Mitsubishi HC6000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour

Posted on September 26, 2007 by Art Feierman

Mitsubishi HC6000 Home Theater Projector: Physical Tour

This section is basically a re-run of the physical tours of the HC5000 and HC4900. Almost nothing has changed. In fact, looking at all the physical aspects of the HC6000, the only thing that has changed, is that the HC6000 has two HDMI inputs (both HDMI 1.3 compatible - a very good thing), whereas the HC5000 had one HDMI (not 1.3 compatible - nothing was a year ago), and one DVI input.

So, even there, the net is that all three have two digital inputs, although definitely updated on the HC6000.

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Here's a quick tour, starting at the front. Start with an off center mounted lens, that seems recessed, as the projector extends out at that point to cover the lens. Also in the front, is an infra-red sensor for the remote control. Drop down feet are on the bottom front, far left and far right.

Moving to the top of the HC6000, is a full control panel. There are no lens controls anywhere for focus, zoom or lens shift, because the HC6000 is fully motorized. Full control of the lens functions is on the remote, and can be accessed from the control panel. One very nice improvment, is that these lens functions now have two speeds, making it much easier to get a perfect focus, perfectly fill the screen, and adjust the lens shift minutely.

As to the rest of the HC6000 control panel, a large power button (one push for on, two for off), sits to the right of two indicator lights (status and power). Next in a diamond configuration (typical) are the four arrow keys for navigating the menus. The Menu button itself is below the left arrow button.

The left arrow button toggles between digital sources when the menus are not being used, and the right arrow, does the same for video sources. The top arrow doubles as an auto setup for computer signals. Above the right arrow button, is a button to activate lens shift, and the last button is below the right arrow, and toggles between zoom and focus. That pretty much covers everything on top.

Moving to the back of the projector, you'll find the input panel. As mentioned, there are two HDMI 1.3 inputs. In addtion, there is a computer input (analog, with a standard HD15 connector - that can alternately be used for a component video source.) A second component video input consists of the traditional three RCA jacks color coded Red, Green, and Blue. What's left? There is the usual two "low res" video inputs - S-video, and composite, as well as an RS-232 port for computer command and control. Lastly there is a single 12 volt trigger for controlling properly equipped motorized screens.

That's it for our tour. Time to get serious, and that means image quality.

As mentioned, the HC6000 was, in terms of image quality, a pleasant surprise. Read on!