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74 of 74 people found the following review helpful.
Great for movies, VERY BRIGHT - bad lag for gaming though
By R. Slaughter
I've had my epson 3010 for a few weeks now, and I believe I've reached the point where I'm familiar enough to put together a good opinion with a few backing facts.First, this thing is **BRIGHT**. As in, lights all the way up in the room, still plenty bright BRIGHT. I'm coming from another projector that's rated at 2800 lumens (optoma pro350w), and this thing blows it out of the water for brightness!For image quality - I'm not a trained critic, but it does look exceptionally good to my untrained eye. It beats my old projector in just about every way, but given that the old one is quite a but further down the entry level pricing scale, that definitely should be the case.What I can talk about is 3d. The old projector is a pro350w, and the common knowledge is that DLP is the way to go for low crosstalk 3d. And I've got to say, I've definitely never had a complaint in that department with the pro350w - But I've also got to say that if the Epson isn't matching it, the difference is low enough that I can't distinguish it. Basically, with either projector I can see very minimal crosstalk in black-on-white test screens, but I've never been able to see any hint of crosstalk in any movie I've viewed. And keep in mind, this is with a *MUCH* brighter picture, so any white imagery being "crosstalked" should be similarly more visible, but in my experience it's simply not an issue.For glasses, I've now found several options that work with this projector. Obviously the Epson glasses are one option, but they're apparently not readily available to purchase yet. Fortunately, the IR protocol follows the m-3di standard, so any glasses following that standard will work fine. There are apparently several glasses planned to follow that protocol, but the downside is only one is yet in production and even that one is very limited - the 3rd gen panasonic viera glasses. And being new, they're a bit hard to find as well. I did find a vendor with them in stock and was able to get a pair to try. I can confirm they are compatible. I found them slightly more comfortable than the stock epsons due to their light weight. However, with any active glasses, looking through them at an angle will reduce their effectiveness; the Optoma stock glasses seemed less succeptible to this than the panasonics, but it's not enough of a difference in either case to matter to me - I just grab whichever of my glasses are easiest within reach : As a note, I was also able to get the Monster Vision RF glasses (the kit with the detector and emitter packaged) using the Monster Vision's IR sensor. Also note - this projector apparently emits a HUGE amount of infared light. I could not, under any circumstances, make the glasses lose sync. Simply couldn't do it. That's the good news, but there's a down side there...Which brings us to a few points of bad news.-The IR output from 3d apparently interferes with remote functionality big-time. I didn't realize that myself, as I use an RF (URC RF20) with ir emitters stuck on the fronts of all my equipment. It wasn't impacted at all. But after hearing some other users mention that issue I tested, and yes, EVERYTHING started having trouble picking up infared remote signals when 3d was on. Obviously an easy solution there is the one I was using anyway; a remote with RF like the RF20 + RF expander or one of the logitechs that has RF (personally don't like logitech, but that's another review :-The iris is a bit noisy. In my case the projector is in its own chamber, so I really don't hear it most times, but with the cover off it is audible enough that it might be annoying to many people, so I thought it worth mentioning.-And this one might be a dealbreaker for some: LAG. Serious lag. If you're watching non-interactive video, this won't matter to you one teeny bit. But if you're gaming, it can be anywhere between a mild annoyance and completely unplayable. I measured it at its best 60ms slower than my supposedly <5ms LCD monitor, so total would theoretically be between 60-65 ms of lag. Nothing I could do would improve the number. I contacted Epson's support and was told that's functioning as designed. Epson's responses to multiple customers questioning the lag have generally been that this is "functioning as designed" - so it is unlikely to ever improve.Let's quantify that a little more, though. 60ms, what does that mean? Here's a few games I've played with it and the impact it had on those games:-Batman Arkham City: Played through the entire game, got all the riddler trophies and riddles, etc. not 100%, but most of the main stuff). Very seldom did lag impact me. On occasion I'd feel like I hit the counter button but it didn't count it, but generally not an issue at all.-Gran Turismo 5: Never noticed the lag at all.-Left 4 Dead 2: I could definitely tell at first, but after about 30 minutes I guess my brain re-learned how much to anticipate shots, and it felt fine again. I've played it probably 5 hours or so since then and haven't had an issue.-Killing Floor: Very similar story to left 4 dead 2- seemed to be an issue for a bit, then it got better.-Enemy Territory: This was an issue. Reaction times were significantly handicapped, and while that often won't matter when it's just you vs the PC, other players are quick to take advantage of it.So in short, if you're pitting your reaction times against other players, it's definitely an issue. Also, games requiring quick reaction times are an issue (I keep hearing people talk about wipeout as an example). But there are other games where the problems are less pronounced, and how much of an issue it is really comes down to what you play and at what level.
65 of 71 people found the following review helpful.
Best Budget 3D 1080p Projector with Bright and Vibrant 3D images, loaded with features and comes with free glasses !!
By Photon
First a quick background. I am not a videophile and am new to PJ world and dont have any biases for/against LCD or DLP. I am a huge 3D enthusiast and bought a latest model of a 65" Panasonic plasma 3DTV for 2K, only to be disappointed with terrible crosstalk. I also realized that you need the biggest screen size possible for truly enjoying 3D. The only other TV thats bigger than 65" was the 82" Mitsubishi DLPTV but I hated it when I saw at Frys as the image was blurry, washed out and dim. That's when I realized that I should be looking at the world of Projector's as they offer the largest screen size for a fraction of TV cost. First thing I did is to buy an inexpensive FAVI screen of size 120" which is the largest i can fit in my apartment ! I would have gone for 140" if I had the space !!! Once and for all I can put my mind at ease as I don't need to think about screen size anymore !My search eventually lead me to the latest DLP 1080p 3D Optoma HD33 which I owned for a few weeks and was very impressed with stunning cross-talk free 3D on my 120" screen. However I eventually returned it as it had some issues (such as settings getting erased, loud noise when changing from 3D to 2D, missing menu items in the C0 firmware that cant be upgraded via USB so one has to send it to Optoma, some users complaining that their remote doesn't work and only way to shut down the PJ is to pull the power cord...not good for bulb life) and I read bad reviews about Optoma's customer support which I did not want to deal with. It seems the only way you can get reliable support from Optoma is to upgrade to a more expensive Optoma HD3300 for another 320 dollars (if you need to pay state tax) which has 3 year replacement warranty, but before going that route I wanted to check out another brand new model Epson 3010 which has LCD 1080p 3D as well which comes with 2 free glasses (unlike Optoma HD33 for which you need to buy glasses separately).If you read the AVS forums you will see there are two major camps that argue which is better DLP or LCD. As each camp is biased for their own solution, I decided to find out for myself and went and got the 3010 from Best buy. Here are my impressions comparing the two after owning each of them 3-4 weeks...please note that I am not a professional reviewer and solely go by what my eyes see and so don't flame me if you don't agree with what I observed. Also I will not go into any technical details but will try to highlights my perceptions of how they differ from user experience. You can find full professional review of these and other PJs by doing a google search.1) Packaging:HD33 comes in a colorful box that shouts out its 1080p 3D and many folks including me reported that the box had a side flap that usually comes open risking loss of accessories. The 3010 comes in a well packaged black and white plain box and doesnt even mention 1080p 3D in bold letters.2) Pricing:Cant discuss exact pricing but if you do the math you will realize that Epson can be obtained for $300 less than Optoma. Here I took HD33, added a 2 year 3rd party warranty, 2 RF glasses to make it equal in high level features to Epson (which is loaded with many other extras like built-in stereo speakers, two side-by-side displays, USB photo viewer that Optoma doesn't have, better image controls similar to ones buyers are used to on TV's). So clearly Epson has a lot going for its price. So the question is what does Optoma have extra over Epson thats $300 worth ? To truly equalize warranty, one has to compare 3010 to HD3300 and the price difference quickly becomes huge (around 600 dollars)....something budget PJ buyers need to evaluate carefully..I for one can see myself getting more glasses for this price difference or invest in 3D movies or even get an extended warranty.3) Build:I really liked HD33 when I first saw it. However, 3010 is beautiful to look at, feels more sturdier in exterior casing. The HD33 has a manual lens cover that's attached to the PJ with a string...but you risk messing up the focus/zoom when you use the lens cover as they are around the lens. 3010's lens cover doesn't attach to PJ so has a risk of getting misplaced...but it doesn't mess up the zoom/focus settings as they are not near the lens.4) Noise/Sounds:HD33 has much louder fan noise even in eco mode and 3010 is much quieter in 2D mode but I heard the fan a higher level in 3D mode but still quiter than HD33. 3010 has whisper quite IRIS (some early models had loud IRIS that got fixed when they got replacements, so beware). The HD33 makes this loud noise when switching from 3D to 2D that Optoma says is perfectly normal.5) Setup:I am projecting from a table top from the side of my couch onto a 120" 1.0 gain white matt screen in my living room (no light control in my apartment) and I found 3010 was much easier to setup owing to its extra zoom, horizontal shift and lens being centered as opposed to HD33 that has lens mounted to right end. I believe 3010 gives more flexibility for people who don't want to mount the projector in a fixed sweet spot as it has Horizontal and Vertical shift and centered lens (keep in mind that any kind of digital adjustment like V/H-shift may degrade the image, but many may not notice it when viewed from the normal seating distance).6) 2D Image:When I first projected HD33, my jaw just dropped with the super sharp image and colors out of the box and i was almost in tears as I realized I can get a superb 1080p 120" image for fraction of a cost of HDTV ! I tried several movies and played some photos and there is almost 3D-like quality to the image and I finally understood what they DLP-POP people keep talking about. I was thrilled to see well defined square pixels resulting in sharp edges.Having been impressed with many of the positives mentioned above, I was very eager to see what 3010 would look like and I fired off the in built pattern that is a blue screen with a white cross hair. Out of the box, I noticed a few artifacts. First its not as sharp as HD33 even when perfectly focused and I clearly saw the RGB not converge for many pixels on the white cross hairs when I was few inches from the screen....however within a couple of feet away you wont notice this. In normal viewing I do not see any impact on image quality other than a bit of softness in the LCD image. I sampled some 2D movies such as Cars and Transformers, and I am floored by the vibrant film-like image quality of 3010. You need to see it for yourself to decide which is more important for you DLP-POP or LCD-Film like quality.After watching more 2D sources, I dont see any negative effects from not seeing the individual pixels and the color convergence has not showed up in normal watching, so I believe both these are minor issues. I loved the POP of HD33 but 3010 is no less impressive and perhaps to me it looks even better than HD33 in many respects. The skin tones on 3010 seem to be more vibrant than HD33 and 3010 gives explicit controls to change skin tone that will allow you to tune it the way you like (very important for non-videophiles like me who may prefer to tune the PJ themselves as professional calibration is out of reach for many $wise) and overall image is no less impressive than the HD33. So to my eyes both PJ's will deliver an excellent image that will blow you away. The 3010 image is significantly brighter than HD33, but it doesn't hurt my eyes as HD33 did (apparently some people like me are sensitive to DLP images and some see RBE...although I dont see any) and you can be assured that 3010 will deliver excellent image even with ambient light, something i value highly as i don't have dedicated HT room and my living room has good ambient light.In this regard 3010 has a lot of potential to be a better choice for many non-videophile customers like myself who cant dedicate room for a batcave (where all the walls, roof, floor etc are dark giving perfect light control), but crave for humongous screen size with TV like bright image for daytime viewing. Although I don't watch sports, there are many users who are very happy with 3010 for Sports viewing for which they prefer to have some ambient lights. Even though HD33 has higher native contrast than 3010 it does not have dynamic IRIS. In 2D scenes which are predominantly dark, 3010 's IRIS produces dark images that are as satisfying as those by HD33. Even in high contrast scenes which have bright objects with dark background (where IRIS is fully open and the blacks are at the mercy of native contrast of the PJ) the 3010 Blacks and Contrast to my eyes are just as good as HD33 in my non-blacked out living room because your eyes also have IRIS that constrict giving the illusion that dark regions next to bright regions look inky black....people with batcaves may be able to percieve the difference in blacks better...but most non-videophile users like me will be perfectly happy with the blacks....so unless you are a videophile, you cant tell the difference in black levels that easily.7) 3D Image:HD33 being a DLP has better response times and has superb 3D image with ZERO ghosting (at least with optoma-dlp-link glasses) in a wide variety of 3D content and the contrast with glasses ON seems much much higher than in 2D mode with inky blacks owing to higher native contrast and darker Optoma glasses...however this comes at the cost of lumens where the image is darker than in 2D mode even with a new bulb and one should expect it to get worse with lamp dimming over time.In 3D mode 3010's IRIS is disabled and the PJ is at the mercy of lesser native contrast. Also the Epson glasses are much lighter in shade. Due to these reasons, 3010 has noticeable drop in contrast and the blacks look grayer than HD33 in 3D mode. But the great thing in favor of 3010 is that its super bright even in 3D mode....much brighter than HD33. Anyone who is a 3D fan will tell you that other than cross-talk, brightness is the next biggest hurdle for 3D adoption....3010 will please you with super bright 3D image. It is worth mentioning that when i watched DriveAngry-3D, I was pleasantly surprised to see that many of the dark objects looked inky black on 3010 even tough the contrast is lower and this may be because your eyes will create an illusion of deep balcks in the presence of bright objects.DLP's are known to produce cross-talk free 3D images (only true with glasses that are properly matched to the projector, because some HD33 users complain about crosstalk with the Optoma RF glasses but none with the Optoma DLP-link glasses) and in the past LCD's were notoriously bad in this department owing to slower panels. Luckily Epson 3010 uses faster refreshing panels that virtually eliminate the cross talk. Offlate I sampled many more 3D movies (Tangled, Tron, Gaurdians) and found the ever so faint ghosting in some high contrast scenes occassionally but I am glad to report that these are minor and most people will not notice them. Also 3010 has much higher 3D brightness and the colors on 3010 are a lot more vibrant than HD33. Although I loved everything about HD33 3D image, I felt the image is very restrictive to factory setting as I did not find other settings very pleasing.Also 3010 has a lot of flexibility in image settings that encapsulate a lot of details into presets that work very well across many settings (such as gamma, color temp, tinit, color saturation etc). I found that 3D image quality on 3010 has an undeniable quality and color inspite of the lack of pop and sharpness as the HD33. Contrary to this I did not find any other settings on HD33 to my liking other than the factory settng. Some movies like Gnomio, Open season looked flat in color and very dark on HD33...on 3010 the colors were vibrant and image is a lot more satisfynmg with all the extra lumens 3010 puts out.In summary, in spite of relatively lower contrast and occasional minor ghosting, 3010 delivers awesome 3D images and there is no doubt users will enjoy it as much as HD33. Also I seem to prefer Filim-like quality with vibrant colors even in 3D mode. To me the image is a lot more consistent between 2D and 3D on 3010 as opposed to HD33 where I felt the 2D and 3D have different look. Anyway, in the end Epson has done a superb job in getting 3D to budget market and stands in its own right next to HD33. Even though the POP is missing, the 3D effect and depth is no less satisfying on 3010 and you will not be disappointed in any way.9) Lag:Some 3010 users have reported upto 60ms lag can that can get very annoying for avid gamers (compared to around 30ms lag on HD33). I did play many games but did not notice any such lag that was detrimental to my playing style where I am not much into multiplayer where trigger response is crucial. I prefer to play mostly single player or co-op where this lag didnt bother me one bit. I played Uncharted 3, Infamous, KillZone3, and the lag is ever so slightly noticable but after a few minutes you will most likely get used to it.But one thing to highlight is playing game son 120" screen is an out of the world experience as you will be seeing lifesize players and scenes and you will be drawn into the gaming world more than you can imagine (in the hind site, playing on a 65" TV seems very restrictive and I will never go back).10) Glasses:Epson 3010 uses a universal 3D standard that may allow one to get cheaper glasses down the line that work without any compatibility issues.The HD33's Optoma-DLP-link glasses are heavier than Epson glasses and both of them showed no sync loss (unlike my Panny IR glasses that lost sync very often)....whats surprised me is that even though they are IR, they did not lose lock even when I went into another room until I was completely out of sight...just like the dlp-links.Epson glasses are much lighter and one of the best fitting models I have tried across many brands. However there is a downside I noticed....all my IR remotes were malfunctioning suddenly when 3D is enabled on 3010 as it uses IR that completely clobbered my other IR remotes....so this means you need to come out of 3D mode even to change volume on your AV ! However this does not affect PS3 remotes which uses bluetooth. I also got around this issue for my Samsung 6700 bluray plaer by downloading an Iphone Remote App.Epson glasses are too big for small children, but once other brand of glasses are available that support the universal standard this problem can be easily be addressed.11) Speakers :3010 comes with built in speakers that sound very good (HD33 has no such speakers)....with these, Epson 3010 is truly portable without the need for an AV receiver and may appeal to people who are looking for a mobile HT PJ that can be moved around without being restricted to a HT room with AV. For some one who dont plan to mount this PJ in a fixed location, the speaker and brightness offer a great flexibility....I for one am looking forward to move it to my bedroom to play some late night games while lying down...or one can have a pool side party with 3D !12) Warranty:HD33 has one year limited warranty and most likely you will have to pay for shipping in case of repairs. On the contrary, 3010 has 2 year express replacement warranty where apparently Epson will send you a replacement unit within 2 business days at no cost to you. This is one of the most important aspects of making me switch to Epson as they have great reputation at keeping customers happy.In summary, I am extremely happy with Epson 3010 which is loaded with features and comes with free glasses and costs much less than its competitors in this price range (HD33 and Acer H9500BD). If you are a non-videophile with no dedicated HT room, you will find 3010 will allow you to enjoy 120" bright 1080p in your living room at a fraction of cost of the bulky and expensive 3DTV and once you have seen 3D on 120" screen, there is no going back to watching puny 6%" TV's !
39 of 43 people found the following review helpful.
Almost Perfect- a heartbreak
By Matthew L. Jones
I owned this projector for 2 weeks, and then I returned it. My bottom line- This projector was going to be used for gaming at least half of the time... and the input lag (delay from button press to seeing it on screen) was just too high. To be clear- there is no issue with "blurry image" or "slow response of pixels" that would cause fast action on its own to look bad... it's just the delay before you see a picture. This only affects high speed gaming.I measured the lag to be 78 ms higher than my laptop and an autocalibrating Rock Band Guitar (RB3, Xbox360) calibrated the lag to be 108 ms, which was 68 ms higher than my previous "sort of laggy" projector. There are a lot of people who wouldn't play with 40 ms input lag, but it never consciously bothered me. On the 3010, the 78-108 ms lag was just too high. I was always at least a little aware of it and it made certain types of games just hard to play. I wouldn't call any of them unplayable, just harder than they're supposed to be.Now that that's out of the way, MAN! WHAT A PICTURE! Others can probably give a more definitive review here, but I was very impressed with the picture. Placement was also convenient to my dedicated home theatre (it went up in the same position as my previous PJs for the same screen size) and the price was definitely right. Especially considering it comes with 2 pair of 3D Glasses.The 3D was quite good, but I think I saw a fair amount more ghosting than some other reviewers. There are apparently "early run" units and "later run" units and some people have reported improvements in iris noise, convergence, and ghosting when replacing an earlier unit with a newer one. (No word on whether lag is reduced in the new units). I hope that was the case with the ghosting/crosstalk that I saw. In most film/video content, you couldn't really see much crosstalk, but when completely different pictures were going to either eye, the ammount of crosstalk was rather high. I sit relatively close to the screen, which broadens the angles the light is coming into the glasses and this may be another reason I saw more ghosting.Other than that, I was quite happy with the 3010. If not a gamer, I think I would have been quite satisfied with this option. As a gamer, it just wouldn't do. If Epson can do anything to reduce the input lag, I would buy one again and be very happy with it.Also worth noting: The other 3D projector at this price point is the HD33. I owned one of these for a day or so, but the RainBow Effect (RBE) was too much for me and I returned it right away. Not everyone is sensitive to RBE, but be aware if you are.
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