Epson - Home Cinema 3200 4K 3LCD Projector with High Dynamic Range - White

Affordable 4k! I owned Epson Home Cinema 3500 Projector for over 4 years and was very impressed with it's capabilities, however with all media coming out on 4k these days I felt like I might need to upgrade. True 4K projectors are too expensive for my budget so I was super excited for Epson to came out with a brand new 3200 model in my favorite series of projectors! Epson 3200 has all the best parts of it's predecessor - bright image, great colors, easy mounting and adjustments and in addition - it brought pixel-shift 4K resolution with HDR support plus true HDMI 2.0 ports with full 18Gbit/s capacity. This projector surpasses older and more expensive 4010 which only came with HDMI 1.4 10Gbit/s ports! Since I already had a home theater room with screen and all wiring - my projector replacement took just a couple hours (I needed to replace my older HDMI cable with a new 18Gbit/s capable cable). I'm impressed with the new 4K (pixel-shift 4k) image clarity! It's definitely sharper than an old 1080p HD no doubt about that! Projector took a few minutes to adjust settings (I was using Spears and Munsil calibration disk, 3rd edition with 4K and HDR is available). Lens position is adjustable so projector can "hit" the screen being mounted above or below the screen level, zoom and focus controls are located at the lens bezel. All these are manual controls (more expensive series allow for remote lens adjustments). Keystone correction can be done remotely, plus a nice "quick corner" function of the projector makes it real easy - if one corner of the image is slightly off - you can just pick the corner and move it. By default projector has 4 quick settings - Bright Cinema, Cinema, Natural and Dynamic that allow you to get setup real fast and of course more granural adjustments of brightness, contrast, tint, white balance and gamma are available. Automatic Iris can be set to high speed or normal and it does help a lot when movie scenes change from a very bright to a dark. Projector lamp brightness can be adjusted as well - there are 3 modes - ECO, Medium and High. High mode is useful when projector is used in a brightly lit room, Medium is ideal for the dark room (and reduces fan noise a lot!). There are 2 HDMI ports on the back, 3.5mm audio out, one USB port for a wireless dongle (sold separately), one USB port to power accessories. Projector has on-board Bluetooth to connect to the wireless speakers and an optional WiFi dongle (ELPAP10) which can be purchased separately and allows to use Epson's iProjection app to display pictures and presentations wirelessly, I did not find that function very useful in a home theater environment. It does add an ability to use your phone as a projector's remote though. Epson 3200 is capable of displaying 3D content, however it requires active 3D glasses (sold separately). Overall it's a great addition to the 3000 family of Epson Home Cinema Projectors, it has everything to be a central piece of your home theater room video system. There is a little bit more expensive variant of this projector available - 3800. The difference is that 3800 has RS-232 port to better integrate into home theater control systems (3200's only option is Infrared), 2x10W speakers on-board (I'm not sure why to have speakers on the home theater projector?), 12V trigger out and ability to work with anamorphic lenses. If you need any of those functions - go for a 3800 instead. Both projectors use the same lamp (ELPLP85) and produce the same image.

Home Entertainment continues to rise in our lives these days because it is becoming more accessible to movie theater options in your own home. However, TVs have limitations and many people will consider going to projectors for their home entertainment needs. The Epson Home Cinema 3200 is an exceptional choice to make this transition! SET-UP: - This has got to be one of my favorite set up experiences because I was surprised at how easy everything was! I will say I was able to mount the projector to the ceiling and then make sure it is aligned with my projector screen. The projector has some easy to use manual knobs and dials to make sure the display fits your projector screen size you need, it was very intuitive to use. - After that, I plugged in my Dolby Atmos Soundbar Arc HDMI connector which had my Apple TV 4K connected to it and boom! All ready to go! Seriously, all I had to do was plug it in and the projector recognized it in 4K HDR and was already outputting Dolby Vision through the Apple TV. I was so happy with this set up. - Aside from this the menu via the projector was very straight forward and easy to use with the remote control given. I was able to edit any options and needed and be done with it. - Seriously, I can’t say enough how easy it was for me to get a 4K HDR display right off the bat with no fuss. DISPLAY: - Via my 4K Apple TV I tested PlayStation Vue, Netflix, and Dolby Vision movies so I got the whole gambit of resolutions. I was immensely impressed with the quality of the picture! I had it on a 110” projector screen and the detail and definition felt just as crisp as my 4K HDR TV that I have. There was no lag while watching live tv sports and tv shows were just like normal. - Dolby Vision movies were the real masterpiece here, they look so great! The darks were dark, whites were whites, and the colors very vibrant. This projector has instantly became my go to movie watching device easily! - The biggest knock on projectors are they do not perform well in the light and this projector looked pretty good. I still agree that it looks much better in darker rooms but what TV or even movie theater projector doesn’t look better in darker situations. This wasn’t an issue for me at all but its something to know that I would recommend frequent use in a basement over a well light main floor room. OVERALL IMPRESSION: - I have been a movie lover my whole life and lately my home theater experiences have been on a 4K HDR TV. Switching to this projector has really made me rethink why I have not tried this sooner. First off, the price point on this projector compared to TV’s is such a steal. You can make this projector show up to a 300” screen size for the cost of a high end 65” 4K HDR tv these days. BOTTOM LINE: - If you are in the market for a projector or are thinking of making the switch, you will not be disappointed in the least bit. This Epson projector will bring movie theater quality into your home in stunning 4K HDR clarity. There may be some new things you need to buy like a projector screen and longer HDMI chords to run, but all in all its well worth it for the final experience.

I got this with the idea of using it outside with a portable projector screen for some outside entertainment during warmer seasons. But, it got cold quick and that scenario just never materialized. However, I did use that very setup inside and...my goodness this thing looks incredible. It's good enough that I'm reconsidering how I can integrate this into my basement that I'm about to build out. Setup difficulty is relative to how you're going to use this. I set mine up as a table top projector just to get the feel for it. But as I continued to use it and realize just how great it looked, I came to the conclusion that it really needs a proper setup with a permanent installation. The picture quality is great even in well lit areas. The built in screen and picture adjustments are straight forward and I got a result I was quite pleased with in about 10 minutes of tinkering with it. Do yourself a favor and set this up where there will be as little light pollution as possible. Set it up as a true cinema projector and you won't be disappointed. The clarity I got in a dark room on a 120" screen was just stunning. I encourage you to look at the photos in this review. One thing I had issues with was the audio. I attempted to pair this with a bluetooth speaker I had and got interesting results. This particular speaker was discoverable but failed to connect every time via the projectors bluetooth connection. That same speaker works with everything else I tried it with but not this. Even when it was hardwired to the speaker in question, the audio was cutting out. I was able to pair the projector with another speaker system via bluetooth that was in a different room though so I am sure that functionality does work. It paired rather effortlessly I might add. However, I'd honestly only consider using bluetooth with a headset when I want to keep from disturbing anyone else in the house. I have not run any tests using a receiver yet and I suspect some improvement on this audio front would be had if I did. The heat this puts out is pretty strong. When changing the picture mode to a more aggressive output using a few different HDR settings, that fan really kicks in. I consider maximizing the air flow in this unit during operation to be high priority when designing any housing or mounting options. There is an air filter as well and that is also something you will want to keep an eye on over extended use. I wouldn't want to see anyone have their unit burn out due to a clogged air filter. Overall, this is amazing quality for this price point. Up to 300" of 4K/3D screen in this clarity at $1500? Count me in.

THE BREAKDOWN: Great system that has awesome picture and has plenty of settings for fine tuning adjustments. The packaging was very well done and like opening high end merchandise. You may want to have a HDMI cord handy if that is the method you will be using to send the video. You can also connect a USB/HDMI stick such as a Fire Stick or whatever brand you like to the projector. The instructions for setup were very clear and easy to understand. After turning it on I had it up and running in just a matter of minutes. I found the system to be very easy to navigate to get the desired results. The projector itself was a little heavier and bulkier than I anticipated. I personally find this to be a good feature as it feels like it is built to last. Some of the features that the projector has are: plus or minus 30 degree keystone projection, 2900 lumens of color and white brightness, lens shift( which is very useful when setting up), has 3840 X 2160 4K resolution(2 x 1920 x1080), dual HDMI inputs, from 40.2”-300” viewing screen size and manual zoom just to name few of the features. The performance was excellent!! I wasn’t really sold on the 4K experience. Was the image clear and nice, yes it was but to say it was a 4K experience for me would be a huge stretch. It was definitely a nice clear picture and was a true joy to watch. I even played some video games and had the same beautiful picture experience. One thing to note is that I couldn’t really tell if it was in HDR mode unless I went into the settings under the “auto detected” setting to see if HDR was highlighted or SDR. One final note on the picture quality would be the black are definitely not “true” blacks but more like lack of black. Don’t get me wrong this projector does have an amazing picture but I’m comparing to my other 4K UHD devices that I own. One thing I wanted to mention was the remote. The remote is the real deal with all the features that a real remote should have. Most remotes these days are small and have limited buttons and capabilities. This remote is not limiting at all. It is old school and I found it quite frankly to be refreshing and handy to use. The last two things I want to mention are 3D support and bluetooth. This projector does mention that it supports 3D but unfortunately I was not able to test this myself as I do not own any 3D active glasses. The last thing I wanted to mention was the bluetooth capabilities. I absolutely loved this feature as it reduced my many cords I need to use this. I was able to connect my bluetooth speaker to the projector in just a few seconds and it worked wonderfully. The sound was crisp and clear. PRO’s: -Very well built -Setup was quick and easy -HDR Capable -+/-30 degree keystone -2900 lumens of color and white brightness -Lens shift -Dual HDMI ports -40.2”-300” viewing size -Manual zoom CON’s: -Not sure that it gives the true 4K experience -Blacks are not “true” blacks SUMMARY: Overall, I feel that this product is really good and has a great fit and finish. I like all the features, and I feel that there is definitely some room for improvement in the 4K and “true” blacks department. It was truly easy to setup and get running. I would definitely recommend this to a friend if they are in the market for something like this.

Setup This projector is on the larger side, especially compared to DLP projectors due to it’s 3LCD technology. It also weighs a hefty bit. I opted to put this projector on a 12” x 24” shelf instead of ceiling mounting. I had a prior universal projector mount that was too small to fit the enlarged underside mounting holes as well. If you wish to ceiling mount this projector, I recommend going with Epson’s specific mount which is intended for this model. One of the most amazing features of the Home Cinema 3200 is the bulb adjustability. There are 2 dials on the top side of the projector that allow the screen to shift left or right, top or bottom. I was able to adjust the screen the entire length and width of my wall by just moving the dials!!! I cannot express enough, after installing MANY projectors, how fantastic this setting is!!!! I was able to get a 100% perfect projection onto my 100” screen. My projector is set 15’ away and the zoom in and out got me the perfect width and fine tuning the up, down, left and right I was able to get a perfect image without the need to touch keystone! The menus have plenty of picture modifications such as brightness, contrast, sharpness, etc.. I tent to always put sharpness at 0 and allow the native sharpness to take effect. I settled on 40% brightness, contrast, color saturation, and tint at 50%. I set the white balance to 8000K as this offered the brightest whites without getting blue. I played with the 4k Enhancement on or off and actually found “on” to be the clearer, better setting. Normally I would recommend turning ALL image enhancement settings off, but in this case, I found it to actually benefit the image quality rather than reduce or super impose it. I did turn all noise reduction features and detail enhancements off. 4K and HDR I am a huge videophile. I can typically in a fraction of a second tell you if I am looking at a 4k, 1080, 1440, 480, etc image. In all honesty, I cannot tell the difference between 1080p and 4K on this projector. The image is sharp and clear none the less. I just don’t really see much benefit to this being a “4K” projector. This could also be due to the fact that this projector isn’t true 4k. It uses 2 1920 x 1080 screens and “shifts” them together to make a “theoretical” 4K image. This certainly results in a more blurry, and 2kish “4k”. This projector also have HDR10 and HGL High Dynamic Range capability. I sampled Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on UHD blu-ray disk. The projector detected the HDR content, but the only way to tell is to go into the menu and see that is “auto detected” the setting. HDR adjustments become available when it is in HDR mode. Otherwise they are greyed out. The HDR in this projector case is sadly much like it’s 4k, barely visible and it does not offer much to the image over SDR. I had to set the HDR setting to “8” to even tell a difference. The difference at even that was barely noticeable or impressive. If this was my first time seeing HDR, I would be highly disappointed. Fortunately, I know what good HDR looks like, and in those cases, it is absolutely mind blowing and beautiful. HDR on the 3200 is underwhelming and more or less non-existent. Picture Quality Despite the above comments on the 4K and HDR the image is very accurate and rather nice for a projector in this class range. Colors are bright and the overall image is clear and sharp. The motion on fast scenes are quick and blurry free. This projector will be more than acceptable for most people. Like most projectors, due mostly in part to how they illuminate the screen, have abysmal black levels. This projector is no different,. Despite the marketing that this projector produces “great blacks” they are more or less a total joke. This coupled with the fact I am shooting on a white screen, getting anything that even resembled “black” is impossible. I am not blaming or taking anything away from Epson on this issue as it’s a limitation of the technology, but it’s worth mentioning and anyone expecting acceptable black levels should probably not be looking at projectors in this range and be prepared to spend closer to $20k for a laser projector. Remote Control The included remote is as feature rich as the projector adjustments and menus. This is a full on legit remote control. Many projectors I have used in the past some with super small worthless remotes. This is a full size, tons of options and really nice remote. It has back lighting to see it in the dark. Has full number pad, directional arrows, menu buttons, input buttons, and even buttons for keystone, user, memory, fine/fast, frame Int, RGB/CMY, etc.. which makes getting to specific adjustments so much quicker than going through the entire menu to try and fine them. Epson really knocked this part out of the park. Other Features This projector also comes with some other enhancements people may find useful. It has bluetooth connectivity capability which lends itself to wirelessly connecting to a computer very easy. It has built in 3D support if you own or want to own active 3D glasses. I wish Epson included support for passive glasses, because the active glasses require batteries to function. I do not own a pair of active 3D glasses so I cannot comment on how well this works. It is really nice Epson included this projector with direct 3D support instead of requiring extra equipment to get this feature to work. Inputs This projector comes equipped with all the standard inputs you’d want. I am only using the first HDMI ARC input and have a 40’ HDMI 2.0 cable running from my receiver to the projector. There is a second HDMI input as well as ethernet LAN. The projector can also connect to WiFi for use of connectivity or firmware updates. Final Thoughts Overall Epson has produced a very well made and well thought out projector. The adjustment features, super useful remote, all say that Epson understands the pain points in projector setups and adjustment and they have completely fixed that. This projector from a setup and adjustment perspective is best in the industry by a land slide. The image quality is acceptable and above average. For it’s price point, it does get you close to a 4k image with HDR capability. I recommend this projector for anyone wanting a truer movie theatre experience on a budget. You get a large image for the cost and will likely be satisfied with what your eyes see.

My previous projector only projected a 1080i resolution image so I was very excited to see how much an improvement 4k was. The difference was night and day. Pros: - Can project up to a 300" diagonal. I was limited with my wall space and couldn't go this big but I can only imagine how awesome it would look. - Built-in bluetooth allows you a lot of flexibility for audio options. I have a portable screen I like to set up on my patio and now I can just hook up a bluetooth speaker for convenient sound. - Terrific brightness. You do not need a dark room for this projector to function well. Also, darks displayed very well and were not washed out. - For such a large unit, I was expecting the fan to be louder. It did not distract me from the movies I watched or games that I played. - Solid packaging. If you plan on having yours shipped like mine was, it is well packed and secure. Cons: - There is no on-board audio. If you want that, the more expensive 3800 model is the one you want. - This is a large and heavy projector. If you plan to mount it, make sure you use a heavy duty mount. And make sure you have the space available. It is 16" wide, 13" deep, and weighs over 14 pounds. - There is a quick start guide but no manual. Menus were easy enough to navigate but I always like a paper manual with high-end electronics. You get what you pay for and this is a pretty high-end projector. I recommend this model for pretty much anyone, whether you are looking for a media room projector or something portable. Even though it is large, the bluetooth functionality makes it great for on the go.

I'm a huge fan of epson oh, so I'm not surprised at this forms as well as it does. Caveat, this thing is huge! I purchase it to replace my previous projector which was also an Epson. And I had to rearrange my entire room to make this work. It was worth the effort. Hookup was easy, but it does through off some heat. I wanted something that would give me 4K experience and I'm not disappointed. It's bright enough to be seen in broad daylight, with all of my windows open. The picture quality is nothing short of amazing. The color gamut is very rich although you will need to do some tuning. I understand that it isn't technically 4K, meaning 8.3 million pixels on the screen. Almost impossible to get that type of pixel count with 3 lcd projectors. However, I will put this up against any of the 4K I've seen. Look at the pictures and submit and see for yourself.

I am so happy with this Epson projecter!!! What a difference (comparing to my budget friendly Epson projector)- this is 100% better! The picture is sooo much clearer! And I love the fact that I can connect it to a Bluetooth speaker, sooo much easier no wires! My only con is that I had to get a heavy duty projector mount because it is bigger than my old projector but for the better quality I am getting I don’t care! Def worth it!