Cinema in your Garden: Epson Projector Review

Vicky Parry

26th Sep 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Turn your garden into a cosy cinema this autumn

I’ve kind of avoided getting a projector for the past decade or so, despite enjoying occasional home movie screenings at friends’ houses, because to be honest, the picture was never that great. It was either a bit blurry or you get that ‘rainbow’ effect where the image is big, for sure, but very cheap and digital looking.

So I was very happy indeed when I tested out the gifted Epson CO-W01 4K projector – at the lower end of the price scale incidentally, as home projectors can range from a few hundred quid to a few thousand – in my garden this autumn. Summer had just ended, the evenings were drawing in and we were primed to go and see the Beetlejuice sequel at the local multiplex, so what better movie to test out our new projector than the original Beetlejuice in 4K.

Now, I’ve become accustomed, since the advent of said 4K format, to watching movies large and loud on a 50” screen at home, so I was pretty happy with my home cinema experience. Not expecting to get quite the same results outdoors, I set up the Epson CO-W01 in my back garden and waited for the sun to set before having a play with the screen position and size. The screen we got was inexpensive, with its own stand and 4K projection quality material, so I can recommend grabbing one of those and putting the screen a couple of metres from where you’ve set up the projector: the actual distance required for optimum picture quality is explained with the projector instructions.

What really surprised me, as the sun set and I could properly see the image (although there is also an option for screening in lighter conditions) was that the 4K quality was absolutely there on the projection screen. Colours, details and movement were all perfect: as good as watching indoors on our 4K TV, which is pretty damn impressive.

Here are some details: this projector can achieve an impressive 378 inch display; the 3LCD technology making the display up to three times brighter than competitor products, thanks to its bright and vivid colours. Even in bright rooms, this powerful yet affordable WXGA projector delivers exceptionally bright yet colourful images with clear details thanks to 3LCD technology, which produces an equally high white and colour light output of 3,000 lumens.

This great little powerful projector has also been designed with portability and quick set up in mind, so it’s easy to move from room to room, and you can quickly position the image with keystone correction and access content simply with the HDMI input.

The projector comes with built-in speakers, although you might want to boost the sound by plugging your own speakers into your blu-ray player or TV to get something less tinny, which is easy enough to do. Plus you have the option of logging the projector into your wi-fi setup and watching Netflix on the screen. Outside, it looks phenomenal, and that’s the harshest test you can give it. We’ve yet to try it indoors but I imagine it’ll be like being at the cinema.