Epson EH-TW5650 full review

This weekend we had the chance to play with Epson’s new introductory model, tw5650. The time is limited as always, but the challenge great since for that particular model have been heard very good words on the Internet by its holders.

Let’s say a few basic things about tw5650 before we move on to the main course starting with the characteristics of

• Technology: 3LCD (0.61 inch with MLA D10)
• Resolution: Full HD 1080p, 1920 x 1080
• Brightness: 2.500 lumen-1.650 lumen (economy)
• Contrast: 60,000:1 (dynamic)
• Dynamic Iris: Yes
• Light: 200 W, 4.500 h durability, 7.500 H Durability (economy mode)
• Ratio: 1.33-2.16:1
• 3d: Yes (active)
• Noise: Normal: 37 db-Economy: 27 db
• Dimensions: 309 x 285 x 122 mm (Width x Depth x Height)
• Weight: 3.5 kg
• Price: 999 euro

From its characteristics we can see that the tw5650 moves in the category of “bright” small home cinema that tariffs move under the psychological boundary of a thousand euros.

The little Epson has to compete with an armada of literally small DLP projectors that have the scepters in this category the last years by serious coordinates companies in Texas Instrumens technology such as BenQ, Optoma, Vivitek and ViewSonic. These are his opponents, they are called to compete and for this purpose Epson has done its utmost to achieve it. If you succeeded we will see below, be sure…

Let’s do the unboxing…

Design has nothing special to show the tw5650 except I would say the flat sliders zoom and focus that we do not meet them and so often…

The pros and the existence of a lens cover, but I would prefer it electric to tell you the truth so that it is also utilitarian when the projector is installed on a base on the ceiling

In the package you will find the accompanying CD/manual

The remote control of tw5650 reminds respectively of the data projector and does not claim any laurels of manufacturing quality and usability, you want your time every time to press the right button. Could let’s say the Menu key to be a little different from the other or other color…

From connections we meet the absolutely essential with the two HDMI standard at once to have MHL connectivity and one VGA port so that it can connect analogue computer.

The size of the tw5650 moves to the upper limits of the small category, as well as its weight at 3.5 kg. To get an idea the photo below hang out with a JVC projector (will be compared not only to the greatness below 🙂 )

In this review i will begin the measurements first because my question was quite long, I do not hide it, but let us not delay any longer and let the instruments talk… 🙂

Measurements

The TW5650 was erected makeshiftly, we created a frame of about 80 inches, put the measuring instruments and we started…

In cinema mode with factory default settings The tw5650 gave the following measurements to RGB and gamma

Lamp Low

Lamp High

Almost incredible linearity for projector of specific technology. In both RGB and Gamma (the two long-term main parameters of the image), tw5650 behaves surprisingly out of the box. In other words he can play great, even if we don’t touch the slightest on the sliders by pulling him out of his box, Bravo Epson!

With just a few clicks on the color temperature even minor fixes are made and the sliders on this menu work flawlessly. Following the diagram after my intervention in the specific sliders.

Chromaticism the tw5650 is considered very good with the exception of 100% of the red that follows an oversaturated “orange” path, its own. Small Evil One and colors in their 100% in movie view will rarely look, so this behavior does not pose a particular problem I would say. The remaining color triangle of the tw5650 moves to normal levels with the correct spacing of the gradients in all primary and secondary colors. The slightly “blue” black that has rightly grasped the instrument is not as sharp as the diagram shows. You can barely see it if your eye is experienced enough…

Let’s move on to the much anticipated (by me at least) brightness and contrast measurements

From brightness the tw5650 has “tones” I would say..

• Cinema Mode: 1088 lumen
• Cinema mode lamp High: 1568 lumen
• Dynamic mode: 2448 lumen

The projector “calibrated” produces with its lamp on the smallest staircase of 1088 lumen brightness, wow. This brightness is able to fill frames larger than 130 inches easily, bloodless, even in 3d view.

However, for frames below 100 inches you will need a gray screen with a gain of less than 0.8 or a ND filter that cuts 50% of brightness because so much brightness makes the viewing tedious. Important and the “real” in-charge Epson announcement for the 2.50 lumen brightness that refers to the characteristics of the model. Note to understand how evolution in the Epson camp never stops, this brightness is produced by a “just” 200 watt lamp, a truly extraordinary achievement.

Contrast

It is known here that we should not in any way trust the announcements of companies. With the exception of JVC where it mostly announces real numbers, the rest of the companies always move in the realm of imagination as far as their reportable numbers contrast. The Epson as the first teaching does not escape from this rule of course.

Let’s go see what the real contrast tw5650 has. Measuring on screen please with ca813 instrument

• On/off contrast, cinema mode, lamp low 1732:1
• On/off contrast, cinema mode, lamp high 1768:1
• On/off contrast, mode natural, lamp low 1927:1
• On/off contrast, cinema mode, lamp low, dynamic iris on 11.452:1

Finding first, the improvement in perfectly native numbers on Epson’s small introductory LCD model is rapid. To inform you that the previous small home cinema models of the company moving below the limit of 1000:1.

Finding the second, now the small LCDs have reached native numbers contrast of the DLP projectors and this is seen in the viewing, believe me.

Impressions

Although I tried the tw5650 on “inappropriate” for the brightness of 80 inches I will try to convey my impressions as best and analytically as I can.

Let me start with the frame color uniformity traditionally 3LCD suffer and lose by state from DLP projectors

If the picture above does not tell you anything, I will tell you that the problems of unevenness of 3LCD belong to the past. The frame with the 100ire tab consists exclusively of white and nothing more. Even now that I write these lines I have not believed in 100% what I saw from an LCD model of this category. For me this is probably the most important improvement that Epson has made to TW5650 ‘s optical machine, Bravo again.

Lens/Convergence

Details on the lens of tw5650 I don’t know. What I saw though is that it does a very good job in focus and uniformity focus from edge to edge of frame. It is definitely better in these areas than the big TW9xxx (!) and loses by little difference only from the much more expensive and with electrical settings tw9300, impressive…

And from a convergence point, tw5650 is doing great. Only from a very close distance, and if you stick your face on the screen you will see that a minimum color outline is deleted at the edges, basically it is neither worthy of reference.

I think that perhaps the next review 3LCD projector will not even refer to convergence issues any more, it no longer makes sense. The “weakness” of this particular technology has been completely eliminated in my personal opinion.

Viewing Epson

The TW5650 connected to my HTPC and aired 1080p material from well-known films.

The first impressions have even made with the high brightness of the model. Basically such great brightness acts negatively in a typical living room with white walls. Although it can be impressive in the projection of sporting events, with some light in the area open, in a movie projection, more damage is done than good.

The reflections are great, the dark ones go for walks and generally the whole experience begins and becomes tedious and yet “foggy”. Personally I can’t understand as to what use a home cinema projector should be playing with 1100 lumen brightness in the human ~ 100 inch screens that we have most hobbyists of the space.

Meaning only exists if someone prescribes the tw5650 for viewing movies on a screen of 130 inches and above let’s say or view sporting events without a complete blackout. Those who want to get to think seriously about using a gray screen or a brightness limitation filter (they are marketed quite a bit).

My view is that for viewing in standard living room in dimensions from 90 to 110 inches the ideal brightness of our projector is between 500 and 800 lumens. Anything below starts and annoys you as a dark image and everything above tires the eye with the reflections destroying everything.

If we get past the “negative” high brightness (which we reached.. 🙂 ) The overall picture of tw5650 is excellent.

Extra sharpness and mostly due to the excellent signal processing that the projector makes (with the image enhancement it has to give real change) rather than in the anyway good lens.

Here to say that in this excellent clarity, I would say probably the best of the category, it certainly helps and the very good convergence of panels as we mentioned above.

Chromaticism The tw5650 is saturated, “intense” for the non-privy to the terminology image.

I have certainly not measured the gradients of blue and red from 80% and above must be compressed to high levels. Is it annoying? At all, the color and intensity are a matter of taste (as long as the hue is not wrong). I personally always like slightly hypersaturated colors, to the extent of tw5650?Mmm…..

I did not sit down to deal much with the CMS of the projector, anyone who has patience and will certainly can correct and adjust the projector according to his tastes or standards. I just have my reservations about 100% of the red where it doesn’t seem to help by the almost new the lamp, don’t forget that.

In the bright shots the tw5650 is impressive, what happens in the dark and middle though? There, TW5650 has the weapon called the automatic Iris.

If you play with the iris deactivated the behavior of the low is almost identical to a DLP projector (for the accuracy loses in the thread as you will see below). Its black is in these well-known medium levels to an extent that you easily confuse it with DLP.

Previous Epson Small home cinema projectors there was no way to stand next to DLP projector on contrast theme, now you’re confusing them, if that’s not called improvement, I don’t know what else to call it.

As soon as you activate the iris, TW5650 leaves in the dustbin of history every model of DLP that is currently circulating in the market in the price category that moves, so simple.

The help of Iris is crucial, it intervenes as much as is needed so that the projector to pass the visual levels I would say 3,000:1 and above contrast. Through its black darkens, the contrast grows, the veil decreases and the image is made to a large extent.

The iris is not aggressive at all, it is discreet and with relatively little classification, just as it should be an iris that we do not want to notice and disturb us.

Finds it difficult only in black images containing a very small object (black frame with subtitles eg) where it will close enough and will “annoy” the viewer if we have it in the high speed position, in the normal position things are better in these frames.

Natural film projection without iris enabled no, actually, there’s no reason to deprive someone of such an important device of contrast.

If, on the other hand, some people bother them and disable it, tw5650 will play satisfactorily again in dark scenes at the well-known not-bad dlp levels, which is nothing like the older Epson models I’ve seen in time.

Generally I will say that the tw5650 is not going to disappoint anyone, even those who come from DLP projector and bought him as an upgrade. It’s an upgrade, kiddo, but it is, even in contrast.

Another weapon of TW5650 is F. I, or frame interpolation. With 4 options (from off to strong) the user can choose the degree of intrusiveness of the internal production generator frames of the small Epson in order to find his personal nirvana in the subject smooth motion of the karat frames of films. It works quite well, unilaterally though.

Explain, I do not know if it is my other idea at normal (the intermediate setting between weak and strong) seemed to me best of the great tw9300 that I had tried in the past. The artifacts are not missing, others do not bother or appear often, the traffic is smooth and in almost half an hour of viewing nothing “spoiled” me in the picture. In the position weak the intrusiveness is very small, imperceptible I would say and in strong you can not see broken movement and artifacts, so the normal position is one way.

In any case, the possibility of F. I in a projector of this price is certainly a virtue in relation to the competition.

Now split screen style features (can play both HDMI hardware simultaneously separating the screen in two) or viewing hardware via the integrated Wireless LAN (!) from our smartphone or tablet only in + one can classify them, but I don’t think They are a determining factor for the purchase and use of the projector as a home cinema device, but are extra features as well as doing it.

and a gallery with screenshots as a cherry…

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”38″ gal_title=”Epson TW5650″]

As a conclusion I would say that the little Epson falls into the Battle of “1000$” as I call it equipped as a lobster. No other model regardless of technology can beat him on paper at least. But just because I don’t like to stay on paper, I had little Epson play parallel and against with two other projectors.

A DLP of the same class, the Viewsonic 7827HD other and with an “old” JVC X30 which is my personal projector at the moment, so I have a yardstick.

The battle

A few words before the battle

First I started with the firmware upgrade on the Viewsonic with the latest available (important for proper viewing of 24hz ).

You know very well that I avoid taking ANSI contrast measurements because they may not reflect reality in many cases. But here I just wanted to compare three headlights in the same space (same reflections) with the same measurement method. So as numbers may not be accurate but as differences between models are.

The method was measured in Patern 4×4 contrast at a specific distance (67cm) from the lens, with the instrument ca813 of course.

Let’s go look at the numbers…

Epson tw5650-281:1

Viewsonic PRO7127HD-272:1

JVC DLA-X30-271:1

The numbers are unbelievably close but the most wronged is probably the Epson who with the highest brightness was creating and more secondary reflections in the field. However, he was victorious at least in the formal process. Impressive. Weaker? The JVC, despite the smaller reflections in the space, expected…

A personal conclusion? In a typical living room, any supremacy (which is reasonably DLP) goes for a walk in scenes that the ANSI contrast has first reason.

On native on/off contrast in Cinema modes that the headlights would play side by side with the lamps in low position and on a 80 inch screen from the same distance we have

JVC DLA-X30-25.480:1

Viewsonic PRO7827HD-2.087:1

Epson tw5650-1.732:1

Lumen

Epson tw5650-1088 lumen

Viewsonic PRO7827HD-813 Lumen

JVC DLA-X30-627 lumen

Well, a few things about the way I chose to picture the headlights in parallel view. The way was to choose exposure ideal for the lowest projector brightness and necessarily over expose for the one with the highest. So ideally in the dark scenes will be photographed the difference in black level between the projectors, and in bright we will have a relatively balanced result of the extraction of conclusions. Let’s go see…

Viewsonic PRO7827HD vs Epson tw5650

For starters to say that both projectors are very close to lens sharpness. You almost don’t tell who’s Who. If I wanted to give a head start, I’d give it to Epson. The reason is that a 3LCD needs better optical parts to achieve the sharpness of a DLP. Here the Epson is a click better if we want to go and well declare a winner.

Up the Viewsonic, down the Epson

Let’s move on to the parallel photo shoot (one image tucked into the other in the center by 10-20 centimeters)…

Always left the Viewsonic, right the Epson

This is clearly what my eyes saw. Better sharpness to say it; lucidity to say it? Purity to say? This more tactile image, whatever the result, is clearly the best signal processing of Epson and not because of its lens. We saw it and this… indeed…

Here we see that the Viewsonic is colder, as well as the “orange” 100% Epson red that I mentioned in the measurements…

In the dark, the projectors are very close. However, you will find light superiority of the Viewsonic because of the slightly better on/off contrast, the lower brightness, and the fact that Epson plays without an iris enabled (for some reason the static screenshots did not work and disabled ).

Here you can see the slightly blue black of Epson. Better the Viewsonic, not with the difference that seems (remember the camera report that we said), but because I saw the scene with the iris of Epson turned on I will say that things are reversed.

Like two drops of water. Here the Epson plays ball on the DLP field and scores…

Here again we distinguish this embossing of Epson…

Conclusion

The two projectors are close, very close. However, Epson is better at the point. Brightening, brighter, better black because of an automatic iris (but only with the iris on) and better movement than the Viewsonic even with the F. I switched off.

If we put in the equation that it is significantly more silent than the Viewsonic (8db less) about in low mode (and only in low, because putting the lamp in high position the noise becomes almost intolerable) and that has ANSI contrast now equivalent even (if not better) Of DLP, is proclaimed for me victorious in their duel with victory points, as we would say in boxing.

JVC DLA-X30 vs Epson tw5650

This contra is informal because the projectors belong to a completely different category with JVC being in a much more expensive one. But my curiosity didn’t leave me. How will an old JVC be standing (almost 7 years old!) in front of a fresh last year spotlight of a 1000$? Don’t tell me you don’t want to find out;

Let’s go and see..

For start to say that putting the desktop I was laughing. JVC is simply dusting the good admittedly small Epson lens. The JVC lens does not project, surgery…  🙂

The differences also in the dark shots are really chaotic. But as we go through brighter scenes, things are balanced and in completely sunny footage, Epson takes a head.

In the scenes with pure ANSI contrast also the Epson shows slightly more 3d. I describe them to you because it is impossible to capture everything in screenshots…

Here are some screenshots in parallel view. You can clearly see what 2,000 means: 1 contrast and what 25,000:1.

And here with slightly larger exposure to show more stars in JVC as it is in fact

I will give you two independent screenshots with proper exposure in both of them and photographed separately so you can get an idea about the actual difference, as long as it can be captured in a photograph. Up JVC, down by Epson

Epilogue

Tw5650 is a very honest projector. Its worth the money of up to dime and offers a clear upgrade from all the small DLP market.  It features good contrast ANSI and οn/off, dynamic iris for help, frame interpolation for smoother movement of 24 frames, lens shift for easy positioning, high brightness, low noise and very good image out of the box. So it has everything, and mostly? What most competitors of DLP are deprived of.

Negative I found nothing important but if you have to charge him something this is his hypersaturated chromatic triangle on the tops.

As a icing, I would remind you of the excellent uniformity and convergence of the Epson small, a sample of proper design and manufacture of the camera from Epson’s mom.

Can I answer the question?

Choose LCD or DLP projector if available up to 1000$;

You choose TW5650 for sure..

Good views!

Nikos Tsolas