Presentation of the Epson EH-LS10000
The Epson EH-LS10000, a high-end home theater projector with laser light source and 4K enhancement technology has now been in a detailed review and we would like to share it with you, dear readers!
The projector Epson EH-LS10000 is sold for approximately 7000€.
Thank you to Epson Germany for having provided us a new projector for this review of the Epson EH-LS10000.
The Epson EH-LS10000 is a Full HD 3D projector with dual laser light source using a new 3LCD reflective technology.
The design of the projector is futuristic and we liked it very much.
Laser light source
The projector has a dual laser light source. Both lasers are blue, but one is transformed to yellow by going through a phosphor wheel. The yellow light is then split into red and green with a special mirror.
Laser as a light source brings many advantages compared to a standard UHP bulb:
- very long lifespan (30000 hours according to Epson)
- very quick start and shutdown of the projector possible
- stability of the colors and calibration
- usage heat pipes possible to enable a more efficient cooling system –> more quiet projector
- brightness of the laser can be adjusted very quickly –> no mechanical dynamic iris needed
- a black picture is perfectly black, because the laser shuts down (that is why Epson claims that the LS10000 has an infinite contrast)
3LCD reflective panels
During the last years Epson has been working on the 3LCD reflective panels similar to the SRXD technology used by Sony or the DILA technology by JVC.
The picture below shows very well the difference between the 3LCD technology Epson normally uses and the new reflective 3LCD-R. The space between pixels is greatly reduced. The new panels also enable a better contrast and a higher motion fluidity.
Here a true comparison between the Epson EH-TW9200 and the Epson EH-LS10000. The picture above is not exaggerated at all, as you can see below on pictures we have taken ourselves.
4K enhancement technology
Epson is also using a new technology called “4K enhancement” similar to the E-Shift by JVC. The picture below explains very well how it works. The result is that the number of pixels is doubled and almost no structure is visible even when looking up close to the screen. The Epson EH-LS10000 accepts 4K content and scales it down to the 2 times full HD resolution.
Characteristics
The projector’s weight is 18 kg and it measures 55 x 55,3 x 22,5 cm. It is a huge projector, the biggest we have ever tested, so be prepared. The throw ratio, which is the distance of the projector to the screen divided by the picture width, varies between 1,28 – 2,73:1. That means that you can get a picture of width 2,5m with only 3,2m between the lens of the projector and the screen.
The Epson EH-LS10000 has a motorized zoom and lens shift with memory function. As usual with Epson projectors, the range of the lens shift is huge: Vertical: 90% max (up and down with horizontal centered), Horizontal: 40% max (left and right with vertical centered). This means that the projector can be set up in every position very easily.
The menu of the projector is accessible with the remote control, but also with a very cool hidden push-to-open side panel on the projector. This can be very helpful in order to use the projector if the remote control is not available or even lost.
The projector Epson EH-LS10000 has all connections needed in the back panel including 1 HDMI 1.4 input and 1 HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 to make it campatible with the coming 4K blu-ray. There is a mini USB connection which is very useful to perform the firmware updates at home (which we used to update to the firmware V130).
The remote control allows for a quick access to all important functionalities like the frame interpolation or the super resolution to improve the sharpness. Also directly accessible are the controls for the motorized zoom and lens shift, which are very responsive. There is also a button to activate the backlight of the remote which is helpful while watching a movie in a dark room. The buttons of the remote control are big enough and as a consequence the remote is pretty large and a bit heavy, but lies easily in the hand.
The projector in action
Full HD Movies in 2D
Our first impression when watching our usual test scenes was: “WOW! The picture seems bigger than usual!” But it wasn’t, our screen didn’t grow overnight We are still unsure why we both had that feeling, but we suspect it was a combination of contrast, brightness and sharpness (without 4K enhancement activated).
Indeed the contrast performance of the Epson EH-LS10000 is impressive with deep black and very good details in dark scenes. Furthermore, with the activation of the dynamic iris function controlling the power output of the laser, it can achieve perfect black on a totally black picture. This feeling to be completely in the dark and see nothing was a new experience that we enjoyed.
Out of the box the natural mode is the closest to the REC 709 norm, but some might prefer the cinema or Digital Cinema mode with very saturated colors and a lot of pop.
After activation of the frame interpolation on the setting “normal”, the picture motion is very smooth even in the most difficult scenes with travelling. There are almost no artefacts and the picture stays natural. For the more conservative people, the frame interpolation on the setting “low” will be perfect for a cinema experience.
The activation of the 2K super resolution allows an increase in the sharpness, but be careful not to overdo it. Our advice is not to use a level above 2 of the 2K super resolution. For the ones using a Darbee, it is totally possible to combine the two, but we advise to use the Darbee on 35% and the super resolution at the level 1. The result is a very sharp picture which allows to show all the details of your favorite Blu-rays.
The 4K super resolution activates the 4K enhancement technology. The pixel structure disappears, but the picture gets somehow soft (even with the firmware V130) and we preferred to leave it desactivated with 1080p sources.
Comparison Natural vs. Digital Cinema
The Epson EH-LS10000 can display both the standard REC709 and the much bigger DCI color space. Here are some examples of what happens with a REC709 Blu-ray source if you switch between the two color spaces.
The colors are much more saturated in Digital Cinema, especially green, red and golden colors.
This effect is visible on the following pictures. However, the camera we used and the screen you are looking at cannot fully show the difference between the DCI and the REC709 color space, but you can still see the trend.
On the left is the natural (REC709) and on the right the Digital Cinema (DCI).
We would not advise to use the Digital Cinema color space with standard 1080p blu-rays for regular movies. However, for animated movies the higher saturation of the Digital Cinema colors is a pleasure for the eyes.
REC709 Calibrated
Below you can see a few screenshots taken from the Blu-rays “Casino Royale”, “Lucy”, “Mission Impossible”, “Oblivion”, “The Dark Knight” and “Tron Legacy”. You can click on each picture to open it in the original resolution.