Epson Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Image Quality 3

Posted on August 30, 2013 by Art Feierman

Overall, the Home Cinema 2030 did a respectable or better job on dark shadow detail. It actually does very well, revealing more than most projectors. But keep in mind, because the darkest shadow detail on more expensive projectors with better blacks means that those details themselves are much darker, it's hard to sometimes to notice that they are just as good or better than lower cost projectors like this Epson, or competition from Viewsonic, Optoma, BenQ...

Below is a favorite image for looking at dark shadow detail. It's also a good test of black level performance. While as already noted, the black levels of the 2030 are only average, that definitely is the case for dark shadow detail. Look at the shrubs on the right and behind the tracks, and also in the darkest portion of the woods, where there's plenty of dark shadow detail. Most of the projectors' images below crush the darkest detail more.

Note, images below. We've already converted a lot of these Bond "night train scene" images done with more expensive projectors to grayscale, but as you can see, most of the older, less expensive projectors' images are still in color. Eventually, they'll all be grayscale.

Click Image to Enlarge

hc2030 bond train large

hc-3020e bond train large

hd25-lv bond train large

h9500bd bond train large

Pro8200 bond train large

hc4000 bond train large

home-cinema-5020 bond train large

vpl-hw50es bond train large

Black Level and Shadow Detail Performance: Home Cinema 2030 Projector - Bottom Line

Black level performance is about average for around the $1000 price point. You've got to spend hundreds more to get something significantly better, although the BenQ W1070 and W1080ST have a slight advantage. The Optoma HD25-LV cost $300 more and is better than either, but still a far cry for serious black level work.

Almost all the darkest shadow detail is there, call the Home Cinema 2030 pretty good. Better still call it about average for the lower cost projectors in its range.