Epson TW10H

The affordable widescreen projector

By Tony Davey

January 2005

Epson TW10H video projector. $2499

Epson TW10H Not long ago I reviewed the Epson TW200, a mid priced projector that tried (but didn’t quite manage) to compete with similarly priced LCD and DLP competition (namely Infocus Screenplay 4805 and the Panasonic PT-AE500/700).

The TW200 – since replaced by the 200H – wasn’t their entry level machine, that title goes to the unit under review at present, the TW10H. The 10H is specced well for a projector at this price point, with 854 x 480 lines of resolution, 1200 ansi lumens and a respectable 700:1 contrast ratio. Fan noise was acceptable, and whilst not whisper quiet, it was quiet enough to simply blend in to the onscreen action without being distracting.

Connectivity is ample for a budget unit, offering composite, s-video and component (interlaced and progressive) inputs as well as 15pin VGA for PC connection. Absent is any form of digital connection (DVI or HDMI) however given this is also absent from its bigger brother, the TW200, this is hardly surprising.

Bright lights

I found the picture certainly benefited from the higher lumen count, with the 10H capable of filling a 120 inch grey screen quite comfortably and still produce a bright punchy image in light controlled conditions. The contrast ratio is also respectable at this price and while blacks certainly have a grayness to them, they leave little to complain about, producing a nice contrasty picture.

I viewed a wide variety of material including Terminator 2 – Ultimate Edition, Stallone’s Cliffhanger, Behind Enemy Lines and (of course) animated features like Toy Story 1&2 and Monsters Inc.

Screen door effect with LCD projectors is usually most noticeable with large single colour areas (such as sky or snow covered mountains), but I found with the 10H my eye catching quite obvious pixilation in numerous busy scenes also (bar scene in T2 and often throughout the animated movies viewed). It was possible to minimize pixilation by both slightly defocusing the image (done using the manual focus ring without significantly adversely effecting picture quality - a common tweak with LCD projectors) and reducing image size to try and maintain a 1.5-2.0 times seating distance to screen width ratio. Buyers will want to make sure they don’t get over excited and push the boundaries on “bigger must be better”.

Out of the box, colour accuracy was another area I felt the 10H under-performed. Greens (like the forest scenes in Behind Enemy Lines) appeared slightly muted yet reds over saturated (skin tones for example looked quite red/sun burned). The 10H did provide some in-depth menu’s from which individual colours could be more accurately balanced.

A bigger computer screen

I also tested the 10H with some standard PC material, racing car games (V8 Supercars Race Driver) and was very impressed. The 10H handled the fast paced graphics very well and produced a nice bright track to race around on (Bathurst on a 120 inch screen, does it get any better?). The 10H is quite likely to make an excellent partner to an Xbox or PS2 for large screen gaming.

As mentioned earlier, the 10H is Epson’s entry level projector. It certainly would be unfair for me to review it in the same context as say the Epson TW200, Infocus 4805 or Panasonic PTAE 700.

There are several budget priced units available at the moment that sell for around $2k (Benq PB6100 and Sony VPLES1 and a Sanyo machine from The Warehouse) available from online shops, all of these are office projectors with high lumen count (for presentations) and are native 4:3 units, rather than the movie-friendly widescreen of the Epson. Having viewed one of the cheaper Benq’s (which is a DLP unit), my money would certainly go to the Epson, the Benq’s DLP nasties (rainbows and eye strain) were simply too much for me.

The Epson TW-10H must be the least expensive widescreen projector available and offers great value, a bright punchy image with good contrast, for those on a tight budget. If you have more flexibility in your budget then the Infocus Screenplay 4805 at $1500 more offer a noticeably better picture. Or the new Epson 200H (not reviewed) at a similar price to the 4805 may be worth a try.

Provided you don’t push the boundaries on screen size and are prepared to spend some time “fine-tuning” colours, the 10H will provide you with an inexpensive step into the world of front projection.

For your nearest Epson dealer

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