great price + great picture = the best value out there
Written: Dec 21 '04
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Pros: Picture quality, color depth, convergence adjustability, brightness
Cons: Somewhat flimsy particleboard cabinet, depth of cabinet
The Bottom Line: If you plan to or currently watch a lot of HD programming or progressive scan dvds, buy this tv (and a nice home theater system with the money you save).
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| oatbran's Full Review: Mitsubishi WS-48413 48 in. HDTV-Ready TV |
I have owned this tv for 5 months and have learned a couple of things:
Nothing can come close to the fidelity of Mitsubishi's 1080i picture quality in a comparable price range.
That being said, if you're a basic cable or dish subscriber with limited HD channel options, be advised that while better than most widescreen tvs, regular 480i channels still look pretty ragged, and are livable only with the "stretch" and "stretch plus" viewing modes which do an admirable job of keeping most of the picture on the screen so that news or sports tickers are viewable. Basically, if you don't watch dvds or HD channels at least half of the time, it might be best to wait a year or two for the HD standard to be implemented across the country, because your boring old 4:3 square tv with the oak cabinet still has a much clearer picture when viewing analog picture signals.
Because it's rear projection, the tv itself is a hulk. It does have small casters on the bottom, but the cabinet creaks ominously when trying to move it very far across deep carpet. If you won't have help moving it around, put down some firm office chair mats and push from the bottom of the cabinet. When putting it up against a flat wall, plan on losing about 20" from the wall to the front of the screen. Be sure to plan your furniture arrangement accordingly. I have an entertainment center consisting of two media cabinets on each side and a light bridge on top and the whole thing presents beautifully. A word of caution: don't plan on placing a heavy receiver or other components on top of the tv. The cabinet is not meant to support much weight and will have a nasty tendency to sag or bow in the middle. I can't imagine this is good for the screen in the long term.
Be prepared to spend some time tinkering with a big white grid on the screen to get the red and blue convergence just right. It's somewhat labor-intensive but worth it, otherwise you'll see a faint but annoying red or blue halo around letters and numbers during any kind of program. But once it's set, HD channels and dvds with progressive scan take on an almost 3D quality.
The picture is very bright and the color saturation is just right. When viewed next to its competitors, particularly sony and panasonic which look washed out and gray in comparison, the mitsubishi shows great contrast and richness of color without looking overprocessed like many plasma tvs do, mostly because of very good attenuation of dark colors and blacks.
Basically, for the money, this is one of the best values you can find in a 1080i tv. It far outperforms other comparable rear-projections and is almost as clear as some of the plasmas and dlp's that cost as much as 5 times more. It doesn't have quite the brightness of a dlp, and it doesn't have that high-color effect of a plasma, but it's close. Besides, when the tvs end up in our living rooms, what are we able to compare them to? And keep in mind that video is only half of the experience. With the money I saved I went and got a pretty top-shelf home theater system. I have two friends with dlp tvs and one with a plasma, and everyone flocks to my house to watch dvds and the big games.
If you are looking for something that you, your friends and your family will ooh and aah over, and for reasonable enough price to also get a nice home theater system, buy this tv.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1200
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Epinions.com ID:
oatbran
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Reviews written: 1
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