MovieMate 72 Home Entertainment Projector System Review - Image Quality

Epson MovieMate 72 Home Theater Projector: Skin Tones

❮ ❯

Whether you pop a disc into the onboard DVD player, or feed the MovieMate 72 from an external player (such as my Blu-ray disc playing Sony PS3), you'll find that the Epson produces very good skin tones. I'll start with a couple of standard DVDs from the internal player.The skin tones of Gandalf and Arwen, from Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, looked very good. Since I consider the MovieMate 72 a competitor to stand alone projectors, I spent a lot of time also viewing the MovieMate hooked up to my PS3 for watching Blu-ray discs. Now, some of you may scoff, as that seems contradictory to the MovieMate 72's primary purpose - a convenient all-in-one, that can be moved around - to spend a lot of time with Blu-ray discs, but I think it worth considering the performance. Afterall, with the lowest price hi-def DVD players now findable at $99 (and that will continue to drop over time), it's quite conceivable to also use the MovieMate in a family room where you might have a plasma or LCDTV and a decent surround sound system. What I'm trying to say, is that as the world switches to hi-def dvd players, you'll be able to use one with your MovieMate, and appreciate the difference. sequence of photos from Casino Royale. You'll note the markedly different coloration on Bond from each image. The first, is a scene in bright sunlight, the second, florescent lighting in an airport, and the last one, filtered daylight. In each case the Epson MovieMate produces very realistic skin tones.

Epson MovieMate 72 Projector: Black Levels and Shadow Detail

Black Levels

❮ ❯

This is the most significant weakness of the MovieMate 72, when comparing it to most stand alone projectors. The ability to do a really dark "black" is beyond the MovieMate, still the black levels are acceptable, comparable to home theater projectors of three or four years ago. To put it in perspective, it is probably second best behind the Optoma DV-11 of the all-in-one projectors.

This just means that this projector isn't for the purists seeking an image excellent in all areas. Here are a few images that give you a rough idea. Without the really black "blacks", the projector lacks the depth and wow factor found in many stand alone projectors.