IFA: Epson Announces EH-R2000 and EH-R4000 with RHTPS Technology

Epson invited the international press to the IFA trade fair in Berlin to announce two new projectors featuring its new reflective panel technology. Needless to say, DigitalVersus was on the scene, and we had high hopes for this announcement.

Epson put paid to one of our biggest hopes straight away, as it turned out the announcement had nothing to do with 3D projectors. Epson confirmed the brand was hanging back from 3D for several reasons, notably that the technology isn't ready, content isn't really available yet and the market is still too under-developed. Too bad.

Reflective Panel Technology: RHTPS

The new technology Epson unveiled is called 3LCD Reflective Panel Technology (RHTPS). It's no real surprise that it's intended to improve contrast, response times, colour gamut etc. It'll feature in two new projectors also announced at the event, the EH-R2000 and EH-R4000. The diagram below shows how it works:


As with other types of technology already on the market, such as Sony's SXRD, light passes through a layer of liquid crystals twice to improve the depth of black projected. This is achieved by positioning a reflective panel at the back of the LCD. It's not entirely new, but it's still a good idea. However, we'll have to wait until we test one of these new models to find out just how effective it is.

Price & release date

Epson hasn't given an exact release date for these new projectors, but they're likely to hit the market sometime in November or December. The EH-R2000 and EH-R4000 will be priced at £3,000 and £5,000 respectively.

Two additions to the current range

As well as the two models featuring Epson's RHTPS technology, the brand will also be releasing the EH-TW3200 (£850 TBC) and EH-TW3600 (£1,165 TBC). These projectors will be placed just under the EH-TW5500 / EH-TW4400 in the range and will replace the EH-TW3500 / EH-TW2900.

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