I'm reading a lot of posts from people who are disappointed with the Mits HC1500. I also have a friend who just installed this projector and is disappointed with it. After watching it OTB, I am amazed at just how bad it looks and I share his opinion that it is not what either of us were expecting. This becomes even more painfully obvious when we compare it to the Infocus 4805 that I have running in my basement. It was calibrated by an ISF technician and looks wonderful. I would say conservatively that SD DVD's look WAY better on my Infocus than on his Mits and HD material looks quite a bit better on mine than his. Even in HD, the Mits does not compare despite the fact that it is outputting a 720p vs. my 480p.

Having said that, I also have a friend with the Mits HC1000 who also got it calibrated (same calibrator). The difference on the PJ is literally night and day. 480p material looks the same as it does on my Infocus (in a word...Awesome) and HD looks substantially better than anything the Infocus can do. Prior to calibration, the Mit's image had grain (video noise of some sort) and horrible sharpness problems with colours bleeding into one another all over the screen...not to mention the fact that the reds were WAY off. Post calibration the picture looks clear, lines are crisp and colours are bang-on perfect.

The moral of the story -- a budget PJ like the Mits can look fantastic IF you either take the time to calibrate it yourself (and can figure out how to achieve proper greyscale) or spend the $300 or so that it takes to have a pro come in and do it. If you're expecting a stellar picture out of the box, look elsewhere because from what I have seen, the Mits produces a terrible picture on its own.

I totally agree with most parts... I just got the HC1500 and am very disappointed with the DVD quality. But the one thing I am not convinced is that calibration can take care of all the scaling related artifacts. I guess with a good upscaling DVD player this shouldn't be an issue, but I am still seeing more of those on the Mitsubishi than on my Infocus.

Unfortunately I don't have the extra $300 lying around for professional calibration either. I just don't understand why would anyone make a budget projector, which will require extra expenses that could have been avoided... Calibrating my Infocus is a much easier task and the end results more satisfying to me.

I don't know if I'm blind or what, but I was very impressed with my HC1500's picture right out of the box. I watched some HD-DVD and SD DVD and I though both looked great.

I had a SP4805 that had been ISF calbrated and the only area that I found it to be superior to my uncalibrated HC1500 was SD cable TV (still very watchable)and I did not buy this projector to watch SD TV so no biggie for me. On HD and SD DVD running through either my PS3 or A3 the HC1500's picture was superior right out of the box after running the Avia set-up disc and was even better after it was ISF'd. On SD cable TV there was dot crawl that is not present on the SP4805. If your primary concern is SD TV and DVD then the SP4805 is still a great performer. But if you are looking to move into HD sources the HC1500 is a much stronger performer due to the extra resolution. I also found that the picture was not as good though the component video input on HDTV cable and on my older Phillips 963SA (set to output 480i) with DVD's as it is though the HDMI on my HD sources. As stated by fellow AVS members the SD scaling is not that great on the HC1500. But for HD sources and a DVD player that upscales decent it's no concern and I would highly recommend the HC1500. I am very pleased with mine.

I keep seeing threads about people loving their HC1500. The overall opinion on the forum seems to be really positive.

I'm reading a lot of posts from people who are disappointed with the Mits HC1500. I also have a friend who just installed this projector and is disappointed with it. After watching it OTB, I am amazed at just how bad it looks and I share his opinion that it is not what either of us were expecting. This becomes even more painfully obvious when we compare it to the Infocus 4805 that I have running in my basement. It was calibrated by an ISF technician and looks wonderful. I would say conservatively that SD DVD's look WAY better on my Infocus than on his Mits and HD material looks quite a bit better on mine than his. Even in HD, the Mits does not compare despite the fact that it is outputting a 720p vs. my 480p.

Having said that, I also have a friend with the Mits HC1000 who also got it calibrated (same calibrator). The difference on the PJ is literally night and day. 480p material looks the same as it does on my Infocus (in a word...Awesome) and HD looks substantially better than anything the Infocus can do. Prior to calibration, the Mit's image had grain (video noise of some sort) and horrible sharpness problems with colours bleeding into one another all over the screen...not to mention the fact that the reds were WAY off. Post calibration the picture looks clear, lines are crisp and colours are bang-on perfect.

The moral of the story -- a budget PJ like the Mits can look fantastic IF you either take the time to calibrate it yourself (and can figure out how to achieve proper greyscale) or spend the $300 or so that it takes to have a pro come in and do it. If you're expecting a stellar picture out of the box, look elsewhere because from what I have seen, the Mits produces a terrible picture on its own.


If you get a 720p projector that looks great (awesome) in 480p SD broadcasts, you are wwaaaaaayyy ahead of everyone else.

One thing I've noticed on this remarkable budget projector is that it looks MUCH better fed 1080i than with 720p...

I had a SP4805 that had been ISF calibrated and the only area that I found it to be superior to my uncalibrated HC1500 was SD cable TV (still very watchable)and I did not buy this projector to watch SD TV so no biggie for me. On HD and SD DVD running through either my PS3 or A3 the HC1500's picture was superior right out of the box after running the Avia set-up disc and was even better after it was ISF'd. On SD cable TV there was dot crawl that is not present on the SP4805. If your primary concern is SD TV and DVD then the SP4805 is still a great performer. But if you are looking to move into HD sources the HC1500 is a much stronger performer due to the extra resolution. I also found that the picture was not as good though the component video input on HDTV cable and on my older Phillips 963SA (set to output 480i) with DVD's as it is though the HDMI on my HD sources. As stated by fellow AVS members the SD scaling is not that great on the HC1500. But for HD sources and a DVD player that upscales decent it's no concern and I would highly recommend the HC1500. I am very pleased with mine.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention,the HC1500 is way quieter (less fan noise)than the SP4805. You can hardly hear it running.:)

Well several more hours trying to make this projector work, and no luck. I am getting very frustrated, I simply can't get rid of that awful yellow staining. Everything looks like through some sort of yellow haze, like old water in an aquarium. I briefly thought I was making some progress, I thought the part of the problem was that I was judging it by the Transformers DVD, I heard a lot about how technologically good that movie was and was expecting a great DVD transfer, but the DVD is very bad, I don't know if it's just the rental copy I've got.

Anyways, I noticed that there was a mild yellow cast to everything on my LCD TV and even slightly on the X1, so I thought it might be a faulty DVD transfer. I popped in my Curse of the Black Pearl copy, which I think is a pretty good quality DVD, it's always looked good on my Infocus. For a brief moment of hope it looked like things might be better, but the quality of the image keeps changing on the Mitsubishi from one scene to the next. Just when I think I've found the right settings, and the very next scene when the lighting conditions are different and the yellow returns full force.

Has anyone else had a problem with yellow push? I am wondering if I should bother exchanging it, or just return and wait for something else...

you sure your not looking through beer bottles lolol just kidding man.i would exchange it if it isnt your dvd player then you have a bad unit

Well I tried 2 - my LG DVD recorder, and my XBOX 360. Plus everything looks fine on my other displays. Maybe I will try another one, I don't know, very bummed about it, cause it's so perty.

its got to be your projector then id return it i get a great pic through my ps3 for sdmovies hd movies and games and used my cable box never got any yellow push did you try doing a factory reset just to be sure someone didnt mess with the settings

yup. played with it for three days now. it does look good with HD, but I have very little HD and don't plan on getting more any time soon.

id return it and try it again got nothing to lose except some time

Well I tried 2 - my LG DVD recorder, and my XBOX 360. Plus everything looks fine on my other displays. Maybe I will try another one, I don't know, very bummed about it, cause it's so perty.
How do you have your sources connected to your HC1500(component,HDMI,etc)?

Well my main connection is component to VGA, but I tried HDMI as well with both DVD and XBOX. Sending 720p over the HDMI eliminated a lot of the scaling artifacts, but the yellow push is there no matter what input or resolution I use. BTW 1080i did not look good at all on my Mitsubishi even with true HD signals.

If you get a 720p projector that looks great (awesome) in 480p SD broadcasts, you are wwaaaaaayyy ahead of everyone else.

Why is it difficult to get an awesome 480p image on a projector? Standard DVD's (480p) look great on virtually any well calibrated projector. I don't understand why that puts me ahead of everyone else unless you are talking about regular cable...which is well below 480p.

FWIW my HD1000u was pretty good (although peasoup greens wouldn't be unfair but I'm never conscious of it) OOTB and honestly the time I've spent trying to calibrate it have impacted it little - it's only 1-2 clicks from stock settings across the board and everyone's goo-goo about how great it looks. I dunno maybe some people are pickier than others (certainly true!) and maybe Mits got lazy shipping them (mine's nearly 1y old now) but boy am I happy with the OOTB performance.

I should add in fairness that my Mits is the ONLY HD feed pretty much my entire audience has ever seen so that might contribute to the positive reactions :D

While I think this projector does throw a nice image OOTB, even the tiniest bit of calibration effort makes it better. Dropping sharpness below 0, turning off (or at least reducing) Brilliantcolor, and taking 5 minutes to pop in a DVD with the THX optimizer on it to dial in contrast/brightness/etc will have it throwing an EXCELLENT image. At least, in my experience, that's the case. And I expect to eke out another bit of improvement when I get my hands on a copy of AVIA or DVE.

Why is it difficult to get an awesome 480p image on a projector? Standard DVD's (480p) look great on virtually any well calibrated projector. I don't understand why that puts me ahead of everyone else unless you are talking about regular cable...which is well below 480p.

yes, I am talking about cable or satellite reception.

I'm reading a lot of posts from people who are disappointed with the Mits HC1500. I also have a friend who just installed this projector and is disappointed with it. After watching it OTB, I am amazed at just how bad it looks and I share his opinion that it is not what either of us were expecting. This becomes even more painfully obvious when we compare it to the Infocus 4805 that I have running in my basement. It was calibrated by an ISF technician and looks wonderful. I would say conservatively that SD DVD's look WAY better on my Infocus than on his Mits and HD material looks quite a bit better on mine than his. Even in HD, the Mits does not compare despite the fact that it is outputting a 720p vs. my 480p.

Having said that, I also have a friend with the Mits HC1000 who also got it calibrated (same calibrator). The difference on the PJ is literally night and day. 480p material looks the same as it does on my Infocus (in a word...Awesome) and HD looks substantially better than anything the Infocus can do. Prior to calibration, the Mit's image had grain (video noise of some sort) and horrible sharpness problems with colours bleeding into one another all over the screen...not to mention the fact that the reds were WAY off. Post calibration the picture looks clear, lines are crisp and colours are bang-on perfect.

The moral of the story -- a budget PJ like the Mits can look fantastic IF you either take the time to calibrate it yourself (and can figure out how to achieve proper greyscale) or spend the $300 or so that it takes to have a pro come in and do it. If you're expecting a stellar picture out of the box, look elsewhere because from what I have seen, the Mits produces a terrible picture on its own.


Where are these posts?

I purchased my HC1500 based on the reviews found here and in other boards, I saw only praise for it. Now that I have one I can see why, it looks fantastic rigth out of the box. I will still callibrate it to see what else I can get out of it though.

Franke46