Posted on August 1, 2016 By Art Feierman
Epson’s new G series flagship, the G7905U, accepts 4K content, uses pixel shifting to enhance 2K and 4K sharpness. It has 7000 lumens – both color and white, a commercial projector loaded with features. The $6499 price includes the standard, motorized zoom lens.
The G7905UNL (NL = No Lens), is $6199. More on the optional lenses later.
Certainly the stand out feature of the 3LCD “powered” G7905 and other two new WUXGA (1920×1200) resolution projectors in Epson’s newest G series, is the use of pixel shifting.
For now, that really sets it apart from the competition, but look for more companies to adopt pixel shifting in the future, including DLP projectors since TI (Texas Instruments), the manufacturer of all the DLP chips, now has a chip set with pixel shifting. We should see some DLP pixel shifters before the end of 2016. Epson has one real advantage – which is having some prior experience with pixel shifting. Epson launched their first pixel shifting projector – their 2000 lumen, Pro Cinema L10000, early 2015. In other words, Epson has had 18 months to improve on their “first generation” technology, in any ways they thought beneficial.
I will discuss the advantages of pixel shifting in depth, but for the remainder of this page, let’s consider the “big picture” aspects of the Pro G7905U.
Motorized lens features allow for lens memory. This is a real plus for installations (or rental/staging) where from time to time content differs in aspect ratio. At the touch of a button, the image can be resized to best fit the size and shape of the screen being used. Extensive color and settings controls allow for full calibration if needed, although Epson does offer multiple picture modes with varying degrees of color accuracy, and purpose. Naturally we’ll discuss that in our Picture Quality section.
For a projector capable of 7000 white and color lumens, it’s sub 30 pound weight, makes it impressively light, although this is no small projector – it’s footprint is just under 21 inches by 17 inches. Still, it’s pretty small for such a high powered “wall melter.”
There’s a whole lot more. This G7905 projector supports HDBaseT for running HDMI over long distances, with CAT cable, (100 meters), and it’s HDMI itself is 2.0 and supports HDCP 2.2 – the latest copy protection, so is compatible with 4K UHD discs as well as other copy protected 2K and 4K content!
In many ways the G7905 is very similar to Epson’s new laser projectors – such as the Pro L1505U, which I recently reviewed. I discovered, for example, that the menus – the controls, on the G7905, when compared to the significantly more expensive laser models, are almost identical because the features are as well. From a price comparison, the Epson L1200U laser projector is $9999 list so half again more expensive.
Obviously there are differences when it comes to “lamp” type controls, and “eco” modes, and a couple of other features. But, for much of everything else, the menus are near identical.
There are some applications where a long life laser provides a lot of benefit, but for most situations (excluding edge blending, in particular), the Epson Pro G7905’s significantly lower up front costs will win the day for those organizations with relatively limited budgets. That may be doubly true when deploying a significant number of projectors. Of course, there is the relatively infrequent changing of lamps which adds to long term costs, but that’s a decision for each of you choosing between, a more affordable lamp projector compared to a pricier, but very similar laser.
Seriously, this list could go on for more than one page if we listed all the features, benefits, etc., so here are the major ones:
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