The Mitsubishi HC3000U is a 720p resolution home theater projector that is easy on the budget and offers excellent performance. It’s probably why it has proved a very popular purchase having held the number one selling projector status with Amazon. The HC3000U has 16:9 and 16:10 aspect support for XGA resolution so could also double as a less bright business projector.

The HC3000U is a DLP projector based around Texas Instruments DarkChip2 technology which was designed to improve black levels and contrast ratio beyond previous versions. TI made changes to their chips to absorb internal reflections for boosting of black levels. The improvements seem to deliver with the contrast ratio quoted as and impressive 4000:1 which will accentuate deeper and darker on-screen tones.

Another feature which no doubt adds to the HC3000’s popularity is TI’s BrilliantColor which enables higher brightness by boosting midtone color levels while providing truer, more vibrant colors for more lifelike images. The brightness level of the DLP projector is in fact, 1000 ANSI lumens – in line with what one would expect of a home theater projector to be located in a lower ambient light setting.

A feature many consumers may not fully appreciate is that there is no requirement to change or clean filters which is normally an important maintenance task if you want to extend the life of your expensive projector lamp. Dirty filters can result in the projector bulb not cooling optimally and running hotter shortening its life. All Mitsubishi recommends is that you keep the ventilation grills clear of dust. Lamp life for the Mitsubishi HC3000 is quoted as 3,000 hours which is a better than average figure.

The Mitsubishi HC3000 DLP projector has a low noise level of 25 dBA (low power mode) – something important for a home theater projector. It’s also fairly portable if your home theater set up is not a permanent one.

There is not a lot of placement flexibility with the HC3000 however, this could be said of most DLP home theater projectors in a similar price range. There is no lens shift and the manual zoom is fairly limited. Competing LCD projectors, in comparison, generally have lens shift and a greater zoom range.

Resources

Projection Screen Selection

8 Tips to Extend Projector Lamp Life

Replacement Projector Lamps and Bulbs

User Reviews and Price Comparisons

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