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Mitsubishi HC3000 DLP Home Theater Projector
Copyright 2004-6 1 touch movie.com
All rights reserved.
All rights reserved.
There's no doubt that home theater projectors keep getting better. For
the average consumer this translates into a fantastic opportunity to put a
really nice image into their home theater for not too much coin. As chip
sets and light engines improve, the formerly top of the line components
end up in the second and third tier projectors. The result is newer budget
projectors are using some of the same internal components from
projectors we raved about a year or two ago.
Witness the new Mitsubishi HC3000 DLP home theater projector. This
unit is notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it
shatters the $3,000 retail price point for a widescreen DLP projector that
displays native HDTV resolutions. This thing's under $2,500. In addition,
it does not use the traditional HD-2 or HD-2+ DLP chip. The Mits uses
TI's Dark Chip 2 in a 15:9 (not 16:9) 1280 x 768 resolution matrix. It
further deviates from the norm by adopting TI's new smaller .65" chip size.
The HC3000 is also one of the first in a new crop of home theater
projectors to incorporate Texas Instrument's new BrilliantColor™
technology. This is a new color processing using the DDP3020 chip
coupled with new processing algothims. Mitsubishi has incorporated this
processing and a 4x, 6 segment color wheel. The result is, in fact, a
really nice color palate.
While this projector is not the nicest I've seen, even among single chip
DLP units, it does give a fine image, with deep blacks and good low level
detail. The color rendition, as noted is really quite good. With many low
priced projectors, the Achilles heel is poor video processing. The
Mitsubishi HC3000 looks to have escaped this problem. The instance of
processing artifacts, such as jagged edges of moving, diagonal lines,
was very low. It has adequate brightness after calibration, even using a
45" x 80" Stewart Greyhawk reference screen.
I did notice a bit of rainbowing artifacts, no doubt courtesy of the 4x color
wheel. I am quite sensitive to this type of problem, and most others
seeing the little Mitsubishi reported no problems in this area.
This projector is small and fairly quiet, although it does not boast the
almost completely silent noise level I've come to expect from home
theater projectors lately. It does have a full complement of discrete IR
commands on the remote, something that cannot be said of all home
theater components (why not???). This is really nice when programming
a unified remote control. All the other manufacturers should get on this
bandwagon, and soon.
All in all, this is a pretty nice little projector. It has a really nice image and
discrete IR codes on the remote. As an added bonus, you can display full
720p HDTV and the computer resolution of 1280 x 768 without losing any
pixels. The fact that you can get all this for way, way under $3,000 in a
DLP projector portends of great things to come in the budget home
theater arena.
Steve Faber
the average consumer this translates into a fantastic opportunity to put a
really nice image into their home theater for not too much coin. As chip
sets and light engines improve, the formerly top of the line components
end up in the second and third tier projectors. The result is newer budget
projectors are using some of the same internal components from
projectors we raved about a year or two ago.
Witness the new Mitsubishi HC3000 DLP home theater projector. This
unit is notable for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that it
shatters the $3,000 retail price point for a widescreen DLP projector that
displays native HDTV resolutions. This thing's under $2,500. In addition,
it does not use the traditional HD-2 or HD-2+ DLP chip. The Mits uses
TI's Dark Chip 2 in a 15:9 (not 16:9) 1280 x 768 resolution matrix. It
further deviates from the norm by adopting TI's new smaller .65" chip size.
The HC3000 is also one of the first in a new crop of home theater
projectors to incorporate Texas Instrument's new BrilliantColor™
technology. This is a new color processing using the DDP3020 chip
coupled with new processing algothims. Mitsubishi has incorporated this
processing and a 4x, 6 segment color wheel. The result is, in fact, a
really nice color palate.
While this projector is not the nicest I've seen, even among single chip
DLP units, it does give a fine image, with deep blacks and good low level
detail. The color rendition, as noted is really quite good. With many low
priced projectors, the Achilles heel is poor video processing. The
Mitsubishi HC3000 looks to have escaped this problem. The instance of
processing artifacts, such as jagged edges of moving, diagonal lines,
was very low. It has adequate brightness after calibration, even using a
45" x 80" Stewart Greyhawk reference screen.
I did notice a bit of rainbowing artifacts, no doubt courtesy of the 4x color
wheel. I am quite sensitive to this type of problem, and most others
seeing the little Mitsubishi reported no problems in this area.
This projector is small and fairly quiet, although it does not boast the
almost completely silent noise level I've come to expect from home
theater projectors lately. It does have a full complement of discrete IR
commands on the remote, something that cannot be said of all home
theater components (why not???). This is really nice when programming
a unified remote control. All the other manufacturers should get on this
bandwagon, and soon.
All in all, this is a pretty nice little projector. It has a really nice image and
discrete IR codes on the remote. As an added bonus, you can display full
720p HDTV and the computer resolution of 1280 x 768 without losing any
pixels. The fact that you can get all this for way, way under $3,000 in a
DLP projector portends of great things to come in the budget home
theater arena.
Steve Faber
Mitsubishi HC3000 home theater projector
Mini Review
Mini Review
1 Touch Movie.com