Epson Home Cinema LS100 Laser Projector Announced at CEDIA!

Wow! The big news: Ultra short throw, 4000 lumens, Laser Light Engine, all in one package, and only $2999!

Epson’s major projector announcement at the CEDIA today, is for the Home Cinema LS100 Digital Cinema Display. Now that’s a fancy name for a projector, so for simplicity, we will just call it the Home Cinema LS100 Projector, or even just the LS100! No matter what you call this projector it’s an extremely interesting home projector, with a feature set, all considered, that should prove an excellent value at its $2999 list price. For those not familiar, an ultra short throw projector sits just inches away and inches below a projector screen or wall. (Or it can be mounted above.) No being “blinded by the light” when walking around. Sports fans, movie fans and gamers should all appreciate the advantages of UST projectors. Here at Projector Reviews, we’re expecting to receive an LS100 for review in the 30 days following the CEDIA Expo! So stay tuned. For those familiar with our site, we’re ready to put the LS100 through its paces. I’ve got a crazy bright living room, and a screen designed for ultra short throw projectors to test it with, but it will also play in my home theater Update 10/17/17:  We have received a pre-production LS100, calibrated it, taken our usual photos of it in action, and returned it.  The review is in process and should be published around 10/31.  Also -  a tidbit  - Eric calibrated it.  It easily, and dramatically, exceeded it's 4000 lumen claim.  True, measuring ultra short throw projectors is challenging, but we've done it many times before.  We just figure our measurements are probably +/- 20%. So, what's the LS100 laser projector going to look like in your home?  Perhaps like this:     Before I get into more on the LS100, I should note that Epson announced five other new projectors for the home, in the weeks leading up to the show. We’ve put out info on each, they are: Homc Cinema 660, 760HD, 1060, 2100 and 2150. This LS100, however, is a significant step up from those. My first thoughts, upon seeing the LS100, in action at Epson’s US headquarters, in Long Beach CA, was: Very interesting! And seriously bright! The Epson team demonstrated the LS100 in a room with a healthy amount of ambient light present (no windows, it was really a conference room). It was bright enough to be virtually unaffected by all the light except when a very dark scene showed up, and it held up very well even then. Folks, that’s what we need to move projectors out of the theater, and more into a family room environment..  Contrary to some original rumors, the LS100 cannot accept 4K content from sources like Blu-ray UHD.  It has HDMI 1.4, and matching copy protection, not the HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2 needed for handling 4K content, including Blu-ray UHD.  No pixel shifting, with overlapping pixels.  If you do try to feed it a Blu-ray UHD disc, the player should recognize the Epson's abilities and should output 1080p rather than 4K to it.  So, if this is a "hold you over for a year or two" projector, and you want to start collecting 4K discs etc., you can. Another thought I had – great for sports! All considered the LS100 is a good bit different than any other Epson home projector to date, whether home entertainment or home theater. Let's look at what's going on, one feature at a time. First of all the LS100 is an ultra short throw projector, the first one for home from Epson. Next, it’s a laser projector! Epson claims an estimated life of the laser engine as 20,000 hours. That should keep everyone happy, no relatively quickly dimming lamps to change (and buy), and without the shifting in color that is noticeable in lamp based projectors in the first few hundreds of hours.  20,000 hours is 40 hours a week for a decade of use!  This projector will almost certainly be obsolete before the laser engine wears out! It is also Epson’s first “bright room” home projector – it claims an impressive, and very serious, 4000 lumens, to offer a long life laser light engine. In addition, we’re talking both 4000 color, and 4000 white lumens. There are, of course competing projectors can match Epson’s 4000 white lumens, but remember, some technologies, primarily single chip DLP projectors often only have about 40% to 70% as many color lumens as white, and that is a disadvantage when there’s more than just a small amount of ambient light present. Typical of Epson Home Cinema series projectors, it comes with an excellent warranty – two years parts and labor, with Epson’s 2 business day rapid replacement program (Epson Extra Care Home Service), for both years. If you have a warranty issue, call Epson and you’ll have a replacement in two business days – no waiting weeks for a repair! Sweet. The Home Cinema LS100 will be sold in a variety of places, including by CEDIA (local installing dealers) Magnolia Stores (Best Buy) and Amazon! Shouldn’t be too hard to track one down once they start shipping, which should be very soon!   The combination of ultra short throw and 4000 “wall melting” lumens, makes the LS100 a viable projector to finally offer consumers without really dark dedicated projectors or caves, a large screen alternative to today’s relatively tiny LCD TVs. The LS100 projector will project images up to 120” diagonal. Now that’s pretty awesome, compared to watching any 65 or 71” LCD TV. Pairing the LS100 with the right type of screen allows it to tackle a healthy amount of ambient light typical of family rooms, living rooms etc. Please remember, of course, that like an LCDTV, you don’t want sunlight shining right on your viewing screen. Looks to be a serious new entry from Epson.  Again, the sample unit they demo'd for me looked pretty impressive on a variety of content, in a pretty well lit room! The football game, or movie party has left the home theater, and is now in your living room!  (or your backyard). This Epson should be a lot of fun to review.  -art