Epson Powerlight Home Cinema 5010 LCD Projector

Introduction

The Epson 5010 (MSRP: $2999) is the latest-generation Epson 1080P LCD projector. The difference between this model and the previous Home Cinema 8700UB is primarily that it uses the new D9 LCD panels, which have a higher refresh rate and allow for a brighter image. This is primarily designed to improve 3D performance, though standard 2D performance will benefit as well.

Throw and lens shift

The 5010 offers exceptionally flexible installation options with a very wide zoom range and horizontal and vertical lens shift. Its throw is 1.3-2.9/1 screen width. By default, the lens aligns with the center of the screen. Use lens shift to adjust from there. Lens shift works like a charm, though it can affect light output, geometry, and contrast at the extremes, so I’d use as little of it as is practical for your installation. You can use the vertical lens shift to place the projector anywhere 22.7" above or below the screen.

Available Controls

The Epson offers a wealth of picture settings and calibration controls. In particular, the Advanced... menu offers several gamma presets, a color management system, and custom grayscale controls.

The main menu offers four 2D Color Modes and a couple of 3D modes (not tested).

• Dynamic
• Living Room
• Natural
• Cinema

The Natural and Cinema Modes all offer similar performance, except that the Cinema mode offers a very wide gamut. Natural is very close to the high-definition Rec. 709 standard. The defaults for the Dynamic and Living Room modes are not suitable for serious viewing. Each offers substantially higher light output by distorting the color gamut and grayscale. Livingroom is very bluish and Dynamic is very greenish.

It also offers several gamma presets.

• 2.0
• 2.1
• 2.2
• 2.3
• 2.4

I used the 2.2 setting, though some users may prefer the 2.3 option.

For the serious tweaker, the 5010 also offers custom RGB Gain and Offset controls for adjusting the grayscale. It also offers a nice color management system that users with the proper equipment can use to adjust its color performance. However, the 5010's color performance was so good in the Natural mode it needed little adjustment.

Of the color-accurate modes, Natural offered the most accurate color gamut, so I used that and the ECO lamp mode as a basis for the calibration. Even in the ECO mode, the 5010 provided more light than is optimal for the 110" inch StudioTek that was available. I am not a big fan of auto irises. They artificially boost or cut the light output and/or gamma as the iris opens and closes in response to picture content, which I find often causes visible artifacts. Although they can dramatically improve measured contrast ratios, they have a much less profound effect on real-world content. In principle, an auto-iris could provide infinite on/off contrast. There simply is no substitute for native contrast. I left the auto iris off for the calibration and subsequent viewing. I found the contrast quite satisfying without it.

Brightness and contrast

This is perhaps the brightest projector that I have ever tested. The brightness is controlled by two lamp modes (ECO and Normal) and the selected Color Mode. The 5010 uses a 230 watt lamp, which helps to explain the higher brightness over earlier models. The Normal mode offers more lumens, but with noticeably higher fan noise.

I adjusted the Contrast control to -2 so that a vertical stripe both above and below video white were visible against a video white background. Using the Natural Color Mode and ECO lamp setting, I then measured a native on/off contrast ratio of just over 5,000:1 (19.1 fL/0.004 fL). This is excellent performance for a LCD projector with no fixed iris and considerably better than what I measured from an Epson projector from just a couple of years ago. I also measured just over 300:1 checkerboard contrast. This is also excellent, though DLPs still do better in this regard.

Since the Normal lamp mode increases brightness by about 34%, this projector is capable of over 2000 lumens in its brightest mode. This is an astonishing amount of light output.

Uniformity and Sharpness

One of the inherent problems with LCD displays is poor white field uniformity (localized color shading) and poor convergence between the 3 LCD elements. The 5010 had small but noticeable amounts of misalignment between the RGB pixels, showing a little color fringing on the edges of the screen. However, it also provides a nifty pixel alignment tool that allows the user to adjust at each of the four corners individually and then (for the truly obsessed) each of the intersections on the crosshatch pattern the projector displays when in this mode. When I finished this I saw no misalignment. Furthermore, the white field uniformity was above average for LCD units. I noticed no obvious areas of shading on a uniform white background.

The sharpness of the image was very good for an LCD projector. Edges were quite sharp, but the relatively low fill factor of LCD produced a somewhat less refined image than DLP and some LCoS designs.

Grayscale Tracking

For these measurements I used the the 6500K preset and Skin Tone set to the default of 3.

Color Performance

From the factory, the Cinema Color Mode includes several adjustments of the CMS. For the other color modes, the CMS is disengaged with all settings at their neutral values. It appears that the Cinema Color Mode is just the Natural Color Mode with some CMS adjustments applied at the factory. In any case, the data below are with the CMS at its neutral setting.

Gamma

The gamma presets measured at the midpoint were extremely accurate. However, the overall gamma response tended to slope downwards as the image got dimmer. This probably results from Epson's attempt to improve shadow detail. The response was off just enough for me to wish it were flatter but close enough for me not to bother with the custom gamma control, the proper use of which was not clear to me in any case.

After Calibration

With the exception of the custom gamma control that I found awkward and poorly documented, the calibration controls were a joy to use and all worked as promised. I made modest changes to the grayscale, small changes in the CMS, and adjusted Contrast down slightly to improve above-white performance. Other than the pixel adjust feature described above, this was all that was necessary.

In just about every aspect of measured performance this projector offers near reference quality. Its post-calibration colorimetry, grayscale, and gamma are superb. Even at pre-calibration they were quite good. The native on/off contrast is over 5000:1 and with the auto-iris the dynamic contrast would be much, much higher. It offers excellent uniformity and RGB convergence, and has nearly limitless light output, which will please those with very large screens or those who watch a lot of 3D material, which is inherently dim. Finally, it provides enough installation flexibility to suit nearly all potential buyers.

My only criticism of this otherwise excellent LCD projector is that it would have been nice to have an adjustable fixed iris, such as those found on the Sony projectors. This would be helpful for lowering brightness on smaller screens and improving the native on/off contrast even further. As the bulb aged, the iris could be gradually opened to compensate for the drop off in light output. However, this is a minor quibble. This is the best LCD projector I have ever tested.