Epson - Pro Cinema LS9000 4K HDR 3LCD Laser Projector - Black

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• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Powerhouse Home Theater Projector

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  Being able to replicate a movie theater experience at home has long been the dream of those of us who love movies and having the best quality. Epson has given us one of the most accessible cracks at it with their new LS9000 model and it’s the real deal! PROS: - Unboxing the projector, this thing is a beast! It has a really nice slick look to it while also looking top of the line with its design. And since this is not a smart projector (which is a huge plus to me) it’s a fairly simple setup to get it up and running. - The digital / motorized buttons to help you adjust the image are also really helpful. The projector says it can get up to 300 inches in screen size but I myself had a 125 inch screen and I thought it was perfect. Being able to easily adjust the proportions to fit the screen along with focus was really easy. I also thought the motorized cover was a nice touch! - With setup is another huge plus for me, it has 2 HDMI 2.1 ports with one being an arc. Which means 1 HDMI can be be surround sound and 1 HDMI can be for your preferred media consumption. I personally switched between using an Apple TV 4K and a PlayStation 5. - Out of the box the picture is truly exceptional! It supports HDR 10+ which is one of the highest formats you can get, and most when setup properly truly gives you the best quality image you could ask for. The whites pop, the darks are perfectly contrasted, and the colors are all super vibrant. I watched HDR 10+ movies as well as regular TV and sports on this, and all different formats impressed me. Specifically movie viewing brought a level of total immersion I was blown away by! - More on the display, the projector has a 2.5 million to 1 contrast ratio along with 2,200 lumens. Lumens can sometimes be a gimmicky stat but the combination of a super high contrast ratio and this bright really makes the projector shine. - Although movies are great on this, playing video games is also a blast. It supports 4K 120hz gaming which allows for smooth gaming with a huge setup. CONS: - Truly this has been the best projector I’ve ever owned. My only complaint would be I wish it had 3 HDMI ports. BOTTOM LINE: - Projector’s are not just for movie lovers, but for anyone who wants a full immersive experience when watching TV, rooting for your favorite team, entertaining guests, or gaming. The Epson Pro Cinema LS9000 delivers on every front you would want. It can deliver high end surround sound through its ARC HDMI port, produce exceptional picture quality with HDR 10+ along with 2.5 million to 1 contrast, and is bright enough to watch with plenty of ambient light. This is a crown of a home projector that will be a staple of your home theater!

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  Njuice Posted 4 months ago

• Rated 4 out of 5 stars

  Great Cinema, Superb Gaming, Meh Price

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  📦 UNBOXING: Inside the box, you’ll find the projector, a remote control and pair of AA batteries, a power cable, and a manual to help you get started. 💪 BUILD: The projector itself is undoubtedly sizable at 28lbs and measuring in at 20.5" x 17.6" 7.6". I am changing from a 2017 Epson Home Cinema 4000 3LCD, which has very similar dimensions, but this new Pro Cinema LS9000 weighs 4 lbs more. The front of the projector has the motorized lens system and exhaust fans, the rear has the inputs and outputs, the top has the status indicator lights, and the sides intake cool air, while the right side also has the power button and source button. The remote control gives you access to everything you need without ever needing to press a button on the projector itself. The buttons and text are fairly large, are easy to read, and I appreciate that there’s a backlight button so you can read the remote in the dark. I especially appreciate that with HDMI CEC, I can control my audio receiver’s volume from Epson’s remote, and navigate the menus of connected Blu-Ray players, and set-top boxes. No need to fumble with different remotes. 🔌 PORTS: On the rear, you’ll find a 5V2A USB Type-A port which can be used for saving/uploading your settings and performing firmware updates, a service port for diagnostics, a trigger out port for sending a 12V signal to a motorized projector projector screen, a LAN port for controlling the projector via web interface, a “Opt.HDMI” port which is really a 300mA USB port for powering notably long optical HDMI cables, 2x HDMI 2.1 ports (one of which supports ARC/eARC), and a RS-232C port which can be used for controlling the projector. 🛠️ SETUP: You can opt to front-mount or rear-mount depending on the space you have, as well as ceiling-mount or shelf-mount the LS9000. I used the Epson V12H808001 which is a universal ceiling mount. I previously used this mount for my Home Cinema 4000 3LCD, and while it’s UL rated for 25 lbs, I did not have any issues using it with the 28lb Pro Cinema LS9000. If you do opt to ceiling mount it, you may have to navigate an upside-down user interface until you change the Projection Mode to be Front/Ceiling. I’d recommend at least changing this Projection Mode while on a table against a blank wall before you ceiling mount. Regardless of whether you ceiling mount or shelf mount, you will need to use the zoom and horizontal/vertical shift to center the projection, the focus to get the sharpest image, and potentially the keystone for situations where the projection is off-axis. All of these can be performed directly from the remote control, and even directly from the rear controls on the projector. Notably, the horizontal/vertical shift is especially impressive since it allows the projector itself to be off-center from the screen while delivering a completely undistorted image. The pattern image is notably helpful for perfectly framing for your projection to your screen, so be sure to make use of it while you’re setting it up for the first time. 🧠 SOFTWARE: At its core, the software used on the LS9000 is largely the same as it has been for years. It offers plenty of configuration for the vast majority of people to calibrate and fine-tune the image, but there are some notable features worth mentioning. Firstly, the frame interpolation feature is actually reasonable if you use the “Low” setting. It’s only available if you have Image Processing set to “Fine” as opposed to “Fast”, as it does incur higher input latency, but the end result is clean and may be preferable for some folks who find lower frame rate content to be distracting. I wouldn’t personally use this for gaming due to the perceptibly higher input latency, but for cinema, it can be surprisingly nice. On the higher settings, it produces the “soap opera” effect that isn’t to my taste. Another notable feature is the “Memory” feature which allows you to save up to 10 Image settings and 10 Lens settings independently. Saving image settings can be especially valuable if you want to have a preset for gaming where you use “Fast” Image Processing, and another preset for Cinema with “Fine” Image Processing and “Low” frame interpolation. Meanwhile, the Lens settings can be valuable if you want to configure different aspect ratios like 16:9, 4:3 or anamorphic if you have an anamorphic lens attachment. The remote control has the option to switch between 2 Lens settings for your convenience, but it doesn’t have the option to quick switch between Image settings, so you’ll need to press the “Memory” button on the remote and navigate the menu to select your desired setting. Since I don’t have the need for multiple Lens settings, I think it would be great if the remote had a “Memory 1” and “Memory 2” that would allow the user to select either a Lens or Image preset. After some initial setup and changes over time to match your preferences, the interface should largely stay out of your way. Since the remote uses infrared, you’ll ideally need a direct sight to the projector to control the interface. In my experience, it’s not the snappiest experience, but it’s also not the slowest I’ve ever used. Thankfully, it is not a “Smart projector” with a bloated OS. If you prefer, you can configure it through a web interface if you hook up the projector over LAN. I’ve not tested this, but I can see this being a desirable feature. 📽️ IMAGE: I did all my testing on a 135” Silver Ticket STR-169135 screen, which is certainly a more economical option, but it’s been doing well for me. The Pro Cinema LS9000 claims to hit a peak of 2200 lumens, and that’s unfortunately zero improvement from the 7 year old Home Cinema 4000 3LCD that I was previously using. While the LS9000 can hit and sometimes exceed that brightness, it really only does so under the Dynamic Color Mode. For those who want to to use professional calibration tools, it may be more advantageous to use the “Natural” mode and adjust from there. To my untrained eye, the Dynamic mode had the best contrast and brightness, with Bright Cinema being my next favorite. I spent most of my time in Dynamic Color Mode with Dynamic Contrast set to “High Speed”. In my experience, the image was vibrant with reasonably good contrast, but it’s not going to compete with modern TV’s in terms of contrast. However, in a dark room, there’s no doubt that it delivers an immersive experience especially on a larger screen. There are a number of sharpness settings available on the LS9000 that can yield different results for different preferences, but at a reasonable viewing distance, I found that the resulting image was crisp. However, because it uses a pixel shifting 1080p native panel, this does mean it won’t be as sharp as a projector with a native 4k panel. In practice, being able to tell apart a good pixel shifting image versus a native 4k panel can be more challenging to the untrained eye when viewing at an appropriate distance, but up close, it’s certainly more noticeable. Watching content from high bitrate UHD Blu-Rays is a great way to experience the best that this projector is capable of, and in my experience, I did not feel let down by its performance. The LS9000 supports a number of refresh rates, so watching movies at a native 24Hz delivers a theater-like performance right at home. Movies were crisp and stutter-free with a vivid color presentation without blowing out highlights, crushing blacks, or appearing unnatural or oversaturated. If your primary source of media will be streaming services, then it’s at least important to note that sources like YouTube will probably yield more visual artifacts and reduced dynamic range, while Apple TV+ content can yield higher bitrates than most other streaming services. As for video games, the ability to experience 4K@120Hz with HDR on a 135” screen is undoubtedly immersive. Across numerous titles I played, the input latency was great especially with “Fast” Image Processing. One of the bigger problems is simply finding console games that support 120Hz with a high enough resolution to yield a sharp image. Since I’m primarily a PC gamer, I can see myself hooking up a PC to the LS9000 to experience to its fullest, but playing games on my PS5 and Nintendo Switch 2 were a joy, and even lower resolution games upscaled to 4K looked quite good. However, one notable omission is Dynamic Tone Mapping. This feature is becoming much more prevalent in both TV’s and projectors, and it’s strange to see it omitted from the LS9000. While not a deal-breaker for me, it’s a feature I would expect to see at this point. 😴 HEAT & NOISE: I ran my projector under “High Altitude” mode since I live in Colorado, and even with the increased noise floor, it was quiet to me. Epson claims a 22dB to 30dB noise level range, and unless you want absolute silence and decide to create a sound-proof projector enclosure with proper ventilation, the noise is quite low. And while I didn’t measure the heat, I did feel as though it was notably lower than the bulb-based Home Cinema 4000 3LCD, which is great for more intimate theater room spaces where heat can build up quickly. 🧐 CONCLUSION: Overall, I do like the Pro Cinema LS9000. It’s an upgrade over the older Home Cinema 4000 3LCD that it replaced, but is it really worth nearly 2x the price (at launch MSRP)? I struggle to believe so. While it makes use of laser projection so I no longer have to worry about replacing a bulb, and can support 4K 120Hz with HDR, it doesn’t seem to bring nearly enough improvement to warrant nearly twice the price in 7 years. So do I like the LS9000? Yes. But in my opinion, I feel that its price isn’t quite deserving when there are far more competing products in the market now than there were years ago. The LS9000 is a good projector, but should be considered when a reasonably significant discount can be had.

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  Xephyroth Posted 5 months ago

• Rated 5 out of 5 stars

  Wow!! Excellent upgrade

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  • Owned for 1 month

  Upgraded from the Epson 3800 and the LS9000 nlew it away. wow!! Best projector sub 4K USD.

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  PcBuilder Posted 5 months ago