Epson Powerlite 1985WU Projector Review - Hardware Tour 2

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Art Feierman

POWERLITE 1985WU PROJECTOR - HARDWARE TOUR Page 2: Remote Control, Menus, Lens Throw

Powerlite 1985WU Remote Control

Epson's remote control for the 1985 WU is medium sized with smallish buttons. It does not have a backlight, but then since a 4800 lumen projector rarely has to work in a dark room, that should not be a problem. True, being backlit would be better, but few of todays projectors - other than home theater, have backlit remotes.

The range of the remote is pretty good. No problem standing 22 feet from the screen, and getting a nice bounce to the projector sitting about 12 feet back. Just remember to point in the appropriate direction, of course. The Epson has both front and rear sensors, so you can be a lot further back with the remote, if needed. Officially Epson puts the range at just over 26 feet, so it easily exceeds that.

Let's take a look at the remotes feature set, starting with the green Power button on the top left.

Click Image to Enlarge

Powerlite 1985 WU Menus

This Epson uses the same basic menu organization they have used for many years. In addition to all the usual sub-menus, there is a complete menu system for the wired and wireless networking setup. The 1985WU also has a Scheduling menu system as well. Below are a number of menus and sub-menus in the player. Where helpful I've added some comments about the features shown.

1985WU Menus

Image Menu

The first main menu, has most color and picture quality controls, multiple sub-menus

Image: Advanced Sub-Menu

This sub-menu offers menus for gamma adjustment, color calibration

Gamma Adjust

Five presets, and a custom setup option

Image: RGB - Adjust grayscale

Allows adjusting to the proper color temp, such as 6500K for REC 709 video.

Image: RGBCMY - the CMS

The color management system, calibrate individual colors

Signal Menu

Has two noise reduction settings, Overscan, Image Processing

Settings: Test Pattern

Brings up a simple blue background and some fine lines for focus and general positioning.

Pointer

No laser, rather a pointer that is controlled from the remote. Three choices of the pointer's shape

Networking Main Menu

Networking: Wireless

Settings to allow Screen Mirroring, and Wireless Local Area Network

Networking: Wireless: Mirroring

Info menu showing settings

Inside Networking Menu

When its time to do settings in networking, the menu system is on a blue background

Exiting Networking

You cannot just quit networking menus. Changes must be saved or canceled

Projector Information

Has two sub-menus...One with current info and source info, the other: firmware version

Eco Mode

Full power, or Eco, plus Auto, which will draw full power only when needed

Epson 1985WU Lens Throw

Epson's manual 1.6:1 zoom lens provides better than most range among projectors that don't have interchangeable lenses. It should be mentioned though, that the projector lacks any vertical or horizontal lens shift adjustments, instead relying on keystone correction. Doing so is a good way to keep the costs down. Remember, the 1900 series offer the type of brightness found on a lot of projectors including Epson's G series, that specialize in lens capabilities with interchangeable lenses and lens shift. This guy - the 1985WU - is for those will simpler setup needs!

The table here gives you a sample of throw ranges for larger screens:

Lens Throw Chart
Diagonal Screen size, 16:10	Closest Distance	Furthest Distance
80 Inch	92.9 inches	154.2 inches
100 Inch	116.5 inches	193.1 inches
150 Inch	175.4 inches	290.4 inches
20 Foot	278.7 inches	462.6 inches