Epson EH-TW5200

Epson EH-TW5200 Review – The EH-TW5200 is Epson’s cheapest home-cinema projector, yet it can project a screen size up to a whooping 300 inches at 1080p resolution – far bigger than any similarly priced TV.

Epson EH-TW5200, A very bright projector at a reasonable price

Epson-EH-TW5200 Epson EH-TW5200

Epson EH-TW5200

The Epson EH-TW5200 is compact and has a front-facing heat exhaust vent, so you can slot it into a bookshelf or on top of a coffee tabble without it overheating or blasting hot air over you. There are plenty ports – two HDMI ports as well as composite, VGA, photo and 3.5mm audio connections. One of the HDMI ports works with MHL devices too.

Unlike more expensive projectors, you have to adjust zoom and focus manually. This is done using a pair of dials and focus was very sharp. If you can not get the projector facing your wall or screen square on, then the image can be skewed. There are horizontal image adjustment controls to compensate for this, but oddly not a vertical one. You can use the keystone correction feature to help correct this, but it degrades image quality so it should be avoided if possible.

Out of the box, the TW5200 is rather loud, but switching on the power-saving mode helps reduce the noise coming from the internal fan. Otherwise, the built-in speakers are not loud enough to drown out the fan noise. They also distort at full volume, so you will want to connect a set of external speakers for the best sound/audio quality.

Epson estimates the lamp should last around 3000 hours at full brightness before it needs replacing. You need to extra careful when replacing the lamp. You have to open the case without breaking it. The TW5200 produces a 2000 lumens image which is incredibly bright for a projector at this price. When set to the Living Room image setting, you will be able to use the projector without drawing the curtains or dimming the lights, as long as you stick to bright and colorful content such as football matches or kid’s shows. For films, however, you will want to switch to the cinema preset and turn down the lights. This provides a much-needed boost to the otherwise average contrast, although there’s still a slight grey cast to very dark scenes that’s impossible to remove, even after tweaking the extensive image-quality settings.

High-definition video looked crisp with vivid, accurate colors, Unlike many other similarly priced projectors, the Epson EH-TW5200 uses LCD technology instead of DLP so it does not suffer from a distracting rainbow effect in fast-moving and black-and-white scenes. Fast motion does look a little juddery, though, and there aren’t any settings to compensate for this, but it’s not too bad.

Overall, The Epson EH-TW5200 is good value. Although it can be loud and contrast isn’t perfect, it is compact, bright and has excellent colour accuracy. It is a great home-cinema projector.

Epson EH-TW5200 Spesifications

  • 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution
  • 15000:1 contrast ratio
  • 2000 Lumens
  • 2x HDMI, VGA
  • composite
  • phono
  • 3.5mm audio and USB inputs
  • Dimension 105x297x247 mm
  • weight 2.8 kg
  • Price $1035

 

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