HD4000 Projector Review - General Performance 2

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Art Feierman

Lens Throw and Lens Shift

The 1.2:1 zoom lens allows the following placement, with a 100 inch diagonal 16:9 aspect ratio screen:

The closest distance from screen to front of lens, is 11.9 feet, the furthest is 14.5 feet.

There is no variable optical lens shift. The built in shift puts the bottom of the image well above the center of the lens, by about 17 inches on the 100" diagonal screen. Remember that this is a 1280x768 projector (so it can do true XGA 1024x768), not a 1280x720 (720p) projector. As a result, for video viewing of 16:9 material, there is a bit less than 2 inches at the top and bottom, that are not used. I mention this as it can come into play with the digital image shift mentioned above. If you are putting the projector on a conference room table, with smaller screens (up to 6 feet wide), the bottom of the screen is likely positioned above the table. However, if you use a larger screen, you may have to find a lower table, as the screen is likely to hang lower.

In the home, a low table will likely work best, or if ceiling mounting, the top of your screen (to allow for the lens shift, and ceiling mount), is probably going to have to be about two feet down from the ceiling or more. This amount of fixed lens shift is not uncommon. Mitsubishi uses the same on the HC3000 (and other?) home theater projector, as do Optoma and a couple of others on a few of their projectors.

Light Leakage

The Mitsubishi does leak a bit of light out the fan vent. It's not enough to be an issue for home theater viewing, unless you are sitting along side the projector at just the right spot where you might catch sight of it. Of course if ceiling mounted, no issue at all, and the same is true for business use. Overall, the HD4000 does just fine here!

Audible Noise Levels

For business users, this is a fairly average projector in terms of noise, and it should be a non issue, in full power mode, and the projector is very quiet in low power. A definite trade-off here for those putting in their homes. In full power, you will hear the HD4000 slightly, and those noise adverse - demanding projectors with under 30db noise levels, will not be happy in full power mode. Low power mode is still fairly noisy compared to the quietest HT projectors, but should be acceptable for all but the most critical. I said above "a definite trade-off", as the compelling reason for buying the HD4000 for home is for the maximum lumens, and that means full power. Of course if you are watching a football game, you could care less about slightly audible noise levels.

Lamp Life and Replacement

The lamp is rated 2000 hours at full power, and 3000 hours in low power. That is about average in the industry. If you are ceiling mounting the projector, with most mounts, you will need to unmount the projector to change the lamp.

Projector Screen Recommendations (Home Theater Only)

I would recommend staying away from HC dark gray surfaces, like Stewarts Greyhawk, Da-Lite's HD-DaMat, and Carada's Grey HC. Better to stick with light gray HC surfaces if you are going HC at all. I found the darker gray surfaces to "enhance" the visibility of the posterization.

Assuming you are not using the projector in a fully darkened room, unless you are using the HC surface to reject some side lighting, I would go with a white surface with some gain, say 1.3 - 1.5, such as Stewart's Studiotek 130, or Carada's Brilliant White that I use in my testing room.

The black levels are sufficient to not need the HC grays, especially if you have some ambient light which will wipe out the benefits of the gray surface anyway.

OK, that's my 2 cents on general performance. Let's take a quick look at Mitsubishi's excellent and long warranty, then, on to our Summary.