The Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector is a mid-range media projector focused on image quality and the overall media experience, unlike business-oriented Epson projectors. Its feature set is standard fare for its price point; you’re looking at a decently bright 1080p projector with decent contrast and decent quality, alongside 3D blu ray support. It’s one of the best 3D projectors in its price bracket, delivering a solid media experience all around. Thanks to its ceiling-mounted design, it’s also one of the best ceiling-mounted projectors for home cinema use.
Why We Like It – Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector
The Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector is a solid mid-range home theater projector with good picture quality, quiet fan noise, and a decent–if unexceptional–price point.
- Good image quality
- Decent brightness
- Good adjustability
- Mediocre lamp life
Performance/Resolution Etc.
Image quality is solid on the Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector. The colors are bright and vibrant, with good contrast in dimly lit rooms. There’s not much else to say; input lag sits at around 28ms, which is mediocre but not intolerable for gaming, and the unit’s resolution is fine for media consumption. That said, if 1080p isn’t high enough for you, the BenQ TK800 4K, LG HU80KA 4K UHD, or Acer H7850 are solid alternatives, albeit at a higher price. Thanks to its 3LCD technology, the rainbow effect isn’t an issue at all, which makes its image quality good even for users sensitive to it; this makes it a solid alternative to the Optoma HD142X, which suffers from the rainbow effect. Epson claims the in-built speakers provide “lifelike sound”, but the inbuilt speakers aren’t all that great; they’re fine as far integrated speakers go, but you’ll get much better results with dedicated speakers. This is the same speaker issue you’ll find with the Optoma HD29Darbee 1080p projector. If you want a 1280×720 resolution, check out the TMY V08 720p Native Projector.
Brightness/Lumens
At 3,000 lumens, there’s not too much to complain about. You’ll get a great experience in dark or dimly lit rooms, while its performance will fall off in brighter ambient lighting. It’s not especially great for outdoor viewing as a result, but it’s not especially meant for outdoor use; it’s a bright cinema projector, not a business or outdoors projector. It gets significantly brighter than its lower-end cousins, the Epson Home Cinema 2040 3D 1080p LCD Projector and the Epson Home Cinema 2150 Wireless 1080p projector; which sit below 2,500 lumens. If you need something a bit brighter, the ViewSonic PX747 sits at 3,500 lumens, but it’s more expensive.
Adjustability/Viewing Angle
With horizontal lens shift plus keystone correction, adjustability on the Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector is solid, much like its cousin the Epson Home Cinema 3700. It further features up to 1.6x digital zoom, and its rated screen size ranges from 40” to 180”; 180” isn’t especially recommended at 1080p, but it’ll do it. Inputs are standard for the price, with 2x HDMI ports, a USB port for direct media playback, VGA in (for some reason), and audio out.
Durability
Durability is a bit lacking on the Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector. Epson trades image quality for durability here, opting for 3LCD technology over laser technology; the end result is a projector with very middling lamp life, sitting at 5,000 hours in an absolute best-case scenario in which eco mode is employed and the brightness is kept down. For casual movie viewing, this won’t present an issue at all, but if you intend on using it as your main screen, it may fail sooner than you’d like it to.
Value
Unlike the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5040UB, the Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector’s value is a bit lacking, but it doesn’t make it a poor product, nor does it make it a poor buy. You can get 1080p projectors with similar features for less money, like the BIGASUO projector, but they all have various drawbacks over Epson’s offering, be it worse contrast, lower brightness, or standard DLP technology that makes the projector subject to the rainbow effect. If you’re dead set on value and nothing else, the Vankyo Performance V600 comes in at a fraction of the price and offers the same 1080p resolution, but it’s a much worse product overall.
Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector Wrap-up
Overall, the Epson Home Cinema 3700 Full HD 1080p 3LCD Projector is a very compelling offering. It’s not the best value on the market, and it’s not the best in any single aspect, but it offers a consistently good package that doesn’t fail in any major area. It’s a very solid mid-range offering that gives a taste of the high-end without making you pay high-end prices, and on that merit alone, it’s a solid buy. Penny-pinchers will want to look elsewhere, but if you’re willing to forgo raw value above all else, it’s worth the price of admission for its consistently good performance in all major areas.
