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3 Responses to “Epson Powerlite V11H337020 Home Cinema 8500 LCD Home Theater Projector”

1. Gary French Says: February 3rd, 2010 at 9:46 pm

   There is a major problem with this projector and many hundreds are being returned to epson. A red wavy line appears on the screen. Until epson fixes this problem then do not buy.
   Rating: 3 / 5

2. Nick Says: February 3rd, 2010 at 11:57 pm

   This is my first projector. I tend to be extremely picky about my image and sound quality. I was nervous and somewhat skeptacle going from my 62″ DLP TV to a projector. I researched different projectors for weeks. Every time I looked up a review for one projector it would mention a different one for comparison. I would then have to research that one. I ended up creating a spreadsheet listing prices, pro’s, con’s and more finer details. I ended up settling for the 8500UB since many sites rave about it.

   I wish I could have given 4.5 stars on this review. I wouldn’t call it a perfect 5 nor would I call it a 4. I am overall very pleased with the projector and it is well worth $2500. Shop around and you’ll save a lot. I ordered mine at [...]

   I have about 30 hours on it. I still fiddle with the color calibration settings. [...] has a decent starting point for calibration.
   
   Since it is LCD you have much wider flexability where it can be mounted. The problem with the offsets is image distortion especially side to side. Plan to mount it in the center with VERY little side offsets. See note 2 below. Side offset makes the image twist appear out of level. Over the width of a large screen being off-level slightly is very noticeable.

   The two very minor things I would mark it down for:
   
   1. Small dark text on a light background can get slightly washed out. It is still legible, just not crisp.
   
   2. I use the projector as my main TV. Not everything is broadcast in HD widescreen. I have it ceiling mounted with a standard 8′ ceiling with 110″ 16:9 grey screen. Full screen 4:3 images have a very slight trapezoid effect. Since the projector is closer to the top of the screen light has to travel further to get to the bottom. It is slightly wider at the bottom. Again, I am very picky!!! A friend viewing would probably not notice.

   Screen Tip: Make sure the screen has a velvet frame because the black velvet absorbs light. Since the trapezoid effect is noticeable with full screen images if you overshoot widescreen images just a hair they will appear square and you don’t notice trapezoid effects at all.

   Washout: If you have a lot of ambient light in the room you will definitely have washout. I highly recommend blackout curtains for sunlight.

   Noise: The projector is very quiet. I have it mounted on my ceiling about two feet behind my couch. Occasionally, I can hear the Iris shift but I have to be listening for it. Quiet scenes in a movie are no problem.

   Color is fantastic. Nice deep dark blacks and shadow effects. HD signals and Blu-Ray discs are awesome. With a little planning setup is a breeze.
   Rating: 5 / 5

3. S. Dang Says: February 4th, 2010 at 2:05 am

   The projector really earns it’s UB moniker with it’s outstanding ultrablack performance. The 8500UB has extremely low light leak in the blacks while still being able to capture the most subtle details in stark scenes scenes.

   I have watched two movies thus far on this projector. First was the colorful Disney flick “UP”, next was a dark horror movie called Shiver. I projected them against a plain semi-gloss white wall at midnight, where there was a slight cast of window frames , due to surrounding businesses lights (I live in a factory conversion). The image casted was 15′ (diagonal, or 180″). The bottom of the image was about 4′ from the floor.

   Reflections on viewing UP (HD 1080p on Blu-ray):
   
   - Very bright and consistent from corner to corner.
   
   - The details were were crisp and not over or under-saturated.
   
   - Nice solid colors (viewed from about 10 ‘ away, which is closer than I would like but I was limited to how far back I could sit due to the trajectory of the projected image.
   
   -With frame interpolation set to low, animation was very smooth, but not overdone. There were no noticeable impact on sound sync with it enabled. With it off, animation reverted to the standard film rate at 24 FPS. I prefered having it on.
   
   -No noticeable artifacts that I saw during film.

   Reflections on viewing Shiver (XBOX360 1GB download, Standard Definition):
   
   -Overall movie was very dark, and the dark scenes were impacted by ambient light from outside.
   
   -Due to source, the image was not sharp and crisp, but watchable.

   Overall thoughts on my test drive:
   
   While putting up my blackout cloths would certainly yield a brighter image, I really didn’t want to bother with the job of putting up and taking down blackout cloth on two 10 foot high windows. Even with the ambient light from outside, the image was plenty bright and not affected at all (at least for UP). It’s hard to describe in text how much ambient light there was in the room, but if I were to describe it from 1 to 10 with 1 being near darkness (use of blackout cloth) and 10 being fully bright it would be a 3. I have very big windows, and ALL of my walls are white, so there was quite a bit of reflection during bright scenes. The point is there was no problems projecting 15′ image in very low light settings. On the other hand, for movies staged in dark settings, as with any projector, the darker the better. There’s simply no getting around it. On the point of fan noise, up close it’s very quiet. From a few feet away, it wasn’t noticeable. BTW, this is a right-out-of-the-box test drive. I only made basics setup adjustments, no tweaking colors, temperature, etc.

   Other observations:
   
   - The projector has image shift knobs that have plenty of range. I was able to move the image 4 or 5 feet (didn’t measure) in each direction from center. The aspect ratio was preserved at all times. There are no keystone settings.
   
   -Two knobs for the bottom front feet. I didn’t need to adjust them.
   
   -Two HDMI ports. One used for my Blu-ray player.
   
   -One set of Component Video Inputs, used for my XBOX 360.
   
   -The remote is excellent. Smooth flat white, large, backlit, well-designed remote. It’s great that the key features have dedicated buttons.
   
   -Optics are very large!
   
   -Projector feels twice as heavy as my InFocus projector (X1).
   
   -When turning on the lamp takes about half a minute to a minute to come to full brightness. However, the system shuts down very quickly. Fan did not run after shutting down.
   
   -Air blown out of fan is typically hot.
   
   -On/Off rocker switch on the back, and digital switch on the top.

   Overall impression:
   
   EXCELLENT! There are cheaper 1080p projectors, but they don’t have the same level of quality and featureset. If this projector is within your budget, you will not be disappointed. You will really appreciate the:
   
   - Extremely high contrast ratio (200,000:1)
   
   - Ultra-black darks (not just marketing)
   
   - Truly usable frame interpolation (Not overdone. Adjustable too!)
   
   - Excellent throw distance (180″ cast from about 17′)
   
   - Superb out-of-box performance

   For complete specs, here is a link to Epson’s website:
   
   [...]
   
   Rating: 5 / 5

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