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Over the last several months, Video Systems has covered the trend toward more affordable multimedia projectors. Generally that has meant not only sub-$1,000 pricing with pleasantly good quality, but also projectors designed for the office and data presentations more than for video. Now, Epson's new PowerLite Home 10 brings native 16:9 and a focus on video to this exciting price category. At $1,299, the PowerLite Home 10 is a little more than the $1,000 models, but if you're screening video on a budget, it's worth a look.
The PowerLite Home 10, along with its premium Cinema 200 and Cinema 500 siblings, aren't Epson's first forays into the home theater market, but they do suggest a renewed interest from Epson in this burgeoning category. Together, those three models effectively replace just a single model, the TW100, that had been Epson's sole home theater offering over the prior couple of years. With three projectors, as well as recently announced 47in. and 57in. rear-projection televisions, Epson is taking a major step into home entertainment and, more important to video professionals, offering products that put a premium on video content.
Announced last fall and shipping since January, the PowerLite Home 10 is, not surprisingly, a value product, especially compared to the Cinema 200 and Cinema 500. With a native resolution of only 854480, the Home 10 is only slightly better than the resolution you'd get from a native 4:3 SVGA model in widescreen mode (800450), although it's a significant difference if you're talking about scaling, or rather not scaling, 480i or 480p. If you're showing 16:9 content, there's also a clear advantage in eliminating the letterboxing and light spill. However, the effective resolution of 4:3 content drops to a very out-of-date VGA.
Epson's Cinema 200 ($2,999) and Cinema 500 ($4,999) each have a native 1280720 resolution for full native HD support (the...