Epson's new PowerLite Home Cinema 400 LCD projector

It's just a 720p unit, but Epson managed to pack some serious punch into this new PowerLite Cinema 400 LCD projector of theirs. For $1,600 the home theater unit can push a 5000:1 contrast ratio and 1,500 lumens in a convenient 16:9 widescreen format. The 3 LCD unit also includes HDMI connectivity, along with a few Epson niceties such as Epson Cinema filters and Dynamic Eye Iris to adjust the picture for optimum viewing. The Home Cinema 400 should be out mid-September, fully prepared with those lumens and that contrast ratio to earn back a little bit of cred from the DLP crowd.

[Via AboutProjectors]

[oven @ Aug 28th 2006 6:12PM]

they are still making new lcd projectors?

[hmurchison @ Aug 28th 2006 6:25PM]

That's a good price. Infocus wants to charge me $3000 before I get a 720p Projector. Looking forward to the reviews of this product.

[Franssu @ Aug 28th 2006 7:45PM]

Yes oven, they still make new LCD projectors. With the dynamic iris stuff, the difference in black levels with DLPs becomes less relevant, and the colors are usually much better on a LCD.

Myself being sensible to the infamous rainbow effect, I can't have a DLP. I'm really happy with my LCD projector, even if its blacks aren't up to snuff (it's 2 years old).

Basically, with the LCDs becoming better and better (the models from panasonic are simply awesome), the trend is this: for the lower-end, people can choose between LCD snd single-chip DLP, and for the high-end ($6000+), between triple-chip DLPs and LCOs-based (D-ILA or SXRD) technologies.

[Luke @ Aug 28th 2006 8:03PM]

Epson not only invented the LCD and 3LCD Projector, Epson leads both America and the World in projector sales by a large margin.

I just saw a pre-production demo of this puppy at an Epson event. Compared to the infocus version (I forget the model number) it looked great. I think the infocus one costs twice as much too. Epson's new duet foldable screen is really cool as well.

[Bob Kelsoe @ Aug 28th 2006 10:21PM]

Saw this at an Epson employee meeting event thing. Really nice contrasts. They had the infocus next to it to compare, they ran these screensavers that had these little white bubbles that bounced around the screen, the infocus was rainbowing like crazy whilst the epson never faltered. Nice projector, thinking of going for it as it performs just as well as its higher end brothers that are many times its price.

[Lou Fattorusso @ Aug 28th 2006 11:16PM]

I own one...it is an awesome projector...definitely recommend it

[GhostDoggy @ Aug 29th 2006 6:02AM]

Contrast is dynamic, of course, and any dark scene will reflect the native contrast easily. Question now comes how easy and annoying will that dynamic iris present itself?

[mc3dkid @ Aug 29th 2006 12:21PM]

I have an Epson projector that I bought two years ago. I had to return it to Epson four times and it still has the same crappy visual issues. Recently my Epson printer that I have barely used died. My take, Epson equals poor quality control. Wouldn't ever buy anything from them again.