For some unfathomable reason it’s also home theatre projector upgrade time for most manufacturers, and just when I was about to grab my togs and head for the surf, the first of the big projector guns has fired a shot across my boogie board.

Obviously I discarded my Coppertone and Speedos immediately, put on more suitable attire and darted off to Tone HQ to pick up Mitsubishi’s latest and greatest ever LCD HT projector – the HC7000.

I’d been impressed with the other offerings from Mitsubishi thus far. The HC5500 managed to bang away with the big boys in performance terms in Tone 73, while Tone 68 had me putting the generally excellent HC6000 through its paces.

The previous models had basically shared the same casework, but a surprise was in store when I cracked open the 7000′s box. It’s a much more upmarket look for the HC7000, the projector is considerably larger than Mitsubishi’s other offerings and the new, curved casework has definitely brought sexy back to the company’s HT projector range.

Facility-wise the HC7000 has a very good motorised lens shift; zoom and focus are also controlled via the nicely laid out remote control; and two HDMI 1.3 ports are available for your high-def sources.

Knocking Tone’s reference Epson EMP-TW2000 off its perch, the HC7000′s contrast ratio is an almost unbelievable 72,000:1, a staggering result for a consumer device. This would be with the auto-iris turned on I guess, but there was enough of an advance over last year’s crop to suggest a quantifiable improvement had been made.

Straight from the box the HC7000 impressed me with outstanding contrast, deep and defined black levels and a broad, natural colour gamut.

Anything on Blu-ray looked positively stunning, and movies such as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull had breathtaking clarity and depth. The HC7000 has the sharpest, most detailed picture of any projector I have ever tested, and that’s saying something after the superb Epson and JVC DLA devices.

An area that provides a challenge for any projector is shadow detail, and the 7000 produced an admirable performance: any dark scene with reducing or increasing intensity of brightness or colour (night sky panning down to city lights, for example) was reproduced in an excellent and linear fashion with no halos or moiré effects whatsoever.

It’s the real deal, for sure. The imagery produced by the HC7000 is stunning and a certain improvement over last year’s 1080p brigade.

The other major projector manufacturers have yet to fire their guns, but if this first skirmish is anything to go by, videophiles looking to upgrade or buy their first 1080p HT projector will be in for one hell of a summer.

GARY PEARCE

TECH SPECS

HC7000

LCD Home Theatre Projector
$6499

Resolution: 1080p
LCD Type: 3-LCD
Processing: Silicon Graphics Reon VX HQV
Contrast ratio: 72,000:1 (with Iris control on Auto)
Brightness: 1000 Lumens
Lamp Life: 5000 hours
Operating Noise: 17dB (Low Lamp mode)
Lens Shift: Vertical/horizontal with 1.6x zoom
Connections:  HDMI (x2), Component, S-Video, composite video, mini D-Sub
Weight: 11.5Kg

CONTACT:

www.bdt.co.nz

Pros

• Gorgeous picture quality

• Gorgeous aesthetics

Cons

• Not quite as bright as some, but picture quality more than makes up for that

Verdict:

• The projector boffins have had an inspired off-season – the HC7000 is a stunner

This review is from Tone issue #74.

What do you think?