There's a convenient alternative to LCD or plasma widescreens, which gives you a much bigger screen for less money. Home cinema digital projectors are far from the dim, fuzzy picture-makers of a few years back and Epson's latest budget projector has one interesting extra feature up its sleeve, or in this case, hidden in its base.

Smartly kitted out in black and white, the EMP-DM1 comes complete with a slot-loading DVD player underneath, which can take DVD movies or those encoded in DivX format. You can control playback from controls inset into the top cover of the projector, or from the comprehensive remote control.

Slide a disc into the player, press play and you're away. There are speakers built into the case of the projector, too, so it really is a go-anywhere device and comes complete with a slightly padded carrying case and a fold-out handle.

The concept is great, but there are a few shortcomings in what is still a budget device. The picture, while being reasonably clear thanks to Epson's patented 3LCD projection system, has a comparatively low resolution of 854 x 480 pixels (480p) and a brightness of just 1,000 ANSI lumens. It may be HD-compatible, but this simply means it will take an HD signal of up to 1125i and render it down. If you project the image large, you can see the pixels.

There's a keystone adjustment, so you can pitch the projector up or down slightly and still get a squared-off picture, but there's no way of adjusting for lateral movement, if you can't arrange it to be square onto the screen.

This may not matter, particularly if you use the projector for the occasional DVD or to work with PC games, where the action is too fast for you to get tied up in picture quality. This is the kind of projector you'd take to a party for some big screen entertainment, but probably not one you'd choose as a main display, if you're a film enthusiast.

The EMP-DM1 can take PC, composite and RGB inputs and there's a USB socket, too, so you can view digital stills, as well as videos. Outputs include a stereo jack for headphones and a coaxial one for digital audio. The sound quality from the internal speakers, lacking any real bass, is such that you'll probably want to connect separate external units for better reproduction.

The concept of the EMP-DM1 is great and for projection in an environment where you're not too fussy about picture or sound quality, it's a really convenient alternative to a TV. It's not an HD projector, though. For that you have to pay more than twice as much as this reasonably priced projector/DVD combo.