Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8500 UB LCD Projector (V11H337020)

by Epson

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.4 x 17.7 x 5.7 inches ; 16.1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 23 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B002XK9MNQ
• Item model number: V11H337020
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,788 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Experience home theater in a way you never thought possible with the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8500UB. With a contrast ratio up to 200,000:1, you get deep blacks and extraordinary detail that puts you right in the middle of the action. Whether you’re watching movies, sports or playing video games, this 1080p projector ensures amazing image quality with Epson D7 panels, an HQV processor and innovative Super-resolution technology.

The Epson 8500UB offers multiple connectivity options

With a powerful cinema filter, improved frame interpolation and a state-of-the-art Fujinon lens that is trusted by renowned Hollywood producers, this projector delivers dynamic video in virtually any setting. Its exclusive 3LCD, 3-chip optical engine ensures dynamic, high-definition performance. The new THX Movie Mode ensures accurate and exceptional picture quality, while the long-life E-TORL lamp delivers more lumens per watt and lasts up to 4000 hours. The PowerLite Home Cinema 8500UB offers easy maintenance with an efficient cooling system and convenient dust filtration system. So, bring big-screen entertainment home in a whole new way for rich cinematic adventures.

E-TORL design for efficient, long-lasting lamp life

3LCD and E-TORL Technology for Amazing Color and Long Life
3LCD technology delivers amazing color and detail. Whether it’s big-screen entertainment or a classroom demonstration, 3LCD technology takes video performance to the next level. Delivering legendary image quality, this innovative technology always ensures powerful visual presentations.

3LCD technology has been the world’s leading projection technology for 20 years, and has consistently been the choice for users who demand long-life performance and reliability. Additionally, 3LCD technology requires 25% less electricity per lumen of brightness when compared to 1-chip DLP technology.

The innovative E-TORL lamp, exclusively from Epson, is a reliable performer that delivers more lumens per watt and lasts up to 4000 hours. The special E-TORL design minimizes both light diffraction and light leakage, providing you the ultimate in lamp longevity.

Enhanced FineFrame Interpolation Processing Technology
Film is encoded on DVD and Blu-ray at 24 frames-per-second. FineFrame de-constructs and re-constructs these sources for a 1080p frame rate output of up to 96 Hz, eliminating visible flicker and frame-to-frame judder. 4:4 pulldown also corrects for improperly encoded sources, and features a reverse 2:3 pulldown detection and correction function. Frame interpolation generally works best when viewing high-definition content, such as Blu-ray discs with scenes that contain a lot of action, or playing videogames.

Silicon Optix HQV Reon-VX Processor for Superior Video Quality
The Silicon Optix HQV Processor is the reference standard in deinterlacing and scaling. Its Floating Point Gate Array technology computes an incredible one trillion processing operations per second. In fact, this system provides a host of processing, deinterlacing and scaling benefits. With standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) interlaced content (DVDs, TV shows, 1080i HDTV broadcasts), the Reon-VX smooths jagged edges on low-angle solid lines and flat edges. MPEG compression related artifacts, such as mosquito noise, are also reduced due to the Reon’s processing prowess.

Flexible Installation and Connectivity Options
The PowerLite Home Cinema 8500UB provides astonishing placement flexibility with a 2.1x zoom ratio and 96% vertical and 47% horizontal lens shift--all without image distortion. Additionally, there are two HDMI 1.3a ports for flexible connectivity options. The PowerLite Home Cinema 8500UB works with any blank wall or screen and projects DVD movies up to eight times larger than they would appear on a 40" widescreen TV. In fact, it displays an 80" widescreen image from just 8 feet away, or a 120" image from just 12 feet away.

What’s in the Box
This package includes the PowerLite Home Cinema 8500UB Projector, a remote control with batteries, an A/C power cable, and a user manual.

Product Description

EPSON POWERLITE HOME CINEMA 8500 UB

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 8500UB Very Nice, January 15, 2010

By 

Nick - See all my reviews

This review is from: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8500 UB LCD Projector (V11H337020) (Electronics)

This is my first projector. I tend to be extremely picky about my image and sound quality. I was nervous and somewhat skeptacle going from my 62" DLP TV to a projector. I researched different projectors for weeks. Every time I looked up a review for one projector it would mention a different one for comparison. I would then have to research that one. I ended up creating a spreadsheet listing prices, pro's, con's and more finer details. I ended up settling for the 8500UB since many sites rave about it.

I wish I could have given 4.5 stars on this review. I wouldn't call it a perfect 5 nor would I call it a 4. I am overall very pleased with the projector and it is well worth $2500. Shop around and you'll save a lot. I ordered mine at projectorbundles.com. You get cables, screen, mount and projector at a great price. If they don't have the screen size on the website just email them.
I have about 30 hours on it. I still fiddle with the color calibration settings. [...] has a decent starting point for calibration.
Since it is LCD you have much wider flexability where it can be mounted. The problem with the offsets is image distortion especially side to side. Plan to mount it in the center with VERY little side offsets. See note 2 below. Side offset makes the image twist appear out of level. Over the width of a large screen being off-level slightly is very noticeable.

The two very minor things I would mark it down for:
1. Small dark text on a light background can get slightly washed out. It is still legible, just not crisp.
2. I use the projector as my main TV. Not everything is broadcast in HD widescreen. I have it ceiling mounted with a standard 8' ceiling with 110" 16:9 grey screen. Full screen 4:3 images have a very slight trapezoid effect. Since the projector is closer to the top of the screen light has to travel further to get to the bottom. It is slightly wider at the bottom. Again, I am very picky!!! A friend viewing would probably not notice.

Screen Tip: Make sure the screen has a velvet frame because the black velvet absorbs light. Since the trapezoid effect is noticeable with full screen images if you overshoot widescreen images just a hair they will appear square and you don't notice trapezoid effects at all.

Washout: If you have a lot of ambient light in the room you will definitely have washout. I highly recommend blackout curtains for sunlight.

Noise: The projector is very quiet. I have it mounted on my ceiling about two feet behind my couch. Occasionally, I can hear the Iris shift but I have to be listening for it. Quiet scenes in a movie are no problem.

Color is fantastic. Nice deep dark blacks and shadow effects. HD signals and Blu-Ray discs are awesome. With a little planning setup is a breeze.

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Update: I'm happy to give this projector a 5/5 star rating. One of the comments left mentions to make sure the the projector is mounted squarely on the ceiling. Then simply use the lens shift. It does not skew the image at all. As long as the screen is level you are good to go. I have used the projector for about a year with nearly 2000 hours with no problems.

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb high-end projector all-around., December 20, 2009

By 

S. Dang (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8500 UB LCD Projector (V11H337020) (Electronics)

The projector really earns it's UB moniker with it's outstanding ultrablack performance. The 8500UB has extremely low light leak in the blacks while still being able to capture the most subtle details in stark scenes scenes.

I have watched two movies thus far on this projector. First was the colorful Disney flick "UP", next was a dark horror movie called Shiver. I projected them against a plain semi-gloss white wall at midnight, where there was a slight cast of window frames , due to surrounding businesses lights (I live in a factory conversion). The image casted was 15' (diagonal, or 180"). The bottom of the image was about 4' from the floor.

Reflections on viewing UP (HD 1080p on Blu-ray):
- Very bright and consistent from corner to corner.
- The details were were crisp and not over or under-saturated.
- Nice solid colors (viewed from about 10 ' away, which is closer than I would like but I was limited to how far back I could sit due to the trajectory of the projected image.
-With frame interpolation set to low, animation was very smooth, but not overdone. There were no noticeable impact on sound sync with it enabled. With it off, animation reverted to the standard film rate at 24 FPS. I prefered having it on.
-No noticeable artifacts that I saw during film.

Reflections on viewing Shiver (XBOX360 1GB download, Standard Definition):
-Overall movie was very dark, and the dark scenes were impacted by ambient light from outside.
-Due to source, the image was not sharp and crisp, but watchable.


Overall thoughts on my test drive:
While putting up my blackout cloths would certainly yield a brighter image, I really didn't want to bother with the job of putting up and taking down blackout cloth on two 10 foot high windows. Even with the ambient light from outside, the image was plenty bright and not affected at all (at least for UP). It's hard to describe in text how much ambient light there was in the room, but if I were to describe it from 1 to 10 with 1 being near darkness (use of blackout cloth) and 10 being fully bright it would be a 3. I have very big windows, and ALL of my walls are white, so there was quite a bit of reflection during bright scenes. The point is there was no problems projecting 15' image in very low light settings. On the other hand, for movies staged in dark settings, as with any projector, the darker the better. There's simply no getting around it. On the point of fan noise, up close it's very quiet. From a few feet away, it wasn't noticeable. BTW, this is a right-out-of-the-box test drive. I only made basics setup adjustments, no tweaking colors, temperature, etc.


Other observations:
- The projector has image shift knobs that have plenty of range. I was able to move the image 4 or 5 feet (didn't measure) in each direction from center. The aspect ratio was preserved at all times. There are no keystone settings.
-Two knobs for the bottom front feet. I didn't need to adjust them.
-Two HDMI ports. One used for my Blu-ray player.
-One set of Component Video Inputs, used for my XBOX 360.
-The remote is excellent. Smooth flat white, large, backlit, well-designed remote. It's great that the key features have dedicated buttons.
-Optics are very large!
-Projector feels twice as heavy as my InFocus projector (X1).
-When turning on the lamp takes about half a minute to a minute to come to full brightness. However, the system shuts down very quickly. Fan did not run after shutting down.
-Air blown out of fan is typically hot.
-On/Off rocker switch on the back, and digital switch on the top.


Overall impression:
EXCELLENT! There are cheaper 1080p projectors, but they don't have the same level of quality and featureset. If this projector is within your budget, you will not be disappointed. You will really appreciate the:
- Extremely high contrast ratio (200,000:1)
- Ultra-black darks (not just marketing)
- Truly usable frame interpolation (Not overdone. Adjustable too!)
- Excellent throw distance (180" cast from about 17')
- Superb out-of-box performance

For complete specs, here is a link to Epson's website:
[...]

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, May 4, 2010

By 

The Jabberwocky "theslithytoves" (seattle, wa) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 8500 UB LCD Projector (V11H337020) (Electronics)

We received our 8500 projector yesterday and it is fantastic. The best I have ever owned/demo'd. Right out of the box, the colors are beautiful, the blacks are intensly black, and its brightness is excellent and more than enough for both the 137" and 106" screens we tried it out on.

I have owned several projectors for quite a few years now (the infocus X1 and most recently the Optoma H79). Each impressed me in its time, but there is really no comparing either of these two to the Epson. I can't see how anyone could be disappointed in this purchase. It feels like it should be thousands of dollars more for the performance.

Last night, we watched Avatar, and to us, it was better looking than when we saw it in the theater (probably owing to the 3D presentation dimming the colors and blurring the action somewhat).

I'll rate this thing a solid 10. Could not be more happy with it.