Mitsubishi HC7000 Special Features

Posted on November 19, 2008 by Art Feierman

24/48 Frame Rate

The HC7000 doubles the frame rate of 24 frame per second content (movies are primarily shot, with film at 24fps. The increase to 48fps provides a very slight improvement. While this is a feature we'll be seeing more of (and 96 fps as well), and is a good thing, it is a relatively small thing, say, compared to having sufficient brightness, or great black levels (compared to average black level performance).

The Mitsubishi projector does not offer "creative frame interpolation" so it is not creating new content, which the Panasonic, the new Epson UB projectors and the Sanyo PLV-Z3000 promise, but, for most of us, these are minor things.

Cinemascope Anamorphic Lens Solution

Except for the high end of the home theater market, anamorphic lenses and Cinemascope ratio screens (2.35:1) are a tiny, but fast growing slice of the market. Mitsubishi's solution, in the HC7000 doesn't eliminate the need for an anamorphic lens, (like the Panasonic), but does cut the cost way down, by eliminating the need for a motorized sled. Those sleds are usually half or more of the total price.

With the HC7000, if you buy a 2.35:1 screen and an anamorphic lens, they have a special aspect ratio, that adjusts the image so that you can watch 16:9 content, or 4:3 content, without removing the anamorphic lens from the light path, thus, no motorized sled needed.

The advantage, compared to the Panasonic solution, is that when watching 2.35:1 movies, you are using all the pixels of the projector (1920x1080). With the Panasonic, it uses its zoom lens to get the width, and a matching aspect ratio, but it still is using only about 80% of the pixels for a 2.35:1 image, instead of the 100%. Technically, that means more brightness, and, inherently, a slightly sharper image.