PowerLite Home Cinema 6500UB

1080p Epson and Panasonic LCD projectors from ~2008-2013 are an excellent value used. Great colors and contrast. The bulbs are cheap, and if you drop in a fresh one, you can get enough brightness for SDR content (50-75 nits). For Epson, the models to watch are the 6500UB, 8500UB, 8700UB, 5020UB, and 5030UB. For Panasonic, the models to watch are the PT-AE3000, PT-AE4000, PT-AE7000U, and PT‑AE8000U

The PT-AE4000 was a *great* projector in its day, and that’s why it still impresses people — especially in a dark room. For $60–$200, I’d say it’s a solid deal **if** the lamp hours are low or recently replaced. At the higher end ($300–$400), I’d personally start looking at slightly newer Epson UB models instead. Just keep in mind it’s a \~15-year-old projector: brightness is modest by today’s standards, parts are aging, and replacement lamps can cost as much as the projector itself. Totally fine for movies in a light-controlled room, less ideal if there’s ambient light. As for wall vs screen — a white wall *works*, but even a cheap fixed-frame or pull-down screen will noticeably improve contrast and uniformity. You don’t need ALR at this budget, just a basic matte white screen will be a big step up. If you’re open to alternatives, used Epson 6500UB/8500UB/8700UB or later Panasonic AE models are worth a look. New cheap projectors may be brighter on paper, but image quality usually isn’t comparable.

The PT-AE4000 was a *great* projector in its day, and that’s why it still impresses people — especially in a dark room. For $60–$200, I’d say it’s a solid deal **if** the lamp hours are low or recently replaced. At the higher end ($300–$400), I’d personally start looking at slightly newer Epson UB models instead. Just keep in mind it’s a \~15-year-old projector: brightness is modest by today’s standards, parts are aging, and replacement lamps can cost as much as the projector itself. Totally fine for movies in a light-controlled room, less ideal if there’s ambient light. As for wall vs screen — a white wall *works*, but even a cheap fixed-frame or pull-down screen will noticeably improve contrast and uniformity. You don’t need ALR at this budget, just a basic matte white screen will be a big step up. If you’re open to alternatives, used Epson 6500UB/8500UB/8700UB or later Panasonic AE models are worth a look. New cheap projectors may be brighter on paper, but image quality usually isn’t comparable.

We all have opinions, I have a 120” Epson 6500 in the home theater and 77” G4 OLED in the living room. Still prefer to game on the projector due to the screen size and I’ve had the projector for 5 years now, size novelty still hasn’t worn off.

I started with a 5030ub and upgraded to a 6050ub for 4K and HDR support. I was immediately disappointed in the poor static tone mapping, and it felt like a downgrade from coming from a solid SDR projector before hand. I invested in building my own video processor for tone mapping using MadVR open source and video processor.org with a HDMI capture card and GPU. This is not for the faint of heart to setup, tune and calibrate, but the payoff is well worth it. I have a dedicated light treated home theater that benefits from high contrast. I have a 180" screen, and the 6050ub lights it up very well while achieving excellent contrast and shadow detail. I wouldn't say that natively without a video processor it is worth it at this point in time since projectors native tone mapping has come so far. I also added an HDFury inline which adds support for Dolby Vision using an HDR flag hack and is a really nice upgrade which means I have all the functionality of newer models with the excellent color, lens and contrast ratio. I am on my second bulb, which cost under $100. I echo others that say 3D is amazing and I agree, hands down destroys anything else I have ever seen. I would love love to side by side my setup with a Valerion Max to see how it compares, but I doubt it will given my configuration. Obviously technology moved forward and everything improves over time, but newer isn't always better.

I have a 6050ub, similar to 5050ub and project onto a 180" screen in my theater room. My dimensions are roughly 14x22' and it is light controlled and treated. If you can find one, I highly recommend it. There is a caveat, the HDR is not great since it uses static settings, so you will find constantly needing to change it depending on content source. I built a DIY video processor using a PC and MadVR which solves the issue and upgraded the projector to something double or triple it's price. I even added a HDFury Arcana to enable Dolby Vision. If you have the ability and don't mind the extra effort and calibration it is well worth it.

It's good. Many of us have been down your road, till we understand that there's always better projectors that can fit a budget. I had a 720, moved up to be BenQ 1080p, and an Epson 1080p. I'm thrilled with these two and one day, when I get some cash, I'll try a 4K. But you're doing good. And they won't be as loud.