Epson Home Cinema 2040 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector

Absolutely wonderful projector! I bought this for my basement cinema. Pros: - Super clear picture for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and the TV receiver box for antenna stations. - Fan is relatively quiet. I sit right below it and dont notice it when watching a show - Vivid and true colors - Easy to mount to ceiling when you buy a universal mount - Very easy to set up - Looks great even when projecting directly onto a wall. I havent put our screen up yet, and just have it aimed at a muted green wall. - Great picture even with lights on. Our basement has two lighting areas. I usually watch it with the back area lit and the picture is still very bright and clear. Cons: - I bought a Harmony 350 universal remote. It can turn the projector on, but it cant shut it off for some reason.

This projector has a lot going for it, and some drawbacks as well. Lets jump right in: Brightness: Very bright. The color brightness is just as bright as the whites since its a 3 chip projector. DLPs cant make that same claim, though some come close (RGBRGB models). Contrast: Sub-par, even for the under $1,000 category. DLP projectors will beat this one every time with black levels and contrast. Positioning: This projector gives you both vertical and horizontal keystone for ease of setup, though using this will make the image less sharp since its not using all of the pixels when the keystone is used. Most people wont notice, however. Pixel fill: The lines between the pixels are the thickest and most noticeable on 3LCD projectors. In other words, on DLP and LCoS projectors, you sit slightly closer to the screen without seeing pixel structure. Colors: Colors are fantastic, and have a lot of pop to them. 3LCD projectors excel with bright colors. Animated films look great! Noise: In eco-mode, its not very noticeable. In normal mode, youll notice it on quiet movie scenes for sure. Extra features: This projector has some features not typically found on entry level models. These include frame interpolation (smooth motion for sports, etc) and detail enhancement, which makes images appear sharper using special video processing. While it may seem a lot of my review was negative, this is a really good choice for an entry level projector. For those who havent seen better blacks on a projected image, they probably wont even notice the not-so-great blacks, but will be amazed at the huge, colorful, full HD image on their wall or screen. Another plus is that, unlike other lower end (and lower resolution) Epson models, this has an audio out port for those who take advantage of the portability of this projector and take it outside or to a friends house for movie night. I believe if Epson produced a projector like this one, but had blacks as good as the 8350 (not the best, but very respectable), they would overcome the only serious weakness of this model and sales would higher than Im sure they are now. Regardless, this a solid choice for those looking to get in on the big screen action at home.

I bought this after doing a moderate amount of research. It seemed like the right projector for me at this reasonable price point (I picked mine up for $650, but it seems to fluctuate on Amazon), and after a week of regular use Im pretty satisfied. There is one area this projector is severely lacking in though, and that is black levels. Ignoring the insane numerical contrast ratios that Epson likes to throw around, I can tell you that this is clearly the biggest weakness. Before purchasing, I read a few reviews and comments praising the black performance, but Im here to tell you this is incorrect, and probably sourced from people who are easily pleased. For most families and first time projector owners, it will be fine. But as a designer and photographer who scrutinizes and edits digital images all day, Im a little let down. I did a little more research and it would appear that this is a LCD projector technology limitation. You can find a few projector models in the sub $800 price range that have slightly improved blacks, but those are DLP. Im sticking with my 2040 because of the brightness, colors, and because Ill never have to deal with the rainbow effect on DLP projectors. Its also great for gaming, with the lowest lag time Ive found in this price range. I have taken a few steps to improve the ambient light in my room, hoping it will deepen the blacks. Draped black fabric above and to the sides of the screen seems to help a little because it cuts down on reflected light back on the screen, but dark scenes still struggle a little and tend to look gray and washed out. Do not be fooled by reviewers who dont know what to look for in an image. For the average Joe or anyone who wants a beautifully sharp and vibrant image, as well as the ability to blow up movies to insane screen sizes... This is a great purchase. Id recommend the 2040 if you arent willing to shell out $200-$300 more for deeper blacks.

Unpacked and set it up using its own shipping box for a projector table... couldnt wait! A few minutes later and I had it hooked up to the laptop and focused and keystone corrected - very simple set-up. Loaded a random episode of Vikings so I could send a surprise picture of the wall covered in vikings to the girlfriend, and ended up watching the whole episode, mouth open. Awesome quality. So glad I stopped the seemingly endless loop of research trying to decide between LCD and DLP... Im not disappointed, or even curious about DLP now. The fan is actually legitimately loud, but on Eco Mode it is quiet enough to forget about, especially once audio is on for whatever youre watching/playing. Eco Mode dims the picture a bit, but not in a significant way... I can see never changing it from Eco. I will be trying a camera filter to see if it can help darken the black levels, but its not as big of an issue as I thought it would be. Once you see Lagertha life-size, these things dont matter as much. One day into it, the only downsides are: - It heats up the small room after a few hours (8 x 12 x 8) - this room has two open doors but no windows... if the projector were to be used more than 2-3 hours, you might want more airflow than I have in this room. - For a white unit, a white power cord wouldve been nice. - Probably just a fluke, but no batteries for the remote came with the package. Will update after it is properly mounted and more hours of use!

I have 3,000 hours on the bulb that came with this, its used heavily. The picture is fantastic on my 9 screen, its a stationary screen with a black felt border. I can see every hair and every pore on faces with a Blu-Ray, Netflix, or any 1080P source. Works great with the PS4, great for games. Easy to use menus, nice remote. Very bright for a theatre projector, brighter than the $4,000 Sony projector I replaced with this one. DO NOT buy a universal mount, dont be cheap, fork over the money for the Epson mount. I bought a cheap $20 universal mount and upon installation immediately purchased the Epson mount (which was $120 I believe?) The Epson mount is solid, quality built, and much easier to use and setup.

I cannot stress enough how good of a purchase this was. Before this I was limited to using my 26 inch television for everything: TV, movies, and games. Now with some careful positioning Im able to project the equivalent of a 125 inch screen onto a homemade projector screen in a very dark room. This darkness is important, as the projector doesnt need to work as hard while at the same time providing an extremely vivid image. Of course Ive had the lights on as well in this room which has washed out the image significantly, but it is still visible. I am new to the world of projectors, and after a couple years of researching and comparing I think I have found the best introductory model for me. Your situation may be different, but I would still recommend the Epson Home Cinema 2040 if youre thinking of starting down this road. I honestly believe that I couldnt be happier with this purchase.

This projector is ok. Its not the best, but its not the worst either. For a sub $1000 projector it is pretty good. Why only 3 stars? The projector has a manual lens cover for starters. If youre mounting this higher up, youll need a stool to reach for it every time. A slight annoyance, not a huge deal breaker though. The particular unit I received had very severe color separation from the lcds not being matted together perfectly. I ran all sorts of tests as you can see in the photos. I believe this is outside what can be considered tolerable. Maybe it was a manufacturing defect, but I was disappointed. I am very sensitive to it, which is also why I opted for the LCD vs DLP projectors. The unit is bright, but that also comes with a sacrifice... noise. When you have it set to bright, its LOUD! On the other brightness settings the fans really quiet down and I found it to be bright enough even during the day time. Ive had a PLV-Z4 for 8 years and its been a great projector. Ill be looking at upping my price and testing out the 5030 soon. Overall, this is a decent little guy, but I found too many cons to outweigh the pros for my particular set up.

I want to give it 4.5 stars and it deserves it. I have had a couple glitches, cant seem to hook a sound bar up to it for one and it has just stopped on me a few times. I have it on a 4X7 screen and Im glad I have it. I researched projectors for 3 weeks, reading everything I could get my eyes on, visiting home theater stores, talking to people with projectors and I ended up with this. It was between this and the BenQ and the price and durability of bulbs pushed me in this direction. Im pleased.

This projector is the first Ive ever purchased. I did a decent amount of research before hand but I was still unsure exactly what to expect. I dont have a proper home theater room. The walls are white, I can shut the blinds and close the door.. but thats it. I purchased a Silver Ticket 92 screen to go with this. First off . .maybe the works in a bright room claims are exaggerated. Perhaps compared to other projectors. Compared to a regular tv, though, this projector is highly susceptible to light. That being said, I find it watchable, with the blinds closed, at all but the brightest parts of the day. The second big question in my mind was the black level . .how bad were they? Pretty bad, actually. Even at night, with the blinds and doors closed, dark scenes are noticeably washed out. If you only watch movies it could be a deal breaker, otherwise its probably OK. . but its noticeable. The color is great. Bright scenes pop with lots of detail. There is not a lot of blurring. Sports look really good. .Ive watched basketball and golf so far - there are some issues but its a very enjoyable viewing experience. Watching golf, for example, theres some blur when the ball is moving fast but, for chips and putts, the ball is tracked pretty well. Its kind of in between my old Pioneer Kuros Plasma and my new Samsung LCD. There is less detail and not as good blacks as the Kuros, but more natural looking than the Samsung. Last things - cartoons, web content and video games. This thing is amazing for all of the above. Cartoons look absolutely amazing - if you have little kids they will be jaws-on-the-foor. Netflix and Amazon video seem to look even better than my cable HD. Its great for video games. I have no comparison as this is my first projector but we use it a lot for PS3 games and I cant tell any difference in response time from the lcd tv we used to have it hooked up to. Last last things . .the price! For the price it is . .it is a cant miss. Even if its not everything you ever wanted in a projector, its great and if youre looking to get your first projector you wont be sorry. You can watch anything on it - from movies to cartoons to video games. The replacement bulbs are cheap. I bought a screen but it looks good just on the wall. My kids, in fact, insist that we do movie night on the wall because it can be bigger. Im pretty amazed at what such an inexpensive projector can do.

Like having a movie theater in our basement but without the annoying children yammering on and looking at their cell phones. I will never even consider buying a television again. My wife and I both feel the picture is stunning, though we do not use it on the slower framerate mode because there seems to be a little bit of blurriness / stagger in the picture during epic battle scenes or very fast motions. The fast framerate looks just fine to us. Looks better than my 1080p plasma TV we had before this. For a budget level projector, I cant see getting much better than this. Was very easy to ceiling mount, we use on a 120 screen, connected to our AV receiver fantastically. Zero issues. 100% satisfied.