The Mitsubishi HC 3800 is a Full HD DLP projector released in autumn 2009.  The HC 3800, Mitsubishi’s first DLP projector with Full HD resolution, currently sells from about 1,100 GBP. It’s also available in the US from about 1,300 USD.

Reviewed by Florian Friedrich on February 26, 2010

Excellent video processing.
Contrast-rich, bright HDTV pictures.
Colour management and gamma controls.

Slight hotspotting.
Some shading.
Weaknesses in picture presets.
Greyscales show cyan tint.

This Mitsubishi delivers an excellent price–performance ratio: The attractive, contrast-rich DLP projection beats that of many similarly priced competitors. But the HC 3800 shows some colour deviations and weaknesses in its presets.

Most Important Connections:

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Features

The HC 3800’s practical remote control has backlit buttons.

The developers working on the HC 3800 have decided to make do without an adjustable lens shift — but that’s no surprise in this price class. What the Mitsubishi does offer is a fairly large zoom factor of 1.4:1, and a vertical offset that allows you to ceiling-mount the device.

Like the similarly priced Acer H 7530 D, the HC 3800 has a BrilliantColor mode that increases the picture’s brightness. This is also active in the “Cinema” preset, which the manufacturer recommends. On the one hand, this increases the projector’s light output (from 700 to 900 lumens); on the other hand, the colours get worse — the colour temperature climbs from 7,300 to a too-cool 7,800 Kelvin. If, on the other hand, you select the “Warm” colour-temperature preset, the measured value drops to 5,870 Kelvin, giving slightly red-tinted images. So, that leaves us with a problem: None of the presets deliver an accurate white with a 6,500-Kelvin colour temperature.

Luckily, however, the RGB menus for gamma and colour temperature can help. The colour space also shows significant extension relative to the standards. The result: Colours look loud and unnatural. In this case, however, it’ll take an expert to improve the device’s performance.

On top of the six supplied picture modes, there are three user-programmable presets. The VGA input turns out to be the most versatile of the video inputs: As well as PC video, it also accepts YUV and Scart-RGB signals — with the help of an adapter (not supplied).

Picture Quality of Standard-Definition Signals

This CIE diagram reveals the Mitsubishi’s significantly extended colour space.

Unlike in the slightly cheaper Acer H 7530 D, the HC 3800’s colour wheel produces no pronounced colour strobing. There’s some, of course, and it’s stronger than on our reference projector, the Samsung SP-A 800 B, but it only irritates on high-contrast edges — if at all. At 1,670:1, the HC 3800’s in-picture contrast is appealing, and there are no pesky dynamic-iris artefacts. This performance places the HC 3800 above a pricier Mitsubishi LCD model — the Mitsubishi HC 6800 — which only managed 1,000:1.

Unfortunately, the HC 3800 suffers from colour deviations, which are a rare problem on DLP projectors. In bright pictures, you can see a slight red tint in the top right corner and a touch of cyan in the bottom left. In dark scenes, however, the colour deviations are a great deal rarer.

The VGA interface also accepts YUV and Scart-RGB signals.

With analogue signals, the projector delivers a decent image, thanks to reliable de-interlacing of TV programmes and films. The video processing also leaves no cause for complaint. Via YUV and HDMI, the HC 3800 allows you to fine-tune the picture-cropping (overscan), and you can therefore achieve a picture with almost no cropping.

In “Six Days Seven Nights”, one of our favourite DVDs for picture-quality testing, strongly saturated colours such as the red paint of the plane look exaggerated. The sharp, contrast-rich image also shows a blue-green discolouration, which is even visible in the white text of the closing credits.

Picture Quality of High-Definition Signals

In the centre of the image, the 1.4x zoom resolves test patterns precisely; the sharpness drops towards the top of the image.

The HC 3800 essentially handles 1080i-format HD pictures well — both films and documentaries convert into flicker-free progressive video. Test patterns, however, reveal some of the projector’s weaknesses: We noticed, for example, that the illumination was relatively non-uniform (so-called hotspot formation). Furthermore, in a stepped greyscale pattern, we noticed slight discolouration (shading). Fine patterns resolve tidily in the centre but become less focussed towards the top of the image.

Moving edges only rarely show colour strobing, along with minimal colour fringing, but blur appears in fast camera pans in documentaries recorded at 60 frames per second — still, you’ll find similar behaviour with almost all projectors in this price class. The latest picture-enhancement technologies are only present in higher price classes. With films, on the other hand, you’ll barely notice this problem — if at all: We loved the bright, judder-free 24p images, which look cinematic and well resolved. But the slight colour deviations and the blue-green tint in greyscales will get on your nerves in the longer term.

Ideal Settings

Gamma Mode: Cinema

Contrast: 0

Brightness: 0

Color Temp.: Standard

Color: 0

Tint: 0

Sharpness: 0

BrilliantColor: Off

Lamp Mode: Standard

Over Scan: 100%

These settings apply to realistic playback of HDTV/Blu-ray material through the HDMI interface in a darkened environment. Manufacturing and HDMI playback device deviations might necessitate slight adjustment.