Epson MovieMate 60 Projector Review3

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Art Feierman

MovieMate 60 Remote Control

I love all-in-one projector's remotes (not really). Basically it translates into a million buttons and no backlight, with most of the few such devices on the market. This remote has 40 buttons and a switch! That should keep you busy. Actually the layout is pretty respectable.

Click to enlarge. SO close

At the top, you've got the orange Power button (once for on, twice for off), a toggle switch between function and numeric operation of the 12 buttons immediately below. You need the numerics for things like passwords. When not in numeric, those bottoms control a wide range of unit features, including On Screen, Program, Sleep, Surround, Sound, Aspect ratio, Zoom (digital), and a User button, which you can select its function in the menus.

Next comes three white buttons for Source select, Color Mode (Theatre, Dynamic...), and a really great button, called Break. Now many projectors have a Mute button which darkens everything, but the Break button has a picture of a coffee cup. When you press it, the screen turns white. Brilliant! both literally and figuratively. With the screen bathed in white, you can actually see what you are doing, you can get that cup of Java, or find the next disc, or your USB adapter, so you can plug in your photos. Usually when we finish something, we have to go turn on the lights, to see anything. This Break button is great!

OK, continuing on, next comes our DVD player controls with Play, the fast forward and reverse, chapter forward and reverse, pause, and of course, Stop.

Below that, are our four navigation arrows in a round configuration, with the Enter button in the center. To the top left of the arrow ring is the Setup button, to the right top, the Menu (for the DVD). To the bottom left is the Visual Setup, we discussed in the Menu section, and to the lower right, a Return button - part of the navigation

That leaves only a two pair of large buttons, one pair for keystone correction, and a similar pair, for volume Up and Down. Finally smaller buttons for Mic, Audio, Subtitle and picture Angle.

That's it. All considered pretty good, although it takes the manual, or playing around to sort out what's on the Setup, Visual Setup, and Menu menus, as each of those functions sounds a lot alike. No big deal though, any owner will have it figured out quickly enough.

Click Image to Enlarge

MovieMate 60 Lens Throw

The MovieMate 60 has a fixed lens - no zoom. Ideally you will want to place the projector exactly where it needs to be to fill your screen, should you have one. If you are just shining on the wall, then you can place the projector where you want, to get the approximate size desired.

To fill a 100" 16:9 screen with the MovieMate 60 image, you'll need the projector to be placed 9.9 feet back from the screen. That would be 9.9 feet measured from the front of the projector to the screen surface.

If, however, you have something more business-like to project, the projector supports 16:10 as well (typical widescreen business projector ratio). In that mode, the projector sits 10.7 feet back. For 4:3 viewing, such as conventional TV, if you were using a screen you would be 12.1 feet back, for a 100" diagonal image.

Because the MovieMate 60 also has a digital zoom, you can further alter the placement, but, given a choice, don't use the digital. It can make the image smaller (up to 35%) from a given distance, but it is also lowering the resolution at the same time - you just aren't using the full projected area. Try to set up the MovieMate so it works without using the

MovieMate 60 Lens Shift

The MovieMate 60 has no adjustable lens shift. The projector is designed however to be placed a bit below the bottom of the screen area. That makes it work nicely for placing the MovieMate 60 on a low table.