Epson is known for printers and PowerPoint-oriented projectors, but its new PowerLite Pro Cinema 1080 projector is specifically tailored to the custom home theater installation channel. The company included several thoughtful (and proprietary) design touches, such as an unusual lamp said to provide more uniform light with less stray "splatter." A ceiling mount and a spare bulb are included, and the projector features horizontal and vertical lens shift for greater installation flexibility. The projector offers the Imaging Science Foundation's suite of calibration adjustments and password-protected Day and Night settings. It's fully compatible with the latest HD DVD and Blu-ray high-definition disc players, because it's equipped with an HDMI 1.3 digital video input, and xvYCC and Deep Color capabilities.

One look at the backlit remote control convinces me Epson has done its homework. It's equipped with separate power on and off buttons (de rigueur for integration with deluxe control systems and all-in-one system remotes). It also includes discrete input selector buttons so you can go straight to an input without having to scroll past others—another important feature for automated systems.

Setup is straightforward, and the ISF's contribution is evident, with clear menu screens and adjustment windows that stay on screen for as long as is necessary (how I do hate fiddling with controls only to have the adjustment menu disappear within a few seconds). While the horizontal and vertical lens shift adjustments are manual, rather than motorized, and a tad more coarse in adjustment precision than I would like, I'm still able to get everything optically adjusted and squared in a relatively short time.

After fine-tuning the basic picture controls, I run a preliminary set of measurements with the color analyzer to evaluate the out-of-the-box performance, and find a gray scale that is very close to the 6,500 degrees Kelvin ideal at the brightest white end of the range. In the darker parts of the picture, though, it drops to a decidedly reddish 5,000 degrees. Fortunately, I'm easily able to adjust the gray scale to a much more consistent result—an excellent outcome, although I do end up with a slight blue tinge in the dark grays.

With high-definition material, the Pro Cinema 1080 delivers sharp and stable results with 1080i and 1080p program material as well as test patterns. I'm pleased to note that the Epson easily handles a single-pixel 1080p torture test pattern, providing alternating black and white pixels with nary a hint of ringing or smearing. This is one 1080p product that truly delivers full 1920 by 1080 resolution. It does a superb job at upconverting 1080-line interlaced high-definition sources, and is relatively quick at detecting film-originated material and locking into the 3:2 pulldown sequencing.

With standard-definition sources, I find the same quick film-to-video cadence detection and correction, noting that although the Epson uses Pixelworks' deinterlacer and scaler chips (not as well known as some other deinterlacer/scaler chip brands), it does a quite credible job of upconversion, and DVD movies look just fine. To evaluate the Epson's ability to reproduce subtle shades of very dark grays and deep blacks, I pop in one of my favorite comedy DVDs, Kathy Griffin's Allegedly, shot live to video (not film). Here I find that the Pro Cinema 1080 easily handles Kathy's wardrobe of dark black pants and similarly dark bluish blouse, set against a backdrop of black curtains, with the projector clearly delineating subtle dark shading and color.

And then the evil Mr. Hyde personality lurking within the projector shows up—it struggles to deinterlace the 480i signal coming from the DVD player. Every time Kathy moves her hands or even moves just slightly, the picture collapses into a jagged mess. I search for other video-originated DVDs in my collection and find more than a few (mostly music concerts shot in standard-definition video) that exhibit similarly awful deinterlacing, a problem that does not occur with the other three high-def displays I have on hand. Test patterns confirm that the Epson clearly isn't up to the task at deinterlacing standard-definition video, failing with a rotating white rectangular bar test and giving the worst rendition of a fluttering flag test clip I've seen.

The solution here is obviously a decent progressive-scan DVD player, and those are both abundant and affordable. And eventually interlaced standard-definition material will go away, but that won't be for a long while yet. I'm guessing that there isn't anything inherently wrong with the Pixelworks DNX chips in the Pro Cinema 1080; I'd bet they're simply not configured correctly, and a firmware fix might cure the Mr. Hyde behavior. The Pro Cinema 1080 is a very good performer in all other respects and really does provide a crisp 1080p picture. Fortunately, given the unit's surprisingly low price, you'll probably save enough to replace your aging standard-definition DVD player with a proper progressive model—or better yet, get an HD DVD or Blu-ray player.

DESCRIPTION
LCD front projector. Includes ceiling mount, but can also be used on a tabletop or shelf. Requires separate screen.

DISPLAY CAPABILITIES
Widescreen LCD panels operate in 4:3 and 16:9 modes. Accepts 720-line and 1080-line progressive HDTV, 1080-line interlaced HDTV, 480-line progressive and 480-line interlaced signals, plus RGB WXGA (1360 x 768) computer video

RESOLUTION
1920 x 1080 pixels

CONNECTIONS
HDMI digital video input, component video input, S-video input, composite video input, D-4 (Japan component video)/SCART (European video) combo connection, 3.5mm jack for 12-volt trigger output, RS-232 serial port for external control

DIMENSIONS
4.9 x 16 x 12.2 inches (hwd)

PRICE/CONTACT
PRICE: $3,999
CONTACT: 800.463.7766, www.epson.com