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

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.

Nice 4k quality projector. Bright and really high quality images. Cant complain

This isnt the flagship Epson project but for the price I think it is an excellent value and hits a sweet spot balance of price and performance. The projector isnt as large as some of the other higher end models which I find is a plus. It is easier to mount and isnt as visible in a smaller room. The 4K picture is not quite the best 4K experience Ive seen but it is very close and considering the price it is good enough for me. It is bright even in rooms with lots of windows. I really like the colors. Very vivid if you like it that way. Relatively quiet I find it does produce a good amount of heat like most projectors do. I can heat up a smaller room so be sure there is plenty of ventilation. 5 stars.

I have been using this projector for a quite few weeks, screen becomes blank for few seconds quite often, also when it is running its really making noise.

Wow, this with a 100 inch screen and ceiling mount is fab. Really great for movie night at home. Buy it, you will love it. Really awesome picture. I use a home theater Dolby receiver with nice speakers and a large sub so don’t use the project sound at all.

Wow! Its really bright and sharp. I love how the Epson projectors are bright even when the picture isnt just white. If your comparing just lumen to lumen, know that the the Epson 3LCD has the same bright level for white and color. The advertised brightness for a DLP is just white brightness and it loses brightness even with solid colors. The picture is bright. Its really good looking. Contrast is very good for a projector and my understanding is that its even better for the 3800. (I really feel that brightness is more important than contrast for any room with any ambient light). The picture quality is spectacular. We tried a screen, but we just use a white wall for projection because who wouldnt want a wall size picture! I have a cheap led pico projector, but its worthless compared to something like this. Dont get hung up on the size of the projector or cheap out. Once you see the picture thats as bright and sharp as this, youll know why its worth the money. The only thing I wish for is a digital sound out. It has a 3.5mm out for sound and I would love a optical or digital sound out. Yes, it does now do bluetooth, but I dont want any interference for my wireless controllers when gaming. I use an HDMI audio extractor between my source and the projector to send the sound my speakers. I guess not having sound in the projector does make sense because many might need long audio cables, but I still think it would be nice to have it. Ive had cheap projectors. I cant imagine going back to 1000-2000 lumens after this. I cant imagine wanting a small projector that does 100-500 lumens and having to put blackout curtains just to see anything. I think small projectors have a place, but for the home theatre or gaming system, you want something bright and accurate. Its really awesome to watch my wall size 4k movies, and wall-size ps4 pro 60fps is pretty breathtaking too. I totally suggest this!

Bought the refurbished model. Seems to be working so far. Great picture quality. Best in a very dark room. I have an apple tv 4K device installed on it as well as a vizio soundbar with wireless subwoofer and surround speakers. Also using a 100 inch screen. Great for movies and sports.

Projectors have to serve a lot of different needs. Some people need them to be used in a brightly sunlit room during the day. Others need them for 3d movies. Others need the projector for text and images. All of us probably want a great picture and large screen wow experience. I have a dedicated theater room that is painted with dark brown walls and ceiling and blackout curtains. It is like a movie theater. I do not have to worry about brightness of the projector. That gives me some tradeoffs with this projector. This projector is EXCELLENT for a bright room that needs extra lamp power to overcome the brightness. For me, that means I can run in ECO mode and the fan is reduced and the brightness is still very good - and my blacks are better too. This is a pretty good projector for a theater room setup. It is also pretty good for a sunlit room setup as well, but you will experience tradeoffs. By running in full brightness mode at an insane 2900 lumens, the projector can actually be functional in a bright room. The fan will run a good deal more, and it will be noisier to overcome this - but it is better than having a weak picture. The colors are bright and saturated and the image is CRISP and CLEAR. For those who care about the details, it is not a true 4k picture, but for practical purposes and to many people, it is so well done that it gives the performance of a 4k picture at a fraction of the cost. Right now, a true 4k projector is VERY EXPENSIVE. The Epson Home Cinema 3800 4K PRO-UHD 3-Chip Projector with HDR gives you the look and feel of a true 4k image without the obscene price of a true 4k projector. It is large too - in most installed setups, this should not matter. If you are carrying it around as a portable unit, this could matter. Overall, this is a great budget choice projector that can handle very bright room installations (think of a living room with windows that dont get completely dark or a classroom or court room or business conference room.) If you are a true aficionado of high end projectors, this may fall a slight bit under the top end projectors, but it also falls a good bit under the prices of those projectors. I have a lot of friends who have MUCH CHEAPER projectors than this, so it is a fairly upper-mid-range projector and you will absolutely appreciate the many extras and higher performance of this projector. It does 3D and it will absolutely handle a bright room - feature that a great many people need and wish for. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a GREAT PROJECTOR at a price point of around $1,500. I would not hesitate to recommend it to family and friends and Epson is a great brand name and projectors are one of their EXCEPTIONAL product lines. One comment on that... Most companies are known for being really great at CERTAIN PRODUCTS. Epson is known for printer and another one of their excellent products is PROJECTORS. Right now, with the exit of Panasonic from the projector market, Epson is very possibly right there with Sony and maybe one other brand among the top-3 projector companies out there. You cannot go wrong with this projector in my opinion as long as you know the quirks and they dont affect your situation. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me via my Amazon Profile and I will try to get back to you asap. I take great pride in trying to help others know which products are good and which ones to avoid. I feel like we can all help each other by doing a great job of letting others know our experience with the products we buy here on Amazon and I think it is very rewarding to know that I have helped someone choose the right product for their situation. Thank you so much for reading this review!

We placed the unit about 18’ away from the screen wall, and the diagonal is about 160”. Even stretched to this size it is as clear or better than my 70” flatscreen! Never expected it to look this good.

Very bright and at most times the image is sharp. But, there are a lot of unpleasant visual effects. Dont really know how to describe it. When there were desert sands on screen there was like pink blobs.. when showing the sky there was massive rainbow effects. Honestly, the cheap 70$ one this replaces didnt have these problems. Im not going to return it but I would not have bought it had I known the picture would be like it is.