Epson PowerLite 955W WXGA 3LCD Projector Evaluation

The Epson PowerLite 955W WXGA 3LCD Projector ($899) gives the similar WXGA (1,280-by-800) answer and the similar 3,000-lumen brightness score because the Epson EX6220 WXGA 3LCD Projector($895.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window) that I lately reviewed. Identical to its less-expensive cousin, it delivers superb high quality for knowledge photographs and better-than-typical video for an information projector. The most important distinction is that it substitutes a 1.6x zoom lens for a 1.2x zoom, which justifies the upper value, and is helping make the 955W($1,069.98 at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window) our Editors’ Selection for WXGA projectors for a small to midsize room.

The 1.6x zoom makes the 955W a head-to-head competitor with the Editors’ Selection NEC NP-M311W($650.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window). The NEC projector gives the similar answer as each Epson fashions and necessarily the similar brightness, however outdoes the 955W’s zoom moderately, with its 1.7x, fairly than 1.6x, zoom. That provides you with much more flexibility in how a ways you’ll be able to put the projector from the display for a given dimension symbol. Total, the 2 are so intently matched that despite the fact that the 955W delivers sufficient to make it Editors’ Selection for the class, it stocks that difference with the NEC projector fairly than replaces it.

Fundamentals
Like each the NEC NP-M311W and the Epson EX6220, the 955W is constructed round a 3-chip WXGA LCD engine. That provides all 3 the merit over single-chip DLP projectors of being assured to be freed from rainbow artifacts (flashes of pink, inexperienced, and blue). Some other merit LCD projectors be offering over maximum DLP projectors is that they provide the similar colour brightness as white brightness, so that you do not need to fret a couple of distinction between the 2 affecting symbol brightness or colour high quality. (For extra on colour brightness, see Colour Brightness: What It Is, Why It Issues.)

The downside that includes the LCD engine is the loss of 3-d enhance, a function that the majority contemporary DLP projectors be offering, together with, for instance, the BenQ MW523( at Amazon)(Opens in a brand new window), which is able to display 3-d content material with video gadgets like Blu-ray avid gamers. This may increasingly clearly be a topic if you wish to have 3-d, however beside the point in a different way.

An identical Merchandise

Epson EX6220 WXGA 3LCD Projector

4.0

Superb

NEC NP-M311W

Setup and Brightness
Weighing in at 6 kilos 6 oz, the 955W is mild sufficient to hold if you want to. Alternatively, projectors on this weight elegance are much more likely to finish up completely put in or on a cart.

Setup is usual, with guide controls for focal point and zoom. The again panel gives all of the maximum not unusual alternatives for symbol inputs, together with an HDMI port, a VGA port , and a composite video port. There may be additionally an S-video port, a USB Kind B port for direct USB show and for controlling the pc mouse from the projector’s faraway, a LAN port for sending photographs and audio in addition to for controlling the projector over a community, and a USB Kind A port for studying recordsdata without delay from a USB reminiscence key or for connecting an not obligatory ($99) Wi-Fi dongle.

The three,000-lumen score is traditional for projectors intended for small to midsize rooms. The usage of the Society of Movement Image and Tv Engineers (SMPTE) suggestions, and assuming a 1.0-gain display, 3,000 lumens is acceptable for kind of a 210- to 280-inch (diagonal) symbol in theater-dark lights. Even with reasonable ambient mild, it is shiny sufficient for a 140-inch (diagonal) symbol. If you want a smaller symbol, you’ll be able to decrease the brightness by means of switching to the projector’s Eco mode, considered one of its lower-brightness preset modes, or each.

Symbol High quality, Lamp Lifestyles, and Audio
Symbol high quality is superb for knowledge photographs and higher than traditional for video. The one problems I became up in our usual suite of DisplayMate(Opens in a brand new window) exams are so minor that they are infrequently price citing. Crimson, for instance, used to be a slightly at the orange facet in some preset modes, however colours usually had been crowd pleasing, colourful, and neatly saturated in all modes. Very a lot at the plus facet, the 955W did a excellent activity keeping element. With textual content, for instance, white textual content on black used to be crisp and extremely readable at sizes as small as 7.5 issues, and black textual content on white used to be extremely readable even at 6 issues.

Video high quality is essentially restricted by means of the local 1,280-by-800 answer, which interprets to a most of 720p HD video with no need to scale the picture. In spite of any problems associated with answer, on the other hand, the standard is much better than traditional for an information projector and simply watchable for lengthy periods.

As with the Epson EX6220, the 955W guarantees a low operating price, with an extended than same old lamp lifestyles—at 5,000 hours in Standard mode or 6,000 hours in Eco mode—blended with the truth that the alternative lamp prices simply $99. As a last plus, the 16-watt speaker gives appropriate sound high quality and sufficient quantity to fill a midsize room. If you want nonetheless larger high quality, stereo, or extra quantity, you’ll be able to attach an exterior sound gadget to the audio output.

Except you want 3-d, the Epson PowerLite 955W WXGA 3LCD Projector must be for your brief record for a WXGA projector, at the side of the NEC NP-M311W. It delivers necessarily the similar stage of brightness and symbol high quality because the NEC style, larger audio, just about the similar zoom stage, and a lamp lifestyles that is slightly longer in Standard mode, however shorter in Eco mode. Nor is obviously larger than the opposite in any vital approach, to the purpose the place it’s essential to nearly turn a coin to make a choice from them. Heads or tails, you can finish up with a very good projector, and an Editors’ Selection.