Light Cannons: Fire When Ready!
Frequent readers of Big Picture Big Sound will know we're big fans of really BIG PICTURES. If you want to reproduce that cinematic experience at home, you're best off with a projector and screen. With a projector, you can easily get a 100-inch, 120-inch or even larger image at a nominal investment instead of being limited to 60 or 70 inches from a flat panel TV.
But the challenge with projectors is getting a bright enough picture to compete with your typical living room lighting. If you can control your room lighting, projectors are ideal. But if you want to get a snack from the kitchen without tripping over your furniture, a projector in the living room can be tricky.
Epson is addressing that need with a pair of new projectors. Both offer full HD 1080p resolution so they're a great fit for current streaming sources, broadcast TV and Blu-rays and both are significantly brighter than competitive models. The Epson Home Cinema 1040 sports a 3,000 Lumen rated brightness (both white brightness and color brightness) for $799 while its big brother the Home Cinema 1440 is a veritable light cannon, offering 4,400 Lumens of color and white brightness for $1699.
Although the form factor of both projectors differs a bit, both are compact models that can fit on a coffee table, on a shelf or on a ceiling mount without drawing unnecessary attention to themselves.
Both the Home Cinema 1040 and Home Cinema 1440 offer multiple digital and analog inputs including two HDMI ports, one of which is MHL-compatible, for use with a Roku streaming stick or similar device. Both projectors also feature full HD-compatible native widescreen 3-Chip LCD imaging engines. The 1040 offers a native 16:9 aspect ratio (1920x1080 pixels) while the 1440 offers a PC-friendly native WUXGA resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio (1920x1200 pixels). This chip does support a native 1080p input and will display 1080p content pixel for pixel with no geometric distortion at 16:9 aspect ratio. This 3-chip design eliminates the need for a color wheel which is found on most inexpensive DLP projectors (and which can lead to an artifact known as the "Rainbow Effect"). Both projectors also include a powered speaker, though for best effect, you'll want to invest in a surround sound system or at least a good powered soundbar.
The Home Cinema 1040 offers a 1.2X manual zoom lens while the 1440 increases the zoom range to 1.6X for more flexible placement options. Neither projector includes optical lens shift, however both offer vertical and horizontal keystone adjustment so you can square off the image when the projector is in a less-than-ideal location. In addition to the higher brightness and more powerful zoom lens, the Home Cinema 1440 adds Farouja DCDi Cinema® processing for enhanced image quality as well as a split screen feature for viewing two different sources at once.
Both projectors include a two-year limited warranty with toll-free technical support and a 90-day limited lamp warranty. The Epson Home Cinema 1040 ($799) and Home Cinema 1440 ($1,699) are expected to be available in September to select e-tailers and retailers nationwide.
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