Epson Launches Two New Home Theatre Projectors

When it comes to setting up a proper high-end home theatre entertainment system where there is no constrain on space, one quickly finds that projectors designed for use in home entertainment are the only solution that enthusiasts can reliably depend on. And thanks to Epson, that reliable solution has just become even better for enthusiasts. Launched today at the annual International Sight And Sound Exhibition held at the Parkroyal Hotel (Kitchener Road) were the company’s latest range of high-end home entertainment projectors, the R1000 and R4000.

 

Buying movie tickets to catch a screening of a movie is a very dangerous affair. For one, movie-goers have to deal with the threat of queuing for hours, only to find out that all the tickets have been sold out at his turn.

Unfortunately, those who do manage to get tickets are not any better off either. Once inside the cinema hall, movie-goers might have to contend with other potential threats to their film experience, such as ‘floating heads’ and the occasional overenthusiastic movie-goer who sees it fit to loudly ‘direct’ the actors from his or her seat.

As such, some have opted to avoid such problems by building their own home theatre entertainment system. However, the main problem in doing so lies in the recreation of the authentic ‘cinema’ experience. Fortunately, Epson’s latest range of high-end home entertainment projectors, the R1000 and R4000, will ensure that enthusiasts can enjoy the closets thing to an actual cinema screening without having to break both an arm and a leg for a 300-inch plasma or LCD TV.

Speaking at the product launch was Paul desilva, Senior Sales Manager of Kec Sound System Pte Ltd, who gave a brief overview about the technical specifications of both the R1000 and R4000 home entertainment projectors, along with some information about the hardware used in their design.

“When you talk about video projectors, you have to look out for two important things. The blacks have to be as rich as possible, and the whites need to be as bright as possible. Epson has created a world’s first by producing a projector with a million-to-one contrast ratio: that is into the mega-range already,” he said.

Paul also elaborated briefly about Epson’s proprietary 3LCD Reflective Panel technology, a feature which is found in both the R1000 and R4000 projectors. This technology makes use of light reflection to minimize light leakage, which in turn results in a much brighter display and greatly improved colour contrasts.

“Many competitors give high ANSI Lumens value, but the fact is that they are only measuring the brightness of the whites in their projectors. When you watch a video, you are talking about colour, not whites. When we say that our projectors are capable of 1200 ANSI Lumens, we are referring to actual light output when it is being used, that is, coloured light brightness,” he said.

However, high colour contrast is only one part of the equation: in order to provide the best viewing experience for home theatre enthusiasts, it also has to deliver exceptional image quality and clarity. This is where the new IDT Hollywood Quality Video (HQV) Vida image processors found in both the R1000 and R4000 come in to fulfill that requirement.

Last but not least, Paul explained how the R1000 and R4000 both support anamorphic aspect ratios to deliver an optimal video viewing experience for the home theatre enthusiast.

“When you watch movies, they come in different aspect ratios. The R1000 and R4000 are designed with a resolution of sixteen-by-nine, with this the standard aspect ratio for full HD broadcasts like documentaries. But movies do not always make use of that aspect ratio,” he said, while pointing out that the Iron Man 2 clip used for demonstration purposes had an aspect ration of 2.40: 1.
 
“In such situations, when you have a fixed screen size, the R1000 and R4000 will automatically adjust the lens’ position to ensure that the image fills up the screen.”