Mitsubishi HC4900 3LCD HD Home Theater Projector

With a street price of less than $2,500, the Mitsubishi HC400U offers lots of useful features and solid video performance. With a native pixel resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p), the HC4900 delivers a full HD image. One the one hand, detail, flesh tones, overall color saturation, and contrast levels provide a very natural looking image that is hard to find in other similarly-price units currently on the market. However, two drawbacks are its average 1,000 lumen light output, which doesn't do as well in large rooms, and lack of keystone correction, which can affect steep projector angle installation.

Pros

Cons

In using the HC4900, I found several features that were quite welcome: Powered Focus, Zoom, and both Horizontal and Vertical Lens Shift, 1080p native resolution, one button on/off, and a backit remote.

The inclusion of these features in a projector priced less than $2,500 makes the HC4900 a very good value, not just because they are included, but that they actually work well.

Being able to focus, zoom, and position the image correctly on the screen via powered controls, which also be accessed via remote, is a real convenience.

In this review the projector was positioned about 18 feet from the screen and was able to project a 145-inch diagonal image from about 18 feet projector-screen distance.

With regards to actual video performance, the projected image was very impressive in terms of image detail, especially from a native 1080p source (in this case an LG BH100 Blu-ray/HD-DVD combo player. Color was also very good, with smooth gradation between color shades. However, the black levels were somewhat disappointing, considering the stated contrast ratio.

In addition, with modest lumens output, the image was not as bright as I would have preferred considering the image size and projector distance. If you need a projector to use for a longer than 15 foot screen distance, consider one with more light output.

Using the Silicon Optix HQV DVD Benchmark test disc, I found that the de-interlacing and scaling of the HC4900 was about average, with some artifacts present. The noise reduction performance was very good.

Despite some shortcomings, the HC4900 is an incredible deal for a 3LCD projector with its features and performance, and is definitely worth checking out.

For a closer look at the room, additional hardware and software used in this review, and further perspective on the HC4900, check out my Mitsubishi HC4900 Photo Gallery and Review..