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Mitsubishi HC1500 720p DLP Home Theater Projector | 
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| Brand: Mitsubishi
Category: CE
List Price: $1,495.00
Buy Used: $850.00
You Save: $645.00 (43%)
New (8)
Avg. Customer Rating:  65 reviews
Color: Grey
Media: Electronics
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: Yes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 11.3
Dimensions (in): 16.3 x 13.9 x 14
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: HC1500
Model: HC1500
UPC: 082400025708
EAN: 0082400025708
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Works GREAT, no problems. Has 2800 out of 3000 hours left on the bulb.
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| Features:
| • | Hign Definition 720P Home Theater Projector | | • | TI DDP3020 Dark Chip 2 with Brilliant Color | | • | 1600 ANSI lumens, 2500:1 Contrast Ratio | | • | Upto 3000 hour lamp life, filter free operation | | • | 1-year parts and lable warranty, 90 days lamp |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Product Description
Forget the mere 70 inches of even large flat-panel displays, the HC1500 DLP Projector lets you project a high definition image hundreds of inches large. With its quiet operation and huge, beautiful picture, the HC1500 could make your home cinema the envy of all your neighbors. 
The HC1500 is just 6.5 pounds and has 1600 ANSI lumens of brightness and a 2500:1 contrast ratio. View larger. View product details. | 
The HC1500 can project an image up to 275 inches for a true theater experience. | True HD Images
The HC1500 DLP projector projects video in a native 720p format so you get a highly detailed HD picture that looks crisp even at large sizes. It features Texas Instruments BrilliantColor, which utilizes a seven-segment color wheel and an algorithm that enables brighter mid-tones and more realistic color. The HC1500 also offers 1600 ANSI lumens of brightness and a 2500:1 contrast ratio. Depending on the size of your room, you can project the image from 40 inches to 275 inches diagonal. The HC1500 has a lamp life of 3000 hours in low mode and 2000 hours in bright mode. Pure Connection From Source to Screen
The HC1500 has HDMI 1.2 and component cable connections to ensure a pure input signal from beginning to end. With 10-bit processing, the information is unsullied and the result is a pure image on the screen. Be advised that this projector (as with most projectors) does not include a tuner; to watch television, you need to provide a television signal, either through an external tuner or a cable box. Easy Set Up and Quiet Operation
At just 6.5 pounds, the HC1500 is easy to transport and move around in your home theater room, and it has both vertical and horizontal digital keystone correction that makes it easy to mount on the ceiling or place on a table. The HC1500 operates at a quiet 25dBA that won't distract you while you're enjoying movies or television. A 12-volt Trigger jack allows the projector to control a compatible motorized screen. A remote control with backlit buttons is included. The HC1500 is backed by a 1-year limited parts and labor warranty, and a 90-days lamp warranty. What's in the Box
HC1500 projector, AC power cable, RGB cable, RS-232C cable, remote unit with battery, light shade cover, quick start card, user's manual, and safety manual.
Product Description
If you are a high-definition video enthusiast who's looking for a more affordable way to bring a front-screen projection to your home theater or family room, the Mitsubishi HC1500 projector is the right choice for you.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 60 more reviews...
 Very nice, but missing some aspect features. September 20, 2007
23 out of 24 found this review helpful
The HC1500 is a very nice projector, especially for the price. I upgraded from an InFocus Screenplay DLP Front Projector - SP4805. By comparison, the HC1500 is much brighter, quieter, and more crisp. It also fit my existing ceiling mount, which was very convenient.
The only problem I've not found a fix for is the aspect ratio selection. The SP4805 was native 16:9, but also had a mode for 4:3, and another which cropped a 4:3 picture to 16:9 and enlarged it to fill the whole screen. This mode was really nice for TV broadcasts and old DVDs filmed in 16:9 but broadcast in 4:3 with black bars. Without that zoomed/cropped mode, you have to watch it in 4:3 mode, so you see the black bars both on the sides of the screen and then again on the top and bottom. This means you're basically looking at an image 2/3 the size of your screen.
As far as I can tell, the HC1500 does not have an aspect mode that works well with this problem. It is also native 16:9, and has the following aspect modes; auto (which as far as I can tell is identical to 16:9 regardless of input signal), 4:3, 4:3 stretched to 16:9 (with serious distortion on the left and right sides), and two zooms. The user's guide says the two zooms are optimized for cinemascope and vista images with subtitles, but they don't expand the projected area out to take advantage of the better screen/picture aspect ratio match. Instead it simply crops the image within the 4:3 display boundary and leaves the black bars on the sides. This is very annoying when watching 16:9 TV show (broadcast non-HD) because your picture is miniaturized and surrounded by unused black bar screen area. The show is being broadcast specifically to fill your whole screen, but the projector leaves bars on all 4 sides of the image.
I don't understand why Mitsubishi omitted that feature, it seems requisite these days. The fine print in the user's guide does mention that zoom modes will make the image of a 480i signal smaller. Again, it looks fine when you have 480p input, which I only get from my DVD player, or a native 4:3 TV 480i input (normal TV). And the picture is fantastic with both.
Overall I'm happy with this machine, especially for the price and bright HD picture. But if anyone has a work around for the aspect issue, I'd love to hear it.
 Very good Projector. UNBIAS REVIEW September 3, 2007
22 out of 29 found this review helpful
Its quite a lengthy review provided by aholics. I am guessing it worth reading for 5 minutes, If you gonna spend the money
We absolutely jumped at the chance to get a close look at the new Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector since we missed the boat on checking out the HD1000U which preceded it. The attraction is a clean system that handles up to 720p for less than $1000. This projector is worth a serious look - especially at the street pricing you'll find on this model. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me that we live in a time when a projector can be had for this price possessing the level of features and amenities that come with the HC1500. If you break it down into price per square inch, you are saving a bundle by going with front projection at this price - as of this writing you can barely get a decent 40-inch LCD TV for the same money. RUN to your nearest Mitsubishi dealer and check this one out for yourself - you owe it to your wallet.
Pro
1080p/60 support
Main menu shows input signal resolution
RS-232C control
Excellent color
Good out-of-the-box performance
Con
No 480i support over HDMI
Significant rainbow effect
Default Sharpness setting too high
Can crush blacks if not careful
Things We Really Liked About This ProjectorContinuing the above thought, Mitsubishi has entered a projector into the marketplace with several very nice convenience features which help distance it from the pack and set it apart:
BrilliantColor
While not new, this function is nice in that it allows for a quick way to eek out more brightness to suit the time of day and ambient lighting conditions in your viewing room. It's almost like a built in day and night adjustment, however when activated it will crush your white levels so use sparingly.
12V trigger
Many times this feature gets left out of lesser-priced units. It's nice to know that the HC1500 can be used with a motorized screen if desired.
Price & RS-232C
At under $1000 you really can't beat this 720p projector for getting HD into your living room without breaking the bank. To also include RS-232C control options (with clear codes at the Mitsubishi website) is absolutely unreal in terms of value.
There are sufficient connections on the back of the Mitsubishi HC1500 to satisfy anyone I know. You have HDMI and component, with another available component input via the HD15 (VGA) connection. For those of you who don't have any HD sources and feel the need to blow up 480i imagery to ridiculous sizes there is a composite and s-video input as well. The surprise on the back of this unit, for me at least, was the presence of a serial RS-232C connection. With an 8-pin DIN to D-sub adapter you can fully control the HC1500 with an advanced system such as those from AMX, Crestron or similar.
Mitsubishi HC1500 rear connections
The HC1500 is really a great little box. With this many inputs and the ability to handle both 1080p/60 input signals (and with a 720p native panel resolution) it's going to be very hard to beat for value. The physical box itself has the same look of the HD1000 and HD4000 models. There is a manual focus and zoom adjustment just behind the lens as expected and much of the front and side panels are devoted to airflow and venting. As a result, there is a significant amount of light leakage from the front and right side of the unit. Fan noise was consistent but not terribly loud, though it did have a soft whine attached to it rather than a gentle whisper. An attached lens cap keeps the dust from settling on the lens when not in use. Aside from the remote, there are 7 buttons atop the unit for power, menu control, input selection and keystone correction. These buttons are multi-function and allow you to get the system up and running even if you are unable to access the remote.
Remote Control
The HC1500 remote is pretty good, especially given the low cost of entry for this projector. You have direct access to input sources (all 5 input options) as well as some ways to immediately interact with many of the primary picture controls (BrilliantColor isn't one of these, however). Discrete On and Off buttons/commands are available on the remote as well - and which enabled this remote to land a healthy 4/5 score. One of my favorite features was the presence of three AV memory setting buttons. Selecting one of these buttons allows configuration and/or recall of the Image Menu settings for that selection. In this way I was able to configure a setting for nighttime Cinema viewing, one for Daytime viewing and another for black & white films (with a slightly lower/warmer color temperature). These are excellent features to have and the Mitsubishi puts them right at your fingertips which is very nice.
The remote was also very easy to use and the signal bounced from the screen to the projector in almost any position. I tried pretty hard to point the signal in places where it might not reach the unit and most of the time I had to quite deliberately aim away from anything in order to allow the remote to file to reach its target. The only thing keeping this remote from attaining a 5/5 was the fact that the backlight was so dim it was at times difficult to read the buttons. All remotes should work this well.
The Menu System
Simliar to other Mitsubishi projectors that share nearly identical software, the menu system on the HC1500 is straightforward and easy to navigate. I still don't like exiting interior levels of the submenus by either scrolling all the way to the top or by pressing the Menu button, but its certainly something one gets used to and the menu system will not be used all that much once you have everything configured to your liking. I went over most of the Menu functions in my review of the Mitsubishi HC5000 as well as our reviews of the HD4000. Not too much has changed so feel free to look up those reviews for more details. You can now access BrilliantColor from the Image menu, which also makes that feature part of the AV Memory functionality and Vertical Location adjustments can be made for those who may have devices which require adjustment of the vertical image.
Movies were fun to watch on this projector for their color and black levels. As with other Mitsubishi's, however, I did have a significant problem with rainbows and they don't, for me at least, go away with time. Having interviewed enough people about this phenomenon, I no longer authoritatively say that everyone will experience rainbows as significantly as I - since everyone's perceptions of them are different. For me, the timings Mitsubishi uses (in this case a 4-speed, 7-segment wheel) wreak havoc with my optical system. My best recommendation to anyone is to try out this projector in your own home to see how you react. Don't look for rainbows, lest you find them, but find out if typical viewing material (include some high-contrast images with vertical line patterns) creates a problem for you.
Rainbows aside, I really enjoyed both the color and the detail this system afforded me. The better the signal you feed this projector, the better the results you will get - and you can get REALLY nice results.
HD DVD - Batman Begins
This movie came out rather dark, as though the transfer was done poorly - the problem is we know that the transfer was flawless base don other projector reviews. Thinking back to my luminance graph I quickly realized that setting this projector "by the book" will result in some crushed blacks - at least in my experience. When setting black levels (Brightness) be sure you can raise the value a notch or two higher than normal. Unfortunately, this raises your blacks overall, but I'd rather than than lose the detail present in DVD and HD-DVD images. There were moments of real detail and exceptional opportunities to see how well the HC1500 handled gradients, skin tones, deinterlacing of motion elements and detail. Batman Begins was a very enjoyable movie to watch, and the Mitsubishi HC1500 gave an impressive performance. Any perspective anomalies in the photos below are likely due to the camera angle and type used and not the projector.
Both color and detail were present and beautifully portrayed through the HC1500 projector.
The problem with having a nice projector and a great movie like Batman Begins, is that I quickly got lost in the story and took entirely too long to grab some of these beautiful screen captures. It is a sure bet that you will enjoy the images shown by the HC1500 - they are stunning.
HD DVD - We Were Soldiers
This HD DVD is best described as a DVD that was reprocessed into HD DVD without much ado. The images are grainy, but the detail pokes through at various times throughout the film and black levels were honest and not crushed or clipped. Colors were vibrantly shown by the DLP system and overall this reminded me of how standard definition DVDs looked like on the HC1500 projector. The system doesn't enhance poor images, but it does a great job of allowing the best possible picture to shine through.
Blacks were rich and deep; and colors popped during the scenes that didn't involve the rather barren landscape of Vietnam.
HDTV - Discovery HD Channel
I watched several shows on Discovery HD, including Build It Bigger and Into the Lion's Den. Both had some excellent imagery (as expected) and I was floored by the detail exhibited by the Mitsubishi. This projector can really show off a nice image - the key is finding them. With this unit you will find yourself watching more and more HD content and quickly becoming an early adopter of HD-DVD formats simply to have more material to view on the big screen.
Notice the hair detail in the above picture and the lack of crushed whites in both. This is partially due to the correct setting of White levels (Contrast) and disengaging the BrilliantColor feature.
Here are some additional screen captures form a DiscoveryHD promo I simply HAD to display:
Detail, detail, detail! And colors are absolutely vibrant - you will not be disappointed with this picture.
ConclusionI give the HC1500 my full recommendation with a hearty warning: If you are susceptible to rainbows I highly suggest you get a look at this model before jumping into a purchase. To my eyes this was a significant issue, more so than other DLP models I have reviewed recently. This projector is worth a serious look - especially at the street pricing you'll find on this model. It's absolutely mind-blowing to me that we live in a time when a projector can be had for this price possessing the level of features and amenities that come with the HC1500. If you break it down into price per square inch, you are saving a bundle by going with front projection at this price - as of this writing you can barely get a decent 40-inch LCD TV for the same money. RUN to your nearest Mitsubishi dealer and check this one out for yourself - you owe it to your wallet.
great color, not as sharp as others December 10, 2007
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
This is my second HD compatible DLP projector, my first was the Olympus V-1, which being the size of a large paperback, served double duty as a backup projector for office type work. The Mitsubishi 1500 was picked from looking the the ProjectorReview (sic) website, which basically lushed over its predecessor the Mitshubishi 1000, and the review is worth reading to find out how to tune this beasty.
First off it has a stunning, colorful picture, makes the Olympus almost seem black and white in comparison. However the tradeoff is it is not as razor sharp via the HDMI as the old projector was (no DVI input unfortunately so you have to live with the internal HDMI scaling issues.) I am driving this with an OPPO upscaling DVD player and for example lines of type in the credits that were clearly legible on the Olympus, are less so on the Mitsubishi.
The Mitsubishi had no problems when fed with 480p, 540P, or 720p via the HDMI input (the resultant picture was scaled to the projectors native 720p) but had picture jitter when I drove it with 1080i. I tried to route the OPPO signal via the VGA input using a DVI/VGA adapter but it wouldn't sync with it.
However, when I hooked it up to a 1080i output from a Mac laptop with the same adapter, running HDTV of an NFL game, the results were simply stunning. I display this on a nine foot screen and there was no noticeable lag even at this size. So if you have a DVI native product maybe try going via VGA and bypassing the HDMI input here.
In summary for DVD viewing I would give it a 4, but for HDTV a 5.
Pros: brilliant picture, even on low power
extremely quiet, you almost have to strain to hear it when playing movies
Cons: others have commented on its poor handling of native 4:3 material, I only use it for HD so its not a problem for me; the menus are very complicated and you will only want to adjust them once and hope it remembers; picture not as sharp via HDMI as it could be; output angle of this projector is high so since we keep it at table level I have to really tip it up on its hind legs to hit the correct viewing angle
 Unbiased comparison to SONY LCD projector May 20, 2008
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
I originally purchased the Mitsubishi HC1500 DLP projector, but had some problems with it. Ordered this one from amazon and put them side by side. This isn't a review so much as a comparison between 3 Chip LCD and SINGLE CHIP DLP (which tend to be in the same price range). I actually liked the HC1500 a lot, but ended up keeping this SONY VLPAW10 for a number of reasons. It's not perfect, and in some areas underperforms the DLP. Here's the comparison.
Single chip DLP projectors create images by having a "chip" filled with thousands of tiny mirrors (1 per pixel on the screen) that can tilt up and down. When they tilt, they send light to the screen, when they don't tilt, the light stays in the projector. This ends up creating wonderfully bright and brilliant images. The only problem with this setup is that there's no color (just the white light is being directed) so the color needs to be introduced by spinning a color wheel in front of the chip. (in this case it's a 7 segment red-green-blue-white-red-green-blue wheel. The problem is that the colors are therefore being created via an optical illusion, which for some people creates a "rainbow" effect where they see color rainbows in the white areas of the image. It's very pronounced when there are credit rolls at the end of movies, or any other times there are high contrast black/white (or light/dark) areas. In a certain percentage of cases, the rainbow effect causes headaches and eyestrain It did so for me. (google "DLP rainbow effect" if you don't believe me. There are such things as 3 chip DLP projectors that don't need the color wheels and don't create this effect, but they aren't even close to being in the sub $1000 price range (they start at SEVERAL thousand dollars)
Three chip LCD screens actually have 3 panels (red green and blue) so they don't need the spinning color wheel, they just project the light through the panels, and the colors line up on the screen if calibrated properly. They are not as bright and brilliant as the DLP images because the light is going through the panels, and not being reflected by mirrors which create more direct light. The LCD projectors also need more space between the pixels than DLP, and this ends up giving you a more visible "screen door"effect where you can actually see the faint black lines of the pixel grid if you sit close enough to the screen (as if you were looking through a door or window with an insect screen on it, hence the term "screen door".
So that's the background, here are the results of my side by side tests (accompanied by the media manager for a major lecture hall at an Ivy League university) who is a specialist in these kinds of things (I myself teach video production, so have some expertise here as well).
The Mitsubishi HC-1500 (1 chip DLP)
Advantages
+ about half the physical size of the SONY.
+ Image is brighter
+ colors are more saturated
+ no need for air filter
+ less screen door effect
Disadvantages
- potential for rainbow effect
- noisy (the spinning wheel makes a high pitched whine which is louder and more annoying than the fan)
- If you have a small room, you may not be able to fill a large projector screen with an image because this projector cannot throw a large image from as short a distance as the sony
The SONY VLPAW-10 (3 chip LCD)
Advantages
+ no rainbow effect
+ quieter
+ can throw larger image from shorter distance
Disadvantages
- Much larger than the mitsubishi
- Bulb not as bright, need darker room
- colors are less saturated
- has an air filter than needs to be changed periodically
- more screen door effect
- HDMI input on the rear has a bezel around it that will make it impossible for some of the cables with thicker ends to fit in. I had to change cables to get this to work
CONCLUSION
I went with the SONY. It's not perfect, but for my needs it beats the Mitsubishi. I know there are a lot of die hard fans of the HC1500 and I'm sorry - but this is a fair assessment of my needs.
Some ways to mitigate the SONY's disadvantages:
Neither tv will perform great in a bright room, so both of these are really best suited for rooms where you can control the light.
In terms of the saturation, if you're watching DVD movies, then I think you'll prefer the LCD since it creates more natural colors. The DLP is better for watching HDTV shows where the colors really pop (like CSI Miami). I use it mostly to watch movies, so don't mind the less saturated and brilliant colors.
In terms of the "screen door" effect, I find this is minimized by defocusing the image just a hair. Yes the image is more soft, but this looks more like a projected image in a movie theater, and this is the effect I'm going for when watching movies on my projector, so it works great. It does not work as well to watch sports or news or other material that has lots of CG text up on the screen.
One last note, if you decide to buy it, the price of the sony does fluctuate on Amazon wildly ($799 yesterday, $999 today !!!). But I see it go up and down on an almost weekly basis. So time your purchase carefully!
5 Star rating for the Champion November 6, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
I would like to first state this projector will do 1:1 pixel mapping through the HDMI port from a computer. This was my only concern as there is little to no evidence this works properly from other reviews. Within the first five minutes of owning this unit I successfully output 1280 x 720 @ 60Hz through a DVI to HDMI cable from an Nvidia 7800GT video card. The only real adjustment to produce this 1:1 pixel mapping was to set the projector to "real" in the aspect option, and then set the overscan to 100% (default is 97% overscan). The projector will now display a perfect 1:1 pixel mapping as you would expect from a XGA projector or a PC monitor with no artifacting, frequency noise, or shimmer in text/fine lines due to scaling. It is perfect.
Now for the review, this is our fifth projector and four of those were DLP. My last projector that I can compare it to directly is the BenQ PB6240 XGA projector with 2700 lumens and 2000:1 contrast ratio. This is a wonderful projector but the HC1500 is much brighter at the same throw distance and is natively wide screen. The black levels and color reproduction are outstanding; the HC1500 really stands out for a home theatre.
My intent for this unit is for big screen movies and for viewing web content clearly from the couch and going through pictures when we have family in town. I do have a PS2 connected via the S-Video port and it is better than any other projector using the S-Video port; very colorful, bright and surprisingly sharp/clear. As I stated, we purchased this unit mainly for movies and I would recommend a Septre 37 inch or larger 1080p monitor for high resolution games on the pc with a 8800GTX for the most immersive experience (through the DVI- HDMI port for 1:1 mapping of course).
The HC1500 is about 14.5 feet from the wall (no screen yet) and produces 100 inch diagonal image, this size can be zoomed larger (aprox 130") at this point but I wanted the smallest screen size possible from this distance. Let me say even at this distance and sheer size the amount of color and clarity is phenomenal and the black levels are better than ANY projector I have ever seen, period. I would recommend a High resolution DVD player such as a Blu-Ray, HD-DVD or equivalent for the highest quality image. We are using the computer to play movies but DVD players have come along way too.
The projector is very, very quiet, even in full lamp mode. I have tried all setting regarding brightness and `True color' modes and all are very acceptable. It really depends on your preference, low lamp and `True color' set to `3' works great for our size, but some would maybe like "more" which the projector can accommodate. It is like having a 100" plasma wall, it is that impressive.
The only draw back that I have encountered is a heat haze on the left side of the projected image. I can only describe this effect as you would see waves directly above a dark colored car on a really hot day due to the intense heat distorting light as it the light passes through. I have isolated this to an external issue; it is not internal or part of the unit at all. The exhaust port is right next to the lens and the air exiting the projector is not exhausted quickly due to the low noise fan, so the heat lingers in front of the lens. I tested this by placing a fan 8 feet away to move the heat away from the front lens. This worked so I know I have poor ventilation in this portion of my house, this does not mean the projector over heats or that it is hot, it is not; just that the exhausted air exits the projector at low pressure so it tends to linger. Good circulation in the room will alleviate this minor issue. No one else noticed this effect, but I am very critical on image quality and I tend to pick apart equipment and there flaws. This is not a flaw just an observation that I feel necessary to mention.
I think this projector is a great investment as the replacement bulbs are only 350 bucks.
With such a low price and high performance results this is the projector to buy for under a grand. I hope this review is helpful for you to consider this product. I am extremely happy with this unit and ultimately that is what it was designed to do, Enjoy...
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