Epson EH-LS800 im Test – connect

1. Epson EH-LS800 in review
2. Epson EH-LS800 in the test: measurement data, equipment & test results

© Epson

If you are looking for the largest possible picture for TV, streaming or gaming, you will find that 55 inches are almost too cheap, the large number of 65 inches can no longer be considered a special feature, but prices beyond 75 inches are growing exponentially. From 85 inches, the financial fun really stops for most people.

Here, however, the visual power of a projection only begins. However, the huge film surface is bought with a significantly lower light output than with television sets. That’s why real home cinema fans set up a separate, darkened room. The rule applies: “The richest black in a film is the color of the screen when the projector is switched off.” And such a wall in the living room is not exactly very dark in the afternoon.

For this reason put Laser-TVs again Epson EH-LS800 on enormous light outputs, in order to still ensure a decent contrast. Incidentally, it holds the internal record after our test, because in the middle of the picture we were able to do the promised 4000 Lumen even measure well over 5000. It is particularly good that the brightness does not decrease disproportionately towards the edges (hotspot). The manufacturer has done its homework conscientiously here.

© Epson

A TV replacement with laser

As a projector specialist, Epson is very familiar with projectors and has the crass optics well under control, which throws the image in physically borderline angles. However, laser TVs only become a replacement for televisions with the addition of additional components.

In addition to the playback of sound, this includes the reception of TV programs, suitability for gaming and anyway the smart media world, to which one has become accustomed in the meantime. Hardly any manufacturer takes the final step of integrating a tuner for TV signals, and we also get along well with the workaround at Epson.

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Epson gave the EH-LS800 that Operating system Android TV 11 donated, which brings in a lot of luxury from Google’s universe. The Quadcore A55 with 1900 MHz and 2 GB RAM makes the response times short, the almost 10 GB free mass storage offers enough space for many apps up to the demanding media player Kodi.

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Extremely commendable is that just about every relevant Video on Demand Service is supported, in addition to Amazon Prime, Disney, Apple, Paramount, Joyn and RTL, even Sky WOW and Magenta TV are on board.

There are also ARD and ZDF, plus the packages from Zattoo and Waipu-TV. Unfortunately, only the market leader Netflix is ​​officially missing. For a good mix of streaming, news and TV shows, we got along quite well without a tuner in our tests

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Epson is unique

As mentioned at the beginning, Epson uses three LCD chips, which create the pixels—one for each base color. Competitors use DLP and colors that come one after the other from just one (mirror) chip. This creates rainbow effects when the eye darts quickly across the image and carries the risk of faint colors.

This is because many DLP devices add a white phase to the primary colors to maximize the measured brightness. Then the full colors are no longer in the correct ratio to the luminosity.

Epson specifies the color brightness according to IDMS15.4 with 4000 lumens just as brilliant as the white brightness, which our measurements confirmed. On the other hand, we don’t want to hide the compromises that 3LCD technology makes necessary.

Firstly, the images of the three primary colors have to be superimposed with perfect precision so that there are no fringes; secondly, the pixel shifting that is used to generate Ultra HD images with Full HD chips is much sharper in DLP than here. Another unrelated compromise from Epson is the use of only one (blue) laser. This narrows the HDR color volume, especially in red and green, compared to expensive 3-laser devices.

The concept works

In the end, however, the tuning of the Epson EH-LS800 was excellent. The brilliance and contrast of HDTV colors are superior to those of the competition, the good Full HD resolution looks almost analogue and homogeneous and surpasses many 4k DLP projectors in the corners of the picture. Incidentally, mixed colors are set extremely naturally ex works in cinema mode, only the image power of HDR cannot meet our spoiled demands.

To top it off, Yamaha’s sound department delivers deep bass and clear voices if you choose the right DSP program. By the way, if you want to use the full contrast potential of such a laser TV, you don’t project onto the white wall, but onto a specially tuned UST screen (ultra short throw). Due to the light physics, the gain in contrast is immense.

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