Epson MovieMate 25 Projector Review - Pros, Cons

Posted on April 9, 2006 by Art Feierman

Pros

Excellent color accuracy
Bright image
Multiple presets for different room environments and sources
Good quality sound
Extremely easy to use
Easy to hook up
Great price performance
Horizontal and vertical lens shift, for easy placement
Zoom lens with plenty of zoom range, for easy placement
Designed with also playing music in mind (you can use the projector for music with the lamp turned off, so as not to waste lamp hours) Plays standard CD's, music DVD's and even MP3 files on CD.
Excellent warranty
One of the best manuals around
Anticipated excellent reliability (based on Epson's superb track record for many years)

Cons

Lacks component inputs or digital (DVI/HDMI)
Remote is not backlit (glow in the dark keys just don't glow bright enough)
Pixels are more visible than competing products using DLP technology - making screen door effect more likely if you sit close. This makes it not the best choice for a purist looking for a perfect movie machine
Bass - while overall sound is good, the provided (and conveniently small) sub-woofer doesn't have as much kick as some competing products.
If you like to tinker, the image controls are somewhat limited, but, again, not a projector for people who want to tweak the image

Typical capabilities

Layout of the remote control is very good, but due to all the capabilities of an all-in-one, it seems like there are a million buttons to navigate
Styling - it's a box! - almost a cube! Clean looking, but its not going to end up in the Museum of Modern Art
Sound quality - I mentioned that a competitor provides a bigger, more powerful subwoofer, but the Epson sounds good, on both movies and CDs. I don't think anyone will complain at all!

If you have a thousand dollars or so, want a system for the kids, or for the whole family that can be set up in a minute, and watch movies, TV or play games and music, this Epson all-in-one home entertainment system is really hard to beat.

Too bad it's spring time. The Epson MovieMate 25 certainly will make a great holiday stocking stuffer for the whole family.

If you have that $1000 or so, you will be hard pressed to go wrong with the Epson MovieMate 25.