Editor's Choice Award

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The competition among projector makers pushing 4K UST laser projectors as living-room TV replacements heated up in the tail end of 2020, with new models introduced from Optoma and Hisense along with first-time releases from Samsung and, finally, Epson. Epson's EpiqVision Ultra LS500, first shown at CEDIA in fall 2019, is noteworthy for several reasons. Among these is the potential impact Epson's name and marketing could have on the category as a whole—no other projector brand except perhaps Sony has Epson's broad consumer awareness or can boast a high profile, sports-centric spokesperson like Shaquile O'Neal.

But the projector itself is unique to the segment for both its high 4,000-lumen brightness and its unusual industrial design, which features a large, periscope-style lens. Then, there's the fact that Epson has followed Hisense as the only other manufacturer bundling a specialty UST screen with their projector. This lifts the cost of entry but also assures that buyers will have the positive experience that Epson, and I think all promoters of this category, would really like for first-time projector buyers. Let's see how well they succeeded.

Features

Epson rates the LS500's 16:9 image size at 130 inches max, and sells the projector as the LS500-100 with a 100-inch, ambient-light-rejecting screen for $4,999 or as the LS500-120 with a 120-inch screen for $5,999. Both screens use the same material, which features the familiar sawtooth optical construction described in our article "Screen Magic: How UST Screens Let You See the Light." It has the same dark gray surface found in products from dedicated screen makers and the same 0.6 gain commonly found elsewhere (though Epson confirmed that its website specs erroneously list it as 0.8 gain). Gain below 1.0 means a sacrifice in brightness, but the dark surface combined with the superior rejection of overhead ambient light results in a remarkably contrasty and impactful image in bright rooms that seems to defy physics. You might get by with a matte white screen in the dark, but a UST ALR screen is a virtual requirement if you plan to us your projector as a day-to-day bigscreen television.

Even accounting for the screen, Epson's bundle pricing puts their projector squarely in the midrange of the category. The lowest-priced near-equivalent screens will cost around $1,000 for a 100-inch, and perhaps $1,800 for a 120-inch. Backing off that amount would put the price of the LS500 alone at around $4,000. Epson does provide a standalone option for some custom installers who would rather mate the projector with a screen brand they already sell.

As shown in our Epson LS500 Unboxing video, Epson delivers the unconstructed screen elements and the separately boxed projector in one large cardboard crate; the carton for the LS500-100 we received was 92 inches long, about 22 inches square and had a shipping weight of 86 pounds. Putting the screen together, mounting it on the wall, and installing and aligning the projector is a straightforward project for most competent DIYers. The process can take a few hours but presents no challenges beyond hanging and leveling the screen in the right spot to accommodate the planned projector location. Printed instructions are provided for the screen construction, and you can see what's involved in our Epson LS500 Screen Build and Alignment video. Epson has also produced their own video showing the screen construction and installation. I admittedly came in with experience building screens and installing UST projectors, but enjoyed the methodical process and came away with a sense of satisfaction when I got to see the system in action.

The LS500 comes in black or white to fit your decor. It comes ready for front projection from a console below the screen or hung upside-down from the ceiling or wall; there is no rear projection option, but that would obviously sacrifice use of the bundled screen. The LS500's cyclops-like periscope lens erupts from a chassis that is a touch deeper than some of the competitive UST projectors but also less wide. The lens housing is approximately 6 x 6 inches and comes up about 4 inches above the chassis.

More critical than differences in form factor is the 0.29:1 throw ratio of the lens. That's a slightly longer throw than most other 4K UST projectors today, and it results in having to place the projector a bit further from the wall for a given screen size. For a 100-inch screen, Epson specifies that the projector's rear panel should sit about 15.5 inches back from the screen surface (which will sit about 1.5 inches off the wall for a total distance of 17 inches from the wall) and 13.5 inches from the projector's top surface to the screen bottom. Accounting for the 14.75-inch depth of the projector and the approximately 5.25 inch height of the chassis, the audience-facing front panel of the projector will sit nearly 32 inches from the wall on a resting surface that's about 19 inches below the bottom of the screen. Given that the typical TV stand or console probably runs no deeper than 24 inches deep, you may be looking at having to situate your furniture noticeably distant from the wall. For the 120-inch version, the projector's audience-facing front panel will sit nearly 37 inches from the wall. Epson's more recently developed consumer UST projector, the 1080p-resolution EpiqVision Ultra LS300, has a slightly more aggressive throw ratio that makes placement a little more friendly.

The Epson's big lens and periscope design is like those found in the company's top-line classroom UST projector and other commercial models built on a similar chassis, and it does provide a significant benefit. It delivers exceptionally sharp focus across a wider screen area than I've seen to date on competing products. Most living room UST projectors, because of the steep attack angle and relatively small diameter of their recessed lens, endure some loss of focus at the top left and right corners. This isn't usually noticeable—even on 16:9 content with no letter box bars—because the focal point of the image is almost always on the action in the center and content in the corners is blurry anyway. But when there is detailed content in those corners, such as with busy alphanumeric graphics you might see on some newscasts, it becomes more apparent.

By comparison, the Epson delivers sharper top corners and suffers only a very subtle bowing that results in some tiny spillover at the center-top of the image. This either won't be detectable on the screen's narrow black bezel or can be easily removed using the Blanking feature Epson provides in its setup menu. I checked this feature out with test patterns and determined that, unlike standard keystone and four-corner geometric correction, activating the blanking merely masks a bit of the image on any of its four edges without invoking any other potentially damaging processing. As with other USTs, we recommend you avoid using the LS500's keystone, four-corrner correction, and digital zoom functions if possible to retain maximum image quality. But feel free to use the blanking; you'll only sacrifice a few rows of pixels you won't miss.

Beyond its unusual form-factor and bright, 4,000-lumen laser engine with 20,000-hour rated life, the LS500 is reminiscent of other Epson home theater projectors. Like Epson's other 4K-compliant models, it relies on a trio of 1080p LCD imagers to which Epson applies its 4K PRO-UHD pixel-shifting and image processing. This doubles the number of on-screen pixels per frame to about half of what a full-4K projector can do, but as we've reported in many reviews, this difference is virtually impossible to detect with 4K content at normal viewing distances. The 3LCD configuration also means that the Epson stands out in this DLP-dominated product class by providing equal white and color brightness. Furthermore, its lack of a sequential color wheel makes it impervious to rainbow artifacts, though some UST DLP projectors can claim high immunity to rainbows.

The projector is both HDR10 and HLG compatible, and comes with Epson's excellent tone-mapping and 16-step HDR Setting brightness control found in its top-of-the-line Home Cinema 5050UB and HC3800. Full 10-bit HDR processing is on board to minimize banding, but the limitation here is in color gamut, which is only rated for Rec.709 and not the full DCI-P3 wide gamut found in Epson's best projectors. Full DCI-P3 matches the range of colors available in most 4K content today, but the trade-off is understandable considering the engineering conflict between achieving high brightness and wide gamut simultaneously. Contrast ratio is rated at 2,000,000:1 when the Dynamic Contrast feature is engaged, though there's no mechanical iris to further darken the blacks in real-time. The projector does have a manual Light Output control that can be used to tame the laser's considerable firepower for your viewing conditions or tastes.

Notably, the LS500 is the first UST projector we've seen that touts itself as a gaming projector right out of the gate, with a very low rated input lag of 16.7 ms and full 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 ports that handle 4K HDR at 60 Hz. Our Bodnar 4K lag meter measured a relatively close 21.1 ms with 4K/60 Hz signals and 27.4 ms with 1080p/60 Hz after optimizing the menu options for low lag (see the review appendix for more detail). The Epson has a Frame Interpolation motion-smoothing feature—which as usual increases input lag if it's applied—but it didn't seem to be available with any signal type besides 1080p/24, so it would not likely come into play for gaming anyway.

If you're selling a living room UST projector these days you've gotta give it some "smarts," and that's handled here with a supplied Android TV HDMI streaming dongle. The stick hides away in a compartment behind the magnetically-attached front grille equipped with its own USB port for power. It uses apps from the Google Play store and is a vast improvement over the Android-based Aptoide streaming platform we've railed against in other projector reviews. I was able to successfully download and use apps for YouTube and my three paid subscription services including Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney +, and got excellent 4K image quality from each. The projector's microphone-equipped remote allows Google Assistant voice searches or information queries. The dongle also integrates Chromecast built-in, which allows sharing of photos and casting of compatible apps from mobile devices on the same wireless network. Note that like most streaming sticks, this accessory is strictly a WiFi affair, so you'll need a decent wireless signal. Although the projector itself has an RJ45 LAN connection, it's only for network control or sharing content via Epson's iProjection mobile app or PC software—a clear carryover from this chassis's commercial roots.

One oddity is that the Android TV stick outputs all content at 4K with an HDR flag, as verified by the projector's Info screen and that of another 4K display I tried it with. This is true even when the program is clearly labeled on Netflix or Amazon as standard dynamic range 1080p HD, and it remained true even when I attempted to reset the resolution and bit depth settings in the stick's setup menu. This further means that the projector's HDR brightness control is alway active, even with native SDR content. SDR looked great with adjustment of that control, and I never saw the obvious gamma and color distortions typical when HDR tone-mapping is applied to SDR. But it was clear I wasn't getting the same punchy contrast with good HDR programs, such as Amazon's Upload, that I saw when I swapped in my Amazon 4K Firestick or Roku Ultra media player.

The onboard audio in the LS500 amounts to a pair of small utility speakers on the front panel driven by 10 watts each. The thin sound is nothing to write home about and Epson never claimed it would be; you should plan on a soundbar or other outboard system. Given the price of the projector and the fact that competitors at both higher and lower price points have given more thought to sound quality, the lack of a more robust system here counts as a missing. Again, the LS300 model mentioned above does integrate a Yamaha-designed sound system and also has its Android TV platform integrated directly into the projector rather than requiring a separate streaming dongle.

Behind the grille that hides the speakers and streaming dongle there's a menu navigation pad and a mechanical focus lever that operates with a sure feel and enough granularity to easily fine tune the detail. Other connections around back include the other two HDMI ports (one with ARC for connection of an audio system), a 3.5 mm analog stereo audio jack, the LAN port, an RS232C control port and two USB ports—one USB-A for connecting an optional WiFi dongle should you want that for network connection, and a mini-USB for service. There is no media player built into the projector to display video or photos directly off a USB flash drive.

Epson supplies two compact remotes with the LS500, one for the projector (with an Epson logo on it) and a second remote presumably dedicated to the Android TV dongle should you move the stick to another display. But the dongle is fully navigable from the projector remote. In any event, I could find no instructions with the projector or anywhere online describing how to mate up the alternate remote with the stick.

The projector remote provides access to all features in the menu. There's no backlighting, but it's designed for simplicity and is easy enough to operate once learned. Highlights include a Home button that will automatically select the HDMI 3 input where the Android dongle lives, and a direct access key for YouTube. Another key labeled Apps takes you straight to your downloaded streaming apps or the Play store where you can find others, but only once you've selected the stick as the input. Unfortunately, there's no direct remote access to the HDR Settings brightness control, which is one I think many users would tap frequently once discovered and which requires 8 keystrokes to access via the menu. Assigning that function to the remote button used to access the keystone feature would have been the better choice, since users will only seek that during initial setup if at all.

With a live HDMI source connected, the LS500 took a reasonably speedy 20 seconds to go from power-on to on-screen image. That can be cut to as little as 7 or 8 seconds if the projector is in its Quick Startup standby mode (which can be set to last up to 90 minutes after the last power-down). The screen went from power down to darkness instantly and the fan stopped just a moment later. But the projector was noticeably slow transitioning between HDMI inputs, which blanked out the screen for about 8 or 9 seconds—a length of time that became increasingly tiresome as my evaluation wore on.

It's important to mention that, unlike most of the new laser UST projectors including Epson's own LS300, the LS500 has no proximity safety detector to dim or turn-off the laser should a curious toddler get close to the beam. Just something to think about if you have little ones around.

Performance

Color Modes. Despite being targeted for bright-room TV viewing in service to a less-demanding, non-videophile audience, the LS500 brings enough to the party to satisfy both crowds. There are just four Color modes, fewer than found in Epson's long-throw projectors, but they serve well, and come with a high degree of adjustability for tweakers. None were terribly off from what I'd consider an accurate image or in the category of a total throwaway, though they varied in their subjective brightness and in some cases in their color temperature for white and a few other minor differences.

Epson provides its usual extensive palate of picture adjustments, which are available for all modes. There is a broad 9-position setting for color temp as well as RGB Gain and Bias controls and a separate Grayscale control that allows individual adjustment of brightness for red, green, and blue, or the whole lot together. A full RGBCMY color management system (CMS) is on board for adjusting Hue, Saturation, and Brightness. Epson's Gamma control provides multiple settings plus a graphic Custom mode. There's also the five position (plus Off) Enhancement control found in other Epson 4K projectors that activates the pixel shifting and offers graduated degrees of detail enhancement. Preset 3 is suitable for most 4K content without adding unnatural edge enhancement, though I occasionally goosed it up with 1080p discs or 1080i cable box programs. Other resolution and detail enhancement controls are also available. Beyond this are panel alignment features to eliminate any RGB fringing should you find any (I saw none that required correction). In short, the projector comes out of the box ready to watch, but beneath the surface it's a tweaker's delight.

The LS500 automatically detects either HDR or 3D content and makes the HDR Brightness and 3D settings menu available. These are overlayed on whatever viewing mode you're in; there's no dedicated HDR or 3D mode. Settings are retained for each individual Color Mode mode, however, so you can, if you wish, dedicate and tune any of the four modes for HDR or 3D. As with Epson's better Home Cinema projectors, the LS500 also has a Memory function that allows storage of up to 10 different settings configurations, so these can also be used to tune and save any specific picture mode and settings combination for any scenario. However, as with the HDR brightness control, there's no direct access to this feature on the remote, and the process of navigating to and loading a stored memory via the menu requires a minimum of 12 keystrokes. So it's not a friendly option for day-to-day use. The Color Modes are more easily accessible as an early first stop on the menu, so I just set up different Color Modes for my different viewing conditions and signal types instead of using the memories.

Of the four Color Modes, Dynamic is the brightest but comes with a noticeable green bias that will likely deter its use in all but the most demanding ambient light. However, as noted below, its extra punch was exceptionally helpful for 3D and its faults for that purpose were easily overcome with adjustments.

Bright Cinema, the out-of-box default, is clearly the best choice for most well-lit environments. It provides an extremely bright picture with essentially accurate if slightly oversaturated colors, and a very hot peak white that, with default settings, tends to blow out highlights. Following some minor subjective adjustments—backing down the Light Output control to 80% from its default of 100%, cutting back the Contrast control to 35 from its default 50, and going down a few clicks on the Color Saturation control—it still put up a more-than-bright enough picture with some real punch that stood up well to demanding overhead can lights. Whites were on the cool side without being egregiously blue, which works fine for bright environments, and I was pleased to find that various caucasian flesh tones were very well delineated even at the high brightness. I did most of my casual TV viewing and all of my bright-room viewing with these settings.

I expected the Cinema mode, the least bright by far, to be the most color-accurate out of the box. But that didn't turn out to be the case when I measured all the modes. Still, it was a much less bright version of Bright Cinema and essentially accurate in the same ways. Even in a dark room its default settings failed to provide quite enough punch for my taste on the low-gain ALR screen. Scaling up its Light Output control from the default 50% to around 80% did the trick, allowing its use even in moderate ambient light. If you're not doing an instrument calibration, this configuration should serve well for dark-room movie watching that won't fatigue your eyes over a long session.

Game mode subjectively showed about equal brightness to the Bright Cinema mode, but with a slightly warmer white, and it actually measured the closest to the Rec.709 SDR HDTV standard. It looked much softer out of the box due to its low setting for the Enhancement Preset, which I quickly changed from 1 to 3. I ended up doing my dark-room instrument calibration on this mode, and beside having a warmer white the final results provided subtly better contrast and slightly more saturated colors on most scenes compared to Cinema mode. This calibration worked for dark-room HDR viewing as well with appropriate adjustments for individual movies on the 16-step HDR Settings slider. My calibrated settings are in the appendix at the end of the review. Note that invoking the Game picture mode had no effect on input lag and so should not be a requirement for gaming.

Dark-Room SDR Viewing. Calibration of the Game mode with Calman color calibration software from Portrait Displays, an X-Rite i1Pro2 photospectrometer, and a Murideo Six-G signal generator was fairly straightforward. The grayscale RGB balance was close enough that only minor adjustments were required for the RGB Gain and Bias controls, along with changing the Gamma setting, and the end result was that the full grayscale from 20% to 100% had low DeltaE errors below 3. (DeltaE is an indication of how close the result is to accurate; 3 or under—some say 4 or under—is indistinguishable from a perfect result).

Surprisingly given the projector's relatively wide measured color gamut, adjusting the color points at the precise limits of the Rec.709 color space with an SDR signal was challenging; the CMS color controls were ineffective in pulling them to the 100% saturation points. Fortunately, though, the color saturation for all the primary and secondary colors tracked commendably well up to about 90% of full Rec.709 gamut, and calibrating to the 80% saturation points instead of the 100% points delivered excellent results that were below 2 DeltaE even though the full 100% points were close to 5. Calman's ColorChecker, which checks 30 targets including those representing things like "Light Skin," "Foliage," and "Blue Sky" averaged a low 1.9 DeltaE and a maximum of just 4.9 DeltaE for those 100% color points.

With these settings, the Epson successfully navigated all of my challenging go-to clips from the SDR version of La La Land, a movie filled with bright colors. Lead actress Emma Stone is featured in many close-ups that reveal her fair skin, which on a well-tuned projector should only exhibit a rosy skin tone on specific interior scenes that are intentionally shot with warm lighting; the LS500 tracked the different scenes and made her look wonderful and natural throughout the movie. A shot showing Mia in her apartment sitting between two of her roommates also nicely revealed the subtle differences in their facial complexions. At one point, she's seen in an overhead shot resting her head on several deep red pillows that can lean orange on some projectors—but not here.

I had similar experiences watching Black Panther. In an outdoor scene near the beginning of the movie in which T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is challenged to a fight for his rightful crown, the ritualistic costumes of the gathered tribes at the coronation ceremony provide a striking colorful backdrop, and the different brown skin tones of the all-black cast are well delineated. The sky, water, and gray rock outcropping that serves as a gallery for the attendees all looked natural and inviting. Another earlier scene, in which T-Challa, dressed as Black Panther, attacks a caravan of human traffickers rumbling through the nighttime jungle, proved that the LS500 can handle dark content reasonably well and deliver shadow details with its Dynamic Contrast active. But very dark scenes or movies, such as the start of Chapter 12 of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt. 2 in which the Death Eaters gather on a moonlit cliff at night, exposed the projector's middling black level. The LS500 was about on par in this regard with other laser USTs I've tested recently, but obviously isn't at the contrast performance of Epson's own UB series or my JVC reference projector. Still, for a 4,000 lumen laser-driven projector, it does a commendable job.

The LS500's Frame Interpolation motion compensation feature was only active in the menu with 1080p/24 signals—I found it grayed out with all other signal types. When available, it has four positions including Off, Low, Normal, and High. Low was only mildly effective with the clips I use to check judder and motion blur, and also introduces only a modest degree of soap opera video effect to 24-frame movies. The Normal and High settings were definitely more effective in smoothing judder and reducing blur, but also introduced more pronounced video effect. I prefer not to use motion interpolation with 24fps movies, and it wasn't available for the 1080i sports coming off my cable box. It came in handy watching 3D movies, however, where setting it to Normal or High gave the picture a touch of extra brightness and realism.

Dark-Room HDR. Using the calibrated Game mode for HDR movies worked out very well, and required only adjustments of the Epson's 16-step HDR Setting control that tunes the tone-map to taste for individual titles. To put it simply, everything I watched in SDR looked obviously better in HDR, and the high granularity of the HDR control provides a degree of accommodation for different content that's equaled in my opinion only by JVC's projectors. The LS500 took my long-running HDR torture test, The Meg, and actually made it look good. This title, with 4,000 nits peak and 1,193 nits average brightness, looks washed out for most of the movie on most HDR projectors—even at their darkest HDR setting—and some specific bright scenes present a real challenge. I was able to adjust the LS500 for an excellent, contrasty image and still had room on the control to spare. Similarly, the Spears & Munsil HDR Benchmark test disc can be configured for different brightness thresholds, so I set it to its 10,000 nit maximum—representing the brightest for any HDR10 content—and fast forwarded to the brightest scene in its montage, a clip of horses standing in a blizzard whiteout. It was beautifully rendered, with visceral punch and nice detail in the bumpy surface of the bright snow on the ground, at only position 12 on the 16-step control.

For most movies, which are typically around 1,000 nits peak, I found the default HDR setting of 8 too dark and pushed it brighter, settling often around position 3 or even 2. This gave the peak highlights more impact at the expense of some detail in those areas. The HDR version of Apollo 13 looked fabulous, with overall excellent contrast on most scenes but with a visible pop on brief specular highlights, such as the sun bouncing off the long lens of a TV camera spinning on its turret at NASA's launch site, and on the many crisp whites scattered throughout the movie: the Saturn V rocket, the astronaut's space suits, the white dress shirts of the NASA officials, and the textured white dress of an astronaut's wife as it catches the bright sun in the launch gallery.

The opening sequence in Aquaman—another relatively bright HDR disc with 3,241 nits peak and 902 nits average brightness—was also beautifully rendered. Queen Atlanna, played by Nicole Kidman, is found wearing a silver-gold costume whose texture caught convincing highlights off the warm lighting in her new home, and with the HDR Settings control properly tuned, a close-up of her well-lit face revealed an appropriately milky texture to her fair skin and none of the blown-out patches on her forehead that I've seen on some projectors.

Bright Room SDR. The LS500 will arguably be used most frequently as a day-to-day television replacement for viewing in moderate-to-high ambient light. In its out-of-box default Bright Cinema mode—the projector's second brightest mode and the one most suited for this less-critical task—I was struck by its compelling combination of color accuracy, contrast, and spectacular brightness. As noted above, I made some quick subjective adjustments by eye to tone things down: lowering the laser Light Output from 100% to 80%, taking Contrast (peak white level) from 50 to 35 to prevent highlights from being blown out on bright broadcasts, and reducing Color Saturation from 50 to somewhere between 45 and 40 (content and source dependent) to make the fleshtones look more natural and less glowy. I occasionally tweaked the Brightness (black level) down a click or two to add some extra contrast on some programs. Although whites still leaned toward cool blue in this mode, it wasn't excessive and helped the image stand up to the lighting, and the rest of the colors looked so natural that I never bothered with an instrument calibration.

Even after toning down the brightness in my studio, where I have overhead beams that directly wash on the image, the picture remained so satisfyingly bright and emminently watchable on the ALR screen that I turned to unconventional lighting challenges just to see how far I could push things. After turning on all the lights in the room—including those above, to the side, and in front of the screen—I took out a clamp light with an LED flood in it and pointed it at the screen from different angles. The blacks got brighter and took on a tinge of color from the beam's warmth, which robbed the picture of some punch, but most of the colors remained vibrant and the image never really washed out to a point that you couldn't watch it. I feel confident saying this is a projector that, with its companion screen, should deliver a respectable image even in rooms with bright sunlight coming in.

I spent many hours running news, sports, and prime-time shows on the projector with the lights on, often in the background while I worked. NFL and college football looked awesome on the big screen (broadcast quality dependent), and newscasts showed natural skin tones and good delineation of faces among the side-by-side pundits. The sharpness of the image varied based on the broadcast, of course, but the projector generally did a good job scaling the less-than-stellar 1080i signal from my cable box, particularly after I selected the Video option from its Deinterlacing feature in the menu. Even broadcast movies looked good, and only the darkest—think Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix caught on rerun—sent me heading to turn off the overhead lights just to preserve some black level. But I never felt the need to fully extinguish the lights except for when I was intentionally immersing myself in a movie, in which case I preferred my dark-room Game mode.

Full 1080p 3D. The Dynamic mode, which was otherwise noticeably green-biased, actually looked acceptable on 3D through the Xpand Vision Lite RF glasses I used and brought to bear the full brightness of the projector. Using the color temperature settings for this mode to back down the green and punch up the red a bit eliminated any obvious remnants of green in faces and brought back a touch of warmth; playing a bit with the Brightness and Contrast on individual titles then resulted in the brightest and best color-balanced 3D I can recall seeing in my studio. The LS500's 3D menu includes a Brightness setting (which I immediately set to High) and a 3D Depth control that was usually best left on its default but allowed depth to be effectively increased or decreased to accommodate taste and content. As noted above, the Frame Interpolation feature is also active for 3D, and I used it to infuse a touch more brightness and realism to the picture.

Animations such as Minons provided convincing (if not quite accurate) yellows and bluejean overalls on the Minions outfits and satisfying punch throughout. Live action 3D, such as The Walk (about Phillipe Petit's high-wire walk between the Twin Towers) and that old standby Avatar (still among the best application of 3D I've seen), delivered natural fleshtones and foliage, superb detail, and fantastic 3D effects that suffered no detectable crosstalk or motion artifacts. Avatar, in particular, was breathtaking, completely alluring, and never once left me yearning for more brightness or bemoaning distracting false colors or tinting. And that's saying a lot for 3D in a home theater projector.

Conclusion

Despite its otherwise solid execution, Epson's first 4K laser UST home theater projector comes with a few caveats. The lack of a suitable integrated sound system adds to the cost of an already pricey projector/screen combo. The included streaming stick wasn't as effective for HDR as my third-party streamers, and its outboard nature takes up one of only three available HDMI inputs, another of which you'll need to to connect a sound system via HDMI ARC. That leaves only one for an additional source, though if your audio system is a soundbar or AV receiver with multiple HDMI inputs this won't be an issue. Furthermore, the unusual lack of a multichannel optical digital audio output means that you'll have to use that HDMI-ARC port or get stuck with the less desirable analog stereo output to feed your sound system.

Beyond this, the remote could have been a bit better planned to provide access to the frequently used HDR brightness control, and the longer throw ratio of the lens means situating the projector further from the wall than some competitors, which may or may or may not work with your decor. Finally, the lack of a motion detector to dim the laser could be a consideration if you have children of a certain age. It should be noted that Epson addressed most of these issues in the aforementioned LS300 model, which still offers a bright 3,600 lumens but forgoes the 4K PRO-UHD pixel-shifting; however, it accepts 4K/HDR signals and displays them with HDR in the projector's native 1080p resolution. We hope to review this projector soon.

That said, none of these design quirks or missing features is enough to overwhelm the LS500's substantial strengths. You can start with its class-leading low input lag for gaming—a key feature for some. But more critical is the LS500's leading brightness in a product class whose whole raison d'être is its ability to function in light, and the way it delivers appealing and natural color at that high lumen output with little fuss. Since the vast majority of buyers for these UST projectors won't seek professional calibration, it's meaningful that the LS500 gives you a decent picture no matter which of its modes you choose, and thanks to its combination of high brightness, essentially accurate color, and a large lens that keeps better focus over a wider swath of screen, it gets closer to performing like that panel TV replacement it's meant to be. It also functions well as dark-room theater projector and handles HDR with finess thanks to its effective tone-mapping. And just to put a little more icing on the cake, the LS500 delivers the best and brightest 3D I've seen so far on any home theater projector, short or long throw. Those are some mighty big plusses, and they're more than enough to earn the LS500 our highest Editor's Choice recommendation.

Measurements

Brightness. The LS500 is rated for 4,000 ISO 21118 lumens, which are measured with the same 9-point average technique as ANSI lumens. Brightness measurements using a handheld luminance meter for a UST projector are best taken with salt because of how the steep angle of the lens and small movements of the meter can effect the readings. But my three attempts measuring the Dynamic mode using a jig that holds the meter at a consistent angle to the screen resulted in measurements tha ranged from 4,061 to 4,513 lumens, so the projector never failed to make its spec. The results of the most conservative reading and for the other Color Modes are shown below. The Normal setting of the Light Output control corresponds with its 100% marking and is the default for all modes except Cinema. Cinema mode defaults to the Eco setting that corresponds with the 50% marking. Setting any mode to Eco resulted in a 49.6% reduction compared with full Normal output. Setting Light Output to 75% measured 74.7% of full output.

Epson LS500 ANSI Lumens

Mode	Normal	Eco
Dynamic	4,061	2,014
Bright Cinema	2,406	1193
Cinema	2,353	1.186
Game	2,223	1,103

Fan Noise. Epson rates the LS500's fan noise on their website as "up to 37 dB." Making casual measurements with an SPL meter in a room with 28 dBA background noise, from a viewing position 11 feet from the screen and 9 feet from the front of the projector, I measured 36.1 dBA with the Light Output setting at the 100% maximum setting (Normal) that all modes except for Cinema default to. The fan noise was a noticeable hush at that distance, but of a low-enough pitch to blend in as random noise and not call undue attention to itself with any soundtrack playing.

Reducing the Light Output setting gradually reduces measured fan noise and lowers the pitch as well, making it considerably less detectable at each 10% step. The noise drops noticeably at 90%, and by 80% was not detectable over any music score, even at low volume, and difficult to hear over any dialogue. At the 50% Eco setting, I measured a low of 31.0 dBA, or about 5 dBA less than full output.

High Altitude Mode is recommended above 4,921 feet (1,500 meters). Engaging it added about 3 dB of noise to the 100% Normal setting and made it considerably more distracting.

Input Lag. Like other projectors, the LS500 registers its lowest input lag with 3840x2160 UHD signals at a 60 Hz frame rate, or 1920x1080 HD signals at 60 Hz. Slower frame rates at either resolution increase the lag. Similarly, engaging Frame Interpolation also usually increases input lag. Although some projectors have a dedicated gaming mode or low-lag feature that reduces processing to further reduce input lag, using the LS500's Game color mode in its default settings or selecting any other color mode had no noticeable effect on lag measurements.

Using a Bodnar lag meter, I measured a lowest-case input lag of 21.1 milliseconds with a 2160p/60 signal—not quite the 16.7 seconds claimed on the spec sheet but close, and the lowest by far we've seen in a laser UST. The reading for 1080p/60 was 27.4 ms. These measurements were taken with the following menu settings, which were previously recommended by Epson as delivering the lowest input lag on its Home Cinema projectors: Image Processing Fast; Super Resolution, Noise Reduction, Frame Interpolation, and Keystone Correction all Off; and Aspect Ratio Normal. I also tried turning off Detail Enhancement and Dynamic Contrast, which had no effect on the readings.

As with all other home theater projectors today, the LS500's lack of a wider-bandwidth HDMI 2.1 input for 4K/120 Hz gaming on the new Sony and Xbox consoles will be an impediment at some point in the future. But we've yet to see any projector that can fully accommodate those devices.

Frame Interpolation. The LS500's Frame Interpolation feature was available for 1080p/24 signals in either 2D or 3D. As noted in the review, its Low setting had only modest effect taming judder and reducing motion blur on some challenging clips, but also introduced only a modest degree of soap opera video effect to 24-fps movies that may be acceptable to some viewers who normally avoid using FI. The Normal and High settings were definitely more effective—High vastly reduced blur on a demanding test clip of a woman swinging on a hammock—but these settings also introduced noticeably more pronounced video effect on 24 frame content. For 1080p 3D movies, I found the video effect less pronounced, and the Normal or High setting often gave the picture extra brightness and realism that was welcome.

Connections

• HDMI 2.0b with HDCP 2.2 (x3, one with ARC)
• RJ-45
• RS-232C
• USB power (5V, 2A) for HDMI 3/Android Streamer
• USB -A (for optional WiFi dongle)
• Mini USB (service)
• 3.5mm audio out
• USB power (5V, 1.5A)
• Micro USB (for firmware updates)

Calibrated Settings

Calibrated image settings from any third-party do not account for the significant potential for sample-to-sample variation, nor the different screen sizes and materials, lighting, lamp usage, or other environmental factors that can affect image quality. Projectors should always be calibrated in the user's own space and tuned for the expected viewing conditions. However, the settings provided here may be a helpful starting point for some. Always record your current settings before making adjustments so you can return to them as desired. Refer to the Performance section of the review for some context for each calibration. As reported subjective tweaks following calibration sometimes resulted in adjustments to Brightness (black level), Contrast (peak white), Color Saturation, and HDR Brightness where applicable to yield the most pleasing results and effect the most natural fleshtones on different content.

The settings below were calibrated on a 0.6 gain, 100-inch diagonal, 16:9 UST ALR screen.

Dark-Room SDR/HDR

IMAGE MENU
Display Mode: Game
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 40
Color Saturation: 47
Tint: 50
Sharpness
- Standard: 5
- Thin Line Enhancement: 5
- Thick Line Enhancement: 5
White Balance
- Color Temp: 7
- G-M Correction 4
Custom
- Offset R: 47
- Offset G: 49
- Offset B: 47
- Gain R: 40
- Gain G: 50
- Gain B: 47
Grayscale
-Adjustment Level: 8
- Red 0
- Green 0
- Blue 0
Image Enhancement
- 4K Enhancment: On
- Image Preset Mode: Preset 3
- Frame Interpolation: Off
- Noise Reduction: 4
- MPEG Noise Reduction: 1
-Super Resoution
-- Fine Line Adjust: 5
-- Soft Focus Detail 5
- Detail Enhancement
-- Strength: 25
-- Range: 25
Advanced
- Gamma: -1
-RGBCMY (Hue, Saturation, Brightness)
-- Red: H49, S55, B50
-- Green: H57, S55, B49
-- Blue: H50, S50, B50
-- Cyan: H50, S50, B50
-- Magenta: H54, S52, B50
-- Yellow: H50, S50, B53

Light Output: 90%
Dynamic Contrast: High Speed

SIGNAL MENU
Aspect: Normal
Overscan: Off
Color Space: Auto
Dynamic Range
- Dynamic Range: Auto
- HDR10 Setting (when applicable): 2-5 for most content or adjust to taste
Advanced
- Video Range: Full (0-255)
- EDID: Expanded
- Image Processing: Fast

Bright-Room SDR

IMAGE MENU
Display Mode: Bright Cinema
Brightness: 50
Contrast: 35
Color Saturation: 40-45
Tint: 50
Sharpness
- Standard: 5
- Thin Line Enhancement: 5
- Thick Line Enhancement: 5
White Balance
- Color Temp: 9
- G-M Correction 2
Custom
- Offset R: 50
- Offset G: 50
- Offset B: 50
- Gain R: 50
- Gain G: 50
- Gain B: 50
Grayscale
-Adjustment Level: 8
- Red 0
- Green 0
- Blue 0

Image Enhancement
- 4K Enhancment: On
- Image Preset Mode: Preset 3
- Frame Interpolation: Grayed out or Off (with 1080p/24 signals)
- Noise Reduction: 4
- MPEG Noise Reduction: 1
-Super Resoution
-- Fine Line Adjust: 5
-- Soft Focus Detail 5
- Detail Enhancement
-- Strength: 25
-- Range: 25

Advanced
- Gamma: 0
-RGBCMY (Hue, Saturation, Brightness)
-- Red: H50, S50, B50
-- Green: H50, S50, B50
-- Blue: H50, S50, B50
-- Cyan: H50, S50, B50
-- Magenta: H50, S50, B50
-- Yellow: H50, S50, B50

Light Output: 80%
Dynamic Contrast: High Speed

SIGNAL MENU
Aspect: Normal
Overscan: Off
Color Space: Auto
Dynamic Range
- Dynamic Range: Auto
- HDR10 Setting (when applicable): 2-5 for most content or adjust to taste
Advanced
- Video Range: Limited (16-235)
- EDID: Expanded
- Image Processing: Fast

Full 1080p 3D

IMAGE MENU
Display Mode: Dynamic
Brightness: 52 (content dependent)
Contrast: 65 (content dependent)
Color Saturation: 55 (content dependent)
Tint: 48
Sharpness
- Standard: 7
- Thin Line Enhancement: 7
- Thick Line Enhancement: 7
White Balance
- Color Temp: 6
- G-M Correction 8
Custom
- Offset R: 49
- Offset G: 47
- Offset B: 52
- Gain R: 50
- Gain G: 50
- Gain B: 50
Grayscale
-Adjustment Level: 8
- Red 0
- Green 0
- Blue 0

Image Enhancement
- 4K Enhancment: On
- Image Preset Mode: Preset 3
- Frame Interpolation: Medium or High (to taste)
- Noise Reduction: 4
- MPEG Noise Reduction: 1
-Super Resoution
-- Fine Line Adjust: 5
-- Soft Focus Detail 5
- Detail Enhancement
-- Strength: 25
-- Range: 25

Advanced
- Gamma: 0
-RGBCMY (Hue, Saturation, Brightness)
-- Red: H50, S50, B50
-- Green: H50, S50, B50
-- Blue: H50, S50, B50
-- Cyan: H50, S50, B50
-- Magenta: H50, S50, B50
-- Yellow: H50, S50, B50

Light Output: 80%
Dynamic Contrast: High Speed

SIGNAL MENU
3D Setup
- 3D Depth: 0
- Diagonal Screen Size: (set as needed)
- 3D Brightness: High
- Inverse 3D Glasses: (as needed)
- 3D Viewing Notice: On or Off to taste

Aspect: Grayed Out
Overscan: Grayed Out
Color Space: Grayed Out
Dynamic Range: Grayed Out

Advanced
- Video Range: Full (0-255)
- EDID: Expanded
- Image Processing: Fast

For more detailed specifications and connections, check out our Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS500W-100 projector page.

To buy this projector, use Where to Buy online, or get a price quote by email direct from Projector Central authorized dealers using our E-Z Quote tool.

The Epson EpiqVision Ultra LS500W-100 is also sold outside of the United States of America as the Epson EH-LS500W-100. Some specifications may be slightly different. Check with Epson for complete specifications.

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