Epson LS12000 4K PRO-UHD Laser Projector Review

Laser projectors are no longer in the realm of the exotic. Epson’s LS12000 4K PRO-UHD Laser Projector delivers a bright and sharp Ultra HD image up to 300 inches with HDR support, wide gamut color, and a 20,000-hour service life, no bulb changes necessary. And it’s just $4,999 at this writing.

Consider the Porsche 911. Yes, I am reviewing an Epson LS12000 4K PRO-UHD Laser Projector here but bear with me. The Porsche 911 is a timeless design that has existed for decades in many generations, each a little better than the last. With constant incremental improvements, the 911 has gone from being a great car to a truly exceptional one.

Epson’s LCD projectors are no different. From their humble roots as boardroom fare, they have evolved into serious home theater displays that offer superlative image quality and premium performance at a reasonable price. I have been reviewing them for more than a decade and each one is better than its predecessor. Today, I’m checking out the LS12000 and this one has made something of a leap with its laser light engine.

Delivering 2,700 claimed (and verified by me) lumens with Ultra HD, HDMI 2.1, wide gamut color, and HDR support, the LS12000 is starting to nip at JVC’s heels in a major way. This one has a good deal more contrast than its forbears, sports excellent color accuracy, and has one of the best lenses I’ve seen from Epson to date. Let’s take a look.

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The LS12000 at its core is a three-chip LCD display. Epson still uses the 3LCD moniker, but it is so far beyond what I saw 10 years ago that it might as well be considered new technology. LCD projectors transmit light once through the imaging chips which gives them a brightness advantage over LCoS units like JVC and Sony’s offerings. Indeed, the LS12000 delivers over 2,700 lumens as verified by my tests. It is very bright if you wish but has the facility to dial in peak output with fine control. This makes it well suited for any environment from completely dark theaters to media rooms with some ambient light.

The light engine is a multi-laser diode array. Not only does it amp up brightness from pure LED designs, but it also runs cool and has a 20,000-hour service life. There are no bulbs to change nor do color and brightness shift over time.

Ultra HD resolution comes courtesy of Epson’s 4K PRO-UHD technology which is a pixel-shift feature. The shift mechanism is integrated into an optically pure glass plate which does not affect light levels or sharpness. The LS12000 is the sharpest Epson projector I’ve seen to date and much of that is due to its 15-element all-glass lens protected by a motorized sliding cover. To get this level of optical quality at this price is impressive in my experience. All this technology combines to deliver superb contrast. Several user-tweakable enhancements stretch the dynamic range to over 11,000:1 with no downsides. Things like Scene Adaptive Gamma and Dynamic Contrast increase perceived contrast even further than what can be measured.

HDR is supported in HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG formats. 10-bit processing is also supported. Though there is no Dolby Vision, there is HDR10+ with dynamic tone mapping which also uses embedded metadata to perform tone mapping, creating a representation that’s consistent with the filmmaker’s original vision. The LS12000 has additional processing that maps 100% of HDR10 content along with a 16-level luminance curve control that helps fine-tune the image regardless of the encoded peak level. This ensures you get the maximum HDR effect and full-detail rendering in both shadow and highlight areas. Gamers will enjoy the 120Hz refresh rate capability though there is no VRR support. A fast-processing mode reduces input lag for more responsive play.

The LS12000’s enclosure is a little larger than the Pro Cinema and Home Cinema models I’ve reviewed in the past but smaller than Sony and JVC’s LCoS offerings. Mounting options are prodigious and ceiling hardware is provided in the box. The lens is fully motorized and has a + 96% vertical shift with a 2.1x zoom range and a + 47% horizontal shift. Getting the image squared and sized couldn’t be easier using the remote and you can cover a screen up to 300 inches diagonal.

The input panel includes two HDMI 2.1 ports, one of which supports eARC. Two USB ports provide power for optical HDMI cables. Third-party control is possible using the RS-232 and RJ-45 LAN inputs and there is a 12v trigger for screen or lighting integration.

The remote is Epson’s typical button-covered handset and has one-key access to just about everything. Up top are input selectors, light output, and processing speed. In the middle are lens, picture modes, and Image Enhancement followed by the navigation keys. At the bottom are lens memories, frame interpolation, color management, and HDR level. You also get transport keys for HDMI CEC devices.

I started as I usually do with an Accupel pattern generator hooked into the HDMI interface. The 4K PRO-UHD processing is always on, but I was able to achieve precise focus using one-pixel multiburst patterns. The motorized lens controls made geometry adjustments a breeze since I could stay close to the screen when making changes. The LS12000 includes both color uniformity and panel alignment adjustments. My sample didn’t need any tweaking there. It was perfect from edge to edge. The front two feet are threaded to help with leveling if you use a stand as I did. I set it up 12 feet back from my 92-inch Stewart Filmscreen Luminesse with Studiotek 130 material and zoomed the image to the perfect size.

The menu system is loaded with options and sports a new design from what I’ve seen in the past. It’s divided into submenus, but you can simply scroll down from top to bottom and see every option. Frequently used settings are left at the top for easy access. There are six picture modes, all fully and independently adjustable. The LS12000 starts out in Bright Cinema but as is always the case, I found the best image in Natural mode.

The array of image options and enhancements is vast and it’s easy to over-tweak and become lost in all those settings. Epson helps out by providing an Image Enhancement menu that has presets of useful combinations of noise reduction, contrast enhancement, and sharpness. These have a visible impact and are an easy way to try different options without too much complexity. Separately, there is a scene adaptive gamma control and a basic dynamic contrast with two levels. I spent a lot of time experimenting with these and you can read more about my findings below.

The LS12000 has all the traditional calibration controls too with two and 14-point white balance, color management, gamma presets & editor, and fine control of light output. The latter is adjustable from 50 to 100% in 5% increments. I noticed that at 75% and above, the fan speed increased to an audible level. Below that, it is silent.

Natural mode SDR didn’t require too much adjustment, but I lowered the gamma one click and tweaked the two-point white balance. I settled on image preset 3 which provided a clean picture with no visible edge enhancement. Leaving color space on auto meant that Rec.709 was used for SDR and DCI-P3 for HDR as it should be.

The HDR calibration also required changes to the two-point white balance. I left gamma on zero and set HDR brightness to 6. These were a baseline for tests and initial viewing. I experimented with the dynamic options as I watched content. We’ll get to that now.

The LS12000’s remote has easy access to things like light output, HDR level, and image enhancement. I played with all of these and the scene adaptive gamma and dynamic contrast features.

Movies and TV on Disc

I just received my Blu-ray remaster of Babylon 5 and couldn’t wait to start watching this iconic sci-fi series from the 1990s. It was originally shot on 35mm film, and the new release retains that grain and filmy feel but with far more saturated color and clarity than the old DVDs. The LS12000’s Image Enhancement options have a profound effect on this presentation. Rather than tweak the individual settings, I tried the presets and settled on number 3. Higher settings caused visible ringing. Dynamic Contrast was left on Normal. After trying the Scene Adaptive Gamma, I decided it was best left off. As you raise the value, the picture gets brighter but loses its depth and texture. If you have old material like this, the LS12000 will do it proud.

Moving on to more modern content, I dropped Matrix Resurrections in the player and was immediately blown away by the LS12000’s clarity. I haven’t seen a projected image this sharp since my review of the uber-expensive JVC DLA-RS4500. That a $4,999 projector can match optical quality with a $35,000 flagship is truly something. The extended color gamut is also apparent when we see Neo woken once again from his gooey bathtub in the human powerplant. The red tones here made me feel as if I were on a trip through someone’s artery. Flesh tones remained natural with no hint of color blooming. Dark scenes rendered excellent blacks with clear shadow detail.

I noted that it was necessary to switch color modes manually between SDR and HDR. It isn’t that the LS12000 won’t switch signal formats automatically, it does. But if you create independent calibrations as I did, you’ll need to use the remote’s color mode key to make the change. I’d love it if I could bind picture modes to signal formats.

My disc viewing concluded with Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Part One. This is also a great HDR demo with lots of bright content that will make many displays look good. The LS12000 was no exception with a vivid color presentation and deep contrast. Bright scenes like those in the Abu Dhabi airport leaped from the screen. Clarity was again the star in this grainless transfer. Though it was shot digitally, it didn’t have the plastic feel that some modern movies have. This projector does a great job of retaining a filmic look regardless of the source material.

Streaming

Today’s displays, TVs, or projectors, must be adept at streaming. More and more users are adding Apple TVs and Rokus to their racks and with them come special demands. The big one is compatibility with varying signal formats and the ability to switch seamlessly between them. I configured my Apple TV 4K to 4K SDR by default with match frame rate and match dynamic range turned on. This forced the LS12000 to switch between multiple formats. Signal changes took around three seconds which is comparable to most TVs I’ve experienced.

Netflix’s Formula One Drive to Survive is my favorite go-to for streamed HDR. It’s presented at 50p which adds an additional challenge. The LS12000 had no problem processing that signal and interpreting the Dolby Vision metadata as HDR10. I set HDR Brightness to 6 for a slightly lighter look from the default 7. Lower values are brighter and higher ones are darker. Anything above 10 is very dark. The picture was razor sharp and made me glad I had fast internet. If your data rate is low, the LS12000 will let you know with a soft image. It is a neutral display which means it will show you exactly what’s present in the original content, no more and no less.

For regular hi-def content, I turned to Discovery+ and its selection of Food Network shows. Newer offerings like Best Baker in America and Holiday Baking Championship are bright and colorful. The LS12000 looked like a premium TV here with flawless video processing and a sharp image.

After trying the various picture enhancements on all content, I settled on Image Enhancement Preset 3, Dynamic Contrast Normal, and Scene Adaptive Gamma 0. For SDR, I used the Natural mode, and for HDR, Bright Cinema, each with its own calibration. You can find those settings after the bench tests.

To test the LS12000, I ran my usual suite of benchmarks using the latest version of Calman from Portrait Displays. To measure color, I used an X-Rite i1 Pro Spectrophotometer and for luminance, an X-Rite i1 Display Pro tri-stimulus colorimeter. Signals were generated by an Accupel DVG-5000. HDR signals were generated by the same unit with an HD Fury Integral in the signal path.

SDR Tests

The LS12000 ships in Bright Cinema mode which is a good choice for rooms that have some ambient light. The Light Output slider is on 75% which is quite bright. Other enhancements are in place to optimize gamma and contrast for media room conditions. Initial measurements of this mode showed some gamma anomalies, so I went to my Epson go-to mode, Natural. Here, any setting that affects gamma or contrast is turned off so I can measure the projector’s baseline performance.

Grayscale tracking in Natural mode is pretty good with only tiny errors in the 20-40% brightness range. Gamma tracks lighter as brightness rises. This means highlight areas will look flat because finer shades will be harder to see. This reduces perceived contrast and washes out the image. A flat line is what we’re looking for here.

Color is nearly spot-on with the correct Rec.709 rendered for SDR content. Overall, it’s slightly undersaturated but the errors are beneath the visible threshold. Color luminance levels are well balanced with just a bit of extra brightness in the blue primary. This is an excellent performance.

Grayscale calibration was a simple matter and only required a few tweaks to the gain and offset controls. There was no need for the 14-point adjustment. I changed gamma from 0 to -1 which put more of the values closer to the 2.2 reference. 20% is still a tad dark and 90% is light but the overall look is far more three-dimensional and dramatic. I tried adjusting the individual points in the Custom gamma option but could not do any better than the above result. I have no complaints here.

Color is now better with just tiny errors and visibly higher saturation overall. The difference is small, but the extra depth and dimension are clearly there. There are only a handful of displays I’ve ever tested that test below 1dE for gamut accuracy. It doesn’t get much better than this.

HDR Tests

Applying an HDR10 signal to the LS12000 switches modes automatically but there is no indication on the screen. I had to look at the Dynamic Range menu to verify that it was rendering HDR10. Also, the picture modes remain the same with their settings from SDR. The calibrated Natural mode had spot-on grayscale tracking from my SDR calibration, but the EOTF was much too dark. I opted to start afresh with Bright Cinema so I could create a separate calibration memory. This meant I had to switch picture modes every time I went in and out of HDR mode.

I managed to accidentally overwrite the pre-calibration run so I’m only showing the calibrated result. Adjusting only the gain control brings grayscale tracking in line though nothing would address brightness steps over 75%. The 14-point option doesn’t help there either. To dial in the EOTF, I set the HDR Level to 6 and Dynamic Contrast to Normal. I also used Image Enhancement Preset 3 which adds further dynamic contrast processing to the mix. This combination produced the best results.

In the HDR color tests, the LS12000 tracked DCI-P3 well with full saturation in magenta and blue and around 90% coverage of the other colors. Inner points are on target and that’s where most content lies so the HDR picture is clearly more colorful than SDR. In the Rec.2020 test, you can see the same behavior. The projector runs out of color a bit sooner which is typical of wide gamut displays. This is an excellent performance.

Brightness and Contrast

The LS12000 has a truly useful light output control with 11 possible brightness levels. You can get precisely the level you want for your room conditions. For SDR Natural mode, I settled on 60% as a comfortable number. Dynamic Contrast and Image Enhancement were turned off. HDR’s Bright Cinema worked well at 75%. I noted that settings above 75 kicked the fan noise up to the audible level. Here are the SDR results in nits.

Natural at 60%

• White – 120.4379
• Black – 0.0297
• Contrast – 4,048.7:1

Natural at 100%

• White – 204.2975
• Black – 0.0497
• Contrast – 4,094.4:1

Setting Dynamic Contrast to Normal bumped the ratio up to over 11,000:1.

The highest SDR brightness is found in the Dynamic mode which delivers 326 nits peak. Black signals shut off the laser so black levels and contrast are unmeasurable.

For the HDR tests, I set Dynamic Contrast to Normal and chose Image Enhancement Preset 3. I also set HDR Brightness to 6.

Bright Cinema HDR at 75%

• White – 156.4163
• Black – 0.0148
• Contrast – 10,539.5:1

Bright Cinema HDR at 100%

• White – 209.3883
• Black – 0.0184
• Contrast – 11,397.3:1

HDR has more than double the dynamic range of SDR and it shows. Epson is playing in JVC territory with the LS12000.

Settings

I created two calibrations for the LS12000, one for SDR and one for HDR. While this isn’t strictly necessary, I found a little more impact for both kinds of content. The only downside is you must switch color modes manually each time.

SDR Settings

• Mode Natural
• Brightness 51
• WB Offset 49, 49, 49
• WB Gain 47, 51, 50
• Dynamic Contrast Normal
• Scene Adaptive Gamma 0
• Gamma -1
• Light Output 60%
• No changes to the CMS
• Color Space Auto

HDR Settings

• Mode Bright Cinema
• Light Output 75%
• WB Offset 50, 50, 50
• WB Gain 50, 52, 42
• Dynamic Contrast Normal
• Image Enhancement Preset 3
• Scene Adaptive Gamma 0
• Gamma 0
• Color Space Auto
• No changes to the CMS
• HDR Setting 6
Conclusions

The Epson LS12000 4K PRO-UHD Laser Projector is one of the best projectors I’ve reviewed, period. It easily competes with premium models costing much more.

Likes
• Stunningly sharp and clean image for SDR and HDR.
• Excellent color accuracy.
• Flexible installation options.
• Phenomenal value.
Would Like To See
• A way to bind picture modes to signal formats.

Aside from the need to switch picture modes manually between SDR and HDR, the LS12000 is about as close to perfect as I could wish for. For $4,999, it delivers tremendous contrast, accurate color, a razor-sharp image, and enough flexibility for any environment and scenario. It’s bright enough for a media room and premium enough for a dedicated theater. The lens easily matches what comes with displays costing much more and that alone is a reason to put it on your short list. With broad signal support, it can play games, TV shows, and movies, on disc or streamed, with equal precision. It is truly one of the very best projectors I’ve ever reviewed and receives my Highest Recommendation.