Epson Home Cinema 2000 1080p 3D 3LCD Home Theater Projector

I will compare this Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2000 to my Epson PowerLight 725HD. PowerLite 2000: Resolution: 1080p Light output: 1800 Lumins Contrast: 13,000:1 3D/2D 725HD: Resolution: 720p Light Output: 2800 Lumins Contrast: 12,000:1 2D My Setup: 139" Diagonal Screen (Custom screen using Carl's ProWhite material) Typical living room setting that is dimly lit Pros: (+) 1080p (+) Very affordable, significantly cheaper than Epson 3020 (+) Surprisingly bright (+) Good shadow detail (+) Affordable $99 bulb replacements from Epson (+) 2 year warranty (+) 3D (I did not test this) Cons: (-) The fan is audible on normal mode. Though, I haven't had the need to switch out of ECO. My greatest concern with the PowerLite 2000 was whether or not it will be bright enough for me since my 725HD is rated for much higher brightness. I'm glad to report it does not disappoint, I can't tell the difference in brightness at all, and I leave it on ECO. You will not have a problem using this projector in a dimly light room. Images on the 2000 looks significantly sharper because 1080p has roughly double the pixel count of 720p. The resolution difference is noticeable at my screen size, but its not a deal breaker if you want to save some money and get a 720p projector. The biggest performance increase was in black level performance and shadow detail. Night scenes that would appear washed out on the 725HD have much more detail on the 2000 and the colors pop out more. Conclusion: I think it is well worth it to pay 150 bucks over the 725HD for the higher resolution and better black levels. I also think it isn't worth shelling out the extra cash for its older sibling, the 2030 which has identical specs except slightly higher luminosity.

I spent a long time looking over the various projectors available, and I had a heck of a time making a selection. Not because there were so many great choices, just the opposite, every projector seemed to have flaws and drawbacks. First off, DLP has rainbow effects. Some of the newer 6x wheels still have rainbows and don't actually spin at 6x for all content! Secondly, bulb projectors always turned me off. I have zero desire to spend $200-300 for a bulb with "up to 3000 hours", especially when up to doesn't mean it will actually last that long. I have put up with the Dell M110 LED projector for two years and wanted to upgrade. The LED projector has no bulb and is rated at 20,000 hours. I ran it for 6200 hours over the two years, so you can tell it's used frequently. My first pass was to look for LED 1080p projectors. ViewSonic makes one that you can buy for around $1500 with amazon discount. Unfortunately it doesn't rival bulb projectors in video quality (clarity, sharpness, contrast) that cost half as much. Higher end LED projectors are in the $3,000+ range, and not within my budget. So I started looking at bulb projectors.... due to the aformentioned issues with DLP, I ruled them out. They have slightly better blacks than LCD, but rainbows give me headaches and they also use more power. The color wheel is also spinning all the time and it wears out. Not something I wanted to get into. 3LCD may have wear issues too (organic/inorganic) but I haven't seen anyone report that issue on the projector forums, so I am ignoring that potential. Next up, which brand to buy? Most have 1 year warranty. The BenQ 1070 comes highly recommended, but the 1 year warranty and tons of built complaints online turned me off from it. Just as I was going to give up, I looked at the less exciting brand of Epson. The 2030 unit comes highly recommended on the projector forums, and has something few bulb projectors can claim: $99 replacement bulbs. Additionally bulbs are rated for 6000 hours in eco mode. I ended up buying the 2000 model because it was significantly cheaper (close to $300 with amazon discounts!) and since I planned to use it in a theater room, 1800 lumens is more than enough (even in 3d). Aside from being 200 lumens darker, the 2030 and 2000 are identical. It's the same lens, bulb, etc. The 2030 just uses a bit more power. When you get down to it, the ECO mode prolongs life of the bulb because it's less stressed. So lower is better for me anyway! I've been using the $18 3d glasses this evening and it works amazingly well. The colors are bright and lifelike, the image clarity is razor sharp, and I really have no complaints. Did I mention Epson has a 2 year warranty with next day delivery if your projector breaks? I purchased my 2000 using a credit card that gave me another 1 year warranty extension, so 3 years at no extra cost. There is literally no rival for this price point.

Been using it for almost a year now as my main means of watching video at home (I don't care to own TV). Have a chromecast and MK808B android TV stick attached to it through HDMI - sound goes to Creative SB ROAR speaker through the projector sound output. First the good - it's 3LCD, so there is no color wheel rainbow which would bother me immensely with DLP projectors. The image quality is quite good, 1080p looks fantastic with lights off. Now the bad - it's louder than my previous 6 years old Hitachi projector and that's saying something. Eco mode helps but the brightness is not great in Eco mode. There aren't really much quieter projectors in this price-range, everything is around the same dB numbers, so I guess couple of dB less wouldn't really matter much, but still if you plan on buying it - just be aware its far from being whisper-quiet. Like I said, the brightness of it in Eco mode leaves a lot to be desired. Other than that it's decent. Overall, I have to say that I was surprised that projector tech didn't advance much where it matters in the past 10 years. I had a DLP hitachi I bought in 2006, for around 600 usd, besides lower resolution it could produce (1024x768 native), there isn't much advantage to this Epson's model when compared with Hitachi. I would have thought that both the contrast, brightness and loudness of the projector in sub 1000 usd price range would improve significantly during that time, but alas, no.

Great product. The picture is amazing, sound is better than expected, setup is a breeze, and settings configuration is very simple. It even has a fine tune button where it will automatically adjust the picture settings. I have not played with any of the picture setting because it is perfect for my liking. The only issue was that I had to send in for a new one because there was a rattling noise coming from the machine when the picture changed. I requested a replacement and it is in the mail. Good service and fast response. The main negative response was that Amazon double charged my account for this item, which resulted in my order being delayed. It took until the third call to actually speak to someone who listened to what I was saying. The first two callers repeated the phrase, "Please call your bank" over and over again and were not listening to a thing I said. The third guy finally understood me and fixed the problem and gave me free one day shipping as I asked him. These things happen, but its very frustrating when you have to call three times to figure it out. Hope this does not happen again. Overall: amazing product and I love it.

I purchased the Epson ($799) as an upgrade from the Viewsonic PJD5134 which I bought back in September for a little over $300. While I think the Viewsonic is amazing for the price, it is only SVGA and the the image is like looking through a "screen door" unless you get back about 16 feet from a 120 inch screen. After comparing all the entry level 1080p projectors, I picked the Epson for the $99 replacement bulb. The image was great right out of the box, and I watched the Man of Steel in 3d last night using Quantum 3d glasses which run about $49. I was never a fan of 3d until I got the Viewsonic and now the Epson. I find myself spending the extra money to get the 3d Bluerays which I play on an $89 Sony 3d player I got a few months ago. The real value of the Epson is in bringing the family together for movie, games and TV watching. I went from a 70inch Sharp TV to the Viewsonic projector and the family "TV" experience increased from once a week to several times a week. Make no mistake the Sharp TV has much better image, but the screen size difference makes the Epson the better value. I gave my wife the Sharp and all I watch now is the Epson. The only negative is that I will have to paint additional wall space to use as a screen since 120 inches was fine for SVGA but for 1080p, I'm taking it up to 150 inches or more. (Projector Central is a great resource with reviews for projectors and the best paint to use for a DIY screen.) I took the Epson image up to about 200 inches when I first tested my existing celling mount and it was amazing, but the size was too much for the room. Also, I use it in the basement so the background light is limited and I have not tested it during the morning when I get the most light. Even the Viewsonic which has about 2x the brightness of the Epson was almost overpowered by the morning sun. So here is my summary, get the Epson for the big screen experience, or if you are on a buget or purchasing for kids, get the Viewsonic at $329. The Viewsonic with four pairs of cheap 3d glasses ran less than $450 and we loved it, but I was sensitive to the "screen door" image. After moving the 70 inch Sharp up from the basement to the family room, the Epson is the way to go if you have a low background light room and a good wall or screen. The sky is the limit on image size and the unit is easy to move at about 6 to 8 pounds. So between the paint, HDMI cords (i use a 35 foot one for the Xbox360), a Sony 3D player, the Epson & Viewsonic, 3d glasses for both and universal ceiling mount, I'm still under the price of a good 70 inch non-3d TV, and I can easily move the Epson to any room in the house. Update 7/11/14: I now have over 1300 hours on it and it is still going strong. I have had no lamp or filter issues, and I have only cleaned the filter once.

This rating is expressing my extreme frustration at the price rather than the projector itself. I would give the projector itself 4.5 stars. So far I've only used the PLHC 2000 for 2D photo projection, which it does well at for under $1k. Knocked half a star off due to amount of fan noise at full power. Thankfully, I've been able to use it in quieter Eco mode and have had sufficient light for the darker rooms its been used in. I had a presentation to give on Nov. 1. Hoping to upgrade from my old EX70 I did some quick research and found the Epson 2000/2030s were recently out and had some good reviews. I waited as long as I could before 11/1 hoping for the typical price drop from the initial number, but no luck, pulled the trigger on 10/23. Shortly thereafter saw it go through 3 rapidly successive $50 drops, would of saved $150 if I could of waited just a month. Ready to scream!!!

This is a gorgeous picture, but it is very inflexible. This is our 4th projector, and the first one we have to move. The first 3 replacements went up onto the same ceiling mount, and just took a little turn of the lens to work perfectly. But this projector just has "keystone adjustment" which is just about worthless. We have a 100" screen, the ceiling mount 12' from the screen, and as I indicated, the Sony and Optoma projectors we had previously were just plug and play. But this projector will require us to move the ceiling mount. Haven't yet decided if we will return it and eat the shipping, or pay to have ANOTHER CEILING MOUNT installed. I decided to return it. Having two ceiling mounts one 2 feet in front of the other, would really ruin the look of our home theatre. In doing more research, I see the Epson Home Cinema 3000 would work, but it is almost twice as expensive. I guess you get what you pay for. I went back to Optoma, with a 1' lens adjust, and it should plug and play. If you have your projector mounted, so it cannot be easily moved, you will want to check the throw distance--DLP will support a longer throw than LCD. Unless, as I said, you spend more, then it would fit. I guess a lot of the LCDs are moved around (inside, outside). We have a very nice universal ceiling mount, and I am glad I decided not to move it. Really didn't want to do a major remodel just to swap out my projector. Didn't need the brightness of LCD-our home theatre is in the basement, with windows covered, so I needed to turn the brightness on the LCD way, way down, in order to make it comfortable on my eyes. Bottom line, if you have a real home theatre, which is dark, and don't have the need for the additional brightness of the LCD, I recommend DLP. But if your home theatre gets ambient light, then the shorter throw of the LCD may work better for you. Just make sure, if you have a ceiling mount, that you mount it correctly, and permanently. You can switch, but it will cost you more $$, because you need to get a projector that can make the switch. Ordered the Optoma HD141X. I will be leaving a review there as soon as I get it.

This projector has been wonderful. I've been using it about a month. I was upgrading from a 10 year old Epson projector that claimed to be 2000 lumens in low-power mode, and I was never happy with the brightness of it, so I wasn't sure if a "downgrade" to 1800 lumens was a good idea. Well, once I got this going, that changed real fast. Wow, this thing is bright and colorful! Now I know my old projector was not doing that many lumens, maybe half in real life because it was old and on it's last leg. With this projector, you can have lights on or watch during the day and still have plenty of brightness and color. I might not be the most picky about black levels. People who are spend thousands on their projector. Honestly, I would have a hard time justifying spending $2000 more just for a better black level. I think the black level on this projector is great and I have no complaints. If you put it side by side with a much more expensive projector, yes you will probably see a difference. But is it worth spending that much more? It's just too much of diminishing returns in my opinion unless you have the money to spend and want to spend it. Throw distance being shorter than my previous projector was a problem. I had to design the creative mount shown in my pictures to get it closer to the screen. I had a dozen restrictions on where to put it. The wall in between the kitchen and living room is where my old one was mounted and was 12 feet from the screen. This one needs to be about 8 or 9 feet from the screen to make a 100". I thought maybe I'd leave it sitting on a stand behind the sofa, but the sofa backs are too tall. Mounting from the ceiling is not an option for several reasons, including that I'm renting and can't tear things up. So I got a really dense, hard-wood oak board and a heavy-duty mounting bracket and a whole lot of hardware and made it strong and just right for the room. I'm confident enough in my DIY mount to sit directly under it, at least. Just a side note, I built the screen myself for about $50 for my first projector. I bought basic projector screen fabric for $40 and built a light-weight wooden frame for about $10. It has a string mount like a giant picture frame and hangs on a single hook in a drywall anchor. The whole thing weights about five pounds. I recommend that, unless you have specific reasons, don't go and spend $200 on a screen! There's a lot of guides on the internet to help you. I bought this HDMI extender: Monoprice HDMI Extender Using Cat5e or CAT6 Cable, Extend Up To 98-Feet (108121) which use 2 cat-6 cables and they work perfectly for a 50 foot run. And they can carry the 3D signal, too. I also bought these 3D glasses: Samsung SSG-5150GB 3D Active Glasses which work great with this projector. I use my PS3 to watch 3D Blurays and play a couple games in 3D. Bottom line: I would recommend this projector to anyone who has a little know-how and wants a real home theater. You're spending half of what you would on a 50" TV and getting a 100"-150" screen. The reflected natural light of the bulb is so much more comfortable than LEDs beaming directly into your eyes. Trust me, once you go projector, you never go back.