It doesn't completely smooth judder in pans or in objects moving across the screen. The Low setting, which is the default for Bright Cinema, is worth looking at even if you don't usually like frame interpolation. Or set it to Medium or High for live or recorded video where the digital video effect can improve the sense of being in the presence of the performers. It also saves the current setting for features like frame interpolation, which you might want to set on Low for filmed material if you don't like the digital video effect the more aggressive settings can produce. Each customized mode and memory setting even saves the current lamp brightness, so you don't have to change it separately. You can also adjust settings to taste, customizing each of the predefined modes and saving up to 10 additional custom settings in memory. There are some subtle variations from one mode to the next, but most people won't notice them without switching back and forth between modes to look for the difference. Colors are vibrant and well saturated in all four modes and well within a realistic range. Dynamic mode has a slight yellow-green tint in the brightest shades, but not enough to be a problem. The higher contrast ratio also gives colors more pop and increases picture depth, or a sense of three-dimensionality.Ĭolor balance is spot on in three of the four predefined color modes, with neutral grays at all levels from black to white. Also helping is that the 3100 delivers deeper blacks in all modes than less expensive 3LCD models, and with improved contrast, shadow details are opened up and better defined. The three-chip 3LCD design guarantees there won't be any rainbow artifacts and ensures there's no difference between color and white brightness, which might affect color quality or the brightness of color images. The 3100's four color presets-Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Natural, and Cinema-all deliver solid video quality without any tweaking. Though marketed under the "Home Cinema" moniker, it is easy to imagine the HC3100 showing up in a lot of sports bars as it produces sufficient light, a high quality HD 1080p image, and excellent installation flexibility, all for a modest sum compared to most projectors competing for that same market. (And if you need still higher brightness, check out our review of the Epson Home Cinema 3700, a near twin to the 3100.) You can use the 3100 to light up a screen as large as 200" diagonal in a dark theater setting, or 130" diagonal in a room with low ambient light. Even in its Cinema modes with the lamp set to the lowest power Eco our test unit pumped out close to 1400 lumens, and it puts out over 2000 lumens with the lamp on High. So the 3100, right in the middle at $1299, represents excellent bang for the buck.Īnother key to the value of the HC3100 is its lumen muscle. On the other hand, the 3100 is just a small step below the Epson 3900 in image quality, but it is a whopping $700 less. But in side-by-side viewing, the 3100 delivers far more vibrant color and visibly better contrast. If you view the 2040 or 2045 by themselves you'll find little to complain about-they are impressive projectors for the money. Ultimately, the key to the Epson 3100's superb value is its image quality. While the 20 offer only a 1.2x zoom and no lens shift, the 3100 gives you an array of features including a 1.6x zoom lens, vert+horiz lens shift, gamma settings, picture-in-picture, Epson's Super Resolution for enhancing detail, and panel alignment control to manually adjust three-chip convergence, all of which are features found on Epson's pricier Home Cinema 3900 at $1999. But the HC 3100 is also a big step up in performance and features. In Epson's current line of home theater projectors, the Home Cinema 3100 at $1299 is a step up in price from the entry level Home Cinema 2040 ($799), or its sister model the HC 2045 which adds Miracast and WIDI.
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