Epson EpiqVision LS500

Ultra Short Throw Laser Home Theater Projector w/ 4K Source Compatibility

Item #EPSON:LS500ATVEP
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Epson EpiqVision LS500

Ultra Short Throw Laser Home Theater Projector w/ 4K Source Compatibility

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Overview

First, there was Television. Now there’s EpiqVision.

Whether you’re watching a live sporting event, streaming your favorite series, gaming on the latest generation of consoles, or simply watching a blockbuster movie — an Epson EpiqVision™ Laser Projection TV will simply amaze you.

Features:

  • 100” or 120" Epson SilverFlex Ultra ALR Screen
  • LS500 Ultra Short Throw Laser Projector
  • 4K PRO-UHD2 10-Bit HDR Color Processing
  • 4,000 Lumens
  • Up to 2,000,000:1 Dynamic Contrast Ratio
  • Native 60 Hz Refresh Rate
  • 16.7ms Input Lag
  • Dual 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0 / HDCP 2.2 Ports
  • 2-Year Limited Warranty

High Notes

Replace Your 4K TV

The LS500 is a front-facing ultra-short-throw (UST) laser projector designed to replace your TV with a huge 100-inch or 120-inch HDR 4K picture. Even in rooms with lots of sunlight, you get an exceptionally bright, colorful, and sharp 4K image.

Great For Gaming

Low input lag — under 17 milliseconds for high-speed 4K resolution at 60fps — crucial for so you have a leg up on the competition.

Brightest UST Laser. Ever.

Boasts a maximum brightness of 4,000 lumens — the brightest UST projector available by far — with 20,000 hours of life expectancy. You could run this 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 10 years before you would have to worry about any sort of issues.

Company & Product Overview

EPSON has been developing cutting-edge technologies for the world of high-performance audio and video from their Nagano, Japan headquarters since 1942. 

The company has created everything from the world's first hand-held computer to the world’s smallest television that was small enough to wear on your wrist like a watch. Today, EPSON continues to exceed our expectations through professional imaging and projection products that deliver exceptional value and world-class designs.

The EPSON EpiqVision Ultra LS500 Laser Projection TV is no exception. The LS500 is a front-facing ultra-short-throw (UST) laser projector designed to replace your TV with a huge 100-inch or 120-inch HDR 4K picture.

As a laser projector and projection screen solution, the LS500 system combines a new type of Ultra Short Throw Laser-Array Projection technology with an immersive Ambient Light Rejecting screen. Together, the system is capable of producing vivid colors and deep blacks. Even in rooms where there is a lot of ambient light, you get an exceptionally bright, colorful, and sharp 4K image.

To make this level of immersion possible, there are two important ingredients:

  1. A powerful laser light engine that will project a bright HDR 4K image — and never requires lamp replacements.

  2. A specially-made ambient light-rejecting screen (intended only for ultra-short-throw projectors), which allows the image to look as good as a TV.

With a fairly minimal setup process, you can turn your family room into an immersive movie theater. There’s even a special high-performance gaming mode on board that will lower the input lag and optimizes the projector’s fast refresh rate, so you have a leg up on the competition.

Black and white Epson LS500 projectors on white background

Packaging, Design & Build Quality

When purchased as a bundle, EPSON gives you an advanced 4K ultra-short-throw laser projector with dual 10 Watt Front-firing speakers built-in, and an ambient-light-rejecting display with your choice of a 100” or 120” screen. The LS500 is designed to sit on a tabletop, and to be easy to install — you just place the projector close to the wall and beam a stunning image on the screen included with the bundle.

The EPSON Ultra-Short-Throw Design

The EPSON LS500 has a pretty novel design compared to the other Ultra-Short-Throw (UST) projectors. Most home theater UST projectors have a recessed lens beneath the top of the unit.

Uncommon for the UST category, the LS500 utilizes a periscope-style lens with a larger lens which trickles down from the tech in EPSON’s top-of-the-line commercial projectors. The benefits of a periscope-style lens are significant. 

The LS500’s larger lens does a much better job keeping the image focused across a wider screen area than we’ve seen on any other UST projector available for this price point. This is where most USTs fall short as they tend to stretch out the image and have trouble maintaining sharpness in the corners of the image.

The LS500 is fairly light, weighing just 20.5 lbs. It stands 9-inches tall with the feet attached, and a little over 8-inches tall without the feet. The projector spans 18-inches wide and almost 15-inches deep.

Available in either a white or black color option, the LS500 UST Laser Projector will look great sitting on top of a console or on a low-profile tabletop. Based on the screen size, you might have to move your cabinet a bit off the wall as with the 120” screen, the front of the projector will be about 35” off the wall.

Front view of EPSON LS500 UST projector

Bundled EpiqVision Projector Screen

The projection screen EPSON bundles with the LS500 is a special ambient light-rejecting screen designed specifically for ultra-short-throw projectors. The screen features a thin-bezel design, and a dark gray surface, which looks similar to a modern flat-panel TV. But, unlike a modern OLED flat-panel TV, the EpiqVision screen is layered with a sawtooth light-accelerating optical pattern that is designed to reject ambient light hitting its surface and this focuses the picture towards the viewing area.

Not only does this design reduce wash out from ambient light, but the screen’s dark surface also produces an image with excellent contrast in brightly lit rooms, so you always get a beautiful picture with great off-axis viewing. Because of the brightness that EPSON projectors are known for, you do not need to have a light-controlled room for the best picture with this screen. Similar to the best LED TVs, you could put the LS500 and the screen in any room in your home, including a well-lit living room without needing to draw the curtains or dim the lights. Very cool!

There are two optional screen sizes to pair with the LS500 Projector. For less than $5,000, there’s an option for a 100-inch display for a super-wide 16:9 image (108-inches wide x 58-inches tall) — but if you have the wall real estate, you can step it up to the 120-inch display for $1,000 more, and get a larger 16:9 picture (about 105.5-inches wide x 60-inches tall). If you need help deciding on the right screen size, you can use our free home theater design tool to figure out which size is best for your room.

EPSON LS500 UST projector with the included EpicVision display.

A Complete Package

When you take everything out of the box, you will notice pretty much everything needed to get up and running is included. In the box, there is a power cord, a compact remote control for the projector, an Android TV dongle with its own separate remote control, an HDMI cable, a USB cable, a Quick Start Guide, the bundled screen with all the wall mounting hardware, and the included feet that attach to the bottom of the projector. While setting all this up might take a couple of hours, it takes far less time than installing a ceiling mount front projection system and screen.

Connections

The front facade of the projector features a cool-looking cloth grille that will magnetically detach to reveal the front panel. When the grille is removed, there is convenient access to various controls, including a lever that will let you manually adjust the focus. There’s also a USB Type-A port and an HDMI input which both work with the Android TV dongle that’s included.

The rest of the inputs and outputs are on the back of the projector and this is the side that also faces the screen. From the rear panel, there is a power connection, an ethernet port, (1x) HDMI input and (1x) HDMI ARC output, a USB Type-B port for servicing the unit, and another USB Type-A port that will accept a USB storage device. Below that, there is an analog input that will accept a 3.5mm stereo-miniplug — and, finally, an RS-232C connection for home automation control systems.

Epson Epiqvision Ultra LS500 Laser Projection TV Connection Options

Features and Technology

EPSON’s Ultra Short Throw Lens

Sitting at just a short distance from the wall, the EPSON Ultra Short Throw Lens utilizes a proprietary multi-element Precision Glass Structure to produce a high-resolution 4K image with clarity and edge-to-edge uniformity — for an incredibly immersive viewing experience that is four times larger than a 60-inch TV.

close up shot of the EPSON LS500 UST laser lens

The Brightest UST Laser Light Engine. Ever.

The LS500 uses a laser diode light source that has a life expectancy of 20,000 hours. To put this in perspective, you could run this projector for eight hours a day, five days a week for ten years before you would have to worry about any sort of issues. The LS500 also boasts a maximum brightness of 4,000 lumens — the brightest UST projector available by far. To help you get the best performance from this powerful laser light source, the LS500 comes pre-configured with four picture modes that are designed for different applications. With four viewing modes to choose from, there is sure to be one that is perfect for your room or you can easily switch modes during the day or at night.

Four Great-looking Picture Modes

  • Dynamic Mode — the LS500 laser light source retains its maximum brightness of 4,000 lumens. This would be used when you have extreme amounts of light in your room.

  • Bright Cinema Mode — 2,500 lumens. An ideal choice when you want a cinematic picture, but need the additional brightness for certain HDR content. Also, useful in environments with more ambient light.

  • Regular Cinema Mode — dimmer than the bright cinema mode. Ideal for rooms where less ambient light is entering the room.

  • Game Mode — increases the brightness, making the LS500 one of the brightest we have ever seen coming from an ultra-short-throw projector for gaming.

Finally, a manual Light Output control is on board so you can tame the laser's considerable firepower for your viewing conditions or to taste.

EPSON LS500 UST Laser projector projecting a movie in a well lit living room.

True 3-LCD Chipset

The LS500 utilizes a three LCD projector chipset (one for each primary color), while most USTs use a DLP-based chipset. This is the same type of tech Epson uses in all of their award-winning home theater front projectors — and this trio of 1080p LCD imagers trickles down from EPSON’s most expensive commercial projectors. One of the advantages of having a three LCD chipset in a UST versus DLP is that there is no color wheel and this means you will not have to endure the dreaded rainbow effect with this UST projector.

Compared to DLP-based projectors, the 3LCD configuration also means the LS500 stands out in its price category by giving you great white balance, brightness, and contrast. Even though some UST DLP projectors claim high immunity to rainbows, the lack of a sequential color wheel means rainbow artifacts are not an issue with the LS500. EPSON’s advanced 3LCD technology gives you outstanding color accuracy — capable of displaying the Rec.709 color gamut.

EPSON’s 4K PRO-UHD Enhancement

To give you a sharp, natural 4K picture, EPSON precisely controls the three high-definition LCD chips to double the number of on-screen pixels per frame using an advanced pixel-shifting and imaging process called 4K PRO-UHD Enhancement.

The tech trickles down from EPSON’s most expensive projectors and shifts each pixel to double the full HD resolution on the screen. While the resolution enhancement isn’t based on native 4K imaging chips as found in much more expensive projectors — costing upwards of $10,000 and higher — the difference is almost impossible to detect at normal viewing distances for considerably less money. The result is an Ultra-Short-Throw projector capable of a sharp 4K image with brighter colors that pop off the screen and look awesome even in a well-lit room.

 EPSON LS500 4K UST laser projector projecting a 4K image in a bright room.

HDR Tone Mapping

The LS500 also inherits EPSON's excellent tone-mapping and 16-step Real-Time HDR Curve Adjustment control, which lets you tune the HDR tone mapping to taste for individual movies. This tech trickles down from EPSON’s top-of-the-line EPSON Home Cinema 6050UB 4K PRO-UHD Projector. There’s also a memory function so you can store up to 10 different settings, and these can be used to save any specific picture mode and settings combination for just about any scenario you want.

3D Compatibility

With the LS500, you can experience Full 1080p HD in 3D using Active 3D Glasses! The projector automatically detects HDR or 3D content and then overlays the HDR Brightness and 3D settings menu on whatever content and viewing mode you're in. The 3D menu includes a Brightness setting and a 3D Depth control that you can adjust to taste and content. You will need to purchase active 3D glasses as they are not included.

Graphic art showing all of the EPSON LS500 UST Laser projector's Android Smart Media features.

Android OS Smart Media Player

As you might expect, the LS500 supports HDR content with just about all of the most popular streaming platforms. The external Android OS media player comes with its own USB stick and a remote preloaded with YouTube, Netflix, and Google Play Apps. There’s also voice search with the remote's built-in Google Assistant and Chromecast, so you can quickly cast photos, videos, and music from a computer to the big screen. However, we see most people connecting up their Roku, Apple TV, or Amazon Firestick instead of using the Android OS media player.

Low Input Lag — Great for Gaming

Another key feature of the LS500 compared to other USTs in a similar price category is the low input lag — under 17 milliseconds for high-speed 4K resolution at 60fps! Most DLP-based USTs available have an input lag several times higher at around 50 plus milliseconds. For anyone into high-performance video gaming, this is a crucial feature — especially with competitive first-person shooters where you need to be able to quickly anticipate and react to the other players’ next moves.

Epson LS500 Short Throw Projector in Living Room for gaming

Performance

Setting it Up

Everything — from setting up the LS500 projector to the assembly, the hanging, and the alignment of the EpiqVision screen took us a couple of hours between two people helping. If you do not mind a little bit of DIY work in this setup, our Tips & Tricks video will also guide you so you get up and running in no time at all.

When EPSON shipped the LS500 to Audio Advice for testing, they included the 100-inch screen for us to demo. The LS500 has a throw ratio of 0.29:1 to project a 100-inch image size. This is a slightly longer throw than some other 4K UST projectors on the market, so you will have to place this a bit further from your wall. For the 100-inch screen size, the back of the projector will be 17” from the wall and 35” off the wall for the 120-inch screen.

Once we got everything set up, powering up the EPSON LS500 took about 30 seconds to boot up, and about 5 seconds to wake from standby mode. While the EPSON LS500 does come with the integrated dual 10-watt speakers built-in, we highly recommend connecting this up to an external sound source such as a high-performance soundbar for the best audio experience.

EPSON LS500 UST 4K Projector projecting a 4K picture onto the EpicVison display in a bright room.

If you are considering the LS500 for gaming, you will definitely want to check out our other video on the Best Soundbars for Gaming.

Getting the image perfectly aligned with the EpiqVision screen was the next step and the EPSON LS500 made this process extremely easy. Most living room UST projectors suffer some loss of focus (or “blurriness”) in the top left and right corners due to the steep attack angles and their smaller recessed lens. Since the focal point of the image is almost always on the action happening in the center, you might not even notice the blurred edges on most 16:9 content — but when there is detail to see in those corners, such as the alphanumeric graphics scrolling across the screen during a big game, it becomes more apparent.

To eliminate this problem, the LS500 has an advanced digital masking feature EPSON calls Precise Digital Blanking Technology, so you get a perfect edge-to-edge image. This allowed us to control the image on all four sides of the screen so that it was precisely aligned to the display’s thin bezel frame. The big key in setup is getting the projector perfectly square to the screen and the exact distance away, then fine-tune everything.

close up of the EPSON LS500 4K UST Laser Projector remote control.

Bright Room Test

We spent many hours with the lights on, watching the news, sports, prime-time shows, and of course HDR movies on Netflix, Hulu, and HBOmax.

As we mentioned earlier in this review, the LS500 has a maximum brightness of 4,000 lumens — making it by far the brightest UST we have tested here at Audio Advice. That powerful laser light source is one of the reasons behind the LS500’s ability to work so well in bright rooms. So, we turned on all our lights in the room — including those above, to the side, and in front of the screen — just to see how far we could push this EPSON projector and screen combination.

Even in our bright light room test where a lot of natural sunlight shined through the windows, and overhead lights beamed down from the ceiling, colors remained vibrant and the image was never washed out.HDR content popped off the EpiqVision screen.

Whenever we wanted a cinematic picture but needed the additional brightness for HDR content, Bright Cinema mode, which is the projector's second brightest mode at 2,500 lumens, was the ideal choice. This mode was a perfect happy medium between the high contrast ratio and deep blacks EPSON is famous for while still maintaining bright whites with accurate colors. In an environment where you have a higher degree of ambient light such as the room used in our stress test, the color accuracy, contrast, and brightness popping off of HDR movies was just awesome to watch on the big screen.

EPSON LS500 4K UST Projector projecting a 4K picture in a dark room.

If you want to experience how immersive a 100-120-inch 4K picture really is, you have to check Season 2, Chapter 9 of The Mandalorian on Disney+. The sheer enormity of the 100-inch EpiqVision screen in our living room was exhilarating. The EPSON LS500 is the movie theater experience for your living room — but to fully kick back and relax into it (as opposed to sports viewing), we recommend dimming the lights almost completely and using the Regular Cinema Mode. Serious movie watching is generally a nighttime activity anyway.

Overall, we were impressed with the LS500 and the EpiqVision screen’s ability to project a vibrant 4K picture in our bright lights stress test. We never felt the need to fully dim all of the lights except only when we were intentionally immersing ourselves in a movie. Whenever we wanted to watch in complete darkness, Regular Cinema Mode was our preferred choice. Playing video games on the big screen, and watching movies from the comfort of home was just so much fun!

Epson LS500 in living room projecting football game

Overall Recommendation

In the business of high-end 4K TVs, screen real estate is typically sold at a premium. As you get into larger and larger screen sizes, the prices start to immediately jump up. The best 4K TVs above 65-inches can climb to almost $8,000 — and even then — you are still not getting a 4K picture that is as large or as immersive as what you can get from a good projector and screen pairing.

A front projection home theater is a great choice to give you that fully immersive experience, but not everyone has a room they can dedicate to a front projector and give it the controlled lighting they need for the best viewing experience.

As a day-to-day television replacement, we think the LS500 Ultra-Short-Throw Laser Projector and the specially designed EpiqVision screen are an incredible pairing and bundle for the money. If you have a room with a lot of sunlight, the LS500 offers the kind of performance we have come to expect from the best modern TVs and will thrive in moderate-to-high ambient light settings. TV shows, HDR movies, and high-performance video games really come alive on the big screen and it’s just so much fun once you experience it.

The LS500 4K Ultra-Short-Throw Laser Projection TV gives that movie projector experience EPSON is famous for less than $6,000 or $5,000 when you bundle the projector screen.

At Audio Advice, we've been designing and installing high-performance home theaters & smart home systems for our customers in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, and surrounding areas for decades. In fact, we've delivered more custom theaters than anyone in the Southeast! We are now offering Home Theater Design no matter where you live in the United States! If you are interested in a custom home theater or upgrading your current system, feel free to email us, give us a call, chat with us on our website, or drop by one of our world-class showrooms. We can't wait to help you build your ultimate home theater!

Details & Specs

Epson SilverFlex™ Ultra ALR Screen

Display Technology -

  • 4K Compatible Ambient Light Rejecting (ALR) screen with Optical Layering Technology
  • Thin bezel design
  • Screen color is black when no image is being projected

Aspect Ratio - 16:9

Viewing Performance - 170-degree viewing angle 0.6 Gain

Overall Dimensions & Weight -

  • 100-Inch Screen
  • 105.4" x 59.7" x 1.2" (W x H x D)

Epson LS500 Ultra Short Throw Laser Array Projector

Case Color - White or Black

Dynamic Contrast Ratio - Up to 2,000,000:1

Projection Technology -

  • Ultra Short Throw Laser Array
  • True Laser Diode with 20,000 hours of life

Native Refresh Rate - 60 Hz

Maximum Projected Screen Size - 130-Inch at 16:9 (130-Inch can be achieved with various third-party screens.)

Maximum Color Gamut - Rec. 709

Resolution -

  • 4K PRO-UHD2
  • Real-time 12-bit video processing

Input Lag -

  • About 16.7 milliseconds (when running 4K at 60 Hz)
  • Ideal for fast-paced 60 fps console gaming

Brightness (White & Color) - 4,000 Lumens

Noise Level - Up to 37 dB (There is a fan noise present while viewing, but at a normal viewing distance, the fan noise is minor.)

HDR -

  • Full 10-Bit HDR processing with 16 step adjustments
  • HLG supported

Main Connectivity -

  • 18 Gbps HDMI 2.0 x 3
  • One HDMI port is ARC compatible
  • All HDMI ports are HDCP 2.2 compatible

Projector Mounting Options -

  • The Projector sits in‑front of the screen, centered and just below the bottom of the screen.
  • No ceiling or in‑wall wiring required.
  • Please note, you need up to 35" from the wall to project the picture. Ensure your install location has the appropriate space and furniture before ordering.

Audio Built-in - Dual 10 watt speakers. External audio system recommended.

Dimensions - 18" x 8.9" x 17.8" (W x H x D)

Optional Connectivity- 

  • Mini Stereo Audio Out x 1
  • RJ45 Ethernet x 1 (for remote management systems)
  • RS232C x 1 (for various control solutions)
  • USB Type-A x 1 (for power only; 5V, 2A)
  • USB Type-A x 1 (for optional wireless LAN dongle)
  • USB Mini Type B x 1 (for service and firmware updates)
  • Base Projected Image Control -
  • Manual Focus Adjustment
  • Blanking (Top, Bottom, Left, Right)
  • Four Corner Keystone Correction
  • Gamma Correction
  • White Balance Correction
  • Pixel Alignment Adjustment

3D Compatible - Full 3D compatible using Active 3D Glasses. Active 3D Glasses sold separately.

Power Up Times -

  • 30 seconds from Off
  • 5 seconds from Stand‑By
More Information
Warranty 2-Year Limited
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