The Epson TW3200/TW3600 owner's thread is becoming quite large and during it's span a lot of interesting info has been brought forth. 23+ pages is quite a handfull though so the aim of this post is to collect as much relevant info into one post which will be updated as and when something new happens in the owner's thread which warrants it. I will also post some FAQs and answers. In other words, this is not meant as a substitute for the owners thread so keep on posting there - I will update this post accordingly. The owner's thread is the research staff at work collecting data - this post contains the results :-)
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FAQ - before you buy:
Q: How big is it? Will it fit on my existing shelf/mount?
A: 39 cm x 45 cm x 14,5 cm (Depth x Width x Height). Weight is 7,3kg.
Q: Show me unboxing shots so I can get an idea of how big it is
A:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread Q: How much space do I need behind the Epson for cables?
A: Depends how thick/bendy your cables are but 5cm/2inches should be enough in most cases.
Q: If I buy this projector I won't have enough money for a mount! Any tips?
A1: Andromance has made a great DYI guide for making a cheap mount here:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
A2: Another alternative is just fitting a normal shelf. Example here:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
A3: Mademyday has made this elegant solution:
http://www.hifi-forum.de/viewthread-117-1377.html Q: How close/far from the screen can I place it to get image sixe x?
A: Use the calculator on projectorcentral.com:
Epson Europe EH-TW3600 Projection Calculator - Throw Distance and Screen Size Q: Does it make any difference whether I mount it upside down under the ceiling or on a low shelf on the wall?
A: A bit. The projector gets slightly hotter when mounted upside down which the fan compensates for and is therefore slightly more noisy.
Q: Screw noise! But I can't mount it any lower?!
A: You don't need to. The projector has enough lens shift to be mounted in topside up position and project an image with the top lower than the actual projetor.
Q: Excellent! Are there any drawbacks?
A: Yes, but they depend on how much lens shift you use. If you go to the absolute limit then there is a chance that you will se a bit of convergence. This will not be visible from your viewing position though. Some people have reported a slight red tinge to the corners of the image when using maximum lens shift. This is only visible when no colours are projected onto the screen though. Several people are using maximum lens shift and have experienced no side effects.
Q: What's the best way to mount it theoretically?
A: The projector should be roughly the same height as the center of the image. There's a lot of leeway before you get in the danger zone for lens shift side effects though so don't worry too much about it. There are almost none of the owners of the TW3200/TW3600 who have it mounted at the same height as the image center, myself included.
Q: Is it noisy? Will this annoy me?
A: This depends on personal preference. If you have owned a projector before then most likely the answer will be no. The noise level is 28db in high mode and 22db in eco mode. Most people prefer eco due to longer bulp life and better black level in movies. 22db places it among the most quiet projectors out there. If you've never owned a pj before, the enormous image is a BIG compensating factor for the noise. Yes, compared to your noiseless TV it is "noisy". But you can only hear it when there is no sound coming from your sound system and even then it is rather quiet. The noise comes from the front air went so sitting below or behind the projector will be less noisy than having the projector mounted behind you.
Q: I really hate noise. Please tell me everything that minimises the noise level. Give me a list!
A: Eco mode for the lamp, Cinema Colour mode (or x.v.colour), mounting it in topside up position, turning Auto Iris off.
Q: What are the differences between the TW3200 and TW3600? Is the higher price for the TW3600 worth it?
A: If you google it you will find that some sites claim that they are essentially the same and the extra price is a scam. You will also find some having made a more thorough comparison showing that there IS a difference. The consensus seems to be that if you have a perfect batcave (dark wall and ceiling combined with a good screen and no ambient light) then there will be a difference in black level between the two models. Nothing excessively dramatic though. If you plan on using it in a room with ambient light or walls/ceiling which isn't dark then they will be indistinguishable. The TW3600 is specced at 2000 lumen brightness versus the 1800 lumens of the TW3200. This will not matter much though since the optimum for movies is less than 800 lumens and the 1800 lumens of the TW3200 is plenty for use in conditions with ambient light.
Q: What are the EXACT differences in the specs between the TW3200 and the TW3600?
A: Contrast ratio of 50,000:1 versus 25,000:1. Brightness 2000 lumen versus 1800 lumen. On some sites the TW3200's colour bit depth is wrongly listed as 10 bit versus the 12 bit of the TW3600. In actuality they are both 12 bit. Some sites don't list either model supporting 24fps - they both do.
Q: Will it be suitable for games? I don't wan't any lag disturbing my fun!
A: There is no lag. I've played computer games since I was 5 years old and with both music games (Rock Band), driving games (Forza 3) and action games (Uncharted, COD: Modern Warfare) I notice no lag. I am running a 10m HDMI cable to the PJ.
Q: How good is the scaler in the projector? Will I need an external scaler?
A: The internal scaler is pretty good. DVDs (480p/576p) look excellent without external scaling. 3:2 pulldown is executed efficiently with no unwanted judder. A very good external scaler might improve the image even further though but the internal scaling should please most people.
Q: How cool is the projector?
A: Way cool. At its pricepoint, you won't find any better LCD projector on the market. It's quiet, has great colours and black level and is very easy to place due to huge lens shift capabilities and zoom.
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Let me see what it can do! Show me pictures which will tempt me!
The following images give a pretty good impression of what the TW3200 can do. In real life it looks better but this is definetely in the ballpark.
Pure eyecandy with bright scenes (Dark Knight, Cars, Prince Caspian):
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
More eyecandy (Braveheart, Kung Fu Panda, Forbidden Kingdom, Fearless):
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
Very dark scenes (Blade Runner Final Cut):
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
Animated movies (Road To Eldorado, Akira, Paprika, Valhalla, Lion King, Surf's Up):
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
Colour eyecandy (Speed Racer):
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
Tron Legacy:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread - Part 2
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I've bought it! What are the best image settings?
The Projector has several presets which you can chose by pressing the Colour Mode button on the remote. Their names and recommended uses are as follows:
Colour Modes
-Living Room: Very bright and reasonably accurate colour reproduction. Is ideal for daytime use or cases where you for some reason have to turn on a lamp in the room. For a lot of games where cinema tends to be too dark, Living Room can be quite fine even in a darkened room. Black levels are not very good though.
-Dynamic: Basically it's Living Room mode with the colours dialed up to 11 out of 10. Apart from looking horrid the colour balance is also wildly inaccurate with a red level through the roof. This mode has absolutely no use.
-Natural: By many nicknamed "UNnatural". It's almost lifeless in its lack of colour. Way too cold.
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Cinema: Top of the pops. Excellent black level and colour balance. This should be your starting point before you mess around with fine tuning. Not much is needed though since Epson have pretty much nailed it. Some people have made slight adjustments to brightness, contrast and colour tint using calibration discs. What the adjustments should be will depend on your screen and room conditions. The noise of the projector drops dramatically in Cinema mode.
-X.V.colour: On paper this should be the best mode living up to industry standards for correct reproduction of colours. Pretty much everyone agrees that the colours are too flat compared to cinema. Also when in x.v.colour most of the settings for fine tuning the image are disabled so it makes more sense to run in Cinema and fine tune that instead. Black level and noise is the same as Cinema.
To get the best possible black level and contrast, the colour system output by your sources need to match up with the colour system you have chosen on the Projector. Blu-rays and DVDs are encoded with "component" colour space - sometimes calles yPbPr colour space. The opposite is RGB colour space which is used by computers (some graphic cards can output yPbPr) and game consoles. Although movies are encoded as yPbPr there are many players which can output both formats and this has a dramatic effect on image quality if the movie, player and display aren't all using the same colour space as lossy conversion takes place. The settings mentioned below should in theory be just as beneficial for every projector model on the market.
Blu-ray and DVD settings for optimum colour and black level:
-On the player, set it to output
yPbPr/component. This might also be called
HDMI Range limited or normal. If the colour level is shown as 0-256 and 16-235 then
16-235 is the same as yPbPr/component. If there are several settings for yPbPr then
yPbPr 4:4:4 is the correct one. Some players (Like the Sony PS3) have both a setting for HDMI Range and for Video Output.
TW3200/TW3600 settings for optimum colour and black level with movies:
-In the Signal menu choose Advanced and then HDMI Range. It can be set to either Expanded or normal (locked to Normal if Epson Super White is ON). Choose
HDMI Range Normal.
-In the Image menu set Brightness control to
Eco mode. Brightness is thereby lowered a tiny bit and this increases life time of the bulp. Also black level is increased slightly and the fan is less noisy.
-In the Image menu set
Auto iris to High Speed: Will unquestionably increase black level slightly in very dark scenes with it's lowering of the light coming through the iris on a scene by scene basis. The downside is a slight noise from the iris when it opens/closes. There are two settings - Normal and High Speed mode. Normal is not recommended as it can't really keep up with very fast cuts between bright and dark scenes. High Speed is almost perfect visually but does make more noise. Like the noise from the projector's fan it is inaudible except during silent scenes in movies. Some don't mind, others do - so you will have to try for yourself to see if you prefer it off or on.
-In the image menu set
Colour temperature to 7000k: The default is 6500k and for most projectors this is the best setting. The colour temperature is a bit warmer on the TW3200 than the norm though so several prefer to counter this with either the 7000k or 7500k setting. Black level also benefits slightly from 7000k/7500k.
-In the Gamma menu (press "Gamma" on the remote) several people have experienced better black level when running with the
Gamma 2.3 setting in stead of the default 2.2 setting.
Photos of a TW3200 running in cinema mode and wrong/correct combinations of the above mentioned colour space settings demonstrated:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
Photos of TW3200 with comparisons of Living Room mode/Cinema Mode/x.v.colour comparisons:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread Other noteworthy settings:
-Epson Super White: This setting is supposed to combat whites which are too bright and blooming. In effect overall brightness is lowered a tiny bit with a subtle focus on lowering especially the colour white. This is slightly different than just lowering the brightness setting. The benefit is hard to see unless you compare material with excessive whites. When turned ON the HDMI Range option is greyed out and automatically set to Normal. Longer explanation:
Epson TW3200/3600 owners thread
-2:2 pulldown: the upsampling of 1080p24 material to 48fps. Reduces judder with 24hz material such as blu-ray movies. This setting only affects 24hz material so should always be on. Is on as default.
Maintenance:
To ensure that you don't get dust blobs on the LCD panels or that the PJ runs too hot, you should do the following:
-Not use the PJ in a room with a lot of dust.
-Clean the air filter about every 100 hours of lamp time. Follow the guide on page 45 in the manual if you are unsure how to do this:
Manual 
23-01-2011, 2:01 AM
E. & O.E.
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