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By Alex Kidman, CNET.com.au, CNET Asia
Feb 02, 2007

Just a couple of months back, shopping for an affordable 1080p projector was like mission impossible. Not anymore as Mitsubishi Electric beats the competition with the S$6,599 (US$4,341.45) HC5000 LCD home theater projector. Though competitively priced, little corners have been cut from its feature set, making it an ideal solution for the budget-conscious and first-time adopters.

Editors' note: This review is based on evaluations conducted by our sister site. Review ratings on similar products may differ due to differences in regional market trends and competing product lineups.

Design
We've seen plenty of projectors here at CNET that have strong design motifs; units that are engineered to look good on a projector stand or suspended from the ceiling--models from Sony and InFocus come to mind. Mitsubishi's HC5000 sadly isn't one of those; it's a very plain and fairly big (334(W) x 125(H) x 352(D)mm, 5.6kg) projector in black-and-white plastic casing. The front of the projector is dominated by the lens, which hides behind a completely removable flap when you first unpack it, while the rear of the projector houses a very no-nonsense arrangement of common video inputs. Controls on the top of the projector are basic but workable, and that's a good way to describe the simple and uncluttered remote control as well, which largely relies on contextual menu controls to change the projector's features. In summary, this is an extremely plain-looking projector that won't wow your visitors on looks alone.

Features
Appearances, however, can be deceiving, as the real appeal of the HC5000 doesn't lie in the skin-deep plastic casing, but in the guts of the machine itself, and the promise of what it can do. The HC5000 uses Mitsubishi's C2FINET 3LCD panel deploying inorganic compounds in its construction. Organic LCD display panels--which make up the majority of LCD projector arrays on the market today--have a tendency to degrade over time, reducing color clarity, and inorganic ones should, in theory, enjoy longer lifespans before requiring repair or replacement.

The HC5000 supports a top resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels and supports every single HD resolution on the market today, including 1080p. It has a top-rated brightness of 1,000 ANSI lumens--slightly lower at 750 lumens in low noise mode--and a contrast ratio of up to 10,000:1. On the input side, it gives you a single shot at every common connection out there--composite, S-video, component, PC, DVI and HDMI, as well as a powered connection for controlling a motorized screen.

Speaking of things motorized, all of the HC5000's lens controls are motorized, and with one of the quietest operation modes we've ever heard; if you couldn't see the focus improving or the zoom distance changing you'd swear it wasn't moving at all.

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