Price-Slashing HDTV Blowout -- The Mitsubishi 46807
Written: May 14 '01 (Updated May 14 '01)
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Pros: High-Def, Widescreen, Excellent Line Doubler
Cons: Some H/DTV Monitors Have Slightly Better Image Quality.
The Bottom Line: One of the better, if not the best, values on an H/DTV Monitor. If this TV was worth $2,600 last month, it must be worth $2,000 today.
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| radioguy's Full Review: Mitsubishi WT-46807 46 in. TV |
There's a catch-22 now with high-def TV's like the Mitsubishi 46807. Prices of sets like these won't start to drop at a significant pace until people start to buy them in sizable numbers. However, with its street price of $2,600, the 46807, and other high-def sets, are priced way over most people's TV budgets.
NOTE:
I originally evaluated this TV and wrote this review in December 2000. However, looking under the Mitsubishi section, for rear-projection TV's (RPTV's), I didn't find this model listed. While recently checking the listings, I found the 46807 in the Mitsubishi TV section under HDTV's.
It's now May 2001 and, since I wrote this review, the catch-22 mentioned above has dropped down to become more like a catch-18 or maybe even a catch-15. What I mean is, Mitsubishi has apparently slashed the wholesale price of this set, because its street price has now dropped from $2,600 to $2,000.
This is a good sign. Most likely, Mitsubishi is making this drastic price cut ahead of Panasonic's scheduled introduction, this month, of the PT-47WX49, a 47-inch, 16:9, H/DTV-ready set which will have a list price of $2,000 (meaning street prices should be lower than that). This is good news not only because of the money people planning to buy this set can save, but because it indicates that Panasonic is probably going to actually bring the 47WX49 to market.
Just as the computer world sees vaporware, with announced software release dates that are never met, it's not unknown in the world of consumer electronics for a product introduction date to be announced at one of the big electronics shows, sometimes even with a display unit of the model in question appearing at the show, without the product actually making it to store shelves by the promised date.
It looked like this vapor-product syndrome might be occurring with the 47WX49. Panasonic announced the set at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a projected sales date of May 2001. Well, it's now May 2001 and I haven't seen one at any New York stores yet. In fact, it's not even listed on Panasonic's Web site. The only sign I can find that the TV is still on the way is that it's listed at the onecall.com Web site as a pre-order item (with an availability date of June 2001, a month later than Panasonic's target date for retail delivery). Even better, onecall actually has a picture of the new TV. Yay!
The Brave New World of High-Def, Not for the Faint of Heart or Pocketbook
You have to have a little bit of pioneer spirit to buy a set like this. First of all, while it can display images at higher resolution than standard sets, you'll need a separate digital over-the-air (OTA) broadcast or satellite receiver, also known as a "set-top box" (STB) to capture these signals and convert them to the high-def analog input the 46807 accepts. Secondly, once you do have a set-top digital broadcast or satellite receiver, you'll be stuck with the limited array of high-def programming currently available. On the other hand, the number of U.S. TV stations broadcasting H/DTV has reached 180, out of 1,500, and is rapidly growing. As those 180 stations are concentrated in the larger markets, the majority of households in the U.S. can receive H/DTV.
The current leader in the new format, the CBS network, broadcasts most of its prime-time schedule in high def. Mitsubishi, along with Panasonic and a couple of other set manufacturers, actually pays CBS to broadcast high-definition digital television (HDTV) signals. Over two-thirds of U.S. "TV households," as they're known, are within receiving range of an over-the-air HDTV broadcasting signal. The satellite broadcasters have a richer programming selection, especially for movie buffs, with the Dish Network offering both HBO and Showtime in high-def versions.
DVD, The Real Reason to Buy a High-Def TV
If you're a serious movie buff, and you buy a set like the 46807, you'll definitely want to have a DVD player to use with it. The set has an excellent line-doubler, which can be optimized to process film-source output from a standard, interlaced-output DVD player (more on this later in the review). However, for the ultimate in movie image quality, you'll want to use a progressive-scan DVD player with the 46807.
Resolution Definitions
Your current set is probably using technology that's been in place since the 1950's -- the NTSC color standard. The NTSC standard calls for analog resolution of 480-interlaced (480i). With an interlaced image, each 1/30th-of-a-second video frame is shown as two consecutive 1/60th-of-a-second fields, with the first projecting the 240 odd-numbered lines and the second projecting the 240 even-numbered lines. The actual resolutions employed with NTSC-standard TV's are less, with 330i resolution for broadcast television signals and 240i for the output from a VHS VCR. A standard, interlaced-output DVD player does put out the full NTSC 480i resolution.
Most of the high-def sets, including the 46807, project their screen images at either a 480-progressive (480p) or 1080i resolution. With a progressive image, such as 480p, a full frame of 480 horizontal lines is projected each 1/60th-of-a-second. If you run a standard NTSC-resolution 480i signal into the 46807, such as regular broadcast TV or the output from a regular (interlaced output) DVD player, the set line-doubles the input, projecting it as a 480p image.
Even with standard broadcast signals, or the output from a VCR, you'll have higher resolution with the 46807 than with a regular TV. This is because the line-doubler works on all NTSC-standard (480i or lower) input to the set. Thus, broadcast signals are line-doubled, bringing their resolution close to that of a progressive-scan DVD player.
The Wonderful World of Widescreen
The best feature of the 46807, besides its high-def resolutions, is its widescreen aspect ratio. While NTSC-standard sets all have a 4:3 (width to height) aspect ratio, the 46-inch (measured diagonally) screen of the 46807 has a 16:9 aspect ratio, allowing it to display anamorphic DVD's and 1080i HDTV broadcast signals in their native dimensions with no letterboxing (vertical black or gray bars above and below the image) or windowboxing (vertical black or gray bars on the left and right sides of the imgae). The 480p digital broadcast signals (technically called standard-definition digital television, or SDTV) will be displayed at either a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio.
When a 4:3 signal, such as a 4:3 SDTV signal or an NTSC-standard broadcast signal (regular broadcast TV) is displayed, the 46807 has a number of aspect-ratio control options for making the image fit onto its 16:9 screen.
The first option, "narrow," displays 4:3 images in their native dimensions, with dark bars on the right and left edges of the screen. The "stretched" mode (works only with 480i sources) makes the image fill the entire screen by maintaining the original proportions at the center of the image and expanding it moderately at the edges. The "expand" setting takes an image which has been letterboxed to fit in a 4:3 screen and stretches it both horizontally and vertically so it will fill the entire screen of the 46807. The "standard" modes allows anamorphic (widescreen) DVD's to fill the whole screen. Finally, the "zoom" mode is another option for helping to eliminate letterboxing bars from anamorphic sources (this is for sources in the 2.35:1 aspect ratio, i.e. images which are even wider looking and vertically narrower than the 16:9 widescreen images which have a 1.78:1 aspect ratio).
Ample Input/Output Options
When it comes to inputs and outputs, the 46807 is a home-theater lover's dream. First, the set has three groups of inputs, each having an S-Video jack, a composite video jack, and L/R audio input jacks. The composite input jacks are the standard yellow RCA-jack video inputs. Since these combine all the video elements (luminance and chrominance) on a single line, these are the lowest-quality types of inputs. The S-Video inputs, which have a two-line MiniDIN plug, take the video on two lines, with one for chrominance (the color information) and one for luminance (the black & white information).
The highest-quality type of video connection is component, and the 46807 provides three separate component inputs, each with their own L/R audio jack sets. Two of these component inputs are the type which accepts the signal with three RCA jacks, one for luminance information, one for the yellow-red chrominance information, and one for the yellow-blue chrominance information. Many DVD players have identical three-line component outputs and you could use one of these first two component inputs on the TV to accept their output. These first two component inputs accept 480i and 480p signals.
The third component input is the five-jack RGB+H/V type (red, green, blue, plus horizontal/vertical). This will allow you to connect any piece of video gear which has a matching set of component outputs. You can, for example, connect an HDTV satellite/broadcast receiver, such as RCA's DTC-100, which use a 15-pin VGA-style jack for its component output. You'll just need to get an adapter which has the 15-pin connector on one end and the five RCA plugs for the TV's RGB+H/V inputs on the other end. Or, you can get one of the new digital high-def broadcast receivers, also known as set-top boxes (STB's), from Panasonic, Sony, or Mitsubishi, which has a regular component-video output. The TV's third component input accepts 1080i signals as well as 480i and 480p. By the way, you can't use the aspect-ratio controls on 1080i signals, but you shouldn't have to as they're supposed to always be 16:9 and should fully fill the TV's wide screen in their native aspect ratio.
The TV also has a video output and L/R audio outputs for feeding its sound to a home-theater A/V receiver. The front of the TV sports a video input, plus L/R audio inputs, for convenient connection of a video game or camcorder. Finally, there are a pair of RF inputs and an RF output which will allow you to loop through a cable signal.
The TV's Excellent Line Doubler, and What It Does, Exactly
If you want the ultimate in image quality from a DVD player, your best option is to use a progressive-scan DVD player, with 480p output, and feed this into the 46807 which will display the signal in its native resolution. However, if you're feeding a regular, interlaced-output DVD signal, the 46807 will use its so-called DPM3 (DiamondDigital Pixel Multiplier -- 3rd Generation) line-doubling technology to bump the image up to 480p. Since film is a 24-frame-per-second (fps) format, problems sometimes arise in transferring film to DVD for display at video's 30-fps rate. A process known as 3:2 pulldown is employed. Unfortunately, this process can result in some of the video frames containing fields from two separate film frames and this can result in motion artifacts when such a video signal is line-doubled up to the 480p resolution. The 46807's DPM3 line-doubling technology allows it to recognize film-source interlaced DVD signals, allowing the TV to deal with the motion artifacts which some less-complex line-doublers sometimes introduce.
The highest-quality DVD option is still a progressive-scan player. Progressive scan players have an edge because they basically do the same thing the DPM3 line-doubler does, but do it without an additional step of analog-to-digital conversion, and the attendant signal degradation this can introduce. However, the DPM3 line doubler comes so close to matching the quality of progressive-scan DVD output that few people will notice a difference.
Pretty Good Picture Quality
The image quality of the 46807 is quite good, though I found the picture quality, viewing line-doubled broadcast input, not quite as pleasing as that of the the Toshiba 40H80. Although the 40H80 is not yet listed on Epinions, I've reviewed its essentially-similar forerunner, the year 2000 model TW40X81 at:
http://www.epinions.com/elec-review-3EE4-3BC4B74B-3A1F413F-prod6 ).
Then again, while the 40H80 also has a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, it's diagonal screen size is 40 inches, versus the 46807's diagonal measurement of 46 inches. Of course, you need to see this set yourself before making a purchase decision, preferably putting it through its paces with a test disc such as Avia, Video Essentials, or Chapter 2 of Saving Private Ryan.
On-screen menus allow you to set custom picture parameters (color temperature, contrast, brightness, sharpness, color, and tint) for each of the set's six inputs (the three composite/S-Video sets and the three component inputs). Unfortunately, the set's scan-velocity modulation feature, which is designed to sharpen images but can sometimes introduce slight picture-edge distortion, can only be disabled if you have access to the service menu (which normally requires the professional service manual, something usually not included with a TV). However, the image is still excellent, as you'd expect with a TV that almost sells for three grand. Anyway, it's not a bad idea to get professional calibration, especially since almost all rear-projection TV's (RPTV's) like the 46807 end up getting their CRT guns, which project the image onto the screen from inside the TV, slighly jostled during shipping and while the set is delivered to your viewing location.
Audio Performance
The audio performance on this set is quite good. Many people will purchase this TV as part of a home-theater setup, and they'll use an auxiliary surround-sound system. However, the stereo audio amplifier, feeding L/R speakers hidden behind cloth grilles on the front bezel of the set, below the picture screen, provides ample performance for any TV show and even for most movie soundtracks. The sound performance is on a par with a good quality boombox or even a compact stereo.
Complete Remote Control
The remote control on the 46807 is very nicely designed. It's large, but it tapers toward its base, allowing you get a comfortable grip on it. All the buttons are nicely laid out and there's a rocker-style selector button in the middle to let you navigate through the on-screen menus. Sony could learn a thing or two about remote design from Mitsubishi.
Misc.
The 46807 isn't too heavy, when you consider its screen size, tipping the scales at 166 pounds. You'll probably have this TV delivered by the retailer from whom you buy it, but you'll want to bring a some moving gear and a couple of friends if you endeavor to bring it home on your own.
The top of the set is tapered, but the bottom depth is the same 28 inches as on the other Mitsubishi RPTV's in this line, all the rest of which are box shaped. The 46807 is 41.5 inches wide and 38 inches high. An optional base unit brings the set up to a height of 50 inches.
Keep in mind that, while 46 inches might not seem huge compared to some other projection TV's, the 46807, when playing 16:9 material, effectively gives you more screen real estate than its size would seem to indicate. Many manufacturers, such as Panasonic and Toshiba, sell HDTV models with 4:3 aspect ratio screens (the almost-square dimension of NTSC-standard TV's). When you display a letterboxed 16:9 image on one of these 4:3 screens, you end up losing about 20 percent of the screen area to the letterboxing. Thus, a 4:3 set would have to be of about the 50-inch size to equal the screen space of the 46807 with 16:9 material.
Conclusion
The 46807 isn't exactly a giveaway, but with its street price dropping from $2,600 to $2,000, its not quite as much of a luxury item as it was a month ago. At the old price, I would have suggested the $2,300 Toshiba 40H80 as a less-expensive alternative to this set. But now the roles are reversed, and the larger TV is the cheaper of the two. Even if you're discouraged by the slow pace of the H/DTV rollout, you can still benefit from the 46807's superior display capabilities with widescreen DVD's and with line-doubled NTSC broadcasts.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2,000
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