Home theatre hardware specialist Epson has announced a pair of new 4K laser projectors equipped with HDMI 2.1 ports for low-lag gaming on the big screen.
The Epson EH-LS12000B and Epson EH-LS11000W are powered by a new 4K image processing chip and also feature Epson’s proprietary 3LCD technology that uses a different panel for each RGB stream. The company says this setup cvers a least 85% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, and because no colour wheel is required, it means the chances of seeing that annoying ‘rainbow effect’ is significantly reduced.
Both of the projectors support HDR10+, allowing them to reveal extra details and more colourful, richer and natural looking images. They also boast a high contrast ratio of 2,500,000:1 to display extremely deep blacks, Epson says.
They can throw up a huge image of up to 300-inches, which is around four-times as big as a 75-inch TV, and they’re extremely bright too – The EH-LS11000W is quoted at 2,500 lumens while the EH-LS12000B hits a maximum of 2,700. This divergence in maximum brightness appears to be the only real difference between the models except for their colour, with the EH-LS11000W encased in white and the EH-LS12000B coming in a black box.
The projectors produce 8.3 million pixel, 4K images that are supported by capabilities such as 4K Frame Interpolation, 4K Super Resolution and scene adaptive gamma correction and auto contrast enhancement. Furthermore, they’re both Calman-Ready which means they can be fine-tuned to deliver more realistic pictures by anyone who’s willing to sit down and calibrate them properly.
For many people though the real attraction is the big screen, low-lag gaming promise. Both models feature a single HDMI 2.1 port that enables 4K at 120Hz gaming on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Epson claims they deliver an input lag of less than 20 milliseconds, which is blazing fast by anyone’s standards.
Another benefit is easy setup and installation, which is made possible by the projector’s motorised optics that include a 2.1x optical zoom, powered lens shift and powered focus. Users can also store up to ten different aspect ratios in the settings so they can quickly adjust that to suit different types of content.
Paul White, manger of product management at Epson Europe’s video projection business, said the new projectors are aimed at people who want to bring their viewing experiences to the next level, whether that’s watching movies or gaming as a family.
“More households now have dedicated home cinema rooms or spaces large enough to enjoy the big screen cinema experience that these projectors can deliver,” he said.
Like most laser-equipped projectors these days, owning one requires a fairly hefty investment. Epson said the EH-LS11000W will cost £4,100, while the slightly brighter EH-LS12000B will go on sale for £4,400 when they hit the shops in October and November, respectively.