Hi there. Just recently set up a 'nearly new' (6 months old, <50 hours use) Epson EH-TW7100, and although I am generally impressed with the image, I have some issues with it. Was planning to contact Epson but wanted to ask some advice first as some of you might have experience of similar issues.
1. 'E shift'4K enhancement buzzing. Now I know other people have experienced noise with the pixel shifting tech, but from what I've read mine seems to be worse than most. There is a buzzing (about the same pitch an an electric toothbrush?) that comes and goes when the 4K enhancement is on. The noise changes in obvious steps, sometimes louder, sometimes quieter, sometimes it changes for no apparent reason, sometimes it changes when the level of brightness on the screen changes. It disappears if I switch the input source to 1080p and turn off 4K enhancement. To give you an idea of how loud it is - at its loudest it is very obvious in ECO mode, still fairly obvious in Normal Mode and still audible above fan noise (though not so obvious) in High lamp mode - enough that you can tell when its switched off. Initially I thought I could live with it as I do most of watching with headphones, but in ECO mode, even with closed back over the ear headphones I can still hear the buzzing quite easily in quiet parts of a film.
2. Uneven focus. I know I can't expect a relatively inexpensive projector to have a perfect lens, but I cannot get sharp focus across the screen. With the test pattern displayed and the line at the top in sharp focus, the bottom line (the bottom left corner is the worst) is blurry. The projector is set roughly in the middle of its zoom range, no keystone, a decent amount of lens shift, but not at maximum shift either vertically or horizontally. Test image fits nicely on the screen, so I think I'm projecting 'square on'. As a little test I set it in focus at the top of the screen, then using a piece of plain paper decided to see where the bottom left of the image was actually in focus. I was shocked that I to hold the paper about 1 metre in front of the screen to get a sharp image (projector is about 3.5m from screen). Am I right in thinking the optics are probably out of alignment? BTW I have checked the panel alignment, and done a few adjustments already.
3. Detecting 4K HDR 60Hz signal - I've got a Roku Streaming Stick+ connected directly into the HDMI input (so no cable), but when I set the video output of the Roku to 'Auto Detect', it does a little test then sets output to max 4K HDR 30Hz, saying I the projector can't play 4K HDR 60Hz (but 4K 60Hz nonHDR is OK). The tech sepcs say this projector can play 4K HDR 60Hz (colour space 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 but not 4:4:4). It plays 4K HDR 24Hz content on Amazon Prime fine, but the strange thing is that when I test it out with some 4K HDR '60 Hz' youtube content, it will play, showing the signal as 4K HDR10 59.94Hz 4:2:0 Should I not worry about this and just put it down to the Roku stick not being able to get acccurate info from the projector?
I'm not interested in sending the projector back to the (ebay) seller - it was a business (small hotel) and doubt they even noticed these issues. The question is whether it should be going back to Epson (and I think I already know the answer!) Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.
1. 'E shift'4K enhancement buzzing. Now I know other people have experienced noise with the pixel shifting tech, but from what I've read mine seems to be worse than most. There is a buzzing (about the same pitch an an electric toothbrush?) that comes and goes when the 4K enhancement is on. The noise changes in obvious steps, sometimes louder, sometimes quieter, sometimes it changes for no apparent reason, sometimes it changes when the level of brightness on the screen changes. It disappears if I switch the input source to 1080p and turn off 4K enhancement. To give you an idea of how loud it is - at its loudest it is very obvious in ECO mode, still fairly obvious in Normal Mode and still audible above fan noise (though not so obvious) in High lamp mode - enough that you can tell when its switched off. Initially I thought I could live with it as I do most of watching with headphones, but in ECO mode, even with closed back over the ear headphones I can still hear the buzzing quite easily in quiet parts of a film.
2. Uneven focus. I know I can't expect a relatively inexpensive projector to have a perfect lens, but I cannot get sharp focus across the screen. With the test pattern displayed and the line at the top in sharp focus, the bottom line (the bottom left corner is the worst) is blurry. The projector is set roughly in the middle of its zoom range, no keystone, a decent amount of lens shift, but not at maximum shift either vertically or horizontally. Test image fits nicely on the screen, so I think I'm projecting 'square on'. As a little test I set it in focus at the top of the screen, then using a piece of plain paper decided to see where the bottom left of the image was actually in focus. I was shocked that I to hold the paper about 1 metre in front of the screen to get a sharp image (projector is about 3.5m from screen). Am I right in thinking the optics are probably out of alignment? BTW I have checked the panel alignment, and done a few adjustments already.
3. Detecting 4K HDR 60Hz signal - I've got a Roku Streaming Stick+ connected directly into the HDMI input (so no cable), but when I set the video output of the Roku to 'Auto Detect', it does a little test then sets output to max 4K HDR 30Hz, saying I the projector can't play 4K HDR 60Hz (but 4K 60Hz nonHDR is OK). The tech sepcs say this projector can play 4K HDR 60Hz (colour space 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 but not 4:4:4). It plays 4K HDR 24Hz content on Amazon Prime fine, but the strange thing is that when I test it out with some 4K HDR '60 Hz' youtube content, it will play, showing the signal as 4K HDR10 59.94Hz 4:2:0 Should I not worry about this and just put it down to the Roku stick not being able to get acccurate info from the projector?
I'm not interested in sending the projector back to the (ebay) seller - it was a business (small hotel) and doubt they even noticed these issues. The question is whether it should be going back to Epson (and I think I already know the answer!) Any advice would be appreciated, thanks.