I've mentioned my gaming setup a few times, so I thought I'd actually review the display officially. Long story short: super awesome.

The Epson Powerlight HomeCinema 1080UB (hereafter "1080UB") is a wonderful piece of technology. It's an overhead or rear-mounted projector, with all the bells and whistles you'd expect on such a small form factor. There aren't many inputs when compared to a similarly priced HDTV, but generally projectors only have one of each type anyway. The 1080UB has 2 HDMI, 1 svideo, 1 component, 1 composite, and 1 VGA input. It supports resolutions up to 1920x1080 (full HD, or 1080p) from HDMI or VGA inputs, and it has plenty of menu options to make your life easier.

The 1080UB spits out a shocking amount of light (1,600 lumens). There are 4 big windows in my living room, offering plenty of light. Even with them all open, the projector is visible. When the room is completely dark, the "low output" mode is plainly visible, and the "high output" mode will leave images burned into your retina. The black levels are superb, blacks are actually black, and whites are actually white. You don't get any ghosting or jaggies when viewing dark scenes. We watched the scene in I Am Legend where he goes into the dark building after his dog, and it felt just like the theater.

Picture quality is superb, especially from HD sources. I have the XBOX 360 and FiOS TV set up on it, and it's like you're there. Playing XBOX I actually had someone ask me if Assassin's Creed was a documentary. He's a moron, but still, that's impressive. When watching sports in HD, you can see the expressions on the fans' faces even during plays, that's how detailed you get.

Now for the size of the screen. Some projectors operate on the same principles as the overhead projectors you're used to in high school. The farther you are from the screen, the bigger the image. However, the 1080UB has two lens controls, meaning you can mount it pretty much anywhere from 12' to 25' from the wall, and it can throw an image from 60" to 120". We have it set up at 100" and couldn't be happier with it. The 1080UB also has manual adjustment knobs for the position of the screen after the projector has been mounted, so if your mount is off by a little (or you don't measure at all, like I did) you can still center the image on your screen. This also helps if your projector mount is a POS and the projector drifts over time.

The 1080UB also has a "blank" mode, which will preserve bulb life if you have to leave the room for a few minutes. Being a dog owner, leaving the room for a few minutes is a 10-times-a-night occurrence, so it's nice that I can blank the screen without damaging the bulb or burning in any images while my stuff is paused. One downside is that the air filter gets gunked up pretty quick, and blanking the screen will cause the projector to overheat pretty quickly when that happens. Luckily Epson thought of this, and the projector has a little "zomg I'm overheating" light and a small box will pop up on the image to tell you what to do.

Speaking of dogs, scientists say that dogs can't watch TV, something about the way they process 2d images, but our dogs will sit and actually watch the projector. They follow the actors around with their heads and everything. Maybe scientists are full of it (likely) or maybe normal televisions aren't large enough to make dogs care (also likely).

For the more technical people, the 1080UB is an LCD projector, but you don't get any of the weird color bleeds or rainbow effects you may expect because of Epson's C2Fine LCD panels.

Overall, this was one of the best entertainment purchases I've ever made. Even for regular old TV, making the screen 100" is entertaining, and it's always good to impress people who stop by. Some people don't even notice it, it's so huge. The neighbor's kid talked about everything in the room except for the TV until I pointed it out. I seriously recommend buying one for anyone thinking of getting a new TV. If you're going to spend $4,000 on a 52" TV, why not spend $4,100 on a 100" projector and a nice screen?