Supersized TV

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REMEMBER THE rear-projection TV (RPTV)? RPTVs were big, boxy contraptions housing a projector that beamed an image at the rear of a screen mounted on the set’s front surface. While necessarily inelegant compared with the sleek flat-panel TVs that eventually replaced them, the RPTV in its heyday solved the problem of getting a big image—screen sizes topped out around 80 inches diagonal—without having to resort to a room-dominating two-piece system with a ceilingmounted projector and separate projection screen.

The reason I bring up RPTVs is that ultra short throw (UST) projectors like Epson’s new EpiqVision Ultra LS500 remind me of the category, mainly because they deliver maximum image size while taking up a minimum of space. Epson even calls the LS500 a projection TV, most likely because it’s sold as a complete solution with 100-inch ($4,999) or 120-inch ($5,999) ambient light-rejecting (ALR) screen included.

While most of the other USTs has reviewed have used DLP technology, the LS500, in keeping with other projectors from Epson, is a 3LCD design. Also similar to the company’s other models, it features 4K PRO-UHD tech that diagonally shifts pixels on the projector’s 1080p display chips to double resolution to just over four million pixels. The LS500 supports the HDR10 and Hybrid Log Gamma