6500UB Setup Installation Remote

We mounted the Epson 65000UB to our Peerless PRG-UNV Precision Gear universal projector mount using the four screw anchor points located at the bottom of the unit. Once mounted, we leveled the projector by placing a torpedo level on top and manipulating the gears to precisely position the projector so that it is facing the screen perfectly. The projector is much lighter than our reference Marantz VP-15S1 DLP projector - coming in at just 16.5 pounds. As with most models under $5000, Focus and Zoom are manual. The Fujinon 2.1:1 lens meant that we could hit our 92-inch Carada Masquerade masking projector screen at any distance between 9 and 19.2 feet away. That is a tremendous amount of flexibility and coupled with the 96% vertical/47% horizontal lens shift system, means that you will be able to hit almost any screen from any reasonably placed installation location. Basically, just get it close - although we don't recommend overusing lens shift or Zoom as it will decrease clarity as well as light output.

We played around with many of the Color modes and found most of them to be very usable. You can access the Color Mode from the menu system or by hitting the Color Mode button on the remote control. Overall, here are our suggestions:

• Dynamic - Go ahead and use this if light output is more important than color accuracy. Your image is going to be color shifted (mostly away from Red) but you will indeed get the maximum light output possible. If you're trying to use the system in a brightly lit room, this might be your best bet out of the box.
• Living Room - This is a bright mode that doesn't result in an unpleasant color shift, but rather adds more Blue as well as light output to boost the light output of the image. This is a good general Daytime mode if you are unable to calibrate one yourself.
• Natural - This is a decent general mode for rooms with little ambient light. It makes better use of the projector's "High" Brightness control in order to project a fairly realistic image, but with greater light output. Color temp is set to 6500K.
• Theatre - This is similar to Natural and is suitable for rooms with little ambient light. It also uses the projector's "High" Brightness control but sets the color temp to 7500K.
• Theatre Black 1 - This is the recommended mode for a fully light-controlled room. It sets the Brightness Control to Low and puts the color temperature to 6500K.
• Theatre Black 2 - This mode is very similar to Theatre Black 1 mode, but it drops the color temperature and lowers Saturation to provide a warmer image.
• x.v.Color - This mode locks out most color adjustment controls and opens up the color depth to the larger "Deep Color" color space.

Connections

You won't lack for inputs on this projector. The Home Cinema 6500UB has two HDMI 1.3 inputs, a component video input, PC/RGB (HD15) and composite/S-video inputs. For those using more sophisticated control systems, RS-232C is available and the projector has a 12V DC trigger output jack for use with electric screens to make them drop when the projector is powered up. One nice thing that Epson included was a pair of cable holders that can be used in conjunction with a tie-wrap to secure bulky HDMI cables and provide strain relief for this often troublesome connector.

The Epson 6500UB also featured something that I wasn’t expecting – a super low power standby mode that consumes only 0.2W when not active. This means that you’re barely powering anything on the unit in standby, but it will still wake up quickly with the remote control when you’re ready to watch something.

Remote Control

Epson finally changed their remote, making it shorter and wider than the previous model. Like the lost curves of the new projector housing, the remote is also more rectangular, with a curved indent near the top that I felt was misplaced and far from ergonomic. The remote does what it needs to, but menu functions felt awkward. You have to hit the Esc(ape) key to back out of many menu areas, rather than just use the left directional arrow, which we felt was more intuitive. The remote is fully backlit and the amber glow lights up every button sufficiently, even in a pitch black room. You must press the backlight icon at the top right of the remote to active the backlight as it doesn't com on automatically when you use the remote. This saves battery life, but also seems off since most of the time you'll be using the remote is dim or dark rooms (it is a projector, after all). The top of the remote features the input selection and HDMI 1 and HDMI 1 are split out, making this an easy remote to use for programming a universal control system. The central area is the navigation/menu section which has a recessed (but not far enough) Default button that we felt should probably not even be on the remote, though it offers a quick user-fix should all your calibrations be made in the service menu.

Below that lies the 6 picture adjust buttons: Memory, Color Mode, RGBCMY, Aspect, Gamma and Sharpness. And Epson hives you access to Blank and Pattern functions for temporarily killing the projector's light output and making sure the projected image is square to the screen. This is a decent remote, but it could be better. My guess is that, like me, you won't use it all that much.