Epson Home Cinema 2150, Wireless, Full HD, 1080p, 2,500 lumens color brightness (color light output), 2,500 lumens white brightness (white light output), 2x HDMI (1 MHL), Miracast, 3LCD projector

I was ready to update my 10-year old Epson MovieMate 30S for three main reasons:1. I no longer need the MovieMate's built-in DVD player because I hardly ever watch DVD's anymore. In the rare instance where I would, I do have an excellent stand-alone DVD player, or I could even connect one of my laptops.2. The old Epson MovieMate does not deliver a true HD image; it's an interpolated HD image.3. The old MovieMate does not project well in anything other than a completely dark room. The blacks become gray and the colors become washed out.So, in selecting the new Epson 2150 as a replacement projector, it hit all the required targets and then some.First and foremost--image quality. In one word: stunning,Second--image viewing in a partially lit room: brightness, contrast, black level, color saturation are all excellentThird--easy set up: right out of the box...it was up and running in less than 15 minutes. Did I say "plug and play"? Well, yes! Understand that I simply unplugged my old Epson and upgraded some RCA connectors over to HDMI. It was very straight forward, following the Epson Quick Guide.Fourth--I was pleasantly surprised at how small and lightweight the new 2150 is.Fifth--Quiet: yes, you can hear the cooling fan if you're sitting right next to it, but it's much quieter than my old Epson.Sixth--very fairly priced: I was able to catch it during an Amazon sale before Christmas. The discount was about 25% off the list price.What's Bad?? The sound from the built-in speaker is very weak. It's almost unusable. Connecting an external speaker is mandatory for quality sound. The same is true for projectors that are double or triple the price of the Epson 2150, so I wouldn't let that deter anyone from buying this model.Not yet tested--3D: I just ordered 3D glasses, which are not included with the 2150. I will update this review sometime in the near future with respect to the 3D performance.

When it came time to replace my 60" plasma, I started my obsessive research on projectors. I spent weeks learning about them, comparing brands and models, and reading reviews. I finally decided on an Epson Home Cinema 1060 (note: not this projector). I was so excited and went to set it up in what I thought was our pretty average-sized living room, only to discover that I had missed something in all my research, PROJECTION DISTANCE RANGE!!! Please be sure to measure the size of your screen and the distance from the screen to where you want to place the projector and check that the projector you want will work with that range. When I mounted the HC 1060 on the shelf I installed, the projector was too far away and the image was far too large to fit on the 110" screen, even with the zoom at the smallest setting. I also found that if the projector is to be mounted high, it MUST be upside down, even if you intend to place it on a high shelf. This is because the lense is designed to project the image up from a low surface so that the bottom of the image is almost in line with the lense, and the top of the image is around a 45° angle out of the lense. I called Epson to see if I had any options, because I REALLY did not want to ceiling-mount the projector closer (long story). The tech support was very helpful, but they left me with a difficult decision to make: either move the HC 1060, or return it and purchase the HC 2150 (this projector). The HC 2150 features a much wider zoom range and lense shift, making it much more flexible to install. The only potential negative was that it featured 2500 lumens of brightness compared to the 3100 lumens in the HC 1060. However, the HC 2150 has a 60,000:1 contrast ratio where the HC 1060 has only a 15,000:1. I took the chance and purchased the HC 2150 and COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!!! I was worried about the reduction in lumens because our living room has a lot of ambient light and we watch TV in the middle of the day frequently. As it turns out, the higher contrast ratio of this projector more than compensates for the reduction in brightness and also produces a MUCH better image! I can't believe how good the image quality is, even in the middle of the day with ambient light in the room. I attached some photos to show this. Bottom line, you will not be disappointed with this projector!

I was really impressed with the picture quality of Epson 2150 straight out of box. Rich vibrant colors and very quick setup. But after one month, I thought of upgrading to a 4K projector after seeing some YouTube videos of 1080p vs 4K projectors. After doing lot of research, I found Optoma UHD60 to be the best 4K projector under $2000 based on specs and reviews. I decided to give it a try but wanted to compare how different is the color, contrast and picture quality on both when playing 4K content. You can see couple of pictures with both playing the same content. I covered half the lens on each of the projectors so that I could see the output from both at the same time. I played variety of 4K content. Although the content on UHD 60 had deeper darks and more rich colors, the difference when viewing from more than 7 feet, was only marginal. In the pictures you can see both of them projecting at about 175 inch screen size and on bare wall. To me the color and details/sharpness difference was so marginal that it was very hard to notice unless all you were doing is trying to compare. Another difference I noticed was that Epson is able to project slightly larger image from the same distance compared to Optma even when both support 1.6x zoom. Another major difference is that Keystone correction and 3D support are present on Epson but are missing on this Optoma model. Also the size Epson is almost less than half of Optoma, so it will be more handy for occasional outdoor use. All in all, I feel Epson 2150 is not only the best projector in this price range but when compared to 4k projectors which are almost twice in price, the picture quality difference as perceived with naked eye is very marginal. Couple of things to note in the pictures. 1) Left part of the image is coming from Epson and right half is from Optma. 2) Both are being projected on bare wall 3) Both of them are using 4K fire sticks. Hope this helps clear the delima of 1080p vs budget 4K projector for some of you.