Mitsubishi HC5000 1080p projector reviewed - including a Pearl shootout
By Matt Burns 
posted Apr 4th 2007 9:34AM
posted Apr 4th 2007 9:34AM
Who would have thought that so many 1080p projectors would hit the market this year at such a low price point? The Sony Pearl made waves at CEDIA when it's low-low price of $4999 was announced. Then Mitsubishi announced their golden child of the HC5000 even less. Home Theater Blog just posted a review of the latter and boy did they like it. Like they said in the intro, it's not the perfect display but from the tone of their review, it sure does sound close: great color and detail, extremely quite fan, zero light-spill - oh and don't forget 1080p. Moreover, all this in a package with a street price under $4500. The guys over there did compare it head to head with the notorious Sony Pearl and well, we won't all steal their thunder, but lets just say if you were saving your pennies for the Pearl, you may want to reconsider.
Too bad they didn't review it against the JVC DLA-RS1. If you haven't seen this projector with its true 15,000:1 contrast you owe it to yourself to check it out. It simply blows the pearl and the mits 5000 out of the water because of this unique combination of brightness (700 lumens in calibrated mode) and amazing contrast.
You should also look at something like sin city to see how annoying auto-iris systems can be. As the scene shifts from dark to dark with some brighter elements the shift in the background darks is very noticeable and annoying. This alone knocked the mits off my list and yes I have seen one in person.
Of course the JVC is more expensive than the Pearl or the Mits but if you are purchasing for a dedicated home theater then its one of the models that should be considered.
I saw a blind demo of the JVC vs. a Sharp 1080p projector at last year's Fall EHX in Long Beach. The *only* way I could tell the difference between the two projectors was the color wheel artifacts in the Sharp! It is a serious player.
David Lewis
www.allht.com
Everything has pros and cons with projectors.
The JVC RS1 and the Mits HC5000 have the typical problems that all LCD/LCOS have. If you like watching HD sports, neither is preferred. The pixels don't respond fast enough and the motion blurs. They also have color uniformity issues. Put an all white image on each and notice the red and green tint to different sides of the image. It is also apparent with scenes with sky. LCOS is also "soft" (the pixels are blurred together). This is great for watching movies as it appears film like; not so great for watching broadcast HDTV. All of this is why you'll never see LCD/LCOS manufacturers demo HD sports or put up a bright all white (or light) image.
Lastly, ask how long you plan to have it. LCD and LCOS break down beacause of the high heat produced by the lamps and start to have blotching on the screen. This state is unrecoverable.
LCOS is good for dark rooms but because of its lack of brightness suffers with any ambient light. At EH Expo at JVC representative even said to an audience that it was ideal for rooms with ambient light.
If you can get the opportunity, have a dealer put a 1080 LCOS, LCD, and DLP side by side with all different kinds of content - bright movie, dark movie, HD sports in both 720 (ABC/FOX) and 1080i (CBS/NBC)- in a similar lighting environment for your theater (pitch dark or light in the room) and then make your choice.
I think you'll quickly see why the highest end brand in the game, Runco, uses nothing but DLP as it has the best "all around" image. DLP is by no means perfect either, but today offers the best of all worlds.
Mis-type from above - Should read: At EH Expo a JVC representative even said to an audience that it was NOT ideal for rooms with ambient light.