HC4900 - A bargain even at list price

(Note: this projector is actually made by Mitsubishi, not NEC; googling "NEC HC4900" will bring up the Mitsubishi projector reviewed here)

I moved into a new house about 18 months ago and decided that with the large amount of basement space I had, I was going to build a dedicated home theater. This is something that I've been wanting to do for several years.

My original plan was to use a CRT projector (CRT still having pretty much the best image quality available, but with some major disadvantages: noise, weight, and regular maintenance required). I got lucky and purchased a high quality CRT projector for almost no money on eBay due to a poor description. I actually went as far as getting the projector mounted on the ceiling, and told myself that I would buy a digital projector as soon as I could get a decent 1080p for $1500-$2000. I figured I'd be waiting a couple of years. Then a couple of weeks ago I was browsing ebay auctions and came across someone selling this projector for around $1900, and thought I'd give it a look.

There were a couple of professional reviews on the web, and they were mostly positive. The worst thing I'd seen is some complaints about the black levels (with a projector with perfect black levels, if you put your hand between the projector and the screen while projecting a black image, you would not see any shadow) - not as good as on higher priced projectors. One of CRT's main advantages is its black levels - it's why many CRT fans stick with them even with their other faults. I was a little skeptical but I figured for the price it's selling for online (as of this writing it can be purchased for $1400 after rebate, from an authorized dealer) it was worth a shot.

I am very happy I made the purchase. I do agree that black levels are not as high as they could be with more advanced projectors, but to be honest, I only notice this when projecting a Cinemascope-type image (with the black bars on the top and bottom), and it's fairly easy to get used to.

Image clarity is amazing, as is contrast. Set-up is very easy, it took me only about 10 minutes from unpacking to getting the first image on the screen. My HD-DVD player came with "The Bourne Identity", which is 720p. The image was clear and impressive. I then tried it with my Scientific Atlanta HD set-top box and watched part of Lost (recorded in 1080i on the built-in DVR), and I was blown away. Even a standard def DVD (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone) looked great. Honestly, the picture was as good as or better than you'll get in a film-based commercial theater.

One thing to keep in mind with any front projector is that there is no way you are going to get a good picture unless you can keep any external light from hitting the screen. This is because you're using a white screen, which means that the way the screen looks with the projector off is the darkest it's going to get.

The projector has two bulb modes: full brightness and low power. My theater is completely dark, so I use low power and it's more than bright enough on my 110" (diagonal) 1.2 gain screen. At low power the bulb life is rated at 5000 hours, which is as high as I've seen on a digital projector. In regular mode, the rating drops to 3000 hours.

There are several features that you wouldn't normally expect on a projector in this price range: such four hi-def inputs, motorized focus, zoom and lens shift. The lens shift and zoom give you a bit of flexibility for mounting the projector. I have mine on top of my 6.5' tall equipment rack, but you can also put it on a shelf or ceiling mount it (upside down) using a separately purchased mount.

Using the focus/zoom and lens shift is very simple; pressing either button brings up a grid on the screen; press the arrow buttons momentarily to make very slight changes, or hold down for a couple of seconds and they change a lot more. There are also user memories, which I haven't looked into, yet.

A note on lens shift: this is much better than keystone correction which is available on business-type projectors; the lens shift is completely optical, which means that there is no loss of resolution when you make the corrections. Digital keystone correction cuts off the outer pixels on the side of the image opposite the projector, to make it rectangular again (so if you're projecting from a tabletop at the bottom of the screen, the top of the displayed image will have fewer pixels than tht bottom).

Some notes about the connections: it has separate jacks for HDMI, DVI, component and VGA, along with S-video and composite; however, since the DVI jack is HDCP compliant, it can be converted to a second HDMI jack with a cheap adapter. The VGA input can be changed to component via an internal menu setting, you will then just need a fairly standard adapter cable. If you want to connect a computer, you can use either the DVI or VGA inputs. There is also a serial input for external control (such as with a high-end remote controller) or, presumably, firmware updates, and a 12V trigger to turn on other components when you switch on the projector (this would also need some external hardware).

The bulb is a bit expensive, about $400, but even if you watch a few hours a day, that should get you through more than two years at low power. Bulbs for digital projectors are typically pretty expensive (in the $200-$300 range), but this is in the high end of the range I've seen for a mainstream (i.e. not super-exotic or commercial) projector. But when you consider the number of hours it's rated for, it sounds more reasonable.

A few weeks after my purchase I decided to protect it with an extended warranty. These are not always a great deal, especially if you purchase them from the same retailer where you bought the original item; however, I found a pair of Mack warranties that protects the bulb for 3 years and the rest of the projector for 4, and total purchase price was under $200. While I have not dealt with Mack warranties before, I have used Repairmaster (for electronics that are traditionally prone to failure, such as camcorders) and found them to be fairly easy to deal with. Although the traditional thought is that electronics become obsolete fairly quickly these days, this supports the highest HD resolution available, and since I'm quite happy with the picture, I considered the warranty as money well spent).

All in all, this is a phenomenal projector, and at this price it is truly a steal.