Only very few home electronics companies dare selling projectors housing a DVD player. There’s a good reason for this: The things aren’t really a picnic for the eyes, as this example from last month shows. And even established brands like Epson fail to deliver well-designed hardware in this niche. Case in point: Their new dreamio EH-DM30 [JP].
The projector actually houses not only a DVD player but also speakers (10W×2ch). It produces 720p images (1,280×800 resolution), features a 3,000:1 contrast ratio and 2,500 lumens brightness. The built-in DVD player supports JPEG/MP3/WMA and DivX/DivX Ultra files. Plug your USB stick with movies you got off the web into the projector and you can watch them directly via the stick. Needless to say, the EH-DM30 also features an HDMI interface.
Epson plans to start selling the device in Japan on October 29 for $1,300. The company hasn’t said yet whether it will offer the projector outside Japan as well.