MovieMate 72 by Epson: Home Entertainment Projector System Review – General Performance3

Posted on October 5, 2013 By Art Feierman

MovieMate 72 Projector Measurements and Calibration

To my best understanding, based on what Epson says about lamp life, the lamp runs at full power except in Theater Black mode. There is no separate low lamp (eco) mode, or high lamp mode that is user selectable. As a result there is only one set of numbers for each mode. The Game mode is only available if you are running an outside source so no measurements for that mode, since I had my calibration disc in the internal player.

The MovieMate 72’s best mode is Theater Black, overall color balance out of the box was really very good, close to the ideal 6500K. That’s a good thing, since there’s no way to adjust grayscale except for the tint control and that is not really going to help. The grayscale balance out of the box is in the range of an acceptable grayscale calibration, which is to say don’t worry about it. The color temperature, overall, is a little low, but not by much.

Theater Black Mode


White (100 IRE)	6213K
Light gray (80 IRE)	6182K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	6111K
Low gray (30 IRE)	6504K

Theater Black made for very enjoyable movie viewing.

MovieMate 72 Theater Mode


White (100 IRE)	8584K
Light gray (80 IRE)	7835K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	7104K
Low gray (30 IRE)	7152K

Theater mode was a suprise, I expected a brighter version of Theater Black, with similar color balance, but it turns out that Theater is better balanced for TV viewing from a color temperature standpoint. Note that it is cool (bluish) in the brighter ranges then slightly warm in the darker grays:

MovieMate 72 Living Room Mode


White (100 IRE)	8557K
Light gray (80 IRE)	8294K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	7871K
Low gray (30 IRE)	7930K

Living Room Mode was well set up for TV viewing, and, as with the theater modes the green was very close to ideal as well.

Dynamic Mode

Header Content
White (100 IRE)	5865K
Light gray (80 IRE)	6263K
Medium gray (50 IRE)	6424K
Low gray (30 IRE)	6404K

Dynamic mode was rather warm in color, with green boosted way up, as is not unusual for dynamic modes on projectors, as it’s a good way to boost lumens to cut through ambient light. As is also normal, you’ll save Dynamic mode for when you really need it, because it is not a color accurate mode.

Epson, has really done a good job on setting up the MovieMate 72’s modes. There really isn’t anything to do, but set it up, and start enjoying the really big screen experience.

MovieMate 72 Image Noise

On content from its internal DVD player, image noise was not bad, but hardly exceptional. Using the Silicon Optix HQV test disc, background image noise was a bit noisy, a minor compromise. It was also not spectacular on jaggie tests, scoring only Fair (out of Good, Fair, Fail), however on the other jaggie test of the waving US flag, the jaggies were very hard to spot. Let’s say better would be nicer, but very acceptable. On the motion artifact test the Epson is a little slow adapting, so with the right content such as panning across stadium seats, you may notice the motion artifacts briefly. Again, while a flaw, not a big one, although this was the worst of the performance.

I also fed the Epson MovieMate the test on the HQV 1080 resolution disc, but this time outputting 1080p from my Playstation 3, and just letting the Epson downscale to 720p. The Epson looked great in all cases, with the source from the PS3. Bottom line, the so-so image noise performance seems to be tied to the DVD player, rather than the projector overall. For an all-in-one projector, this is about as good as it gets, however the internal DVD produces less desirable results than most stand alone 720p projectors, with a decent external DVD player. That said, there are a couple of well known stand alone 720p projectors.

MovieMate 72 Projector All-In-One Features

Let’s start with some of the practical security features. First, there is a password function that you can use to lock out the kids. Set password by using the numeric function on the remote. There is also a disc lock. The MovieMate 72 is smart enough to allow you to lock up to 40 titles requiring a password. That way you can keep your kids from watching your R and (if you dare) X-rated flicks.

The MovieMate 72 has 4 five watt speakers and they do a respectable job, providing plenty of volume even for my large viewing room. It’s not the highest of fidelity, but very good for an all-in-one. Get yourself a small powered sub-woofer if you want to do a little room shaking, the Epson has an output for one. Epson was making one for the Moviemate 30s/33s models, but I don’t know if it is available at most dealers. There are, though any number of third party sub-woofers you can choose from out there.

The MovieMate can not only play standard DVDs, but also music CD’s Video CDs and MP3 files. In addition, through the USB ports, you can play music and video files, even hook up your iPod or video iPod. Very versatile.