Epson MovieMate 85HD - Review Summary-2

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Art Feierman

For some owners, the MovieMate 85HD will do double duty. It's handy for that occasional presentation, and does a good job with similar resolution and brightness to traditional business projectors costing around the same amount. You get a built in DVD player to boot.

Seems to me, that the MovieMate 85HD is a competent home entertainment system. It's well equipped, it works with all kinds of sources in addition to its internal DVD players. The 85HD seems reasonably priced, when considered against stand-alone projectors. For all that, and a bright, dynamic looking picture, we give the MovieMate 85HD a Hot Product Award.

Epson MovieMate 85HD Projector: Pros, Cons, and Typical Capabilities

The 10 watt speakers with Dolby Digital, and DTS surround sound, do an impressive sound for this type of product, although there's nothing resembling wall shaking bass. I like that it has a coaxial digital audio output, which can feed a powered sub-woofer, or feed into an AV receiver. If you want some real bass, small sub-woofers can be had, no doubt, from under $100.

Epson MovieMate 85HD Projector: Pros

Very bright picture, measured even higher than Epson's 2500 lumen claim
Good color
Built in DVD/CD/MP3/etc. player
Wide range of inputs, including HDMI and computer
Most useful: Movies, Sports, Games, PCs, iPads, iPhones Androids...
10 watt speakers with Dolby Digital, and DTS surround sound, plus digital output for external subwoofer or audio system
720p resolution HD
Headphone jack
Long lamp life (up to 5000 hours), for low cost of operation
Nicely portable at 9.3 pounds
Easy to setup and use, and a fold out carry handle! Pretty good documentation
Definitely reasonably priced for all that it provides
Excellent 2 year warranty, optional replacement program