all the 4K stuff. Which settings should I confirm to make sure it's doing its pixel shifting? I already confirmed that the projector was receiving a 3840 x 2160 signal from the Oppo with BT.2020 etc.

Screen is 105" and seated at 9.5 ft, could clearly see the difference with the DLP projectors before.

Is there a guide somewhere on how to best do the panel alignment? Just want to make sure I'm testing this thing at its very sharpest.

If you play a 4K HDR blu ray through the XBox One X on the 5040 it's fine. But it's the gaming that's the problem. So I'm basically taking the signal and turning it into a 4K some flavour of HDR that the 5040 can rock with. I think the projector basically doesn't like the 4K 60ftp HDR signal because it's 10 bit? So I'm downgrading to 8bit?

I dunno, it's something like that. But honestly I'm still a bit of a n00b on 4:4:4, 4:4:2... All those specs are still very greek to me but I know there's some concrete info in the 5040 owners thread on the subject.

Hi All,

I've got a (hopefully) quick question about the 5050UB regarding Opti-Hdmi. I have not been able to find the answer with searches or from the manual. I see the Epson has a 300mW USB port for Opti-Hdmi, however the "slim run" fiber optic Opti-Hdmi cables I look at (Amazon, Monoprice, etc.) do not seem to have an attachment for the external power. I guess my question is what is the 300mW USB port on the Epson 5050 for, and is it necessary for Opti-Hdmi or do some cables not require the auxiliary power? I also assume Opti-HDMI cables attach at the normal HDMI 1/2 ports.

Been out of the HT world for a little bit but with a new home comes a new HT and I am very excited to be upgrading receiver/HDMI/Projector to 4K/18Gbps standards (currently have 6500UB). The 5050UB is what I will likely end up with. Need to tune up my knowledge on some things!

Thanks!

Some fiber optic HDMI cables may require power hence the USB port that supports that function. Most Fiber Optic HDMI cables do not require any more power than what is already being provided but the HDMI port connection. HDMI 1 and HDMI 2 are identical on the 5050 and should work with any Fiber Optic HDMI cable. Just make sure you get one that supports 4K/60FPS 18GBPS.

Perfect, thanks - that is exactly what I needed to know. I will definitely be getting 18GBps cables and I know to make sure everything else in the chain is compatible with HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2, etc. Other than the new HDMI standards and HDCP, everything seems to be pretty much the same as where I left off, including with Epson still offering phenomenal bang for the buck products

I'm interested to see how you make out once you do panel alignment. I've just ordered a 6050 and sit that close to a 100" screen, and I've got a little fear of missing out on something sharper.

I'm coming from a Sony 40es - anyone else have any experience with both that and the 5050/6050?

Yeah as @skylarlove1999 said. Normal Opti-HDMI cable doesn’t require any additional power and works fine with quick handshake.

I asked this in the 5040/6040 thread too. Not sure if they differ. Anyone know how big a picture I can get from the 6040 with 10 feet of throw? Thx