News: Dramatic improvements claimed of Epson’s new projectors

Epson claim dramatic improvements to its newly-announced projector range.

Two new models – the EH-TW4500 and the EH-TW3500 – will be released on the New Zealand market shortly, and Epson claims hugely improved picture quality.

The high-end EH-TW4500 has almost trebled its contrast ratio to 200,000:1, producing deeper and richer dark tones and blacks.

The EH-TW3500 – Epson’s popular entry-level HD projector – has doubled its contrast ratio to 36,000:1, and its energy-efficient lamp delivers 1800 lumen White Light Output and 1800 lumen Colour Light Output.

“The 2010 models push the standard for HD images higher, with some ingenious hardware and software changes that help produce fantastic images, especially with fast action sequences and dark scenes,” says Epson’s business manager of visual imaging, Bruce Bealby.

“We expect the market for HD projectors to continue to grow by about 10 percent a year, driven by the strong growth in HD sources such as sales of Blu-ray players, more HDTV channels, and the incredible impact of game playing on a 3 to 4 metre screen as more game consoles go HD”, says Bealby.

The dramatic increase in contrast ratio in both the EH-TW4500 and the EH-TW3500 has been achieved by making fine adjustments to Epson’s auto iris, combined with the company’s “DeepBlack” technology and energy-efficient 170W E-TORL lamp.

Other improvements include the Frame Interpolation software, which gives smoother motion in very fast action sequences, especially vertical motion, and fine-tuning to its colour “Look Up Table” (LUT), ensuring it accurately renders every tone in the moving image. Epson has also added “Super Resolution Technology” that examines blurring and boundary effects in lower resolution images, and adjusts them to create a sharper picture, producing a high definition effect in standard definition sources.

The Epson EH-TW3500 will retail for $4499 and is available later this month.

The Epson EH-TW4500 will retail for $6399 and will be available in November.