Canon Realis SX60 Projector
Mitsubishi HC5000 Home Theater Projector
Mitsubishi HC3000 Home Theater Projector
Mitsubishi HC100 Home Theater Projector
Mitsubishi XD450U Projector
Mitsubishi XD460U Projector
Mitsubishi XD205U Projector

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Canon Realis SX60 Projector
Evan Powell, June 19, 2006
ProjectorCentral.com

The highly anticipated Canon Realis SX60 has begun ship in the last few weeks, and the wait was definitely worth it. This is the latest of the native 4:3 format SXGA+ projectors, which means it has physical pixel array of 1400x1050. That is essentially double the number of pixels of a conventional XGA projector. But the thing that makes the SX60 unique is that it features reflective LCOS technology, rather than the more common LCD or DLP found in most projectors. Compared to LCD or DLP, LCOS produces an almost invisible pixel matrix, so the image is as smooth and virtually free of any pixel structure as it can get. For this reason it is a technology preferred by many home theater enthusiasts.

Brightness: 2500 ANSI lumens

Contrast: 1000:1 (2000:1 in Home Cinema mode)

Light engine: three 1400x1050 resolution 0.7" LCOS chips.

Compatibility: HDTV 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, and computer resolutions up to 1600x1200. Full NTSC / PAL / SECAM.

Lens and Throw Distance: 1.70:1 powered zoom/focus lens. Throws a 100" diagonal image from 9.7' to 16.3'.

Lamp Life: 3,000 hours in normal mode, 4,000 hours in eco-mode.

Connection Panel. One composite video, one S-Video, one VGA port, one monitor pass through, one DVI port, one USB port, one service port for maintenance, one 1/8" audio in, one kensington lock.

Warranty: Three years.

The Canon SX60 is designed to address two markets. One is high resolution commercial presentation of text and graphics, and the other is home theater. In fact, this is the first 4:3 format projector we've seen in a while that is being specifically targeted to the home theater market. It is easy to understand why. Despite the widespread conventional wisdom that says the 16:9 HDTV format is the "right" format for home theater, there is still a large, unfilled consumer demand for high quality video projection in 4:3.

The reason for this is simple—there is a huge amount of 4:3 video material on the market, and there always will be. Most TV series that have been released on DVD are in 4:3. All of the great classic films made prior to 1953 are in 4:3 (actually, so are all of the lousy films made prior to that year). Many superb documentaries like the Ken Burns' films on Jazz and the Civil War are in 4:3, as are great historical music performances never to be repeated—The Intimate Duke Ellington (1967), Elvis—The '68 Comeback Special, James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theater, Simon & Garfunkel Concert in Central Park, and the Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" to name a few.

Most people setting up home theaters today care more about widescreen DVD and HDTV performance, and not as much about 4:3. But for those avid fans of 4:3 format materials, 16:9 just doesn't cut it. With a 16:9 screen and projector, you must put the 4:3 image in the middle with black bars (or columns) on the sides. That is fine for regular broadcast TV since that stuff is not designed for large format presentation anyway. But classic films lose a lot of visual impact when screened in smaller format.

There are some who fervently believe that 4:3 is the only way to go for great home theater. That is because the 16:9 screen often leaves some vertical space on the wall above and below the screen unused. So another option is to install a large 4:3 screen of the same width you'd have selected in 16:9, and illuminate it with a 4:3 video projector like the Canon SX60. Meanwhile, all of the 16:9 material you display will be presented in the same size it would have been if you'd gone with a 16:9 screen to begin with. This is the right way to go for those who have a particular passion for large format 4:3 viewing. If you are one of them, then Canon built the SX60 with you in mind.

Brightness issues. The SX60 is officially rated at 2500 ANSI lumens. That sounds pretty bright for a home theater projector. But like all projectors, it doesn't deliver anywhere near that much when optimized for video. Remember that the unit is built to address both commercial display and home video, and you can select settings for each that radically alter the light output. The SX60 comes with five precalibrated operating modes—Standard, Presentation, Movie, sRGB, and Home Cinema. When using the factory defaults in Presentation Mode, for example, whites are boosted to give you bright spreadsheets and graphics in a conference room setting. Our test unit measured 1788 ANSI lumens in that mode. Standard Mode is almost as bright, but has better color performance, and that measured 1740 ANSI lumens.

However, when we put our SX60 into Home Cinema Mode, an internal mechanism (variable iris or filter--not sure which) was activated, and lumen output dropped all the way to 443. On top of that, you can choose to operate in eco-mode to extend lamp life and reduce the already quiet fan noise. With Home Cinema and eco-mode both selected, the lumen output measured 383.

In theory, the advantage to Home Cinema mode is that it boosts contrast incrementally. The official specification claims contrast of 2000:1 in Home Cinema mode, and 1000:1 in all other modes in which the iris is not closed down. Contrast is in fact increased somewhat in Home Cinema mode, but ONLY in a pitch dark room and only at the cost of a radical reduction in light output. Once you introduce ambient light into the viewing space, the improvement in contrast is neutralized, and you will be better off operating in any of the modes for which the iris is open. For our taste, the Home Cinema mode lacks sufficient contrast to make up for the loss in lumen output. In practical terms it is too dim for anything above a 100" diagonal screen. On the other hand, we'd certainly use it if we had a dark room and our desired screen size was in the range of 90". But two of the great benefits of the SX60 are super high resolution and higher light output—both of which cry out for a BIG image, or at least certainly bigger than 90" to 100".

Use in Home Theater. Several factors combine to make the SX60 a particularly good choice for 4:3 format home theater. One is the complete lack of visible pixel structure, which is a benefit of LCOS as noted earlier. Another is the fact that the light engine contains three LCOS panels, one each for red, green, and blue. That means there is no need for a spinning color wheel like those used in single-chip DLP projectors. Hence, there is no possibility that viewers will encounter the distracting rainbow artifacts that can be seen on competing DLP projectors in this same price/resolution class.

Yet another key benefit of the SX60 is the relative lack of digital noise in video when using the DVI input. In side by side comparisons with other SXGA+ DLP projectors that we have reviewed recently, the SX60 produced a cleaner, more stable image, but only on the DVI port. With component video, overall noise levels between the SX60 and its DLP competitors were comparable.

In short, due to invisible pixelation, low digital noise, and the absence of rainbows, the Canon SX60 is capable of producing a smoother, more filmlike video image than any of the other 1400x1050 products we've tested in the past few months. However, the one obvious shortcoming of the SX60 relative to its DLP competition is its lower contrast. So the buyer is faced with a trade-off—if you want 1400x1050 resolution, you can go with one of the DLP projectors to get higher contrast and deeper blacks, and accept increased noise and the potential for rainbow artifacts as part of the bargain. Or you can go with the SX60's smoother image that does not have quite the depth of black and range of contrast. In our view, the Canon SX60 wins the trade-off, and would be our preferred choice for home theater use.

A further note on operating modes. The five precalibrated operating modes can be entirely overridden by the user. Standard, Presentation, Movie, sRGB, and Home Cinema each have their factory default settings. But if you don't plan to use the projector for Presentation use, for example, you have the ability to adjust brightness, contrast, sharpness, and gamma to your liking. You also have the ability to adjust color hue and saturation on each of the six primary and secondary colors. So in fact, you can transform the Presentation mode into an optimized video mode of your choosing. All five modes can be completely recalibrated to your taste, with the one limitation being that Home Cinema mode activates that internal mechanism to drastically reduce light output and increase contrast.

After calibrating one of the non-Home Cinema modes to optimum video, we measured its lumen output with the low lamp setting to be 795 lumens, and with normal lamp the reading was 890 lumens. This is plenty of light to fill a 120" to 150" diagonal screen in a dark viewing space. We would select a low-gain high-contrast gray screen for best results.

The primary adjustments needed to derive the best video performance were a reduction of brightness and a substantial increase in color saturation settings. The degree of increase in color saturation that was needed varied by the type of material being viewed. For instance, once Movie mode was set for a perfectly balanced display of a contemporary DVD such as Swimming Pool, the newly restored The Wizard of Oz was oversaturated. Meanwhile, a b/w film such as Casablanca manifested subtle hints of color that should not have been there. These problems are neatly eliminated by recalibrating each of the operating modes for optimum display of different types of material.

What about 16:9? Clearly the SX60 is designed to deliver the best 4:3 viewing experience possible. But it also produces a natural, smooth, extremely filmlike 16:9 image as well. Now folks, let's be clear. Let's say most of the video material you care about is 16:9 widescreen DVD and HDTV. Let's say you don't care much about classic films, music videos, and vintage TV series on DVD. If that is the case, then get a 16:9 projector with a 16:9 screen. Projectors like the Optoma HD7100 or the HD72 are less expensive and higher in contrast, and will probably suit your needs better. But it makes no sense to compare the SX60 to the 16:9 products--it is rather like comparing a Porsche to a Range Rover.

The Canon SX60 is a breed apart, a unique animal designed to produce excellent results with both 4:3 and 16:9, so it is built for people who care about both formats equally. It is a native 4:3 projector, so it makes no sense to pair it with a 16:9 screen in order to watch 16:9 material. If you do, you will not be able to see any 4:3 material in anything other than a highly compromised fashion. There is no aspect ratio mode that lets you place a 4:3 image in the middle of a 16:9 frame. Your choices would be to view 4:3 material full frame and let the top and bottom portions of the image spill onto the wall above and below your 16:9 screen, or view it in "true" mode, which is an unscaled "pixel for pixel" display that will produce a tiny image in the center of your 1400x787 16:9 pixel matrix. All things considered, neither option is attractive.

Miscellaneous observations. For the most part, Canon has done a superb job with the details on the SX60. Fan noise in low lamp mode is extremely low, and in normal lamp mode it is still an impressively quiet projector. Nobody will be complaining about fan noise on this unit. In addition, you can use the normal (that is "high") lamp mode without worrying too much about lamp costs--lamp life at the higher burn rate is 3,000 hours, and 4,000 in eco-mode.

The projector is highly responsive to the remote control, which has a range of over 40 feet. (If only all vendors could figure out how to do this! We get tired of having to point a remote at the projector to get a response.) Another nice feature is that the remote has an operating mode button, so after you have set up your custom calibrations for each operating mode, you can quickly toggle through them rather than having to go into the menu. The remote does not have an aspect ratio button—that would have been nice, but all things considered it is a nit in the larger picture.

The SX60's 1.7x powered zoom lens allows you to fill a 120" screen from a throw distance of anywhere between 11.7 and 19.6 feet, which is exceptional range, far greater than the lenses on any competing SXGA+ model.

Unfortunately, there is no vertical lens shift. One must work within the limits of the fixed geometry of the projector's lens. The centerline of the lens intersects the projected image at a point about 10% of the picture height above the bottom edge. That means if you are planning to rear shelf mount it high enough to overshoot the heads of the viewing audience, you will most likely need to tilt it downward and adjust via keystone. Most users will find that the ideal installation is a ceiling mount with an extension tube drop that minimizes the need to tilt the projector. Conversely, a coffee table placement is certainly an option also, since the zoom will give you a very large image from as little as twelve feet.

For whatever reasons, image sharpness is substantially improved on the SX60 over the previous SXGA+ model from Canon, the SX50. As noted above, there is (as one would expect) more noise in the picture with component video than there is with DVI, so make sure to use the DVI connection for best results. But other than that, the deinterlacing on interlaced component video is exceptionally clean, passing all of our jaggies tests with flying colors. We found no problems with image tearing on the SX60 as we did on SX50. Overall, the SX60 came through with a solid and impressive performance.

Competition

The Canon SX60 is the fourth SXGA+ projector we have reviewed in the last several months, the others being the Optoma EP910, the Dell 5100MP and the projectiondesign evo2sx+. These are all bright, portable 1400x1050 resolution projectors. However, the SX60 stands apart from the others in several ways. For one, it is LCOS, while the others are DLP, which means it is the only model that does not have a color wheel in the light engine. Since video is the application that produces the most bothersome side effects from the DLP color wheel, the SX60 holds a unique advantage in that buyers can go with this model without any worry that they or their family and friends will be bothered by rainbow artifacts.

Despite the fact that the SX60 is lower in contrast than its DLP competitors, the overall integrity and smoothness of the image makes it, in our view, the preferred model for home theater. We should hasten to add that Optoma, Dell, and projectiondesign did not intend for their products to be marketed for home theater use, whereas Canon clearly did. So the fact that the SX60 shows particularly well in video applications is not a surprise.

However, when it comes to other applications, the SX60 does not have the same unique advantages. In digital photography, for example, rainbow artifacts from DLP color wheels are not nearly as much of a problem due to the static images. Meanwhile, the incremental black level and contrast of DLP lends a product like the Optoma EP910 a distinct advantage over the SX60. While we'd use the SX60 for home theater over the EP910, we'd select the EP910 over the SX60 for the display of photography.

The Dell 5100MP is the least expensive of the group, and will appeal to those on a tighter budget, while the projectiondesign evo2sx+ is the most compact and road-friendly of the four. The fact is that each of these are unique products designed to meet a particular set of user needs. None of them outperforms the others across the board for all types of use.

Conclusion

If you are a regular reader of this site, you have heard me promote the concept of 4:3 format home theater as a real alternative to the "new" 16:9. There is just something magical about seeing the great films of the past displayed in large scale format, as they were experienced by audiences back in the 30's and 40's. It is a retro thing, and certainly a personal preference that not everyone shares. But once you've seen it, you will know what I am talking about.

As a side note, I would NOT go with a large scale 4:3 theater set up if standard 4:3 broadcast television was my main video diet. Jon Stewart is great, but he doesn't look particularly good blown up to 150" diagonal.

The advantage of the Canon SX60 is that it allows you to set up both 4:3 and a beautiful 16:9 image, so you get the true benefits of both. Ideally, you will match it with a 4:3 format screen, and add a masking system to open and close the face of the screen to fit the size of the image being projected. That way you have a solid black frame around everything you watch, which will substantially improve the viewing experience.

Given my particular passion for old classic films as well as the newer widescreen productions, for me personally, the Canon SX60 is the closet thing to a perfect home theater projector that I have yet seen under $5,000. If you share my interests in 4:3, I would encourage you to get to know the Canon SX60. Who knows, it might be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.



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Mitsubishi HC5000U Home Theater Projector
Evan Powell, October 25, 2006
ProjectorCentral.com

Mitsubishi is flexing some real muscle in the world of home theater projectors these days. Their recently released HD1000, a 720p projector retailing at $1,495 is an outstanding value for the money. And coming on the heels of that release is the flagship HC5000, which brings full 1080p resolution performance to market at a price tag of just $4,495. Being the lowest priced 1080p projector on the market, we expected Mitsubishi to cut a few corners to hit the aggressive price target. They did not. The HC5000 is a fully-loaded, high performance 1080p projector that clearly sets a new price/performance benchmark in the industry.

Specifications

ANSI lumens: 1000

Contrast (full on/off): 10,000:1

Light Engine: 1920x1080, native 16:9, 0.74" three-panel inorganic LCD, Micro Lens, with 160W UHP lamp.

Video Compatibility: 1080p/60/50/24, 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i. NTSC/PAL/SECAM.

Data Compatibility: Computer resolutions up to SXGA 1280x1024

Connection Panel: One HDMI, one DVI-D, one 15-pin VGA, one 3-RCA component input, one s-video, one composite, one 12V trigger, one 9-pin DSub serial port.

Lens and Throw Distance: 1.60:1 power zoom/focus lens with vertical and horizontal powered lens shift. Throws a 100" diagonal 16:9 image from 10.1' to 16.5'

Lamp Life: 2,000 hours, 5,000 hours in eco-mode

Warranty: Two years.


Product Overview

The HC5000 as sold in the United States comes in a sleek black case, and is officially designated the HC5000BL. The standard European version comes in white. However, if you want to ceiling mount your projector, quite often the preferred color is white so that it blends in with a white ceiling. You can get it in white upon request, even if you live in an area where the black case is the standard.

At the heart of the projector is a light engine that consists of three 1920x1080 resolution inorganic LCD panels and a 160-watt high pressure lamp that can last up to 5000 hours in the projector's low lamp operating mode. What is an "inorganic" LCD you wonder? To date most LCD panels have been made with organic compounds that can, with enough usage, begin to degrade over time. This degradation most typically occurs in the blue channel, and it can cause color shifts and reduced contrast. When this happens the LCD panel needs to be replaced. To eliminate this as a potential problem for users, the next generation LCD projectors will feature LCD panels made with inorganic compounds that are not susceptible to degradation over time. The HC5000 is one of the first LCD projectors to come to market with these newly designed LCD panels.

The HC5000 features a powered 1.6x zoom lens, power focus, and powered horizontal and vertical lens shift. With a 1.6x zoom lens the throw distance is quite flexible. For example, if you want to fill a 120" diagonal 16:9 screen the projector can be placed anywhere from 12 to almost 20 feet from the screen. However, there are some trade-offs to be aware of with longer range zoom lenses. First, lumen output will be affected in part by the zoom lens setting. The HC5000 is able to deliver more light to the screen when the zoom is in its widest angle setting (that is, the shortest throw distance for a given image size). How big of a deal is this? The maximum light output we measured on our test unit with the lens at the wide angle setting was 918 lumens. Simply changing the lens setting to its maximum telephoto position reduced lumen output to 694, or about a 24% reduction.

This phenomenon is an optical property of all zoom lenses, so it is not anything unique to the HC5000. Basically, when you shift a zoom lens from wide angle to telephoto, you extend the distance between the optical elements in the lens. This restricts the amount of light that can get through it. So a zoom lens' lumen output differential between its max wide angle and max telephoto settings is determined in part by the length of the zoom range. A 1.3x zoom lens will have a more modest lumen output variation between its most extreme wide angle and telephoto settings, and a 2.0x zoom lens will have more--sometimes up to 40%.

That means you should always use the wide angle end of a zoom lens, right? Wrong. At its longest telephoto throw setting, though lumen output is reduced, the screen is more evenly illuminated. The reason is that the cone of projected light is narrower, and the light strikes the screen from edge to edge in closer to a perpendicular orientation. That enables the light to reflect back from the screen more evenly. Therefore, unless the extra lumen output is really needed (and assuming the room space allows it) we normally suggest setting the projector back as far as you can and using the longer throw portion of the lens.

In addition to the HC5000's zoom range flexibility, it also offers powered vertical and horizontal lens shift. The vertical shift lets you move the projected image up and down a full 2.5 picture heights from top to bottom. At its neutral position, the centerline of the lens intersects the center of the projected image. Practically speaking, this means the projector can be either ceiling mounted or placed on a rear shelf, whichever is more convenient for the user. Ceiling mounting may require you to use the extreme end of the vertical lens shift range, particularly if the projector is mounted flush with the ceiling. At the extreme ends of the shift range the lumen output is reduced by about 10% but there is no perceptible compromise in image quality or brightness uniformity.

Though vertical shift range is extensive, horizontal shift is quite modest in range. From the neutral position the image can be shifted left or right not more than 5% of the picture width. This enables you to easily make small adjustments to fill a fixed screen, but the projector must be placed on a perpendicular line that is close to the horizontal center of the screen.

Many users will prefer to place the HC5000 on a relatively high rear shelf that allows for plenty of room to overshoot the audience. This will allow you to leave the lens close to its optically neutral position with just a mild downward projection angle. There are numerous advantages to this type of installation. Rear shelf placement makes the projector less obvious in the room, saves the cost of the ceiling mount and drywall work, and reduces the length (and cost) of the video cables. Rear shelf placement also gives you easier access to the unit for cleaning or changing the air filter, which should be done every month or two depending on the amount of dust in the environment. If the HC5000 is ceiling mounted, you don't need to dismount it to change the filter, but you do need to climb a ladder. The rear shelf placement can save you that trouble. For many people it is simply the easier way to install and maintain a home theater projector.

One of the features many folks are looking for in a 1080p projector is its ability to recognize a 1080p signal being delivered at 24 frames per second, rather than the more conventional 1080p/60. The reason is that the new high definition DVD formats, Blu-ray and HD-DVD, encode film transfers in 1080p/24. The Blu-ray and HD-DVD groups will both be delivering players that can output 1080p/24 (several of the Blu-ray players coming out this holiday season already have this feature). The advantage is that if the projector can recognize a 1080p/24 signal and display it without converting it to 1080p/60, then certain motion artifacts associated with that conversion will be eliminated.

The owner's manual and Mitsubishi's website both report that the HC5000 will recognize 1080p/50 and 1080p/60 signals but not 1080p/24. However, according to Mitsubishi product management, this feature was added after the specs were published and the HC5000 will indeed accept 1080p/24. We were hoping that our new Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player would have arrived by now so we could test the HC5000 with 1080p/24 Blu-ray media. Unfortunately, the Pioneer isn't arriving until next week, and our HC5000 test unit must go on to other reviewers for the time being. We plan to follow up and perform this particular test when we can get the HC5000 and the Pioneer Blu-ray player together under one roof.

The HC5000 has a standard lamp mode and low power mode. In standard mode the lamp life is rated at 2000 hours, and in low power it is 5000 hours. Everyone likes the concept of a 5000 hour lamp, but the trade-off is that you cut lumen output by 23%. For users of this projector that may or may not be a good deal. If you intend to use a smaller screen such as 100" diagonal or smaller, the low lamp mode will have plenty of lumen output to light up the screen. However, the HC5000's 1080p resolution, excellent contrast, and a video-optimized lumen output in a typical range of 450 to 500 lumens makes this projector a good candidate for larger than normal screen sizes. And with a larger screen size, you'll want the extra lumen power.

There are two reasons people tend to opt for low lamp mode on digital projectors. One is to reduce fan noise and the other is to increase lamp life and save the expense of the replacement lamp. On the HC5000 fan noise is a non-issue even in high lamp mode. This is one of the quietest projectors on the market. Low lamp mode makes it virtually silent, but even with the lamp in standard mode, the audible noise is extremely low. So users won't be opting for low lamp mode just to reduce fan noise.

Furthermore, the replacement lamp for this model retails at $459, or about 10% of the cost of the projector. That is not a big budget item for buyers who are spending over $4,000 for the projector to begin with. Our guess is that many users will be opting to run the HC5000 in standard power mode since it will give the screen image a bit more sparkle, and they can run in that mode without worrying about the noise.

Performance

It is difficult to restrain our enthusiasm for the HC5000 for the simple reason that it excels in several key ways. Yes, it is 1080p resolution and it costs only $4,495. But beyond that, it is bright for a home theater projector, it has superb color accuracy, it has the most precise deinterlacing and scaling we've ever seen on a projector under $10,000, and it can be set up in a variety of ways to meet the needs of different types of users.

The HC5000 is rated at 1000 ANSI lumens of brightness. In its brightest operating mode we measured our test unit at 918 lumens with lens at wide angle setting, and 694 lumens at maximum telephoto. This is much closer to full spec than we find on most projectors. At this level of lumen output, color is not optimized and it is too bright for most dark theater use. However, you can certainly view sporting events and other video material in ambient light if you are not too picky about color precision.

Once color balance is optimized, lumen output is reduced. In standard lamp mode we measured 532 lumens with the lens at wide angle, and low lamp mode dropped the lumen readings to 410. These readings should each be reduced another 24% if you shift the zoom to maximum telephoto. But given the unit's ample black level and contrast, this is enough light to fill a 120" screen. You can go larger if you want, but apparent contrast and color saturation are always compromised as you push a projector to ever increasing image sizes. So to obtain the best possible results, we would keep it to 120" diagonal if setting it up for our own home theater.

One of the most remarkable attributes of the HC5000 is its color accuracy. After switching to calibration settings for optimum color accuracy, we were able to get close to 6500K readings at every IRE level except 90 and 100 IRE, where it shifted a bit toward a warmer 6000K. These settings produced an impressively natural color palette, about as close to ideal as one can get on a digital projector with this type of high pressure lamp.

The HC5000 has Silicon Optix HQV ("Hollywood Quality Video") processing onboard. The deinterlacing and scaling is virtually flawless, and as noted above, it is the best we've ever seen on a projector under $10,000. We have a battery of deinterlacing test clips that have always been particularly difficult for any projector to render cleanly, but with these clips the HC5000 performed with an almost jaw-dropping precision. It is difficult to imagine how it can get any better.

Our test unit came with the Sharpness control set to 2, which is about the middle of the adjustment scale that runs from -10 to +10. For our taste, 2 is way too high. We preferred the -10 setting as it enabled the projector to deliver the most natural, life-like images. Many users assume that taking sharpness to its lowest setting will produce an excessively soft image. On many projectors it does, but not this one. On the HC5000 the minimum sharpness setting simply eliminates artificial edge enhancement and makes the picture more natural and life-like.

A life-like picture is really what the HC5000 is all about. The 1080p LCD panels with Micro-Lens technology make pixelation a non-issue, the color accuracy is virtually as good as it gets, contrast and color saturation is definitely leading edge for LCD technology, and the deinterlacing and scaling is perfectly natural. As long as sharpness is not overdriven, all of these factors act together to render a remarkably realistic image, even as compared to some of the other 1080p products on the market at this time.

If there is any flaw to mention at all, it would be in the area of digital noise. The level of noise in the HC5000's picture is typical of most good home theater projectors. It is not excessive by any means, nor is it distracting. Most people accept it and ignore it as a natural by-product of digital video technology. But lower levels of noise have been achieved in a few of the very latest products released this fall, so this would be one area in which Mitsubishi could take one further step closer toward the elusive goal of the perfect projector.

Conclusion

The HC5000 is the third projector this fall to receive a solid 5-star rating, and there have only been four models so rated since we introduced the 5-star system. This is not because we have relaxed our rating standards of late. What we are seeing is significant leaps forward in picture quality for the money—true advances in the state of the art that warrant high acclaim.

With the HC5000, Mitsubishi has done a great deal more than just hit a leading edge, low price point with 1080p. The projector is remarkable for its beautifully natural picture quality, as well as a host of features that makes it about as user friendly and easy to install as any projector out there. We are very pleased to give the HC5000 our strongest possible recommendation, and we offer our warmest congratulations to the product managers and engineers at Mitsubishi for a job exceedingly well done.



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Mitsubishi HC3000U Home Theater Projector
Evan Powell, November 11, 2005
ProjectorCentral.com

The Mitsubishi HC3000 home theater projector, one of the most highly anticipated new product releases of the season, has just begun to appear on dealer shelves. It has attracted a great deal of attention for two reasons: (1) it is the first DLP projector with native 720p HD resolution to come through the magic $3,000 price barrier, and (2) it is the first DLP projector to come to market featuring Texas Instrument's new BrilliantColor™ technology. For those who have been waiting for high resolution DLP projectors to drop to prices that can be easily managed by the typical consumer, the wait is over. The HC3000 is a another step forward in DLP price/performance, and it delivers a lot of picture for the money.

One of the distinctive features of the HC3000 is its native resolution of 1280x768, rather than the conventional 1280x720 that we find on most competing home theater projectors in its price class. This is a native 15:9 aspect ratio rather than 16:9. There are a couple of advantages to this format. First, computer signals in WXGA (1280x768), or standard XGA (1024x768) can be displayed full frame without scaling or cropping. So, for example, those who wish to Internet surf on the big screen can view the computer image in its clearest native form. Meanwhile, all 16:9 widescreen video material can still be displayed full frame in native 1280x720. When used exclusively in this mode, the extra 48 lines of physical display enable you to move the image up and down slightly, providing a modest digital lens shift function that can make installation a bit easier. This helps to compensate in a minor way for the absence of physical lens shift.

The other unique feature of the HC3000 is the BrilliantColor technology from Texas Instruments. As announced by TI and reported here previously, BrilliantColor consists of a new color processing chipset and a new color wheel design that includes filters for both the three primary and three complementary colors—red, green, blue, cyan, magenta, and yellow. However, in this particular implementation, Mitsubishi has used TI's new BrilliantColor chipset and adapted it for use with a conventional six-segment RGB-RGB color wheel rotating at a 4x speed.

In operation, you can opt to activate or deactivate the BrilliantColor system by toggling On or Off in the menu. When BrilliantColor is activated, the picture becomes immediately brighter. Blacks and shadow values remain perceptibly unchanged while midtones and highlights increase in luminance by about 25%. All colors increase in luminance by the same ratio, and gray values do as well. Though midtones and highlights are brighter, there is no visible increase in color saturation. The result is that it opens up mid-tone information nicely. However, depending upon how it is calibrated and the screen size and material being used with it, it may overdrive the whites. A reduction in the contrast control may be required to bring the intensity of the whites down to a manageable level.

Most HC3000 users will opt to run with BrilliantColor engaged, as the picture typically looks a bit dull by comparison when it is not operating. However, this will depend on the material being displayed. For example, with material like HD sporting events, or the television series Lost in HD, or animated DVDs like Toy Story and Shrek, the BrilliantColor feature delivers a more engaging image overall. However, when we viewed a live indoor concert being broadcast in HD, the scene itself was already extremely high in contrast due to stage lighting and spotlighting. With this type of material the color and contrast appeared more natural with BrilliantColor deactivated. Thus, you will want to experiment a bit and find your own preferences.

Regardless of whether BrilliantColor is activated or not, the HC3000 manifests the classic dynamic range that DLP technology has become famous for. When Shrek and Donkey lie on their backs and look up at the constellations in the night sky, the sky is solid black and the stars are a brilliant white. When the Universal Pictures logo revolves into place in front of the blue earth, the logo glows a dazzling white against the deep black space in the background. Many DLP fans appreciate this, for projectors like the HC3000 handle these scenes with deep black and sparkling whites with greater dynamic range than any of the LCD competition. And indeed, the eye is naturally mesmerized by the sparkle of extreme contrast.

The HC3000 has an internal motor-driven iris that you can choose to open or close via a button on the remote control. The excellent black levels just noted are obtained even with the mechanical iris in the open position. But they get a bit deeper when you close the iris. This reduces lumen output by one-third, and produces a subtle increase in contrast. Whether you want to run with the iris opened or closed will depend in part on the screen size you intend to go with. But it is a nice option to have available.

We must note that on the newest digital projectors that are capable of extreme dynamic range, this effect can be over the top to the point where it is artificial--whites are often overdriven to the point that they glow. This is not good. When subtitles appear on the screen, they should look naturally white without being distractingly bright. When Bond appears in his tux in a casino, his shirt should appear as white fabric without any hint of a brilliant glow. On our HC3000 as calibrated out of the box, the highlights were overdriven, and the contrast setting needed to be reduced a bit to tone it down.

In terms of overall image quality, the HC3000 is one of the best values on the market as far as DLP projectors are concerned. At prices under $3,000, it delivers the excellent blacks and contrast that DLP fans want, along with the beautiful HD performance that comes from 720p resolution DLP chips. HD material looks reasonably sharp and clear, and certainly on par with most other 720p DLP projectors we've seen. Standard definition material is scaled with good precision. We've seen a few 720p DLP projectors with a sharper image, but not many, and none anywhere near this price range. Color saturation is as good as or better than any DLP product we've seen anywhere in this price range. We saw very little dithering in the shadow areas. Meanwhile, the distinctive DLP noise or jitter is present on this model, just as it is on many other DLP products. It is most evident in midtones and highlights, and it imparts a subtle graininess to the image overall. However, this is a common characteristic of DLP, and it is not more apparent on the HC3000 than it is on most other DLP projectors. The bottom line is that the HC3000 performs as well or better than other 720p DLP products that cost a lot more. You cannot get a deeper black level in this resolution for this money. As such it represents a uniquely compelling value in the present market.

One other unique feature of the HC3000 is its filter-free design. Most projectors have air filters that need to be cleaned every month or two. Not so on this unit--you can install it and forget about filter maintenance forever. That will be an unusual and welcome experience for folks who are on their second or third projectors.

The most evident shortcoming of the HC3000 is the limitations inherent in the optics. The short 1.2x zoom range on the lens as well as the absence of physical lens shift imposes some restrictions on how the HC3000 can be installed. The 1.2x zoom lens allows for modest variances in throw distance to obtain any desired image size. If you want a 100" diagonal 16:9 image, you can get it by placing the projector between 12 and 14.5 feet from the screen. Furthermore, there is no optical lens shift, but rather a built-in fixed throw angle offset of about 1/3 the picture height. That is, if the projected image is, say 120" diagonal, the picture height will be 59", and at this size, the bottom edge of the projected image will be about 20" above the centerline of the lens. The top edge of the image will be 79", or about 6.6 feet above the centerline of the lens.

This means that careful consideration needs to be given to where you intend to place the HC3000 to achieve your desired image size. If you place it on a table between the seats in the viewing area, it needs to be a very low table. If it were 18" in height as many coffee tables are, the top of a 120" diagonal image will be about 8.3 feet above the floor. Unless you have elevated seating, that would force the viewer to look up at the screen—something you want to avoid since it causes chronic strain on the neck. You have the option to tilt the projector to lower the image; you may correct the resulting geometric distortion with keystone adjustments, but that is not the ideal way to set up any projector. The best placement in this situation would be to put the projector on, or very near the floor. (However, do not set it on a carpet, as it will block the intake vents and cause overheating; make sure it is mounted on a clean, hard surface.)

Mounting the HC3000 on a shelf behind the seating area is not going to be practical for most users. If placed in its standard orientation, it will project the image too high to be manageable, and a radical tilt would be required to compensate for it. As per the manual, the projector may not be inverted and placed on a rear shelf as it interferes with the cooling system.

Therefore, the best solution for many HC3000 users will be to ceiling mount it. As an example, if you have a nine-foot ceiling, the HC3000 will throw a 120" image downward with the same offset noted above. Thus it will strike the wall with the top edge about two feet below the ceiling and the bottom edge about two feet above the floor. This would be an ideal placement for optimal screen illumination, since the light is thrown downward at a modest angle, and bounced back into the viewing area at a similar angle.

The point of this discussion is to underscore the fact that the HC3000 is somewhat restrictive in installation options compared to many other home theater projectors due to its short zoom range and lack of physical lens shift. As always, before ordering any components for a home theater, you must first determine the screen size you want and where you want it located. Then verify that the projector you are considering can be located in a comfortable position to fill the screen without resorting to tilts and keystone adjustments.

Conclusion

The Mitsubishi HC3000 may be viewed as a breakthrough product in the world of DLP technology for having pushed 1280x768 resolution to the lowest price points yet. The pixel matrix of 768 lines, which is rare at this time in home theater projectors, adds a valuable dimension for those who wish to use their projector for both video and data display, as XGA and WXGA computer signals can be viewed in their native unscaled, and/or uncropped formats. The BrilliantColor feature brightens up the picture and is an added benefit for most types of viewing material.

Overall, the HC3000 is a solid, impressive projector. We would have liked to see a longer zoom range and physical lens shift, features that would make the HC3000 more adaptable to a wider array of installation challenges and less dependent upon ceiling mounting. Nevertheless, for those who have a room and seating layout into which the HC3000 can be accommodated with ease, it is an excellent product that will be able to deliver years of beautiful home theater entertainment.



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Mitsubishi HC100U Home Theater Projector
Bill Livolsi, April 21, 2005
ProjectorCentral.com

In the past six months there have been several entry-level home theater projectors of exceptional quality released. Together they redefine what a low resolution projector is capable of. The latest addition to this group is the Mitsubishi HC100U Colorview, and it has a lot to offer.

Specifications.
1300 ANSI lumens, 2000:1 contrast, native 16:9 widescreen format, 854x480 resolution DLP chip with a 2x speed four-segment color wheel.

Compatibility.
HDTV 1080i, 720p, 625p, 525p, 480p, and computer resolutions up to 1152x870. Full NTSC / PAL / SECAM.

Lens and Throw Distance.
1.20:1 manual zoom/focus lens. Throws a 100" diagonal image from 11'7" to 14'1", depending on zoom.

Lamp Life.
2,000 hours in high-brightness mode, 3,000 hours in standard mode.

Connection Panel.
One composite video, one S-Video, One set of standard YPbPr component inputs, one 15-pin VGA port, one DVI port that supports DVI-D with HDCP, two sets of RCA audio-in ports, one 1/8" audio in port, and one RS-232C port for an external control.

Installation Options.
Table mount, rear shelf mount, ceiling mount.

Warranty.
Two years, 90 days for lamp.

Performance
The HC100 stands out in many ways, not least among them being lumen output. The HC100 is rated at a maximum of 1300 lumens, which makes it one of the brightest 854x480 projectors available at the time of this review (When this projector was announced at CES 2005, there was an error on the spec sheet that claimed 1500 lumens; this is incorrect). However, the more important number is the lumen output when set for optimum video – in this case, approximately 300 ANSI lumens, which is easily bright enough to provide a pleasant viewing experience in a darkened home theater environment.

If you need more light, there are several ways to boost lumen output without sacrificing too much image quality – i.e. enable CineRichColor, which will raise lumen output in the highlights about 20%, turn off sRGB, or switch the lamp to high-power. Setting the lamp to high power boosts lumen output approximately 15%, and reduces lamp life from 3000 to 2000 hours.

Brightness uniformity on our test unit was approximately 83%, which is better than average for this class of projector. We saw no visible hotspots and the video image appears to be evenly illuminated from side to side.

The HC100 uses Texas Instrument's DLP DarkChip2, which delivers superb contrast and solid, deep black level. Shadow detail is rarely blocked up or muddy, and overall the picture has excellent dynamic range.

Color performance is top-notch, even straight out of the box. In sRGB mode, the HC100 takes color adjustment out of the hands of the end user by disabling the hue and saturation controls, and delivers a well-saturated picture that adheres almost perfectly to NTSC color standards without requiring calibration. When not using sRGB mode, however, colors have a tendency to appear undersaturated, especially reds. We found that disabling CineRichColor helped to eliminate this issue, though it comes at the expense of decreased highlight brightness. It is up to the user to find the right level of compromise on these adjustments.

The onboard motion-adaptive deinterlacing capability is one of the HC100's strongest suits. Rapid motion in even the most difficult scenes was handled with minimal artifacts. If you have a progressive scan DVD player, you may still want to opt for the component interlaced output and let the HC100 do the deinterlacing, for it is possible that the HC100's deinterlacing capability is stronger than that in your DVD player. Try it both ways and see which set up gives you the best results.

One of the advantages of the HC100's native 854x480 resolution is its ability to display standard- and enhanced-definition material without vertical scaling. This means that 480-line NTSC DVD material can be displayed with exceptional sharpness and clarity.

Furthermore, in what is becoming a pleasant trend in 854x480 projectors, the HC100's scaling of high definition material exceeded our expectations. With 720p or 1080i signal, the unit compresses the signals cleanly. Despite its low resolution, the HC100's HDTV performance is impressive and competitive with higher-resolution projectors.

The HC100's performance with video game systems is excellent. However your choice of an input signal makes a difference. Using a composite signal, the image quality is acceptable, though not as good as it is when using component video. With an Xbox set to 16:9 output and using a component connection, the HC100 performed well with any game we tried with it. You may want to set the lamp to high-power and gamma to standard for gaming use. Using cinema settings, video games lacked some of the dynamic range that the projector is capable of generating.

Feature Set
One unusual and noteworthy feature is the HC100's sealed light path. This means that the projector's light engine is sealed off, eliminating the need for an air filter. This saves you the little project of having to clean or replace the air filter every month or two, as is required with most digital projectors. This feature decreases the hassle of owning a front projector - until you need to replace the lamp, you can more or less ignore it without any adverse effects.

The HC100 features a versatile color temperature control; there are presets for 5900, 6500, and 9300 Kelvin, and a setting labeled "User" that allows you to adjust the contrast and brightness of red and blue to their liking in order to achieve a desired color temperature.

The HC100's remote is small and functional with a matte black finish. Like many remotes, it has a backlight; however, pressing one of the remote's buttons is the only way to activate this, as there is no designated backlight button. This means, for example, if you inadvertently press a source button while the backlight is off, it will result in the activation of the backlight and the switching of the source simultaneously.

On the other hand, the remote is well-featured for home theater use, including direct-access buttons for each of the unit's possible sources, as well as an aspect ratio control, color temperature control, gamma adjustment, and volume controls for the unit's built-in 2W speaker.

The on-screen menu system is simple and easy to use; controls are logically divided into four categories, and the menu stands out well against the background material – however, it is rather large, taking up nearly one third of the projected image when displayed.

The HC100 has a 2x rotation speed, 4-segment color wheel means that viewers who experience the DLP "rainbow effect" may experience it on this projector as well. However, this reviewer sees fewer rainbows on the HC100 than on other DLP projectors with the same color wheel and rotation speed. So the 2x speed wheel specification by itself should not stop you from considering the HC100, even if other DLP projectors have created a problem for you. As always, an audition is recommended to determine whether DLP rainbow artifacts would affect you and those in your household who will watch the projector regularly.

Fan noise on the HC100 is low to moderate when the lamp is in high power mode, but it is barely noticeable in standard power mode.

Ease of Use
First-time projector users are able to set up and start using the HC100 in no time at all as it delivers a beautiful image out of the box. Some minor adjustments will fine tune it for full potential, but they are not necessary for a satifying viewing experience.

Lens shift is becoming a popular feature, so some may be disappointed to learn that the HC100 lacks it. However, the designers of the HC100 have compensated for this with a pre-set throw angle. At a throw distance of about 12 feet, the bottom edge of the projected image is 24" above the lens center, or approximately 2 inches rise per foot of throw distance. This offset – approximately 9.5 degrees – helps accommodate coffee table and most ceiling mount installations. A rear shelf mount, on the other hand, may be somewhat more difficult, and most likely require tilting the projector and correcting the image with keystone adjustments.

Of concern to those mounting a projector on a coffee table is light leakage; the HC100 has some light escape from the front vents and a right side exhaust vent. The exhaust vent light could be visible to those sitting close behind the projector on the far right, but for the most part it is a non-issue.

As far as aspect ratio control is concerned, the HC100 allows a user to display the image in a number of different ways. The standard usage is to operate in 16:9 mode, such that 16:9 material is displayed full frame, and 4:3 is centered in the middle of the 16:9 frame. However, by feeding the HC100 a 16:9 signal and switching the projector to 4:3, the 16:9 image can be displayed properly within this 4:3 frame. In other words, the 16:9 image has black bars all around, due to the pillarboxing of 4:3 and the letterboxing of 16:9. This is useful for consumers who wish to use the HC100 primarily as a 4:3 projector, but don't want to move the unit or change the zoom when viewing 16:9 material. The trade-off, though, is that the same image is displayed using fewer pixels, resulting in less fine detail. Finally, the HC100 also gives you an "expand" option for 4:3 material, which lets you zoom the 4:3 image to fill the 16:9 frame, while losing picture information from the top and bottom of the image.

The HC100 is advertised as a portable home theater projector – the emphasis is that it can be set up or taken down in a matter of minutes, and the 2 watt speaker eliminates the need for a sound system in a temporary setup - for example, at a neighbor's house for a super bowl party. While the projector does not come with a carrying case, it is nonetheless very easily portable.

Conclusion
The HC100 is an outstanding performer, both within its price class and outside of it. While it is priced slightly higher than other 854x480 resolution projectors, it has several unique features to offer. The potential for high lumen output means that larger diagonal sizes (up to 120") can be used with little degradation of image quality. Color decoding is excellent, and deinterlacing and scaling are top-notch. The sealed light path ensures that dust will not become a problem, and lets you operate maintenance free as far as filters are concerned. And the 3,000 hour lamp life in standard lamp mode means you won't be changing lamps very often either.

Used with NTSC DVD material, the lack of vertical scaling contributes to a clean, sharp image. With HDTV, the internal scaler and image processing deliver an image that made it look like a much higher-priced projector.

Overall the HC100 is Mitsubishi's best entry-level projector yet. Those looking for their first full-featured home theater projector should give the HC100 some serious thought, as there is little about this unit that will disappoint.



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Mitsubishi XD450U
Evan Powell, December 16, 2004
ProjectorCentral.com

Mitsubishi has been building projectors as well as plasmas, big-screen TVs and other video products for many years now. They've got a lot of engineering and marketing depth in video systems and their products are always noteworthy. However, from time to time they come up with a product that makes you recall, say, Johnny Damon's grand slam that put the Red Sox into the World Series. That product is the XD450U.

Consider this: the XD450U is rated at a super bright 2600 ANSI lumens, and a high contrast of 2200:1. It has DVI input with HDCP. It has low fan noise. It has a sealed light engine with no air filters—which means no filters to change or clean every month or two. That combined with a 5000-hour lamp in eco-mode makes this just about the most maintenance-free projector ever built. Warranty? How about a three-year warranty, including a full one-year warranty on the lamp instead of the typical 90 days? But beyond all that XS450U has a DLP-based XGA resolution light engine that produces excellent video quality as well as superb data display. Put that all together for an estimated street price of just $2,995, and you have the closest thing to a grand slam that we see in the projector industry.


Product Overview

The XD450U features a 4:3 format native XGA (1024x768) resolution DLP chip, and a four-segment, 2x speed color wheel. The unit will display native 16:9 images in 1024x576 resolution, which is the same format as today's home theater projectors that use the Matterhorn chip.

Lens and throw distance. Manual zoom and focus with a 1.2x zoom range. A 100" diagonal 4:3 image is obtained from a throw distance of 11 to 13 feet, so the throw distance is about average for this class of product.

Lamp. 250W P-VIP lamp with 2000-hour life in normal operating mode and 5000-hour life in low-power mode.

Compatibility. DVI-D (HDCP), component and RGB HDTV 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i, 480p, 480i, and computer resolutions up to SXGA (1280x1024). NTSC, PAL, SECAM.

Connection panel. Located on the rear of the unit. Video connectors include one DVI (HDCP), two sets of RGB inputs (15-pin VGA) for both RGB and component video input, one S-video port; one composite video jack, one RS-232 control, one USB computer, and one VGA monitor output.

There are audio inputs and audio output for all video sources. So this unit can be set up with multiple video sources without the use of an AV receiver or other input switching device, in the event you don't care about multi-channel surround sound. Audio output can be fed into an external amplifier and speakers for conference room or presentation use if desired.

Note: There are no RCA component inputs on this unit, so analog component signals must be fed via a cable with 3 RCAs on one end and a VGA connector on the other, or with a standard component video cable and an RCA to VGA adapter. These accessories are easy to get from AV dealers, but they don't come standard with the product and must be ordered separately if needed.

Filter free. The large majority of digital projectors have air filters that require cleaning or changing on a monthly or bi-monthly basis, depending on how much dust there is in the environment. Failure to keep filters clean is a leading cause of shortened lamp life, and it can also cause dust contamination on the panels or chips that produces fuzzy spots on the screen. The XD450U does not have this issue. The light engine is sealed, so it has no filter, and thus no filter maintenance or dust contamination to worry about. This should be an attractive feature for those (like me) who cannot remember to keep those filters clean.

Warranty. Three years, with a standard one-year warranty on the lamp, which is a first in the industry. Most lamp warranties are only 90 days. Given the potential flakiness of high pressure lamps, this is a feature that can give the user some unique financial peace of mind.


Performance

The XD450U is a native 4:3 format projector. Weighing only 6.5 lbs, it is easily portable, and constitutes one of the best "cross-over" products yet produced. That means for people who need a combination of high light output for data presentation, and great video quality for home entertainment use, this unit is highly recommended.

It is also ideal for those who plan to have dedicated home theater use, but want the 4:3 format instead of the widescreen 16:9 that is common in home theater projectors. There are many good reasons why people might want to consider going this route. For more consideration of this issue, read A Key Decision: 16:9 or 4:3?. If after reading this article you decide that 4:3 is the best format for your home theater, then the XD450U should be on your short list of projectors to consider.

One of the advantages of the XD450U is the wide range of lumen output that it can produce. In data mode with standard lamp power and normal color temperature, it generates over 2000 ANSI lumens. Depending on screen size and room lighting conditions, this is plenty to handle a wide variety of presentation needs. If you find this is too much light, you can cut to low power mode, which reduces lumen output by 25%, along with reducing fan noise and increasing lamp life.

For home theater, 2000 actual lumens is usually too much unless you typically have some ambient light in the room—it will give you eye strain and headaches if viewed for too long in a dark room. But in video mode the lumen output is substantially reduced, and it can be cut down to as little as 500 lumens. Home theater users will prefer this set up because of the reduced fan noise and the extension of lamp life to 5000 hours.

Fan noise on this unit is low to moderate in standard lamp mode, and low in low power mode. It is not quite as quiet as some of the dedicated home theater units that have recently hit the market, but it is low in pitch and not distracting even when the projector is placed just a few feet from the viewer.

This unit is designed to be a multipurpose projector, balancing the needs of data presentation and video performance. As such it lacks a few features found on "home theater only" machines. There is no aspect ratio control button on the remote. You can easily switch between 4:3 and 16:9 formats, but you need to do it via several clicks into the menu. There is no lens shift capability either. So more care and precision needs to be taken in choosing mounting locations for both projector and screen for any permanent installation.

The XD450U has a 2x speed color wheel which can cause distracting color separation artifacts for some viewers. Most people are not sensitive to this, but some are, and for those who are the problem can be anywhere from a slight annoyance to a serious distraction. Thus the 2x speed wheel with four color segments, red/green/blue/white (clear), while necessary for high light output in data presentations, is not ideal for video.

Despite the 2x wheel, color saturation on the XD450U is remarkably good for a DLP projector. DLP projectors in general, even those with six-segment wheels, cannot match the color saturation that the new high contrast LCD projectors are capable of. But this one does an admirable job in producing a vibrant and engaging video image, and standing alone it is beautiful. Viewers would only be aware of the color saturation issue when viewing side by side with an LCD projector.

The only other flaw in the video image worth mentioning is that there is some dithering in the shadows on some scenes that is more apparent than you typically see on DLP projectors with faster wheels. Overall it is not a big problem, but it should be mentioned.


Conclusion

As those who read A Key Decision: 16:9 vs. 4:3? are aware, most older classic films such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Treasures of the Sierra Madre, The Wizard of Oz, Fantasia, and Citizen Kane, were all done in native 4:3. And for film history buffs who enjoy the classics, there is nothing like seeing them in full large screen 4:3, as they were originally shown in commercial theaters back then. Only a native 4:3 format projector is capable of delivering this experience. The native 16:9 projector will always place the image in smaller format in the center of your screen, with black bars on each side. The decision on format is therefore a matter of personal taste and preference. How you wish to set up your home theater is your decision, and there is no "right" way to do it.

For those who want to go the 4:3 route for dedicated home theater, the Mitsubishi XD450U is a substantial performer to consider. For those who wish to use their projector for both home theater and portable presentation, the XD450 is truly a stellar choice. The 5000-hour lamp in low power mode, the hands-off maintenance-free operation due to the sealed light engine, and the breakthrough one-year warranty on the lamp are all unique features that collectively amount to a superb value proposition.

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Mitsubishi XD460U
Evan Powell, January 25, 2006
ProjectorCentral.com

"Why aren't there any home theater quality video projectors in 4:3 format?" We get this question more often than you might imagine. Though most home theater folks are happy with the 16:9 widescreen format, the traditional 4:3 format still appeals to many. There are good reasons for this. Some want to use their projectors for both home theater and commercial presentation use, and don't want to sacrifice video image quality in the process. Others are into classic films, and want to see them viewed in very large 4:3 format, just as they were shown in commercial theaters before the early 1950's (a very cool experience, I might add). Whatever the reason, there is still demand for high performance 4:3 video projectors.

Unfortunately, there aren't very many of them. The reason is that vendors know that most people buying 4:3 projectors are buying them for commercial use. In the commercial presentation world, home theater quality video is neither necessary nor appreciated. Buyers surely do not want to spend extra cash for top quality video processing electronics, lens shift, multiple video inputs, etc, just to get a pie chart on the wall. And for data projectors, lumens per dollar is far more important than black level. So vendors optimize the design of 4:3 projectors to deliver maximum bang for the buck in commercial applications. Video performance on these machines is often good, sometimes surprisingly good, but rarely up to the best home theater machines in the same price ranges.

The Mitsubishi XD460 is one of the unusual exceptions. This is a native 4:3 format projector (XGA, 1024x768 resolution) featuring DLP technology with Texas Instruments' new BrilliantColor(TM) processing. The primary target market for this model is conference room and portable presentation use. So it lacks some of the features you would want on a home theater projector—there is no physical lens shift, no separate 3-RCA component video input, and the 1.2x zoom is adequate to make small adjustments to fit a screen, but your throw distance options to fit a desired screen size are relatively limited. On the other hand, it has a monitor loop-through feature which is desirable in classroom and presentation use, but of little use in home theater.

The XD460 has a built-in throw angle offset of about 5%, which means that for every 100 inches of throw distance, the bottom edge of the projected 4:3 image will be about 5 inches above the centerline of the lens. Depending upon what you want to do with it, this could be ideal projection geometry. It is perfect for conference room table top use. But it does create limitations on how you might install it for theater use.

However, assuming you can live with the inherent limitations, the advantages are numerous. The XD460 produces a bright image, even in eco-mode, in which lamp life is estimated at 5000 hours. In practical terms, that is enough lamp time to watch two 90-minute movies a night, five nights a week, for seven years. Many users of the XD460 will want to upgrade to the next generation projector before they ever have to replace the lamp.

Fan noise in eco-mode is not silent, but it is low and unobtrusive. In full power mode, you get a 24% brighter image, but you cut lamp life to 2000 hours. Also, when the lamp is turned on high, fan noise is elevated beyond a point that most home theater folks would find ideal, though it is not high in pitch, and is comfortable for conference room use.

The reason we are drawing particular attention to the XD460 is that we get a remarkably high quality video image with standard DVD and interlaced input. The picture has a rich, natural quality to it that evokes the elusive "filmlike" descriptor. The BrilliantColor technology combined with the DarkChip 3 DLP produces plenty of color saturation and contrast with natural, well balanced pastels and flesh tones. Black levels and shadow details are sufficient to give the picture beautiful definition. For the most part, the projector gets out of the way and allows you to immerse yourself in the movie experience.

I say "for the most part" because the image is not perfect. There is no such thing as a perfect image in this price range—every projector on the market gives the perfectionist something to complain about. In the case of the XD460, the most apparent defect was the presence of some digital noise in the image. Oddly enough, with 480i input, the noise was present but typically not distracting. We watched it for hours without being bothered much by noise artifacts. However, when switching to 480p, the noise level increased substantially to the point where it really was overbearing in some scenes. This is another one of those projectors in which the picture quality is noticeably better with component interlaced input than with component progressive. So do not make the assumption that your results will be optimized by using the progressive scan option on your DVD player.

As far as the home theater application is concerned, the other issue that always needs to be addressed is that of wheel speed and rainbow artifacts. The XD460 has a 5-segment color wheel that rotates at 2x (that is, two refreshes of the R,G, and B signals per second). That means that those who are sensitive to color separation artifacts (rainbows) will see them on this unit. I am among those for whom rainbow artifacts are merely theoretical—I cannot see them on projectors with 2x wheels, and I have come to believe that about two-thirds of the population either cannot see them at all, or sees them so subtly and infrequently that they do not rise to the level of a bothersome distraction. However, for the one-third of the population (my personal guess based on anecdotal input and no scientific data) for whom rainbow artifacts on 2x DLP projectors are a visible distraction, they can be so much of an annoyance that the projector cannot be enjoyed for home theater use.

By the way, regular readers of this site already know that rainbow artifacts are much less of a problem in data applications than they are in video. There are two reasons for this, and both are related to eye movement. First, you tend not to sit as close to the screen for a data presentation as you do for home theater. That means the angle of view from one side of the screen to the other is typically much smaller, so your eye does not need to move as much in order to take in the whole image. Second, data images are static, so your eye is not continually reacting to random movements on the screen. Since eye movement is what causes you to detect color separation, the phenomenon is more problematic in home theater than it is in data or graphics presentation.

Therefore, if you are considering the XD460 for dual-purpose data and home theater use, you must first verify that color separation artifacts are not a problem for you (or regular viewers in your household) on DLP projectors with 2x speed wheels. But if you are like me, all you will see when watching the XD460 is very impressive video.

The selection of a native 4:3 XGA resolution projector for video use has its advantages and limitations. The advantage is that you get a very bright image that can fill a large 4:3 screen. In the case of the XD460, our test unit measured 1190 ANSI lumens in "standard" mode, and 725 ANSI lumens in "theater" mode (both measurements with lamp on normal power). For presentation use, there is a precalibrated "presentation" mode that pumped out 1820 ANSI lumens.

Furthermore, the XGA projector produces a 4:3 image with a native 1024x768 pixel array. That means you will get a 4:3 picture that is brighter, larger, and higher in physical pixel resolution than you can get from a native 1280x720 widescreen home theater projector. This is a great way to view the great classic films like Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Wizard of Oz, and many others that were filmed in very close to native 4:3 format prior to the age of television. (A small factoid: The standard 4:3 television format was designed to match traditional Hollywood film aspect ratios, and Hollywood's move to widescreen formats in the 1950's was a competitive response to the introduction of television).

The downside of using a conventional 4:3 format XGA projector for home theater is that 16:9 widescreen material is displayed in a pixel array of 1024x576. All HDTV programming is compressed into this format. Now, HDTV still looks exceptionally good, and much better than DVD even after the compression. But it does not have quite the precision that projectors in 1280x720 format are able to deliver.

The bottom line is that the selection of a projector, like everything else in life, involves trade-offs. But that is a good thing—what may be critically important to you may be irrelevant to someone else. The trick is being aware of the tradeoffs you are signing up for. But for now, I must wrap this up. I want to go fire up that Mitsubishi XD460, light up my very large scale 4:3 screen, pop in my DVD of Gone with the Wind, and take a trip in time back to 1939.



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Mitsubishi XD205U Projector
Charlie White, December 23, 2005
AudioVideoProducer.com

Mitsubishi’s XD205U ($1995 list, $1100 street) is a new small projector aimed at the presentation market that’s highly portable and packs a powerful punch. This 5.29 lb. DLP unit is scarcely bigger than a Webster’s dictionary, but projects images comparable to units that are much larger and more expensive. Its small size and high quality make it a worthy companion for a small notebook computer, resulting in a great system for setting up presentations almost anywhere. Here at our Midwest Test Facility theater, we ran this little projector through our computer and video obstacle course, and liked what we saw.

The XD205U is small, but it’s not as tiny as the mini-Mitsubishi unit that we reviewed earlier on these pages. However, at 10.28 x 8.58 x 3.42 inches (L x W x H), it’s small enough to be portable, yet big enough to still be able to output image quality that’s good enough for almost any presentation scenario. Included with the projector is a ballistic nylon carrying case into which you can fit the projector and its connecting cables. Overall, it’s a package that’s easy to transport from one place to another.

Setting up the projector was a snap. You can plug in either VGA, S-Video, or composite video into the back, and it also has an audio input. Fire it up, and you’ll notice that its projection angle is set up for tabletop use. Its angle of projection is such that it will point at an upward angle of approximately 12° so you won’t have to support the front of the projector in order to allow it to project onto a screen that’s high enough for everyone in the room to see. The projector ’s keystone control, conveniently located on the top of the unit itself and also controllable via the included remote, can be easily accessed without diving into a thicket of menus. Good thinking, Mitsubishi—those who are doing presentations often don’t get to decide where their projector is placed, and in that case, usually the keystone control is the first one that’s needed. You’re able to quickly square off the screen using this simple keystone control. There’s no way to control the individual corners as you can with more expensive models, but in most cases the keystone control will suffice to make the projected image appeared to be squared off on its corners.

I connected the video output of our test laptop to the projector via its VGA port. Sure, it would’ve been nice to have a DVI port, but in this price range VGA is probably the most we could expect. Projecting a 1024x768 computer image through this unit looked clear and bright. We ran our DisplayMate multimedia test suite, and switching the computer through our video obstacle course, the Mitsubishi projector fared well. I noticed the whites were very bright, and the colors were vibrant and saturated. All sizes of text looked remarkably clean and sharp.

The blacks were a slight drawback, looking more like a dark gray than black, and making the overall picture look not quite contrasty enough for my taste. In fact, in some scenes the blacks looked a bit washed out even in a completely darkened room. Looking at the blacks on a chip chart supplied by DisplayMate, there’s not a whole lot of resolution that can be seen in the darker areas, and at the brightness levels of 4, 8, and 16, (with absolute black being zero and pure white being 255) you can’t really see a whole lot of difference between each one of those chips in the black range. Only when you get to the 24 level can you start to discern a difference between the black chips.

On the plus side, the whites were bright enough to overcome moderate ambient light, and overall, to my subjective judgment I thought the brightness of the picture looked very good. Using our DisplayMate white chip chart, I could see quite a bit of difference in the highest levels of white, where contrast was discernible even at the 253 and 255 level.

Then it was time to fire up some high-definition television, and using the S-Video connection on this projector, it did a respectable job of reproducing the output of our 1080i HDTV signal. Again, the blacks were not as black as I’d like to have seen, but the images were extremely sharp, and it looked as though this projector was as well-suited for watching HDTV as it was for giving presentations. Yes, at 1024x768, the XD205U can't display native HDTV, but it still looks quite good, and much better than standard definition television.

Next, we watched a variety of DVD material on the projector , and noticed that it, too, looked quite good, and displayed resolution that was high enough to show exactly what was on the DVD . The playback of DVDs with this projector looked smooth and almost film-like, and I found it quite pleasant to watch.

As we watched a variety of DVD , HDTV and computer material on this projector , I noticed another strong attribute of this unit, and that is its silence. In fact, I noticed that it’s quieter than most projectors we’ve tested here. That’s a very important attribute whether you’re watching movies or giving presentations—no one wants to try to speak over a loud cooling fan whining away in the middle of the room.

Next it was time to break out our precision light metering equipment and take a look at the evenness of the projected image. Placing the projector so that its image measured at our standard 60-inch diagonal size for these types of tests, we took light readings at nine points of the screen, and noticed that the top right of the screen was noticeably dimmer than the rest. On the top right grid coordinate, the light level measured 957 lumens, compared to the brightest area of the screen on the bottom middle coordinate, which measured a bright 1572 lumens. Overall, the screen seemed dimmer on the right side than the left, but when we were viewing a computer image and watching HDTV and DVDs , the difference in evenness of lighting on the screen was not as apparent. Even though our measurements showed numbers that were significantly shy of the Mitsubishi-quoted 2000 lumens, we still found the projector to be adequately bright for a presentation even in a well-lit room.

Summing up, I’m surprised how much projector you can get these days for just north of $1000. This product represents a tremendous value, especially at its street price of around $1100, which could go even lower as time goes by. Native 1024x768 is a great resolution for presentations, while it will also serve you well if you want to watch HDTV or DVDs . This little projector is great for road warriors, and could find itself a place in a respectable home theater as well. For $1100, it’s tough to beat. Highly recommended. 9.3 out of 10 stars.

Mitsubishi XP205U Specs:
Display technology: 0.55”, 1-Chip DMD, 12 deg. DDR, DDP2000
Projection lens: F= 2.4 (Wide) 100”@3.2 m (Wide)
Resolution: 1024 x 768 (Total 786,432 pixels), 550 Video Lines
Picture size: 40-300 diagonal inches
Video compatibility: NTSC/NTSC 4.43/PAL (including PAL-M, N) /SECAM/PAL-60, Component Video; 480i/p (525i/p), 576i/p (625i/p), 720p (750p), 1080i (1125i 60Hz), 1080i (1125i 50Hz)
Inputs: RGB: Mini D-sub 15pin x 1, Audio: Stereo Mini Jack (ø 3.5mm) x 1, Video: RCA x 1 + S-VIDEO x 1 Input Terminal: USB terminal for Page Up/Down (with optional cable)
PC compatibility: Resolution: 640 x 480 - 1024 x 768 + Compressed 1280 x 1024 Sync on Green available



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