Reviews of Mitsubishi's WL-82913

[Buck]

A review of Mitsubishi's WL-82913. Grab a tissue first to wipe up the forthcoming drool.
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Sound & Vision Online
Equipment Reports
Mitsubishi 82-inch Rear-Projection HDTV
By David Katzmaier

"The manual puts it plainly enough: “The WL-82913 is currently the largest self-contained rear-projection TV available.” Standing 6 feet high and measuring almost 7 feet wide, it dwarfs other RPTVs, and its 82-inch (diagonal) screen is large enough to rival those of some front-projection systems. But one advantage it has over front projectors is that it doesn’t need a dark room to create bright images."

Copyright© 2003 Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc.

 

[blakerwry]

Now you've gone and made me wet myself.



I've never liked projector TVs.. the detail has always been poor and convergence is often a problem... even on this model.

 

[Buck]

Blake, have you been able to view this television firsthand?

 

[blakerwry]

nope, I wish i could so that I could get a real life view of what the article was talking about.

 

[Howell]

I like mine pretty well.

There are rumors of a DVI input upgrade coming for my TV.

 

[Jan Kivar]

515 pounds!?! A forklift could be handy, even if it comes in two parts...

Considering that the WL-82913 costs as much as a 2003 Galant V6, not too many people can afford to bask in its projected glory. If you’re one of them — Orange County resident or otherwise — and you’ve decided against installing a dedicated front-projection system, the biggest RPTV on the planet may be just the alternative you’re looking for.

$21000... Wouldn't a projector be a tad cheaper?

Cheers,

Jan

 

[Mercutio]

Projection screens are highly susceptible to burn-in (in as little as 30 minutes), a PITA to calibrate for color and insufficiently bright.
I'm not saying that the $21,000 monitor would be, but that's how things tend to be.

4:3 content on a 16:9 display does not look good. Either the content is stretched out of its aspect ratio (everything looks fatter), or there are bars on the sides of the picture. You pretty regularly have to shift between viewing modes for different kinds of content.

I have a 16:9 display, which fortunately for me is a CRT. Were it a projection display or even an LCD, I'd have to deal with burn-in where the grey bars normally are when 4:3 content is displayed.

I know 16:9 is the wave of the future, but for the price I paid for my 32" monitor, I could've gotten a 42" 4:3 direct-view monitor and actually ended up with a BIGGER picture in 16:9.

So 16:9 is something of mixed blessing.

Now, $5000 buys a pretty incredible projector. 1000 lumens ain't that bright, but that 3000:1 contrast? 200" diagonal image? 1080p? 32db? The other $16,000 would buy an awful lot of bulbs.

 

[ddrueding]

For anyone interested in making the aforementioned beast appear affordable, check out this beast.

Quick Specs:

1600x1200
7700 Lumens
1000:1 Contrast
HDTV: 1035i,1080i,720p,575i
Component, S-Video, DVI
81.7 Lbs
$45,000

 

[Fushigi]

How loud are the cooling fans in those projectors?

The projector Merc linked to does 1080p with a res of 1024x768. Is something getting thrown out/down-converted or is HD like NTSC were the 525 'lines' actually inlude the VBI + CC area?

 

[Mercutio]

32db is very, very quiet for a projector. In perspective, SR's measurements of the Seagate Barracuda V show an idle noise rating of 37db.

There is definitely downconverting going on. 1080i/p use a native resolution of 1920x1080, and even 720i/p is 1280x720. That's not to say that the picture in any way looks bad. We're dealing with the same principles as FSAA, after all.

 

[CityK]

The projector Merc linked to does 1080p with a res of 1024x768. Is something getting thrown out/down-converted or is HD like NTSC were the 525 'lines' actually inlude the VBI + CC area?

Just to note, HDTV also has the extra stuff:

HDTV
- 1125 scan lines, 1080 active
- ? , 720 active

SDTV
- ? , 480 active

NTSC
- 525 scan lines, 480 active

I would assume that the ? is just equal to 45 + active scan lines, but no gaurentees.

CK

 

[Buck]

(One advantage of the TV’s LCoS display system is that there’s no danger of burn-in from black bars as on tube sets.)

 

[Pradeep]

(One advantage of the TV’s LCoS display system is that there’s no danger of burn-in from black bars as on tube sets.)

Disadvantage being you have to pay for new lamps every few thousand hours or so.

That $45,000 projector uses four 250W lamps, and is designed for large conference rooms etc. It would be blindingly bright in a small home theatre.

I noticed yesterday that Samsung announced a 54" LCD panel, that does 1920*1080, and a response time of 8ms. Can't wait for that to become mainstream.

 

[Pradeep]

How loud are the cooling fans in those projectors?

The projector Merc linked to does 1080p with a res of 1024x768. Is something getting thrown out/down-converted or is HD like NTSC were the 525 'lines' actually inlude the VBI + CC area?

I would say they put in 1080p as an input capability, but it's a bit of a stretch for them to claim that they can display it properly using an XGA rez panel.

 

[Bartender]

I think we should get one of those gigantic Mitsus for the pub.

 

[CougTek]

I think we could invest our pennies more wisely, especially if this one can also burn out in 30 minutes.

 

[e_dawg]

Why not DLP based Rear Projection TV's? Sony's Grand Wega III 42 incher is only a foot deep and gives a good picture for half the price of some LCD and plasma displays. Samsung apparently makes some of the best DLP RPTV's in the biz. As for traditional CRT based RPTV's, Hitachi is supposedly king. Note: this is based mostly from lurking in the AVS forums; I don't have extensive enough experience with RPTV's to really comment...

 

[.Nut]

"The manual puts it plainly enough: “The WL-82913 is currently the largest self-contained rear-projection TV available.”

It's a very very impressive looking display (picture quality and size). I recently saw one of these at this place:

http://www.hometheaterstore.com/mm.htm

At the high price they are, they said they were actually "moving them." They're offering a 10% discount on top of 3 years interest-free financing -- there's even local radio commercials for it. If I recall correctly, it costs something like... oh... US$23K.

 

[Pradeep]

Damn, if only I could even afford the sales tax on that baby. Tho apparently Mitsu now have 9" CRTs in their 63" model or whatever it is.

 

[Mercutio]

It appears that my short-term investment in Soy futures has paid off rather handsomely.

Which do you think?

Projector from hell or 61" of never-gonna-burn-in DLP goodness?

 

[ddrueding]

7.1 lbs vs. 132lbs
1024 x 768 vs. 1280 x 720
$4,400 vs. $5,000

Me? The projector. The lack of DVI makes the decision pretty easy. And with that you can get an extra half-TB worth of storage

 

[Mercutio]

The Samsung has a DVI/HDMI-compliant connector on it. That's part of the reason I'm looking at it.

... and it's "only" $4100 if I pick it up from the local Circuit City (in what? I'd have to rent a truck or something).

My old projector is only about halfway through its expected bulb life, which is the big knock I have against buying a new one.

 

[ddrueding]

Circut City here has delivery plans...like $100 for same-day delivery and install. I never trust them with the install anyway, they don't use enough cable-ties

 

[Pradeep]

After watching some of the 1080p clips from MS, I'm waiting for 1080p capable display devices to reach us mere-mortals.

 

[Mercutio]

... and then you can wait even longer for someone to release some 1080p content.

 

[ddrueding]

... and then you can wait even longer for someone to release some 1080p content.

Besides T2 - gargantuan edition?

 

[Fushigi]

Circut City here has delivery plans...like $100 for same-day delivery and install. I never trust them with the install anyway, they don't use enough cable-ties

Let them deliver & unpack. In fact, negotiate it into the price; for that kind of $ you should be able to get free delivery.

Anyway, after that's done, contact the ISF for proper calibration.

 

[timwhit]

It appears that my short-term investment in Soy futures has paid off rather handsomely.

Are you serious? I thought you mentioned in another thread that you don't know anything about investing?

 

[ddrueding]

On second thought, have them deliver the projector :lol:

 

[Mercutio]

It appears that my short-term investment in Soy futures has paid off rather handsomely.

Are you serious? I thought you mentioned in another thread that you don't know anything about investing?

... and I don't. I've been doing work for a commodities firm for years , and one of the traders has been bugging me to open an account for just about as long. I took him up on it last time I was over there - opened an account with my consulting fee, a little under $1000. He said Soybeans have been moving steadily up, and he thought I might be able to turn $1000 into $2000.
I've had it "flip" three times since then, buying at 900 or 920 and selling at 950 or 960, netting me a couple more grand each time. Now I'm taking about half my money out to do something cool, so if the position I purchase tomorrow morning never pans out, at least I'll have something to show for it.

 

[NRG = mc²]

32db is very, very quiet for a projector. In perspective, SR's measurements of the Seagate Barracuda V show an idle noise rating of 37db.

I'm pretty sure SR does noise level measurements from a very close distance as opposed to most other noise measurements which are from a distance of 1m.

 

[Stereodude]

The projectors of projectors is the Sony Qualia 004. It has a 1920x1080 SXRD (LCOS) panel in it. It is also $30k.

You could have a Samsung 80" plasma for $70k instead of that Mits.

 

[e_dawg]

It appears that my short-term investment in Soy futures has paid off rather handsomely.

Which do you think?

Projector from hell or 61" of never-gonna-burn-in DLP goodness?

Honestly, I don't like either option. Projectors are rather impractical for daily use, and DLP RPTV's are rather disappointing in many aspects. I know because I just got a Samsung 43" DLP a couple months ago. It looks great when you feed it tailor-made HDTV source material of sufficient brightness in controlled lighting conditions, but with dark scenes and with non-HDTV sources (esp. digital cable) without the curtains shut and dimmed room lighting, it looks like crap. It's not like I don't have access to high quality HDTV source material either. I have the deluxe HDTV cable/movies package and an HDTV-upconverting DVD player with DVI output. And it's not a calibration problem: I have spent god knows how many hours tweaking the set. I'm not ISF certified, but I doubt any tech could do a significantly better job than I did. The limitation is with the lack of a proper gamma curve for realistic lighting conditions, the 2nd gen color wheel, and the DLP technology itself.

I would rather get a Hitachi CRT RPTV if you can spare the extra foot of depth. Or, better, if you don't mind a traditional CRT TV like a Sony WEGA, that would be even better. I know it doesn't have the chic of a plasma or LCD flat panel or a DLP/LCD/LCoS RPTV, but you will get better picture quality in a much wider variety of conditions.

 

[Fushigi]

A friend just bought this Sony. He doesn't have the final screen up yet but images projected onto a sheet of foam core (poor reflectivity but otherwise white) look pretty nice. Better than any large flat-panel display I've seen to date.

 

[its.fubar]

Buck, I hope you have a very large room if you are thinking of purchasing it because you need it unless you don't mind the feeling of sitting in the first row of a cinema.