Though many laser projectors that promise quality lights-on viewing might leave viewers feeling a little let down, Epson's new premium Q-Series models could just get you out of the dark places and into the light – with the top of the range outputting 10,000 lumens.
"Our new lineup of ultra-premium, high-lumen Q-Series laser projectors showcases Epson’s commitment to producing superior entertainment solutions," said Epson America's Melvin Diaz. "Breaking performance, efficiency, and size benchmarks, the Q-Series offers immersive big-screen entertainment within and beyond traditional dark room theater spaces, creating limitless integration possibilities for home entertainment design."
The Q-Series projectors are reported to be the first of their kind to offer high color and white brightness performance at price points starting from US$7,999. For that money you'll get the QB1000 model, which delivers 3,300 lumens of (IDMS-rated) color and (ISO-rated) white brightness in equal measure.
It's built around Epson's 3LCD projector engine that, as the name suggests, employs three individual LCD chips to throw "100% of the RGB color signal for every frame." This is matched to a multi-array laser diode light source, with the company noting that viewers shouldn't suffer any rainbow effects or color brightness issues that commonly plague laser projectors, while promising "an exceptional picture in virtually any theater environment – even in rooms with ambient light."
The projector can manage 4K UHD visuals up to 300 diagonal inches at a throw ratio of 1.35:1 to 2.84:1, includes vertical and horizontal lens shift and keystone correction, powered focus and zoom, a 15-element glass lens, and tempts gamers with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz.
Epson's 32-bit QZX Picture Processor takes care of 5-million:1 dynamic contrast, frame interpolation, dynamic tone mapping, resolution super sampling and more in real-time, and the system boasts 10-bit HDR color processing for full support of HDR10+ and HLG content.
This is not a smart projector, so you'll need to feed in the entertainment over HDMI 2.1 with audio return. The interface panel around back is also home to USB Type-A and Ethernet LAN, and the unit lacks a built-in speaker. The system is mains power only, too.
The QL3000 and QL7000 models offer much of the same as the QB1000 but put out 6,000 and 10,000 color and white lumens, respectively. As such, the former starts at $14,999 while the latter will set you back at least $29,999. You'll have to add an Epson Precision lens to each of these options too, so your wallet will get even slimmer, but you'll be rewarded with stunning visuals across a variety of lighting environments.
The Q-Series projectors will be available in black or white from October. The videos below have more.
