Mitsubishi Plasma Tv

Byline: Jeff Sauer

In a world increasingly enamored by flat and thin plasma and LCD TVs, projectors often get overlooked as big-screen solutions. Sure, there are some minor installation concerns for ambient light and screen positioning, but certainly no "thin issues" are involved. No panel is thinner than a projection screen, or as light on a wall. And retractable screens for front projection represent arguably the cleanest installation of any video display.

That's a case that projector makers need to reinforce in order to participate in the burgeoning large-screen display world, and it's just how Mitsubishi is promoting its versatile new 16:9 projector. The HC900 primarily targets the home-theater market, but at $2,495, its native 16:9 aspect ratio makes it an appropriate solution for smaller video screening rooms and studios. In either situation, it's an awfully good price for filling a screen from 60in. on up to 275in. Try that with a flat panel.

The HC900 comes in a very portable 6.5lb. silver-topped, black-sided chassis. Mitsubishi touts its appeal for both movie watching and other entertainment, like PC gaming and special-event TV programs. But that same portability makes the HC900 convenient for video screenings in or out of a studio, or as a client preview monitor for large editing systems. The HC900 is brighter than the average home-theater projector (Mitsubishi claims 1500 lumens), making it suitable for viewing in somewhat less-controlled ambient light situations.

With a native resolution of 1024x576, the HC900 is a step up from the most affordable (WVGA) widescreen models currently available. But with an estimated street price under $2,000, it's about as low as you'll find for that resolution. That said, it's not the ideal model if you're looking for a lot of features. It has a manual zoom/focus lens and no automatic keystone adjustment or focus, and there's nothing particularly complicated about the design or functionality. It has basic menu and navigation access via the half-dozen buttons on the top of the chassis.

Most displays targeting consumers tend to have color and brightness presets with descriptive names like "cinema," "movie," "natural," "dynamic," and so forth. The HC900 does not, but it does have presets that perform much the same functions - Standard, Theater1, Theater2 (for TV watching), and Auto - under a more professional-sounding "gamma correction" heading. The HC900 supports sRGB color, as Mitsubishi projectors do, although that is primarily for computer sources. The biggest caveat for more experienced users is that color temperature control is somewhat limited, with just a couple of presets; there are controls for Red and Blue "brightness" and "contrast," but not the full array of controls you might see in a higher-end projector.

The HC900 is DLP-based with a seven-segment, 4X color wheel for DLP's best single-DMD color accuracy. Mitsubishi also has a setting for what it calls CineRichColor, which simply adjusts the white level - more literally, how much the DMD shines light through the (seventh) white segment in the color wheel. Boosting white levels might be nice if you're working with a computer source, or perhaps playing a video game between client sessions, but it is at the expense of true color, begetting the somewhat washed-out video appearance typical of DLP presentation projectors.

Like most affordable projectors, the HC900 doesn't have a breadth of permanent simultaneous connection ports, but it does have direct component video (3X RCA) as well as S-Video and composite. There are also 15-pin RGB and DVI-D connectors for computer sources. Interestingly, Mitsubishi currently favors DVI-D over HDMI, the industry's apparent successor to DVI-D, for a couple very logical reasons. One of HDMI's strengths is the addition of audio to the single connection cable, but few users are likely to use the HC900's 2W built-in mono speaker over a separate sound system. There are also still more video devices with DVI-D than HDMI in use today. And an HDMI-to-DVI-D conversion cable is less than $50.

I was very pleased with the HC900's color reproduction of primary and secondary colors, especially when the CineRichColor is set lower (as is the default when video sources are detected). I also found the HC900 to have nice black levels, and good contrast ratios - I measured 535:1 against the ANSI checkerboard and 2601:1 full on/off. Milori ColorFacts even showed a nice, smooth grayscale curve over increasing brightness. That grayscale curve, however, doesn't start upward until about 20 percent brightness and, thus, concatenates the lower range. Visually, anything close to those nice, rich blacks, including dark reds, blues, greens, etc., tends to lose color definition.

As do many projectors, the HC900 suffers from specification exaggeration. I was able to measure just 1004 of Mitsubishi's supposed 1500 lumens using the projector's brightest mode, thought the unit was properly set up for brightness and contrast against a standard pluge. That's a 33 percent difference, and an unnecessary exaggeration for a video projector that's more likely to be used in controlled lighting environments than is the typical business presentation unit. The HC900's low-lamp mode brought the brightness (and fan noise) down to 740 ANSI lumens, a level that is appropriate for a dimly lit screening room.

While the HC900 performed well displaying both standard-definition and high-definition sources, it uses Texas Instruments' built-in de-interlacing and video processing, and I noticed more high-frequency flicker than I'd like. It is particularly noticeable on HD sources, and a one-on/one-off alternating pixel test pattern from an Extron VTG-400 exposed high-frequency difficulty at every HD resolution.

The HC900 is the younger sibling to Mitsubishi's $9,999 HC2000, and, of course, there is performance difference between the two models. On the other hand, for common usage those performance shortcomings are nicely balanced by strong, accurate color and a sharp DLP image. If you're looking for an affordable, native 16:9 large-screen display, you'll do well to take a look at the HC900 front projector.

BOTTOM LINE

Company: Mitsubishi Irvine, Calif.; (888) 307-0312 www.mitsubishi-presentations.com

Product: HC900

Assets: Native 16:9; component input; good color reproduction; low price.

Caveats: Concatenated lower grayscale range; high-frequency noise on HD material.

Demographic: Smaller video screening rooms and studios

Price: $2,495

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To comment on this article, email the Video Systems editorial staff at vsfeedback@primediabusiness.com.

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