Mitsubishi HC6800 LCD HD Projector (30,000:1 on/off) - Page 2

What is the Epson 6800UB projector? From what I keep reading is the new model that replaces the 6500ub is going to be the 8500UB in the $3000 price rang.

Why does the 6800 not have a CMS but the 3800 does?

So.... I just purchased the Mits 6800 at the local BB (with Magnolia, of course), but I haven't gotten the nerve to open the box yet (I research everything to death and I always seem to play this game of "grass is always greener"). Is there any reason this won't be a great projector? The professional reviews aren't in yet (projectcentral withstanding). Everytime I come to this site I get even more confused.....

I have a fairly small room (14' x 13') and will likely be using a 102" to 106" screen (likely Carada, but I haven't bought that yet). Room is dedicated media room with full light control.

HELP before my wife disowns me.... Did I make the right purchase or do I need to take it back and get something like the EPSON or Panny?

(by the way the BB price is $1k less than MSRP.... is that normal?)

speedbal

No projector is perfect. I think you got a good deal. You will be very happy with 6800's PQ.

Enjoy.

Why can't you open it? Doesn't BB give you 30 days?

I think I got a good deal as well, but with purchases like this I don't worry about the money as much (3k is about the same as 2.5k to me). What I want to be sure of is that I will enjoy my purchase for the next few years. That being said, is the mits still a good purchase or will I be happier with the epson /panny? I know only I can answer that, but a push in the right direction never hurts.....

Thanks....speedbal

BB slip says there is a restocking fee of 15%.

02saleen346 -- Oops. Thanks, I screwed up. I corrected it, it should have been the Epson 8500UB.

speedbal -- You have no reason for second thoughts, IMHO. The price differential is normal (you should have paid MAP - their web site always lists the higher MSRP number). PS, there are always better (and more expensive) PJs for sale.

The Epson (at least the 8500UB) has slightly better black levels, but the other features of the HC6800 are much better.

I decided to buy the HC5500 instead of the Epson 6500UB, because of the price. However, after using the HC5500, I decided that I made the correct choice. It is perfect for my use and I've been enjoying every minute and I have no regrets (I'm using it more than any other PJ I have owned). The Mitsubishi PJs are very well built and their warranty support is the equal of Epson's.

When I bought my first PJ about 8 yrs ago, there were talks about HDMI etc, I still bought my Sharp XVZ & I never regretted it. I too enjoyed every minute of it. Believe me I paid close to 8k for my 720P PJ.

So have fun.

Ct _Wiebe I think you mentioned in another post that you use your 5500 for regular tv? If so, how does it perform in ambient light, what screen/size do you have and at what throw distance? How many hours do you have and have you noticed at difference over the years as far as brightness? I'm asking these question cause I recently veiwed two Mitsubishi 6800 at two diferrent stores. Second unit was set up better and threw a really good picture with a fair amount of light. It's in a good price range for me.

Saleen, I use my Mitsubishi hc6500 daily for tv watching...I have drapes, but, I often watch with some ambient light. Not as dramatic, but I am still watching tv on a 100" screen....!!!! In fact, I installed halogen can lites over my seating area, so I could read or surf AV Forum while watching tv! I try and to not watch anything but HD, but since that is not always possible, the Mitsubishi processor does a good job of upscaling. Don't second guess yourself....install and enjoy your hc6800 asap

Some of you may have noticed I have been looking for a projector lately- to replace my Panny AE900. I have been all over the place on which one to buy. I even took an Epson 6100 home (open box) from Best Buy thinking I got that always elusive "best deal on the planet". But I couldn't get over the fact taht something was missing. What I really wanted was:

Much better, easily noticeable, performance enhancement from my AE900- this helps keep my wife from asking why I upgraded.

A good warranty (Let's face it, these things have issues from time to time)

A company with good customer service. Here, Epson is the gold standard.

It was clear the 6100 was not going to fill the #1 criteria. Sure, it blew the 900 out of the water to me and my family could tell the difference. However, it was not all "that". My wife still wanted to ask the cost, how much would the AE900 bring, etc. Even after fully calibrating, something was missing.

So, I decided to take it back since it was already opened (I really hate returning things, especially if I am not buying from that company) and order a the UB model online. So, I take it in and are talking to the Magnolia Guy, which my BB requires for projector returns. He feels my pain and says I can get an open box Sony for $3K or a good deal on any other PJ in the Magnolia area. So, we start talking about what they have and he sees the Mits in the system with one in stock.

I had recalled reading the projectorcentral review, but he knew nothing about the 6800 so we dialed it up and read it together. Looks great, I am hooked since Mits is one of the companies with a great CS reputation and a good warranty (especially that one-year 500 hour bulb warranty) so I asked what he can do. He says "nothing, since it is brand new in stock. I say, "but you said..."

Long story short, I got 12% off. At the price, I am really happy, they keep a customer and I finally feel like a weight is gone. Sometimes you just have to jump.

Tonight, I will set it up and try to post some screen shots. I am finally done. Thanks to all of the posters whosupported me on this purchase- that's the value of these forums. Oh, and a special thanks to CT_Wiebe for the PMs about several projectors.

I saw the 6800 and it throws a nice pic.But it cost allmost 1k more than the 6100.I also had a ae900 panny.For me the 6100 blows the 900 apart.It destroys my ax200 even which is way better than the ae900.To me the 6800 mit just was not worth the prcie.For that much the Sony hw15 is the better deal.Just my observations.But I know what you went though since I was in the same boat.Glad your hunt is over.Time to injoy the movies.

Understood. I really think the projector central review of 6800 sums it up. We really have reached a point where there is only a bit of difference between many of these projectors from $2K to $10K. It has come down to features, company and warranty. I am not expecting a huge difference between the HC6800 and the Epson, but there had better be some for the nearly $1K difference. However, I am also starting to pay attention to the 2.35 CH area and the HC6800 would fill that as well...

Well I hope it works for you.You can allways return it and try the sony hw15.Let us know your impressions.I would like to see a 6800 in a good room with a good screen.

Looking foward to seeing the pics and what you think about the projector.

I'm jealous....you know though,....my hc6500 is getting pretty old (11 months) and it already has 1200+ hours on it ......."Honey what if we................" Probably not this year! Enjoy your projector, and give us some screen shots asap!! "You know, does our kid really need college , or would he want my old projector?"

See, I think of this as my reward for sitting out a couple of generations. I tried a Panny AE1000 a year after my 900 came out and didn't see it worth the difference. I am now able to spend more because I waited 3 years (at least that is what I am telling myself).

I set it up in my media room and I am planning to go down there after the family goes to bed and pull an all nighter! J/K
Actually, I hope to run through a few things and at least start a calibration. I couldn't help but turn it on for a bit and watched some of "Fifth Element". All I can say for now is that the blacks are REALLY, really (did I say really?) better than the Epson and my AE900 (so far the Mits is non calibrated, cinema mode, warm, no other settings touched). Other than that, I think the Epson is better out of box pic department ( make no mistake, inky blacks is one of the biggest WOW factors, though).

As of now, I'll give Epson kudos for looking more theater like out of the box, but this Mits looks like a LCoS on blacks first look.

More to come.

Here is a quick update. I was able to spend some time with the HC6800 last night, but only about two hours worth. I was able to start up my trusty old AE900 afterwards and play some of the same content for a bit of comparison. Here are my intial thoughts. I also will be spending some quality time tonight and then will make a final decision on keeping it. I haven't taken screen shots in a while but will try to drag out the tripod.

First, this is one hot looking projector when not running. It makes a Sony or JVC look plain. I kind of wish it came in Ferrari red, but the black is cool. It is kind of Darth Vader helmet-ish.

Once turned on, it is very apparent that this is a bright projector. Every mode I used has good brightness and I would have no problems turning on a lamp or two in my media room during a football game, without having to resort to blown out dynamic modes.

For this session, I used the AVIA calibration disc and did basic calibrations, but I am going to have to do a grey scale calibration if I keep this unit as it was clear (by turning down the color all of the way) that this is not calibrated properly at the factory. Surely watchable, but could be better.

Setup is not as easy as either the Pannys or the Epsons for sure. In fact, it is kind of easy to get lost in the menus. They are just not really user intuative like the Epson projectors, but if you have used a projector, they make sense.

After this step, I watched the following content: Paladia HD (MTV), Discovery HD, ESPN HD and some standard def material from digital channels. In each case my Tivo was set to native mode so the projector had to do all format conversion. Results were excellent accross the board. Great color saturation, low noise and very "window on the world".

I then moved to blu-ray and the Watchmen disc played through my LG BH200 at 1080/24p. This is where the blacks on the Mitsubishi really showed up. As you know there is a lot of darkness on this disc and the Mitsubishi showed great shadow detail and looked a lot more like a Kuro plasma than an average LCD TV which is the best compliment I can give it.

Next I went back to DVD (I own about 1000 of them and so this is important to me) with The Fifth Element and Disney's Monsters, Inc. Here there is something not quite as good as I would like. There seems to be a bit more noise or something going on than on the Epson 6100 I had (which I thought had the best pic I had ever seen on the Fifth Element disc- in fact it looked like a decent BD release). All I can say is the picture is a bit harsher than on the Epson. I changed all of the sharpness settings in both the player and on the Mits and I could not get it to look like I remembered the Epson. It may have something to do with the signal being output through the BH200's Qdeo processor at 1080p/60 and then there being nothing for the Reon to do. Thinking it over today, I may try setting the BH200 at 1080i to see if the Reon in the Mits does a better job of the deinterlacing- maybe this is the issue, I am not sure. Suggestions here would be appreciated.

I also had one issue that could potentially be a deal breaker- HDMI handshake issues. Every DVD I played (and BD to a lesser extent), caused several losses of the signal between the player and the PJ (routed through my Marantz receiver). It was so bad that on a couple of occasions I missed the first 5 seconds of sound. This happened every time between FBI warnings, trailers, menus and the start of the movie and was quite distracting. I am hoping I can change a cable or a setting in the PJ to fix this.

So, all in all this is a PJ with major promise. I have a couple of things to work through but we shall see with more to come (maybe screen shots if I think they can lend to the discussion and I can find my tripod in the attic).

I will say one thing for buddahead: If I hadn't returned the Epson, I would probably have kept it. In my opinion so far, this Mits is great, but not twice as good as the Epson (I paid right at double for this PJ).

I also have the loss of signal problem with mine. Can't seem to figure out what it could be any help would be great.

Had my HC6800 calibrated two nights ago and I am very pleased with this projectors image quality.. I wish I had a good camera so I could take some decent screenshots to put up. Will see what I can do. Here is what the guy calibrated my 6800 at ... Might be a good starting point for others.

Gamma: Cinema All 0's
Contrast: 0
Brightness: -5
Color: 0
Tint: +1
Sharpness: +4

Auto Iris: Off

Color Temp: User
Reference: Medium
Contrast R: +6
Contrast G: 0
Contrast B: 0
Brightness R: -4
Brightness G: 0
Brightness B: -13

Just installed my Mitsi 6800. I haven't posted much, but I've been lurking here and many other threads for the last month--since my Infocus 5700 kicked the bucket.

I really wanted to wait for the Epson 8500 to come out, but I just couldn't go another weekend watching football on my 42" TV.

I haven't messed with calibration yet, but my first impression is WOW. (my installer/friend also commented on the Darth Vader look, fit and finish of casing looks like a 10k projector) I know I'm making a big step-up from old projector, but I'm very impressed out of the box. I was happy to see some calibration settings posted, so that's what I'm doing next.

My only experience was with a manual zoom/focus and no lens shift DLP. I messed around with a skewing issue w/ my garbage Peerles (spl?) mount for 4 years and NEVER got it dead on. I replaced the mount with a Chief mount, and with both the new mount and the powered Zoom/Shift/Focus I had the old projector down, new mount and and projector setup in an hour. (there were 2 of us working) It'll take me 2 hours to get the couch back together properly, but at least I got 4 years worth of popcorn and snacks cleaned up form underneath.

I'll post some pictures after I get the room back together.

I do think this is selling very well in the Dallas area. I've become pretty good friends with the guy that sold me my first system 4 years ago. He was telling me that on Monday his distributor had 50 of these. I called him last night to tell him to do it and they only had 5 left.

He also beat the Best Buy price. However, Best Buy was tempting with the no-interest deal. I don't know if this is a no-no on this site, but I know some of you are in the Dallas area. If you want to send me a private message I'd be willing to let you come take a look at my theater in order to give my buddy the referral.

I am telling you that the signal issue is huge for me. My family uses the media room when I am not around and they'' freak over this issue. We shall see tonight.

I get the loss of signal during the FBI warning before a BluRay but never during a Blu movie playing ... and I have gotten it here and there during SDVD LOTR's. I have watched other SDVD's and there is no issue. Any others with this problem besides Larrimore and I?

Sorry, but I ended up spending zero time with the PJ last night due to family obligations that came up at the last second (13 year olds cannot make plans ). However, on a different note, I stopped on the way home by Best Buy and they still had the Epson, so I told the guy what I wanted to do. He thought it was a great idea to take it home and compare the two before making a decison since they are both opened anyway (good guy).

So now I have both PJs and can make a comparison. I'll get you all more info this weekend.

I think it has to do with the formats on the disc. As the format changes from 4:3 to 16:9 on SD DVDs, this is where mine goes crazy. The 6800 has an "auto" format or something in the menus I am going to try to turn off, not sure if it will help.

On BDs, I think this is where the change from 1080/60 to 1080/24 happens, maybe that is the issue?

Have you or anyone else been able to verify what is actually causing this?

I was able this weekend to mount the Mitsubishi and set up the Epson on a ladder right under and set both up to project to my 100" screen (high contrast grey). I was able to run through about 4 hours of material and do a good comparison with input from my wife and both daughters. It was not clear to anyone which PJ was better. On HD content, they looked the same. On SD content, the Mitsubishi was marginally better due to the Reon, but it also looked a bit softer.

On DVD upscaled by my LG BH200, the Epson was better, but again, it was marginal- although we all saw it. On HD DVD and Blu Ray, there was little difference.

What I was shocked by was the difference in blacks. I was sure last time I posted based on memory of the Epson, that the Mits was clearly better. Comparing one right after the other, I am not able to discern a difference enough to point it out and neither is anyone in my family. I think there are differences, but not enough to warrant the difference in price of over $1000.

So, right now my decision is whether or not to get the Mits and put in a 2.35:1 screen- another $1500 investment the way I would have to do it, or to just keep the Epson and do something later. I am having a very hard time deciding, although the rest of my family is voting for the Epson right now based on the cost difference.

Also, the HDMI issue persists despite changing all settings that I could on the player and the PJ, so I am not sure what is going on. I do not have a different BD player to try as all of our players in the house are BH200s.

One last thing- I am unable to get any screenshots since the BH200 does poorly on freeze frames. If I decide to go buy another BD player, I can try. However, I am trying to make my decision by mid week as I have to go out of town and do not want to drag this out.

What about other issues such as noise level, focusing issues related to the epson, convergence....have you experience any issues with issues or have any comments....I was considering the Mitsu, but leaning towards the Epson or the 3800 due to budget constraints...I may have installation issues with the 3800...so I need to give the Epson due consideration.....I also noted comments on other threads regarding the issue of inorganic vs. organic panels...should this be a major consideration???Apparently the Epson has organic vs inorganic for the 6800...Thks for your side by side review...I won't probably be able to audition either of them.....much less to watch them side by side....that's a unique insight you provided

Thanks for the info larrimore.For what the mit cost you can get the new epson 8500 which has 200'000 to one contrast.You will definetly see a difference their.Or the panny ae3000 which is cheaper and has ultra contrast.And the sony hw15.The mit is just overpriced compared to the competetion.

Could you also comment in the auto iris operation. Is it noisy...could it be noticed during operation......Is there audible noise during high/low lamp??? I heard that the epson generated more noise than other lcd's and that the auto iris is noticeable...Is the epson brigther than the 6800?....apologize for the many questions...but I realize I won't be able to audition these projectors and will need to probably go with reviews and comments from this board....thanks for your patience.....