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Mitsubishi HC4900 by Vulcan - Mar 20, 2008
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| HD 1080 (1920x1080), 1000 ANSI Lumens, 12.3 lbs, $4,495 (MSRP) |
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| Personal Experience |
| I am a firm believer in getting the highest quality for the most reasonable price. I started my home theater on this premise in late 2003 with a VGA resolution NEC LT240K, rated at 2000 lumens and 2000:1 contrast. That unit was a rock, projected a bright and lively image at 120 inches diagnal on my "Screen Goo" painted wall. The unit doubled as a computer jukebox for Divx movies. I kept up with things here at Projector Central. I figured I'd jump on the 1080i wagon when priced cooled, and they did last month with the rebates on the Mitsubishi HC4900 and the Sanyo PLV-Z2000. I opted for the Mitsubishi as it was reviewed to be brighter and better able to fill my 120 inch diagnal screen. I've had the unit for a month now, and I have a lot to say about it. It does not come in white as thought, but it is is a good looking design and looks nice in a ceiling mount. First off, its is amply bright, as reviewed to fill up 120", maybe more. In fact, I am shocked that its actually brighter than my 2000 lumen rated Nec LT240K. Its certainly has far more contrast, sharpness and color than the 240K. The improvement far more than incremental. The detail, dimensionality and clarity of the image are almost overpowering. Combined with BluRay, it is simply a killer image. My friends with 42 inch LCD's are blue with envy (I don't dare tell them I bought it at 1/3 the price of their TV). Having remote controlled focus and image shift is not a big boon, but its like having powered windows in your car. Its very cool and luxurious, and makes setting up the image or making on the spot changes really easy. It also makes my friends and visitor's very jealous. They are all convinced I got this projector for $10,000. The sharpness of the image does present an issue. Even with the NEC I could see flaws and differences between cameras taking the HD image. Now, I can see every compression artifact in the HD image, particularly blocking and mosquito noise in my cable image, and even in my off the air HD signal which is supposedly uncompressed (the signal may be, but the content certainly is not). The HC4900 does not have onboard video processing to deal with such issues as does the HC6000. Such problems are particularly noticable with fast moving sports like the NBA. Cable premium HD channels like HBO/Showtime show far less such problems. With BluRay, well, the image is simply sterling. The HC4900 deals better with SD signals than I expected (a big weakness of my NEC LT240K), however, it does sometime project such signals in the wide format, and there are no options to change it. I suppose this is part of the sacrifice for reduced price in terms of image processing. I first had the unit connected via component to a Yamaha RX-V2500, and saw gentle waves of light/dark creeping up the image in dark scenes. I bypassed the stereo and connected to the cable box via HDMI cable, and the problem was gone. Its likely my older component cables were not up to spec (they had an RGB termination for the LT240K). Darkness is the only shortcoming of this projector as stated repeatedly. I don't see it as a major issue, but it does bite you from time to time. My HT is light controlled, and a little extra tweaking seems to have it under control. Frankly, I can't see spending $2-3k extra to deal with black level, or ever mosquito noise for that matter. I will wait and see if prices come down on the Algolith Dragonfly or Mosquito to deal with such. I also expect as HD becomes more commonplace, the TV signals will manage their compression better. I did shop around for an HDMI receiver, and decided on the higher end Onkyo TX-NR905, which is truly an excellent sounding receiver (blew me away in fact). One HDMI line runs to the projector and that's it. HDMI is NOT the great connection it is made out to be. Handshaking is clumsy, and sound and sync can drop out for a second or two with something as simple as a DVR rewind/FF. It is dainty and less cumberson compared to 3 component wires and all the extra audio lines. The connector is weak, but in the end, it works and sends a clean signal with lots of uncompressed video and sound. From time to time the sound/sync can get out of whack, but its rarely noticable and usually only lasts a few seconds. I've only seen it on cable signals, and frankly, I did before I upgraded. I also use a Home Theater MX-500 remote, which is a great universal remote, and no problems re-working it to the new hardware listed here. I added a refurbished Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray player, and the combination is a staggering improvement. In all facets, image and sound, the difference is huge. The P1400 allows Dolby TrueHD, though most BluRay disks allow uncompressed PCM which is even better. Regardless, the sound and image is like nothing I've experienced before. Even at the movies there will be dust and specs on the image and audience noise, so having a HT with good HD equipment is just a fantastic experience. To be able to do so for under $3000 for the projector, receiver and BluRay player combined is an outstanding value. I waited for the end of the BluRay HD DVD war before buying, and I must say it was worth the wait. I can't see spending $700 on a BluRay player, as I expect prices to drop. However, waiting is also a problem, so look for a good refurb price like I did. It works perfectly (a few scuffs which I can clean up with some know-how, but who cares in the dark anyway)? The problem is waiting for that BluRay image and sound. Its the only real reason to get a 1080p projector anyway. For cable, OTA or SAT, stick with 720p. BluRay screams out for 1080p. The HC4900 will not do 24fps, but I have not seen an issue, or in fact a single distracting artifact from BluRay. The images is almost beyond pristeen. You can see every hair follicle and flaw on the actor's faces. In X-Men: The Last Stand, Phoenix's corpuscled face as she dispatches Xavier with thousands of shards of glass each rotating at its own unique vector in slow motion is something you have to see to believe. The Fifth Element (remastered) is also something to see in BluRay quality and high fidelity sound. The HC4900 does not run overly hot, is incredibly silent (hard to tell when it turns on), and has no flaws. Having less video processing might be an issue when watching SD or cable/SAT/OTA HD content, but I'd rather buy a specialized unit such as DVDO or Algolith (or whatever else may come along at a reasonable price). In any case, having a better overall image more than makes up for the newly perceived flaws inherent in the source signal. In terms of value, there is not much more when you can get a projector and net twice the image size for 1/3 the cost of an LCD. If ambient light is an issue, find a creative way to deal with it. Projection at this level is not only the better deal, its the better image. In HD, bigger is simply better. |
| Problems |
| Black levels not great, but manageable. Handshaking and sync issues, minor at their worst. Did see RF noise with lower grade component cables. Unit is big, but hardly huge. SD signals sometimes appear wide and menu wont' fix. |
