Epson focusses on home cinema

 

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By Matt Whipp

Posted on 25 Sep 2003 at 15:28

Epson has released two dedicated home cinema projectors

With the TW-10 and the TW-200, Epson believes that the masses, not just meeting room, are ready for projectors.

The fact that these projectors are dedicated for home cinema use differentiates Epson from the likes of HP, whose latest projectors feature two colour wheels - one for business presentations and the other for movies.

Stuart Davies, Epson's Business Manager for projectors, told us: 'There's no point in providing a compromise solution. For one, most presentations are 4:3, so you're already making the compromise of using a 16:9 part for 4:3 use.'

Of the two new projectors, the TW-10 will get the most eyeballs, not only because it comes in at just £999 inc VAT, but also Epson has convinced Dixons to put it on the shop floors of Dixons and PC World stores.

As a manufacturer of LCD panels, Epson is committed to High Temperature Poly-Silicon LCDs in the new projectors, as opposed to the DLP (digital light processing) technologies used by the likes of HP.

As such the TW-10 offers a resolution of 854x480 with its TFT polysilicon panel, with a lens that can throw an image with an 80in diagonal from 2m to 3.1m, making it fine for use in the middle of the front room on a coffee table.

It offers 1000 ANSI Lumens brightness, a contrast ratio of 700:1 and 10bit colour processing. Epson claims its analog shading driven LCD panel offers smoother tone gradients, cutting out the dither and noise it claims that DLP projectors suffer from. The company also claims a wider colour palette than DLPs and no image breakup, which can occur with eye movement - for example, looking at different parts of the screen.

Epson has also introduced technologies to eliminate artefacts and enhance contrast, to expand the range of darker tones to reveal more detail.

The TW-10 offers four preset modes for viewing: Theatre black, Theatre, Living Room, and Dynamic, depending on where and for what use you are putting it - for example Dynamic is brighter and better for gaming, whereas Theatre black is for a cinema setup in a darkened environment. There's a remote control too.

The unit comes with a host of sockets: S-Video, composite and component video and a SCART adaptor is supplied. Noise levels are kept to 35dB (29dB for cinema modes), but in order to do so the case, however fluidly styled, is still quite large. But keeping air circulating inside the box means that no light escapes to air vents and so on.

The higher-end TW-200 costs more than twice as much as the TW-10 at £2199 inc VAT, but offers a resolution of 1280x720, a brightness of 1300 ANSI lumens and a contrast ratio of 800:1. It also includes more colour management control for the home cinema acolyte, such as a black level enhancer and LCD grid reduction. It's also a tiny bit bigger and a tiny bit quieter (in its quiet mode) than the TW-10.

The TW-10 is available now, while the TW-200 will be out next month.