# Epson Home Cinema 5020UBe



## edrulz203 (Mar 12, 2011)

Hope all is well. I found the above projector for sale on Facebook. I’ve done some research since it was manufactured 7 years. The seller wants $1,000 for it with 586 hours on it. I’m new to projectors and would like to get something for my basement to watch TV, movies and play Xbox. What do you guys think ? Does it have everything I would need? Is it outdated ? Want like a 90-100” screen.


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## Da Wiz (May 8, 2019)

Projection is DEAD DEAD DEAD. Less than $1000 spent on a Hisense 65H9F (H9G may be available soon) will produce images so much better it's ridiculous. You can make a 65-in monitor every bit as cinematic as a 90-100 inch screen. All you have to do is sit close enough that the 65-inch monitor fills the same field of vision that is filled when you sit farther back from a 90-100 inch screen. For example, in regards to the angle of view you get... sit 11.5 feet from a 95-inch wide screen gives you just about the same angle of view as sitting 7 feet from a 65-inch diagonal TV. The 65-inch diagonal TV produces up to 1400 nits of peak white brightness (not used to make bright white objects on-screen, the extra brightness is used to be able to produce a wider range of jewel tone colors that can't be reproduced in conventional TVs. The 5020 projector will produce around 25 fL maximum, that's about 86 nits. So the TV produces 1400 nits and the projector produces 86 nits. Native resolution of the 5020... 1080. Native resolution of the TV 3840x2160. The 5020 has **** for black levels and they will be even worse if you use a projection screen with gain trying to get more light on the screen. Projection lamps for the 5020 from Epson are $299. They lose about 50% of their light output by the time you get to 1800 hours. There are IDENTICAL appearing replacements available from numerous sources who will even TELL you that the lamp is an exact replacement. What they do NOT tell you is that Epson puts something in the lamp assembly SOMEWHERE that allows the projector to tell whether you installed an Epson lamp or a 3rd party lamp. Why does Epson do that? Because the 3rd party lamps sell for less than $100 and are identical in life and light output to the lamps Epson sells for $299. So what you say? Because that one difference Epson makes to their lamp assembly allows their projectors to tell if you used their lamp or not. If you did NOT use a "real" Epson projection lamp, there is a beeper inside the projector that will give you a beep every minute or so that you run the projector with the non-Epson lamp in it. I could not believe this could happen, but I did it myself to see if it was a real thing and the 5020 I had here did indeed do the beep - beep - beep thing when there was a non-Epson lamp in it. I held the Epson lamp and 3rd party lamps in my hands together and use magnifying reading glasses and a bright forehead/headband light to examine the 2 lamps and housings to see if there was some extra bit of plastic or some missing bit of plastic on the 3rd party lamp, but I couldn't see anything different between the 2 assemblies (and I'm a trained optical and mechanical engineer). I even partially disassembled the 5020 looking for the beeper to see if it could be disabled easily but cannot see anything on the circuit board that looks like it can emit sound. Not sure exactly where the beeper is. It is the sort of sound that seems to come from everywhere so loalization is just not possible. Though I didn't go as far as using an SPL meter to see if it could follow the sound to the origin point. Also, the H9F/H9G are HDR compatible and are smartTVs with all those benefits. There is NO video display from 2012 that does not look like a POS compared to a reasonably good TV from 2019-2020 with 4K and HDR. The VIZIO PX series 65" TV is only $1200 and has 380 local dimming zones versus more like 160 local dimming zones on the Hisense H9F. The 5020 projector has zero local dimming zones so "black" from the 5020 projector looks more like around 6% white on the Hisense or Vizio TVs (black being 0% white). The Vizio 65PX TV produces 3000 nits of peak white! That is more light than some $30,000 monitors used to master UHD content. The Vizio PX TVs produce HUGE color gamuts, more than double the color volume you will get from the 5020 projector. The 5020 was around $2500 new. It does not have UHD resolution, it does not have HDR, it is not bright, it doesn't have a particularly good lens (though it's a LOT better than the lens in cheaper Epson projectors). Some mags picked a $1700 Panasonic plasma TV as the best TV of 2012. How much is that 2012 plasma TV worth today? Zero dollars. Frankly, if you could find somebody to GIVE the TV to you can save money because in many locations you pay $25 to $50 to dispose of old TVs. So what is a projector from the same year with the same performance it had in 2012 worth in 2020 since we now have UHD and HDR and wider color gamuts and streaming channels with really good looking UHD/HDR content if your internet speed is high enough? I think they are worth about the same as the 2012 plasma TV... zero. HDR looks better and better the brighter the TV gets.


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## the kid (Nov 15, 2013)

New tv's are nice and will give tremendous deep glossy depth, sharpness and colors. And other advantages like space saving, no lamp to eventually replace, less electric use...HOWEVER, do not get discouraged over your idea of a projector system. If you like to DIY and tinker, these can be lots of continuous fun! Many hours can be spent designing space, installation, losing sleep having to make yet another tweak somewhere...AND you can make BIG pictures! Mine is 106" and is great! 

While you will not get the same quality image from a projector (any projector) as you would a tv (different technology producing the images), you still can get a great image. Getting a good quality projector, blu ray player and screen is the main key. Then work on room darkening, distance from the screen... Once all the hardware and room 'stuff' is done, then the fun of adjusting all the settings for the best image begins! Note: most techies would spend a lot of time adjusting a tv as well...

The epson is a good brand. I have the epson '4k' 5040ub and it is great! While technically 'not' 4k, it comes so close that most cannot tell. Movies look soooo much better than the digital theaters. And has a LOT of adjustments! I have also a computer and xbox one connected for the fun big images.

You asked "is it outdated?". Well, since everything is working its way to 4k now, I would look for a 4k projector. You can still play blu ray, dvd through it. If you can swing it, look for better quality products / brands that will give the better images, come with adjustments and have maybe latest tech in them to last a while.

Ask questions, read reviews and threads, listen to advice. You decide what will make you the happiest in the end, not others who will not be at your home.


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## Da Wiz (May 8, 2019)

Projection may be "fun" but it produces ****-looking images compared to a good $1000 TV.... Vizio's PX65-G1 is just $1000 right now (possibly less at Costco) and it will blow away any projector under $100,000 (not a typo). It produces 3000 nits for peak white in UHD/HDR mode. We use a color volume defined by DCI/P3 color space for UHD/HDR. Projectors with lamps cannot (none of them) produce all the color in the DCI/P3 color space. To get MOST of the DCI/P3 color space, you have to use 50 or more blue lasers aimed at a rotating phosphor disc that produces intense yellow light. That yellow light is split to red and green and a few more blue lasers provide the blue light needed to create images. But the ULTIMATE color volume UHD/HDR will use is called Rec.2020 and it is much larger than DCI/P3 color space. The Vizio TV mentioned above can reproduce 80% to 85% of massively huge Rec.2020 color space. No projector comes remotely close to that. Remember, those beautiful saturated jewel tone colors you can get in UHD/HDR (like in the live version of Aladdin) simply won't exist on any projector and especially not on a 5020.

You are going to feed the same sources to your inexpensive projection setup and to the proverbial good $1000 TV. And once you sit close enough to the TV to produce the same viewing angle you get with a projection screen, 100% of the attraction of projection disappears. I've had at least 20 projectors here selling for $10,000 to $45,000 and I wouldn't keep any of those--and this head-count of projectors is just since UHD and HDR have been available, many more projectors before that, way back to the dawn of digital projection (I always thought analog CRT projectors were kludges) around 2008.

Spend your money as you wish, but if you have a limited budget, you are going to have a very disappointing experience with projection if you have seen UHD/HDR content on a good high-luminance 2019-2020 TV.


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## rdcollns (Oct 13, 2013)

I have friends with big TV's. I have a wonderful 55" 4K display upstairs. However, when we do movie night it is always on the 12 year old 720p projector in the basement with a 140+" screen. A projector is much more pleasant image to view at large sizes, while large TVs are like a flashlight shining in your eyes. After a few minutes of a good movie, the exact contrast numbers fade away, and you lose yourself in the movie. I'm currently testing a 4K upgrade, and it is impressive, but 1080p will certainly look good and there are a lot of reputable models available for less than $1000 new.


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