Mitsubishi HC4900 DLP Home Theater Projector Review – General Performance-2

HC4900 User Memory Settings

The HC4900 projector offers several layers of user menus. There are user settings for both gamma and color temp. In addition there is one general user saved setting.

HC4900 Projector - Remote Control

The H4900’s remote is above average. I must apologize, for the first time in about a year and a half, I somehow forgot to take a picture of the remote before sending back the projector the other day.

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 enough spacing in the remote that I could easily find the Menu button, and the arrow keys/Enter buttons without having to look at the remote.

Range of the remote, however was not particularly strong. 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!

HC4900 Lens Throw, Lens Shift, and Sharpness

Positioning the projector for a 100″ 16:9 diagonal screen; the zoom lens will allow the projector (front), to be as close as 10 feet 3 inches and as far back as 16 feet 5 inches. As noted elsewhere, 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.