Mitsubishi HC6000

CNET editors' review

Mitsubishi's HC6000 replaces last year's model, the HC5000, as the company's entry-level 1080p home theater projector. The main improvement is higher contrast ratio due mainly to improved black level performance. It also delivers on its 1080p resolution promise for the most part, with video processing courtesy of Silicon Optix and a high-quality lens for such an inexpensive projector. The feature package is impressive too, with features usually found only on much more expensive projectors. My biggest complaint is the inaccuracy of the primary and secondary colors, but I guess you can't have everything. The Mitsubishi's direct competitor in this price range is the Sony VPL-VW60, and I give a slight nod to the Mitsubishi in terms of overall performance. The HC6000 is also a really good value, considering you can get it online for less than $3,000.

The remote control is an intelligently designed unit and all the keys backlit as soon as one was pressed, making using it in a darkened room much easier. Other than the Menu key, left, right, up, and down rocker keys, and the enter button, there are direct access keys for the Iris, Aspect Ratio, Contrast, Brightness, Color Temperature selections, all the inputs, and the lens functions. The internal menu system is identical to that of last year's 5000 and is simple and intuitive to navigate and use.

Features
Electronic controls for horizontal and vertical lens shift, as well as zoom and focus, are the most important features that aid setup of the HC6000 and are unusual to find at this price range. Since these functions are available electronically from the remote, they're much easier to adjust than mechanical controls, which require you to be at the projector to manipulate.

Other picture controls include a few Gamma modes, which are really picture modes with different gamma curves. Cinema is the best preset, while two user modes allow you to adjust the gamma curve yourself, but I don't recommend that unless you know what you are doing.

Selectable color temperatures are also available, and the User color temperature is adjustable for those wishing to have the unit professionally calibrated. An Auto Iris feature allows the Iris to open and close automatically depending on how bright the scene is. I recommend you shut this off as it causes both white level and black level to shift up and down depending on picture content, and both white and black need to be set correctly and remain constant for the best picture performance.

Connectivity is reasonably generous for a front projector. Two HDMI inputs head up the list--an upgrade from last year's HC5000, which had one HDMI and one DVI input. A single component video input and a 15-pin VGA input, which can also be configured for component-video, are also on tap. A single S-Video and a single composite video input for older legacy sources like VHS decks are also present. Finally, an RS-232 control port and a 12-volt trigger are available as well.

Performance
There is no question that the HC6000 is a significant improvement over last year's 5000. The biggest area of improvement is greater contrast ratio, due mainly to improved black-level performance. While the Mitsubishi's blacks are much deeper than those of last year's model, the best 1-chip 1080p resolution DLP projectors today with Dark Chip technology are slightly better in this regard. The LCoS-based JVC DLA-HD100 for example, is also slightly better in this all-important performance parameter than the Mitsubishi, although nearly twice the price.

Excellent color decoding, good gamma, and accurate grayscale tracking are all a part of the package. It is a shame that the Mitsubishi's primary and secondary color accuracy is so far off the mark, taking away from overall color accuracy in the end. Video processing comes courtesy of Silicon Optix, and its HQV processing scheme, of which there are several levels of quality. De-interlacing was good, and as evidenced by the Silicon Optix HQV test disc in Blu-ray, the HC6000 does a fine job with both video-based and film-based HD material.

For real-world testing of black level performance, I spun up the recent release on Blu-ray of Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Most of the film is quite dark and the opening sequence is particularly good for checking blacks. L.A.'s futuristic buildings against the night background were reasonably well rendered, although the blacks weren't quite as inky as the best digital projectors today. The opening scene of The Departed, also on Blu-ray, is somewhat dark (maybe the director is trying to keep you from seeing Jack Nicholson and how old he is, since the film is about to jump 20 or more years into the future). That particular scene also looked good, with plenty of shadow detail.

This scene also provides a tough test for motion, with a sharp left-to-right pan in the diner when the young girl comes down to serve Jack. Unfortunately, the 6000 doesn't display a multiple of 24 frames per second from Blu-ray, so there is some jutter in film-based material. This scene looked good otherwise, with razor-sharp clarity. Given its price, the HC6000 has a reasonably high-quality lens so images are rendered with commendable clarity when the source is sharp.