Epson EX7200 Projector

Introduction

More than a projector and much less than a bank breaker would define the Epson EX7200 projector.  Upon first glance the EX7200 appears very much the typical office/small business projector, but a closer inspection reveals its hidden potential. In reality the EX7200 is a small multimedia powerhouse that works as well for your theater room as it does for your conference room. With a retail price of approximately $649 lets see what this budget projector can accomplish.

What Epson Says:

Intended Use:

So I am supposed to state that the intended use of this product is as a small office multimedia projector. The specifications, connections, and capabilities support that use. Of course as well all know everyone is looking for a bargain and another way to accomplish or obtain what they want without spending the associated cost. I must admit our intended use was as a projector for a LAN demonstration. As such we attached the EX7200 to one of our high end setups and had it running Call of Duty: Black Ops for 6 hours straight on a 12 foot screen.  The result. . . Simply Amazing. Many of the attendees commented on the projector, asked for its model number, and cost. Just as many asked how it looked playing back a movie and as I hadn’t actually tested the quality of it’s movie playback I couldn’t honestly answer. So after the LAN that was our first goal for the EX7200. . . movie playback.

We hooked up the EX7200 in the back yard of a friend with a big empty wall, grabbed a set of 5.1 Klipshe speakers, and attached the EX7200 to our laptop.  Nothing is quite as awesome as watching Christian Bale in Equilibrium on a 200 inch screen. My first honest thought after “Wow” was “There goes the plans for buying a big screen LCD”.

So will it serve as an office projector with some extra features that could come in handy? Sure, but I think the EX7200 would find a better place in your home theater setup. The lamp has an estimated lifespan of 5000 hours which means you could watch approximately 2500 movies before needing to change the lamp. With a retail pricetag of $200 the lamp comes out to approximately 1/3 the price of the projector which is steep but then companies market these lamps like ink companies market replacement ink cartridges.

Lets take a look at the specifications from Epson.

Specifications:

Projection System: Epson 3LCD, 3-chip technology

Projection Method: Front / rear / ceiling mount

Driving Method: Epson Poly-silicon TFT Active Matrix

Pixel Number: 1,024,000 dots (1280 x 800) x 3

White Light Output: 2600 lumens (ISO 21118 Standard)

Color Light Output: 2600 lumens

Aspect Ratio: 16:10

Native Resolution: 1280 x 800 (WXGA)

Resize: 640 x 480 (VGA), 1024 x 768 (XGA), 1152 x 864 (SXGA), 1400 x 900 (WXGA+), 1440 x 900 (WSXGA), 1680 x 1050 (WSXGA+), 1400 x 1050 (SXGA+), 1600 x 1200 (UXGA), 1680 x 1250 (WUXGA)

Lamp Type: E-TORL™ 200 W UHE

Lamp Life:

• ECO mode: Up to 5000 hours
• Normal mode: Up to 4000 hours

Throw Ratio Range:

• 1.30 – 1.56 (16:10)
• 1.56 – 1.87 (4:3)

Size (projected distance): 33″ – 318″ (0.84 – 8.13 m)

Keystone Correction:

• Automatic: Vertical: ±11 degrees
• Manual: Vertical: ±30 degrees

USB Plug ‘n Play: Projector is Mac® compatible via USB, DVI to HDMI or VGA adapter (not included)

Contrast Ratio: Up to 2000:1

Color Reproduction: 16.77 million colors

Projection Lens:

Type: Manual zoom / Manual focus

F-number: 1.58 – 1.72

Focal Length: 16.9 mm – 20.28 mm

Zoom Ratio: Optical zoom 1.0 – 1.2

Display Performance:

• NTSC: 480 lines
• PAL: 560 line

(Depends on observation of the multi-burst pattern)

Input Signal: NTSC / NTSC4.43 / PAL / M-PAL / N-PAL / PAL60 / SECAM

Interfaces:

• Computer/Component video: D-sub 15 pin x 1
• S-video: Mini DIN x 1
• Composite video: RCA (Yellow) x 1
• Audio in: RCA x 1 (White/Red)
• USB connector: Type B x 1
• USB connector: Type A x 1 (USB memory)
• HDMI port

Speaker: 1 W monaural

Operating Temperature: 41° to 95° F (5° to 35° C)

Power Supply Voltage: 100 – 240 V ±10%, 50/60 Hz

Power Consumption:

• Normal mode: 280 W
• Power off mode: 0.3 W

Fan Noise:

• ECO mode: 29 dB
• Normal mode: 37 dB

Security:

• Kensington®-style lock provision
• Padlock and security cable hole
• Password protect function

Dimensions:

Including feet: 11.6″ x 9.0″ x 3.1″ (W x D x H)

Excluding feet: 11.6″ x 9.0″ x 3.0″ (W x D x H)

Weight: 5.1 lb / 2.3 kg

Remote Control:

Features: Source search selection, HDMI, slideshow, USB display, power, aspect, color mode, volume, e-zoom, A/V mute, freeze, menu, page up and down, help, auto, mouse functions, ID, user

Operating Angle:

• Right / Left: ±30 degrees
• Upper / Lower: ±15 degrees

Operating Distance: 19′ (6 m)

Whats In the Box:

• EX7200 Multimedia Projector
• Power cable
• Computer cable (VGA)
• USB cable
• Soft carrying case
• Projector remote control
• Batteries
• User manual CD
• Quick Setup Sheet
• PrivateLine support card
• Registration card
• Password protection sticke

Analysis

OK wow that’s a lot of information but in essence the important bits are your connectivity options which include HDMI, VGA, S-Video, Component, and USB.  Aside from those we have a built in speaker which at 1W I question its ability to even be used in a presentation room effectively, and then we have the all important contrast ratio.  The EX7200 has a rather low 2000:1 contrast ratio which if I judged by numbers alone would mean my movie going experience would be rather poor. In truth the colors are quite good for the specs and the separation between colors, light and dark is very good.  Here is where a bit of industry confusion sets in.  The truth is there is no standardized measurement for contrast ratio so 2000:1 for Epson may not be the same as 2000:1 for a Dell projector or any other for that matter. And in any case the best judge of this specification is in seeing the picture itself. After the contrast ratio the projector is capable of displaying an image with a 2600 Lumen brightness. This essentially means that the EX7200 is more than bright enough for a small to medium sized room and definitely enough for any home theater setup.

For the benefit of this review I attempted to capture the EX7200 in use a few hundred times without success.  The results with flash bleached out the screen and those taken without the flash over emphasized the brightness.  We do have some photo’s of it in use from the LAN event which can be seen here.

The EX 7200 In Use:

We do have some feedback about the unit after a few weeks of testing the EX7200 and all its features. Overall the ability to connect via USB is nice but at what we expect are USB 1.1 speeds video playback is choppy. This of course is not the “Intended use” of the USB ports so I can’t really fault it there. Likewise the ability to playback frames as a slide show from a USB device is nice, but it left me with the desire for an SDHC slot or just a media card reader to enable playback directly from several types of media cards.  Again this is not the intended use of the EX7200 but it would be nice.

In actual use I found that the majority of my setuup time was in adjusting the picture to suit my needs. This meant that automatic keystone correction feature tried but did not always adjust the picture for angle and tilt. Having adjustable feet became very useful though I would have liked to see four adjustable feet instead of only 3.

The included carry case is very useful itself and provides not only a convenient way to transport the projector but also protect it from bumps, spills, and accidents.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day I can say that I was very impressed with the performance and usability of the EX7200 projector from Epson.  It has changed my opinion about the seriousness of projectors for home theater use as well as the affordability of a good projector.  At $649 I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the EX7200 for a business looking for a reliable, affordable, high quality projector. For the average home user looking to build a home theater setup the EX7200 may provide a welcome surprise in quality and affordability that was previously available only to those willing to spend upwards of $1000 for a quality bright picture.

Gallery:

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