With the proliferation of flat-panel LCD and plasma televisions, plus all the rear-projection models using LCD, DLP, and even LCoS technologies, it’s easy to overlook the good ol’ cathode ray tube, or CRT.
There are still more than a few thoughtful souls, however, who take a look at the high price tags of plasma, LCD, and the rest of the options, then buy a big-screen tube TV for half the price and laugh all the way to the bank. Sure they may spend a lot of time fielding the question, “Why didn’t you get a plasma?” But the answer’s plain enough every time they switch on their sets. In video, picture quality is all about the blacks, and CRTs produce the deepest blacks of any display technology, period.
Mitsubishi’s WS-55813, a 55-inch widescreen rear-projection HDTV that lists for $4,499, is no exception. The smaller of the company’s two Diamond-branded sets, it comes with scads of features, including a built-in HDTV tuner for over-the-air digital broadcasts and a QAM tuner that can decode high-def programs delivered by some cable systems. It looks good, too, at least for a big box.
Mitsubishi employs lots of glossy black plastic and subtle shaping to achieve its distinctive modern look. A narrow border around the screen enhances its appearance. This TV doesn’t need a stand to reach eye level — its wheeled base put the center of the screen at a comfortable viewing height when I sat on my couch.
The large remote control fit comfortably in my hand, although some people may have to stretch to reach every button. I liked both the backlit keypad and the dedicated “device” rocker switch that cycled through the numerous inputs. It can also control up to four other devices, but most folks will probably opt to use Mitsubishi’s NetCommand system instead.
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FAST FACTS
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DIMENSIONS 50 1/2 x 50 5/8 x 27 7/8 inches WEIGHT 200 pounds PRICE $4,499 MANUFACTURER Mitsubishi, www.mitsubishi-tv.com, 800-332-2119 |
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KEY FEATURES |
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• 55-inch (diagonal) 16:9 screen • Built-in HDTV tuner • NetCommand home networking control • front inputs: FireWire; composite/S-video with stereo audio; 4 flash-memory card slots • rear inputs: 2 FireWire, DVI/HDCP, VGA (640 x 480 only), 3 wideband component video (one also RGB+H/V), • rear outputs: composite/S-video with stereo audio; coaxial digital audio and stereo analog audio |
User-friendly menus do a good job of making a complex HDTV easy to use. I could name inputs and remove components from the Device menu, which saved scrolling through lots of unused jacks. Icons are used liberally, and each is accompanied by a short explanation that appears at the bottom of the menu.
The back panel of the WS-55813 rivals an A/V receiver with its multitude of jacks. Complementing the ample selection of standard analog inputs are a total of seven digital or high-definition connections (see “key features” box). The WS-55813 lacks a CableCard interface for scrambled premium channels like Showtime and HBO, but if your system uses the QAM transmission format, it will pick up the high-def stations without having to use a cable box. The set found all of the HDTV stations on my Time Warner New York cable feed, and its over-the-air HDTV tuner caught every available high-def broadcaster in the area.
Around front, behind a flip-down door, a quartet of memory-card slots allow the set to display digital photos from CompactFlash, SmartMedia, SD, and Memory Stick flash media. An additional FireWire port and a standard set of A/V inputs with S-video also share the space.
Like most high-def sets I’ve seen, the WS-55813 will function differently depending on the source. For example, I was limited to only two display modes when watching 1080i (interlaced) high-def programs: Standard and Wide Expand, which stretches the image to remove side bars on 4:3 broadcasts. The Mitsubishi can’t display 720p (progressive-scan) signals, so if you have an outboard high-def cable or satellite box, you’ll need to set it to convert 720p channels like ABC and ESPN to 1080i. Otherwise, its full suite of six display options was available to me with standard-def 480i and 480p programs.
The picture-in-picture (PIP) and picture-outside-picture (POP) modes were more accommodating. I was able to watch pretty much any two sources, including high-def sources, side by side or one inset into the other.
To test this big TV’s prowess, I turned to what is possibly the most derivative sequel ever made, Freddy vs. Jason — the eighth Nightmare on Elm St. movie and the eleventh Friday the 13th movie. Fortunately, I’m not here to review the plot, only how the DVD looked on the Mitsubishi.
If not for the TV’s user-accessible Perfect Color menu, the already-fake-looking blood that drenches every other scene would have looked positively neon. Before I adjusted the color (see “in the lab”), reds looked oversaturated and unnatural, but afterward the color balance was very good, with the heroine’s delicate skin appearing appropriately pasty after her Police Station hallucination of a girl with no eyes.
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PLUS
Deep blacks with good shadow detail. Capable of highly accurate color. Wide range of connection options.
MINUS Expensive for a CRT-based RPTV. High overscan causes picture loss. |
The Mitsubishi delivered all the gory detail the disc could muster. In the scene where the two title freaks confront one another in a burning shack, a closeup of Freddy’s gruesome burned face revealed all the fake-looking minutiae. The level of detail was good enough that I could tell where the prosthetic ended and the actor’s face began (hint: look under the left eye).
The WS-55813’s major advantage over fixed-pixel DLP, LCD, and LCoS TVs, however, is its ability to render inky blacks and highly detailed shadows. When Jason stuck his fingerless hand into Freddy’s abdomen, the blood flowing out looked like crude oil, and the shadowed, torn-up mass of Jason’s chest was rife with gory detail.
At the same time, the picture lacked the razor-sharpness I’ve seen with DLP- and LCD-based rear-projection TVs. No matter how much I tweaked the 64-point user convergence setup, I was unable to get a crisp alignment. I was also concerned with the amount of picture loss evident along the edges of the screen due to overscanning. With CNN, for example, the crawling text at the bottom of the image was cut off.
Dish Network’s HDTV recorder, the DVR 921, allowed me to watch the Super Bowl again, and in high-def. Most of the game looked gorgeous. I could pick out clods of dirt in the grass, make out names on people’s passes in the crowd, and even read the time on a Patriot official’s watch.
Mitsubishi’s WS-55813 isn’t perfect and needs a little tweaking out of the box to perform at its best. It also costs quite a bit more than many like-sized rear-projection sets. On the other hand, it has an incredibly impressive feature set, and its connectivity is unmatched. If you take into account its glossy good looks and ability to control your whole system, this big screen starts to seem like a better value — especially compared with plasma.
In the Lab
Color temperature (Low 6,500 K color temperature before/after calibration)
Low window (20-IRE) NA/6,341 K
High window (80-IRE) 7,550/6,590 K
Brightness (100-IRE window before/after calibration) 81.6/28.9 ftL
The Mitsubishi WS-55813’s grayscale shifted toward blue even in its preset Low 6,500 K color-temperature setting and was far enough off the scale that my test equipment couldn’t obtain a reading from a 20-IRE window. After calibration, it was much closer to the NTSC standard of 6,500 K. At 11 IRE the image was still extremely blue. (Calibration needs to be performed by a qualified technician with specialized equipment, so discuss it with your dealer before purchase, or call the Imaging Science Foundation at 561-997-9073.)
Prior to calibration the TV was exceedingly bright, but afterward its light output was excellent for a rear-projection TV. I measured a red bias of approximately +15% according to the color decoder check on the Avia test DVD, which I fixed with the Perfect Color controls in the user menu. Overscan was unusually high, masking up to 7% of the image. This sort of issue will vary from set to set and can usually be fixed by calibration, although I was unable to compensate for the overscan on our test sample. DC restoration was good for a CRT, but white-field uniformity was only average. A brighter-than-average hot spot was visible in the center of the screen.