Pros & Cons
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- Exceptionally bright; viewable even with ambient light
- Laser-phosphor light source means no laser speckle
- Three-LCD chip design means no rainbow artifacts
- Notably short throw to give a larger image at any given distance from the screen
- HDR10 and HLG HDR support
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- No 3D support
- Manual (rather than powered) focus
Epson Lifestudio Grand Plus Ultra Short Throw Laser Projector LS970 Specs
| Dimensions (HWD) | 6.2 by 27.4 by 13.4 inches |
| Engine Type | LCD |
| Inputs and Interfaces | Bluetooth |
| Inputs and Interfaces | HDMI (ALLM) |
| Inputs and Interfaces | HDMI (ARC and eARC) |
| Inputs and Interfaces | USB 2.0 |
| Inputs and Interfaces | Wi-Fi |
| Maximum Resolution | 3840 by 2160 @ 120Hz |
| Native Resolution | 3,840 by 2,160 via pixel shifting, using Epson's 4K Display Technology |
| Rated Brightness | 4000 |
| Warranty | 2 |
| Weight | 27.6 |
The Epson Lifestudio Grand Plus ultra short throw projector (LS970, $3,799.99) is Epson's top ultra short throw (UST) model in its Lifestudio line. It's pricey, but it's also bright enough to easily stand up to ambient light in a family room. To be clear: We're talking about a 100-inch diagonal or larger picture that's comparable in brightness to a TV for daytime and nighttime viewing. That's exceptional. Among the UST models we've tested, only two are brighter (and also more expensive): the Epson QS100 and the Hisense L9Q—both top picks for a high-brightness UST model. The Lifestudio Grand Plus earns its place alongside them as an Editors' Choice pick for being guaranteed free of both rainbow artifacts (red/green/blue flashes) and laser speckle (two strengths it shares with QS100), plus being the least expensive in the group.
Design: 4K for Real
Epson's mature 4K PRO-UHD technology uses native 1,920-by-1,080-pixel LCD chips plus pixel shifting to put twice that number of pixels on screen. That's only half as many as in a 4K UHD image (3,840 by 2,160 pixels), but it's virtually indistinguishable from 4K—at least at normal viewing distances and for typical screen sizes found in home theaters—making it effectively equivalent to 4K. (As I've discussed in other reviews, this is largely because of the limits of human visual acuity combined with a high-quality lens and image processing.)
The Grand Plus has 1,920-by-1,080-pixel LCD chips, but its more advanced pixel shifting, which Epson calls 4K Display Technology, quadruples the final pixel count to a full 4K UHD set of pixels (as with typical 4K DLP models). Most people probably won't notice much of a difference—if any—in resolution compared with Epson's 4K-equivalent approach. But if you have a large enough image size, and either like to sit close to the screen or have better than 20/20 vision, you can see the improvement if you look for it.
(Credit: M. David Stone)In most ways, the Grand Plus is a straightforward upgrade over the Epson LS800, a previous Editors' Choice pick that's been discontinued but is still available as of this writing. The LS800 uses Epson's older 4K-equivalent resolution, but the two models have matching 4,000-ISO-lumen brightness ratings, laser-phosphor light sources rated at 20,000 hours at full power, and lenses rated for images up to 150 inches. They also share the same size and weight: 6.2 by 27.4 by 13.4 inches (HWD), and 27.6 pounds.
The Grand Plus and LS800 (along with the QS100) also share two key strengths. Their three-LCD chip design—one chip for each primary color—lets them display all three primary colors (red, green, and blue) at once, which eliminates any possibility of the rainbow artifacts that single-chip DLP projectors can show. Similarly, their laser-phosphor light engine can't show laser speckle, which can be an issue for tri-color laser sources.
(Credit: M. David Stone)Setup: Just Plug It In and Focus
Basic physical setup is easy: Just connect the power and data cables. However, getting the image in focus and at the precise right size and position for the screen is a touch harder than it should be, if you want the best possible image quality.
Epson offers built-in digital features that let you adjust image geometry and size reasonably easily, and you can also use the Epson Setting Assistant phone app to make the adjustment even easier. However, as with any projector, it's best to skip these digital shortcuts if you can. Using them will lower the picture brightness and can introduce artifacts in some images.
To get the best image quality and highest brightness, you'll need to fit the image to the screen strictly by adjusting the projector's position, which takes a little patience with any UST projector. Beyond that, you'll also need to adjust the focus, which for the Grand Plus means using a manual adjustment on its right side (if you're facing the screen). The tricky part is that to actually change the focus, you have to be within an arm's length of the projector, which makes it virtually impossible to judge focus across the whole screen at once. It's best to have a second person standing farther away to tell you when to stop. And my guess is that if you're left-handed, having to use your right hand for the control will make fine-tuning a bit of a challenge.
Setting up the built-in Google TV is standard fare, using Wi-Fi as the only connection choice. For other sources, connectors on the side panel (hidden behind a removable cover) include three HDMI ports and two USB Type-A ports—one for reading files from USB memory and one for powering a third-party dongle. (Note that the spec sheet shows three USB ports at this writing, but Epson confirmed there are only two.)
(Credit: M. David Stone)According to the Grand Plus' specs, the lens is designed to throw a 16:9 image at sizes ranging from 80 inches diagonally (with the front of the projector just 0.9 inch from the screen) to 150 inches (from 11.2 inches away). For my official viewing tests, I used the SilverFlex Ultra 100-Inch Ambient Light Rejecting Mega Screen, which we use for all UST TV replacements that don't come with a screen.
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(Credit: M. David Stone)As is fairly common with UST models, the Grand Plus takes advantage of its width to incorporate high-quality speakers—equivalent to a standalone soundbar— into the side facing the seating area. The 20-watt, Bose 2.1 stereo sound system—built around two full-range speakers and a woofer—delivers good enough audio quality and high enough volume that most people won't see any need to improve on it. If you want to add an external audio system, however, connection choices include Bluetooth, a 3.5mm stereo output, an S/PDIF optical output, and both ARC and eARC support on one HDMI port. You can also use the projector itself as a Bluetooth speaker for other audio sources.
Settings and Picture Quality: Bright Enough to Replace Your Family Room TV
The Grand Plus' menu lists four predefined picture modes. Each offers the same long list of settings, including a color management system suitable for a full calibration, if you want to pay someone to do it (or know how to do it yourself). However, the image quality with default settings is good enough that most people will likely be happy with it, either straight out of the box or after minimal tweaks at most.
The mode names remain the same when switching between SDR and HDR input, and note that HDR in this case includes both HDR10 and HLG HDR. However—at least for the settings I adjusted, and as confirmed by Epson—any changes you make for each kind of input are saved separately. So once you've adjusted the settings, they will change automatically when switching between SDR and HDR material. Note also that Epson says the projector recognizes HDR10+ as well, but treats it as HDR10, without supporting the additional HDR10+ features.
(Credit: M. David Stone)For my viewing tests, I chose Cinema mode for both SDR and HDR input. For SDR, I adjusted the brightness to the room's lighting and turned off frame interpolation. (Even the lowest setting introduces too much of a digital video effect for my taste, making filmed material look like live video.) For HDR material, I had to adjust brightness differently, and I left the frame interpolation on its lowest setting, which smoothed motion without adding the unwanted digital video effect. I also found that the overall image brightness was a little too low for HDR, even after setting brightness correctly. Changing Scene Adaptive Gamma from Low to Medium largely solved that issue.
For our standard SDR tests, the Grand Plus scored impressively well after my settings adjustments across every important aspect of picture quality, including color accuracy and saturation, black levels, sense of three-dimensionality, and shadow detail retention. It also handled HDR material well, but based on looking at both HDR and SDR disc versions of the same movie scenes, my impression is that color saturation was a touch lower for HDR. The difference is small enough that if you're not looking at the identical scenes in both movies, you're unlikely to notice it, but if you care about that sort of detail, you may want to consider paying for a professional calibration.
Note that the Grand Plus does not support 3D.
(Credit: M. David Stone)The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) recommends 4,000 lumens as bright enough to fill, in a dark room, a screen much larger than the 150-inch maximum the Grand Plus' lens is rated for. More important, the image brightness is similar to that of an LCD-based TV if you pair it with a 1.0-gain screen as large as 130 inches diagonally or a 1.3-gain screen as large as 150 inches. In short, it's bright enough to serve as a large-screen TV replacement in your family room, particularly if you choose an ambient light rejection (ALR) screen, as I'd recommend for any projector set up in a light-filled room. (In this case, you'll need to pick one designed for UST projectors, as discussed in How to Choose the Right Screen.) .
In my tests in a dark room, using the somewhat lower brightness Cinema mode, the Grand Plus was far too bright for comfortable viewing at the highest power setting to watch a 125-inch image on my 1.0-gain screen, much less the 100-inch image on the Epson ALR screen. For both screens, I had to drop the power to its lowest setting. In my family room, using a 1.5-gain ALR screen, it delivered an impressively bright image that stood up nicely even on bright, sunny days.
(Credit: M. David Stone)Gaming Features: Low Input Lag and Console-Friendly ALLM
I measured the input lag with a Bodnar 4K Lag Tester at 28.4 milliseconds (ms) for both 1080p and 4K input at 60Hz, and at 20.6ms at 1080p/120Hz. (The Grand Plus supports 4K/120Hz, also, but the Bodnar device doesn't.) Serious gamers may insist on still shorter lag times, but even 28.4ms is short enough for most casual gaming. Note also that one of the HDMI ports supports Automatic Low Latency Mode (ALLM).
Final Thoughts
Epson Lifestudio Grand Plus
The Epson Lifestudio Grand Plus ultra short throw projector combines top-tier image quality with high enough brightness to deliver a big, bright image in a room awash with ambient light.