Epson Home Cinema 3700 Projector Review – Hardware Tour

Home Cinema 3700 Hardware Overview

Epson HC3700 Lens

The manual zoom lens has a 1.6:1 zoom ratio.  That, folks, is about as good as it gets in terms of sub-$2000 home projectors.  Most have less, with a lot of the sub-$1000 zoom lenses having far less range:  1.1:1 to 1.3:1.  There are a few projectors, mostly far more expensive Epson’s, Sony’s an JVC’s with 2.1:1 zooms, but other than those, don’t expect to find more than this Epson offers.

The lens has a healthy amount of lens shift, +/- 60% – very impressive, and also +/-24% horizontal.  That, along with the zoom lens, provides more placement flexibility than just about all competitors.  So, whether you are ceiling mounting, or just placing table top, you’ll have more options than with almost any other projector.  You can see the lens shift controls (dials) on the top just behind the lens.

Overall, the optics on the Home Cinema 3700 (and therefore also the HC3100 and HC3900, aren’t quite as good as the more expensive UB projectors (which start at $3000).  The noticeable difference is more blooming on these.  That’s very common on lower cost projectors.  You most easily notice this when you don’t care, such as white credits on a black background.  There you’ll notice that the white of the characters bleeds a bit into the immediately surrounding black. Edge to edge sharpness is good, but, again, as expected, hardly perfect.  If you focus the dead center perfectly, you’ll notice some softness to the sides, and more in the corners.  I recommend you focus the lens to maximize sharpness about 1/3 out from the center of the lens.  That will give you the most even focus and overall, the sharpest look.   Are these things something to worry about?  No, it is simply typical, but these are some  of those things that more expensive projectors typically improve upon.

Control Panel

The HC3700 serves up the typical Epson control panel which hasn’t changed much in the past decade.

On the top right in the image, you can see the two indicator lights.  Below, them is the power switch and a small led (to its left) to indicate power status.  Next over is the one relatively new button:  Home, which brings up an integrated home menu (see menus section).  Slightly to the right and above, is the Menu button and to it’s right Esc which moves you back upwards when navigating the menus.

The arrow keys are in a round formation, with the Enter button in the center.   The arrow keys take on different functions when not in the menu system.  The up and down arrows double for keystone correction, while the left and right ones are volume down and up.

HC3700 Inputs and Connectors

All inputs and connectors are on the back.  We’ll take a quick spin though them, starting at the top left.

There are two HDMI inputs,with HDMI 2 supporting MHL for mobile devices such as Roku sticks, MHL compatible smart phones, etc.  Further to the right is a small service port using a small USB connector, while a standard USB connector is to its right.

That USB port can, among other things, accept Epson’s $99 Wireless module for support of a local area network, such as Wi-Fi at home.

For working with mobile devices, the Epson offers their iProjection App (for iOS and Android.  For simplicity setup is assisted by using a QR code.

Keep going to the right, and you’ll find the rear IR sensor for the remote controls.