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Epson Home Cinema 3010 Projector – Physical Tour

Posted on October 18, 2011 By Art Feierman

Epson Home Cinema 3010 Projector - Appearance

Impressive! Rounded corners, center mounted lens, the Epson Home Cinema 3010 and the 3010e are finished in a shiny white, with gray trim on the two large front vents. I like the gray on the front, adds some style the way they did it, and won’t reflect as much light back to the screen as a white front. (Good thinking, for a white projector.) In other words, it blends in, in a typical family room, bonus room type environment, but has that one thing (darker front) going for it if you are dropping it into a home theater room.

Let’s take a quick spin around the Home Cinema 3010. Continuing with the front, the recessed manual zoom lens, as noted, is center mounted (easier math when mounting). There is also a front infra-red sensor for the remote control (and a second one in the back).

For those not mounting the projector, but, say, placing it on a table top, note that the venting in the front works this way: If you are facing the front of the projector, the intake vent is on your right. That makes the left side the exhaust vent. It blows air out to the right front. You don’t want to be sitting within 2-3 feet of the path of the hot air. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of other places to sit.

Underneath the 3010, are two screw thread adjustable front feet for your tabletop use convenience. There’s a single, wide, rubber rear foot in the back center, without adjustment. Since the Home Cinema 3010 has no lens shift, and 0 lens offset, if you put it on, say, a table the same height as the bottom of the screen, you’ll need to raise the rear slightly (or use lens shift). This can be a minor nuisance at times for folks setting up in different rooms.

Moving to the top of the Home Cinema 3010 just behind the lens, are the lens controls, recessed focus and zoom dials. Right behind them is a small slider, which controls keystone correction. (Thankfully, there’s a center notch, so you can tell where the “no lens shift” point is located).

The lamp cover curves from the left side (facing the projector) and is mostly on the top. This means that if you have mounted the Epson projector you won’t have to unmount to change the lamp. The long life, I should note, of at least 4000 hours, means you don’t have to worry about it for a long while.

Home Cinema 3010 Control Panel

Home Cinema 3010 Projector - Input/Output

All the HC3010’s inputs are centered on the back panel. To either side are the rear facing 10 watt speakers for hefty sound.

There are two HDMI 1.4a connectors, for full Blu-ray 3D compatibility. There’s a single IR sensor (bottom left), for the remote. There’s a 3D IR port, a USB connector (for running slideshows without computer), the usual composite video and stereo audio inputs, a component video input (3 color coded RCA connectors), and a standard HD15 analog computer input.

There’s also a Kensington lock slot, and the power receptacle. Also of minor note, there is a cable clip setup to help secure the HDMI connectors, which is handy, since those of you who have worked with HDMI, realize how flaky the connector is, the weight of the cable can bend it. Epson’s solution is a nice extra touch, that most projectors don’t offer.

Home Cinema 3010 Menus

Other than the addition of the various 3D controls, the menus of the Home Cinema 3010 and the “e” are very typical for Epson. Below I’ve dropped in screen shots of most of the main and sub-menus. I won’t attempt to mention more than a few things. If you want details about all the hundreds of menu choices, I recommend downloading the user manual.

Home Cinema 3010 Menus

Home Cinema 3010 Menus

Epson is loaded with User memories (which I do tend to use a lot).

It’s nice, for example, to be able to have four calibrated “best” modes, with the only differences, being combinations of having CFI on or off, and brightness on full or eco. I might even have another couple with slightly lower saturation for that content that is just “over the top”.

As it’s off the Advanced Image sub-menu. You are looking at the gamma controls. They work well and offer wonderful flexibility. I love to fiddle with the gamma.

Epson’s menus haven’t changed much but for the addition of lots of new features, over most of the last decade. I would say Epson’s layout is about as good as it gets. That’s not to say there aren’t four or five other brands with equally good, but different menu layouts. No complaints!

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