I see today that this projector which I bought two weeks ago for $671 on Amazon is now $654. I had been considering the Panasonic AE-3000 which is the best selling 1080 projector. I happened to see the Mitsu and its low price and I bought it on a whim. I guess my whim threshold is around $675.
The Panasonic is not dropping in price. It has cost about $2,200 for the last half year.
So if the most popular 1080 Panasonic costs three times as the most popular 720 Misubishi, does that mean that the Mitsu is junk?
I don't think so.
When the 1080 projectors first were released a Dutch HT hobbyist group set up an experiment. They took a 1080 and a 720 model from a major manufacturer and showed them to their membership in a controlled setting. Most people thought they looked very much alike but a small majority favored the 720 version.
How could that be? Well 1080 LCD projector were generally less bright then. But the Dutchmen had tried to make the projected images equally bright. In the end they couldn't explain why the lower resolution projectors looked slightly better than the higher resolution machines.
Today 1080 machines are praised by all the reviewers as being sharper than 720 models. But remember these reviewers are all in the video equipment sales business in one way or another. You can't get demo models of new projectors unless you are seen as helpful by the manufacturers. If you imply that the latest technical advance in projectors is trivial you won't get invited to the preview demonstrations or get a test sample to review.
Video front projection equipment is almost never available in a standard store for critical review by the customer. Who has ever seen a 1080 machine side by side with a 720 machine? This makes the front projector customer uniquely vulnerable to a few "impartial" experts.
I'm not saying that there are no differences between a $2,500 or a $7,500 projector and a $650 Mitsu 1600. I'm just pointing out that few of us really are in a position to judge so we are forced to rely on the opinions of web journalists who have an economic stake in the question.
I suspect that under controlled conditions most people would ignore resolution differences between 1080 and 720 projectors. Brightness matters as does ANSI contrast - and the Mitsu 1600 has plenty of both. As a DLP machine it has no screen door. Screen door was a 480 problem for LCD projectors. IMHO color differences between projectors are also trivial. Most customers never adjust much of anything and of those that do probably as many misadjust as properly adjust. Some people prefer a rosy tinted picture just as some people liked HiFi speakers with a mid range bump.
I run my projector in a room with a ten foot wide window for which I have opaque drapes. However the Mitsu is so bright I can now watch TV in the daytime with the drapes drawn. Today is overcast and still winter, the screen is brighter than the view out the window. That probably won't be true in August. Nor would I suspect that the image would look very good at High Noon in the Kalihari, but I'm happy.Get more detail about Mitsubishi HC1600 720p DLP Home Theater Projector.
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