Epson Pro Cinema 6010UB 3D Projector Review

Editor's Note: This is "from the archives", but the 6020UB is so similar to the 6010UB we wanted to make this video available to our readers regardless. Please also check out our coverage of the new Epson Pro Cinema 6020UB we previewed at the 2012 CEDIA Expo.

It's official, 3D has bombed - at least according to digital TV manufacturers in the know who will admit it to us off the record. But that doesn't stop the technology from pouring out of manufacturers as they release products which have been in the works for over a year. Epson's new PowerLite Pro Cinema 6010UB is one of the latest 3D projectors. Fortunately, however, its got a lot more going for it than just 3D - although it actually does that pretty well, too.

There's a place to be budget-minded and a place to recognize that if you want the best, you're going to have to lay down some money. But with the Epson 6010UB you fall somewhere, well, in the middle. This is an LCD projector that costs around $4000 - and while that's not a small amount of money, you get a lot of really advanced features. Features that custom installers are going to love for their clients. And that's really who I'm talking to here, because if you want to buy this online you aren't going to find it.

Of course, at its heart, the Pro Cinema 6010UB is really the Home Cinema 5010UB with some additional benefits. Now, we reviewed the Home Cinema 5010UB already, so check out that review for more detail, because, well, it's the same light engine and has identical performance, save for the THX certification and pre-calibration.

So in THIS review I'm going to just speak to custom installers. If you're not a custom installer stop the video right now, this is highly classified info.... OK! The reason you want the Pro Cinema 6010 for your clients is three-fold: 1) like the 5010UB it has an ease-of-installation that is unmatched in the industry, 2) it comes with some incredible "bonuses" that are hard to pass up, and 3) it's going to save you tons of time due to its THX pre-calibration.

To the first point, the 6010UB has one of the longest zoom ranges in the industry - a 2.1:1 Fujinon OptiCinema lens. That gives you a throw ratio of 1.34 to 2.87. As you probably know, that means you can hit a 100" wide screen from 11' away or 24' away. Add the nearly 100% vertical and 50% horizontal lens shift and you can install this thing just about anywhere in the room. Other convenience features include two anamorphic lens modes (stretch and squeeze) so you can achieve true 2.35:1 anamorphic viewing with an anamorphic lens. It used to be that you had to buy and install an external scaler to do this - now it's on-board. About the only negative is the lack of a motorized lens... which is odd, because there is a motorized lens cover. With no motorized lens, you lose the ability to have lens memory settings, which would be more convenient for custom installations using the anamorphic options.

Features

• 2D & 3D at 1080p
• 2D-to-3D conversion
• 2400 lumens
• Bright 3D Drive for enhanced 3D brightness
• Built-in cinema filter and THX certification
• FineFrame technology
• Two anamorphic lens modes (stretch and squeeze)
• Fujinon OptiCinema lens
• 2.1x zoom ratio
• Manual lens shift (96.3% vertical / 47.1% horizontal)
• ISF Day/Night calibration modes
• Split screen feature
• 2 pairs of active shutter 3D glasses
• Spare lamp, cable cover and Chief mount
• 3-year limited warranty; next-business-day shipping service

The 6010UB also has a considerable set of advantages over the 5010UB in terms of add-ons. For the additional $1000 in retail price you get two pairs of Epson-branded 3D glasses, a spare lamp, and even a ceiling mount made by Chief. There's also a really nice cable cover that will significantly clean up the look of your install and the 6010 includes a full 3-year parts & labor replacement warranty, an extra year over the Home Cinema series. Considering the lamp alone costs $300 and the Chief mount is another $300... the 3D glasses are $99 each... that cable shroud and the extra year replacement warranty only runs about $200. Epson values the extra year warranty alone at $400 and we didn't even get into the THX certification.

Which brings us to the third advantage. The 6010UB is indeed THX certified and, really, it tends to look nearly perfect even before it's tweaked. That means you can install it, tell the client to go get lunch while you "calibrate" the ISF modes and they can come back to a perfectly configured projector wondering how on earth you got such vibrant colors and rich black levels. Really you can just slap out a fast day and night mode setting by just altering the black and white levels and trusting the color reproduction. If Joel Silver from the Imaging Science Foundation sees this video I'm going to get some hate mail... but we measured it - it's that good.

Micro Lens Array (MLA) Explained: LCD panels have areas that are transparent and areas that don't let light in - that's where the micro-wiring is located. Normally light just penetrates straight through the openiings, but with MLA, light is concentrated onto the opening using a small lens on the substrate. It's kind of like a concave magnifying lens that allows more light to penetrate into the panel. Using this technology, panel brightness can be improved by over 50%.

Viewing Tests: 2D

2D viewing, or "movie watching", as we called it back in the old days, was phenomenal. Like the Home Cinema 5010UB, the Pro Cinema 6010UB has incredible native contrast, thanks to black levels that are extremely deep and rich, particularly for 3LCD. Calibration was almost unnecessary and our viewing was done using the included THX mode. We pulled up several of our favorite clips from The Fifth Element, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Detail remained present even in the darkest levels. We did our evaluations in a light-controlled reference theater room using a Carada Masquerade screen to maximize contrast. While the best picture was achieved with a much lower lamp output, even daytime viewing was impressive due to the ability of this projector to create an impressive dynamic range with over 2000 real-world lumens of reasonably color-balanced output. No client will be disappointed with this projector and the fact that you can sling up an anamorphic lens makes it even more flexible as a comprehensive, yet affordable system.

Viewing Tests: 3D

Epson's Pro Cinema 6010 can handle the latest 3D formats, but it also has on-the-fly 2D-to-3D conversion. While it didn't blow us away (in fact, it seemed a bit choppy at times) it was nonetheless impressive. And that's why 3D isn't really going anywhere. As soon as we watched a few movies we turned it off and never really bothered with it again. This is a feature that , like an in-ground swimming pool, will appeal to some clients, and be glossed over by others. True 3D content was a tad better than upconverted, and the Epson allows you to set the depth (effect) of the 3D image as well as the brightness. And that's what really works with the Epson 3D - the brightness of the image. This is a high output projector and those extra lumens are going to work to compensate for the shutter loss that occurs when watching 3D. It's important - and what's more, you can calibrate your projector for the 3D modes so that it amps up the output in those modes and keeps you from losing the depth in the dark areas of 3D movies.

We'll conclude by saying that the Epson Pro Cinema 6010UB is really one of the best installer-friendly projectors on the market today. It allows for some really advanced features and excellent quality out of the box without much work. About the only thing it's really lacking is auto-iris and CFI in 3D mode - all the horsepower of the Pixelworks DNX processor goes into producing the 3D images. Still, the native contrast on the 6010UB is so good (over 6000:1 in our measurements) it's better than several projectors we've measured with auto-iris engaged. Also, 3D has a natural darkening effect, so an iris isn't truly needed to get excellent black levels.

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Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.