Blend of great picture, huge size, and excellent price, December 13, 2010

By 

A. Zaman (State College, PA) – See all my reviews

  

We’ve had this TV for about two weeks now, and so far it’s been great. Coming from a 42-inch Toshiba 720p flat-panel LCD TV, we wanted to get something considerably larger and similar sized LCDs or plasmas were simply more than we wanted to pay. Overall, we’ve been extremely happy with it, but there are definitely a few minor issues and gripes, and one major issue.

Picture Quality:
As far as picture quality goes compared to our old TV, I would say that for 1080p content and gaming (on both PS3 and Xbox 360…haven’t tried our Wii yet), this Mitsubishi is better than our LCD was. However, for 1080i content(Comcast HD cable), I feel that our old TV looked better. I think this is in the settings though. I calibrated both TVs using the Digital Video Essentials Blu-Ray…I simply think that I need to go back and try calibrating the cable input again (I’m hoping it’s not an issue of the TV processing a 1080i signal poorly). A nice feature of this TV is that each input can have multiple, custom calibrations. One thing to keep in mind though is that you can set multiple, custom settings, but there is only one advanced calibration setting per input…of course most TVs don’t even have advanced calibration (without going into professional service menus), so that’s not really that big of a deal to me. Our Toshiba had multiple, preset settings with one custom per input, but not advanced settings. HD Cable aside, blu-ray movies and gaming does look amazing though… also, I haven’t noticed any instances of ghosting or motion-blur so far. I do think you would have take the time to calibrate the picture, or at the very least change it from the default setting (Brilliant). Both the “Brilliant” and “Bright” presets are simply way too bright to give an accurate color representation…the “Natural” preset is pretty good though. Also, strangely enough, while I feel like this TV’s picture quality for 1080i HD cable isn’t as good as our old TV (yet), I think it does a better job with SD cable than our old TV did.

Sound Quality:
To be honest, I cannot tell you if the sound is good. On the day that we got it, I tried it to make sure the speakers worked…and then I immediately turned them off after. I have the TV hooked up to a home theater system.

Internet Apps:
I have the TV connected via Ethernet cable. I browsed through the internet apps and it seems to be a pretty cool feature with a lot of apps (a lot more than I was expecting), although its a feature that I probably won’t need or use. The only internet app that I would regularly is Netflix, which this TV does not have. For those looking for on-demand movies, Vudu seems like it may be a good alternative to cable…the prices per movie are about the same as on-demand movies through cable (on Comcast anyway) and they may have some movies that on-demand cable does not. That being said though, I think in a market with Netflix streaming and Redbox, I feel that it is a little expensive per movie.

Remote:
The remote seems to have a nice layout, weight, and balance to it, but I honestly haven’t used it much. I’m using a Logitech Harmony remote with the TV… which is also one of the big issues with the TV, which I’ll address further below.

3D Picture:
Unfortunately, Mitsubishi’s promotion where they were giving away free 3D glasses ended about a week before we bought this TV…so for now, I have no way of testing 3D content on this TV, as I am certainly not ready to shell out for the current price of 0-150 per pair of 3D glasses right now. When (if) I get the 3D glasses, I’ll update this review with my impressions of it.

Size:
The screen size is obviously pretty big, especially if you are coming from an LCD or a plasma, as the chances are this is bigger than what you have now. By this category, I thought it would be worth mentioning more about the dimensions and weight of the TV. If you’re OK putting this on a TV stand, then the dimensions really aren’t that big of a deal. The base of the TV isn’t as wide as the screen itself, so we actually are using the same stand we had for our 42-inch TV. There’s a slight extension of about 2.5 inches on either side, but it’s really not that bad. The TV has some depth to it, but it’s nothing like the projection TVs of old… it fits nicely on our TV stand for our 42-inch, and is completely stable. Also, the TV is deceptively light. At only 62 pounds, it’s actually lighter than many of the similar-sized LCDs and plasmas on the market.

Minor Issues: So far, I’ve noticed a few minor issues, and one major issue (which is not actually a Mitsubishi issue, and I was able to resolve). The first minor issue is the picture quality on HD cable as I stated earlier under the “Picture Quality” section. This one isn’t a big deal yet, as I don’t know for sure if it’s simply that I calibrated it incorrectly, or if the TV truly does do a poor job with a…

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Updated – Not so Perfect, August 3, 2010

By 

Jason Barak “DigitalX2″ (New York, NY) – See all my reviews

  

Below is my initial review, however I have changed my opinion. This TV seemed almost too perfect at first, however now has some terrible artifacts in the image. On certain channels, the darker color are all over the place searching for color. I see graininess and color shifting. I plan to return within my 30 day period and am disappointed as I initially had high hopes for this TV. My old SONY rear projection LCD had none of these issues. I had thought it was my signal or cables, however that was not the case.

Initial Review.

Purchased this unit after an old SONY rear projection LCD began to fail. Although I’ve seen poor reviews on the long term sustainability of DLP, I believe the technology has come a long way in the last couple of years, plus Mitsubishi wouldn’t be selling a bad product. The TV arrived in just a few days and was pretty much ‘plug and play.’ The FIOS box and DVD installed easily.

Then I noticed a small black line in the bottom left of the picture. It appeared that part of the frame was projecting in front of the projector causing a shadow. I called Mitsubishi service and within 2 days a tech came out and fixed the issue. Great response time.

The picture is amazing and has various settings to adjust. It’s so good, it shows all the imperfections in the standard def channels that my SONY didn’t. The sound was terrible at first, however after playing around with the settings I was able to activate a surround sound type feature that gave it a boost. You’d think it would’ve been a pre-set.

One thing that really pushed me towards this model was the streaming internet TV. You can buy a wireless adapter or hardwire. The problem for me is that my internet connection is on my third floor and wireless is spotty. I spent a day searching, but found a coax to ethernet converter from Actiontec (bought through Amazon) which works with FIOS. Still waiting for it to arrive.

Overall great purchase and best bang for your buck for size of screen.

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Stunning 3D, December 23, 2010

By 

Dr. Christopher Kent (Ramsey, NJ) – See all my reviews

  

This TV is an amazing bargain. True, you can’t hang it on the wall, but it looks great on a stand, and the thick part isn’t visible unless you view it from the side. There is a free software update that downloaded automatically. With this, you do not need the 3D adaptor or IR emitter, just a 3D source and DLP Link glasses. The picture is bright, and the colors well saturated. It looked good out of the box with the default settings. The picture is almost too good, with some cable channels looking much better than others, although all purport to be HD. Using a 3D Blu-Ray player results in a spectacular picture. The IMAX “Under the Sea” DVD really felt like an IMAX theatre experience. The depth, brightness, color, and resolution were stunning. 3D material is very limited, and unlike some competitive sets, the Mitsubishi does not convert 2D to pseudo-3D. You will be limited to programs produced in 3D. The sound was mediocre with the default settings, but improved markedly by enabling the surround sound, adjusting the bass and treble, and connecting a subwoofer. BTW, you only get pseudo-surround sound with the internal speakers. If you want the real thing, you’ll need a surround sound amp and speakers.

Pros:
Excellent value
Bright, saturated colors
Stunning 3D
No 3D adaptor or IR emitter required when free software upgrade is downloaded

Cons:
You can’t hang it on the wall. It’s 15.1 inches thick
Does not convert 2D to pseudo 3D

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