March Madness: 12-Foot TV Screen for $700

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Meet the March Madness big-screen imaging system that's not madness to own.

It's that time of year: the NCAA Men's Division 1 Basketball Championship. And no matter what anybody likes to pretend, bigger really is better when it comes to watching Whoknowswhat State take on Neverheardofem U.

To me, 100-plus inches is about the minimum to get the full effect of cheerleaders and clutch free-throws. And there's the rub: Truly big images still demand truly big bucks -- say, five or even six figures for either a ridiculously heavy and finicky flat-panel TV or a decent front-projecting home-theater system.

Most electronics companies -- like

Optoma

,

Samsung

and even

RadioShack

(RSH)

-- have taken a stab at making the really big image a really big market. Over the years, there have been a parade of so-called "all-in-one" projectors. That is, a cheap front projector, with built-in speakers, a DVD player and even a mic input for the karaoke set, all in a relatively portable package that easily can project a giant, if low-quality, image on a wall or cheap screen.

Traditionally, all-in-ones have been the triple play of techno awfulness: bad picture, bad sound and bad functionality. So when

Epson

sent around its latest mid-priced all-in-one, the MovieMate 60 ($699), it literally sat, set up and ready to go, for a month before I could bring myself to turn it on. My expectations were that low.

Well, with the tourney looming, I finally got it going. And while the MovieMate is far from the king-of-the-imaging hill, I have to say, for event viewing like March Madness or the Oscars, the MovieMate has real game.

What you get:

The MovieMate 60 offers about the fastest, easiest route I've seen to a big honkin' image.

The MovieMate is exactly this: a reasonably bright 2,000-lumen, pretty clear standard-def LCD projector in a box about the size of the original microprint Oxford English Dictionary.

It has a built-in traditional DVD player, two 10-watt stereo speakers and a bunch of audio and video connectors. While not exactly portable, at 9 pounds, the thing has a handle. And Epson gets credit for making the system idiot-proof to set up: Clear a desk. Clear a wall. Plop the thing down, plug your cable box, PC or game system in the back. Push a couple of buttons -- be sure to open the built-in lens cover. Get the lamp going, point it at the wall, get a feel for the focus controls. And poof! There on the wall or screen in front of you -- maybe 10 feet away -- is a decent-ish 150-inch image.

Now, for sure, this ginormous picture is nowhere

near

the best image you've ever seen (more on that in a second). But for $700, you get a

12-foot

picture!

Size makes up for a lot of sins.

What you don't get:

A truly high-quality projector, DVD player or sound system.

To say this unit is limited is an understatement. It cranks out a pedestrian 540P line image, about half the resolution of even a basic HDTV. And pixel quality, contrast, audio and color rendering, particularly when you optimize the system for big images via the DVD player, is gritty, to be kind.

If you are looking for a jaw-dropping viewing experience, save your money. The MovieMate is not for you.

Bottom line:

The MovieMate 60 is strictly a value play for hugeness. It gets you a really big picture. Really easily. And if you don't ask it to do too much and keep it about fun, like for family and friend viewing, it's tough to beat.

Jonathan Blum is an independent technology writer and analyst living in Westchester, N.Y. He has written for The Associated Press and Popular Science and appeared on FoxNews and The WB.