Mitsubishi HC6500 Home Theater Projector Review: General Performance-1

Posted on October 15, 2013 by Art Feierman

There's lots of information about the HC6500 (link to specs) to cover in this section. These links will allow you to quickly get to any topics of interest to you.

Mitsubishi HC6500 Projector: Menus

The Mitsubishi HC6500 menus, are similar to the old HC4900, and the recently reviewed HC5500, but with the usual minor changes, including iris control.

Temporarily, until I finish this section, I'm pointing you to the HC4900 projector's menu section (first item down on that page). As I said, there are very few differences.

Mitsubishi HC6500 Projector: User Memory Settings

Mitsubishi's HC6500 home theater projector controls allow you to set User areas for both Color Temp, and Gamma. User Color Temp settings, as noted, can be based on the existing different color temp areas (Warm, Medium, Cool), but not High Brightness. Make all your settings changes to all areas (including, also, brightness, contrast, iris on/off, etc.), and you can save them in the AV Memory Save area. You have three User Memory Save areas to use. A couple of more user memory areas would be better, but three is a very common number. One advantage of having a few more, for example is for TV viewing. You might want to have one setup for your normal TV viewing with overscan off, but if you get a channel that has some artifacts along the edges, you'll want overscan to be engaged to hide that. On my Epson projector (part of the Ensemble HD 1080 setup), I have 6 user modes programmed. Still 3 will get you by nicely.

Mitsubishi HC6500 Projector: Remote Control

The HC6500 uses the same remote control as the HC5500, and the older HC6000. As a result, this section is identical to the remote control description in the HC5500 review.

The HC6500 remote has discreet 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 features three buttons, one for each User savable memory positions. This is very user friendly, and I have been using these buttons in conjunction with our calibrated settings for "best" and "brightest" modes.

The four arrow keys and center Enter button for navigating the menus.

Moving to the next row: Left side is the Menu button. Then, there is a button to select different Iris options and finally, 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 bottom row on the HC6500 remote control 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 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, but could be brighter - no real problem there.

I also found that there was sufficient spacing in the remote that I could easily find the Menu button as well as the arrow keys/Enter buttons without having to look at the remote.

The range of the HC6500 remote control is average. 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. As a result, I got used to pointing it over my shoulder, at the projector. Of course I'm talking a 28 foot trip for the signal, when I try to bounce off the screen. Also, it seems to me, that high contrast gray screens, like my Firehawk G3, aren't really good surfaces for a good bounce. At slightly shorter total distances, the remote became more reliable. I conclude that if you are using a 100" or 110" screen you should have better luck (mine is 128")!

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