Gimmick-Free Top Performer

Mitsibushi carries over the fine styling from the HC6000’s earlier versions, with a compact and elegant cabinet finished in charcoal gray, along with a lens cover that is sculpturally shaped to match the cabinet’s curves and contours. The optical system includes extensive adjustment capability by remote control and includes motorized zoom and motorized focus, as well as motorized lens shift—both horizontal and vertical— to allow easy dialing-in while standing close to the screen. The HC6000 also features a top-notch video processor, powered by the Silicon Optix Reon Hollywood Quality Video chip, which features excellent upconversion from standard definition sources and similarly impressive 1080i deinterlacing to 1080p.

Features

• Three-panel 1080p LCD imaging engine.
• Motorized zoom and focus.
• Motorized lens shift, horizontal and vertical.
• Silicon Optix HQV Reon video processor.
• Two HDMI digital video inputs, component video and standard definition inputs; VGA input for PC.

User Interface

Remote

• Backlit remote has soft amber-colored lighting that I wish was a tad brighter.
• Has discrete power on and off buttons—just the ticket for macro programming startup and shutdown sequences.
• Has discrete input buttons for all six inputs, along with three picture memories.
• Dedicated buttons for major picture adjustment controls—no need to go into the menu system to tweak the picture quality.

Menu System

• Initial five-icon menu panel is a little small, at extreme top left, but it can be moved to centerlower screen right.
• Extensive picture adjustment and fine tuning functions, including direct pixel mapping (no overscan) along with “shutter” function, which provides picture blanking at extreme edges to eliminate visible flicker effects with standard definition TV sources.
• Although many picture adjustment options are buried two and three levels deep, the remote features direct access to the most useful functions, such as color, tint, brightness, contrast, and color temperature.

Recommended Picture Settings

Note: Unlike direct view TVs, a projector’s picture quality and the corresponding optimum contrast and brightness picture settings are a function of the particular screen’s size and the type of screen material used. If you’re setting it up yourself, a test DVD or Blu-ray disc with the appropriate test patterns is de rigueur.

• Color: -4
• Tint: 0
• Gamma: Auto
• Sharpness: 0
• Color Temperature: Medium
• Overscan: 100%
• Auto Iris: Off
• TR Noise Reduction: Off
• Mosquito NR: Off
• BAR: Off
• CTI: 0
• LPF: Off

Performance

Conclusion

Mitsubishi has a winner with the HC6000, providing a top-notch video processing section along with an excellent optical system that allows the easiest and fastest setup via the remote control. It’s also pleasantly devoid of gimmicky picture “enhancement” functions, and is instead endowed with truly useful adjustment options, including 4-way blanking (they call it “shutter”), something I wish all displays offered. There’s plenty of light output at the low lamp setting for reasonably sized screens, which will provide the longest lamp life—the on-screen timer system and the corresponding explanation in the owner’s manual suggests a 5,000 hour lamp life when run in low lamp mode. It also has great deep black performance and a video processor that virtually guarantees artifact-free results with interlaced sources. That it comes in at $1500 less than its predecessor makes it a great projector value.