Mitsubishi HC1600 Home Theater Projector Review: Image Quality - 5

HC1600 Performance: HDTV and Sports

The HC1600 excels at general hi-def TV, and definitely HDTV sports. This is one area where black level performance is not an issue. After all, there aren't exactly a lot of dark scenes when watching a football game, or the Olympics, or for that matter most TV programs. At the same time, the HC1600 does a great job on sharpness, providing a crisp looking image. Add to that plenty of lumens when you need them, especially if you kick in Brilliant Color at a high setting (like 10 - the max), which really cranks up the lumens. With Brilliant Color all the way up, there is some sacrifice in overall picture quality, but, you are only likely to do that when you have a whole bunch of ambient light in the room, and having a bright enough image takes precedence over a littlle compromise in color accuracy, and natural contrast.

Below are several images from the Olympics, and a football game, shot under three different lighting levels, and with different Brilliant Color settings.

Mitsubishi HC1600 Projector: Overall Image Quality

As I have been trying to communicate, Mitsubishi has done a really good job overall, with only black level performance being a weakness. Sci-fi fans, and maybe horror film freaks (both are invariably loaded with a lot of very dark scenes it seems), may take some issue, but for most folks and most movies, plus TV and sports, the HC1600 provides very good, balanced performance. It's a nice, very sharp projector with very good color. Below are a number of images showing a wide variety of scenes. All are from Blu-ray disc, or HDTV.

Overall Picture Quality: Bottom Line