Once upon a time, not so long ago, a projector like Epson’s EMP-TW1000, which offered Full HD resolution for less than two grand, almost took our breath away. But now that they’re barely £10, there are certainly other Full HD projectors under £2,000. What’s more, they’re no longer unique to the LCD world, with Optoma’s HD80 now bringing Full HD DLP into the frame.
All of this is sort of a long-winded expression of how, with so much stiff competition, the TW1000 has some work to do to really impress us, low price or no low price.
It starts off pretty well, mind you. The body, for example, is really cute with its glossy black finish and somewhat elegant curves. It also feels pretty sturdy for such an affordable Full HD model.
It’s also remarkably easy and flexible to set up. Particularly likable is the incredibly simple vertical and horizontal lens shift system, which allows the image to be moved vast distances along any axis by simply turning two ‘wheels’ built into the top of the projector. The amount of optical zoom available is also amazing, offering a zoom ratio of 1-2.1:1, which should make it adaptable to almost any size living room.
The first small disappointment comes with the connections of the TW1000, because we only find a single digital video input: an HDMI. There’s actually another digital socket, a little D4 affair, but while this unexpectedly allows a SCART cable to be connected via an included adapter, it’s only useful in Japan when it comes to digital connections.
There’s good news about the lonely HDMI, though, and that’s its v1.3 designation, which makes it compatible with the Deep Color image enhancement system – so should sources appear that actually use Deep Color.
Elsewhere you’ll find a component video input, a D-Sub PC connection, a 12V trigger output to drive a motorized screen and an RS 232 connection allowing the projector to be integrated into a full home cinema installation.
A look at the data sheet of the TW1000 reveals some impressive numbers. Because in addition to the decisive Full HD pixel count of 1,920 x 1,080, there is an enormous contrast ratio of 12,000:1 and a high maximum brightness (for this price point) of 1,200 ANSI lumens.
Stepping into the TW1000’s on-screen menus we find a neatly presented system that’s relatively easy to navigate but just a little overloaded with options. We can well imagine archery tinkerers getting themselves – or rather the images from the projector – into quite a mess if they’re not careful.
Among the most intriguing of the options available is a handy array of themed picture presets, including two “theater” modes for home theater purposes, a living room mode for viewing in low natural light, and a dynamic mode for console or PC gaming. There is also a color temperature adjustment in Kelvin; an auto iris function, in which the projector automatically reduces its light output in dark scenes in order to increase the black level; motion detection processing; noise reduction; Turn output scaling on or off (select “Off” while watching HD); gamma adjustments; and a skin tone tweaker.
The sad thing, though, is that when you put all of the TW1000’s extreme imaging flexibility in the context of its actual imaging performance, the one phrase that comes to mind is “You can’t make a silk bag out of a sow’s ear”.
In other words, no matter how much we’ve played with all the plentiful picture tweaks available, the inherent quality of the TW1000’s pictures just aren’t high enough to allow us to achieve anything truly satisfying.
The main problem is one that is common with LCD projectors: black level response. Coming to the TW1000 at the back of a range of DLP projectors, it’s simply impossible not to feel disheartened by the amount of gray hanging over parts of the image that should be black. This makes supposedly large-scale dark scenes like the giant egg chamber on the crashed ship in Alien look decidedly flat and lifeless, and obscures the kind of subtle background detail that helps dark parts of the image appear properly integrated into the image as a whole.
The gray has another knock-on effect on colour, with hues in dark scenes tending to appear rather muted and washed out by the gray ‘wall’ that stands between them and your eyes.
In fact, the more we look at the TW1000’s black level shortcomings, the more we’re beginning to feel that it’s not just DLP that outperforms it in this crucial department; even some LCD models have delivered slightly more black level capabilities than this.
So that nobody at Epson has any leeway on this topic, we can say for the record that we really tried everything to make the pictures of the TW1000 better; the auto iris, the lamp power levels, the image presets, the individual contrast and brightness settings, the gamma control, the skin tone levels… Seriously, we’ve left no stone unturned to make the TW1000’s images more personable. After all, no one could have been more interested in liking a Full HD projector that costs just £1800 than we can.
But in the end we had no choice but to throw up our arms and admit defeat. Bottom line, the TW1000’s images just don’t have enough black levels to convince and there’s nothing you can do about it.
This is all the more demoralizing because the TW1000 is pretty good in a few other key areas. For example, there is absolutely no trace of motion artifacts or blurring, giving even action-packed scenes like the Battle of the Immortals in 300’s HD DVD a sense of smooth, clear purity that is second to none.
The Full HD resolution also means there is no “screen door” effect, which causes the LCD pixel structure to show up in the picture, and there is no problem with the flickering color bands in your peripheral field of view that many affordable DLP projectors (the so-called “rainbow effect”).
LCD images can sometimes look a bit grainy and over-sharpened around contours, but again the TW1000 performs well here, with a smooth, polished, even and impressively silent display, at least when it comes to HD recording.
While we’ve seen sharper LCD images, there’s enough subtlety in textures and color blending to confirm that this is definitely a Full HD rather than just HD Ready projector.
The final string to the TW1000’s bow is that it runs impressively quiet, at least when the low lamp power option is selected.
“‘Verdict”‘
On paper, Epson has put together a terrifying offering with the EMP-TW1000. But we’re sorry to say that some fairly fundamental issues, particularly in the black level department, mean it falls short of its apparent potential.
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