Epson 76c Multimedia Projector Mini-Review
As I have mentioned before, I am a huge fan of using a multimedia projector for watching movies and TV. These is just something about having a 100″+ screen that makes the whole process much more enjoyable! Up until recently my favorite projector was the Epson S1, which performed great for about 3 years with no problems whatsoever. My only real complaint was the rather low resolution (800×600) and the brightness on the Panoview Greywolf screen I have been using. To address these two issues I decided to save up and purchase a new projector that had at least 2000 lumens and was at least able to display native XGA (1024×768) resolution. After a failed attempt to use a DLP projector I settled on another Epson, the 76c.
First off, lets talk about what I did not like about the Epson. Although it supports 2000 lumens you won’t usually run it at full brightness. Why? Well, if you are in a quiet room the fan noise may become an issue. I found that for watching typical movies the fan noise was a little on the annoying side so I almost always run the projector in “low” brightness mode. I will admit that I was a bit disappointed by this, however the brightness is still significantly greater overall than my older S1 which only produced about 1200 lumens (on a good day).
Another odd annoyance I noticed was how the optical zoom functioned. It’s hard to discribe but when you zoom in and out the picture does not stay centered. The image seems to zoom in and out from the bottom of the image. If you are like me and use a 16×9 wide screen you are going to find that you cannot center the image for 4×3 content and then zoom back out for 16×9 without something going off the screen. My fix for this is going to be a much larger 4×3 screen so I don’t have to make this adjustment anymore. But if you intend to use the optical zoom, make sure you are aware of this issue so you can spend your money on the right screen.
With the exception of the fan noise issue and the funny zoom, brightness and contrast were quite good and moving images seemed smooth with little to no screen-door effect. The 76c has a manual (optical) zoom and focus, making for an easy and crisp adjustment for just about any setup. As I stated in a past review of the DLP projector I tried the Epson is great at producing an image that is very large without having to be far away from the screen. In my setup, the projector produces a 106″ image at about 6-7 feet away from the screen! Overall image quality was fantastic and this projector really shows off the improved color saturation of Epson’s 3LCD technology.
Overall I really enjoy using the Epson 76c for both movies and TV. Just like my older Epson S1, the 76c produces a crisp, clear and saturated image with little to no tweaking required. In low brightness the fan is super quiet and once you understand how the zoom works it’s all smooth sailing from there. For anyone looking for a sub-$1000 (current street price on the 76c is $849) projector for home use I can definitely recommend the Epson 76c.
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