Customer Reviews

Epson MovieMate 60 Portable Projector, DVD and music player combo (V11H319220)

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Epson has created a winner here with an all-in-one projector with integrated DVD player and powered speakers. Just add a screen for an instant movie night at home or on the road... even in the backyard. The projector's 2,000 ANSI Lumen rating means that it can drive a very large screen - Epson says up to 14.5 feet diagonally, but at this size, pixel structure is visible and you need a very dark environment to prevent the image from getting washed out. But in the 80-100 inch range, the MovieMate 60 provides a bright colorful picture from DVDs, and looks even better if you plug in a high definition set-top box or Blu-ray player to its HDMI input (720p and 1080i HD sources are supported, converted automatically to the projector's native 540p resolution).

The sound isn't quite a match for the picture, with fairly weak bass, but dialog comes through cleanly and the built-in 20 watt amp and stereo speakers are strong enough to provide better sound than most TVs. The MM 60 offers a headphone output as well as a coax digital output in case you want to hook it up to a more powerful audio system. It also includes a microphone jack so you can rock out with some giant screen karaoke! The unit has a fixed lens with only 1.3x zoom which means it is not that flexible in placement. You will need to have it centered and pretty far back from the screen in order to create a large image. It does well on a coffee table about 8 to 12 feet away from the screen, depending on how large you want the image to be. For larger screen outdoor viewing, it will need to be even further back.

It's tons of fun to connect a Wii or other game console, for virtually life-sized game play. But remember to stand or sit behind the projector when playing so you won't cast a shadow on the screen. It's also an excellent choice for a senior center or local recreation center as you can be ready for a movie night or slide show in just a couple of minutes and you can pack everything away in a closet when not in use.

Although you can project the image onto a white or off-white wall, this will not give you the best results. We'd recommend using the Epson Duet Screen which isn't too expensive, and offers a 80-inch diagonal screen in 16:9 mode (or 65-inch screen in 4:3 mode). It folds away for storage and is pretty easy to set up. Its white matte screen and black frame help to enhance the contrast and brightness of the image giving you a more movie theater-like experience (but hopefully without the sticky floors!).

Overall, we give this 4 stars for its audio and video performance, but it's definitely super-fun and convenient. If you want a big screen experience virtually anywhere with a minimum of fuss and a budget-friendly price, it's hard to do better than the MovieMate 60. A full review is available on big picture big sound (dot com).

This is an awesome entry-level "all-in-one" projector that can be used at home and work. I wanted a bright projector with easy setup and portable enough to transport. I purchased this on Amazon at a great price along with the Epson Duet portable screen (which is another fantastic product!!). If you're looking for a dedicated home theater projector, then I would recommend getting a reliable 1080p projector with HDMI input connected to a surround sound system of which there are numerous other options ranging from $800-$1000. The Moviemate 60 will only output DVD-quality video at 540p, but this is a small sacrifice when you consider all you get for under $600. I won't rehash all the details, but suffice to say that the slot-loading DVD is a great family feature, and the speakers were powerful enough to fill a 15' X 20' room. The HDMI input is perfect for a media PC/MAC, media players (WD HD TV, ASUS O'Play, etc.), and game consoles. I've read other reviews that complain that more HDMI inputs should have been included, but that's not practical and you should be looking at another unit if you want to build a dedicated home theater setup. I'm glad that EPSON chose to include almost every possible input (missing is DVI and optical audio). USB input is also included to play your media libraries stored on external drives or thumbdrives. The other feature which helped convince me to buy this unit is the bright lamp which only costs ~$150 to replace (other units with lower rated lamps cost >$300 to replace). Also, none of the other competing brands come close to the 2-year warranty coverage along with free shipping and replacement unit. Some of the other units I checked out only covered for 90 days without replacement.

The image quality is actually quite good. It has plenty of brightness to watch in lighted rooms (thankfully, you won't have to convert your room into a photo darkroom just to watch video). You won't notice the pixelation unless you sit within 3 ft of the screen. Honestly, at 6 feet away you're watching DVD-quality bright video. The Moviemate does a good job of automatically adjusting the picture to fit your screen and you can easily fine tune the vertical adjustments. Definitely, get a good screen which is way better than a wall.

This product also has a nice "WOW" factor when you use it with friends and family. The kids have a blast during sleepovers with the 80-inch Duet screen (popcorn a must). They actually prefer using this over our decked out HD 1080p home theater system with media PC and Mac Mini in the family room. I'll even hook up a laptop to the projector to stream wireless Netflix on demand, Hulu content, or media library from our HP Mediasmart server. I also use it to give Powerpoint lectures at the university where I work. The DVD and speakers are nice features to add into presentations. The Powerpoint presentations are bright and crisp. We also use it during our church small group meetings and plan to host outdoor summer movie nights for the kids and their neighborhood friends and will bring it to the vacation house on the beach. As you can see, the beauty of this projector is how versatile it can be used at home, work, or outside. Pack it up in the included carry bag which has pockets for the remote, power cord and any extra cords you need and you're ready to go. I checked out the MovieMate 72, but really wasn't impressed enough by the slight increase in video quality and personally didn't like the swivel DVD base, not to mention the extra $300 pricetag.

Hope you enjoy this as much as our family does!

My husband offered to set the projector up-- which essentially meant he would unpack it and plug it in for me. :) And the best part about this machine is that really that is all we had to do. Out of the box it was perfect! It allows you to have instant gratification --especially important if you have kids waiting for it.
So while you watch your first movie, which if you have children, will of course be their moive, you can flip through the manual and find out more information.
One plus was that it automatically gets brighter or darker based on the lighting in the room. A very nice feature. You can watch the movie in a lighted room. I have not taken it outside for daylight...so we cannot comment on that. We purchased a Da-Lite Movie screen --portable and are very happy with that. Given that movies are wide, consider that when purchasing a screen. The projector does have aspect options which is a nice feature. I do feel that this projector is well priced and very nice quality for the amount.
As the previous commentor suggested, we did purchase karaoke dvds and you can purchase an adapter for the projector to allow more than one microphone. I am a teacher as well, and it is an excellent way to have kids practice reading. My first grader loves it. They even sell nursery rhyme dvds. We also like to play dvd games on the projector.
Side note--if you do have kids consider putting on closed captioning because they will read the words.

It comes with a soft cover to protect the projector.
Colors were right on.
Clarity was super.

Very happy.

I won a grant to utilize karaoke in my first grade classroom in September. I researched projectors and came across the reviews for the MovieMate 60. Though it is designed for home use, it suits my classroom needs perfectly. I finally got mine over a week ago and I am thrilled with it. The product description fails to mention is that it is capable of reading CD+G discs, the most common used for commercial karaoke cds. It also plays music from my iPod, but it doesn't read the tracks in mp4 format, so I can't select songs from the screen. It does read MP3 tracks, however. It is easy to play DVDs and CDs from the built-in player or connect my computer to it. I can plug my laptop into the red/white audio jacks and get great sound, too. Now my kids can sing karaoke and use a microphone for amplified sound. It's great fun.

I gave the machine only four 1/2 stars for because some of my DVDs played fairly quietly even when the machine was turned up full blast. I think there may be a dolby setting I have to adjust, but I have yet to figure that out. Also, it is very slick and shiny and instantly picks up fingerprints.

Overall, this is a great machine at a great price and I am thrilled to have it in my classroom. My co-workers are jealous!

Please make sure to wait until this goes on sale...save yourself a LOT of money. Okay, I bought this awhile ago, but in that time I've had a chance to do some research, so I thought I'd share with you just in case you want to get one of these for your home. I will compare the moviemate 60 with the 72.

The Moviemate 60 is a newer version of their popular moviemate units, but it isn't HD like the 72 is. Here's the catch though, the picture on the 60 actually works BETTER in a bright room because the lumens (the measuring stick for how bright the image is) is at about 2000, and the 72 (which is older) is at 1200. Here's how this affects you when you watch a movie:
I played the same scene from Toy Story 2...it's a scene that takes place in a dark room, with Woody walking around and stuff all over the place. I set up both the 72 and the 60 in my daughter's room, with sunlight flooding the wall I projected the image on. The difference was remarkable. The 72's image was almost completely washed out, but the 60's image was very visible.

Also, the 60 is more compact, has a handle and a carrying case. The 72 is HUGE (by comparison), has no case (well, Amazon sells one, but it's about [...]!), and has no handle. Use-wise, both units are remarkable in their ease of set up and operation. And the sound from both won't give you surround sound, but they work very well.
So, if you plan to have the unit set up in pretty much one place, in a dark room, and you want HD, the 72 may be for you. However, if you need portablility and want something you can show in even well lit rooms, the 60 is hands down the winner.

p.s. I bought the 72 after I had the 60 for awhile, and this was the result of much hand-wringing and working to try and justify keeping both units...hehe! But I did end up returning the 72.

I am using it for the past 6 months.
This projector is reasonably priced and is of very high quality. Pictures are bright and clear. The projection area is also huge. I also tried and liked different kind of inputs possible (DVD, PC, HDMI, RGB, USB). Lot of features with full featured remote.

Great! Totally satisfied.

I can't say enough about this projector. We have an outstanding 42 inch LCD tv connected to a great surround sound system, and we have this projector with its built-in speakers. Given the choice between the home theater and the projector, the kids always choose to watch movies on the projector. The picture quality is not HD, but it is better than standard definition. The sound is loud enough indoors that you'll want to turn it down if someone is sleeping in another room. It is so bright we can even watch it in the middle of the afternoon on a sunny day, with only thin white curtains blocking the sun from streaming in. It is a truly impressive projector. And the only set up is plugging it in! Amazing. That ease makes it very portable, also, which is great because the thinly-padded carry bag is great, too.
Back to the great picture. When researching screens, I found that one of my living room walls has a lot of the color qualities and slightly glossy reflectivity qualities that home-theater enthusiasts seem to go for when they paint a screen on their walls. So, we just aim this at the wall and from about 8 feet away we have a 7-8 foot high quality picture. From studying up on screens, I learned that enthusiasts also like to use hockey games to measure the quality of blacks, since there is so much white light. While this has to do with not just the projector, but also the screen and the walls and ceiling, I'm very happy to say that in my normal living room, the black levels seem absolutely fantastic at night. I got this when it was a deal of the day for under 5 C-notes, and could not be happier.
Did I mention that playing Wii on it is amazing, and can give you a little vertigo at times? Insane fun!

I have had this for over two months now. The picture is a little lighter than I would like during the day (we have big windows in the house), but in the evening it looks spectacular. We just project onto a white wall and it feels like we are in a movie theater. The volume is adequate for our living room, but it could have been a little louder. I also like that you can just insert a dvd and it powers on by itself. This has made watching movies much more enjoyable, and it looks better than the more expensive TVs of friends that I have seen because the picture is larger. I would give it 5 stars if this was the whole story.

The other day, it started making a beeping noise. Another reviewer complained about this. It beeps incessantly, like one beep every three seconds, and it is loud enough that it effects the audio. Right now other people are in my living room watching a movie that I wanted to watch that I absolutely cannot watch because the beeping is on my nerves. I was trying to watch it on instant viewing on Netflix via the computer. I have done this before without a problem. One of the reasons for getting this projector was that we could hook the laptop up to it and project. It's worked great for pictures thus far. But it was beeping the other day with the laptop, and it is beeping today. So far, I have not noticed beeping with a regular dvd, but it did beep when a camera was hooked up to it.

This absolutely should not happen to technology this sophisticated. It sounds very similar to the beeping that happens when the power is turned off and on. What a terrible idea to begin with. Why create a machine that can beep at all in the first place? It beeps once it is turned on. It's not doing it as some kind of warning, or because it's too hot. It had rested for over 24 hours. It's doing it because there is a flaw in the machine itself. I am going to find my warranty and either get this replaced, fixed or returned. It's really a shame because it's a cost-effective and nice machine otherwise. Why give things the capacity to beep that don't need to beep?

UPDATE: The next time I used it with the computer, it didn't beep at first, but I had to stop it for something, and then it started beeping again. I let it rest for about five days before watching another film via Netflix, and even some youtube astronomy videos (which look beautiful by the way) and I did not have any beeping problems. I hope the beeping disappears, and I will call customer service if happens again. Overall, I love the thing, assuming that the beeping problem can be taken care of.

SECOND UPDATE: Still beeping over a month later. Consistently. I am extremely disappointed.

FINAL UPDATE: Thanks to a great two year warranty, I was able to get the problem fixed. They replaced the light, and it seems to be working fine. They said that this problem is a rarity.

I bought the MovieMate 60 for outdoor movies. I do not plan on using the built-in DVD player or speakers. However, I did test both and was quite impressed with the sound volume I got from it - it fills a medium size room very well. However, I experienced DVD freeze-ups about 80 minutes into the movie I tested. I'm not sure if it was the player or DVD though. The bulb strength was very good, filling the screen up very brightly. My next test will be how well it performs in outdoor showings. But that will have to wait for better weather.

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Updated 8-17-2011

I have since used the projector outdoors using my home theater setup (external DVD player and sound) with NO freeze-up at all. I am adding a star to my initial rating.

I purchased this to use in my classroom a few weeks ago and have not been disappointed thus far. I love the ability to just stick a DVD in and it plays---no wires and cords strung between computers and speakers, etc. I have also used a homemade disc/slide show that won't play on a DVD player with the TV...but played perfectly on the MovieMate. Our IT guy said it was the best picture he had ever seen from a machine so small. I have set it on the desk and projected to the opposite wall of a normal size classroom...and it fills the wall top to bottom and the picture is wonderful. This would work well in a larger or double classroom.