Mitsubishi HC1100

Note: This projector was reviewed in comparison to 4 others as part of the Into the light – 5 projectors reviewed article.

Reviewer: Thomas Bartlett

Mitsubishi has a very wide range of projectors, including plenty for business use. But the HC1100 is its entry-level model for home theatre use. Don’t be fooled by the low price and compact size: this is a real home theatre projector.

Unusually for this price range, it is a DLP model. Furthermore, it uses the Texas Instruments DarkChip2 digital micromirror device. That’s the imaging source that you would have found in a $15,000 projector three years ago.

The resolution of the projector is 1280 x 720 pixels, so you don’t get all the detail from high definition sources, but you do get a marked improvement in picture quality over DVD.

There is no lens shift adjustment for the projector, and the zoom range is 1.2:1, so you need to work out where to place it fairly precisely. For a 100 inch screen, the projector needs to be located between 3.6 and 4.4 metres away.

The quality of the colour and the black levels with this projector were very good indeed. The colour especially was particularly natural, thanks I suspect to the excellent DLP design. Also of note was the complete lack of any discernible ‘rainbow effect’, often the bugbear of inexpensive DLP projectors.

The quality of picture scaling (taking the input signal up or down in resolution to match the projector’s own resolution) was first class, with good detail preserved from high definition sources, and few artefacts generated with DVD sources.

The HDMI input was compatible with all the sources I used – when I set them to the right signal output. The projector would not accept 1080p, nor 480i or 576i, over HDMI, so your DVD player should have good quality progressive scan output over HDMI. The deinterlacing of video-sourced 1080i was fairly mediocre, but with high quality progressive material (eg. HD DVD and most movies on HDTV) it was excellent.

Overall
Features
Value for money
Performance
Ease of Use
Reader Rating0 Votes
Beautiful DLP colours, excellent value for money, good black levels, no rainbow effect, very compact.
No lens shift, won't accept 1080p signals, won't accept 576i signals over HDMI.
3.8