The Epson EH-LS100 (typically known as the Epson Dwelling Cinema LS100 in America) combines two of the largest traits on residence projection proper now: it’s an Extremely Brief Throw (UST) design that makes use of a laser mild engine.

Extremely Brief Throw fashions sidestep one of the difficult points of residence projection – house. To that finish, you don’t want a big room and unobstructed view to solid a monster picture. As a substitute, UST fashions could be positioned like a TV, simply inches from a wall. They’re the proper resolution when house is tight.

Whereas commonplace projectors have lengthy completed brief throw projection, throwing a laser into the combination provides longevity and enhances color and distinction. 

Talking of longevity, the anticipated lifetime of a laser diode is a minimum of 20,000 hours –
round 10 occasions the lifetime of an ordinary bulb you’d discover on an older projector, and 6 occasions that of the bulbs inside Epson’s newer projectors. Go for an eco-friendly lamp setting, and this may be prolonged to roughly 30,000 hours. 

Even higher, Epson guarantees no erosion in color depth over a ten yr interval. This makes the EH-LS100 mainly service free, minus some air filter modifications. 

One other engaging advantage of a laser mild supply over a lamp is close to prompt on – there’s subsequent to no warm-up time. Utilizing it is sort of a turbo-charged telly expertise.

So how a lot is Epson’s LS100 going to set you again? Round £2,600, $3000 or AU$4499, relying on the place on this planet you reside.

Design

Weighing 11kg and measuring  494 × 172 × 437mm (W x H x D), this Epson has a severe footprint. It’s constructed round a zero.67-inch 3LCD gadget with 16:10 (WUXGA, 1920 x 1200 decision) facet ratio, which suggests you’ll see a slight gray border prime and backside.

Epson has apparently taken a professional AV chassis (similarities with its EB company vary are apparent), and re-dressed it as a client mannequin. There are extraneous options on the distant management, and within the menu, which betray this Professional AV heritage. However these upscaled choices are excellent news up to some extent, as a result of what you’re getting right here is massively over-engineered for residence use.

Connections embrace three HDMI inputs (one with MHL), PC VGA, USB (for media file playback) and composite video. All inputs are recessed beneath the projector, so don’t count on to be casually plugging HDMIs out and in.

Regardless of its premium exterior and lavish connectivity choices, nevertheless, the projector comes with a somewhat dumpy distant management – a disappointing addition, however removed from a deal breaker right here.

Now clearly, the absolute best outcomes could be obtained by beaming onto a set, mild reflecting display, however most of us will need the display to successfully disappear from view when not in use, so a wall will do the job. The UST kind issue additionally lends itself to being hidden inside customized cabinetry, which suggests there’s an excellent likelihood you retain your lounge simply the best way it’s.

Setup

It couldn’t be simpler to get the EH-LS100 up and operating: Merely place the projector sq. to your wall, and use the main focus lever, situated beneath a latch by the air filter, to make every thing sharp. Picture measurement is determined by its distance from the wall. 

Whereas it really works from simply 6cm, pull again to 50 cm and also you’ll get a picture 130-inches throughout. With somewhat little bit of shuffling, we discovered might virtually fill a complete room wall, with no apparent seen pixel penalty.

When you’re unlikely to endure from any keystone points, there may be some geometric correction on supply to sq. the picture up for those who want it.

Efficiency

Let’s get one factor out of the best way: The EH-LS100 is Full HD. Some may bemoan the very fact it’s not 4K, however that will critically ramp up the price of a projector like this. For what it’s value, we by no means felt the EH-LS100 was deficit intimately. 

The projector seems wonderful when partnered with Blu-ray, streaming video participant or an HD TV field, be it Sky Q or an Amazon Fire TV. There’s element and depth to spare. Star Trek homage The Orville (Fox HD) is especially participating, due to its lush color palette and constasty house scenes

The projector combines an unapologetically vivid 10-bit color efficiency, with actual dynamic chew. Black ranges might be deeper, however distinction is excessive. The projector has a clean, photographic high quality, a long-standing attribute of 3LCD projectors. There’s one thing extraordinarily cinematic about their presentation relating to readability and color. 

Scenes with a excessive common image brightness look fabulous, significantly animation. Moana glows with main Polynesian hues, for instance, whereas the medieval opening of Transformers The Final Knight seems fittingly dramatic, with vivid orange-white fireballs, darkish muddied knights and spectacular landscapes.

Image changes embrace the standard brightness, distinction, saturation and sharpness tweaks, along with variable Dynamic Distinction (go away it on Excessive Pace), and a few deeper menu manipulation. For probably the most half you’ll most likely be pleased sufficient to utilise the supplied picture presets. 

The EH-LS100 is astoundingly shiny. It has no drawback projecting watchable photos in a room with excessive ranges of ambient mild – sports activities and gaming would appear the apparent beneficiaries of this. Epson quotes a four,000 lumens output, coupled to a powerful 2,500,000:1 distinction ratio – a consequence of its Professional AV DNA.

Nevertheless, to paraphrase the nice Stan Lee, with excessive brightness comes nice working noise. The EH-LS100 hits 39 dB in its Dynamic, Vivid Cinema and Sport modes. This won’t be a difficulty once you’ve acquired your rowdy mates spherical for an enormous match, but it surely’s overly intrusive for those who simply need to watch a film. The excellent news is that it’ll drop to 30 dB within the barely much less shiny Cinema mode.

The EH-0LS100 does characteristic an onboard sound system, and it’s fairly loud too, however the noise it makes is extra suited to a convention room than film night time. It clearly deserves to be partnered with a sound system of comparable weight and measurement – one thing we might prefer to see occur in future installments 

Verdict

The EH-LS100 is a pain-free option to convey big photos into bigger rooms. Should you’re fortunate sufficient to have an area that makes even 65-inch TVs look comparatively small, it’s a spectacular resolution. The supply of a laser mild supply removes the spectre of high-priced lamp substitute is reassuring too.

That stated, it isn’t bulletproof: It’s an enormous beast, as befits its company ancestry, and runs with a excessive degree of working noise. You’ll have to spend money on a succesful residence cinema sound system to masks it.

Nevertheless, if you’d like an extremely shiny media room projector capable of do justice to sports activities, gaming and flicks, somewhat than a devoted residence theatre mannequin, then the EH-LS100 positively calls for an audition. You’ll want the house to accommodate it, however its 1080p photos are shiny, sharp and constantly entertaining.