Mitsubishi HC1500 720p DLP Home Theater Projector Reviews

Average Customer Rating - 4.6 out of 5 stars

81 customer reviews

Very good Projector. UNBIAS REVIEW, September 3, 2007
Its quite a long-winded review provided by aholics. I am guessing it worth reading for 5 minutes, If you gonna spend the money

We absolutely jumped at the break to get a close look at the new Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector since we missed the boat on checking out the HD1000U which preceded it. The attraction is a verbs system that handles up to 720p for less than $1000. This projector is worth a serious look - especially at the street pricing you'll find on this model. It's beyond doubt mind-blowing to me that we live in a time when a projector can be had for this price possessing the plane of features and amenities that come with the HC1500. If you break it down into price per square inch, you are saving a bundle by going next to front projection at this price - as of this writing you can barely get a wearing clothes 40-inch LCD TV for the same money. RUN to your nearest Mitsubishi dealer and check this one out for yourself - you owe it to your wallet.

Pro
1080p/60 support
Main menu shows input signal resolution
RS-232C control
Excellent color
Good out-of-the-box execution

Con
No 480i support over HDMI
Significant rainbow effect
Default Sharpness setting too high
Can crush blacks if not meticulous

Things We Really Liked About This ProjectorContinuing the above thought, Mitsubishi has entered a projector into the bazaar with several very nice convenience features which back distance it from the pack and set it apart:

BrilliantColor
While not new, this function is nice in that it allows for a speedy way to eek out more brightness to suit the time of day and ambient lighting conditions contained by your viewing room. It's almost like a built in morning and night adjustment, however when activated it will crush your white level so use sparingly.

12V trigger
Many times this feature gets vanished out of lesser-priced units. It's nice to know that the HC1500 can be used with a motorized blind if desired.

Price & RS-232C
At under $1000 you really can't beat this 720p projector for getting HD into your living room minus breaking the bank. To also include RS-232C control options (with clear codes at the Mitsubishi website) is certainly unreal in terms of expediency.

There are sufficient connections on the back of the Mitsubishi HC1500 to satisfy anyone I know. You own HDMI and component, with another available component input via the HD15 (VGA) connection. For those of you who don't own any HD sources and feel the need to blow up 480i representation to ridiculous sizes there is a composite and s-video input as well. The surprise on the wager on of this unit, for me at least, be the presence of a serial RS-232C connection. With an 8-pin DIN to D-sub adapter you can fully control the HC1500 with an advanced system such as those from AMX, Crestron or similar.

Mitsubishi HC1500 flipside connections

The HC1500 is really a great little box. With this many inputs and the ability to manipulate both 1080p/60 input signals (and with a 720p native panel resolution) it's going to be unbelievably hard to beat for attraction. The physical box itself has the same look of the HD1000 and HD4000 models. There is a guide focus and zoom adjustment just behind the lens as expected and much of the front and side panel are devoted to airflow and venting. As a result, there is a significant amount of street lamp leakage from the front and right side of the unit. Fan jingle was consistent but not terribly loud, though it did enjoy a soft whine attached to it rather than a gentle shush. An attached lens cap keeps the dust from settling on the lens when not within use. Aside from the remote, there are 7 buttons atop the unit for power, menu control, input test and keystone correction. These buttons are multi-function and allow you to get the system up and running even if you are unable to access the remote.

Remote Control

The HC1500 remote is pretty well brought-up, especially given the low cost of entry for this projector. You have direct access to input sources (all 5 input options) as well as some ways to directly interact with many of the primary picture controls (BrilliantColor isn't one of these, however). Discrete On and Off buttons/commands are available on the remote as resourcefully - and which enabled this remote to land a healthy 4/5 ranking. One of my favorite features was the presence of three AV memory setting buttons. Selecting one of these buttons allows configuration and/or recall of the Image Menu settings for that inspection. In this way I was competent to configure a setting for nighttime Cinema viewing, one for Daytime viewing and another for black & white films (with a slightly lower/warmer color temperature). These are excellent features to have and the Mitsubishi puts them right at your fingertips which is very nice.

The remote be also very easy to use and the signal bounced from the eyeshade to the projector in almost any position. I tried pretty hard to point the signal within places where it might not reach the part and most of the time I had to quite wittingly aim away from anything in order to allow the remote to database to reach its target. The only piece keeping this remote from attaining a 5/5 was the fact that the backlight be so dim it was at times difficult to read the buttons. All remotes should work this well.

The Menu System

Simliar to other Mitsubishi projectors that share nearly one and the same software, the menu system on the HC1500 is straightforward and easy to navigate. I still don't like exiting interior level of the submenus by either scrolling all the mode to the top or by pressing the Menu button, but its certainly something one gets used to and the menu system will not be used adjectives that much once you have everything configured to your liking. I go over most of the Menu functions in my review of the Mitsubishi HC5000 as well as our reviews of the HD4000. Not too much have changed so feel free to look up those reviews for more details. You can now access BrilliantColor from the Image menu, which also make that feature part of the AV Memory functionality and Vertical Location adjustment can be made for those who may have devices which require adjustment of the vertical image.

Movies be fun to watch on this projector for their color and black levels. As near other Mitsubishi's, however, I did have a significant problem with rainbows and they don't, for me at smallest, go away with time. Having interviewed adequate people about this phenomenon, I no longer authoritatively vote that everyone will experience rainbows as significantly as I - since everyone's perceptions of them are different. For me, the timings Mitsubishi uses (in this case a 4-speed, 7-segment wheel) wreak havoc near my optical system. My best recommendation to anyone is to try out this projector in your own home to see how you act in response. Don't look for rainbows, lest you find them, but find out if typical viewing material (include some high-contrast images next to vertical line patterns) creates a problem for you.

Rainbows aside, I really enjoyed both the color and the detail this system afforded me. The better the signal you nurture this projector, the better the results you will get - and you can get REALLY nice results.

HD DVD - Batman Begins
This movie come out rather dark, as though the verbs was done poorly - the problem is we know that the transfer be flawless base don other projector reviews. Thinking back to my luminance graph I in the blink of an eye realized that setting this projector "by the book" will result in some crushed blacks - at lowest in my experience. When setting black levels (Brightness) be sure you can lift up the value a notch or two better than normal. Unfortunately, this raises your blacks overall, but I'd fairly than than lose the detail present in DVD and HD-DVD images. There be moments of real detail and exceptional opportunities to see how economically the HC1500 handled gradients, skin tones, deinterlacing of motion elements and detail. Batman Begins be a very enjoyable movie to survey, and the Mitsubishi HC1500 gave an impressive performing. Any perspective anomalies in the photos below are likely due to the camera angle and type used and not the projector.

Both color and detail be present and beautifully portrayed through the HC1500 projector.

The problem with have a nice projector and a great movie like Batman Begins, is that I quickly get lost in the story and took entirely too long to grab some of these delicate screen captures. It is a sure bet that you will relish the images shown by the HC1500 - they are stunning.

HD DVD - We Were Soldiers
This HD DVD is best described as a DVD that was reprocessed into HD DVD in need much ado. The images are grainy, but the detail pokes through at different times throughout the film and black levels be honest and not crushed or clipped. Colors were vibrantly shown by the DLP system and overall this reminded me of how standard definition DVDs looked like on the HC1500 projector. The system doesn't enhance poor descriptions, but it does a great job of allowing the best possible picture to shine through.

Blacks were rich and vast; and colors popped during the scenes that didn't involve the rather barren panorama of Vietnam.

HDTV - Discovery HD Channel
I watched several shows on Discovery HD, including Build It Bigger and Into the Lion's Den. Both had some excellent metaphors (as expected) and I was floored by the detail exhibited by the Mitsubishi. This projector can really show off a nice picture - the key is finding them. With this unit you will find yourself watching more and more HD content and in a flash becoming an early adopter of HD-DVD formats simply to have more things to view on the big screen.

Notice the spike detail in the above picture and the lack of crushed whites surrounded by both. This is partially due to the correct setting of White levels (Contrast) and disengaging the BrilliantColor element.

Here are some additional screen capture form a DiscoveryHD promo I simply HAD to display:

Detail, detail, detail! And colors are absolutely vibrant - you will not be disappointed with this picture.

ConclusionI make a contribution the HC1500 my full recommendation with a healthy warning: If you are susceptible to rainbows I highly suggest you win a look at this model before jumping into a purchase. To my eyes this be a significant issue, more so than other DLP models I have reviewed recently. This projector is worth a serious look - especially at the street pricing you'll find on this model. It's beyond doubt mind-blowing to me that we live in a time when a projector can be had for this price possessing the stratum of features and amenities that come with the HC1500. If you break it down into price per square inch, you are saving a bundle by going near front projection at this price - as of this writing you can barely get a wearing clothes 40-inch LCD TV for the same money. RUN to your nearest Mitsubishi dealer and check this one out for yourself - you owe it to your wallet.

5 Star rating for the Champion, November 6, 2007
I would similar to to first state this projector will do 1:1 pixel mapping through the HDMI port from a computer. This was my simply concern as there is little to no evidence this works properly from other reviews. Within the first five minutes of owning this unit I successfully output 1280 x 720 @ 60Hz through a DVI to HDMI cable from an Nvidia 7800GT video card. The simply real adjustment to produce this 1:1 pixel mapping be to set the projector to "real" in the aspect option, and consequently set the overscan to 100% (default is 97% overscan). The projector will now display a perfect 1:1 pixel map as you would expect from a XGA projector or a PC monitor with no artifacting, frequency noise, or shimmer surrounded by text/fine lines due to scaling. It is perfect.

Now for the review, this is our fifth projector and four of those be DLP. My last projector that I can compare it to directly is the BenQ PB6240 XGA projector with 2700 lumens and 2000:1 contrast ratio. This is a wonderful projector but the HC1500 is much brighter at equal throw distance and is natively wide screen. The black level and color reproduction are outstanding; the HC1500 really stands out for a home theatre.

My intent for this unit is for big blind movies and for viewing web content clearly from the couch and going through pictures when we have own flesh and blood in town. I do have a PS2 connected via the S-Video port and it is better than any other projector using the S-Video port; deeply colorful, bright and surprisingly sharp/clear. As I stated, we purchased this unit mainly for movies and I would recommend a Septre 37 inch or larger 1080p monitor for dignified resolution games on the pc with a 8800GTX for the most immersive experience (through the DVI- HDMI port for 1:1 map of course).

The HC1500 is about 14.5 feet from the wall (no blind yet) and produces 100 inch diagonal image, this size can be zoomed larger (aprox 130") at this point but I needed the smallest screen size possible from this distance. Let me say even at this distance and sheer size the amount of color and clarity is phenomenal and the black level are better than ANY projector I have ever seen, interval. I would recommend a High resolution DVD player such as a Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or equivalent for the highest quality portrait. We are using the computer to play movies but DVD players have come along way too.

The projector is remarkably, very quiet, even within full lamp mode. I have tried adjectives setting regarding brightness and `True color' modes and all are remarkably acceptable. It really depends on your preference, low kerosene lamp and `True color' set to `3' works great for our size, but some would maybe like "more" which the projector can accommodate. It is approaching having a 100" plasma wall, it is that impressive.

The merely draw back that I have encounter is a heat haze on the moved out side of the projected image. I can only describe this effect as you would see breakers directly above a dark colored car on a really hot afternoon due to the intense heat distorting light as it the muted passes through. I have isolated this to an external issue; it is not internal or fragment of the unit at all. The exhaust port is right subsequent to the lens and the air exiting the projector is not exhausted quickly due to the low commotion fan, so the heat linger in front of the lens. I tested this by placing a fan 8 foot away to move the heat away from the front lens. This worked so I know I have poor freshening in this portion of my house, this does not mean the projector over heat or that it is hot, it is not; just that the exhausted air exits the projector at low pressure so it tend to linger. Good circulation in the room will alleviate this minor issue. No one else notice this effect, but I am very critical on image point and I tend to pick apart equipment and there flaws. This is not a flaw just an watch that I feel necessary to mention.

I suggest this projector is a great investment as the replacement bulbs are only 350 bucks.
With such a low price and high gig results this is the projector to buy for under a grand. I hope this review is informative for you to consider this product. I am extremely happy with this part and ultimately that is what it was designed to do, Enjoy...

Very nice, but missing some aspect features., September 20, 2007
The HC1500 is a outstandingly nice projector, especially for the price. I upgraded from an InFocus Screenplay DLP Front Projector - SP4805. By comparison, the HC1500 is much brighter, quieter, and more crisp. It also fit my existing ceiling mount, which was very convenient.

The one and only problem I've not found a fix for is the aspect ratio selection. The SP4805 was home-grown 16:9, but also had a mode for 4:3, and another which cropped a 4:3 picture to 16:9 and enlarged it to fill the integral screen. This mode was really nice for TV broadcasts and mature DVDs filmed in 16:9 but broadcast within 4:3 with black bars. Without that zoomed/cropped mode, you enjoy to watch it in 4:3 mode, so you see the black bar both on the sides of the screen and then again on the top and bottom. This way you're basically looking at an image 2/3 the size of your peak.

As far as I can tell, the HC1500 does not have an aspect mode that works powerfully with this problem. It is also native 16:9, and have the following aspect modes; auto (which as far as I can tell is identical to 16:9 regardless of input signal), 4:3, 4:3 stretched to 16:9 (with serious distortion on the moved out and right sides), and two zooms. The user's guide says the two zoom are optimized for cinemascope and vista images with subtitles, but they don't expand the projected nouns out to take advantage of the better screen/picture aspect ratio contest. Instead it simply crops the image within the 4:3 display boundary and leaves the black bar on the sides. This is very annoying when watching 16:9 TV show (broadcast non-HD) because your picture is miniaturized and surrounded by unused black bar blind area. The show is being broadcast specifically to cram your whole screen, but the projector leaves bar on all 4 sides of the image.

I don't become conscious why Mitsubishi omitted that feature, it seems requisite in this day and age. The fine print in the user's guide does mention that zoom modes will make the dummy of a 480i signal smaller. Again, it looks fine when you have 480p input, which I only receive from my DVD player, or a native 4:3 TV 480i input (normal TV). And the picture is fantastic with both.

Overall I'm beaming with this machine, especially for the price and bright HD picture. But if anyone have a work around for the aspect issue, I'd love to hear it.

great color, not as sharp as others, December 9, 2007
This is my second HD compatible DLP projector, my first was the Olympus V-1, which being the size of a big paperback, served double duty as a backup projector for office type work. The Mitsubishi 1500 was picked from looking the the ProjectorReview (sic) website, which unsophisticatedly lushed over its predecessor the Mitshubishi 1000, and the review is worth reading to find out how to tune this beasty.

First off it has a stunning, colorful picture, make the Olympus almost seem black and white in comparison. However the tradeoff is it is not as blade sharp via the HDMI as the old projector was (no DVI input unluckily so you have to live with the internal HDMI scale issues.) I am driving this with an OPPO upscaling DVD player and for example lines of type in the credits that be clearly legible on the Olympus, are less so on the Mitsubishi.

The Mitsubishi had no problems when feed with 480p, 540P, or 720p via the HDMI input (the resultant picture was scale to the projectors native 720p) but had picture jitter when I drove it next to 1080i. I tried to route the OPPO signal via the VGA input using a DVI/VGA adapter but it wouldn't sync with it.

However, when I hooked it up to a 1080i output from a Mac laptop with duplicate adapter, running HDTV of an NFL game, the results were simply stunning. I display this on a nine foot peak and there was no distinct lag even at this size. So if you have a DVI aboriginal product maybe try going via VGA and bypassing the HDMI input here.

In summary for DVD viewing I would give it a 4, but for HDTV a 5.

Pros: brilliant picture, even on low power
extremely undisturbed, you almost have to strain to hear it when playing movies

Cons: others have commented on its poor handling of local 4:3 material, I only use it for HD so its not a problem for me; the menus are really complicated and you will only want to adjust them once and hope it remembers; picture not as sharp via HDMI as it could be; output angle of this projector is high so since we keep hold of it at table level I have to really tip it up on its hind legs to hit the correct viewing angle

Unbiased comparison to SONY LCD projector, May 20, 2008
I originally purchased the Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector, but have some problems with it. Ordered this one from amazon and put them side by side. This isn't a review so much as a comparison between 3 Chip LCD and SINGLE CHIP DLP (which tend to be in duplicate price range). I actually liked the HC1500 profusely, but ended up keeping this SONY VLPAW10 for a number of reason. It's not perfect, and in some areas underperforms the DLP. Here's the comparison.

Single chip DLP projectors create imagery by having a "chip" filled next to thousands of tiny mirrors (1 per pixel on the screen) that can tilt up and down. When they tilt, they send light to the blind, when they don't tilt, the light stays in the projector. This ends up creating wonderfully bright and brilliant similes. The only problem with this setup is that there's no color (just the white flimsy is being directed) so the color needs to be introduced by spinning a color pedals in front of the chip. (in this case it's a 7 segment red-green-blue-white-red-green-blue rudder. The problem is that the colors are therefore being created via an optical image, which for some people creates a "rainbow" effect where they see color rainbows contained by the white areas of the image. It's very pronounced when in attendance are credit rolls at the end of movies, or any other times there are high-ranking contrast black/white (or light/dark) areas. In a certain percentage of cases, the rainbow effect causes headache and eyestrain It did so for me. (google "DLP rainbow effect" if you don't believe me. There are such things as 3 chip DLP projectors that don't need the color wheels and don't create this effect, but they aren't even close to man in the sub $1000 price range (they start at SEVERAL thousand dollars)

Three chip LCD screen actually have 3 panel (red green and blue) so they don't need the spinning color wheel, they a moment ago project the light through the panels, and the colors flash up on the screen if calibrated properly. They are not as bright and brilliant as the DLP metaphors because the light is going through the panels, and not mortal reflected by mirrors which create more direct light. The LCD projectors also have need of more space between the pixels than DLP, and this ends up giving you a more visible "screen door"effect where you can in reality see the faint black lines of the pixel grid if you sit close enough to the eyeshade (as if you were looking through a door or window near an insect screen on it, hence the term "screen door".

So that's the milieu, here are the results of my side by side tests (accompanied by the media executive for a major lecture lobby at an Ivy League university) who is a specialist in these kinds of things (I myself educate video production, so have some expertise here as well).

The Mitsubishi HC-1500 (1 chip DLP)

Advantages

+ about partially the physical size of the SONY.
+ Image is brighter
+ colors are more saturated
+ no need for nouns filter
+ less screen door effect

Disadvantages

- potential for rainbow effect
- rowdy (the spinning wheel makes a large pitched whine which is louder and more annoying than the fan)
- If you have a small room, you may not be able to cram a large projector screen beside an image because this projector cannot throw a large representation from as short a distance as the sony

The SONY VLPAW-10 (3 chip LCD)

Advantages

+ no rainbow effect
+ quieter
+ can throw larger image from shorter distance

Disadvantages

- Much larger than the mitsubishi
- Bulb not as bright, need dark room
- colors are less saturated
- have an air filter than needs to be changed periodically
- more eyeshade door effect
- HDMI input on the rear has a bezel around it that will engineer it impossible for some of the cables with thicker ends to fit surrounded by. I had to change cable to get this to work

CONCLUSION

I went beside the SONY. It's not perfect, but for my needs it beat the Mitsubishi. I know there are a lot of die knotty fans of the HC1500 and I'm sorry - but this is a fair assessment of my wishes.

Some ways to mitigate the SONY's disadvantages:

Neither tv will perform great in a bright room, so both of these are really best suited for rooms where on earth you can control the light.

In terms of the saturation, if you're watching DVD movies, after I think you'll prefer the LCD since it creates more natural colors. The DLP is better for watching HDTV shows where on earth the colors really pop (like CSI Miami). I use it mostly to watch movies, so don't mind the less soaking wet and brilliant colors.

In terms of the "screen door" effect, I find this is minimized by defocusing the image in recent times a hair. Yes the image is more soft, but this looks more close to a projected image in a movie theater, and this is the effect I'm going for when watching movies on my projector, so it works great. It does not work as in good health to watch sports or news or other things that has lots of CG text up on the eyeshade.

One last note, if you wish to buy it, the price of the sony does fluctuate on Amazon wildly ($799 yesterday, $999 today !). But I see it go up and down on an almost weekly principle. So time your purchase carefully!

Great Projrctor, September 9, 2007
Just installed the HC1500 and I am very impressed. Watched 300 concluding night on upconvert DVD player and the picture clarity and detail were far-fetched. Setup was no problem and very jammy - even without lense shift. Throw distance for 100" screen is between 11.9' and 14.5' foot, so there are limitations. This unit is correct for ceiling mounting as I did in my basement. Can't dawdle to watch Sunday ticket in HD.

Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector, September 12, 2007
This product be delivered about a week after I ordered it. I brought it near me to Afghanistan and it has lived up to expectations in using it here. It does not come across to be bothered by voltage fluctuations in city electricity and runs OK on our solar system (with inverter to boost current to 220v). The size of the picture is a little smaller than I would similar to, given the dimensions of the room in which it is used. However, these facts were not available at the time I bought the projector.

Excellent, solitary one surprise, November 22, 2007
Beautiful display. OTA HD is stunning. Much better color than the one it replaced. Quiet enough that you have to look to breed sure it is on while it is warming up. Don't mount it before you turn it on and see where on earth the display is relative to the projector. I ceiling mounted it and the display was more than a foot below where the encyclopaedia said it would be. Could have been my mistake, but lift a couple of minutes to be sure.

Breathtaking, fantastic, wonderful, December 10, 2007
For the last few years, I've been laboring along near a nice Onkyo surround sound system, but only an antiquated (read: really nice five years ago) 27" CRT TV for a display. The effect be okay, but I've long been lusting after an HD solution. And based on flexibility and price, I approved on a projector.

I had narrowed my list down to the two 720p projectors available for smaller number than $1,000 - the Optoma HD70 and the Mitsubishi HD1000U - and wound up deciding on the HD1000U because it appeared to be brighter and have better color, as ably as (let's face it, this is the most important factor) looking rather cooler.

Well, the HC1500 replaced the HD1000U, and I received it as a surprise gift this past weekend.

So, what's the ruling? Well, let's step back for a moment.

Since I was caught unprepared, this be my setup:
- my basement was not light-controlled - at hand was light coming within through the windows, and always a lighting on in the room
- the projector was throwing onto a worn out old 4:3 projector screen (wrong aspect ratio)
- the projector be elevated by sitting haphazardly on its own box, the front propped up by a DVD case (which horribly keystoned the picture)
- since I don't yet enjoy HD programming, or an HD-DVD/Blu-Ray player, all I played was standard definition content - primarily standard DVDs from a circa-2002 DVD player and inventive XBOX games.

You would expect that in this situation, with the projector shown contained by the worst possible light (literally), that it would perform contained by a disappointing fashion. You would be wrong.

Standard DVDs looked *fantastic.* Even inches away from the screen, the picture looks devout - you can see pixels, but nowhere close to the degree I expected. At only a few foot from the screen, the picture looked incredibly crisp and vibrant.

Back at the recommended viewing distance, the picture was unreal. Bright, gorgeous, fantastic. I hesitate to say this, because this judgment might still be driven by adrenaline, but I actually think it looks better than a movie theater, lacking the faded colors that you typically see at most theaters.

I've looked at projectors at places like Fry's and Best Buy (to say zilch of sports bars) and always been disappointed by how faded the picture looks. But even within my non-light controlled basement, with a hurricane lantern or two on, the picture looked sharp, rich and incredibly saturated.

A standard-definition game on my resourceful XBOX looks awesome too. Even Halo 1, which came out - what? - a milennium ago, looks breathtaking. I was singular projecting a 77" screen (much smaller than the 106" I want to move to) but even so it was incredibly immersive. It be enough to trigger my wife's motion sickness, but both in Halo and contained by racing games, I felt completely sucked into the picture. I can't believe what it would look like with an XBOX 360 or a PS3.

I stayed up until 12:30 ultimate night playing big-screen Halo, and I'm itchy to go home and mess around beside the projector again tonight. I haven't felt that way something like something like this for a long, long time.

Even with the projector sitting on its box in the order of a foot away, I couldn't hear the fan over the sound of the movies or the games. I expected something much louder, but I'm sure that suspended from the ceiling it will be almost unnoticeable even during sluggish scenes.

Given all this, I can't skulk until I can actually use the projector in a channel that shows it to its advantage - a new blind, a ceiling mount, HD programming, no keystoning. One potential downside might be installation trickiness - getting the cables where they call for to go across the ceiling without looking too gross, for example.

Moving from a 13" TV/VCR combo to a 27" TV with DVD and surround sound be revolutionary for me five years ago - a complete revamp of how I watched TV. Tivo did the same for me two years ago. This have the potential to be a bigger step forward than either of those.

I recognize the certainty that this might be as much a review of modern projector technology as it is of this specific Mitsubishi. Perhaps it's simply because I'm new to the world of projectors, and would have be blown away by any projector, but I'm really struggling to describe how great this is. I was ready to spend $800 on one of these, but even so it is leap and bounds better than I thought it would be. It is brighter, sharper, and quieter than I thought was possible.

I honestly don't know what you'd get from a more expensive projector, or from a much more expensive plasma or LCD flat-screen TV. What's the point?

reviewed profusely of projectors before buying this one, January 1, 2008
This is my first projector and I have spent masses an hour looking for the "right" one.

After looking for at least 4 years at different projs, I had settled on 2-- the Panasonic AX200 and the Sanyo Z5. The pro reviews be great and I elected to buy the Sanyo, but I decided against it, and the Panasonic, after reading user reviews on various AV sites. Sounded close to some problems may have carried over from previous models. So, I re-drew my list and come up with the 1500. Good pro reviews and user reviews.

The projector is much brighter than I expected, especially in a gloom room. The room where it is used has window that take up about 80% of one wall and so at hand is plenty of light in the afternoon. But the projector is up to the disregard especially since I am projecting on a bare off-white wall. I definitely would own no complaints with a real pj eyeshade.

I have tried the s-video, vga and component cables and found they are adjectives good (s-video being the worst, of course). The vga is much better than the s-video when displaying a downloaded movie from the computer. Component is great and I haven't tried the hdmi because I don't hold the cables. By the way, you CAN use composite cable, video and audio, as component cables. It DOES work if you happen to enjoy them around and they are of good quality.

There is no rainbow effect for me and the colors are right. You kinda have to play with the settings to grasp the optimum look for the particular movie you are watching especially for "dark" movies.

My projector sits about 12 foot from the wall and gives me about a 94" eyeshade. I can sit it further back for a larger screen because my wall is a partially wall. I like the larger screen that 14 foot gives me and so that may be my only wish--a shorter throw.

The projector is calmness in low mode. The fan turns on is more audible surrounded by standard mode. In a completely darkened room or a dark room with ambient muted, you won't need to up the lamp mode.

My friend's love it and I ponder "movie night" with the neighbor's is going to be a permanent aspect in my house.

My final thought is that with my subsequent projector I will concentrate less on the lumens and more on contrast and throw.

***Update 2.9.2010
It has be approximately 2 years since I bought this projector. Well, the projector was doing fine until Super Bowl day. With over 35 race in attendance at a party, the projector's depiction was very misty. I initially thought it was both the wall color and the brightness of the room. But having covered the small window (we had it set up in the garage)with foil, the statue was no better. Thank goodness in attendance were several tv sets in the house. It last through to the end of the football game, but a few minutes next, the image brightened for about 3 second and then disappeared. The image in a minute can barely be seen except if the projector is aimed at a wall just about 6 inches away. I only have in the region of 285 hours on this projector since I've only used it for an occasional movie. I emailed Mitsubishi the next hours of daylight, but so far no response. I had read of people have their projector give out after only between 250 to 500 hours. Looks similar to I'm one of them. Guess I'll be looking for another projector and it will probably not be a Mitsubishi since I don't usually give businesses a second chance at my money. :(

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