Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector - Image Quality 4

Posted on July 15, 2013 by Art Feierman

Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector: Performance, HDTV and Sports

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I did my sports viewing using AV Memory 2. I turned on CFI, and more significantly, Brilliant Color is engaged. With BC on, the result is a slightly cooler image - a touch thin on reds, but that's not likely to be anyone's issue while watching sports.

First a couple of room images. I had to shoot them on a hazy/cloudy day, the sun wouldn't cooperate, so the partially open shades aren't doing quite as much damage, as is usual.

Brilliant Color pumps up the image - lots of pop, but also just slightly over the top. You start running out of shades, such as you can detect in a closeup of a face. Of course, even with a perfect projector, you'd still have a good deal of that due to the compressed satellite or cable signal. (Consider the blonde Victoria Secret image we use on the next section for comparing modes, that redish forehead area is a great example of sacrifices to image quality, in exchange for a smaller file). This isn't anything the average LCDTV viewer isn't used to, but we projector folks mostly are a bit more finicky. Thus, Brilliant Color is fine for sports, for sitcoms, anytime you really don't "need" your absolute best picture. I found it to be a good compromise - extra brightness in exchange for a very modest degradation of the picture quality.

Check out the sports and other HDTV photos.

Mitsubishi HC8000D Projector: Bottom Line on HDTV Sports, and also 3D HDTV content

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Only one complaint in 2D. I could have used more lumens. I've been spoiled. For sports, I run about a 98 inch diagonal image. In my dedicated theater with all dark surfaces, and full lighting control, it's just dandy, but, should I turn my lights on and let in a little daylight, the HC8000D runs out of lumens very quickly. In situations where I've got enough light for a sports gathering of friends, the Mitsubishi starts running out, when a Panasonic or Epson would still have plenty more brightness to compensate.

3D sports (off of DVR), was never quite bright enough for me filling that 98 inch diagonal. With the glasses on, there's not a spare lumen to be found.

As long as your screen is reasonably smaller, and you don't have too much uncontrollable ambient light, the HC8000 will prove to be a very good projector for sports and other HDTV. At the 100" screen size it does just fine. Even though this projector can go up to about a 125" diagonal in 2D in a proper room, in brightest mode, that's without ambient light, such as intentional lights on when viewing sports or HDTV with friends.

My Sunday fix of football was perfectly enjoyable with this Mitsubishi projector, filling just about 100" diagonal. Even filling the 124" diagonal for my expanded Game Mix, was reasonable, but because it's a dedicated theater setup, but I've got great lighting control.