Epson Home Cinema 3200 4K PRO-UHD 3-Chip Projector with HDR

Writing this because sadly I didnt see it in the reviews. This projector looks like a projector from little big world in Mario. Its huge. And heavy. This is what I get for reading too many reviews focused on image quality. I didnt even take it out of the packaging just straight back to amazon lol.

Heavy (compare with Optoma UHD-50X), I dont feel very comfortable sitting under it. Kind of noisy (compare with Optoma UHD-50X) Picture is sharp in the middle but blurry on the sides. The BIGGEST problem is, it doesnt work with the 50ft HDMI 2.0 cable I laid behind the wall and ceiling! I tried many different computers and a SONY Blu-ray disk player, NO SIGNAL! It only worked with a Acer Laptop computer. VERY FRUSTRATED! Finally, I got the Optoma UHD-50X, it worked right the way! And the Optoma is so much lighter, quieter, image is sharp everywhere! I can finally relaxed and enjoyed the big screen. Compare with the UHD-50X, This projector looks better, and the quick corner function is so much easier to adjust the screen.

A great bright room projector but not ready for that dedicated dark theater man cave. Too many artifacts.

The best projector quality I’ve ever seen.

Just got this projector replacing my Panasonic 720p projector which worked nicely for 15 years but now with 4K content available I thought I would get this to start with watching the Super Bowl. First impression is it’s amazing upgrading from the 720p. Colors are rich and crisp. Lots of keystone adjustments available to fix the alignment since my previous projector was not aligned center of the room and I used the same ceiling frame to hang this projector. Couldn’t step away watching a movie or HD/4K content. I am still using a very old HDMI cable and yet getting very good picture - not sure if I have to upgrade it. Overall, after two days of using it, just impressed how good the experience is. Will know more after tomorrow’s super bowl game. Definitely recommend over buying a large OLED TV.

PROS: + At 2,900 Lumens, this projector is bright + Pixel Shifting 4K Projector looks great; in particular with HDR content + Accepts full 10-bit HDR source input signal + Supports 4k @ 60fps resolution via HDMI 2.0 (18 Gbps) + Excellent vertical & horizontal optical lens adjustments (manual) + Latest Bluetooth tech for external audio source + Little to no fan noise in Eco modes + 3LCD tech avoids rainbows, for those sensitive to it + 3D glasses support, for those who aren’t happy with a mere 2 dimensions + Low input lag and latency for gaming + Relatively compact design for a 4k projector + Lots of advanced picture controls and adjustments + Full-featured remote control + 2.0A USB Power Port CONS: - Poor black levels - No built-in speakers - Fan can get noisy at higher brightness levels - Some may find on the pricey side BACKGROUND First I should note that I have an existing home theater/office that I’m using to test out this projector. I currently have an Optoma UHD65 DLP 4k projector. This would be at a different price point but I’ll make a few notable comparisons. I’m also using a Silver Ticket 120” 16:9 Gray Material screen and about 12’ away. The room has blackout curtains but I did tests in complete darkness and with various levels of ambient light. UNBOXING & SETUP Out of the box you’ve got the projector, a remote, batteries, documentation, and a power cable. No HDMI cable is included. The project itself is compact for a 4k projector. It’s smaller than the Optoma UHD65. The lens is off-set, which is normal for smaller projectors. That’s just something to note for installation. Although it’s easy to adjust for that. Speaking of setup, it’s fairly straight forward as just about any modern-day projector. There are adjustable feet for table use as well as ceiling mount points on the bottom. Thanks to the manual lens adjustments for horizontal and vertical positions, installation is very easy. Some projectors don’t have this, such as the current Optoma projectors, meaning you have to mount dead center and at just the right height. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with digital keystone correction which limits resolution since it’s basically cropping the image. Avoid digital this if at all possible. The physical optical lens shift is the way to go. REMOTE CONTROL The non-universal remote is surprisingly useful for the projector. It’s a standard candy-bar design with quick-access buttons for just about every feature you could want. There are still menus that you’ll need to dig through for some advanced functions. But the basic stuff is all there with a single button. The remote is also backlit and very intuitive to use. The IR signal and receiver are strong enough so that I can just point at the screen and the project at the back of the room picks up on the signal. I’ve used some projector remotes that fail at this. CONTROLS & SETTINGS I won’t go through every setting as the manual would do a better job. But Epson projectors are well known for having just about every advanced feature and setting you could possibly want. In addition to several common features in the form of physical buttons on the projector. But the on-screen menu itself is laid out in an intuitive manner. In other words, if you just want to make some basic adjustments to brightness or pick a preset picture mode, you can do that. Or if you want to adjust the gamma or hue and color saturation, it’s all there for you. For example, the primary color mode presets of Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Natural, and Cinema will be all that your average user needs to touch in order to get the picture they are comfortable with. PICTURE QUALITY I did most testing in Natural, ECO power mode, and High-Speed Auto Iris. I haven’t spent much time doing extensive calibration yet as it’s surprisingly good with a few minor changes. After the bulb has some more hours on it I’ll go through that process and update here as needed. Basically, the picture looks great. The bright 2,900-lumen output with HDR enabled really makes colors pop. And with 4k pixel shifting, you do notice those fine details. At least with 4k content, which is most of what I watch these days. It’s worth noting this isn’t a “true 4K” projector, but with said pixel-shifting, it technically meets the industry definition for use of 4k branding due to the number of pixels hitting the screen. Compared to the Optoma, I do find it’s DLP chipset to produce a smoother picture which lends itself to a more crisp image. There’s more vibrant color saturation with Optoma’s RGBRGB color wheel versus the RGBCYW of the Epson. The latter is meant to allow more light output. But that’s something you really do have to compare back-to-back to appreciate. On its own, the 3200 is really impressive with 4k content; more so with HDR as it has the added benefit of being quite bright. The biggest negative is absolutely the 40:000:1 contrast ratio. Whereas the pricier models can easily push 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, it’s very noticeable with any content where there is a decent amount of black content and when viewing in a dark room. The best you get is a medium gray color. This is most apparent in the dark home theater environment. With curtains opens or a little ambient light, it’s essentially a non-issue for virtually any projector. GAMING I threw a few 4k games at the projector via my Xbox One X and it absolutely met all expectations. After some more back-to-back comparisons with the DLP projector, there is a noticeable improvement with lower input lag. I had pretty much gotten used to it and had simply adjusted to the lag by dying more frequently. But if you are playing a game that benefits from fast responses you’ll appreciate the quick responsiveness via low input lag. AUDIO There are no speakers on this model, which is unfortunate as I know some would like that for outdoor use. The remote is used for other projectors, so there are volume controls, but they won’t do anything with the 3200. There is an aux jack for audio output as well as Bluetooth audio streaming. Bluetooth is using a relatively new “aptX” Bluetooth standard that compresses and decompresses audio streams for fast low latency audio transmission to your wireless receiver (i.e. headphones, speakers, etc). Older Bluetooth receivers may not support this new standard. Regardless, you’ll get much better audio quality if you provide your own HDMI AV receiver and speaker system. Just make sure it supports HDCP 2.2 and HDMI 2.0 standards for 4k passthrough. CONCLUSION There are projectors for just about every use case you can think of. Which is what I’m going to focus my review and rating. This projector is ideal for a living room home theater. In other words, a dual-purpose room. Where you may have some ambient light coming into the room because you have a near-by kitchen, game room, window, etc. In which case the bright output of the projector can still produce a nice crisp and detailed 4k image. Just note that as with any projector, black levels and overall image visibility will suffer due to external light sources other than the projector itself. This is why in those situations, a lower contrast ratio isn’t as big of a deal. And you still need to have some control of light as there are physical limitations here. Also, a gray material screen will help with black levels and reflections from said lighting. If you’re going to primarily use this in a dedicated home theater where you can control all light sources, the 3200 is still perfectly acceptable. But if you’re particular about those black levels, I’d suggest moving to an alternate and possibly more expensive model with a better contrast ratio. As long as you make the right choice for your needs, you won’t regret the decision. The Epson 3200’s bright lumen output, 4k HDR picture quality, and flexible installation make this an easy recommendation from me.

This projector came packaged in a very odd way. The projector was listed as new but clearly it had either been used or unpacked from its original packaging and repackaged in other boxes/materials. I feel like we overpaid for it considering the condition it was delivered in but overall the projector seems to work fine. A few minor glitches but the picture quality is great so were keeping it.

I am in a completely dark space, using on eco mode, and it is plenty bright. I am currently using an older receiver, so I cant comment on 4k, but everything, from streaming to BluRay to Red Dead Redemption 2, has looked great thus far. I cant imagine spending $5k+ for true 4k. Movies and games in HD are so amazing @ 135 that needing higher resolution for the non-OCD among us seems a little silly. Very little visible screen door, plenty bright, and the only time I really notice a resolution difference (vs led panel) is with live sports. But this seems pretty great, bang for the buck. At the rate Im going, my bulb will be dead in a year, but thats a good thing. It will be hard to play Xbox on anything else now...

Wow! Its really bright and sharp. I love how the Epson projectors are bright even when the picture isnt just white. If your comparing just lumen to lumen, know that the the Epson 3LCD has the same bright level for white and color. The advertised brightness for a DLP is just white brightness and it loses brightness even with solid colors. The picture is bright. Its really good looking. Contrast is very good for a projector and my understanding is that its even better for the 3800. (I really feel that brightness is more important than contrast for any room with any ambient light). The picture quality is spectacular. We tried a screen, but we just use a white wall for projection because who wouldnt want a wall size picture! I have a cheap led pico projector, but its worthless compared to something like this. Dont get hung up on the size of the projector or cheap out. Once you see the picture thats as bright and sharp as this, youll know why its worth the money. The only thing I wish for is a digital sound out. It has a 3.5mm out for sound and I would love a optical or digital sound out. Yes, it does now do bluetooth, but I dont want any interference for my wireless controllers when gaming. I use an HDMI audio extractor between my source and the projector to send the sound my speakers. I guess not having sound in the projector does make sense because many might need long audio cables, but I still think it would be nice to have it. Ive had cheap projectors. I cant imagine going back to 1000-2000 lumens after this. I cant imagine wanting a small projector that does 100-500 lumens and having to put blackout curtains just to see anything. I think small projectors have a place, but for the home theatre or gaming system, you want something bright and accurate. Its really awesome to watch my wall size 4k movies, and wall-size ps4 pro 60fps is pretty breathtaking too. I totally suggest this!

I think how you feel about this projector will depend largely on what you use it for. As a 4K video projector, and for the price, it is a reasonably good deal. I picked my 3200 up on sale at BestBuy. You will find the contrast unsatisfactory for dark scenes unless you have a blacked-out, light controlled room. Of course, good contrast always requires a blacked out room, but even so, the blacks on this are dark gray. For example, when playing Assassins Creed Origins, I cannot see my way around a crypt without having all other lights in the room off. HDR is not very noticeable, but is adjustable. You will notice the auto-iris kick in a moment after scene changes some times (this is Epsons attempt to make up for the lower contrast levels of this projector). I can live with this, happily, if the projector is only used for video. The projector is incredibly bright. No issues there. The crappy contrast may go unnoticed in a room without light control. In my basement, with no windows, I find it very bright in ECO mode, even nearly 1000 hours in. The lens shift feature blew my mind, and hugely simplifies installation without having to mess with keystone correction, which leaves the trapezoidal gray/black light around your picture. The worst part of this projector is focus. With video you may not notice, but since Ive been working from home for the last few months of COVID, I use this as a 142 monitor for programming, several hours a day every day. It is _impossible_ to get even focus across the screen with text. You can have one area sharp and another area dreadfully blurry, or you can have the entire thing slightly out of focus and rub your eyes all day long. Lest you think it may be caused by imperfections in my screen, or not having the projector perfectly centered...I can put a piece of paper in the out-of-focus area and walk back towards the projector 4-5 feet before that text is in focus. So, it isnt due to flatness of the screen. Tech support: Epson tech support has been good. When I finally bought and mounted a screen to verify it wasnt due to my uneven wall, they happily replaced my projector with a refurbished one via 2-day fedex, prepaid both ways. Unfortunately, the refurb was even worse for focus issues and had light scratches on the lens, so they overnighting a brand new one. The focus issue persists, so it seems to be common for this line -- or my setup is inexplicably wrong somehow. Epson does not have a way to trade-in/upgrade to something better, so Ill probably have to try to sell it on my own and take a loss. So, overall - acceptable for the price for movie night. Not acceptable for computer work. If you can afford to spend a little more for something closer to true 4K, with better focus and contrast, Id recommend doing so. **Update** I have been ceiling mounting this projector to keep it out of the way of people and reduce shadows from the same. The lens shift that was so delightful, seems to be a contributor to the focus issue. Switching to keystone correction instead of lens shift helps the focus, but it is still an issue. Also, keystone correction throws off the aspect ratio so the image no longer fits the screen - its either too wide, or I have to leave small dark strips at the top and bottom of the image. Finally, I unmounted the projector, put it in tabletop mode, and stacked boxes under it so the image is perfectly centered with no keystone and no lens shift. The center is stunning, but the side is STILL out of focus. Ive included a couple pictures from the panel alignment mode to show the focus difference from center to top-right (tabletop mode) when the projector is perfectly centered on a flat, professional screen.