Projector Review: Epson 8345
When we met up with Epson at CEDIA last year, we spoke with Jason about the new line-up of Epson PJ’s and some of the existing PJ’s that have been in the Epson line-up. While Epson has a vast array of PJ’s from entry level 2D and 3D all the way up to PJ’s specifically for the CEDIA channel, Epson always focuses on price to value performance.
Many enthusiasts are looking to move to something significantly larger than a rear panel LCD can offer and they want to do that within a budget. Previously “within a budget” meant being satisfied with a 720P projector and one that had poor performance characteristics. The Epson 8345 is changing what performance an enthusiast can get for a very reasonable price.
For $1099 and free shipping you can land an Epson 8345. For essentially $1K you will get 1080P, vertical and horizontal lens shift, CMS and a dynamic iris! While 1080P has been standard for some time, vertical and horizontal lens shift and dynamic iris has not. My reference PJ, the Samsung 900, only has vertical shift and that was significantly more expensive. When I review PJ’s, I have to either put a PJ on top of the Samsung or one that has horizontal shift on the side to have them both be able to hit the screen. Theaters that are going in older homes are typically located in the basement where there are the support beams that always seem to be conveniently placed directly in the path the PJ. Having horizontal shift solves that problem. From a mechanics standpoint, horizontal and vertical shift are really slick features to have, particularly on a unit that is $1K.
Another bonus for a $1K PJ is dynamic iris. Having a dynamic iris can help black levels in low lit scenes.
Cosmetic Overview:
The Epson 8345 comes in white with grey accents and measures in at 17.7" x 15.5" x 5.7" (W x D x H) with feet (something that is nice to have for surfaces that are not perfectly level) and weighs in at 16.1lb.
Mounting: The projector can be ceiling mounted or can be placed on right side up using the adjustable feet to accommodate for unleveled surfaces.
Resolution: 1920X1080p
Connections: 2 HDMI (HDCP),1 Component, Composite, S-Video and PC (RGB)
24FPS support: The Epson fully supports 24FPS, representing what is seen in the movie theater without the 3:2 pull-down judder artifacts.
CMS: For users that have purchased a product like SpectraCal’s CalMAN 5 for Home Video they will be able to use that product in conjunction with Epson 8435’s CMS to calibrate a more accurate grey scale and color gamut then comes out of the box for the characteristics of their screen. The CMS interface is easily accessible and thankfully keeps the menu on the bottom part of the screen so that it doesn’t interfere with test pattern readings.
Contrast Ratio: Probably the biggest challenge for any PJ on the market is black levels. This is something where JVC PJ’s have the crown, but they are significantly more expensive. Measuring from my 9’ wide JKP Affinity screen I was able to get a 1538:1 on/off contrast ratio (12.3fl with 100 IRE pattern and .008fl with a 0 IRE pattern) after I calibrated the Epson 8345 in Cinema mode. Using xvColor mode the contrast ratio improved to 1925:1 on/off, but at the expense of some clipping. I did turn on the dynamic iris and was able to get the contrast ratio up to 15,400:1 for on/off.
A dynamic iris works by constantly opening and closing the iris of the lens based on the light that is in the scene. A scene that is primarily white, causes the iris to be fully open, a scene that is primarily black will cause the iris to close down thus providing a darker picture. The iris is constantly moving in various increments during a movie. While contrast ratio does improve with the dynamic iris, there are some side effects. Some side effects are altered gamma and sometimes consciously being aware that the iris is closing by seeing the overall brightness of a scene going darker. This feature can be turned on and off by the user via the remote control and the 8345 has two dynamic iris mode: normal or high speed. For me, regardless of the PJ I am using, I always keep the dynamic iris off, either because I am conscious of the iris closing/opening or because the gamma is compromised.
Gamma: One of the weaknesses of many projectors is an accurate gamma curve. Another bonus with the Epson 8345 is granular controls to set the Gamma that is desired (a black, light controlled theater would be at 2.4) and then to adjust the gamma for each IRE level via the customized setting.
Gray scale: Having an accurate gray scale is very important for proper representation of color. A color temperature of 6500K (D65) across all levels of light output is ideal. Out of the box, the 8345 was off a little, but I was able to calibrate it in the Cinema mode to be much more accurate. If you don’t have the tools to calibrate the display then the x.v.Color mode is the best default, but it doesn’t allow for any calibration.
Color Primaries and Secondary’s: The most accurate readings for this is with the x.v.Color mode. The down side is that nothing else can be calibrated in the x.v.Color mode and the x.v.Color mode clipped whites. I was able to calibrate all the primary and secondary’s, without clipping white using the Cinema mode, except for green, which I could not bring down from being overly saturated. Below is the default readings for the x.v.Color mode and they are fairly accurate.
Below is the closest calibration setting I could achieve in the Cinema mode:
Picture Sharpness: I rarely come across at 3 chip PJ that has perfect convergence of the panels to provide an incredibly pixel perfect image. Even with the high-end JVC’s it is a hit or miss proposition on how well the alignment is. Of course there are pros and cons to single chip DLP’s and 3 chip LCOS/LCD PJ’s and one has to balance the differences out. The 8345 had slight convergence issues that were easily detectable when looking at pixel on/off test patterns from the Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration Disc 2nd Edition.
Remote Control and On Screen Display (OSD): The 8345 comes with a comprehensive remote control and the OSD is very easy to use and doesn’t interfere with the ability to calibrate the PJ. While it has a backlit option, I found it a little difficult to make out what the buttons were. I did appreciate that there were buttons that were on the remote control that circumvented the need to go into the OSD.
Conclusions:
The “perfect” projector doesn’t exist. I’ve been looking for years and haven’t found it unless I want to move to the >$30K range. The 8345 comes in with features that used to only be available at the high end price range but with a $1099 price tag. Previously, this price with those features was unheard of.
If you are looking to setup a budget HT and want to get the most performance for the price, I highly recommend the 8345. You just are not going to find something better for this price.
Pros:
Horizontal & vertical shift
Dynamic iris
CMS; gamma control
Incredible price to performance ratio
Cons:
Low contrast ratio
Convergence / alignment
Oversaturated greens with x.v.Color mode
Specifications:
Title
Value
Focus/Zoom
Manual
Supported Screen Size
30 to 300 inches / projection distance 2.85 to 62.83 feet (0.87 to 19.15 m)
Noise
22 to 28 dB
Native Pixel Resolution
1920X1080
Display 1080p/24FPS
Yes
Video Inputs
2 HDMI, 1 component, 1 S-video, 1 VGA, 1 composite
Other connections
Dimensions inches (WxHxD)
17.7 x 5.4 x 14.2 (not including lens protrusion)
Weight
16.1 lb (7.3 kg)
Warranty
Two-Year Projector Limited Warranty and 90-Day Lamp Limited Warranty
Price
$1099
Review System Components:
Toshiba HD-A35 HD DVD player
Toshiba HD-XA2 HD DVD player
DVDO iScan Duo (used for pattern generator)
Xbox 360 as Windows Media Center Extender
Oppo BDP-103 Blu-Ray Player
Anthem D2v
Da-Lite JKP Infinity 1.1
Test/Setup Discs:
Spears & Munsil HD Benchmark and Calibration Disc 2nd Edition
Calibration Equipment:
Minolta CS-200
Minolta LS-100
Spectracal CalMAN professional v5
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