Home > Consumer Reviews > Mitsubishi HD1000U High Definition 720p DLP Home Theater Projector

The Mitsubishi HD1000U produces an outstanding image that compares well against projectors costing quite a bit more. As a DLP projector, its black levels are superior to LCD projectors while the color accuracy is a bit off (though more than acceptable). My previous projector was an Infocus X1, a first-generation DLP model. The HD1000U produces a cleaner, higher-resolution image, that is noticeably brighter than the X1. In fact, the HD1000U is substantially brighter than many other home theater projectors on the market and will work well in a room with moderate ambient light. Mine is installed in a room with moderate ambient light from several large windows, and produces an adequate image in midday sun. With the window shades pulled, or at night, I have to run it in low lamp mode to avoid eye discomfort.

Audible noise levels are extremely low when in low lamp mode - in fact, the noise from my heating/AC ductwork is substantially louder. High lamp mode is somewhat louder but still quieter than the air filter one room over. Connectivity options are about what you'd expect from this price range and are fine assuming you have an AV receiver capable of switching component video or HDMI. Build quality is outstanding; the projector feels nice and solid and finished in matte gray that blends into most decors without a problem. My only gripe here is that replacing the lens cover tends to shift the focus control.

I'd be remiss if I didn't discuss the one limitation of the HD1000U - its installation. In the vast majority of rooms you will need to ceiling mount it. Because of the vertical offset of the lens, the image will appear substantially above the lens centerline when placed on a table, or substantially below the lens centerline when ceiling mounted. For most reasonably sized rooms with a 10 foot plus throw distance, this will restrict you to either ceiling mounting or having the projector only a foot or two off the floor. In my living room, with an 11.5 foot throw distance, the projector is mounted upside down on a shelf approximately 7 feet off the floor. I have high ceilings, so this is not an issue, but be aware that if you have standard 8 foot ceilings in large room, installation may be quite difficult. The built in zoom is not much help, and there is no lens shift option like Sanyo and Panasonic offer. My parents have a Panasonic 700 installed in their basement home theater (with a low ceiling) and I doubt that the HD1000 could be installed in the same space. Various websites offer calculators that will compute image location given projector placement; you would be well advised to check installation requirements ahead of time.

In summary, though, if you can fit an HD1000U into your space, there is not a better projector to be found within $500 of its price. As a final and not insignificant bonus, the light engine in the HD1000U is completely sealed. There is quite literally no maintenance to peform on this unit after it is installed, until your first bulb replacement at 2-3000 hours. Not only does this avoid the hassle of the 100 hour cleanings that you'll find on most other projectors, you can also rest easy that the optics will never accumulate dust blobs and require a factory service.

An outstanding buy, just remember to check the installation requirements ahead of time.

Also Published in The Reader Weekly -- Duluth MN Jacob Pederson (.....)

It took Microsoft's Xbox 360 to finally get me hooked on High Definition. Having given up broadcast television long ago, the prospect of sifting through commercials again to get at HD content was unthinkable. The ability to upscale my DVD's to the higher resolution was nice, but not enough to get me to make me take the plunge. However, when Mitsubishi's HD1000U squeaked below one grand last month, I could no longer resist the lure of experiencing Microsoft's 720p resolution games ten feet wide.

So what does the Mitsubishi's 720p resolution really mean? In computer terms, that's 1280 horizontal pixels by 720 vertical pixels, equivalent to 60 one-megapixel digital camera photos per second. At 720p, you're still only partway up the rungs of high definition, but it's still a stunning improvement over traditional television. With a 720p video source, details like blades of grass, leaves on trees or even eyelashes will be clearly visible. Like all high definition resolutions, the Mitsubishi runs at 16x9 aspect ratio. Since nearly all media is now shot or rendered in widescreen, this shouldn't be an issue for most content; however, if you watch a lot of older movies or television shows keep the letterboxing in mind. Rectangular 4:3 ratio content can either be stretched out into widescreen or shown with black bars on either side by the Mitsubishi projector.

As with any digital home projector, setup can be very difficult for the novice. For example, the size of your viewable area is controlled directly by the "throw" distance between the screen and the projector. To make matters worse, the HD1000U's offers very little adjustment range for throw distance, so exact measurements will be required. This means that unless your home theatre is the exact length of the Mitsubishi's throw distance, a ceiling mount will be required. This is a considerable disadvantage, but well balanced by the projector's amazing color and contrast.

After considerable measuring and wrestling my projector into the ceiling mount, I was ready to put the Mitsubishi through its paces from every video source I had available. First, I tried out the Lord of the Rings DVD played on a PC and connected through the Mitsubishi's VGA port. I immediately had a bit of trouble; the projector didn't display its own native resolution correctly. No amount of tweaking or manual reading corrected the problem. A small portion of the screen was cut off. Strangely, a slightly higher resolution scaled downwards automatically and worked fine. On the other hand, the picture quality results were absolutely stunning. This is just about the best that a DVD projected onto a ten-foot screen can possibly look. Especially notable were the color response and excellent detail in dark scenes. I got similar results playing DVD's on the Xbox 360 connected through the component port (with none of the scaling resolution problems I had on the VGA port).

Next, I tried a few games on the Xbox 360. This was the first 720p content I'd ever seen on a ten foot screen, and I was completely floored by the quality. Personally, I found the biggest difference to be the depth of a rendered scene. I found myself easily identifying objects or characters that would have been only one pixel high on an ordinary television. The older console game systems also faired very well. Unfortunately, every game system except the 360 required the purchase of an additional component cable to access the resolution doubling progressive scan mode. Even the Playstation 2 gets a considerable visual boost by switching to the newer cables. Color is better represented, while screen distortions and blurry edges common in the older composite cabling are gone. Another problem was controller cabling. Because the Mitsubishi sits at the back of a room, you're going to need extension cords or wireless controllers to reach your seating area.

Finally, I needed some full resolution 720p movies to watch. Unfortunately, both the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray HD players are way out of my price range. Until the price drops down to reasonable levels and it becomes clear which format will replace DVD, I'll take option three. Microsoft recently introduced a pay-per-view movie rental system that downloads over an ordinary Internet connection right to my Xbox 360. The price is a bit steep at six dollars a pop for a three day rental of a 720p movie; however, it was worth it to test out the Mitsubishi's performance at its full resolution.

The movie was Unforgiven, and the popcorn was hot. The difference wasn't quite as jaw-dropping as the 720p games were, but the detail change was still very noticeable. It took me a few days to figure out exactly what the problem was. Modern filmmakers are heavily influenced by television; they love close-ups. The wide shot and the medium shot are rare beasts in modern film. DVD's already have plenty of resolution for the close-up, but HD doesn't begin to shine until the camera pulls out.

Overall, despite the limited throw distance adjustment and spotty VGA support, the Mitsubishi HD1000U is an amazing buy. It is peerless in picture quality, brightness, and resolution for its price range. Grade: A-

I just got the projector last night and had it setup in a flash! The color out of the box was excellent and I found the controls easy to use. I did find it for $899 with free shipping on another site when amazon still had it out of stock.

I watched a little bit of Emeril's, the latest episode of Studio 60 and about half of the second Pirates of the Caribbean.

The standard def picture from dish network dvr had minor artifacts in dark scenes but otherwise looked great. The standard dvd of Pirates was superb on component cables, bright and crisp. From other projectors I have used I was most impressed.

I do not find the remote back lighting dim like some other reviews on different sites have stated...

So far I am very happy, I will try to update the review in a few weeks!
*****
2/20/07 So I finally upgraded to HD cable and I am absolutely blown away at the image quality... The colors are amazing and the picture so clear you could be looking outside. I was happy before but now I am ecstatic...

Let me just say that the HD1000 looks amazing. I'm a computer nerd, gaming addict, and a movie / technology junkie... and I'm blown away. Eveyone that has come over has been shocked at the clarity and price ( $ 864 )

I've had my HD1000 for a week and I still cant wait to find more HD programming. The Discovery Channel HD looks the best in my opinion. The series "Planet Earth" looks stunning.

Someone commented on how the HD1000 has limited optical adjustments and such. That IS TRUE. I had planned to mount my HD1000 about 7 feet up on the wall, sitting on a shelf. After fiddling with the settings for a while I realized that I needed to either.

A.) Get a Ceiling Mount (haha yeah right... i'm not paying for that)

B.) Move my shelf higher so that the projector's feet were almost touching the ceiling (yes its upside-down).

C.) Find a place in my apartment that would allow me to view a 100+ size image in peace. ( No way )


Sooo.... Its a little wierd that my projector is upside-down on a shelf.... but hey... it works perfectly and I made the shelf with 20$

My throw range is 14 Feet. My projected image is 115 Inches Diagonal. Its like having my own personal movie theater.

Buy one... you will be pleased that you did

I have had this projector for about 6 weeks now. I have it projected onto an Elite matte white screen in a darkened basement. Image is bright and clear, even if a lamp is on. Infact I don't really see much difference between low lamp mode and standard lamp mode so I keep it on low.
I use my PC to do everything on. Initially I connected via DVI to HDMI with success, although some games didn't show up as having the suitable resolution 1280 x 720mm. I used TheaterTek and FFDShow to upscale reg DVDs and the picture is sharp. You can use Zoomplayer too.
I also purchased the Xbox 360 HD DVD player and hooked it up to the PC via USB and to the projector via VGA and the picture was even better - the 1080i source was downscaled to 720p very well and even my wife was impressed. Beauty about using a PC is I can use my 7.1 channel sound card.
The menu controls are easy to use and offer good adjustments of color/contracts/gamma etc, although default settings are fine. You can also adjust vertical and horizontal position of screen.
I have my projector on a coffee table and sit about 15ft back. Throw is about 18" from the floor.
I imagine projecting onto a 150" screen would be fine as it seems to throw out enough lumens.
I noticed that when I switched to using the VGA connection all my games showed a greater range of resolutions, strange - but that is great news. My games look good now, not as detailed as my LCD monitor but it is good to play on the large screen.
My Pc makes more noise than the projector- very quiet.

I would recommend this projector whole heartedly