In the recent past home entertainment has meant a 60-75-inch large screen television. Bring it home and take it out of the box. Set it on the floor or hang it on the wall, plug it in, and all of your family and friends are impressed. But that’s not so true today. Why settle for a 60-75-inch image when you can purchase a home theater projector and get a 100-inch+ screen and spend less money on it? Epson makes two projectors that have 4K resolutions for a sharper image than a TV, will accept HDR input and have outstanding brightness. They are the Epson 3800 and the Epson 4010. Our pick between these two projectors is the Epson 4010 (>>> Check it’s pricing here on Amazon). Both have impressive features at very affordable prices. Let’s compare the Epson 3800 vs. Epson 4010 and see which one may be the best fit for your home theater needs.
Epson 3800 vs 4010 Specs:
| Epson 3800 | Epson 4010 | |
|---|---|---|
 |  |
|
| Resolution | 1920x1080 4K w/pixel shifting | 1920x1080 4K w/pixel shifting |
| Contrast Ratio | 100,000:1 | 200,000:1 |
| Brightness (Lumens) | 3000 ANSI | 2400 ANSI |
| Throw Distance | 6.2' - 28.8' | 6.2' - 29.4' |
| Screen size | 40”-300” | 30”-300” |
| Input lag | 16.7ms | 28ms |
| Price | Find on Amazon ProjectorScreen.com Bhphotovideo.com | Find on Amazon ProjectorScreen.com Bhphotovideo.com |
Important Features of Ultra High Definition Projectors
With TVs it’s all about resolution. With projectors it’s all about what you can do with them beyond watching a show or movie in high resolution. Sharper images with more detail and easy connectivity to gaming consoles and streaming devices are some of the big reasons why you should choose to own a UHD projector. But what features are important when choosing one projector over another?
Contrast – this is simply the brightness of the whites when compared to the blacks. Contrast is expressed as a ratio, for example 2000:1. This ratio would indicate that the white level is 2000 and the black level is 1. The more contrast, the more detailed the projected image will be.
Best Projector for Contrast: Epson 4010
Color Accuracy – brightness isn’t everything if it affects, or washes out, color. Good color accuracy is seeing on your screen what you would see by looking out your window. Reds should be red; greens should be green; and so on. Just as a great audio system produces better sound, a projector needs good color accuracy for better viewer enjoyment.
Best Projector for Color Accuracy: Epson 4010
Light Output – brightness, expressed in lumens, is one of the first thing mentioned about a projector. It’s important, but it is more important to determine how much brightness is necessary for the room and the light conditions that the projector will be used in. If the projector is too bright, watching the images for very long will fatigue your eyes. If not bright enough, you will lose detail and color.
Best Projector for Light Output: Epson 3800
Lens Zoom and Shift – zoom capability and lens shift enhances ease of setup. It provides you a little wiggle room. The zoom helps with forward and backward installation location. Shift allows you to adjust the image vertically or horizontally on your screen.
Best Projector for Lens Zoom & Shift: Epson 4010
Resolution – this is the number of pixels, the individual dots of color, which the projector can fit into the space of the image. The more pixels, the higher the resolution. Higher resolutions deliver crisp images with lots of detail.
Best Projector for Resolution: Epson 4010
Epson 3800
The Epson 3800 is an ultra HD resolution projector. It uses a 3-chip 3LCD technology with 3000 lumens of brightness and a contrast ratio of up to 100,000:1. It offers vertical (60%) and horizontal (24%) lens shift along with a 1.0 to 1.62 lens zoom ratio to help with installation and setup. Important to gamers, the 3800 has an input lag of around 17-28ms, which, although not outstanding, is still pretty good.
It has a dual 10-watt speaker system that is convenient if you want to move the projector from room to room or even outdoors. But if you require even better sound, the projector has an audio-out jack and it is Bluetooth capable.
The 3800 has two HDMI 2.0 inputs along with three USB ports for easy connection capabilities. It will accept 3D content but you will need Epson’s 3D glasses to view this feature.
The only true downside to the Epson 3800 is the size of the room needed to get a large image. It has a longer throw distance than other projectors.
Pros
- Easily connects to Roku and Amazon Firestick
- Works well in ambient light
- Quiet in Eco and Medium operation modes
- Bluetooth capability
Cons
- No built-in streaming apps
- Zoom not motorized
- Throw distance on the long side
Epson 4010
The Epson 4010 delivers 2400 lumens with a contrast ratio of 200,000:1. It has a true 3-chip design with 3LCD technology. Its lens is motorized and allows shifting on the vertical (96%) and horizontal (47%) axes. It also has a memory function that remembers the lens’ settings, so as you move the projector to different rooms it will remember the settings for that particular room.
With only 2400 lumens, the 4010 does not work well in ambient light, it is better in darker rooms. Because of its high contrast ratio, darker images are clearer and more detailed. Input lag measures 28ms, which is a bit on the slow side if you are a dedicated gamer.
The 4010 does not produce a rainbow effect that bothers some people and it produces great color brightness. What it lacks in black levels and sharpness, it makes up in color accuracy, brightness, and ease of setup. That is why this projector is a great choice for anyone in the market for a projector priced under $2000.
Pros
- Motorized lens with horizontal and vertical shift, and 2.1x zoom
- High contrast ratio
- Ten user-programmable lens memory presets
- Supports 1080P 3D Blueray disc
Cons
- Needs dark to almost dark rooms
- 28ms lag input a bit slow
- Slight green tint in Dynamic mode
- No HDMI 2.0 port
Conclusions
Epson projectors offer a great combination of high performance and reasonable prices, and both these projectors fall in line with that concept. They both use 1080p resolution with 4K pixel shifting technology. Our pick between these two projectors is the Epson 4010 (>>> Check on ProjectorScreen). Other that the difference in lumens, only 2400 for the 4010 as compared to the Epson 3800’s 3000, the 4010 is well worth the higher purchase price due to ease of setup and user-programmable lens presets.