Home Cinema (4549)

The afforfable end of Epson's HD projectors

IFA 2009: Plenty of might in the mid range

4 September 2009 0:22 GMT / By Dan Sung

In Epson's more affordable segment of market, you can pick up either the TW2900, the TW3500 or the TW450 without busting the bank wide open. The former pair are Full HD models designed for all round home entertainment use but the tail-ender is all about gaming.

The TW2900 and TW3500 offer good 18,000:1 and 36,000:1 contrast ratios while keeping many of the features from the higher end models - the 3LCD technology, 10bit processing and 22dB projection at 1600 lumens. However, the drop in contrast reflects much more affordable £1099 and £1299 price tags when they hit the shelves in October.

For that, you get two HDMI 1.3 ports and up to a 300-inch screen size that promise to quite faithfully reproduce any Blu-ray or TV broadcast you'd care to throw at it.

If you're still short of pocket money, then the TW450 is an update of the TW420 from last year and costs just £649. It'll only go up to 720p resolution and offer 3000:1 contrast at 2500 lumens but it's better than a kick in the head. It might not be as sharp as a LCD for the same money but then you won't get that enormous screen size. The TW420 adds S-Video and RGB connections to the HDMI plus there's the bonus trinkets of a built-in speaker and carry case.