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Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector – Performance

Posted on July 15, 2013 By Art Feierman

This section covers the HC8000D’s brightness (including many measurements with color temperature reported), sharpness, and image noise. Also covered on this page, are other physical attributes including light leakage and audible noise for the HC8000D projector.

Mitsubishi HC8000D Brightness

Lumen Output and Color Temp for various Picture modes at 100 IRE
Cinema 486 @ 6897
Video 486 @ 6662
3D 804 @ 7556
Game 804 @ 7564
A/V Memory 1, 2 or 3 476 @ 6602
ISF Day 761 @ 7458
ISF Night 444 @ 6628

I’ll start off by pointing out that the Mitsubishi HC8000D is very typical in terms of “best mode” brightness when compared to other projectors in its price range. On the other hand, it doesn’t do as well when you need the brightest image, and still expect respectable color.

There’s more information, and all the settings Mike came up with, on the Calibration page. In addition Mike provides some calibration notes and opinions.

Let’s focus on the actual measurements, and how they might work for you.

Let’s have some fun:  Here are how the different modes measured on the HC8000D.

As you can see,  the Memories, Cinema, and Video are all very similar.  For the brighter modes, 3D and Game appear to be essentially the same (margin of error).  Those two modes have Brilliant Color on, while the first group defaults to Brilliant Color Off.  There’s plenty of extra lumens when you turn Brilliant Color on.

Mike did not use/measure the High Brightness Color Temp.  It is sufficiently green we both consider it unwatchable.  You probably have to go back to the early sixties to find a TV (that wasn’t broken) that didn’t produce better color than watching any of the modes with High Brightness color temp selected.  Since Mitsubishi projectors never seem to allow the Hight Brightess color temp to be modified, there is no way we could effectively improve it.  Even if we did, we would almost certainly knock it down from around 1000 lumens to about the same 800 lumens as the other “bright modes.”

HC7900DW

Lumen Output and Color Temp for various Picture modes at 100 IRE
Cinema 713 @ 6855
Video  713 @ 6650
3D  962 @ 7431
Game  962 @ 7424
A/V Memory 1, 2 or 3 713 @ 6550

Well look at that!  Cinema Video and A/V Memories are again very similar to each other (not to the HC8000D), and – identical in brightness, but there’s not as big an improvement jumping to the brightest modes.  One could conjecture that it relates to both Brilliant Color, and also that the HC8000’s “best” modes start out with better grayscale.  That is, the “best modes” of the HC7900DW aren’t quite as good as the HC8000D’s so they could free up more lumens.  (I sure hope that makes sense.)

Mike shared this:  The HC8000 calibrated extremely well, doing much better than the HC7900 recently reviewed.  It’s slightly less bright than the HC7900 and like that projector, turning Brilliant Color on increases lumen output, to the detriment of grayscale.  If you look at the grayscale chart, you’ll see near perfect grayscale tracking, with Delta E under 1.0 throughout the entire measured IRE range, with an average of 0.5.  This is one of the best results I’ve seen on a projector to date.

Unlike the HC7900, the preset gamma was so good there was no reason to use the custom gamma (unless you desire a level not available in one of the preset levels).  Using the 2.2 setting resulted in an average gamma of 2.18, but what’s more impressive is that the gamma chart is flat throughout the IRE range (see chart).  Likewise, luminance tracks the curve perfectly as well.

Mike has more to say.  Much of that will be found on this projector review’s calibration page.  My turn:

In addition Mike calibrated the individual colors using the CMS.  This is something we’ve recently started to do.  We are saving the CIE information and CMS settings for the new site, where they will be found in the Subscriber area.  We will continue to provide the same grayscale and general calibration that we have always provided, in the main reviews. Enough said for now.  -art

Post Calibration: User "best" mode (placed in User AV Memory 1) = 465 lumens

Effect of zoom on lumen output (Game mode)
Zoom out 914 (1174 with Contrast on 11 and High Brightness color temp)
Mid zoom 804
Zoom in 694

That’s just a little below “average” (500 lumens calibrated)

HC8000D Brightest “Watchable” mode  Game or 3D saved to A/V Memory 2. 3 Brilliant Color on, Iris 2 set to High Brightness, Contrast at +11:  888 lumens

With the Contrast and +11, there are some issues, such as crushed highlights, but it does deliver (per Mike) 127 lumens more than with Contrast set for where it should be.

As you can see from the numbers, having the projector at its shortest distance from a given sized screen, and you get about 13% more brightness compared to mid-point on the zoom.   Going from closest to furthest results in a drop in brightness of almost 25%.

Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector – Image Quality 4
Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector – Performance 2