Epson Home Cinema 5050UB 4K PRO-UHD Review

The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB is a high-performing home cinema projector with excellent color accuracy, pixel-shifting technology, and wonderful digital user interface features like digital lens shift and digital focus buttons. It's a beast of a machine in both size and performance and won't let discerning owners down once they get past the sticker shock.

Performance Comparison

Contrast Ratio

The 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio of the Home Cinema 5050UB packs a serious punch. Its ultra-whites and inky blacks were extreme and either leaped off the screen or pulled the testers in. The mid-tones lost some contrast due in part to the extreme performance on the ends of the spectrum. Bright whites tended to wash out surrounding areas, and dark grays melded right into blacks.

In our video tests of clouds and space scenes, we were again amazed by the brilliance and depth of the whites and blacks, yet lost some of the effects in transition areas, and surrounding colors were slightly washed out. Nevertheless, we felt that darker shadowed scenes were phenomenal and overall had a great viewing experience.

Color Accuracy

The color accuracy of the Epson Home Cinema 5050 is where this model really shines. Its out-of-the-box colors pop, and unlike most projectors, no color suffered from a noticeable shift in hue.

For accurate skin tones, testers picked this model as the most realistic. Whereas others make skin appear flushed, the only noticeable distortion was a slight yellow tint to the skin tones. Blues and reds were good, although purples and yellows popped right off the screen and stayed true-to-hue. When solely watching the projections, our testers did not notice any distortions, and it was only when comparing directly to a laptop that we were able to discern a shift. We found the accurate colors of the 5050UB to enhance the viewing experience, and our battery of tests colored us impressed.

Resolution

The Epson 5050 has an impressive 1920x1080p resolution, but it really shines with its additional 4K Enhancement Technology — a feature that both accepts 4K UHD content and upscales non-4K content to display better than Full HD resolution.

During our picture tests, we noticed sharp precision. The video tests were equally impressive. Our macro videos were crisp and clean, and we were excited to watch 4K movies. We feel that some may argue that this 4K Enhancement Technology is not true 4K viewing; however, our testers were left feeling excited about the possibilities of 4K viewing with this model.

Ease of Use

While the 5050UB had an impressive technical performance, some of our favorite features were discovered during the ease-of-use tests. First up is the lens focus method. Unlike most projectors where the lens is twisted, and focusing is a process of corrections, overcompensating, and corrections again, the Epson 5050 has digital lens focus buttons on both the side of the unit and the remote, allowing users to make micro-adjustments to focus at the touch of a button. During 4K viewing, the ability to precisely adjust focus and not lose out on resolution due to setup errors is important. The digital lens shift and zoom were also nice features to have.

The remote is intuitively laid out, with large backlight buttons that make navigating easy. Like the projector itself, the remote is larger than most others. One thing to note about the Epson 5050 is that despite its size, only the front two feet of the unit adjust, whereas you can adjust all three or four legs with most models. Fortunately, we found this did not impact setup or viewing.

Due to its size, the 5050UB is not a model we would choose to move. While it's not heavy, the nearly 2ft by 18in footprint is not exactly portable, and we'd only choose this projector for a fixed location. The 5050UB does come with a variety of input ports that should meet any of your projection needs and has full adjustment capabilities from either the remote or on-unit buttons.

Brightness

Projector brightness output determines the impact on an image due to ambient light. For most home use, where the rooms are likely dark, a maximum brightness output is not as important as in an office setting.

The Epson Home Cinema 5050 has a stated brightness of 2600 lumens; however during our testing, we measured a brightness of 1732 lumens on average. While this is a significant drop from the expected output, we found that it didn't greatly impact the projector's viewability of pictures and movies.

Fan Noise

Projectors create a lot of heat, and despite the large size of the Epson 5050UB, it sheds that heat secretly with a quiet fan. Most projectors tend to have a higher whining pitch to the fan and ebb and rev with intensity, but not so with the 5050. It has a consistent low hum that is not distracting and can be barely registered over other sounds.

Should You Buy the Epson Home Cinema 5050UB 4K PRO-UHD?

The Epson Home Cinema 5050UB 4K PRO-UHD is a knockout of a projector that led the pack in most of our tests; however, it comes with a price tag significantly greater than the competition. If you are crazy about colors and want a truly high-end projector right out of the box no matter the cost, then this is likely to fit the bill. If you plan on a stationary home theater for your cinematic favorites, then the Epson 5050UB could be a great model for you.

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