Mitsubishi HC6000 Home Theater Projector Review - General Performance

Mitsubishi HC6000
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons

Check out how the Mitsubishi HC6000 fared in our comparison report.

Topics in this section:

HC6000 Menus
HC6000 User Memory Settings
HC6000 Remote Control
Lens Throw and Lens Shift
SDE and Rainbow Effect
HC6000 Projector Brightness
Light Leakage
Audible Noise Levels
Projector Screen Recommendations
HC6000 Calibration
Image Noise

HC6000 Menus

This Mitsubishi HC6000 projector uses the same basic menu system as the older HC5000 and their entry level 1080p home theater projector, the HC4900.

Perhaps the biggest change to the menus, is the increase in size, making them easier to read. Due to "technical problems" the menu images shot of the HC6000, were lost. (It's too embarassing to explain.) As a result, these are the photos of the HC5000 projector.

The main menu has five options - Image, Installation, Feature, Signal, and Info.

The Image menu contains the key controls to adjust the image quality. Gamma mode lets you select between choices such as Cinema, Sports, Video, and Auto. You can also adjust the gamma manually for low medium and bright areas. Color Temp offers several different color temperatures - warm, medium, and cool. (In some other Mitsubishi home theater projectors, they actually listed temperatures, like 6500K, 7500K, etc., although our testing found that they weren't particularly accurate - thus, "Warm" is a safer label than 6500K.) Shown below the Image menu, is the Color Temp User menu, with separate controls for R, G, and B, for both Contrast and Brightness.

There are two User settings for Gamma, one for Color Temp, and those user settings, along with other settings like Brightness and Contrast can be saved in the AV Memory. There are three AV Memory save options as well.

Of course there is the usual Color saturation, Tint, and Sharpness, along with Brightness and Contrast adjustments on the Image Menu.

The Advanced menu gives you control of a number of items, but most notably, the Iris, with three different Auto Iris solutions, and Open (Iris wide open).

I played with the gamma controls (shown right) just a little, trying to see if I could bring a little more shadow detail out by lifting the Low values (and the medium just a notch). I had some success but, again did not play with it extensively.

Moving on, next comes the Installation menu.

Of particular note is the first item, which is lamp power - Standard or Low.

After that, there are Auto Power On and Off functions, allowing the projector to turn off automatically when not in use, ranging from 5 to 60 minutes. Also present are the usual settings for front or rear, ceiling or table positioning, and control of the 12 volt trigger for motorized screen control.

You can also Lock the Lens Shift setting.

The next major menu is the Feature menu, shown below.

That leaves two: The Signal menu which controls horizontal and vertical positioning, and Overscan control should a lower resolution image leave noise at the top or bottom of the screen.

Lastly is the Information menu, not shown, but identifies the resolution of the current source signal, and also has the lamp timer to show you how many hours are on the lamp.

Enough of the menus, already!

HC6000 User Memory Settings

The HC6000 projector offers several layers of user menus. There are user settings for both gamma and color temp. In addition there are three full user saved settings, which capture everything.

HC6000 Projector - Remote Control

The HC6000's remote is better than average.

There are discrete buttons for On and Off, as well as an Auto Position button on the top row. Then come two rows allowing direct access of the different sources (DVI, HDMI, Computer, etc.)

The fourth row has three buttons, one for each User saveable memory.

The four arrow keys and center Enter button for navigating the menus.

Below that, left side is the Menu button, a button to select different Iris options and Aspect ratio change. Next come two more rows, including Contrast Brightness, Color Temp, Gamma, Sharpness and Color (saturation). Basically most features on the Image menu, can be directly accessed without going through the Main and Image menus.

The last row has one button that toggles between controlling the lens' Zoom and Focus (arrow keys handle the actual adjustment), another for controlling the Lens shift, and finally a Noise Reduction button.

I found that I was able to access most of the controls - including the Menu and arrow keys without having to shift my hand on the remote - something all remotes should strive for. Hitting any button engages the backlight - moderately bright, no problem there.

I also found that there was sufficient spacing in the remote that I could easily find the Menu button as well as the arrow keys/Enter buttons without having to look at the remote.

Range of the remote, however was average. With the projector about 17 feet from the screen and my seating positon 11 feet from the screen (28 feet total), I had only occasional success bouncing the remote's signal off of my screen and wall, to the projector. Mostly I had to point it rear. Note though at slightly shorter total distances, it became reliable. Thus I would say that if you are using a 100" or 110" screen you should have better luck!

HC6000 Lens Throw and Lens Shift

Lens throw: For a 100" 16:9 diagonal screen; the zoom lens will allow the projector, measured from the front of the lens, to be as close as 10 feet 3 inches and as far back as 16 feet 5 inches. As noted earlier, the zoom and focus are motorized, as is the lens shift. The lens shift feature has an unusually large adjustment range, a real plus. This allows the projector, (measured from the center of the lens) to be placed anywhere from significantly below to significantly above the screen surface. Overall the range is approximately 160% of screen height. For that 100" diagonal screen, for example, the center of the lens can be anywhere between about 13" below the bottom of the surface, to about 13" above the top. There is a small amount of horizontal lens shift as well, certainly more than you need to compensate for the off center lens, when mounting. The HC5000BL gets an "A" for placement flexibility..

Mitsubishi HC6000 SDE and Rainbow Effect, Pixel Visibility

The HC6000, being an LCD projector, has no spinning color filter wheel, and therefore, no rainbow effect.

When it comes to pixel visibility and the Screen Door Effect, the HC6000 performs extremely well, by virtue of being a 1080p projector. While sitting my usual 11 feet from my 128" diagonal Stewart Firehawk, pixels (barely visible on occasion on my 720p resolution DLP), were essentially gone! Only on credits could I really spot them when looking, and couldn't pick them out during normal movie or sports content. As a result, let's say this projector can comfortably be watched at just over 1 times screen width. That should make everyone (like me) who like to sit close in order to have a huge image, and better immerse themselves in the image, to be extremely pleased! After all, that's what front projectors are all about. (Why watch one of those tiny 50" LCDTVs - they just don't give you that theater effect!) The only LCD projector I have seen with less visible pixels is the Panasonic PT-AE1000U (also 1080p) using their smooth screen technology, and the Mitsubishi overall, is much sharper.

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Mitsubishi HC6000 Projector Brightness

The HC6000 performed almost exactly the same as the HC5000. Not surprising since they are both rated at 1000 lumens. In reality, last year's HC5000 measured a bit higher, but there is a key difference. Last year's review had a brand new HC5000 production projector, whereas this review projector is one of only two pre-production samples in the US, and it's common for pre-production units to be less bright. In addition, this HC6000 projector arrived with about 120 hours on it, so has probably lost 5% to 10% of the lamp's brightness.

For all measurements, the zoom lens was as close to in the middle of its range as I could get it. That would mean, that with the lens, instead, in full wide angle the HC6000 should produce almost 30% more lumens, and about 30% less in full telephoto.

The combination of Sports (gamma) and High Bright (Color temp) mode, measured 743 lumens.

In my calibrated version of Cinema mode, the output was 449 lumens.

In Video (gamma) / medium (color temp), output was almost identical at 458 lumens.

Running the lamp in low power mode dropped brightness about 26% more than is typical for projectors (20% is most common). Running the lamp less hard than other projectors do in their low power modes may be in part responsible for Mitsubishi's claim of 5000 hours lamp life in low power mode, whereas most are rated 3000 hours, in low.

HC6000 Projector - Light Leakage

When it comes to light leakage, the HC6000 is excellent, with essentially no light leakage. The leakage comes out the lens, but is very dim, compared to a "black" screen. It's minimal enough to not being worth considering.

Mitsubishi HC1500 Audible Noise Levels

This is easy. The HC6000 is ties the HC5000 asthe quietest home theater projector on the market. It claims an almost silent 19 db in low power, and even in full power, at 24 db, it is quieter than virtually all other home theater projectors, even when the others are in their "quiet modes". Outstanding!

HC6000 Projector Screen Recommendations

Considering the projector is about average in brightness - shy of 500 lumens when best setup for movie watching, the HC6000 is best with small and medium sized screens. No one should have a problem with a 110" screen, but my 128" Firehawk was a little too big for it. Now, my position is that you can use a larger screen if your walls are, compared with off white walls. So you can probably take the HC6000 up into the 120" diagonal range if you have a room with the darker walls, etc.

Now, to screen surfaces. The HC6000 has the improved black levels and that means you can get very nice results with a white surface, something with light gain, 1.1 to 1.4, such as the Stewart Studiotek 130, the Carada Brilliant White or other similar screens. The positive gain, gives you that little extra muscle for the larger screens too.

I, however spent most of my time viewing the HC6000 on my Firehawk G3, which is a light gray high contrast surface, and it looked great. I did keep the image size, though, to slightly over 106" diagonal, and that was a good match.

If you are going smaller screens - under 100" diagonal, the high contrast gray surface is probably the better match. And you should consider it up to 110" if you have ambient light issues where these HC gray screens help by not reflecting the ambient light back at you.

The point is, perhaps, once black levels reach a certain point, most screen types will do fine, and therefore you end up picking the screen that matches your room, and other viewing requirements.

HC6000 Projector Measurements and Calibration

Overall, the Mitsubishi HC6000 was definitely off the target of 6500K temperature in Cinema mode. With color temp at warm, it barely broke 6000K. And the medium setting jumped it to about 7000K, both missing by about the same amount.

The adjustment controls of the HC6000, work very well, and provide lots of control. My final grayscale adjustments weren't as good as my work with the HC4900, but then, there is a trial and error component, and I only spend so much time (about 20-30 minutes) on the grayscale calibration.

The final numbers were:

100 IRE: 6922K
80 IRE: 6566K
50 IRE: 6557K
30 IRE: 6437K

Further adjustment should be able to reduce the range of color temperatures down to about 200 from over 400. It's just a matter of patience. On the other hand, these numbers above are good. If you could compare a projector with this output with another, that was all 6500K, you'ld be hard pressed to spot any difference except in a side by side.

The adjustments made to accomplish that:

Contrast: Red= +1, Green= +0, Blue= -7
Brightness: Red= 4, Green= +3, Blue= 0

Fleshtones with these settings were very natural, and the overall settings, worked just great, as noted above.

There was the slightest yellow caste, and that reflects perhaps a touch too much green, and further playing should solve that as well.

HC6000 Image Noise

No issues here. Jaggies were not a problem, nor were most motion artifacts, when using the HQV 1080 test disk. I don't check the many cadences, but overall, no significant issue.

Mitsubishi HC6000
Image Quality
General Performance
Warranty
Summary, Pros, Cons