PowerLite Home Cinema 5020UB 3D 1080p 3LCD Projector
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5020 a real star
I sold my year-old Epson 3010 to upgrade to a 5020. The goal was to add frame interpolation, better color gradation, 2D to 3D, and ability to resolve the pattern to under a pixel width. I accomplished all these and could not be happier with the look of the images on our 10' screen. The projector worked well right out of the box in THX mode, although we changed to "standard" mode, ECO power-saving, and made tweaks to contrast and skin tone. We did not feel we had to run a complete color balancing, since the image was spectacular, even as compared to our color balanced 3010. HIGHLY recommended.
June 14, 2013
PowerLite Home Cinema 5020UB Projector - Awesome!
Overall, incredibly impressed by this projector. I purchased it after seeing a review on Cnet being the top budget projector in it's class. The review was dead on. The only problem I've had thus far is one of the 3D glasses that came with it were broken on arrival. I purchased from Best Buy so I am hoping they will replace it but that was pretty disenchanting considering the unit was brand new. Again, the projector is awesome but I feel like the packaging could be a little more sturdy to prevent things like this from happening. I'll update my review if epson or best buy helps me fix my broken 3d glasses.
June 10, 2013
Not perfect but worth every penny
I have used the 5020 for several months and am absolutely delighted with it's performance.
Positioning Flexibility:
When I 1st fired up the projector I had it resting on a table opposite the center of the screen. Using the mechanical adjustments, in a few short minutes had a wonderful image on the screen. Later, I built a shelf with lots of breathing room in all directions about a foot from the ceiling. After a few more minutes I was able to again (roughly) mechanically adjust the image to give me a geometrically perfect image. Very nice.
Mechanical Quality:
The lens is amazing. Incredible sharp.
However, precisely sizing and aligning the image with the mechanical adjustments is rather difficult. The 5020's underlining mechanics (feel like) there is more plastic and play then fine machining. This is a projector you will want to set up only once and never change the adjustments for fear of wearing out the adjustment gears. I read a review where one user experienced such a failure with his Epson 6010.
Audio Noise: 2d is acceptable but 3d gets a little noisy, (still worth the price for the wonderful 3d image). The auto - iris can be heard over the fan noise in 2d mode but worth the sounds as the blacks are amazing and dark screens on this projector are incredible.
Brightness:
To maximize light output, I have the projector set back just far enough to fully light my 147” 1.0 screen at the maximum wide angle setting. The image brightness is, for my old eyes, nice and bright. 3D is also bright enough but I wouldn't want to go with a screen much larger then the 147” in 3d mode.
The 3d glasses are light weight and comfortable. However, occasionally, when you have bright, fat, white objects (like end titles) against a black or dark background, there is very noticeable and annoying cross-talk. Most of the time, such demands are not made on the system and 3d is very impressive.
Considerations:
To appreciate this projector's amazing performance, you absolutely must build a “bat cave”. i.e you must have black furniture, walls, floor, and ceiling with no light source illuminating the room other then the projector.
Conclusion:
One interesting side effect of building a media room around this projector is when I go to the local electronics stores and look at the huge LED Tv's on display, I find myself shaking my head and wonder why the images look so bad (for such a comparably small image) on their televisions.
April 27, 2013
I was pleasantly surprised by the picture delivered by the projector. Colors are vibrant and clear. Best view is in the dark.
February 6, 2013
