Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2030 Pro Reviews

The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2030 offers a decent image and a good mix of features at a low price, but is still bettered by rivals.

If it isn’t clear by now, I’m a little disappointed with the 2030. On paper, it has the goods, but it just doesn’t hold up under testing. Obviously, Epson wanted to offer a direct competitor to the likes of the BenQ W1070. Either that, or it’s part of an attempt by Epson to have a projector at every single price point imaginable. (Seriously, check out their Website.) Features-wise, the 2030 and the W1070 are nearly identical. Even in terms of light output, they’re nearly the same. But with such a mediocre contrast ratio, and only average color accuracy (a place where the BenQ excels), the 2030 becomes more of an also-ran. If excessive light output is what you’re after—maybe you’re that high-ambient-light customer or want an especially large screen—the cheaper 750HD fares much better, with a searing 75 ft-L on my screen. That projector is only 720p, but it has a slightly higher contrast ratio than this one does. So overall, the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2030 isn’t a bad projector. But you can do better for the money.

The Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 2030 home entertainment projector delivers high-quality 1080p images, guaranteed free of rainbow artifacts, for both 2D and 3D.

This is a fun projector. It should provide years of enjoyable viewing, and it’s backed with what must be the best overall warranty anywhere near its price range, two years, with next business day replacement! Sweet. While color handling is a plus, the lack of gamma adjustment and not quite as good black levels as some of the immediate competition offers, just prove that this is an affordable projector. If the Home Cinema 2030 did everything a lot better than the competition, it would be more expensive, and competing with more expensive projectors. But it’s the picture that will sell this projector, bright and pleasing to view. That it looks a little cooler than most of the competition or that it has some slick capabilities such as MHL are just pluses. The Epson Home Cinema 2030 should be considered an excellent choice for a rather affordable home entertainment projector, one that can tackle most decent rooms, and impress you with its picture.

The latest addition to Epson's home video projector line-up is the PowerLite Home Cinema 2030, a sub-$1000 projector ideal for living room use. The Home Cinema 2030 has 1080p resolution and full HD 3D with radio-frequency glasses synchronization. In a first for Epson home video projectors, the Home Cinema 2030 is also compatible with Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) devices like the Roku Streaming Stick, giving you a new way to access content from smartphones or streaming services easily from your projector.