I picked up two epson 2100 projectors at Walmart for $169.00 each. Keep a check at your local walmarts for this item. This was a great deal and great projector.
I searched it on Reddit Too many people having issues with it Like red lines and green screen etc.. is this common or it’s very strong but they ruined it ? Like Unclean environment or misuse, etc.
hey thanks for your reviews. Ive been out of touch with projectors for some times because I had a casio slim LED projector. It was rated for 20,000 hrs and it was fine but we got hit by lightning so it got fried. Now I look for projectors and I see "DLP" with less than HALF the life expectancy (4500hrs). What's the deal? Should we stick with the LED or does the DLP make a better picture? thanks.
these projector tend to have flickering problem in eco mode. You have to run it on normal mode and it will offer fantastic sharpness and image for the price. But in normal mode the fan noise is pretty loud...
Greetings Graafx, let me clarify. What I am always trying to explain is that there are different levels of performance. My point is that most folks are less demanding in terms of serious home theater performance, when viewing sports, and typical TV. These lower cost Epsons are simply better for watching sports and other things that don’t have really dark scenes, Movie viewing is massive fun too, but if you are a hard core enthusiast demanding not only great but accurate color, and other areas of performance, then ultra high contrast black levels are the “holy grail." Why don’t we, for a momen,t think TVs for a quick analogy. With TVs you can buy a typical LCD TV, or one of the newer far more expensive OLED TVs (typically 3-5 times the price for the same size). On a bright scene, say a football game, or a sitcom, the two TVs won’t look that much different. But put on a truly dark scene (not a night cityscape, with all those lights), I mean: Pretty dark scenes without any really decent sized bright areas. On those scenes, the OLED TVs look like they are worth 10x or even more, than the lower cost LCD TVs. The difference isn’t “night and day” but it’s pretty close. With projectors - same thing. With both TVs and projectors we talk about “black levels.” And as I have said many times, there’s little difference on an average or bright scene, between these HC2100 and HC2150 projectors and Epson’s almost 3 times expensive 5040UB ($2299 street) and 6040UB projectors. Those UBs have a lot more features, but the performance feature everyone who buys them is after, is the black level performance (best under $3995). So you can fully enjoy movie viewing on the HC2100 or HC2150, but you would be even more impressed on those dark scenes with a more expensive projector that does better on the very dark scenes. Millions own, and watch movies on the HC2100/2150 and competing projectors. People putting together a home theater/cave - a dedicated room, don’t need such a room for bright scenes, You don’t need a room with dark surfaces to watch football, or golf, or The View, CNN, CBS, or Fox. But, If you are a movie fanatic, you will truly appreciate the difference on very dark scenes. Today’s better home theater projectors rival or beat the typical movie theater projectors when it comes to blacks. And that Epson UB is probably the least expensive projector superior to those 6 figure, massive cinema projectors at your local 21 screen establishment. -art
I think he was referring to the Creative Frame Interpolation. I believe he referred to the "mode" not being ideal for a movie viewing setting. (for sports its fine)
planning to buy JBL3.1 sound bar and connect it to epson 2150 projector without wires, can i connect a bluetooth transmitter in 3.5 mm jack of projector and connect to sound bar via bluetooth and will there be any lag in audio while watching movies. Distance between projector and bar is approx 15 feet. Please advise of anyother options.
Would you suggest the Epson hc2100 or the Benq HT2050 for a dark basement with no windows and 100% control over lighting. Mainly used for movies and gaming.
Kyle, I typically favor the BenQ as better for movies, by virtue of it’s DLP design providing darker black levels than the Epson’s 3LCD panels can do even with the heilp of an iris. A big Epson strength is that they typically have several modes with great color, “right out of the box”, whereas that’s not true of most DLPs. But BenQ does as good a job as any, comparable to the Epson. Other than that, you get CFI for smooth motion with the Epson, not the BenQ, which is mostly best at sports. As to gaming, the Epson’s in the 35ms range if I recall, in terms of input lag. I don’t know about the 2050. I have a 2050a here, the newer version which I will have the review publishing in early/mid-April, I just won’t get a chance to look at it for a while. So, you might search the web for BenQ HT2050 input lag. As long is its around 50 or less, roughly comparable, with 50 being “acceptable, 35, being good, 17 being great, and 0 being perfect (good luck finding a 0, although there have been some over the years. Bottom line, both good projectors but different feature sets, so weigh that as well, also warranty. -art
Projector Reviews, Inc. Great, thank you for the input. Im more favouring the Epson at this point due to the extra year of warranty and also the cost of replacement bulbs is significantly less expensive. Love the reviews, keep up the great work!
I have a similar setup, (basement with full light control "Theater Room") and I went from a so so oldish DLP projector Optoma HD25e. That Optoma was an amazing projector for 4 years. But I decided to upgrade one more time before going to 4k. I went with the Epson 2150 ($699) and the difference was NIGHT AND DAY! SOOOOO much better color! I play PS4 on this epson and its amazing!! Just be sure to turn the image processing to FAST which turns the frame interpolation off which is must when gaming, then zero lag. The DLP did have a little better blacks, but honestly the COLOR and over all presentation of this Epson is so much better. i have zero regrets getting it!
Tough call, as We haven’t reviewed the GT1080 Darbee. I like the Epson for being very bright, excellent color, great warranty, etc. The Optoma though should have a bit better black level performance, possibly a bit better image processing although the Epson is pretty good. The Darbee should make for a very capable and accurate calibration, while the Epson already starts out with some very good color, which calibration will further improve. The Darbee, though will have more control over more subtle things. You’ll have to decide. -art
I’ve done some extensive research and I think I’m going to be going with the 2150 for a handful of different reasons. Going to be my first one and I’m ordering it in 2 weeks! I’ll let you know how it looks when I get it.
Thanks for the reply. hey one more question please, since i live in africa, i want to purchase a projector from the states and have it shipped, but since im working on a limited budget, my only two options are either the epson 2100 new, or the sony hw40s used, both will be about same price with the sony slightly more expensive,ofcourse i prefer the sony since it's much better. Here are my concerns, since im abroad i realyy dont want the projector to have any problms, so is it better to get the epson since its new? OR, as im thinking, is it better to get the sony since its used and thus known to be working, and since the epson is new it could have issues out of the box? making it more risky. What do you think? Also, i have a room with white walls and ceiling, but will switch off all lights for night viewing, so in such a room will i still notice the great contrast advantage of the sony? Thanks
Hi Windale, I can’t recall the last time I encountered a projector that didn’t have 3:2 pulldown available, except maybe some hand sized pico projectors. I like most enthusiasts, want to watch in the movies in their intended mode, 24fps, as 3:2 pull down and other forms of frame interpolation modify the picture from the director’s intent. In some cases, you end up with that soap opera/digital live video effect. -art
Art - not all TV's can successfully present a 24p movie without a noticeable "stutter" in the image every second or so during a panning shot - especially when the source is 60P (example: Netflix). Here's a good explanation from rtings.com "Judder created by 24 frames per second video (also called 24p) makes camera movement look stuttered, and is especially noticeable with panning shots. It is a result of a mismatch between the refresh rate of a TV panel and the frequency of 24 hz video, and can occur both over a 24p signal and when a 24p video is sent via a 60p or 60i signal. Luckily, some TVs are able to adjust themselves and play 24p movies judder-free. A few can also remove judder from 24p video sent via 60p and 60i signals. As part of our testing process, we check whether every TV can do judder-free 24p, and also judder-free 24p via 60p/60i."
HI Windale, you are correct. I generally find that the problem at 24fps can be ugly when a scene pans at a particularly slow speed. I use scenes like the 360 degree pan of the neighborhood in the opening minutes of RED. That scene tortures most projectors. (there’s an equally challenging scene in one of the Transformers movies, but for 99+% of movies I watch, I don’t ecounter a problem with 24fps. BTW, even Sony’s $25K ones, go completely crazy on that scene at 24. Epson’s too, have more problems with that scene than most. With projectors I find such scenes rare, so neither Ron nor I considered that a significant issue, relative to the soap opera effect that a CFI or 60fps 3:2 pull down brings to the party. As a result, I simply do not watch 24fps movies at 60fps. Now, I’m not a big Netflix guy, but watching more these days. I’m assuming Netflix is hitting us at 60fps even when doing movies at 24? I will take a closer look. I’m still avoiding streaming in favor of buying discs whenever possible. Last year I finally bought the first 5 seasons of Game of Thrones, on disc, instead of watching streaming like most folks that have been watching GOT since the beginning. PS I used to use the Silicon Optix test disc, which should cover that, but as most projectors I review have some pretty good processing, I haven’t been using it the past couple of years, unless I’m looking at a specific issue on a specific projector. -art
Thanks for such a thorough reply, Art My Samsung flat panel LED TV has a 120hz screen refresh rate, so my understanding is that the software in the Samsung takes what ever its given (Netflix 1080/60p) and deconstructs the actual 24fps. It then projects each of those 24 frames five times (sometimes called 5:5 pulldown, although I think it should be called 1:5 pulldown). It seems like maybe most home cinema projectors are perhaps a little behind the motion processing curve when compared to flat panels - but I don't care...I want a projector TV none the less. Thanks again !
Windale you are correct, projectors usually are well behind LCDTVs, etc. Consider, home projectors make up perhaps 0.5% of the “TV market” in the US, so about 1 projector sold for every 200 LCD TVs, etc. For that reason, the high volumes just aren’t there, so we’re slow to true 4K, just as we projector folks were slow to get 1080p, etc. In theory, some projectors could do the 5:5 you mention, after all, most home projectors (other than some 4K UHD DLP models) support 3D which typically means 120 or 144hz (think fps). Oh well, at least we’ve got it right in that “bigger is better”. -art
I picked up two epson 2100 projectors at Walmart for $169.00 each. Keep a check at your local walmarts for this item. This was a great deal and great projector.
Noicce!
WORD!!!!
i got the 2100 for 147$ ...new projector owner it was 543$ so i figured this was a deal for up to 300inch view
Woah, that was a great deal. I just saw it today at Walmart for $659.
I just got mine today at Best buy $599 super happy with mine look like my TV almost the same but just bigger
I searched it on Reddit
Too many people having issues with it
Like red lines and green screen etc.. is this common or it’s very strong but they ruined it ? Like Unclean environment or misuse, etc.
hey thanks for your reviews. Ive been out of touch with projectors for some times because I had a casio slim LED projector. It was rated for 20,000 hrs and it was fine but we got hit by lightning so it got fried. Now I look for projectors and I see "DLP" with less than HALF the life expectancy (4500hrs). What's the deal? Should we stick with the LED or does the DLP make a better picture? thanks.
these projector tend to have flickering problem in eco mode. You have to run it on normal mode and it will offer fantastic sharpness and image for the price. But in normal mode the fan noise is pretty loud...
I have the 2100 .Have Apple TV 4K hooked up to it .Crazy. Amazing .4k content on you tube like watching a 120 inch TV
Enjoy! but it sounds like you already are. Thanks for taking the time to post your thoughts! -art
Thanks for sharing feedback with our other readers! Enjoy. -art
Does Epson 1060 image quality as good as 2150?
why wouldn't you recommend this for movie watching? I want to get a epson for home movie watching if not this model which should I get?
Greetings Graafx, let me clarify.
What I am always trying to explain is that there are different levels of performance. My point is that most folks are less demanding in terms of serious home theater performance, when viewing sports, and typical TV. These lower cost Epsons are simply better for watching sports and other things that don’t have really dark scenes, Movie viewing is massive fun too, but if you are a hard core enthusiast demanding not only great but accurate color, and other areas of performance, then ultra high contrast black levels are the “holy grail."
Why don’t we, for a momen,t think TVs for a quick analogy. With TVs you can buy a typical LCD TV, or one of the newer far more expensive OLED TVs (typically 3-5 times the price for the same size).
On a bright scene, say a football game, or a sitcom, the two TVs won’t look that much different. But put on a truly dark scene (not a night cityscape, with all those lights), I mean: Pretty dark scenes without any really decent sized bright areas. On those scenes, the OLED TVs look like they are worth 10x or even more, than the lower cost LCD TVs. The difference isn’t “night and day” but it’s pretty close.
With projectors - same thing. With both TVs and projectors we talk about “black levels.” And as I have said many times, there’s little difference on an average or bright scene, between these HC2100 and HC2150 projectors and Epson’s almost 3 times expensive 5040UB ($2299 street) and 6040UB projectors. Those UBs have a lot more features, but the performance feature everyone who buys them is after, is the black level performance (best under $3995).
So you can fully enjoy movie viewing on the HC2100 or HC2150, but you would be even more impressed on those dark scenes with a more expensive projector that does better on the very dark scenes. Millions own, and watch movies on the HC2100/2150 and competing projectors.
People putting together a home theater/cave - a dedicated room, don’t need such a room for bright scenes, You don’t need a room with dark surfaces to watch football, or golf, or The View, CNN, CBS, or Fox. But, If you are a movie fanatic, you will truly appreciate the difference on very dark scenes. Today’s better home theater projectors rival or beat the typical movie theater projectors when it comes to blacks. And that Epson UB is probably the least expensive projector superior to those 6 figure, massive cinema projectors at your local 21 screen establishment. -art
i got the 2150 and i love it for movie watching
I think he was referring to the Creative Frame Interpolation. I believe he referred to the "mode" not being ideal for a movie viewing setting. (for sports its fine)
planning to buy JBL3.1 sound bar and connect it to epson 2150 projector without wires, can i connect a bluetooth transmitter in 3.5 mm jack of projector and connect to sound bar via bluetooth and will there be any lag in audio while watching movies. Distance between projector and bar is approx 15 feet. Please advise of anyother options.
Would you suggest the Epson hc2100 or the Benq HT2050 for a dark basement with no windows and 100% control over lighting. Mainly used for movies and gaming.
Kyle, I typically favor the BenQ as better for movies, by virtue of it’s DLP design providing darker black levels than the Epson’s 3LCD panels can do even with the heilp of an iris. A big Epson strength is that they typically have several modes with great color, “right out of the box”, whereas that’s not true of most DLPs. But BenQ does as good a job as any, comparable to the Epson. Other than that, you get CFI for smooth motion with the Epson, not the BenQ, which is mostly best at sports. As to gaming, the Epson’s in the 35ms range if I recall, in terms of input lag. I don’t know about the 2050. I have a 2050a here, the newer version which I will have the review publishing in early/mid-April, I just won’t get a chance to look at it for a while. So, you might search the web for BenQ HT2050 input lag. As long is its around 50 or less, roughly comparable, with 50 being “acceptable, 35, being good, 17 being great, and 0 being perfect (good luck finding a 0, although there have been some over the years.
Bottom line, both good projectors but different feature sets, so weigh that as well, also warranty. -art
Projector Reviews, Inc. Great, thank you for the input. Im more favouring the Epson at this point due to the extra year of warranty and also the cost of replacement bulbs is significantly less expensive. Love the reviews, keep up the great work!
I have a similar setup, (basement with full light control "Theater Room") and I went from a so so oldish DLP projector Optoma HD25e. That Optoma was an amazing projector for 4 years. But I decided to upgrade one more time before going to 4k. I went with the Epson 2150 ($699) and the difference was NIGHT AND DAY! SOOOOO much better color! I play PS4 on this epson and its amazing!! Just be sure to turn the image processing to FAST which turns the frame interpolation off which is must when gaming, then zero lag. The DLP did have a little better blacks, but honestly the COLOR and over all presentation of this Epson is so much better. i have zero regrets getting it!
Jon, thanks for the feedback. Good stuff. Have a blast! -art
On the fence on this one but you have convinced me good sir. gave a like and subscribed, thank you for your help.
Thanks Martin, Enjoy it, and, if you get a chance, come on back and tell our other readers how your experience is. -art
Hi, between this projectors and the optoma gt1080 darbee which one would you recommend me??
Tough call, as We haven’t reviewed the GT1080 Darbee. I like the Epson for being very bright, excellent color, great warranty, etc. The Optoma though should have a bit better black level performance, possibly a bit better image processing although the Epson is pretty good. The Darbee should make for a very capable and accurate calibration, while the Epson already starts out with some very good color, which calibration will further improve. The Darbee, though will have more control over more subtle things. You’ll have to decide. -art
I’ve done some extensive research and I think I’m going to be going with the 2150 for a handful of different reasons. Going to be my first one and I’m ordering it in 2 weeks! I’ll let you know how it looks when I get it.
The darbee doesn’t have a zoom or keystone correction or anything like that. So you have to put it in just the right spot with no room for adjustments
hey, hope you are in good health. Any idea what the u.k equivalents of the 2100 and the 2150 are? Thanks
Greetings Sahil. I’m pretty certain that the HC2100 is the EH-TW5600 in the UK, and the HC2150 should therefore be the EH-TW5650. -art
Thanks for the reply. hey one more question please, since i live in africa, i want to purchase a projector from the states and have it shipped, but since im working on a limited budget, my only two options are either the epson 2100 new, or the sony hw40s used, both will be about same price with the sony slightly more expensive,ofcourse i prefer the sony since it's much better. Here are my concerns, since im abroad i realyy dont want the projector to have any problms, so is it better to get the epson since its new? OR, as im thinking, is it better to get the sony since its used and thus known to be working, and since the epson is new it could have issues out of the box? making it more risky. What do you think?
Also, i have a room with white walls and ceiling, but will switch off all lights for night viewing, so in such a room will i still notice the great contrast advantage of the sony?
Thanks
Hey Art - how about 3:2 pulldown ? If I'm watching a Netflix movie (24p) am I going to see annoying judder in the cadence ? Thanks, Steve
Hi Windale, I can’t recall the last time I encountered a projector that didn’t have 3:2 pulldown available, except maybe some hand sized pico projectors. I like most enthusiasts, want to watch in the movies in their intended mode, 24fps, as 3:2 pull down and other forms of frame interpolation modify the picture from the director’s intent. In some cases, you end up with that soap opera/digital live video effect. -art
Art - not all TV's can successfully present a 24p movie without a noticeable "stutter" in the image every second or so during a panning shot - especially when the source is 60P (example: Netflix).
Here's a good explanation from rtings.com
"Judder created by 24 frames per second video (also called 24p) makes camera movement look stuttered, and is especially noticeable with panning shots. It is a result of a mismatch between the refresh rate of a TV panel and the frequency of 24 hz video, and can occur both over a 24p signal and when a 24p video is sent via a 60p or 60i signal.
Luckily, some TVs are able to adjust themselves and play 24p movies judder-free. A few can also remove judder from 24p video sent via 60p and 60i signals. As part of our testing process, we check whether every TV can do judder-free 24p, and also judder-free 24p via 60p/60i."
HI Windale, you are correct. I generally find that the problem at 24fps can be ugly when a scene pans at a particularly slow speed. I use scenes like the 360 degree pan of the neighborhood in the opening minutes of RED. That scene tortures most projectors. (there’s an equally challenging scene in one of the Transformers movies, but for 99+% of movies I watch, I don’t ecounter a problem with 24fps. BTW, even Sony’s $25K ones, go completely crazy on that scene at 24.
Epson’s too, have more problems with that scene than most. With projectors I find such scenes rare, so neither Ron nor I considered that a significant issue, relative to the soap opera effect that a CFI or 60fps 3:2 pull down brings to the party. As a result, I simply do not watch 24fps movies at 60fps. Now, I’m not a big Netflix guy, but watching more these days. I’m assuming Netflix is hitting us at 60fps even when doing movies at 24? I will take a closer look. I’m still avoiding streaming in favor of buying discs whenever possible. Last year I finally bought the first 5 seasons of Game of Thrones, on disc, instead of watching streaming like most folks that have been watching GOT since the beginning. PS I used to use the Silicon Optix test disc, which should cover that, but as most projectors I review have some pretty good processing, I haven’t been using it the past couple of years, unless I’m looking at a specific issue on a specific projector. -art
Thanks for such a thorough reply, Art
My Samsung flat panel LED TV has a 120hz screen refresh rate, so my understanding is that the software in the Samsung takes what ever its given (Netflix 1080/60p) and deconstructs the actual 24fps. It then projects each of those 24 frames five times (sometimes called 5:5 pulldown, although I think it should be called 1:5 pulldown). It seems like maybe most home cinema projectors are perhaps a little behind the motion processing curve when compared to flat panels - but I don't care...I want a projector TV none the less.
Thanks again !
Windale you are correct, projectors usually are well behind LCDTVs, etc. Consider, home projectors make up perhaps 0.5% of the “TV market” in the US, so about 1 projector sold for every 200 LCD TVs, etc. For that reason, the high volumes just aren’t there, so we’re slow to true 4K, just as we projector folks were slow to get 1080p, etc. In theory, some projectors could do the 5:5 you mention, after all, most home projectors (other than some 4K UHD DLP models) support 3D which typically means 120 or 144hz (think fps). Oh well, at least we’ve got it right in that “bigger is better”. -art