Mitsubishi HC5500 1080p Home Projector Review: Image Quality-1

Posted on August 9, 2008 By Art Feierman

When it comes to image quality, the HC5500 (link to specs) is a solid performer. Not the best, but trade-offs considered, highly competitive. Keep in mind that this is Mitsubishi’s “entry level” 1080p projector, with another higher end model due shortly.

Mitsubishi HC5500 Home Theater Projector: Out of the Box Picture Quality

Pretty good, but not exceptional, the HC5500 will definitely benefit from a good user calibration. Buy a disc like the AVIA, or the DVE-HD calibration disc, and invest an hour or so of your time, it will be worth the effort, or get it professionally calibrated for a few hundred dollars.

Skin Tone Handling

Once calibrated, skin tones are very good. I must note, as usual, that the combination of my digital SLR (Olympus E-510), and other aspects cause the images I take to come out oversaturated. I suggest you dial down your monitor’s color saturation until the images are no longer oversaturated, to get the best idea of how the HC5500 really looks on the screen.

To start, the usual images of Gandalf, and Arwen, from Lord of the Rings, the Return of the King. These are both from standard DVD (SD-DVD).