Mitsubishi HC1500 Home Theater Projector Review - Image Quality-2

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Art Feierman

Overall I was extremely impressed with the flesh tone handling, even right out of the box, and with a basic calibration, they can be even more refined. For comparison's sake, I recently reviewed the new Panasonic PT-AX100U, one of the most impressive values I have ever seen (street price right below $2000), although half again more expensive. As noted in the review, the Panasonic after my (in that case, quick and mediocre) calibration, tended to be too rich in reds, and overall, colors were oversaturated a bit on the photos (both easily corrected).

So, below is the same approximate scene from above, taken with the projectors set up side by side, both in "best modes." Also, note the similarity in overall brightness which will get discussed later. You may click on for a larger image. The Mitsubishi HC1000 is on the left, the PT-AX100U, on the right.

HC1500 Black levels and shadow detail

As you are probably familiar, one of the challenges of a good home theater projector is to handle blacks well. None of the current technologies (except CRT) can actually project a true black (that would be projecting no light at all) LCD, DLP and LCOS technologies differ in how close to black they can do, with DLP being the reigning champ, and LCD and LCOS a step down in this critical area. Fortunately, today's non DLP projectors and also a number of DLP home theater projectors, use other advanced techniques, such as frame by frame, AI, and opening and closing of an iris in the lens, or brightening or dimming the lamp, frame by frame, to improve overall black levels. This has made some LCD projectors come out with amazing specs, but they cannot consistently lower the black levels to that of the better DLP projectors.