Verdict

Pros

• Excellent colour performance out of the box
• Runs quietly in eco lamp mode
• Crisp, detailed images

Cons

• Black levels only average
• Noisy auto iris in Normal Lamp mode
• No included 3D glasses or vertical image shifting

What is the Epson EH-TW5910?

The EH-TW5910 is another member of the growing and increasingly respectable sub-£1000 projector family, costing just £830 for an LCD-based, home cinema (as opposed to business) model complete with built-in 3D playback, a high claimed maximum brightness output of 2100 Lumens, and a very promising claimed contrast ratio of 20,000:1.

Epson TW5910 – Design

People who measure value by quantity will be pleased to hear, too, that your £830 gets you a fair chunk of hardware. The TW5910’s squat, matt white chassis is both wider and deeper than the bodywork usually wrapped around budget projectors, raising hopes of both a potent optical engine and enough venting room within the projector and through the two large grilles mounted either side of the central lens to keep cooling fan noise low.

The projector’s rear edge possesses a healthy suite of connections, including two HDMIs, a component video input, a PC port and an RS232 control port. The HDMIs are built to the 3D-friendly v1.4 spec, and the 3D sync transmitter is built tidily into the projector’s main bodywork. Sadly, however, the projector’s 3D support doesn’t extend to the provision of any 3D glasses – an omission made more unfortunate by the fact that Epson’s ELPG503 active shutter 3D glasses are more expensive than most, at round £75 a pair.

Epson TW5910 – Remote

One thing you do get with the TW5910, though, is a huge remote control. At first glance this feels rather dated and/or as if it should belong to a much high-level projector than the Epsom TW5910. The more you use it, though, the more attractive its heft, spacious layout and larger-than-usual backlit buttons start to feel. After all, in a dark cinema room, a sensible layout and large buttons are always going to be your friends.

Setting the TW5910 up is straightforward. Its lens offers a pleasing amount of optical zoom accessed via a simple and tactile rotating adjustor accessible through a panel cut above the projector barrel, and the projector carries strong front-mounted legs for angling the image up if you need to.

Epson TW5910 – Set Up

There’s also one of Epson’s clever little ‘sliding bar’ keystone adjustors to help you get the sides of your image straight, as well as automatic keystone correction processing able to cope with positioning to the side of as well as above or below your screen.

The only snag here is that keystone correction of any sort is far from ideal, as it’s essentially a distortion of the image that detracts from the ideal ‘pixel for pixel’ rendering you’re looking for from a full HD projector like the TW5910.

With this in mind, it’s a shame that the TW5910 doesn’t carry any optical vertical image shifting that might have helped you avoid keystone correction. However, to be fair vertical image shifting only tends to kick in as a feature on projectors above the £1000 level. In fact, you don’t even get it on Epson’s £300 more expensive TW6100 step-up model.