Photos: We project a riot with Epson's DM2, TW420 and TW5000

By Rich Trenholm on 29 August 2008, 12:01am

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Home-cinema projectors: we all want one, but they're a bit scary -- especially if like us you feel that nailing expensive electronics to the ceiling is probably best left to people with certificates in nailing things to ceilings. Fortunately, Epson has unveiled a range of six new shiny-lighty-movie-boxes designed to take projectors into the living room of families, batchelors and maybe even you and your mates. The EH-DM2 is a portable player for the whole family, while the EH-TW420 is a batchelor's model for gaming and marathon sessions with box sets of The Wire, and the EH-TW5000 is the daddy of the line. The EH-TW3000 and EH-TW3800 slot into the line below the EH-5000.

Epson unveiled the former three models at its factory in Shenzhen, China, where every single projector produced is played for two hours to test the lamp. Each home-cinema projector is powered by an E-TORL lamp, which Epson claims saves power by burning brighter at a lower wattage. Eventually all Epson projectors, including business models, will use this technology, which has an estimated life of 4,000 hours or so -- enough for roughly five or six years of use. Each and every model also comes with a three-year warranty as standard.

Let's kick things offf with the family-friendly EH-DM2. Epson is plugging the family aspect, emphasising the ease of installation of this model. It's plug-and-play, with just one cable, and a built-in DVD player for minimum faffing about out of the box. Sound is dealt with by two built-in 8W stereo speakers. It's also portable, coming with a spiffy carry case and a handy handle, and the remote control is luminous.

That DVD player comes with DivX support. The projector is high definition-compatible at native 720p resolution. It gives 16:9 aspect ratio, and packs 3LCD technology and a 1,200 ANSI lumens lamp.

The EH-DM2 will be available in September 2008 for around £500. For pictures and more on this and the other new models, click through the photos. -Rich Trenholm