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

This review is not going to cover all the statistical information for this projector. That been covered. I’m going to do an unfair comparison of this projector, and the Epson 5050, pro model, which costs nearly 3 times as much, and I also happen to really like. So here goes. The 5050 has a striking image quality, long lamp life, and digital image tuning. With the remote you can dial in the image, as far as zoom, sharpness, and image/screen orientation. The 3800 shares all these features, though many are manually adjusted on the projector, as opposed to electronically adjusted via the remote. But having the ability to adjust the lens shift, both horizontally, and vertically, makes installation much easier. Not to mention, it dramatically opens the ability to place the projector, where you need it in your room, and still get a great image. I mounted mine on a ceiling mounted shelf/box. My ceiling is just under 8 feet, and the lens distance to the screen is around 13 feet. Sadly, because my mounting setup is a box, as opposed to a mount, my projector sits upright (like a table mounted projector) rather than inverted, as you would with a typical ceiling mount. This projector has a lot of vertical lens shift, but not quite enough to fully shift the image fully down on my screen. Now my mounting choice is highly unusual. Not many people mount a projector in a box, upright, at ceiling height. I decided to do it this way for a few reasons. It blocks 90% of the projector sound, it is lower profile than many ceiling mounts, I like to change projectors fairly frequently, so it’s as simple as setting a new projector in place, and most importantly, the box protects the projector from my family. You never know when a sword fight (nerf swords!!), or football game will break out. As you can see in my attached images, the picture is fully on the screen, but that’s because the image signal is in the wide screen aspect ratio, not the typical 16:9. So the horizontal black bar on the bottom of the image is larger than the one on the top. This is also evidence of how close it was to working. But my screen is a 16:9 ratio, so 16:9 image won’t fit, unless I can lower this projector about 3 inches. If you mount inverted on a typical mount, you will have no issues, and you could even have a much higher ceiling. My Epson 5050 has a lot more vertical lens shift, so I can dial it in perfectly, and it’s my primary projector for this location, so I don’t need to change my setup, because I don’t intend to replace my 5050. It’s a beautiful, professional projector. It’s down side is, it is massive. This means I can only use it in a dedicated spot. The Epson 3800 offers close enough features, and specs, which I doubt most people could distinguish, in a blind test, if viewing in different rooms. The 3800 is perfectly sized to move around. Maybe I want to have a Super Bowl party on my back patio, on our 150 inch outdoor screen. This is a beautiful option. Maybe we want to go camping, and let the kids enjoy a drive in style movie on the beach, another perfect option. Or, maybe one day we downsize and don’t have a dedicated theater room. The highly adjustable ability, small size, and high end image quality, from a cinema style glass projector lens, and quality components, makes this projector a great option. Now my intentions are to use this primarily as our outdoor projector (birthday parties, and other gatherings), and it will be the nicest we have ever had. It would still be a great option for a theater room, if you don’t have budget room for a $4k projector. Not everyone has that room, this is a great substitute, at a fraction of the cost. Need proof, look at my photos. I used roughly the same video clip. I actually paused the clip and swapped out projectors, but it may have moved a frame or two, when I unpaused the clip. The images are very similar. The 5050 is a touch more contrasty (not actually a word, but you get what I mean), and the 5050 was a little brighter, but other than that both images were great. It’s important to note, the source component, screen, and room conditions were identical for each projector. This is as close of an apples to apples comparison, as a random guy at home, can get. In addition to all of that, Epson has a very generous two year warranty, and in my experience, they are easy to deal with, and they get you going quickly, if you have an issue. I’ve only ever had very small issues, and their response was always to replace the projector with a brand new unit (which they ship out quickly) even right up to that two year date. So register your unit, if you buy one. On some items, I often suggest buying the cheap Amazon extended warranty, but unless you think you need more than two years, it think an extended warranty is a waste, because Epsons warranty is so good.

Bright and clear picture, with very adjustable!

This is my first projector and loving it so far. Have had it for over about a week and have it on a 92 inch fixed frame screen. Was able to get the corners aligned and scything without much hazle. The lens shift dials at the top make it easy to move the screen UP/DOWN & LEFT/RIGHT by a good amount so you minimize keystone and quick corner use. Noticed that the center tents to be focused while the edges are out of focus, started playing with the Sharpness settings and bumped it up all the way and was able to focus the edges of the screen without issue. You should be able to bring down the HDR settings so image is brighter while keeping the ECO setting to expand bulb life.

I got his PJ because it has high light output and a smaller form factor than its big brothers. I figured the lack of a full DC3 color pallet was an acceptable tradeoff. The colors are still incredible, I dont feel I traded off a thing and the brightness thrown up on an ALR Gray Elite Screen is fantastic even during the day it looks like a TV not a PJ. Way to go Epson! PS- The remote is great too.

Better picture than 4k DLP! We had another branded DLP and after ~1000 hours we had a star field of dead mirrors. I remember that LCDs did not do that..... Looking forward to finding out over time.

If the higher end versions are priced out of range for you, this 3800 model might be in your wheel house. If you are looking for a better than average 4K TV, this is probably the area you want to look. The picture quality is superb. Very impressive for a projector. What I like most about it is the versatility in its projection size. So no matter what room size you are sitting in, this Epson 4K projector will accommodate the size needed, whether on a wall or a screen. It is 3D capable, but you need to buy the accessories to accommodate it, but it can handle displaying. There are various audio inputs to use for sound bars or speakers to maximize the theater experience. While the unit is pretty big, its not improbably to move it around with careful handling for certain occasions, such as an outdoor viewing. There are a lot of features within to tune it to your home environment and displays well even in the daytime. Overall, if the other projectors are a little too much, I would go for this one as you will find the quality very comparable and worthy of show-off rights.

I mostly watch movies, youtube. I had a optoma hd28darbee that was great for games and pretty good for movies and then it failed. I tried one of the optoma laser projectors hz39hdr and the color was horrible way washed out. I looked out of the box and noticed just how good the picture was on the Epson 3800…. WOW incredible color, and detail. In fact it has the best image I have ever seen period!! Only drawbacks when switching inputs it can be slow and buggy so make sure if using a receiver with 4k hdmi switching, you have all the firmware updates done. Also games did look a bit better (sharper) with optoma however with some adjustments and just how good it looks with uhd4k movies I will except that. I mean it looks so good I stayed up to 2am just watching uhd4k content on youtube etc, amazing !!! Buy it you will love it!!!

Anyone who is interested in the HC3800 should purchase one. I bought this projector at the start of Covid. It was an upgrade to a Mitsubishi 3800 1080p. Ironically the model number was the same. The 3800 was chosen at the time because the 5050UB was out of range price wise. The 3800 also got good reviews which helped in the decision. It was used for 2 years in my dedicated light controlled theater. Great picture. I upgraded to a 6050UB that a friend sold me for half price. The HC 3800 was moved to the living room where there is limited light control. The picture is phenomenal as far as a projected image in daylight can be. We are using a 100” Akia Cinewhite 1.1 gain screen. The Epson cuts through the ambient light producing a vibrant and colorful image. We run in ECO mode because the projector is used 14 hours / day. Even so my wife complains the image is too bright sometimes.

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.

Lens shift, zoom and focus make this projector easier to install than most. You dont have to mount it dead center of the screen, You just get it close and then adjust the image to fit. Image quality is outstanding as is brightness. At 20lb. it is a bit heavy so take this into account when mounting it.