Epson Pro Cinema LS10000 Laser Home Theater Projector Review - Hardware

Pro Cinema LS10000 - Hardware Overview and Lens

❮ ❯

This is one good looking projector, as projectors go, at least if you like a bit of massive, with style.  As I said on the first page, very "euro"  looking.  You'll decide for yourself, however, the finish is a matte black so should disappear nicely in a dedicated theater with a dark ceiling.  Dual large exhausts adorn the front, on either side of the recessed power zoom lens with lens memory.

The control panel is on the side - the left side if you are facing the front of the projector.  It is located on a spring loaded door, so is essentially invisible when you don't need it.  Above the control panel on the curved part of the top of the projector are the usual indicator led lights.

Note in the images above, that one shows the Epson powered down, with the lens cover closed.  It opens automatically when powered up (of course)!  Also of note, the rear of the projector is shown twice, the first time showing the input panel and filter, and immediately after, same view, but with the provided cable cover attached.

All the inputs and other connectors are located on the back.  The back isn't very pretty, you'll see a large filter there as well, but Epson ships the LS10000 with a cable cover to keep things nice and neat.  When the projector is ceiling mounted the access through the cable cover is on the top where it belongs and that should keep the cables invisible.

The remote control looks like all of Epson's previous ones, on the larger side with a nice  backlight and large buttons.  It has excellent range.

Let's talk lens.  The center mounted, recessed power zoom 2.1:1 lens provides maximum placement flexibility, especially with the exceptional amount of motorized lens shift provided.   Info about the affect of the zoom lens position on brightness is covered on the Performance pages.

Thanks to the power focus, zoom and lens shift, this is the first Epson home projector to support lens memory, so that you can easily choose to use a wide screen - cinemascope style such as 2.35:1 or 2.4:1.

Control Panel

The Pro Cinema LS10000's control panel opens nice and smoothly upon touching the button next to it.  If you are standing behind the projector the text is right side up, facing you.  At the top of the panel (closest to the front) is the Power button (once for on, twice for off), that's followed by the Source button which brings up the many sources. Each time you press the Source button it toggles to the next source, until you stop on one, and then it switches to it.

Below that comes the Menu button, a tiny joystick surrounded by four printed arrows.  Just tilt toward the arrow you want.  Pressing down on the joystick functions as the Enter button.  The last button, is below that, and that's the Escape button which takes you back up a level in the menus when navigating.  Pretty standard stuff, except for the cool spring loaded hidden aspect.

Click Image to Enlarge

LS10000 Inputs and Connectors

All the connectors and inputs are on the right hand side of the back, (the filter door is dead center) if you are facing the back of the projector.  The one hardest to see is the power receptacle because it is vertical.  That is, the power cord' connector (from this right side up view) goes up into the receptacle.  (Note the label:  AC Inlet)

Near the top center are the two HDMI inputs. They support HDMI 2.0 and also the newest copy protection (required for Blu-ray 4K UHD whenever those start appearing.

Further to the right is the standard ethernet RJ45 type connector for a hard wired network - that is, plug it into your home router or gigabit switch.   As mentioned earlier, the projector is designed so that firmware can be updated through your network, when the projector is connected.

There's a small USB mini type connector as a service port on the top right.  Below it and a little further to the right is an RS232 serial port (DB9) for "old school" command and control.  Next to it, moving to the left is an analog computer input labeled PC (DB15 connector, and then comes the three color coded RCA jacks for component video.

All that's left as a composite video (yellow RCA jack) and a pair of 12 volt screen triggers, one of which could be used to control an anamorphic lens sled, but most folks will be perfectly happy using the Epson's Lens Memory to switch between 16:9 and 2.35 or 2.40 anamorphic "Cinemascope" shaped movies.