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It's tempting to think of the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5010e ($3,000 street) as a bigger, better version of the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 3010e ($1,799 direct, 4 stars), that I reviewed earlier this year, with a slightly higher brightness rating, at 2,400 lumens, and more convenience feature, including lens shift (the ability to adjust image position by shifting the lens instead of moving the projector). However, unlike the Epson 3010e SEE IT, the 5010e  is clearly designed for home theater, rather than home entertainment, and it delivers a better-looking image. It's also a shoo-in as Editors' Choice.

Although the Epson 3010e and 5010e are distant cousins at best, they share some basic features. Both are built around LCD engines with 1080p native resolution, which means both are guaranteed to be free of the rainbow artifacts that can be a problem with DLP projectors. Both also offer full 3D support, along with 2D of course, so you can connect them directly to HDMI 1.4a devices like 3D Blu-ray players to watch 3D. The 5010e, however, adds a real-time 2D to 3D conversion feature, so you can watch 2D material in 3D as well.

One other issue both have in common is that each is one of two nearly identical models that differ only in whether they offer WirelessHD (for a wireless connection to an HDMI source). The 5010e, like the Epson 3010e, includes support for the feature, and it comes with a WirelessHD transmitter to plug into an image source. Its near twin, the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5010 ($2,700 street) doesn't support WirelessHD at all. Beyond that, the two models are identical according to Epson, which means that most of the comments in this review apply to the 5010 as well.

Setup

Setup is a lot easier with the 5010e than with most projectors. The 2.1x zoom gives you plenty of flexibility in how far you can put it from the screen for a given size image, while the vertical and horizontal lens shift gives you significant flexibility in both horizontal and vertical placement relative to the screen. I measured the horizontal lens shift at roughly a half-screen width in either direction from the center position. The vertical lens shift came out to almost a full screen up or down from the center position.

Aside from the extra convenience of the more than usual zoom and lens shift, setup is standard fare, with two HDMI connectors plus VGA, component, and composite video ports. In addition, if you use WirelessHD, you can connect from up to a claimed 32 feet away without wires. Simply connect the included WirelessHD transmitter to a video source by HDMI cable, set the projector to WirelessHD, and wait a moment while the transmitter and projector establish a connection.

One other potential setup issue if you have a large room is that you may want to add Epson's optional external 3D emitter ($79 direct) to ensure that 3D glasses stay in sync with the projector. In my tests, however, the glasses worked without problems with the built-in emitter.

Image Brightness

Epson rates the 5010e at 2,400 lumens, which is tremendously bright for a home theater. Even using Eco mode and the Cinema preset, which is the least bright choice, the projector is easily bright enough for a 115-inch diagonal (100-inch wide) 1.0 gain screen in theater dark lighting. It's also too bright for anything much less than 100 inches diagonally.

With this level of brightness, you can even use the projector in a room with plenty of ambient light. As a point of reference, in my tests with a 1.0 gain screen and the projector at its brightest, an 80-inch diagonal (70-inch wide) image was quite usable on a sunny day in a family room with skylights and windows.

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2D Image Quality

Despite one issue I ran into with our suite of DisplayMate tests, the 5010e earns an excellent score overall for 2D image quality. The problem showed up as a momentary, but repeating, apparent loss of horizontal sync on one image in the test suite. However, I didn't see any hint of this with any other image in the suite, or at any time with video.

Although this could conceivably show up on some random image in a movie, say, odds are you'll never see it happen. And even if you do see it, it's unlikely to show as more than a momentary glitch. With such low odds of it causing an actual problem, I don't consider it an issue for real world use.

Image quality is impressive in every other way. Color quality is good to excellent straight out of the box, without any tweaking, and contrast is excellent. Black levels are a deep black, aided by an auto-iris that reacts quickly enough so you can't see any yo-yo effect on screen as it adjusts for changes in image brightness. The projector also does an excellent job with shadow detail (details based on shading in dark areas). And because it's built around LCD technology, it doesn't suffer from rainbow artifacts, with light areas breaking up into little red-green-blue rainbows, which is always a potential issue for single-chip DLP projectors.

Also worth mention is the 5010e's frame interpolation, which does a good job smoothing out the judder inherent in filmed content. As with the equivalent features on other projectors, including the Sony VPL-HW30ES ($3,700 street, 4 stars) for example, turning the feature on can cause both artifacts and a digital video effect, making the image look like live video rather than filmed content. If you find either or both issues bothersome, however, you can compromise with the low setting for interpolation or turn the feature off entirely.

3D Quality and Other Issues

The 5010e's full support for HDMI 1.4a means you can watch 3D using a direct connection to a Blu-ray player, cable TV box, or equivalent source. The projector is also bright enough in 3D mode to give you a reasonably large image, particularly in theater-dark lighting. It can even give you an acceptably large image that can stand up to the ambient light in a typical family room.

The 3D viewing experience with the 5010e is one of the most comfortable for any 3D projector I've tested. In addition to offering all the same strengths as in 2D, the projector does well on issues that are specific to 3D. In particular, I didn't see any crosstalk. And although I'm not a fan of real-time 2D to 3D conversion, because it doesn't really add anything for my tastes, for those who want to use it, the 5010e's version works as well as any equivalent feature I've seen.

Two other issues that deserve mention are the lack of audio and lack of 3D glasses. Not having any audio system is typical for a home theater projector. The assumption is that for home theater you'll want to install a separate audio system that will blow away even the best integrated audio. Not coming with any 3D glasses is less standard. You'll generally need to buy glasses with any 3D projector, and you should add in the cost as part of the total when you compare prices, but many come with one or two pair. Epson's glasses are $99 (direct) each.

As should be obvious, the Epson PowerLite Home Cinema 5010e is an impressive projector for the price, with a bright, high quality image; a guaranteed lack of rainbow artifacts; and any number of useful conveniences, from zoom and lens shift for easy setup, to features like the auto-iris, frame interpolation, and 2D to 3D conversion. The balance of features, and particularly the high level of both 2D and 3D image quality, make it a standout by any definition, and also make it an easy pick as Editors' Choice for 3D home theater projector.

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