Mitsubishi HC5500 Home Theater Projector: Summary

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Art Feierman

Nice projector, very nice, with three real strengths, price point, brightness, and extremely sharp image. While there are reasons to chose the HC5500 over most of the other competing 1080p projectors, and vice versa, I would have liked to see the HC5500 with a street price another $200 to $300 less, to give it our Hot Product Award. It was a close call, but the deciding factors in my mind, are the BenQ W5000 and the Epson Home Cinema 1080 UB. Give or take a trade-off or two, I consider those two overall to have distinct advantages over the HC5500, and the pricing difference isn't enough for the HC5500 to stand out in terms of price/performance, by comparison.

Mitsubishi HC5500 Projector: Bottom Line

All considered, the HC5500 really is an excellent projector. If you choose to put it in your home theater, you will almost certainly be most pleased with its performance and low cost, both for the projector, and, if you run in low power, its cost of operation. More importantly the overall picture quality is very good, as its its brightness in best mode. Purists will, however favor an Epson or BenQ, for the additional dollars. The physical placement limitations will also affect its popularity, but that's a simple thing - either it works in your room from a placement standpoint, or it doesn't. When you consider the differences between the HC5500 and the older HC4900, the newer HC5500 is definitely worth the difference in price, as its black level performance is now very good, and typical for projectors in the price range, whereas the HC4900 had the weakest black level performance in the field. Certainly, it is comparable in value, overall, with the heavy competition from Panasonic and Optoma, as well as others.

The real trick for you, is to determine if it is the best overall solution for you, and your budget.

For many people, it will be, especially those on a tight budget! Afterall, there may be slightly better projectors out there, but you won't be seeing them side by side, and the HC5500 has no major flaws to detract from its overall performance, plus you've got to love the brightness, and sharpness.