Epson Powerlite Cinema 500 Home Theater Projector Users Guide

							Setting Up the Projector21
Turning On the Projector
1. Remove the lens cap.
2. Turn on any connected equipment you plan to use.
3. Turn on the power switch on the back of the projector.
4. Press the 
On button on the remote control, or press the Power button on the projector.
Note: To keep children from turning on the projector, you can use the Child Lock (see page 31).
If you’ll be using the projector at an altitude above 4900 feet (1500 meters), turn on High Altitude 
Mode so the fan can properly cool the projector at the high altitude air pressure. See page 46 for 
details.
The projector takes about 30 seconds to warm up and display an image. If you don’t see a 
picture, you may need to change the image source as described on the next page.
Power switch
Turn on the projector 
						

							22Setting Up the Projector
Turning Off the Projector
1. Turn off any equipment connected to the projector.
2. Press the 
Off button on the remote control, or press the Power button on the projector 
twice. 
3. Let the projector cool down for about 30 seconds. 
4. When the Ppower light stops flashing and stays on, turn off the projector’s power switch 
on the back. 
It is now safe to unplug the projector, if necessary.
Caution: Turn the projector off when not in use. Continuous 24-hour-a-day use may reduce the 
overall life of the product. Never unplug the projector without turning it off and letting it cool as 
described above, or you could damage it and reduce lamp life.
Selecting the Image Source
The Source buttons on the projector and remote control let you switch between images from 
different pieces of equipment connected to the projector (such as a DVD player, cable or 
satellite box, or video game console). 
Press the 
Source button on the remote control that corresponds to the port to which your 
video source is connected.
Source buttons 
						

							Setting Up the Projector23
If you press the Source button on the projector, you see a menu of available sources. Press the 
u or d button to highlight a source and press the 
 Select button.
If you select the Input A source using either the remote control or the menu above, you may 
see the Input A menu:
Press the u or d button to highlight 
YCbCr (for component video with an NTSC signal) or 
YPbPr (for component video with an HDTV signal), or select Auto so the projector can 
automatically detect the Input A source type. Then press the 
Select button.
Note: 
If an image does not appear, check the troubleshooting tips on page 57.
To temporarily turn off the image and darken the screen, press the Blank button. Press the Blank 
button again to return to normal viewing. 
						

							24Setting Up the Projector
Positioning the Image
If the image is not centered on the screen, use the horizontal and vertical lens shift dials to 
adjust its position.
Note: You can display a test pattern to help adjust the image position. Press the Pattern button on 
the remote control, then select Display Position.
When you hear a click, the lens position is centered. If the lens shift dial becomes hard to 
turn, you cannot adjust the position any further.
If you still need to raise the height of the image after using the vertical lens shift dial, lift the 
front of the projector and rotate the adjustable feet until the image is positioned correctly. 
Vertical lens shift dial
Adjustable footHorizontal lens shift dial 
						

							Making Basic Adjustments25
Making Basic Adjustments
Follow the instructions in this chapter to make basic adjustments to the image shape, size, and 
color, and quality. For further refinements, see “Making Detailed Adjustments” on page 33.
Correcting the Image Shape
If the projected image looks like  or  , use the Keystone function to correct its shape. 
Note: If the image is shaped like  or  , the projector has been placed off to the side of the 
screen and angled toward it. Face the projector straight ahead (instead of at the center of the 
screen), then use the horizontal lens shift dial to center the image.
To perform keystone correction, press the u or d button 
on the projector, or access the menu system as follows:
1. Press the 
Menu button on the remote control.
2. Press the menu navigation buttons to open the 
Settings menu, then select Keystone.
3. Press the l or r button to adjust the shape of the 
image.
4. Press the 
Menu button when done.
To reset the keystone correction to the original settings, 
press and hold down both the u and d buttons on the
control panel for at least one second.
Menu
button
Menu
navigation
buttons 
						

							26Making Basic Adjustments
Focusing and Zooming
Sharpen or reduce the focus using the focus ring.
Zoom into or out of the picture using the zoom ring.
Choosing the Aspect Ratio
In many cases, video signals are automatically resized to fit 
on your screen when 
Auto is selected as the Aspect setting. 
You may need to change the size of the image (or aspect 
ratio) for certain image types by pressing the 
Aspect 
button on the remote control.
If your video source is connected to the HDMI, S-Video, 
or Video port—or the Input A port when it is outputting 
525i or 525p signals—select 
Auto to automatically display 
your image in the correct size.
Wide
Tele
Focus ring Zoom ring
Aspect 
button 
						

							Making Basic Adjustments27
If the Auto setting is unavailable, you may want to choose one of these settings:
■Normal for standard TV broadcasts, computer images, or images with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
■Zoom for images recorded in 16:9 (wide-screen) format.
■Wide if you want to expand a 4:3 image to 16:9 so it fills the whole screen. This stretches 
only the right and left sides of the image; the central part is unchanged. (You cannot 
select 
Wide when you’re using keystone correction.)
■Squeeze for DVDs or video recordings made in a compressed 16:9 format called 
“Squeeze Mode.”
■Through if your image is smaller than 1280 × 720 pixels and you want to display it at its 
original pixel size without resizing it to fit on the screen. 
■Squeeze Through if your image is recorded in Squeeze Mode, is smaller than 
1280×720 pixels, and you want to display it at its original pixel size. 
Note: If you display a 4:3 image using the Zoom setting, the top and bottom will be cut off. You can 
use the Zoom Caption option and other settings to resize and reposition the image to your liking 
(see page 43).
For details on how the projector resizes the picture when you choose an Aspect setting, see 
page 65.
4:3 image using Normal setting 16:9 image using Zoom setting 
						

							28Making Basic Adjustments
Choosing the Color Mode
You can change the Color Mode to automatically adjust brightness, contrast, and color, 
letting you quickly optimize the projected image for various lighting environments. You can 
also select a different color mode for each input source—which is useful if you view different 
types of images from different sources. (For example, you might set the S-Video source to 
Living Room if it’s usually used for watching movies with the curtains closed, and set the 
Video source to 
Dynamic for playing video games in the daytime with them open.) 
Select the image source you want to adjust, then press the 
Color Mode button on the remote 
control. Choose from these settings:
■Dynamic for projecting images with vivid color in 
brightly lit rooms.
■Living Room for projecting images with vivid color 
under ordinary room lighting.
■Natural for projecting in subdued lighting; increases 
contrast and makes flesh tones appear more natural.
■Theatre for projecting in a dark room.
■Theatre Black 1 or 2 for projecting in completely dark 
rooms. 
Theatre Black 1 projects in cool, clear tones; 
Theatre Black 2 projects in a warmer tone.
■sRGB for projecting computer images that conform to the sRGB color standard.
When you select the 
Natural, Theatre, or sRGB  Color Mode setting, the built-in Epson 
Cinema Filter automatically increases the contrast and naturalizes projected skin tones.
Color 
Mode 
button 
						

							Making Basic Adjustments29
Adjusting the Gamma, Color Temperature, 
and Skin Tones
To further customize the color and image quality, you can adjust the Gamma, abstract Color 
Temperature, and Skin Tone settings using buttons on the remote control. (Not available 
when you’re projecting sRGB images.)
Note: You can fine-tune these and other color and image quality settings using the projector’s 
menu system (see page 35). You can also save combinations of picture settings with the Memory 
feature for easy recall (see page 41).
Select the image source you want to adjust, then press any of the buttons described below. A 
slider appears beneath the image so you can adjust the setting and view the effect of your 
adjustments.
■ColorTemp. adjusts the overall color tint (absolute color temperature) between 5000K 
and 10000K. Higher temperature settings increase the blue tint and lower temperature 
settings increase the red tint.
■S. Tone adjusts the color of projected skin tones. The Epson Cinema Filter automatically 
optimizes this setting, but you can customize it if necessary. Higher numbered settings 
increase the green tones and lower numbered settings increase the red tones.
S. Tone 
button
Gamma 
button
ColorTemp. 
button 
						

							30Making Basic Adjustments
Adjusting the Gamma Setting
You can select from 5 gamma settings (2.0 to 2.4) or customize your own setting from your 
image or a displayed graph. Lower values will increase the contrast of dark areas, but tend to 
blur the bright areas. Higher values will darken the light areas.
1. Press the 
Gamma button. You see the following displayed on the screen:
2. Do one of the following:
■Select one of the numeric correction values and press the Select button. You see 
the setting reflected in the graph on the right. The horizontal axis represents the 
input signal level, and the vertical axis represents the output signal level.
■Select Customized. Then continue with the next step.
3. Do one of the following:
■Select Adjusting it from the image. You see a gamma icon on the projected image. 
Use the arrow buttons to move the icon to the area of brightness you want to adjust, 
then press 
 Select. When the gamma graph appears, press  Select again. You see 
the following slider for adjusting the setting:
Adjust the slider, then press 
 Select. If you need to go back and readjust the tone, 
press the
 Esc button.
■Select Adjusting it from the graph. When the gamma graph appears, use the arrow 
buttons to select the point on the graph that you want to adjust. Then press 
 
Select.
 When the slider appears, adjust it as necessary, then press  Select again.