Mitsubishi HC7800D - Review Summary

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Art Feierman

Mitsubishi HC7800D Projector - The Bottom Line

I think of the HC7800D as a fine, small home theater projector that is best in a home theater-like environment, on a "smaller" sized screen. Now for you folks still watching on those tiny LCDTV's and plasma TVs, when I say smaller, I'm thinking between about 80 inches diagonal and 100 inches diagonal. (In other words, compared to LCDTVs - not small, but rather "supersized").

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The real strengths of the Mitsubishi HC7800D projector are the general 2D picture quality, sharpness, and about as clean looking 3D as I've seen. A little more about each:

First, the HC7800D looks better, in terms of color accuracy, than most other projectors right out of the box. This is a point worthy of some additional conmment. This year, most projectors in the over $2000 range, are pretty good out of the box. That wasn't really the case 3-4 years ago. It seems projector manufacturers are doing a much better job these days, in that, for those who don't plan to have their projector calibrated, today's projectors, overall, will provide better skin tones, and color in general, at least if you go to the trouble of using the "best mode" the projector has to offer.

That said, the Mitsubishi HC7800D still does better, right out of the box, than most. True, there are a couple of others out there, better "out of the box" such as Epson's Pro Cinema 6010, a direct competitor, in that it too is only sold by local installing dealers. That Epson has a THX mode which is downright excellent, for "out of the box". On the other hand, the Epson 6010 costs more than this Mitsubishi, while the Home Cinema 5010, which costs less, lacks the THX mode.

If you take your movies seriously, and want best color, we'd still recommend having the HC7800 calibrated. Failing that, try our settings. They should do better than the defaults.

HC7800D Color and Overall Picture Quality

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Skin tones are excellent. Extremely believable, and a touch better than the Epson 5010, which we're using as the reference in this case. (Because I have use long term of that Epson, so have been able to compare the Epson with a number of other projectors. I typically use my own JVC as reference when comparing much more expensive projectors.)

Shadow detail is also first class. For a projector in the price range, my only real complaint is with black level performance. This projector does well enough, but is relatively "entry level" when compared to other "ultra-high contrast" projectors (those with superior black performance.) Still, the combination makes for a "great little projector".

Brightness of the Mitsubishi HC7800 projector isn't a "problem" but it does limit the number of potential buyers of this projector. Let's talk 2D first: