Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080UB 3LCD 1080p Home Theater Projector - Review

At an MSRP of $2,999, the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080UB 3LCD projector is an upgrade of its popular Home Cinema 1080. The main improvements are the addition of a second HDMI input and, more importantly, higher lumens output and better black level performance, which improves contrast and color saturation. With its native 1080p resolution and acceptable light output, the video quality is excellent. Flesh tones, overall color saturation, and contrast levels provide a very natural looking image, with none of the usual LCD artifacts, such as the screen door effect.

Setting up and using the Home Cinema 1080UB was very easy; the rear mounted connections are clearly labeled and spaced out, and the on-unit control buttons and remote control were easy to use in conjunction with the onscreen menus. Even a novice should have no problem setting up and using this projector.

The Home Cinema 1080UB doesn't offer power-controlled lens adjustments, but its manual zoom, focus, and lens shift controls are easily accessible and usable.

Although the Home Cinema 1080UB is not in the same price class as high end video projectors, it none-the-less is an excellent performer. I found the color quality and contrast levels were very good. In addition, the built-in 1080p scaling of the Home Cinema 1080UB did and excellent job of upscaling lower resolution 480p DVD material, as well as passing direct 1080p Blu-ray and HD-DVD resolutions, including 1080p/24 signals.

Another welcome observation was that the traditional LCD Screen Door Effect was not noticable, even on large projected images. The 1080UB is an example of the increasing number of LCD projectors that are providing smoother images, typically associated with rival DLP technology.

In addition, the included wireless remote has a good layout and well-spaced buttons.

The Home Cinema 1080UB is definitely a welcome entry into the video projector market and is illustrative of a trend that is making high quality video projection more affordable for the consumer. This projector offers a lot for its list price of $2,999.

If you are in the market for your first home theater video projector or want to upgrade a older projector, definitely check out the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080UB.

I was very impressed with the overall performance and function of this projector. I give the Epson Powerlite Home Cinema 1080UB 3LCD Video Projector a solid 4.5 out of 5 Stars.