Epson Moverio BT-100 review

For a self-contained unit, poor file format support is almost unforgivable – even though 1080p playback is possible, the unit only supports MPEG-4 files in MP3 format. Some formats, such as AVI files, simply won’t appear in the gallery at all. It also isn’t Google certified, so you won’t be able to access additional codecs or media players from the Android market – Epson expects developers to approach the company directly if they want to produce apps for the headset, so we aren’t expecting it to have a huge catalogue of apps any time soon. However, you do get a browser, which lets you browse the web using the unit’s built in Wi-Fi.

There are no video inputs on the control box, preventing you from playing video from a third-party source, although there is a 3.5mm audio jack which lets you use your own earphones rather than the rather basic ones that come with the headset.

Image quality was reasonable, with the two projectors’ 960×540 images looking like a large TV in front of you. Video looked crisp and brightness was reasonable, but dependent on the colour of the object in front of you. 3D video was less impressive – depth effects weren’t as immersive as on a TV or projector, despite being much closer to your face, and we noticed a lot of crosstalk and ghosted images.

Lasting almost six hours in our light-use battery test, the Moverio headset should last long enough to play back two or three films, but little more. Epson expects it to appeal to business travellers that prefer to watch films in private, but its limited file-format support and unpolished interface mean we’d rather stick with a tablet with a stick-on privacy filter.