Epson Home Cinema 3200 4K PRO-UHD 3-Chip Projector with HDR

Excellent color, contrast and brightness. Input lag is good enough for console gamers. The ECO mode is quite. I like 3LCD projector more than DLP projector. They have better color and contrast. If you are like me, looking for a 3LCD projector, for movies and gaming, and 4K, Epson product line is definitely what you can’t miss. And this one, HC3800, is the best at $1000-$2000. I love it! (This is a late review. I bought the projector one year ago. I’ve been enjoying it for the past whole year. I am so glad that I did a right decision a year ago)

Sorry amazons, I am not really a person into the details of the projector for I my main purpose is to watch movies and sports. One good feature that I like is the Bluetooth. I have an old Denon Amplifier and did not want to run a cable by cutting thru the dry wall and all that pain so I purchased this Bluetooth receive and connected in a seconds. I tested the audio for a lag and personally I did not see any lag. The BT receiver is about 20ft from the projector and see no breaks in voice for now. My main purpose of writing the review is that I searched for BT devices that support the Eposn 3800 aptX Bluetooth technology and found no answers only to find this device and had it shipped overnight for a small fee. Dang it connected and proved compatible. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078J3GTRK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I almost didn’t pick up this projector due to repeated concerns about focus uniformity. I’ve had no issue whatsoever with this. I think it may be because I didn’t require a ton of vertical or horizontal lens shift though I did use it. This picture is bright enough to be serviceable in a room with three windows during the day and when the lights go out it’s truly special. The contrast is truly phenomenal. Does it have OLED blacks? No. But I’ve got a 100” image and it’s a more beautiful picture than any modern tv I have in my home. I’d be shocked if you could find anything better for a similar use case for $1500 refurbished (what I paid.) If you don’t want to pay $3000 this is a great projector for you.

This is a TERRIFIC projector. Im a trial lawyer, and I bought it to display documents to the jury on a screen at trial. The old projector made it hard to tell whether someone had initialed a document or not. This one, by contrast, made the evidence clear and convincing, as we say in my line of work. Youll love it. You will also need to figure out some way to carry it around, because it is a big mother, but worth the heft.

PROS: + At 2,900 Lumens, this projector is bright + Pixel Shifting 4K Projector looks great; in particular with HDR content + Accepts full 10-bit HDR source input signal + Supports 4k @ 60fps resolution via HDMI 2.0 (18 Gbps) + Excellent vertical & horizontal optical lens adjustments (manual) + Latest Bluetooth tech for external audio source + Little to no fan noise in Eco modes + 3LCD tech avoids rainbows, for those sensitive to it + 3D glasses support, for those who aren’t happy with a mere 2 dimensions + Low input lag and latency for gaming + Relatively compact design for a 4k projector + Lots of advanced picture controls and adjustments + Full-featured remote control + 2.0A USB Power Port CONS: - Poor black levels - No built-in speakers - Fan can get noisy at higher brightness levels - Some may find on the pricey side BACKGROUND First I should note that I have an existing home theater/office that I’m using to test out this projector. I currently have an Optoma UHD65 DLP 4k projector. This would be at a different price point but I’ll make a few notable comparisons. I’m also using a Silver Ticket 120” 16:9 Gray Material screen and about 12’ away. The room has blackout curtains but I did tests in complete darkness and with various levels of ambient light. UNBOXING & SETUP Out of the box you’ve got the projector, a remote, batteries, documentation, and a power cable. No HDMI cable is included. The project itself is compact for a 4k projector. It’s smaller than the Optoma UHD65. The lens is off-set, which is normal for smaller projectors. That’s just something to note for installation. Although it’s easy to adjust for that. Speaking of setup, it’s fairly straight forward as just about any modern-day projector. There are adjustable feet for table use as well as ceiling mount points on the bottom. Thanks to the manual lens adjustments for horizontal and vertical positions, installation is very easy. Some projectors don’t have this, such as the current Optoma projectors, meaning you have to mount dead center and at just the right height. Otherwise, you’ll have to deal with digital keystone correction which limits resolution since it’s basically cropping the image. Avoid digital this if at all possible. The physical optical lens shift is the way to go. REMOTE CONTROL The non-universal remote is surprisingly useful for the projector. It’s a standard candy-bar design with quick-access buttons for just about every feature you could want. There are still menus that you’ll need to dig through for some advanced functions. But the basic stuff is all there with a single button. The remote is also backlit and very intuitive to use. The IR signal and receiver are strong enough so that I can just point at the screen and the project at the back of the room picks up on the signal. I’ve used some projector remotes that fail at this. CONTROLS & SETTINGS I won’t go through every setting as the manual would do a better job. But Epson projectors are well known for having just about every advanced feature and setting you could possibly want. In addition to several common features in the form of physical buttons on the projector. But the on-screen menu itself is laid out in an intuitive manner. In other words, if you just want to make some basic adjustments to brightness or pick a preset picture mode, you can do that. Or if you want to adjust the gamma or hue and color saturation, it’s all there for you. For example, the primary color mode presets of Dynamic, Bright Cinema, Natural, and Cinema will be all that your average user needs to touch in order to get the picture they are comfortable with. PICTURE QUALITY I did most testing in Natural, ECO power mode, and High-Speed Auto Iris. I haven’t spent much time doing extensive calibration yet as it’s surprisingly good with a few minor changes. After the bulb has some more hours on it I’ll go through that process and update here as needed. Basically, the picture looks great. The bright 2,900-lumen output with HDR enabled really makes colors pop. And with 4k pixel shifting, you do notice those fine details. At least with 4k content, which is most of what I watch these days. It’s worth noting this isn’t a “true 4K” projector, but with said pixel-shifting, it technically meets the industry definition for use of 4k branding due to the number of pixels hitting the screen. Compared to the Optoma, I do find it’s DLP chipset to produce a smoother picture which lends itself to a more crisp image. There’s more vibrant color saturation with Optoma’s RGBRGB color wheel versus the RGBCYW of the Epson. The latter is meant to allow more light output. But that’s something you really do have to compare back-to-back to appreciate. On its own, the 3200 is really impressive with 4k content; more so with HDR as it has the added benefit of being quite bright. The biggest negative is absolutely the 40:000:1 contrast ratio. Whereas the pricier models can easily push 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, it’s very noticeable with any content where there is a decent amount of black content and when viewing in a dark room. The best you get is a medium gray color. This is most apparent in the dark home theater environment. With curtains opens or a little ambient light, it’s essentially a non-issue for virtually any projector. GAMING I threw a few 4k games at the projector via my Xbox One X and it absolutely met all expectations. After some more back-to-back comparisons with the DLP projector, there is a noticeable improvement with lower input lag. I had pretty much gotten used to it and had simply adjusted to the lag by dying more frequently. But if you are playing a game that benefits from fast responses you’ll appreciate the quick responsiveness via low input lag. AUDIO There are no speakers on this model, which is unfortunate as I know some would like that for outdoor use. The remote is used for other projectors, so there are volume controls, but they won’t do anything with the 3200. There is an aux jack for audio output as well as Bluetooth audio streaming. Bluetooth is using a relatively new “aptX” Bluetooth standard that compresses and decompresses audio streams for fast low latency audio transmission to your wireless receiver (i.e. headphones, speakers, etc). Older Bluetooth receivers may not support this new standard. Regardless, you’ll get much better audio quality if you provide your own HDMI AV receiver and speaker system. Just make sure it supports HDCP 2.2 and HDMI 2.0 standards for 4k passthrough. CONCLUSION There are projectors for just about every use case you can think of. Which is what I’m going to focus my review and rating. This projector is ideal for a living room home theater. In other words, a dual-purpose room. Where you may have some ambient light coming into the room because you have a near-by kitchen, game room, window, etc. In which case the bright output of the projector can still produce a nice crisp and detailed 4k image. Just note that as with any projector, black levels and overall image visibility will suffer due to external light sources other than the projector itself. This is why in those situations, a lower contrast ratio isn’t as big of a deal. And you still need to have some control of light as there are physical limitations here. Also, a gray material screen will help with black levels and reflections from said lighting. If you’re going to primarily use this in a dedicated home theater where you can control all light sources, the 3200 is still perfectly acceptable. But if you’re particular about those black levels, I’d suggest moving to an alternate and possibly more expensive model with a better contrast ratio. As long as you make the right choice for your needs, you won’t regret the decision. The Epson 3200’s bright lumen output, 4k HDR picture quality, and flexible installation make this an easy recommendation from me.

Coming from a 10 year old Epson projector, this was modest improvement, primarily in brightness and contrast. However, the fan was really loud and the image had unacceptable uneven focus from side to side. Returned and upgraded to the 5050, which has an infinitely better image with better blacks, contrast, sharpness, noise, etc.

This projector is absolutely stunning. Picture quality is glorious. Being able to see things in 4K (even this version of 4K) is amazing. As a filmmaker, I absolutely appreciate getting such stunning quality for my viewing experience. Setup is easy. Nothing out of the ordinary. Just plug things in appropriately, use the feet to get a level picture, etc. Remote is quite functional--there are a million options I will never use, but the basics are great! Controlling this from a distance is no problem. Audio must come from external speakers, but I prefer that. Who wants built-in speakers anyway? If youre buying this projector, youre obviously going to have a nice sound system to go with it. So they focus more on the features you will use rather than including something you wont. Plus, bluetooth audio is just the coolest thing ever. So happy weve gotten there. All-in-all, I absolutely love this!

Writing this because sadly I didnt see it in the reviews. This projector looks like a projector from little big world in Mario. Its huge. And heavy. This is what I get for reading too many reviews focused on image quality. I didnt even take it out of the packaging just straight back to amazon lol.

I found this projector to be too bright for a 84 diagonal screen. Beyond putting the lamp in ECO mode, there is no variable lamp brightness control. I spoke with epson customer service and they confirmed this. The projector is great during the day, but it is blinding at night, even on its dimmest setting. It seems like other epson projectors have a 30-100% lamp brightness control, but not this one. Its too bad because it is hard to find a 4k projector with a long-throw lens like this one has. Otherwise, the projector seemed great. If you have ambient light or a much larger screen, this would be a good choice.

I got this Epson Home Cinema Projector to place in another room that Im working on turning into a mini home theater in my house. I own another Epson projector and Ive been very pleased with their quality, so I expected just the same out of this one. The most amazing part about this projector is the absolutely excellent video quality. It transmits using 4K PRO-UHD technology, which I really dont understand a lot about. But it basically helps to improve the resolution, color, and image processing. Its got a 3-chip that puts out just beautiful and vibrant color while using pixel-shifting. The brightness is also exceptional and seems to be just perfect for any viewing experience. Its got a multitude of connections including: 2 HDMI ports, USB, and a 3.5 mm audio out. I wish it came with an optical audio output, but I guess thats starting to be replaced by HDMI anyway. The projection can output all the way up to a 150 display, but I dont think I even have space for that in the room Im using. Im currently using a 120 projection with the projector set back about 12 feet, which is just perfect for what I need. I mounted mine to the ceiling using one of the mounting kits that you can buy, so thats something youll want to consider most likely. You can also set it up on a tabletop, but Id imagine thats probably not the best scenario for most people. You might also consider buying a projector screen for placing on the wall to get the absolute best display. So prospective buyers should consider factoring those additional costs into their budget on top of the price of the projector. Finally, Ive been able to connect all of my peripheral devices without any issues including: Amazon Fire Stick, laptop, PS4, blu-ray dvd player, and DirecTV receiver. Overall Im extremely satisfied and impressed with the quality and performance of this Epson Home Cinema Projector. The amazing video quality and incorporated technology make this an amazing projector that can be had at a reasonable price when you consider that a lot of 4K projectors run around $5,000 or more.